Schedium

Before I went to Taiwan I had a lot of expectations regarding customer service there, mainly for two reasons. First of all, I hated customer service in Europe. Having lived in Italy and Germany for several years and having spent time in Greece, the UK and other European countries, I noticed that across the continent a lot of shop assistants are indifferent or rude to customers. Of course, that is based on my experience and on that of my friends, and it refers only to episodes I witnessed or heard about.  Let me tell you just a few examples. Once my internet provider in Germany changed my contract without my consent. When I went to their shop, I was yelled at and threatened with a lawsuit right away. Later I quit that company, but the point is, whether I made a mistake or not (and I think I did not), they should have cleared up the matter in a nice way instead of being so aggressive.  One day I was in my university cafeteria, and I saw a student leave his trey with food on

A few months ago I deactivated this blog because I wasn't happy about it. Over the years I had been writing too many posts about news and politics, and I felt that this was no longer the kind of personal blog I wanted to create at the beginning: a place for me to share my thoughts and experiences about my life in Taiwan, Hong Kong and other parts of East Asia.

  Pro-EU march in London on March 25, 2017 (by Ilovetheeu via Wikimedia Commons) "Open-door migration," wrote  Nigel Farage  on June 21st, 2016, "has suppressed wages in the unskilled labour market, meant that living standards have fallen and that life has become a lot tougher for so many in our country. We must leave the European Union so that not only can wages increase for British workers but so that living standards rather than declining can start going up. The wellbeing of those living and working in our country matters to me more than GDP figures. The EU’s open borders make us less safe. As a bureaucratic club it makes us poorer."  The  Vote Leave  campaign, too, warned that  immigration  posed a threat to the UK's safety and prosperity. "Nearly 2 million people came to the UK from the EU over the last ten years. Imagine what it will be like in future decades when new, poorer countries join," Vote Leave argued. In September 2017 UKIP leader Henry