2008 - 1st Quarter
Ma Ying-jeou Wins Taiwan Presidency: Let the Flip-flops Begin
On Saturday, March 22nd, 2008, Ma Ying-jeou of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) won Taiwan's presidency with a clear majority of over two million votes. Immediately afterwards local and international pundits began casting about for reasons to explain and/or justify his convincing win and why people voted as they did. These efforts at best remain highly speculative. As a young ...
Taiwan's UN Referenda Fail to Reach Their Abnormally High Bar
In any other country if a referendum were held and 94 per cent of those voting on it approved, it would be considered successful. That is not the case however in Taiwan for Taiwan has unusually high requirements for success. First of all, 50 per cent of the eligible voters must pick up and cast a ballot, and then 50 ...
Election Day in Taiwan, It's Showtime!
It has been an interesting election campaign in Taiwan and today Saturday March 22nd is a nice quiet and peaceful day; no noisy trucks in the street; the weather is cloudy up north at least but pleasant. There is no reason why people should not go out and vote. ...
How Does the US State Department Earn its Keep?
Tibet still burns, Iraq is a quagmire where the USA is spending billions, the US economy is tanking and the only thing Thomas Christensen of the US State Department can think of to make a comment on is the democratic right of Taiwan to have a referendum. Shame on Taiwan it is not following the script that US State Department ...
How the Horse Got His Frozen Smile, a Strange African Folk Tale
There once was a horse that was raised by jackals. Now jackals are a devious group of animals; they are known for preying on the weak, pretending to be something that they are not and even claiming the territory of others. They may even pretend to be dragons. This particular group of jackals however had recently been driven from the ...
Tibet Burns and the World Still Kowtows to China the Cause of it All
Tibet burns; Tibetans suffer and die. Why? Tibetans want the right to self-determination. It is only natural; it is human nature. They want freedom and self determination. All men are created equal with the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, it seems to me I have heard words like that somewhere else. And yet the panda huggers ...
Look Out Beijing, Here Comes Taiwan!
Taiwan is concerned about its upcoming presidential election but it is not the only thing that is hot on the island. Yesterday Taiwan's baseball team qualified for the Olympics and today the 2008 Tour de Taiwan is entering its sixth stage. What all this says is that while China may try as it may to keep Taiwan down, Taiwan is ...
Taiwan's KMT Has Too Much Power, and Yet It Still Wants More
Buoyed up by their veto-overriding majority in the Legislative Yuan, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is resorting to Gestapo and gangster-like tactics to carry out their whims. With no proof to back up their claims, KMT legislators Chen Chieh, Lo Ming-tsai, and Luo Shu-lei along with caucus whip Alex Fai forcefully entered the Democratic Progressive Party campaign offices on a ...
Even Taiwan's Pan-Blue Press Admit Ma Ying-jeou is Naive
Well I have to admit I dropped my glasses (to use a local expression) on this one. The Tuesday March 11 editorial in the China Post spoke of the presidential debates between Ma Ying-jeou and Frank Hsieh as "Naivet?versus savviness" and it did not end there. The opening paragraph read, "Come March 22, a na髽 will have a face-off with ...
Taiwan Sex Workers Experience the Ma Ying-jeou Shuffle
Sex is in the air, not only in China but also in Taiwan. As Taiwan's presidential elections approach, the Collective of Sex Workers and Supporters (COSWAS) called upon the candidates to make prostitution legal in Taiwan. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Frank Hsieh pledged that he would work to decriminalize prostitution if elected. Ma Ying-jeou, the Chinese Nationalist Party ...
Tough Love in China: Tang Wei Blacklisted for "Beautifying Collaboration"
The control freaks in China are at it again; not content with controlling religion, the media etc., they now want to control art. The latest to fall under their ban is actress Tang Wei because the character she plays in the movie "Lust Caution" falls in love with a Japanese collaborator. The way it is phrased is that the role ...
Examining Taiwan's Pan-Blue Media Rag Spin
"The China Post," an English paper in Taiwan is often referred to by ex-pats as the local Pan-Blue Rag, and that is on good days. Is the title deserved? Well let's take a look. An article on March 5th dealt with Lee Teng-hui's recent interview in Japan. When asked about Taiwan's upcoming presidential elections Lee stated that if Frank Hsieh ...
Taiwan Alert, More Pollution from China Coming
On Saturday, March 1st the Taiwan Central Weather Bureau issued two alerts. First the nation could expect a cold front for the coming week. Second, the Middle Kingdom of Pollution, Poison, and Propaganda was sending more of their pollution Taiwan's way. Japan had gotten some of their poison the previous week so Taiwanese felt it was their turn and sure ...
Ma Ying-jeou's Shallow, Simplistic Economics: Promise the Moon
Promise the Taiwanese anything and you will keep them from examining and facing the reality of their present and past, this is the continued strategy of candidate Ma Ying-jeou. Promises, promises, promises, if anyone would total up the cost of all the promises that Ma has made it would bankrupt the richest nation. Yet Ma keeps promising and the simple-minded ...
The USA and Britain Continue to Feed the China Propaganda Mill
US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband joined forces in their protracted overkill in trying to destroy democratic Taiwan's right to state its desire to have its 23 million people represented in the United Nations. Their duplicity is all the more evident when starkly contrasted with the bald fact that both the USA and Britain ...
Democratic Taiwan Supports Tibet: Take Note World
Let the control freaks in Beijing take note; Taiwan does not need an LKK (lau ko-ko, out of touch old grandfather) trying to tell it what it has the right to do and not do. Taiwan is an open democratic society. As a result, not long ago, Taiwan refused the Olympic Torch of Beijing because Beijing wanted to use its ...
China, the Frustrated Potentate, Continues to Try to Isolate Taiwan
There is something laughable and almost senile at the attempts of China, the frustrated potentate, laboring on and on to try to isolate Taiwan in the world. The latest example is of course Kosovo where China has told Taiwan that it does not have the right to recognize Kosovo. As if who cares what China says Taiwan has the right ...
Why Ma Ying-jeou Should Not Be President
Ma Ying-jeou is the quintessential politician, one who smiles and smiles and promises and promises but rarely delivers. Born into the privilege of the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) one-party state, he was educated, and supported by that state throughout its White Terror dominance. He didn't question its rule and served its ends both as a student in the USA and ...
Ma Ying-jeou, a Weasel Under Pressure?
Ma Ying-jeou continues to be the perfect example of how a person with an unearned sense of privilege and entitlement is unable to handle adversity and pressure. Case in point is the recent revelation that Ma Ying-jeou had a green card. Whether Ma had a green card or not is really not the main issue. What is of more importance ...
Taiwan, East Germany, and "The Lives of Others"
Von Donnersmarck's film, "The Lives of Others," (Das Leben der Anderen) is a film well worth seeing. It is well worth seeing not simply because it won the Oscar Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film of 2006 and numerous other awards, but because it provides a strong, sobering insight into what life is like under a totalitarian regime. Here ...
China's Snow Storms Expose its Controlling Cabal's Exploitation of the Masses
China--never have so many been ruled and controlled by so few! Yes this is the same China which Taiwan knows as its greedy and rapacious neighbor and that despite its inability to take care of its own 1.3 billion people it still always wants to control more. Now as winter storms of ice and snow hit China at its most ...
The Fat Lady Sings for Boston in Arizona
Super Bowl XLII proved to have the classic finish. The underdog is down by four points. A field goal will not save them; they need a touchdown. Still, they have the ball and just enough time for one last drive, yet the drive must cover close to the length of the field. The game has been a defensive struggle up ...
Taiwan Searching for Identity in the Bamboozle of 2008
Thoreau stated it succinctly in Walden, "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation," and I would add a corollary to his words, "Most men lead lives of willingly being bamboozled." This flaw is what drives companies to hire marketing executives to persuade consumers to buy what they don't need; this flaw is what allows the media to try and get ...
Taiwan's Identity: the Whole is Greater than the Sum of its Parts
As Taiwan searches for its identity, it must remember, The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. This is the principle of emergence and the principle by which the identity of Taiwan should be understood. It is the proper way to perceive Taiwan's past and what makes Taiwanese to be Taiwanese. From ancient times of over 5000 years ...
Katyn, a Polish Film, Resonates in Taiwan
How a nation deals with its past is vital to its present health and existence. A recent Polish film "Katyn" addresses an "unhealed wound" in Poland's past, and a recent review of that film (as presented below) in the January 24, 2008 Economist illustrates the issues and its need for closure. Taiwan has its own "unhealed wounds" and a need ...
Taiwans 2008 Legislative Elections, Ma Ying-jeou, a Weak Man Becomes Weaker
Despite what the average observer may think, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is not a monolith. Numerous contrasting points of view exist within it, and power struggles continue beneath the surface. However, like the Republican Party compared to the Democratic Party in the USA, the KMT manages to hide its conflicts, power struggles, and dirty laundry much better than its ...
Taiwan's 2008 Legislative Yuan Elections: Lesson 2, Examining the McGovern Factor
After the overwhelming and disproportionate defeat of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in the January 12 Legislative Yuan elections, many DPP party members and supporters were obviously disheartened. Certainly if one looked at a district by district color-coded map of post election Taiwan, it was a sea of blue with a few islands of green. Despite this, party members need ...
Taiwan's 2008 Legislative Yuan Elections: Lesson One, in Search of an Adequate System
As the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) regroups after its huge defeat in Taiwan's January 12 Legislative Yuan elections there are several things that its members should realize for perspective. First the defeat became larger in reality than it should have been because of the inadequacies of the electoral system. This does not excuse other faults and poor strategies of the ...
Taiwan's 2008 Legislative Yuan Elections Update
It appears that there has been only a 58 per cent voter turn out. This has already doomed the referendums. If such a low turn out continues in future elections, any referendum will certainly face extreme difficulties passing with the present rules. ...
Taiwan 2008 Legislative Elections: On the Spot
The voting stations are open today and already it is evident that the Pan-blue party is out to kill the referendums by boycotting them. ...
Taiwan's 2008 Legislative Yuan Elections
Big changes are coming this Saturday January 12, 2008, Taiwan will vote to select members of the upcoming Legislative Yuan in an election that will have several new wrinkles and be a first in many items for Taiwan. First of all, the number of legislators has been halved from 225 to 113 so a number of the old faces will ...
Taiwan Desperately Needs a Green Legislative Yuan: Problem Two, Sabotage of the Country
When I say that the pan-blue Legislative Yuan led by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) sabotages the country I do not mean that they have guerilla bands blowing up bridges. I speak metaphorically. The KMT's sabotage is of a much more subtle nature; it is a sabotage that is willing to drag the country down as it strives to regain ...
Ma Ying-joke, Would You Want This Man as Your Leader?
Does Ma Ying-joke know what time it is? Does he even know where his party is? Shortly after Ma promised Taiwan citizens that he would definitely vote on the two anti-corruption referendum ballots in the up-coming election, his party, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), announced that it would boycott the referendums. Who is in charge here? It certainly isn't Ma ...
Why Taiwan Needs a Green Legislative Yuan: Problem One Justice
When Taiwan was a one-party state dictatorship under the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), the power of the country was in its president. The Legislative Yuan was a rubber stamp body in which each legislator who had been elected ages previous in 1947 was guaranteed his position for life. All each legislator had to do was approve what President Chiang Kai-shek ...
Is AIT as Dumb as the KMT Thinks That They Are?
In early December, Raymond Burghardt, Chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), visited Taiwan to speak and listen to the presidential candidates from both major parties as well as to receive assurances from President Chen Shui-bian that Chen would do nothing drastic before the end of his presidential term. To speak to the two major presidential candidates would be ...
Myth #3, Chiang Kai-shek Created the Taiwan Miracle for the Sake of Taiwan
The Taiwan Miracle is regularly brought up by KMT to show its care for Taiwan. Myth #3, Chiang Kai-shek so loved Taiwan that he created the Taiwan Miracle for it. Answer: The Taiwan Miracle is a fact of history but it was not created for the sake of Taiwan. It was created because Chiang Kai-shek and the KMT realized that ...
Debunking the Myths of Chiang Kai-shek: Myth # 2, Chiang Kai-shek Rebuilt Taiwan
A second myth that the profiteers and exploiters of Chiang Kai-shek's dictatorship use to justify their position and profit is to promote the idea that the people of Taiwan should be grateful to Chiang Kai-shek because he rebuilt it after World War II. This is Myth # 2: Chiang Kai-shek rebuilt Taiwan. Answer: Chiang Kai-shek (CKS) did not rebuild Taiwan; ...
Debunking the Myths of Chiang Kai-shek: Myth # 1, Chiang Kai-shek Saved Taiwan
There are many myths that surround Chiang Kai-shek. Most are perpetuated by those who still profit from his one party state dictatorship on Taiwan; these people use the myths to justify their gains and cover what really happened. A series of posts will follow debunking those myths. ...