Taiwan has a mandatory military service. Essentially every Taiwanese male has to go through boot camp for a few months and then is assigned a post that they must serve at. This whole thing used to be for two years, but it has been becoming shorter and shorter, with it now being as short as four months.
However the plan is to get rid of this requirement entirely by 2014. And in fact those who were born after 1996 don't have to do it. However it is unclear if they will still have to the do the mandatory boot camp, but just not have to do the posting. We shall see.
The posting is really the big deal, as good postings are very hard to get. You can be stuck on one of the islands around Taiwan, which means a long time away from family and friends, and usually your girlfriend cheating on you while you are gone. Or you can get extremely lucky and just have to work at some government facility while living at home. I know one guy whose posting was just giving tours at the National Palace Museum.
Not everybody has to serve it though. Women don't have to, which is one reason why I don't like this policy. Taiwan really likes to go out of its way to make everybody feel that women are week and need to be taken care of like children. Students also don't have to, which is one reason why grad school is so popular in Taiwan. The longer you are in school, the longer you can push back the military service, in hopes that with each passing year the mandatory service time becomes shorter and/or cancelled all together.
And of course if you have the right connections you can get out of having to do any service. A lot of this is through saying that you have some health issue that means you can't handle it. Granted some people do have actual physical issues that mean they can't participate. And thankfully, I've just learned that I'm one of them!
Yep I've always had very serious objects to conscription, and if I'm honest with myself, a tiny part of it is because I wouldn't want to do it. Granted I'm not Taiwanese, so I would never have to do it, however I will sometimes think that if I were Taiwanese and had to do it, I'd be quite upset. But I found out that if you are flatfooted than you are exempt. This is because you can't do all of the required positions.
This does explain a lot though. Because I am flatfooted I can't squat like most people can, without going on my tiptoes. This is why I am not good at using the squat toilets that are unfortunately common in Taiwan. I no longer feel that I am just some idiot who can't figure out how to squat and poop. I know have a legitimate physical disability that prevents me from being able to do this easily. I wonder if I can get handicapped parking in Taiwan....
