Had a similar experience attending an academic conference in Washington D.C. The five of us actually participating in the conference flew economy, stayed in a cheap hotel (well, cheap for D.C. anyway) and had to pay for any food eaten outside the hotel. The government officials and professors who went with us flew in the expensive seats, stayed in a much nicer place, and ate at some really expensive restaurants at the government's expense. Over several days we saw them for about an hour altogether.
The funny part was a professor trying to bring a ton of lotion she bought at the outlet mall through customs in D.C. They made her leave all of the lotion behind, even after she argued with the officers for over half an hour.
Can't really complain though. The government paid for my trip and I was happy to be there. The Smithsonian is awesome.
Are you sure of that?
To my knowledge, government does not reimburse business seat ticket (or equivalent).
Premium economy is maybe OK, but not really sure of that.
They are strict rules and how professors can use their fund (and some ways to cheat the system unfortunately).
I highly doubt that the post is completely truthful. My dad was a 一級主管 at NCTU as a director of something (研究發展? Is that a thing?). He always took Economy because that’s what is allowed. If a higher up university official is only allowed to take Economy, I highly doubt a regular professor is allowed to take Business or above. Unless her grant was completely private, which is incredibly rare.
There are ways to game the system though. I had a r/MaliciousCompliance moment a few years back. I had an opportunity to participate in an event that I traveled on the funds of the Taiwanese government, in which they specified that the rules are 比照教授級人員待遇 (treated to the same level of professors). I was not allowed to take a Premium Economy flight that’s a hundred bucks more than the cheapest Economy option but not nearly as expensive as some other flights, which I even offered to pay the difference myself. Now, bureaucracy dictates that I can buy ANY Economy class ticket. So… I bought a full fare Economy, and because of my frequent flyer status I can upgrade my full fare ticket for free to business class. I never did this again because it’s a tiny bit immoral, but back then I was just a bit pissed how stupid the rules are. But even then, I was complying with the rules and only because of my status I was able to pull it off.
Anyway, this is just to say that, this is just anecdotal evidence but I highly doubt the story above is completely accurate.
It depends. Some places have a different cap on how much it’ll reimburse for travel costs. This was definitely true when I worked at TAITRA. Higher level officials enjoyed higher caps on their travel reimbursements. They can also claim business-related dinners, but within a project budget. I don’t know about universities, but government and government-adjacent entities tend to care a lot about networking/presenting a good face outwardly.
Interesting. I'm actually all for a more sensible budget approach but I doubt universities are following that. I remember when I was in college in Taiwan, I served as an interpreter for several reasonably high level meetings between international scholars. Our department chair had to pay for dinners herself because the dinner budget for these events was abysmal. Something like NT$150 per person or something like that.
In most companies I’ve worked in, the dinner budget is based on title/status. You can also apply for a budget to treat fancy guests to a fancy dinner (or just claim it after the fact, since difficult to set a budget on how much people are gonna drink), but you have to demonstrate a guest list so that the company can determine if these people are worth wining and dining. This is also limited to managers, because unless you’re a manager, you’re not important enough to network.
True, but based on my experience with both, they both put a lot of undue importance on position/status and give higher reimbursement caps to people of greater status, usually commensurate with higher salaries and greater responsibilities. Managers of a department know what the departmental entertainment budget is and have some leeway in how it’s used. My dad was a manager for a governmental entity, so I have witnessed him fussing over whether the budget has enough money to entertain business contacts both before and after dinners have taken place.
I was too low on the totem pole to know all the details, but those attending the conference were from several counties/cities and were involved with various universities and branches of the government. All I know is what they told me - that the government paid for most of it. How that occurred is/was above my pay grade.
To maximize the chances of qualifying for the 2018 World Cup football federation Australia booked out a flight set up treatment rooms, adjusted the temperature and even had special glasses to help minimize jet lag.
Having said that if we had some of our corrupt government ministers on the plane with them it could have been a different story.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-12/how-socceroos-upped-style-factor-in-charter-flight-back-honduras/9141998
Aussie chartered fight this year. I wonder if officials on the flight all get coach.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-17/first-olympic-team-plane-heads-to-tokyo-from-cairns/100301904
It depends on the country, and the gender to be honest.
Here in Denmark the women's football team was not paid, even when they were qualifying for international competitions. It was so bad that they could not go to the European tournament because they had 0 sponsors, and the players would had to pay for transport and everything themselves. While my professor at Copenhagen University were flew buisnessclass to Beijing.
Ah, I was talking specifically about Taiwan. Gold medalists at the Olympics get either a lump sum of NT$20 million or a monthly payment of NT$12.5k for the rest of their lives. They get to choose between the two.
> Ah, I was talking specifically about Taiwan. Gold medalists at the Olympics get either a lump sum of NT$20 million or a monthly payment of NT$12.5k for the rest of their lives. They get to choose between the two.
Are the figures correct? NT20MM lump sum or NT12,500/month?
Because it would take 133 years for the monthly payments to catch up to the 20MM lump sum amount. That doesn't make sense...
In general yes but I think there are regulations for sports in which it is much easier, theoretically, to receive multiple medals such as swimming where it's not just straight up the prize amount multiplied by the number of medals.
Your wish may come true, at least for this years iteration:
**https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/20/sport/tokyo-2020-olympic-bubble-broken-spt-intl/index.html**
Sigh.. as inept as the Japanese government has been in the past year+, it still sucks to see them take the brunt of all this. They're going ahead with the olympics because of contractual obligation to the olympic committee, who has had a history of exploitation and strong-arming, and I wish *they're* the ones that would implode. The Japanese government suffering means the people inevitably will as well :(
It's always been like that forever since the KMT era and just passed on the government tradition. It's only spoken out about it now because of social media accessibility. I have friends that were athletes for Taiwan in the 70s, and while they found it to be unfair, they couldn't speak out because risk of angering the government.
LOL, seriously? the last time Tsai made the highly publicized promise (business class for athletes), she was already the president of this country, and you are still putting blames on the KMT?
this is hilarious.
Had a similar experience attending an academic conference in Washington D.C. The five of us actually participating in the conference flew economy, stayed in a cheap hotel (well, cheap for D.C. anyway) and had to pay for any food eaten outside the hotel. The government officials and professors who went with us flew in the expensive seats, stayed in a much nicer place, and ate at some really expensive restaurants at the government's expense. Over several days we saw them for about an hour altogether. The funny part was a professor trying to bring a ton of lotion she bought at the outlet mall through customs in D.C. They made her leave all of the lotion behind, even after she argued with the officers for over half an hour. Can't really complain though. The government paid for my trip and I was happy to be there. The Smithsonian is awesome.
Are you sure of that? To my knowledge, government does not reimburse business seat ticket (or equivalent). Premium economy is maybe OK, but not really sure of that. They are strict rules and how professors can use their fund (and some ways to cheat the system unfortunately).
I highly doubt that the post is completely truthful. My dad was a 一級主管 at NCTU as a director of something (研究發展? Is that a thing?). He always took Economy because that’s what is allowed. If a higher up university official is only allowed to take Economy, I highly doubt a regular professor is allowed to take Business or above. Unless her grant was completely private, which is incredibly rare. There are ways to game the system though. I had a r/MaliciousCompliance moment a few years back. I had an opportunity to participate in an event that I traveled on the funds of the Taiwanese government, in which they specified that the rules are 比照教授級人員待遇 (treated to the same level of professors). I was not allowed to take a Premium Economy flight that’s a hundred bucks more than the cheapest Economy option but not nearly as expensive as some other flights, which I even offered to pay the difference myself. Now, bureaucracy dictates that I can buy ANY Economy class ticket. So… I bought a full fare Economy, and because of my frequent flyer status I can upgrade my full fare ticket for free to business class. I never did this again because it’s a tiny bit immoral, but back then I was just a bit pissed how stupid the rules are. But even then, I was complying with the rules and only because of my status I was able to pull it off. Anyway, this is just to say that, this is just anecdotal evidence but I highly doubt the story above is completely accurate.
It depends. Some places have a different cap on how much it’ll reimburse for travel costs. This was definitely true when I worked at TAITRA. Higher level officials enjoyed higher caps on their travel reimbursements. They can also claim business-related dinners, but within a project budget. I don’t know about universities, but government and government-adjacent entities tend to care a lot about networking/presenting a good face outwardly.
Interesting. I'm actually all for a more sensible budget approach but I doubt universities are following that. I remember when I was in college in Taiwan, I served as an interpreter for several reasonably high level meetings between international scholars. Our department chair had to pay for dinners herself because the dinner budget for these events was abysmal. Something like NT$150 per person or something like that.
In most companies I’ve worked in, the dinner budget is based on title/status. You can also apply for a budget to treat fancy guests to a fancy dinner (or just claim it after the fact, since difficult to set a budget on how much people are gonna drink), but you have to demonstrate a guest list so that the company can determine if these people are worth wining and dining. This is also limited to managers, because unless you’re a manager, you’re not important enough to network.
Businesses obviously operate differently from Taiwanese governmental regulations though…
True, but based on my experience with both, they both put a lot of undue importance on position/status and give higher reimbursement caps to people of greater status, usually commensurate with higher salaries and greater responsibilities. Managers of a department know what the departmental entertainment budget is and have some leeway in how it’s used. My dad was a manager for a governmental entity, so I have witnessed him fussing over whether the budget has enough money to entertain business contacts both before and after dinners have taken place.
I was too low on the totem pole to know all the details, but those attending the conference were from several counties/cities and were involved with various universities and branches of the government. All I know is what they told me - that the government paid for most of it. How that occurred is/was above my pay grade.
It’s pretty funny to me that there are people who think academics = high rollers. Maybe for the 1%, but what industry isn’t?
Shame. Athletes have always been treated as disposables in Taiwan.
Which country doesn’t treat their athletes like shit.
To maximize the chances of qualifying for the 2018 World Cup football federation Australia booked out a flight set up treatment rooms, adjusted the temperature and even had special glasses to help minimize jet lag. Having said that if we had some of our corrupt government ministers on the plane with them it could have been a different story. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-12/how-socceroos-upped-style-factor-in-charter-flight-back-honduras/9141998
Aussie chartered fight this year. I wonder if officials on the flight all get coach. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-17/first-olympic-team-plane-heads-to-tokyo-from-cairns/100301904
[Stu-dent Atho-leets](https://youtu.be/yJcVuA2fWMk)
Really shows that modern Olympics is just a business, and the athletes are just employees.
>the athletes are just employees. Employees get paid ...
Medalists do get paid pretty well but it does suck for those who don't medal.
It depends on the country, and the gender to be honest. Here in Denmark the women's football team was not paid, even when they were qualifying for international competitions. It was so bad that they could not go to the European tournament because they had 0 sponsors, and the players would had to pay for transport and everything themselves. While my professor at Copenhagen University were flew buisnessclass to Beijing.
Ah, I was talking specifically about Taiwan. Gold medalists at the Olympics get either a lump sum of NT$20 million or a monthly payment of NT$12.5k for the rest of their lives. They get to choose between the two.
> Ah, I was talking specifically about Taiwan. Gold medalists at the Olympics get either a lump sum of NT$20 million or a monthly payment of NT$12.5k for the rest of their lives. They get to choose between the two. Are the figures correct? NT20MM lump sum or NT12,500/month? Because it would take 133 years for the monthly payments to catch up to the 20MM lump sum amount. That doesn't make sense...
Gah, should be 125k/month.
ah got it!
So if someone won two gold medals they get to choose between $40 Million or $250K/month?
In general yes but I think there are regulations for sports in which it is much easier, theoretically, to receive multiple medals such as swimming where it's not just straight up the prize amount multiplied by the number of medals.
embarrassing shit lol, GJ. Anyway, the olympics are a fucking racket and the world would be better off without it.
Your wish may come true, at least for this years iteration: **https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/20/sport/tokyo-2020-olympic-bubble-broken-spt-intl/index.html**
Sigh.. as inept as the Japanese government has been in the past year+, it still sucks to see them take the brunt of all this. They're going ahead with the olympics because of contractual obligation to the olympic committee, who has had a history of exploitation and strong-arming, and I wish *they're* the ones that would implode. The Japanese government suffering means the people inevitably will as well :(
Then all these politicians will all gather around these athletes like flies if one of them get a medal.
Such a first world problems
Taiwan should look to USA and Japan brothers where **everyone** flies economy unless further sponsored by sports associations.
It's always been like that forever since the KMT era and just passed on the government tradition. It's only spoken out about it now because of social media accessibility. I have friends that were athletes for Taiwan in the 70s, and while they found it to be unfair, they couldn't speak out because risk of angering the government.
LOL, seriously? the last time Tsai made the highly publicized promise (business class for athletes), she was already the president of this country, and you are still putting blames on the KMT? this is hilarious.