The Power of Habit in Societies

A few days ago I finished listening/reading to The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg.  While overall just an average, common sense read, the chapter about Habits of Societies: How Movements Happen stuck out to me. This chapter first shares the story of Rick Warren planting Saddleback Church. It then traces the beginnings of the Civil Rights movement by telling the story of Rosa Parks, the Montgomery bus boycott, and the recruitment and involvement of Martin Luther King, Jr in all this.

As the bus boycott expanded from a few days to two months, the  commitment and enthusiasm of the local black community surrounding the young Dr. King began to fade. But one evening a bomb explosion in front of the Kings’ house galvanized the community and its extended web of relationships, transforming it almost overnight into a self-organizing  movement learning and implementing new habits.   They began to take greater ownership of their movement.

According to the author, movements don’t emerge because everyone suddenly decides to face the same direction at once. They rely on social patterns that begin as the habits of friendship, grow through the habits of communities, and are sustained by new habits that change participants’ sense of self. (p. 244)

As I reflect on this statement in relation to my work the last five years  as a church planter amongst the traditionally conservative working class peoples living along Taiwan’s western coastal plain in south-central Taiwan I can make the following observations:

1. We have correctly been prioritizing relationships and relation-building. We’ve gotten to know a number of people and while perhaps not all that many are true friends, we do have many acquaintances.

2. We have seen limited success thus far in empowering our small church community take ownership of the work. Like Dr. King who wrote in the days leading up to the pivotal bomb blast: “Complaints began to rise. From early morning to late at night my telephone rang and my doorbell was seldom silent. I began to have doubts about the ability of the Negro community to continue the struggle.” Likewise, we've been seeing people renege on commitments we thought they had already made to Christ. We have yet to see phenomenal success in helping our friends to establish new habits of faith.

In his book Career-Defining Crises in Mission, Paul Keidel writes of the believers who endured persecution in the early church: “Their faith belonged to them and no one could take it away. Their believe was so real that it fit in the culture through their habits. (italics added).  May God’s Spirit continue to lead and to guide along the western coastal plain of south-central Taiwan.

Visit to Fort Ritchie

This afternoon I drove with my mom and dad and nephew over to Fort Ritchie, Maryland, where my dad served as garrison commander from 1988-1990. The army military installation was decommissioned in 1998 and very little has been done since in terms of redevelopment.

Although I lived in North Carolina and New York the 5 or 6 years my folks were associated with Fort Ritchie, I always enjoyed visiting.  The scenery was and still is gorgeous!

Weeds and vines have overtaken the house, which hasn’t been lived in for at least a decade. The once closely-cut grass is now several feet high, providing cover for neighborhood deer, such as the three we surprised today:

“The Castle” which served as my dad’s office is still around:

Late 80’s:

Today:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Late 80’s:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hanging out in HengChun

I was blessed to have been able to come down a few  days early before our annual Taiwan Team Forum. On Friday, I rode my bicycle around “the loop” from Hengchun to JiaLeShui and back to Hengchun again via Eluanpi and Kenting.  The fifty-something kilometers across hilly terrain with strong winds (not to mention the rain, and an increasing number of reckless drivers the last 10 kilometers) was a bit more difficult bicycle ride than my typical leisurely ride of similar length back home on the western coastal plains in Taiwan! I stopped to rest whenever I felt like it.

On the morning of Day Two, the wind and waves in HengChun were too overwhelming to engage in my preferred activity of skin diving, but I enjoyed another leisurely 52 km on the bicycle, driving from LongQuan Village in Hengchun up to the National Aquarium, and then back down to 7-11 for 2nd breakfast and my morning cup of coffee, with multiple rest stops at HouBiHu, MaoBiTou, and White Sands Beach.

On Day Three, I was only able to bike 20 km. The steady downpour of heavy rain and the high winds dampened any continuing enthusiasm to exercise! Descending Guan Mountain was actually slower than turning around and going up it due to the stiff typhoon-like wind blowing in my face! A few hundred meters later, however, after turning a corner, I felt the full force of the gale-force winds at my side. Turning another corner, I found myself racing down the mountain slope at 52 km/hour. I squeezed the brakes liberally to prevent any quicker an ascent. At this speed over a slipperly surface and with the rain spraying in my face, I felt particularly invigorated, if not a little frightened.

The ocean waves at BaiSha were bigger than I've ever seen them before (To my surprise, the coast guard is now stationing 2 men there to watch for persons swept away by the undertow). 

I waited until mid-afternoon before making my way over to the national aquarium. By this time many of the weekend tourists were heading home already.

When I looked at a large blue tropical fish sittting on the tank floor in an apparent stupor, I wondered how much of the world around him he was processing, and how.

A moment later, I  had a similar thought regarding my fellow tourists. A group of overly-loud youth strolled through the aquarium tunnel, drowning out the melodic music tuned to the movement of the fish which surrounded us on all sides. The youth seemed completely disconnected from the scene at hand.

There were others who did not pause to experience the moment, mostly responsible parents busily watching over kids. But then there were others restlessly moving this way and that, pointing their cameras and shooting pictures apparently without pausing to appreciate the moment for the sake of its own beauty. For the many Chinese tourists from Hong Kong and the Mainland and for the Taiwanese themselves, being a part of the group they come with (group identity) IS the event they experience. There’s nothing wrong with this; just another way to process reality.

“O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” Thank you, Father God, for giving me the opportunity to slow down and experience the wonder of Your creation these past few days. “This is my Father’s World / and to my listening ears/ all nature sings, and round me rings / the music of the spheres.

Alien Permanent Resident Certificate (APRC) Application

Around Chinese New Year it dawned on me that having been in Taiwan 183 days or more consecutively for five straight years without a break in my Taiwan Alien Resident Certificate (ARC), I could avoid the bothersome mafan of applying for an Alien Resident Certificate each year (thus having to renew my scooter and driver licenses annually as well) . The relative freedom of acquiring an Alien Permanent Resident Certificate (APRC) sounded attractive!

Others have done an excellent job here and here (and probably other places!) laying out the process step-by-step as to how to obtain Taiwan’s “Green Card.” However, I have found during my 15 years here  in Taiwan that regulations vary slightly with regard to interpretation when it comes to taxes, ARC's etc. depending upon where you live, and perhaps even more importantly, who you know. (In fact, one time a tax office worker assigned to work with foreigners actually recommended to me that I didn’t need to pay taxes because the officials at the airport would most likely never bother to check!)  While my experience may not differ significantly from what is written from a northern Taiwan  perspective, here’s my take from the countryside—the western coastal plain of southcentral Taiwan.

First, as others have written, it really is true that the first step—the criminal background check from your host country-- is far and away the biggest hassle! First, how to pay for it? They don’t accept personal checks.  My local bank located in the nearest small town about 20 minutes away was not able to supply me with either a bank check or money order to send to TECRO  (Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States) and the FBI. Neither was the post office or another local bank I checked. When I checked with Citibank in Taichung, I was told they only offered this service to their account holders. Finally I resolved the problem by having my stateside bank send bank checks to a 3rd party in the US, which then sent one check to TECRO and the other along with my fingerprints over to the FBI ($15 and $18 USD respectively).  Even this small first step incurred  a lot of unexpected time and energy…

To get the fingerprints, first I went to the local police station, which then sent me to the larger police station in a township 15 minutes away. This police station then referred me to the County Police Station nearly an hour away. This Police Station then sent me to the Immigration Office in the same city. Thankfully, the buck finally stopped here and for a service fee of 100 NT I was able to get the fingerprints and mail them to the FBI along with my criminal background check application.

After mailing my fingerprints, I waited about five weeks before calling the FBI. One unexpected problem I experienced is that in confirming your identity, the service person will ask you for the address of the party to which you applied to have the results sent. I did not have this information handy, but the gentleman was very patient as I looked TECRO’s DC office up on the web again. To avoid this small setback, make sure  you photocopy your applications before sending them off!

To my surprise I was told that the current waiting time for FBI processing was 9 weeks!  However, thankfully by the 8th week the FBI had already sent the results to TECRO in Washington. TECRO was very quick (their service should be quick, being as all they do is collect your bank check and put a seal on the FBI letter… no translation). To save on their ridiculously high fee for mailing back to Taiwan, I had them sent the results to the third party in the US (just had to include a self-addressed envelope). The results were in my hands in a little less than two weeks.

Getting the physical was relatively straightforward, but for me it was nearly a one hour drive each way to the hospital, and I had to make two trips. The day of the physical, they almost gave me the standard physical for English teachers in Taiwan by mistake, so be careful to insist that they double-check it is the physical for APRC. Cost for physical: 1,570 NT.

Getting the Taiwan police report was also a breeze (Except that I no longer have in my possession the passport with which I first arrived in Taiwan—see below). Service Fee: 100 NT (also included 45 minutes of driving each way).

A second hurdle I experienced involved dealing with an Immigration Office which rarely handles APRC applications, and in particular, with an agent who had never handled one. Before sending my fingerprints to the FBI, I had already  verified with the office in Chiayi that I actually qualified within the 5 year period. Once I knew the crime check results were in the mail, I dropped by my local immigration office to make sure the rest of my documents (health check, local crime check, tax and employment records, etc.) were in order. However, in dealing with the agent of the county in which I live in southcentral Taiwan. I had to make 3 additional trips before the application was submitted (about 1 1/2 hours driving time each trip). She was very friendly. However, since she was just as new to the process as I was, it seemed each trip I made resulted in hearing I had to acquire another piece of documentation or authentication.

A third hurdle had to do with the translation of the criminal background check. I was told by the local immigration office to go to the county courthouse. However, at the courthouse, they told me to go to another address (associated with the courthouse but located in a regular office on the other side of town) to have it stamped. All he did was take my personal translation, ask me if I had knowingly lied in my translation, and authenticate it. But of course he also managed to pocket a service fee of 500 NT. In the link above, the person says the translation does not need to be authenticated, so be sure to check on this for your area.

A fourth temporary hurdle I encountered had to do with my earliest passport in Taiwan having been confiscated by AIT after I had pages added to get the words “chuan2jiao4shi4” removed from my passport visa prior to trips into Mainland China. They performed the service, but kept the old passport! The immigration agent wanted all of my passports. However, she took my word for it in the end.

Fifthly, however, when looking up my travel  records in her computer, the Immigration office worker discovered that the airport had apparently typed one digit incorrectly in my earliest passport, meaning there were potentially two of me in Taiwan when I first arrived here back in August, 1997. She had the airport merge the records, but this resulted in another trip on my part. Service Fee for  having the arrival/departure dates printed out: 100 NT.

The same immigration office worker interviewed me and formerly accepted my application materials on May 25. One of the questions in the interview was “did you borrow money” to apply for this application? Thankfully, since I did not not have to submit my bank records for examination (which did indeed include a small loan for a time, but afterward I transferred out more personal monies), I did not need to answer this question—it did not apply since I qualified on the basis of salary requirements alone.

Presently I  find myself desperately hoping the APRC application processing time does not take the 1 month (plus additional 2 weeks after paying out the 10,000 NT dollar fee) others have written about above. I am scheduled to fly back to the United States on July 2, and if for any reason the APRC is not approved, I will still need to apply for the regular ARC (relatively simple procedure, thankfully!).  Stay turned to see how things turn out!

6/18 Update: Hallelujah! I was granted and paid for the APRC. Since I was able to prove I am flying out of the country in two weeks, they are expediting it and It should arrive in the mail in a few more days.

There was still one BIG final scare, however! The immigration officer told me that in order to retain my APRC, I had to be in Taiwan 183 days out of  the year BEGINNING FROM THE DATE WHEN THE APRC WAS ISSUED. Fortunately, after I questioned this twice by telephone, she made an additional phone call and corrected herself. As the web site says:  “The APRC holder, starting in the second year after receiving the APRC (beginning January 1st of the next year), will face APRC revocation if failing to stay in the ROC for more than 183 days in a calendar year.” This gives me several extra months of breathing room. Enough said.

The First-Digit Phenomenon

I just finished a fascinating book by Mario Livio called The Golden Ratio: The Story of Phi, the World’s Most Astonishing Number. In the last chapter “Is God a Mathematician?” one of many surprises Livio offers up makes me want to run over to a local gambling den, or to the local temple (where prayers are believed to be answered by the gods using blocks similar to dice). I would then challenge those present to ask their gods the answer to a question while I consult the “Mathematician” God.

This would be the challenge: choose any set or sets of random numbers, such as a listing from a table in the World Almanac, a chart listing death tolls from major earthquakes, the population of places in given states exceeding 5,000 or more, the numbers listed out on the front page of your daily newspaper in a week, or any combination of anything like the above. What will be the probability that the first digit of any given number is  1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 or 9?

Common sense tells us that the numbers 1-9 should occur with the same frequency among the first digits. Right? Wrong!

Benford’s law states that the probability P that digit D appears in the first place is given by the equation P = log (1 + 1/D).

That means the probability of a 1 would be about 30 percent; 2, about 17.6 percent; 3, about 12.5 percent, all the way down to 9, about 4.6 percent. Counter-intuitive, isn’t it?

Some lists of numbers do not obey this law (for example, numbers in telephone books where the same few digits repeat in any given region).