2010 - 1st Quarter
The ECFA ads, Who is Paying for Them? Taiwan's Taxpayers? the KMT or China?
It is two years into the reign of Ma the Incompetent and it appears that the one-trick pony is getting desperate to defend his ECFA efforts and drag Taiwan into economic dependency on the People's Republic of China (PRC). The latest effort of Ma and his combination hired gun/snake oil salesman King Pu-tsung are expensive TV ads saying how the ...
Taiwan and China, Geographically Close but Miles Apart Otherwise
Taiwan and China are two countries separated by some 100 miles of the Taiwan Strait; they are close but so far apart in so many ways. Take today for example, it is ironic that as Google is leaving China because it no longer wishes to be part of its censorship of news and information, in Taiwan, Portico Media is launching ...
The 1996 Consensus, an Idea Whose Time Has Finally Come!
Although Taiwan's current President Ma Ying-jeou regularly repeats and revels in this 1992 fabrication, the time has come for all Taiwanese to once and for all dump the hypocrisy of the "1992 Consensus." The so-called consensus of 1992 is a fraud, a deception, a duplicitous trick formulated by Su Chi. Allegedly the purpose was to facilitate cross-strait talks, but even ...
"Formosa Betrayed" Movie Review by Roger Ebert Lays it Bare
If a picture is worth 1000 words, imagine what a film can do in enlightening the audiences of America about Taiwan's White Terror Period (1947--1987). It is a period that most Americans know little about. If Americans believed that Taiwan was championing democratic values under Chiang Kai-shek, they are in for a rude, major shock. This film gives a much ...
Taiwan's Poltical Soap Opera Update: The Diane Lee Effect and Justice Served?
Taiwan's political soap opera under Ma Ying-joke continues, and a new factor in the political scene is what can be called the "Diane Lee Effect." Suffering from it is Kaohsiung's People First Party (PFP) City Councilor Yang Se-yu. Diane Lee, for those who may not recognize the name, is the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator who for 14 years had ...
Cambodia Part III, Angkor Wat and Other Scenes
The main temple of Angkor Wat is designed to be a microcosm of the Hindu universe. The moat that surrounds the temple symbolize the mythical oceans that surround the earth; the concentric galleries and the towers represent the mountains that lead up to Mount Meru the home of the gods. It should be visited more than once if time allows ...
Cambodia Part II, Ta Prohm, Mystery, Intrigue and Wonder
I must admit, that Ta Prohm was for me the most engaging part of Angkor Wat. True, it was the focal area of the film "Lara Croft, Tomb Raider;" but that wasn't the reason, and the film had taken a lot of liberty with set and camera angles. No, the appeal lay in the fact that it was this temple ...
Cambodia Part I, Tonle Sap, the Great Lake and People
Among Cambodia's many unique features, Tonle Sap (The Great Lake) stands out. Enhancing the lake's uniqueness is its relationship to the 7th largest river in Asia, the Mekong River. The Mekong begins way up in the Himalayas and drains down through China, Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos into Cambodia. It does not stop there of course; from there it goes into ...
February 28, 2-28, Taiwan Remains a Day of Mixed Emotions
One can always look at Taiwan in terms of the past or in terms of the present. Never is that brought home more than on February 28th. In terms of the present, today many are celebrating the victory of the DPP party in 3 of the 4 by-elections held yesterday. Again as a statement of no-confidence in the Ma administration's ...
Angkor Wat and Mysteries of Cambodia
I will be posting shortly on experiences in visiting Angkor Wat and the mysteries how such a thriving civilization and large temple array around which once lived over a million people could disappear into the forests and trees of the land for centuries. In the meantime, if you want to whet your appetite, go to the left column where the ...
Taiwan, As the World Turns in February, Chou Hsi-wei Breaks down in Tears
It was another dramatic Taiwan Kodak moment and Chou Hsi-wei was there in the midst of it. After many years of incompetent rule, this Mayor of Taipei County with his flair for grandiose drama tearfully announced that he would not run for re-election. Why? It wasn't that he did not want to run; it was that his party, the Chinese ...
Taiwan's Ma Ying-jeou Continues to Invite Voters to Live in his Fantasy World
Caught in another faux pas, Taiwan's sometime-president, Ma Ying-jeou, (a.k.a. Ma the Incompetent) crawfished backwards from his recent statement that China and Taiwan were two different nations. In an effort to save face, Ma has chosen instead to continue to invite Taiwan and the world to join him in his make-believe, fantasy world. Key to that world is the out-dated ...
Taiwan's Double Standard and the "Dogs of Bias"
Taiwan's former President Chen Shui-bian has been in jail since December 30, 2008 (over 400 days). The change in judges requested by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to keep him there has extended his imprisonment for the third time. This time it is for two more months. His case reeks of the double standard that has never left Taiwan's prosecutorial ...
The Continued Hypocrisy of Ma Ying-jeou's Government I
The hypocrisy and pretense fostered by the government of Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou is once again demonstrated by Ma's former law professor as he observes how Ma's Minister of Justice attempts to make Taiwan emulate China. An edited version of this text appeared in English in the South China Morning Post (Hong Kong) on January 20, 2010 under the title ...
Taiwan Struggles with Its Identity and the GIO is No Help
Taiwan is a nation replete with anomalies, an out-moded constitution and a big identity problem. Only the Taiwanese can solve this problem, but to do so, they must face up to the totality of their past, admit who they are and decide where they want to go. Nowhere are these issues and problems more easily seen and recorded than in ...
Forcing Taiwan's KMT to Face the Reality of Loss
The death of a dream and the loss of a country are terrible things to face and admit. It has been sixty years since the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lost its civil war in China and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) drove them into exile. Sixty years! But even though sixty years have passed, many KMT members have still not ...
Taiwan's Great ECFA Debate that Never Was and Probably Never Will Be
Ma Ying-jeou has been president of Taiwan for almost two years and Taiwan's economy still flounders. Like a one-trick pony, Ma seems only capable of playing the run-to-China card, but so far his panda and tourist gambits and direct flights have done nothing. His advisors have no other pro-offered plans or proposals. So as desperation mounts for the past year ...
Taiwan, As the World Turns, Life Under Ma the Incompetent: the Great Panda Fiasco
The soap opera of life in Taiwan continues under its so-called President, Ma the Incompetent, a.k.a. Ma Ying-joke. People no longer commiserate about the joke of his 6-3-3 campaign promise. Nor do they even mention the joke of his promise that his great rapprochement with China would bring over 3,000 well-heeled, free-spending Chinese per day to turn Taiwan's economy around. ...
The KMT's Sordid Past Relives Itself under Ma Ying-jeou
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is a past master of fat-cat positions and bought loyalties. Who can not help but remember the inequalities of its forced forty year one-party state rule of Taiwan. Who cannot help but remember how while promoting the ruse of being pro-democracy the KMT guaranteed party members lucrative lifelong positions in the Legislative Yuan (LY). After ...
Friedman Leaves Me Cold, Flat, and Disgusted
Between the known and the unknown, falls the shadow. Between the surface and reality falls the guess. Between what can be controlled and what cannot, falls the wish. Between the shadow, the guess, and the wish, comes the consultant, a shadowy seller of guesses striving to say truisms that the wishers want to hear. Thomas Friedman, "The World is Flat" ...
Taiwan, January 2010: As the World Turns
Saturday January 9, 2010, a clean sweep for the DPP as it took the three Legislative Yuan positions that were up for re-election when vacated because of among other things previous KMT vote-buying. Ma's new spin-doctor KMT Secretary-General King Pu-tsung is going to be working overtime to try and put a positive spin on this one. All three positions had ...
Taiwan's Ma Ying-jeou Rules by Fiat, Why then is No One Listening?
The more one watches Ma Ying-jeou's distant management style, the more one thinks of Swift's floating island of Laputa in his satire, "Gulliver's Travels". From high above, the king of the floating island communicates with his subjects down below via written orders, directives and messages lowered in a basket. His subjects must respond in kind placing requests and petitions in ...
Taiwan Up, Now There is an Embarassing Expression
Even though Dubai now claims the world's tallest operative building, Taipei 101 (having held that boast for 5 years) still stands proud and tall over the city of Taipei. Proud and tall, that is, except for one item, the unfortunate glowing lights spelling out "Taiwan Up" on its façade. Taiwan Up, who came up with that embarrassing inept slogan? ...
Where's the Beef? It's Smell the Coffee Time in the USA
Those of us, who live at ground zero in Taiwan, have long grown tired of hearing pundits and distant observers in USA media etc. judge things from a distance and spout or believe the pearls handed them by their past wine and dine Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) friends. For the past eighteen months we have heard those pundits speak in ...