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“He is England’s alternative queen, pop aristocracy taken to the extreme. And quite frankly, if he wants to be bad mouth Madonna or Taiwanese photographers, no one is going to stop him. There is little left in the scandal sheets which can shake Sir Elton now.”

It is the introduction of a profile of Elton John who recently visited Taiwan in Saturday’s Independent (9 October 2004 – From Rocket Man To Regal Superstar by Philip Hoare). I was bewildered why the writer brought “Taiwanese” photographers into his story, which certainly has a very negative meaning. Before too long I knew where was the author coming from.

“…He hates his routine to be interrupted. The conflict at Taiwan airport is a case in point. The star was enraged because his usually swift transit from his private jet – sign a few autographs, then off to the hotel – was rudely interrupted by the authorities’ insane insistence that he go through custom and immigration with everyone else. Hence the unseemly scrum. The same thing happened to Robbie Williams at the same airport recently, and reduced that usually polite star to much the same reaction as Sir Elton.”

After reading the above, it reminded me of one similar news in Yahoo Taiwan I read the other day saying the British celebrity got furious when seeing non-stop flash from the Taiwanese reporters’ cameras aiming at him at the CKS airport.

I am not going to comment the writer’s choice of words (rudely, insane). Neither would I discuss writer’s objectivity nor the issue of the public figures’ privacy. The question comes to me is why were those journalists so lack of self-respect? To be more precise, why were those people who made them to do it so foolish and numb to think and feel for others? Have them no shame?

I think next time when our beloved government officials, First Lady, or President complain that they are being treated as ordinary people with no respect in the custom and immigration of any foreign country, we’d better think twice.