2014 - 2nd Quarter
Ma Ying-jeou's Continued Avoidance of Transparency
The occupation of the Legislative Yuan has passed, and the legislature's agreement to discuss and debate the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) before approval appears to be back on track. Whether Ma Ying-jeou and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) of which he is the chairman will keep their promise, remains to be seen. Similarly the fast of Lin I-hsiung and ...
Surviving Ma Ying-jeou's Final Two Years
Like the wayward ship in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Taiwan's ship of state remains trapped in the doldrums. Here, the fault for the ship's position is not linked to the death of any albatross; it lies clearly in the hands of its captain, President, Ma Ying-jeou. In Vietnam, Taiwan's businessmen currently suffer because they are repeatedly ...
Truman, Nixon, Sunflowers and Ma Ying-jeou
Former US president Harry S. Truman was a man, known both for his blunt, straightforward talk and his frank and often-uncomplimentary assessment of people. One of his favorite targets was a member of the opposition party, Richard Nixon. Nixon had entered Congress in 1947 when Truman was President, and in the ensuing years they had had many subsequent battles. It ...
Chicken vs. Pig Pundits on Trade and Taiwan's Future
One would be hard pressed to find anyone in Taiwan who is per se against making money. Likewise one would be hard pressed to find anyone in Taiwan who is against trade between nations. That said, there are trade agreements and then there are trade agreements. And among trade agreements, certainly, not all agreements are equal; some may be unequal ...
Shaking Off Taiwan's Stockholm Experience
The phrase Stockholm syndrome is often used to identify various situations where people who have been physically and/or psychologically held captive by others can in that time come to take on many of the values and beliefs of their captors. This happens both to individuals and groups. Taiwan as an island nation that now is a democracy has certainly seen ...
The Sunflowers Protest and Pigs in a Poke
These times of protest are times to try Taiwanese souls. But they also are times that all Taiwanese need to remember both now and when November 29 comes around. In the current Service Trade Agreement, Taiwanese are basically being asked by their president Ma Ying-jeou to buy the unseen proverbial "pig in a poke (sack)." Ma tells the wary people ...