Fat Camp part 2The part about Taiwan

Taiwan has a larger military than it probably needs, mostly because of the occasional threat of invasion from China. They are gradually phasing out their mandatory conscription. Every man was supposed to serve one year when they reached 19. Now, they only have to serve four months. The goal is to have an all volunteer army, but apparently not enough people are volunteering.

This means nothing to me, except that Taiwanese men are not the biggest people in the world. Putting on a uniform does little to instill fear in their enemy. In Taiwan's case, the enemy is China, and Chinese men are just as small. But China has 6000% more of them.

Little can be done to make anyone taller, but most draftees get at least a little bulkier during basic training. Now that they serve four months instead of twelve, there is less time for basic training and less time to turn Steve Rogers into Captain America. Or Captain Taiwan.

Enter the private contractors. Some entrepreneur had the idea of opening up a reverse fat camp, whereby a 97 pound weakling can become a mighty he man, without turning into a lump of steroids. Instead of weight training and drugs, they would use doctors and nutrition to get their future soldiers into shape. The military immediately signed on, probably for the same reason militaries all over the world hire private contractors. As a medical facility rather than military, it is open to anyone who can afford it.

I went to the fat camp last Thursday. My current plan is to stay for two weeks, with the option of weekly extensions up to one month. If there is no improvement after one month, I can either go back to Hong Kong and try something else or stay in Taipei and hope that staying longer is better. By the end of two weeks, or one month, I should have a better idea of what to expect. I can stay in the country for up to 90 days without a visa, so government paperwork is never going to be a problem.

Despite the military association, the program is nothing like basic training, as far as I know. Having never been in the army, I only know what the movies have told me. So far, I can see no parallels between anyone here and gunnery sergeant Hartman. My drill instructor is a friendly Chinese woman who talks about the connection between body and mind, and inner harmony. Sgt Hartman would probably call her a hippie. The facility is at a hospital instead of an army base, everyone mostly wears gym gear instead of uniforms and those of us who spend the night, sleep in a hospital dorm instead of barracks. It's like medical boot camp, but without anyone trying to turn us into killing machines.

In unrelated news, we just had an earthquake while I was typing this up. It was pretty small. The light fixture above me shook and the windows rattled, but nothing broke or fell. I don't know how far away it was or if it was bigger somewhere else. I will have to ask around.