DEMO! Taiwan Democracy Movement

2012-01-13T20:53:00.001-08:00

Vote for Taiwan's Freedom and Democracy

.NO MORE MA. Vote to get rid of the corrupt, anti-Taiwan KMT.

Keep China's brutal dictatorship forever out of Taiwan.

Cogressman Mr. Ted Deutch expressed his support for Taiwan's democracy and freedom - used with permission

2011-12-25T06:39:00.000-08:00

"I write to express my support for the people of Taiwan and their right to self determination and my strong support for ensuring a free and fair democratic election in January.

In 1979, the U.S. Congress affirmed its commitment to sustaining freedom, security, and economic opportunity in Taiwan through the passage of the Taiwan Relations Act. Over the last three decades, Taiwan has developed into a strong democracy that serves as a beacon of hope for those seeking freedom in the region.

In November 2011, the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs passed the Taiwan Policy Act which reaffirmed our support for Taiwan, its democracy, and the human rights of its people. Additionally, I, along with 180 of my colleagues signed a letter supporting the sale of F-16 C/D's to Taiwan.

It is my hope that January's presidential elections will be free from outside influence and reflect the will of the people of Taiwan and their strong commitment to upholding democracy.

As a Member of Congress, I will work to ensure that our nation is committed to fulfilling the Six Assurances and to continuing a strong economic and strategic relationship with Taiwan and her people.

Sincerely

Ted Deutch
Member of Congress"

Apply Now for the Formosa Foundation's 2012 Ambassador's Program in D.C.

2011-12-24T07:49:00.000-08:00

APPLY TODAY!
2012 Ambassador Program

The Formosa Foundation is accepting applications for the 2012 Ambassador Program from now through March 15, 2012. The 2012 Program will take place in Washington, D.C. from June 18 through 29. Up to 30 college/graduate students and young professionals will be selected from the United States and Taiwan to participate in this highly competitive “congressional boot camp.”

Application forms are now available. The U.S. applicants please complete the 2012 U.S. Application Form; Applicants who are currently in Taiwan and/or are Taiwanese national please use the 2012 TW Form.

The Ambassador Program, in its 10th year, has over 250 future leaders graduate and held over a thousand meetings with individual members of Congress and their staff. With each passing year the program has grown stronger, attracting not only some of the foremost authorities on Taiwan and Asia-Pacific issues from across America, but also garnering the attention of powerful lawmakers as well. The Ambassador Program teaches skills to help change the hearts and minds of our elected leaders and policymakers in Washington on the most critical issues concerning Taiwan. Formosa Foundation ambassadors have received praises as being Capitol Hill's most articulate and effective advocates for the U.S.-Taiwan bilateral relations.

Detailed program description and previous program reports are available on our website.

Sincerely,

Formosa Foundation
www.formosafoundation.org
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Tel: 213.625.1991

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About the Ambassador Program

The Formosa Foundation offers three factors critical to social movements: political opportunity, organizational capacity and framing ability. Through its Ambassador Program the Foundation offers the best hands-on training for students to develop grassroots and campaign skills and to become leaders.

The Ambassador Program combines in-house training with on-the-ground activist work. Participants in the Program develop the expertise, analytical framework, and network they need to effectively promote Taiwan. Up-and-coming activists can learn about the issues affecting Taiwan first-hand.

The 2012 Ambassador Program will take place in Washington D.C. June 18- 29. The Formosa Foundation will provide for participants' training, workshops and lodging for the duration of the Program. Participants are responsible for their own meals and travel expenses. See the 2011 Program report and former ambassadors in action here.

BECOME EFFECTIVE ORGANIZERS FOR JUSTICE

The Formosa Foundation seeks to preserve the American values of democracy and human rights through broadened involvement of future leaders in the making of U.S. policy. The Ambassador Program uses U.S. foreign policies on Taiwan and China as case studies to provide participants with opportunities to:

Understand the intricacies of U.S. foreign policy making and its impact;
Gain insight from experienced professionals on the art of advocacy;
Acquire skills to effectively present views to policy makers, media and the public.

MEET FACE TO FACE WITH U.S. LAW MAKERS

The Ambassador Program is a unique training program of its kind. We recruit students from the United States and Taiwan, who will work together to help develop a closer relationship between the U.S. and Taiwan. The Program provides opportunities to meet with United States Congressmen and Senators to discuss U.S. policies toward Taiwan.

DEVELOP GRASSROOTS CAMPAIGN SKILLS AND NETWORKS

The Ambassador Program has demonstrated results from participants that extends beyond the two-week program. The Program prepares tomorrow's leaders towards building a pro-Taiwan community on and beyond the college campus. These congressional visits put Taiwan on the forefront of America's political agenda, and change the hearts and minds of American policy makers about Taiwan.

QUALIFICATION AND SELECTION

The Program is designed primarily for recent college graduate or current college and/or graduate students who support the advancement of human rights, democracy and the right of self-determination for the people of Taiwan. Selection criteria include academic excellence, extracurricular activities, participation in community affairs, and interest in promoting U.S.-Taiwan relations.

Up to 30 applicants will be selected for the 2012 Program, including up to 7 to be recruited from Taiwan. Applicant can be US citizens, permanent residents, or Taiwanese national.

APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS:

Program application package includes the following requirements. See page 4 of application form for mailing instructions.

1. 2012 Application Form (Applicants who are currently studying/residing in Taiwan, use the 2012 TW Form.)
2. 500-word Personal Statement
3. Copy of most recent Transcript
4. Two Letters of Recommendation

Winston Churchill -- Never Surrender Speech -- modified for our times

2011-11-03T09:29:00.000-07:00

Taiwan will defend to the death her native soil. Even though large tracts of Asia and many old and famous States have fallen in history to China's rapacious expansionist imperialism or may in the future fall into the grip of the People's Liberation Army and all the odious apparatus of CCP rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight on land, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our peoples beyond the seas, armed and guarded by Taiwan's Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.

台灣永不投降——改寫自邱吉爾「永不投降」演說文

台灣將捍衛祖國至死。亞洲大部分地區和許多古老有名的國家，在歷史上都曾因中國強取豪奪的帝國擴張主義而淪陷，它們將來仍有可能落入人民解放軍和中共政權醜惡組織的箝制中。即使如此，我們絕不退縮棄守。我們要奮戰到底，在陸上和海上奮戰，帶著與日俱增的信心和力量進行空戰，不計代價捍衛我們的島國。我們要在海岸上奮戰，在登陸地點奮戰，在田野間和街道上奮戰，在山丘間奮戰。我們永不投降。雖然我從不相信我們的島國或大片國土會被征服且遭斷糧，但即使真的走到這個地步，台灣艦隊所裝備和保衛的海外台灣人，仍會繼續爭戰不懈，直到新天新地帶著大能大力，在上帝所定的美好日子邁步向前，來拯救並解放這個舊世界。

 

Winston Churchill -- Never Surrender Speech -- modified for our times

When we consider how much greater would be our advantage in defending the air above this Island against an overseas attack, I must say that I find in these facts a sure basis upon which practical and reassuring thoughts may rest. I will pay my tribute to these young airmen... May it not also be that the cause of civilization itself will be defended by the skill and devotion of a few thousand airmen? There never has been, I suppose, in all the world, in all the history of war, such an opportunity for youth. The Knights of the Round Table, the Crusaders, [the Seediq Warriors], all fall back into the past-not only distant but prosaic; these young men, going forth every morn to guard their native land and all that we stand for, holding in their hands these instruments of colossal and shattering power, of whom it may be said that

Every morn brought forth a noble chance
And every chance brought forth a noble knight,

deserve our gratitude, as do all the brave men who, in so many ways and on so many occasions, are ready, and continue ready to give life and all for their native land.

Against this loss of [our soldiers], we can set a far heavier loss certainly inflicted upon the enemy ... Capital and Labor have cast aside their interests, rights, and customs and put them into the common stock. Already the flow of munitions has leaped forward. There is no reason why we should not in a few months overtake the sudden and serious loss that has come upon us, without retarding the development of our general program.

[The Manchu empire, foreign invaders of China, complained about Taiwan that there was a rebellion every few years.] We are told that [name of Chinese premier] has a plan for invading the [Taiwan]. This has often been thought of before. [They will not have their way.]

The whole question of home defense against invasion is, of course, powerfully affected by the fact that we have for the time being in this Island incomparably more powerful military forces than we have ever had at any moment in this war or the last. But this will not continue. We shall not be content with a defensive war. [We have to be able to hit the enemy on their soil, develop missiles and aircraft that can project power from afar.] All this is in train; but in the interval we must put our defenses in this Island into such a high state of organization that the fewest possible numbers will be required to give effective security and that the largest possible potential of offensive effort may be realized. On this we are now engaged. It will be very convenient, if it be the desire of the House, to enter upon this subject in a secret Session. Not that the government would necessarily be able to reveal in very great detail military secrets, but we like to have our discussions free, without the restraint imposed by the fact that they will be read the next day by the enemy; and the Government would benefit by views freely expressed in all parts of the House by Members with their knowledge of so many different parts of the country. I understand that some request is to be made upon this subject, which will be readily acceded to by [the native Government of Taiwan's people].

We have found it necessary to take measures of increasing stringency, not only against enemy aliens and suspicious characters of other nationalities, but also against [Taiwanese citizens who are servants of China and traitors to Taiwan] who may become a danger or a nuisance should the war be transported to [Taiwan]. I know there are a great many people affected by the orders which we have made who are the passionate enemies of [China]. I am very sorry for them, but we cannot, at the present time and under the present stress, draw all the distinctions which we should like to do. If parachute landings were attempted and fierce fighting attendant upon them followed, these unfortunate people would be far better out of the way, for their own sakes as well as for ours. There is, however, another class, for which I feel not the slightest sympathy. Parliament has given us the powers to put down Fifth Column activities with a strong hand, and we shall use those powers subject to the supervision and correction of the House, without the slightest hesitation until we are satisfied, and more than satisfied, that this malignancy in our midst has been effectively stamped out.

Turning once again, and this time more generally, to the question of invasion, I would observe that there has never been a period in all these long centuries of which we boast when an absolute guarantee against invasion, still less against serious raids, could have been given to our people. In the days of [Qing emperors] the same wind which would have carried [their] transports across the [Strait] might have driven away the blockading fleet. There was always the chance, and it is that chance which has excited and befooled the imaginations of many Continental tyrants. Many are the tales that are told. We are assured that novel methods will be adopted, and when we see the originality of malice, the ingenuity of aggression, which our enemy displays, we may certainly prepare ourselves for every kind of novel stratagem and every kind of brutal and treacherous maneuver. I think that no idea is so outlandish that it should not be considered and viewed with a searching, but at the same time, I hope, with a steady eye. We must never forget the solid assurances of sea power and those which belong to air power if it can be locally exercised.

I have, myself, full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are made, as they are being made, we shall prove ourselves once again able to defend our Island home, to ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace of tyranny, if necessary for years, if necessary alone. At any rate, that is what we are going to try to do. That is the resolve of [Taiwan's] Government-every man of them. That is the will of [the Legislature] and the nation. [Taiwan] will defend to the death [her] native soil. Even though large tracts of Asia and many old and famous States have fallen [in history to China's rapacious expansionist imperialism] or may [in the future] fall into the grip of the [People's Liberation Army] and all the odious apparatus of [CCP] rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight [on land], we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our [peoples] beyond the seas, armed and guarded by [Taiwan's] Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.

China is a Rogue Nation

2011-11-03T06:54:00.000-07:00

Whether human rights abuses, fomenting unrest in other countries, pillaging Africa, or causing the proliferation of dangerous weapons to rogue states, CHINA IS A ROGUE STATE.

Taiwan should withdraw from their entanglements with such an evil empire.

Tīⁿ Jyi-giokk writes a rhyme about Ma Ying-jeou's failures

2011-10-19T07:49:00.000-07:00

Tīⁿ Jyi-giokk ê Ah-ūn

N^g-kim 10-nî Má 633 hou,
黃金十年馬633呼，
Lāu-lông tin-thiap 316-khou..
老農津貼316箍。

Travails of the Austronesian people in Taiwan under the foreign rule of the Republic of China regime in exile of president Ma Ying-Jeou

2011-10-08T13:24:00.000-07:00

The Ma government's way of thinking illustrated by this bullying member of the police

2011-09-30T21:23:00.000-07:00

Call for Missile Defense in Taiwan

2011-08-30T08:02:00.001-07:00

It is time for those in Taiwan's government who are loyal to Taiwan as well as the DPP presidential candidate to request from Israel to supply and help deploy its Iron Dome defense system in Taiwan.

It will be good for stories to circulate on the wire services about Taiwan attempting to acquire Iron Dome defense. Such reports will focus much more on China's threat than the more general attempts of Taiwan to purchase fighter planes.

The mere calling for the system will concisely highlight to the international media and foreign nations the ongoing threat of China's missiles against Taiwan.

Here's a recent Washington Times article on Israel using the system: Israel’s ‘Iron Dome’ missile defense system hits 85% of targets

The absurdity of the KMT / Ma position regarding the ROC

2011-08-29T11:42:00.000-07:00

Ma keeps throwing around the fictional "1992 consensus." The word "consensus" always excites the foreign press corps. But the following video shows the absurdity of the KMT and the R.O.C. constitution of their government in exile.

Using online animation tools to make the point.

2011-08-01T14:00:00.001-07:00

Make at goanimate.com
Post on youtube.com
Link on facebook.com
Embed on blogger.com, wordpress.com, tw.myblog.yahoo.com, etc.

China's communist government policies becoming a stench in the nostrils of at least some

2011-07-12T10:57:00.000-07:00

The continued imperialist and dictatorial policies of China's regime have consequences, even on a small scale. Recently in one small college town in Alabama, a Chinese company's bid on city-owned property was thwarted expressly because of city council members' distaste over China's regime and policies.

"In a whirlwind of emails since last week's City Council meeting, an offer from a Chinese company that wanted to buy the 155 acre former golf and country club was withdrawn after two members of the council made highly negative comments about China and its communist government..."

Meanwhile, president William Cale of the local university which has a large number of international students from China has embraced a more kowtowing attitude, calling the anti-China views "prejudicial" and not consistent with the "pluralistic" philosophy of the university.

Read more: Times Daily

==============

DEMO! thinks that local governments of other nations should be very careful about allowing China's companies getting a foothold because if the recent experience in Africa is any evidence, China's companies are imperialistic in nature. The Chinese regime has fanned an extreme ultra-nationalism in China on the level of Naziism or the Japanese imperialism of World War II. Unlike America's good experience with Japanese car companies opening plants in the U.S., when the Chinese companies set up businesses and factories in other countries, it is often not for the benefit of the local countries. All for mother China.

That local governments are desperate to attract Chinese companies shows already the predatory practices of China that have caused a loss of manufacturing and jobs in the U.S.

Note how in this particular case, the Chinese company wanted to create a training facility that would expand its market in the U.S. rather than cause an increase in local manufacturing. They wanted to expand sale of their products made in China, not produce anything locally in America.

"Taiwan" National Party (TNP, 台灣民族黨)

2011-07-09T05:17:00.000-07:00

Taipei Times reports the announcement of the formation of a new political party, the Taiwanese National Party (TNP, 台灣民族黨), on July 8, 2011. Forming new parties may or may not be effective. One wonders about the reach of some of the smaller parties. Should the pro-Taiwan folks be united, or divided into separate parties? United we stand; divided we fall?

Since the DPP is pro-Taiwan but also tends to the left, Taiwan could ultimately use a pro-Taiwan party on the right. It is not yet clear what the TNP will become. The name has its good points. Changing the English translation of 台灣民族黨 to "Taiwan National Party" instead of "Taiwanese ..." will help point journalists towards focus on a country rather than them assuming this party is an organization of a supposed "separatist" ethnic group.

It is good that this party seems to be looking outwardly to learn from the experience of other nations, such as Estonia. If the party can form itself into an effective organization, it can be a good influence internationally. Imagine a reporter in Europe sitting down to talk with a representative of the "Taiwan National Party" versus a chat with the "Democratic Progressive Party." The former's name is unequivocal in its clear declaration of Taiwan as a nation. The official name of the latter could be more easily ignored by those with a one-China habit. They would just relegate it to a democratizing party in China.

One other thing to note: what are the demographics of the party? Can the TNP reach out to the younger generation?

Perhaps the best outcome of Taiwan having small parties could be if they can engage and mobilize a segment of the population that had been feeling marginalized. Taiwan needs more active and organized pro-Taiwan groups.

We need them to not just focus on the political process of getting candidates elected, but, at this crucial juncture in Taiwan's history, focus on reaching and educating the younger generation. Do not leave them to the propaganda of the KMT-derived education system, on the whole as of yet untouched by the democratic ideological transformation in Taiwan.

============================================
See Taipei Times Article below:

A group of pro-Taiwan independence supporters yesterday announced the formation of a new political party, the Taiwanese National Party (TNP, 台灣民族黨).

The party, to be officially established tomorrow, will seek independence for Taiwan through a national referendum.
A group of TNP members made the announcement on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei with the Presidential Office in the background, chanting the slogans “Long live the Taiwanese nation” and “Liberate the Taiwanese nation.”

“We are determined to resort to every possible method to achieve the eventual goal of independence for Taiwan,” said the unofficial leader of the party, Huang Hua (黃華), who used to be an adviser to former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).

Huang, 72, then led TNP members to the nearby 228 Peace Memorial Park and took an oath in front of the Memorial Monument that commemorates the tens of thousands of people killed during the 228 Massacre in 1947.

Huang said the party, which currently has about 100 members, mostly senior citizens, will be a grassroots movement and plans to hold open public speeches nationwide to promote Taiwanese identity and garner support for independence.

Citing the example of Estonia, a former Soviet Republic which declared independence in 1991, Huang said the party aims to enlist Taiwanese who favor the establishment of a new country, before holding a national referendum and convening a constitutional convention.

Taiwanese have the right to determine their own future, Huang said, given that the ratification of the UN Charter in 1945 after World War II placed the right of self--determination into the framework of international law and diplomacy.

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government illegally occupied Taiwan and never gave Taiwanese an option in terms of their nationality, Huang said, adding that “legally speaking, Taiwanese still hold Japanese citizenship because Japan did not renounce its sovereignty over Taiwan until the Treaty of San Francisco in 1951.”

“After that, we became stateless people,” said Huang, who served four jail terms for a total of 23 years for participating in Taiwan’s independence movement.

The group of senior citizens felt that there was a need to advocate independence, which is still included in the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) platform, but it “is doing nothing about it,” said Huang, who left the DPP in 2005.

Despite the party’s endorsement of the DPP’s presidential candidate, DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), in the presidential election in January, the TNP said it plans to nominate candidates for the legislative elections.

“Building a nation will help more people than building a hospital,” said Tom Yang (楊東傑), a physician who practiced in the US and organized independence groups in the 1950s.

U.S. Senator speaks out on China, Taiwan

2011-07-09T04:52:00.000-07:00

U.S. Senator John Cornyn (Republican, Texas) on security and economic threats of China

"During his speech, the Senator also made a major point of supporting Taiwan's bid for F-16C/D's and encouraged the administration to move on it."

Why presbyterianism and democracy go hand in hand

2011-07-05T11:49:00.000-07:00

Many are aware that the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan has been a strong advocate for Taiwan's independence and also constitutional representative government. This stance of civil polity is not unexpected to anyone who knows church history.

You see, the word "presbyterian" refers to a form of church government. The word derives from the Greek word for elder/official. There is a separate cognate for the word for older person/ elderly. We would recognize the Latin-derived words much more readily: senator vs. senior.

In essence, presbyterian churches are governed by a body of elected "senators." This church government has local, regional, and national bodies. And various powers and responsibilities for each representative body are carefully defined by laws in a constitution -- often called the "Book of Church Order." Rules for deliberation secondary to the book of church order are literally Robert's Rules of Order -- the manual of parliamentary procedure.

Presbyterianism developed in Scotland under the leadership of John Knox and others. Having been exiled from Scotland for a time by the Scottish monarch, John Knox studied with John Calvin in Geneva, Switzerland. Calvin tried to apply principles derived from the Bible to every area of life including government. You can find a model for election of church leaders in the New Testament.

Absolute monarchs in Europe who claimed divine right abhorred the idea of a church that had a representative government. They often persecuted presbyterians, for that reason. At one point in Scotland, the king demanded to be acknowledged as head of the church. The presbyterians refused and were so intensely persecuted, the era of history is called "The Killing Times."

Presbyterian church government gave many clergy as well as ordained lay elders experience in parliamentary procedure and constitutional government. Over the centuries many of them have greatly influence public civil life and government. Presbyterian pastor, John Witherspoon, delegate from New Jersey, was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. (read more)

An American presbyterian pastor, David Hall, has summarized some of the principles that influenced the United States Constitution and form of government:

Hall's Five Points of Political Calvinism are arranged into the slightly awkward acronym DARCL:

Depravity of man as a perennial variable
Accountability of leaders to a larger body
Republicanism as the preferred form of government
Constitutionalism to restrain both leader and people
Limited government beginning with the individual and the family

---------------------------

You'll note the contrast: Karl Marx and atheistic communism. This path was followed by China. It did actually in many ways historically match the absolute centralized power of Chinese imperialism.

Man is basically good.
Religion is basically evil, like opium.
Environmental and historical factors (rather than innate nature) have caused a disfunctional society.
There must be dictatorship of the people to transition to a communist utopia.
Centralized power tells people what to do.
Rights are derived as a point of privilege from the collective.
Evolution shows some more fit than others. The path to utopia will be lined with the corpses of any who get in the way.

And the result:
Over 20 million dead under Stalin
Millions dead under Mao's great leap forward and the cultural revolution
The Killing fields of Cambodia under Pol Pot

What to do about Taiwan -- Article in Weekly Standard

2011-06-26T20:34:00.000-07:00

"To prevent another Asian war by miscalculation, Washington must state clearly, decisively, and publicly that it will defend Taiwan against Chinese aggression or coercion." - Joseph A. Bosco

Read the whole article: here.

-- Joseph A. Bosco served in the office of the secretary of defense as China country desk officer from 2005 to 2006 and previously taught graduate seminars on China-U.S. relations at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. He is now a national security consultant

On Abuse of Power by the Elitists in Power

2011-06-25T12:27:00.000-07:00

The following is an essay by a pastor regarding power structures and the abuse of power in the human institution of the church. It is equally applicable to Taiwan's civil government and in particular the R.O.C. regime in power. The article assumes the majority abusing the minority, but in the case of Taiwan, a minority have been able to seize power and oppress a majority population.

The entire article can be found here

Below are some good excerpts helpful especially for those raised in the KMT privilege class. Note also the paragraph on those in the oppressed group who actually try to curry favor and follow those in power. It explains a lot of those who are Taiwanese yet support the Ma regime.

"And, of course, there will be those in the minority who are anxious to curry favor or receive protection from the majority. They envy the power of the powerful and try to emulate them while still being what they are. They are willing to give lip service to the status quo, and validate the perpetuation of power by the majority in exchange for tokens of acceptance by the majority.

They are seen by the majority as the “Good (fill in the blank.)” They know what side their bread is buttered on, and they are enormously useful to the majority to deflect criticism about their treatment of the minority... "

===============================================

A theologically liberal critique of the theological liberals
Written by Brian Carpenter, The Layman
Saturday, 25 June 2011 09:59

... When I was a student at Louisville Seminary I was presented with the critiques of power which are offered by both liberation theology and feminist theology. Those who are in power tend to sinfully use that power to perpetuate the status quo and keep themselves in power. They build power structures which are fundamentally unjust and oppressive....

... One of the key insights of this stream of thought is that those who are the beneficiaries of the unjust power structures seldom recognize the fact that they are the beneficiaries of injustice. They point to the rules to justify their behavior, but of course their group set up those rules in the first place. They claim to be wiser or more fitted for power than those they are oppressing. ...

Sometimes they will claim a special divine warrant for their behavior...

And, of course, there will be those in the minority who are anxious to curry favor or receive protection from the majority. They envy the power of the powerful and try to emulate them while still being what they are. They are willing to give lip service to the status quo, and validate the perpetuation of power by the majority in exchange for tokens of acceptance by the majority.

They are seen by the majority as the “Good (fill in the blank.)” They know what side their bread is buttered on, and they are enormously useful to the majority to deflect criticism about their treatment of the minority. They are also usually hated by those members of their own group who are not willing to compromise their identity. This phenomenon rears its ugly head wherever there is longstanding conflict between groups of unequal power.

...And an ecclesiastical structure has a dominant culture, just as a nation or a corporation does. It sets up rules which tend to benefit those who are members of the dominant culture and which tend to perpetuate their tenure of power.

It also has its benighted minorities, those who are “different” or “other.” Those who, for whatever reason, are at odds with the dominant culture and power structure.

... You have systematically ratcheted up the pressure on the minority for a long time, until now it is to the point of causing even those traditionalists who have been quiescent and compliant for years to consider leaving. But they do not want to leave in dribs and drabs, like those of us who have left before. They want to leave as a cohesive group, with mutual support and care for the hazards of the journey. They want to envision a new future for themselves and build it.

And they want to take the property and resources they paid for with their own blood, sweat and tears with them. And you extort them and take them to court to prevent it. You point to the rules you wrote to perpetuate your tenure in power and say “See, it’s the right thing to do.”...

...You betray your very deep loathing and hatred of the other in your midst by what you do to them. You say what every abuser says to the one he abuses, “You are mine to do with what I wish, and if you try to leave me I will hurt you.” ...

Now that I confront you with this, will you shrug your shoulders and say what those members of the majority who have been complicit by their silence often say, “It’s just the way things are and I can’t do anything about it.” Where is your passion for justice then?

...Have done with this sickening behavior. Please, for the sake of some kind of integrity with your own principles, let my people go.

Brian Carpenter is a Teaching Elder in the Presbyterian Church in America. He serves as pastor of the Foothills Community Church (PCA), Sturgis, S.D. This article was written for and first appeared at The Layman online and is used with the author’s permission.

No privacy or freedom from gov't intrusion where China holds sway

2011-06-14T15:41:00.001-07:00

Annexation of Taiwan would result in ever increasing loss of freedom caused by the brutal, repressive Chinese communist dictatorship. Witness what is happening in Hong Kong.

Standing Against China's Territorial Bullying

2011-06-13T08:49:00.000-07:00

Vietnam is standing up to China's maritime bullying. If you have ever seen maps where China (whether the communists or the Chinese nationalists) claims jurisdiction, you will note that China claims the South China Sea all the way up almost to the very shores of Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Philippines. It is as if Taiwan were to claim as its sovereign territory the Taiwan Strait all the way to the shores of Fujian Province, China. Will China claim the Yellow Sea up to the shores of Korea?

It is time all of the nations of the world stand up to China's territorial aggression.

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U.S. Senator Jim Webb also took a stand on the issue, criticizing the "weak" Obama administration's lack of action.

Walter Lohman of the Heritage Foundation writes on priorities for the U.S.A.

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For further reading, take a look at Michael Turton's South China Sea roundup
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Take a look a China's land grabs and attempted land grabs:

The Most Pro-Taiwan Speech by a major Washington politician in a Decade

2011-06-12T18:09:00.000-07:00

US Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen

Freddy Lim on Hoklo Taiwanese Language

2011-05-29T12:55:00.000-07:00

我反對把台語(Holo話)稱為閩南語

Freddy. 2011/05/27

語言是一直不斷發展、變化的，台語(另一種在地的稱呼是holo話)雖然源自福建南部(閩南語)，但在台灣在地化、多元發展，融合平埔族與日語，早已不等於閩南語。要表現在地語言的獨特性，本來就該以在地稱呼來定名，用這個語言源自哪裡來定名，根本就是要消滅該語言的歷史脈絡與在地特性。

若因為台語源自福建南部就稱呼台語為閩南語，難道要稱呼英語為西日耳曼語？稱呼丹麥語、瑞典語、挪威語為北日耳曼語？或統稱為斯堪地那維亞語，而忽略這三種語言的在地個性與特色？

當然，如果因為台灣有廿幾種語言，慣稱holo話為台語恐打壓其他語言，這我同意，且稱呼其為holo語，本來就是自然發展出來的台灣在地稱呼，存在已久。只是與其爭辯holo語應寫作河洛語、鶴佬語還是福佬語，莫衷一是，我選擇直接寫為holo語。當然，這些討論都跟「閩南語」無關。

提醒抱持這個思維而不願把holo話稱為台語的朋友，也應該相同標準，避免稱呼Mandarin(北京官話)為中國話、中國語或中文(Chinese)，因為在中國(中華人民共和國)有千百種語言，獨稱Mandarin為中文也有打壓其他語言之嫌，請不要再稱Mandarin為中文或Chinese。

同樣的，也不該稱呼Mandarin(北京官話)為國語，因為不管在中國、台灣或新加坡，這些常用Mandarin的國家，也都還有很多種語言，稱呼Mandarin為國語，一樣是打壓其他語言。

--
Email: info@FreddyLim.com
Blog: www.FreddyLim.com

Tsai Ing-Wen with Jerome Keating

2011-04-26T15:02:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXQV2T372Ok

Here's her website that you can examine:
http://www.twimi.net/

Is America Meeting Taiwan's Self-Defense Needs? check out the meeting Wednesday in Washington D.C.

2011-04-26T14:43:00.000-07:00

OUR QUESTION FOR THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION: Please aim for more balance in your symposiums: do not only get the Ma Administration folks, but instead seek some pro-Taiwan representatives to partake discussions?

OUR POINT: Taiwan needs to be strong to cause others to think it not worth invading.

===================

HERITAGE FOUNDATION HOSTS:

Is America Meeting
Taiwan's Self-Defense Needs?

==============================
Speakers:
Keynote Remarks by
Andrew Nien-Dzu Yang --- Vice Minister for Policy, Ministry of National Defense, Republic of China (Taiwan)

And a Panel Discussion with -- Randall Schriver -- President and CEO, Project 2049 Institute

Gary J. Schmitt
Resident Scholar and Director of Advanced Strategic Studies, American Enterprise Institute

Host:
Walter Lohman
Director, Asian Studies Center, The Heritage Foundation

Date: Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Time: 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM
Location: The Heritage Foundation's Lehrman Auditorium

or call (202) 675-1752

News media inquiries, please call (202) 675-1761

All events can be viewed live at heritage.org.

Guests are subject to Terms and Conditions of Attendance,
which can be read at heritage.org/Events/Terms-and-Conditions-of-Attendance.

Congress is bracing for a fight over Taiwan policy. The number of academics and former officials calling for a reconsideration of America's commitment to Taiwan's defense are growing bolder. Meanwhile, continued delay on delivery of a full DIA assessment of Taiwan's airpower and five years of inaction on Taiwan's repeated requests for F-16s raise fundamental questions about whether that commitment is currently being met. Taiwan's Vice Minister for National Defense Andrew Yang will speak to Taiwan's defense policy and the threats it seeks to address, and a distinguished panel of experts will assess what must be done to fulfill America's legal obligations to (in the words of the Taiwan Relations Act) "enable Taiwan to maintain a sufficient self-defense capability."

214 Massachusetts Avenue, NE
Washington, D.C. 20002-4999
ph 202 546 4400 | fax 202 546 8328
heritage.org

World Taiwanese Congress - March 19, 2011

2011-03-17T14:09:00.001-07:00

The World Taiwanese Congress (WTC) will hold its 10th annual convention in Taipei on March 19, 2011.
Location -- 台灣台北市徐州路2號301室（台大醫院國際會議中心）; Room 301, 2 Xu-Zhou Road, Taipei, Taiwan. (National Taiwan University Hospital International Convention Center) http://www.thcc.net.tw/

This year's theme is "Insisting on Taiwan Nation Building, Expanding International Space" 堅持台灣健國，擴展國際空間. The subtitle is "National Affair Conference III" 國是會議 III.

The first half of the morning will be the opening ceremony with DPP chairwoman Tsai and Taiwan Solidality Union Chairman Huang's speeches. You mayo hear their strategy or campaign theme of 2012.

There will be two keynote speakers, one is Don Rodgers and the other will be the most famous political commentator/thinktanker of Japan, Sakurai Yoshiko. There will also be two panel discussions.

The conference is free and a lunch box will be provided.

Please contact 劉小姐 Ms. Liu 02-2321-7398 to pre-register.

2010-12-25T18:04:00.000-08:00

If the Heritage Foundation would invite Wang Jin-Pyng, one wonders whether they are simply like other U.S. think-tanks that are blinded by or too influenced by elitism. Under the KMT, the Legislative Yuan has not deepened democracy, but rather weakened Taiwan's democracy.

...

======================================
The Heritage Foundation
Cordially Invites You
Democracy Building in Interesting Times
Taipei, TAIWAN

A Symposium Featuring Practitioners and Experts on Democratic Development

Co-Hosted by

• The Heritage Foundation
• Taiwan Foundation for Democracy
• Institute for National Policy Research

Featuring:

Edwin J. Feulner, President, The Heritage Foundation (U.S.)
Tien Hung-mao, President, INPR, (Taiwan)
Park Jin, Member of National Assembly, National Assembly (ROK)
Eva Kusuma Sundari, Member of Parliament (Indonesia)
Alan Kah-Kit Leong, Legislative Council (Hong Kong)
Justin S. Chou, Legislator in Legislative Yuan (Taiwan)(invited)
Yuriko Koike, Member of Diet (Japan)
Jeffrey Bergner, Former Assistant Secretary of State (USA)
Shing-Yuang Sheng, National Chengchi University (Taiwan)
Richard Gordon, Chairman, Philippine Red Cross
Parth Shah, President, Center for Civil Society (India)
Junichi Chano, Executive Assistant to the President, The Japan Foundation (Japan)
Min-Hsiu Chiang, National Chengchi University (Taiwan) (Invited)
Walter Lohman, Director, Asian Studies Center, The Heritage Foundation (U.S.)
Yuli Ismartono, Tempo Magazine (Indonesia)
Kavi Chongkittavorn, The Nation (Thailand)
Chun-Nan Chiang, Consultant, Apple Daily (Taiwan)

With Keynote Address by

Wang Jin-Pyng, President, Legislative Yuan
(Invited)

Monday, January 10, 2011

8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Shangri-La’s Far Eastern Plaza Hotel – Taipei, Taiwan

The global financial crisis, increasing military modernization efforts, political leadership and transitions, and demands from domestic publics make for interesting times for democracy building and development in the Asia-Pacific region. Lawmakers and policy experts are constantly trying to find answers to these important national and global events. Thus, The Heritage Foundation, Taiwan Foundation for Democracy, and Taiwan’s Institute for National Policy Research are collaborating on this symposium, bringing together a group of highly-regarded, experienced and skilled democratic practitioners to discuss and develop best practices for democracies in these interesting times. Please join us as we discuss these issues through the topics of majority and minority rights in governance, informing the legislative process, the role of civil society, and freedom of the press and government accountability.

To RSVP or for inquiries, contact Ms. Rita Wei-Tzu Yen at 886-02-2357-9687 or inpr@ms4.hinet.net.

Being Practical versus Acting out of Pragmatism

2010-12-03T09:33:00.001-08:00

There is a difference between being practical and pragmatism. Being practical is figuring out an effective way to carry out principle in a given situation. You do not change a goal of what ought to be done.

Pragmatism disregards pursuit of what ought to be done in favor of settling for what seemingly can be done.

It is not possible to calculate truly and fully what is possible -- what can be done. Those who do so and act on their calculations in the name of pragmatism often fail to account for all the possibilities and so miss the best one.

For example: Pragmatism would have said that the 13 American colonies could not successfully rebel against the British Empire.

Pragmatism would have said that democracy is unwieldy and ineffective and that we need elites to rule us.

These arguments are still used today.

Pragmatism would say that Taiwan should give in to China.

Pragmatism would have said that William Wilberforce should not have tried to eradicate slavery in the British Empire.

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The lesson of history over and over again exposes the error of operating on the basis of pragmatism.
---

However, sometimes acting on principle does end in a failure to succeed. Even in this case, would have it been better not to act?

Regardless of the outcome, it is better to act on what ought to be done even if the action will not succeed. For your failure may still lead to a laying of the foundation for future generations to succeed.

Principle to operate on: Advance of Freedom

2010-12-03T08:18:00.001-08:00

Many do not like George W. Bush, but you may find this facebook interview quite enjoyable to watch.

One thing to notice is the issue of making decisions based on the principle of freedom.

Watch live streaming video from facebookguests at livestream.com

There are a lot of gems and excellent quotes by Bush in this interview. ... Maybe we'll take a little time to include some of them.

One big blindspot seems to be Bush's understanding of Taiwan. In the case of China and Taiwan, Bush did not operate out of principle. His State Department did not wholly embrace the freedom of the Taiwanese people. In the video he states that "We handled the Taiwan issue well during my presidency."

History does not bear him out. Ma Ying-jeou's election and the erosion of freedom and democracy in Taiwan was partially a result of the Bush China policies.

Taiwan was not handled well. And under the Obama administration, it continues to be mishandled.

Feared Information to Expose Attitudes?

2010-12-03T07:28:00.000-08:00

Michael Richardson reports:

WikiLeaks has disclosed that it controls 3,456 documents that relate to Taiwan. A spokesman for the American Institute in Taiwan, Christopher Kavanaugh, told the China Post, “We condemn such unauthorized disclosure.” The WikiLeaks documents originated at the AIT in Taipei and 1,425 are marked “confidential” with another 136 listed as “secret.”

Michael Turton shares the details on one leaked document.

Reading the tidbits, a question arises: do U.S. State Department officials turn off their minds when it comes to considering the clear distinction between Hong Kong's situation and history and Taiwan's situation? Are they thinking that Taiwan should be like Hong Kong?

There likely will not be any earth-shattering revelations from these documents. However, they will very probably give distinct clarity to the attitudes and operating worldviews of those in the U.S. State Department.

As more documents come out -- will we see a callous attitude towards Taiwan, human rights, and justice, an embrace of pragmatism?

Pragmatism is never pragmatic. There are always unintended and often disastrous consequences to carrying out seemingly pragmatic solutions instead of acting on principle.

In these past few decades, brutal communist regimes in North Korea and China are the result of U.S. State Department pragmatism.

In the mid-twentieth century, brutal fascist regimes were the result of the U.S. State Department pragmatism.

In the next few decades, detonation of nuclear weapons by Iran and North Korea or some terrorist organizations to which they were sold could be the outcome of current U.S. State Department pragmatism.

When has the State Department ever been a benefit to the United States, or to the world? When it acts on principles of democracy and inalienable human rights.

Need for educating and outreach to the electorate

2010-12-02T14:18:00.001-08:00

A comment by Les in response to Michael Turton's blog post on vote buying reminds us of something that needs to be addressed -- which we actually can have an impact addressing.

The comment is in regard to how it is that Taiwanese -- especially older or less educated Taiwanese -- could be willing to give their vote away to the first vote buyer that comes along -- which often is KMT/Gangster connected.

A lot of vote-buying relies on the fear of reprisal and some twisted sense of debt owed to the buyer.
The village / town KMT stooges are known to all and it's usually unstated threat that 'we will know' if the bought vote isn't cast. This is helped along by the knowledge that the civil service that is counting is mainly pan-blue.
Rural voters are especially susceptible to the idea that the politicians are their betters. When someone comes and offers politely to buy their vote, it's considered rude to refuse. Likewise, once the vote is bought it's considered rude not to cast it.
Quite a few of my green-leaning friends have older relatives who consistently sell their votes for these reasons, and no amount of explaining or cajoling will change that behavior.

Parents / older relatives of green-leaning friends. The ones selling the votes are not particularly interested in politics per se, but are independence minded and profess a Taiwan identity rather than a Chinese one. The kids live in the city and are DPP supporters. I think the older relatives will sell their vote to the first person who comes to the house, and it's out of some sense that when the 'VIPs' ask, you have to go along, especially when they come bearing gifts. I don't believe they are ignoring deep-seated beliefs for this. More likely they are apathetic about politics in general. Then there is the fear factor, that things will go badly for them if they don't go along with the requests and the 'VIP' doing the asking gets (re)elected anyway.
10:49 AM

IN CONCLUSION: We should organize volunteers to educate the less educated electorate with flyers and door-to-door visits to prepare them on how to behave and respond when a vote-buyer comes a-knocking on their doors.

A persistent, long-term campaign against this vote-buyer intimidation , arming the people with responses and reasons, etc. could gradually make the electoral soil unfertile for vote harvesting.

A China-free Christmas

2010-12-02T14:08:00.001-08:00

Please check out the following link if you want to get Christmas presents but do not want to buy any made in China.

chinafreechristmas.info

Too bad we cannot have a China-sympathizer-enabler-Taiwan betrayer-KMT FREE Taiwan.

Taiwanese getting involved in politics... and being suppressed... even in this generation

2010-10-29T07:35:00.000-07:00

Watch Formosa Betrayed on Netflix

2010-10-18T07:48:00.000-07:00

Netflix offers the movie "Formosa Betrayed" on its mail-DVD rental as well as instant view if you have an internet connection.

If you are still not in the loop regarding this movie, we'd recommend reading Tim Maddog's blog post on Taiwan Matters.

Since Netflix is currently offering a 1-month free trial service, you can see the movie for free. Just sign up on the website netflix.com.

While you are at it, why don't you check some more movies to understand similar oppression which nations other than Taiwan also experienced.

Poland: Katyn
Ireland: The Wind that Shakes the Barley
Ireland: Michael Collins
Jews in Belarus: Defiance

The importance of the election

2010-10-18T07:40:00.000-07:00

Register Now for the Taiwan Culture and History Camp/Tour

2010-09-22T08:34:00.000-07:00

We wanted to recommend to everyone: http://www.taiwancenter.com/tsunah
Note:
1. Even if you are living in Taiwan, or if you might not classify yourself as "youth", you are welcome to register.
2. Please remember the October 8 registration deadline.
3. This event has hosted many very excellent speakers including one famous Austronesian author.
4. Even if you have visited a lot of the sites in Taiwan, joining this event is worthwhile. Even while on the bus, there are a lot of discussions regarding Taiwan's history and cultures. The Foundation tries to keep the registration fees very low, and subsidizes the cost.

=======================

Dear Friends:

The Tsunah Foundation has launched its Eleventh International Youth Culture Tour of Taiwan program. This is a great opportunity for young International Taiwanese, who are at least 18 years old and were born and/or grew up outside of Taiwan, to get to know more about their motherland. I hope you, your children, or your friends who qualify will enroll in this wonderful program. Please also help relaying this great news by forwarding this information to your friends, members of your organizations, and people in your local Taiwanese communities, or by posting this letter on your web-site and/or establishing the link from your web-site to Tsunah Foundation’s web-site, www.taiwancenter.com/tsunah.

The highlights of this year’s program are listed below.

1. This special November’s tour lasts seven days & six nights (11/08/10-11/14/10).
2. The cost is $650 per person excluding the airplane ticket cost.
3. There is a scholarship program for the participants.

This year, the group will visit the beautiful I-Lan County scenic sites and stay in the Tsunah Center and its dormitory facility for the first two days. Then, the group will go on an around-the-island tour along the island’s most beautiful east coast to Taroko National Park, Hualien, Taitung and Kaohsiung, then back to Taipei, visiting sites of historical and cultural interest, and having some fun at the same time.

Please visit the Tsunah Foundation’s web site, www.taiwancenter.com/tsunah for detailed information and updates.

The deadline for the enrollment is October 08, 2010. However, it is strongly recommended that interested people register as soon as possible due to limited availability. The airplane ticket is also increasingly difficult to find after August due to airlines reduction of flights.

I am looking forward to your participation and/or help. Please don’t hesitate to e-mail or call me for any question.

Best Regards,
Justina Wu

Tsunah Foundation
(858) 456-1258
tcloudff7@att.net

各位親愛的鄉親：

慈林基金會今年所舉辦的台灣文化之旅歡迎所有的台灣鄉親及其朋友們不分國籍都來參加。

同鄉們若預定於十一月初返台，請考慮參加此文化之旅。您只需多花US$650的旅費，就能無憂無慮的享受七天六夜的巡迴全台文化之旅。不但成就我們旅遊的目標和樂趣，而且還能受到台灣文化之薰陶，使我們更加了解台灣，真是一舉兩得。

您若能說服您的第二代及第三代子女和孫子女隨您一起來報名參加，我們亦非常歡迎，只要他們年滿13歲即可。

這個十一月八日到十一月十四日的英文台灣文化之旅是今年我們第一次嘗試舉辦的，但也可能是唯一的一次。請不要錯過這個難能可貴的機會。US$650的旅費包括您七天的全部費用，吃、住、交通費及參觀景點的門票等。報名表及相關中英文詳情，請上慈林基金會的網站 www.taiwancenter.com/tsunah 瀏覽及下傳。

大家都知道十一月是旅行的淡季。此時回台機票最便宜，且台灣氣候也最宜人。請有意的鄉親及早來報名。謝謝大家！

謝節惠敬上
Justina Wu
Tsunah Foundation
-------------------------------------------------------
The Tsunah Foundation (慈林基金會) was founded in March 1991. Its roots, however, extend back further to a tragedy in 1980, when Mr. and Mrs. Lin I-Hsiung (林義雄) and Su-Min (方素敏) lost their mother, Lin-Yu Ah-Mei, and their twin daughters, Lien Chiun and Tin Chiun, to a politically motivated assassination. Soon after Mr. Lin was released from the political imprisonment, Mr. and Mrs. Lin were exiled from Taiwan. Out of the depths of their grief for their loved ones, and for their separation from their homeland, Mr. and Mrs. Lin found new life and new hope, for themselves and for Taiwan. Eleven years later, the establishment of the Tsunah Foundation in Taiwan was, and remains today, their expression of that hope. The Tsunah Foundation has two missions: (1) to promote the values of empathy, love, and respect for all people, and (2) to promote cultural activities, and foster the development of a community of culturally enlightened, caring Taiwanese citizens.

Get your Taiwanese friends to Watch this Documentary: Ten Conditions of Love

2010-09-09T20:25:00.000-07:00

Please just take the time to buy and see this DVD. Also, buy it and give it to your Taiwanese friends. Just ask them to please take the time to see it. If it looks like they will not bother, then invited them over and show the video to them.

There is one question for Taiwanese: Do you want such a China to take over Taiwan?

Detailed Historical Records from China -- state clearly that Taiwan is NOT part of China.

2010-09-09T19:17:00.000-07:00

An excellent post by Claudia Jean. Read statement after statement, imperial decree after imperial decree that China or the Empires that conquered China did not consider Taiwan part of China.

Reports on Taiwan's expansionist authoritarian neighbor.

2010-08-24T16:46:00.000-07:00

Two new reports from the Heritage Foundation -- on Taiwan's neighboring nation that wants to rapaciously annex Taiwan. And to think that there are still all those foolish dreamers in the KMT that romanticize a fictitious "re"unification with (read - annexation by) China.

• New from the Heritage Foundation on China's military versus Taiwan's military

• China's continues to oppressively violate its own people's human rights... (Topics covered: 1. Tiannanmen Square Suppression; 2. Political and other extrajudicial killings; 3. Treatment of Tibet; 4. Judiciary, Legal and Political Prisoners; 5. Arbitrary interference with privacy, family, home and correspondence; 6. No free speech; 7. No free press; 8. No freedom of Assembly; 9. No freedom of religion; 10. No Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of Refugees, and Stateless Persons; 11. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and Nongovernmental Investigations of Alleged Violations of Human Rights; 12. Discrimination, Societal Abuse, and Trafficking in Persons.)

What an horrible government and what an oppressed society.

Newsweek leaves Taiwan out of its ranking of countries... China ranked below Albania, but still too high.

2010-08-18T08:32:00.000-07:00

Newsweek (a magazine with red sympathies or at least on the left of the political spectrum) came up with a ranking of countries that put China all the way back to number 59. Taiwan was left out. If not simply ignored, Mongolia did not make the top 100.

As Taiwan undoubtedly would have ranked very high in the world (much higher than China) in the 5 ranking measurements considered -- Education, Health, Quality of Life, Economic Dynamism, and Political Environment -- Newsweek does a disservice to its readers by excluding Taiwan from its ranking.

China received its best score in the Economic Dynamism category. No mention was given to the fact that China's economic rise was heavily fueled by Taiwanese setting up factories and transferring knowhow to China in the 1990's and 2000's.

China came in at the low rank of 93 for political environment. Its peers include Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Cuba and Syria. China also was quite low in education and quality of life.

Those in Taiwan, including the Ma regime, with rose-colored glasses gazing upon a false China dream, need to remember that there are more than 58 countries in the world that Taiwan could do better getting close to (make that more than 90 countries -- with the exception of perhaps Iran and Syria, Taiwan could do better pursuing an ECFA with almost any country other than China.)

Like captains choosing players for their neighborhood baseball team, China as it is currently governed by a brutish, oppressive authoritarian regime, should be one of the last standing -- meaning the last to be picked to play on any team. And if everyone in the crowd has to be put on the team, make China a bench sitter.

Piling lies on top of lies while followers hope to get something in the end...

2010-08-06T16:06:00.000-07:00

"You tell them a lie, and then when you don't need it anymore, you tell them another lie and tell them they are progressing along the road to wisdom. Then instead of laughing, they follow you even more, hoping that at the heart of all the lies they'll find the truth. And bit by bit they accept the unacceptable. Amazing." - Terry Pratchett in Guards! Guards!

(p. 116 of Harper Torch edition) © 1989 Terry and Lyn Pratchett

Refreshing: Miami Herald Article refers to Taiwan as Taiwan

2010-07-15T13:40:00.000-07:00

Our thanks to the Miami Herald. In a report eulogizing a medical missionary who served in China then fled to Taiwan after the communists conquered China, the newspaper writer and editors correctly labeled Taiwan as Taiwan, formerly Formosa, instead of using some propaganda formula to say Taiwan is part of China.

"When Foochow fell to the Communists, Iverson escaped to Formosa, now Taiwan. "

Refreshing, indeed.

Public Declarations of Taiwan's Nationhood and Sovereignty

2010-07-10T15:10:00.000-07:00

Seen in the New York Times on Saturday, July 10, 2010

ONE MISTAKE: REPLACE "mainland China" with simply "China". Remove the word "mainland" in all communications. Using the word "mainland" implies that the two nations are one as Hawaii is united to its mainland USA.

臺灣人民建國宣言

　1945年日本戰敗無條件投降。1951年9月，日本和美國等48國簽署舊金山和平條約。1952年4月28日該條約生效時，臺灣及澎湖群島成為未確定領土，同時臺灣人民亦成為無國籍者。它的主權乃屬於當時的六百萬臺灣住民以及其子孫。

　臺灣人不是蔣介石從中國大陸帶入臺灣的中國人。目前在臺灣的中國人雖然長期居住在台灣，但不認同臺灣。中華民國是蔣介石帶入臺灣的流亡政權集團，很多國家認為它早已滅亡。中華人民共和國聲稱臺灣及澎湖是它的一部份，此既違背事實且無國際法的根據，台灣人民絕不接受。

　臺灣人民謹向世界宣告：我們有強烈的意志要建立一個名叫「臺灣」的獨立國家，並願意與世界各國建立平等互惠的關係。我們不是從中國或中華民國獨立，臺灣本來就是屬於臺灣人民的領土。我們要行使人類天賦的住民自決權利，建立臺灣人的民主國家。我們堅定向世界各國以及愛好民主自由的人民呼籲並懇求：請給予台灣承認與熱烈的支持。

簽署團體：
楊基銓國際文化基金會　　　　　臺灣平民民主黨
搶救台灣行動聯盟　　　　　　　臺灣制憲聯合黨
臺灣之友會　　　　　　　　　　臺灣北社
福爾摩莎法理建國會　　　　　　臺灣教師聯盟
農民黨　　　　　　　　　　　　建國黨
臺灣平民共和黨　　　　　　　　汎美聯盟
日期：　　　　　　　　　　　　　2010年 7月 10日

臺灣人民建国宣言

1945年日本は連合軍に無条件降伏した。1951年9月、日本国は米国など48カ国とサンフランシスコ和平条約を締結した。1952年4月28日、条約の発効により臺灣及び澎湖群島は未確定領土となり、同時に臺灣人民も無国籍となった。臺灣及び澎湖群島の主権は当時六百万の臺灣人民及びその子孫に属する。

臺灣人は蒋介石が中国大陸から連れてきた中国人ではない。中国人は長年臺灣に住んでいながら臺灣を国と認めない。中華民国は蒋介石が臺灣に持ち込んだ亡命政府の集団で、多くの国は既に滅亡した国と認めている。中華人民共和国（中国）は臺灣と澎湖群島が中国領土であると声明したがこれは事実ではなく、国際法的根拠はない。台湾人民は絶対に承認しない。

臺灣人民は強い意志をもって「臺灣」と呼ぶ独立国家を建設し、互恵平等な国際関係を建設することを世界に宣言する。臺灣は臺灣人民の所有するものである。我々は天賦の自決権を行使して臺灣人の民主国を建設する。我々は世界各国及び民主を愛する人々の承認と熱烈なる支持を希う。

署名團體：
楊基銓國際文化基金會　　　　　臺灣平民民主黨
搶救台灣行動聯盟　　　　　　　臺灣制憲聯合黨
臺灣之友會　　　　　　　　　　臺灣北社
福爾摩莎法理建國會　　　　　　臺灣教師聯盟
農民黨　　　　　　　　　　　　建國黨
臺灣平民共和黨　　　　　　　　汎美聯盟
日期：　　　　　　　　　　　　　2010年 7月 10日

Taiwanese People's Declaration of Sovereign Taiwanese Nation

In 1945, Japan unconditionally surrendered to the Allied Forces. In September 1951, Japan signed the San Francisco Peace Treaty with 48 countries led by the United States. When the treaty came into effect on April 28, 1952, the sovereignty of Taiwan and Pescadores Islands officially became undecided territories, and the residents of Taiwan also lost their nationality. We declare the right to decide the sovereignty of Taiwan belongs to those six million Taiwanese and their descendants.

Taiwanese people are not the Chinese whom Chiang Kai-shek brought from mainland China. Although they have lived in Taiwan for many years, they have never recognized Taiwan as a sovereign nation and refuse to be called Taiwanese. The Republic of China is Chiang Kai-shek’s government in exile group; many countries consider it as a fallen government. Although the People’s Republic of China insists that Taiwan and Pescadores Islands are part of Chinese territories; it is factually untrue and there is no basis under International law. Taiwanese people never recognize it.

We, the people of Taiwan, hereby declare our strong will and determination to build a nation called Taiwan, and to establish equal and reciprocal relations with all nations in the world. Taiwan naturally and rightfully belongs to the Taiwanese people. We exercise our innate self-determination and right to build a democratic Taiwan. We wish all nations and democracy-loving people of the world to give their recognition and strong supports to our cause.

Signed:
CCY
Center International Cultural Foundation
Taiwan Civilian Democratic party
Taiwan Rescue Action Alliance
Taiwan Constituent Party
Taiwan Friends Association
Taiwan Society North
Union of Taiwanese Teachers
Formosa Nation Legal-Strategy Association

Ukraine is able to Identify with Taiwan

2010-06-13T11:46:00.001-07:00

Pro-Taiwanese organizations should expand their connections to Ukraine. This nation has a cultural and historical background to readily identify and desire to support a nation like Taiwan oppressed by a geographically and culturally nearby expansionist empire. As you open up a dialogue and seek to convince Ukrainian organizations to acknowledge Taiwan, bring one name into the dialogue: Taras Shevchenko.

Sometimes, just a few men and women can lay the groundwork among a people for a future yearning for freedom and self determination. Ukraine, a Slavic nation, had been under the foreign rule of the Russian empire and afterwards the Soviet empire. Although possessing their own distinct language, it was increasingly being overshadowed by another Slavic language: Russian. In the 1800s, one artist, Taras Shevchenko awakened to the need to preserve his people, language and culture and to stir a longing for freedom among his people. While few around him even cared, he began to produce art works, poems, and other writings in his own Ukrainian language. Today he is heralded as both the father of Ukrainian literature and also one major cause for the perseverance of Ukrainian identity that resulted into them today having their own distinct nation.

In a time where those in search of power and prosperity would not deign to seemingly waste their time with the native Ukainian language and culture, Shevchenko produced a remarkably large output of art and literature whose subject was his native Ukraine.

He had a lot of trouble even convincing many of his fellow countrymen of the worth of being their own masters and throwing off the yoke of the Russian empire. In one poem, "Shevchenko turns his bitterness and satire against the Ukrainians themselves, reminding them that only in ‘one's own house’ is there ‘one's own truth’ and entreating them to realize their national potential, stop serving foreign masters, and become honorable people worthy of their history and heritage, in their own free land."* Hope beyond the present seemingly insurmountable difficulties drove him: "he remained steadfast in his belief that divine justice would triumph one day not only in Ukraine, but throughout the world."* Though he did not live to see the day, and even died in Russia away from his homeland, his labors for Ukraine and its people were indeed a major cause to help bring about that day of freedom for Ukraine.

-----------------------------------------
* quotes from The Encyclopedia of Ukraine website.

Formosa Betrayed -- Taiwan

2010-06-10T21:40:00.000-07:00

Take a look: Formosa Betrayed coming to Taiwan

Boycotting China -- good for your health, the environment, your freedom, and in the long term even your wallet

2010-06-08T18:33:00.000-07:00

Because of China's human rights abuses, despotic rule, support of the spread of weapons of mass destruction and authoritarian regimes, and not least it's continued abuse of and attempted annexation of Taiwan, individuals around the world need to begin in earnest to boycott China's products.

Do not buy the products. As a consequence of people power, as more and more boycott, all the foreign companies, particularly Taiwanese and U.S. companies that China has lured into starting factories in China, will begin to stop overlooking China's crimes and begin to feel regret about their deep economic investment in China and correspondent compromise of principles of truth and freedom that go hand in hand with doing business there.

Citizens of the U.S.A. -- whose current president and congress have caused their country to be more indebted to China than ever -- have an even greater vested interest in buying products made in their own country or other countries instead of China and by so doing cause big businesses like Walmart to pull away from such excessive dependence on China.

For example, if you go to Walmart and wish to buy something simple like tweezers to pull a splinter out of your hand, all but one of the tweezers are made in China. The following is made in Pakistan and works fine, so for the China boycott, buy this particular one instead:

NOT made in China... TWEEZERS

MEAT TENDERIZER: In the kitchen cooking tools section, almost all of the Walmart MAINSTAYS (TM) brand are made in China. But there is one Mainstays Brand meat tenderizer MADE IN TAIWAN:

Most of Walmart's Saute Pans are made in China, but one of them, the 5 Quart Covered Saute Pan under the Paula Dean label is made in Thailand.

So take the time, look around. You should be able to find at least one product in each category made in some place other than China.

The same goes for Home Depot or Lowes products. If you are getting paint brushes, a lot of them are made in China, but some are made in the U.S.A. U.S.A.-made paintbrushes are usually a little more expensive, but they are better quality and will last longer.

That is pretty much true for most products.

And remember, Made in China products carry the added danger of toxic chemicals -- remember the recalls of toys with lead, jewelry with Cadmium. With such a corrupt country, companies can bribe their way into cutting corners that disregard safety and endanger the consumer.

And of course stay completely away from food products -- remember the milk with melamine, the hairy crabs with toxins, etc., etc.

You as an individual consumer can do something, but it takes more effort and you can't be lazy about it. But this boycott is well worth the effort and a little extra expense!

P.S. Please do not be enamored with Chinese medicine. Traditional Chinese medicine with its appetite for sympathetic magic products like bear paw, rhinoceros horn, all parts of the tiger, has probably single-handedly caused the endangerment and even in many parts regional extinction of tigers, rhinoceroses, bears, clouded leopards, and many other animals. Yes, in Taiwan, the Eastern medicine value of a certain fungus has led to the discovery of high-molecular-weight polysaccharides with anti-tumor properties. We are not saying that all Chinese or Eastern medicine is bad, but if you do not know what products you are consuming or where they come from, if you do not know the procurement practices of the local Eastern medicine store, you may just be participating in the slow but steady extermination of endangered species.

Homeland

2010-06-08T18:05:00.000-07:00

One young Taiwanese woman shares: "This song came into my brain lately, it's so beautiful, it talks about a man was far away from home , the sunset reminds him about his hometown, the song was forbidden during White Terror of Taiwan."

1987年7月15日中國國民黨結束了在台灣實行世界上最長的38年戒嚴，今年適滿20週年。　2007年11月11日晚間行政院新聞局繼高雄、台中在台北縣三重市主辦的禁歌演唱會，包括呂副總統、行政院長張俊雄、行政院秘書長陳景峻等都親自到場，共同欣賞這些曾經被禁的台語老歌。

Learning Political Wisdom from Literature II - J. R. R. Tolkien

2010-06-06T20:50:00.000-07:00

To those who would clasp their mouths, stopper their ears and shut their eyes to a rising threat of war from a foreign agressor because they just want to be comfortable in their little small life, here is some Tolkien to read.

The first comes from the story of Aldarion and Erendis published in a collection called Unfinished Tales.

At one point in the story, a king of an island nation currently in relative prosperity considers reports that have reached him of a gradually increasing threat from an expanding and aggressive evil empire on the continent. In the message that calls for his aid, he reads "Behold! The darkness that is to come is filled with hatred for us, but it hates you no less. The Great Sea will not be too wide for its wings, if it is suffered to come to full growth."

He debates with himself -- should he get involved now before it is too late, or just seek the easy road of peace now, overlooking or appeasing the enemy, and leaving the suffering and enslavement to future generations of his people.

Following is his reasoning (emphasis added):

"Yet if the world grows again dark, [God] must know; and [He] has sent me no sign... What then? Our fathers were rewarded for the aid they gave in the defeat of the Great Shadow. Shall their sons stand aloof, if evil finds a new head?

I am in too great doubt to rule. To prepare or to let be? To prepare for war, which is yet only guessed : train craftsmen and tillers in the midst of peace for bloodspilling and battle : put iron in the hands of greedy captains who will love only conquest, and count the slain as their glory? Will they say to [God]: At least your enemies were amonst them... Or to fold hands, while friends die unjustly : let men live in blind peace, until the ravisher is at the gate? What then will they do, match naked hands against iron and die in vain, or flee leaving the cries of women behind. Will they say to [God], At least I spilled no blood?

When either way may lead to evil, of what worth is choice?

---

These are the issues facing Taiwan. Yes, fighting for their freedom may lead to some hardship and evil. War has terrible effects. But if they do not, hardship and evil will certainly come with annexation by an evil empire which respects neither law nor life nor human right, but only power.

Ways of Teaching the Next Generation: Political Wisdom in Literature

2010-04-25T06:36:00.001-07:00

This December will mark the third movie in the series based on Oxford scholar C.S. Lewis' fiction books, the Chronicles of Narnia. Writing for children, Lewis included many comments to teach wisdom regarding the adult world that children would have to navigate. We need these kinds of books for children in Taiwan.

Take for example this quote from The Horse and His Boy which chronicles the escape of a slave boy from a tyrannical empire into a small but free kingdom.

This nation's king discusses relations with their big neighbor:

"Alas... we are a little land. And little lands on the borders of a great empire were always hateful to the lords of the great empire. He longed to blot them out, gobble them up."

Although Lewis modeled this fictional empire after the Ottoman empire, his statement is completely appropriate to China and its relations with Tibet, Taiwan, Vietnam, Korea, etc. I'm curious to see how this statement was translated into Mandarin for the Taiwan book market.

Applause to good representation of Taiwan as Taiwan

2010-04-13T07:11:00.000-07:00

Kudos to the AFP for reporting Taiwan without any kind of formula connecting it to China. It could have used "island nation" but simply saying "island" still leaves the interpretation to the reader instead of funneling Chinese propaganda.

Taiwanese Organizations Reaching out to Poland after the tragedy

2010-04-10T19:05:00.001-07:00

With the tragedy of the airplane crash and death of Poland's president and government leaders it would be quite timely for Taiwanese organizations to reach out and express their sympathies. Calling all pro-Taiwan NGO's! Send flowers and sympathy cards to Poland's embassies around the world.

Write: "Our condolences to your nation and people and their democratically elected representatives. With deepest empathy to a fellow nation breaking free from the oppression of foreign empires."

We have our 228. They have their Katyn.

Name changer.

2010-04-10T18:58:00.000-07:00

We note a refreshing turn of events: a Taiwanese organization in the U.S., Formosan Association for Public Affairs, has succeeded in getting a U.S. government entity, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, into calling Taiwan, "Taiwan."

Let this little event encourage our perseverance in making a difference person by person, organization by organization.

228 Poem - "In Memory of the Massacred"

2010-02-28T06:35:00.000-08:00

In memory of the massacred

Still no justice

Murderers and thieves

Walking free under the sun

Money and power still holding

For glutted offspring

Mortgaging Taiwan to buy their China lie

Corrupting the future

But might makes no right

Come, come, their day of reckoning

Mighty? brutal tyrants

They possess but the void

[- Name withheld]

Lunar

2010-02-13T06:07:00.000-08:00

Happy Lunar New Year!

Remember to use the words "Lunar" New Year in your greeting instead of "Chinese" New Year -- since this lunar new year is celebrated in many nations outside of China including Korea, Japan and Taiwan.

Heritage Foundation busts myths of China's economy on the world stage

2010-01-29T16:31:00.000-08:00

Take a look, here.

Formosa Betrayed -- Movie Schedule in the U.S.A., looking for distributor in Taiwan.

2010-01-29T16:17:00.000-08:00

formosathemovie.com

2/26 - 2/28
New York Metro
Los Angeles
Orange County
Bay Area / East Bay and Peninsula
San Jose
Boston

3/5 – 3/7
Chicago
Philadelphia
Washington DC and Metro
San Diego

3/12 - 3/14
Houston
Dallas
Austin
Toronto
Vancouver

3/19 - 3/21
Seattle
Atlanta
Miami
St. Louis
Kansas City

3/26 - 3/28
Honolulu
Columbus, OH
Detroit/Ann Arbor
Raleigh/Durham

Engage the Foundation for Defense of Democracies

2010-01-20T07:21:00.000-08:00

We've come across a relatively new organization in the United States with whom Taiwan democracy supporters should begin to network: Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Currently, it looks like more of their focus is to work against terrorism, but the stated founding principles of the organization would naturally lead to an active support of Taiwan's democracy.

"The Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) is the only nonpartisan policy institute dedicated exclusively to promoting pluralism, defending democratic values, and fighting the ideologies that threaten democracy."

As many of you who have time should write the fondation to request an expansion of their further statement of purpose beyond what is currently written -- "to support the defense of democratic societies under assault by terrorism and militant Islamism."

Contact them and ask them if they are willing to add "to support the defense of democratic societies under assault by authoritarian and communist regimes..."

There is a link. Authoritarian regimes like China work to prop up rogue regimes like Iran. China does not care about terrorism if it is not directed specifically at their own country. In contrast, democratic nations in the Middle East do not tend to support terrorism. Authoritarian regimes like China tend to support anti-democratic regimes around the world.

Basically, in our defense of Taiwan, we cannot afford to leave any front uncontested. We must fight on every level -- the NGO, the news media, the government, the individual.

We can be creative and make the most of every opportunity.

Don't open factories in China

2010-01-14T08:15:00.000-08:00

If you move your companies or open up factories in China, be prepared for your entire business to be stolen, its intellectual property, everything. China is a communist dictatorship. To keep its hold on power, China's government has created an environment of extreme nationalism -- almost racism -- and, in a sense, might-makes-right fascism. Such an authoritarian system is arbitrary. The agenda is to steal intellectual capital and knowhow and transfer technology from foreign companies to local Chinese companies.

I've read about many of these cases over the years. One Taiwanese man built a huge orchid nursery, but all his know-how and intellectual capital -- the way to design everything, and even his entire factory was eventually stolen.

Basically -- there is no ethical or moral restraint -- whatever the Chinese authoritarian government perceives they can get away with on the world stage, they will do.

So also, you have extremely cheap labor -- and factories with terrible working conditions.

You have toxic chemicals in milk, in baby toys with lead paint, in children's jewelry with cadmium, it keeps going. You have crabs raised in lakes in China with toxic levels of heavy metals, etc. that were exported to Taiwan.

Truly, if at all possible, if it is made in China, avoid it.

- JL

• See article in investors.com.
• Share this in Mandarin with your Taiwanese friends.
• In the Washington Post
• In the Wall Street Journal

Encouragement

2010-01-09T08:25:00.000-08:00

src: Tim Maddog

Comments from Tim Maddog:
-----------------------

Note that BS-TV's numbers (Hey, that's my screenshot!) are -- with the exception of the Taitung numbers -- different from info I downloaded from the Central Election Commission web site [MS Word .doc file, percentage calculations mine]:
- - -
Taoyuan: DPP = 53,633 (58.05%) / KMT = 36,989 (40.01%)
Taichung: DPP = 63,335 (55.02%) / KMT = 51,776 (44.98%)
Taitung: DPP = 23,190 (49.46%) / KMT = 21,215 (45.25%)
- - -

That might be the result of invalid ballots being figured into the CEC's numbers -- I didn't check.

I'm looking forward to the February 27, 2010 by-election.

Tim Maddog

-----------------------
-----------------------

Some analysis from Vive Le Taiwan:

台中: DPP: 63,335 (up from 61,927 in 2008, 多 1,408 票)

KMT 51,776 (down from 75,563 in 2008, 跌: 23,787 票)

"中間選民"幾乎全部失蹤.

桃園: DPP: 53,633 (down from 58,577 in 2008, 跌 4,944 票)

KMT: 36,989 (down from 71,174 in 2008, 跌 34,185 票)

DPP 選票減少, "中間選民"幾乎全部失蹤.

台東: DPP: 23,190 (up from 21,080(無黨籍許志雄), 多 2,110 票)

KMT: 21,215 (down from 34,794 in 2008, 跌 13,579 票)

無: 2,482 (深藍)

Note: (KMT+無) = 23,697 > 23,190 (DPP) 藍仍然大於綠

"中間選民"幾乎全部失蹤.

In response to the Vive Le Taiwan someone shared:

"Compared with the 2008 elections, the voters were different as a result of, e.g., lower turnouts, emergence of new voters, and deaths of previous voters. So were the candidates. In local elections, relationships/affinities a candidate has with voters has a huge impact on the results. "

His point seems to be that this 2010 election is not completely comparable to the 2008 election. So to calculate number changes does not really give us a complete understanding of the voter makeup.

Lin Yi-hsiung speaks on New Year

2010-01-06T09:01:00.000-08:00

Keep Taiwan free in this new year - A.D. 2010

2010-01-01T05:54:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year! May 2010 be a year of hope for a revival of democracy in Asia and around the world. From the most active political dissident to the busy working mom, from the retired great-grandparent to the great-grandchild, we want to encourage you to do what you can.

In Hong Kong on New Years day there was a pro-democracy march. Though now under the thumb of communist authoritarian China, these persevering citizens of Hong Kong continue to try to push for real democracy instead of the sham democracy that Beijing has set up. Please read the article here.

Notice the way sham democracy works:
"Hong Kong's current leader was chosen by an exclusive committee stacked with Beijing's allies, and only half of the territory's 60 legislators are elected, with the rest picked by special interest groups." - Foxnews.com
Src: AP
You can also read articles in Reuters and The Daily Telegraph

This is the way that Ma Ying-jeo and his Chinese Nationalist Party in Taiwan would alter Taiwan's democracy if they could get away with it -- make it a sham democracy just like it was in the old days under their authoritarian dictatorship of Chiang Kai-shek and then his son Chiang Ching-kuo.

In this year A.D. 2010, there is a lot of work to do to keep the Ma Ying-jeou government and his fascist, pro-authoritarian China KMT party from turning Taiwan into a sham democracy. There is a lot of work to do, but the people of Taiwan have the power to prevent this atrocity from being perpetrated.

2010 is the year not to give up!

Sprint to the finish line -- keep Taiwan free and democratic into 2012. For those not familiar with recent history, 2011 is the 100th anniversary of the attempt to create a Republic of China in China. (Taiwan was not a part of it because Taiwan was a part of Japan in 1911.) A 100th anniversary has further significance as a DOUBLE-TEN. On this 100th anniversary, Ma and his corrupt brainwashed cronies who love a fictional ROC would love to effect an annexation of Taiwan by China with the KMT in power in perpetuity over Taiwan. Once that 2011 anniversary is passed however, all that mystical symbolism will be lost and so not achieving their goal by that date will possibly very much dispirit these ROC-myth believers.

The conclusion: We need to put all our energy into preserving democracy and defeating the KMT's agenda for the next two years. If we can hold on, we might be able to take the wind out of their black-gold sails.

Every citizen, every civilian in Taiwan is in a political trench war. You cannot avoid it or pretend it does not exist. What you can do is hold the line. And then inch forward step by step until you have permanently defeated the enemy of freedom and democracy.

Comparing Taiwan to the Netherlands who fought for their independent state's existence in 1672

2009-12-30T19:43:00.001-08:00

It would be good for those in Taiwan to study the Anglo-Dutch war of 1672. Taiwan is about the same size as the Netherlands and was bordered by much larger empires. France and England and two German states had made a treaty to attack and conquer the Netherlands and eliminate the Dutch State in this war. The Netherlands was politically divided and was a republic at a time when most states were monarchies.

The Dutch did not give up. They took drastic steps to protect their freedom and independence against overwhelming odds and they prevailed.

Don't get fatigued...

2009-12-25T18:31:00.001-08:00

It seems like those who are after power and money never get fatigued in their pursuit of it. But those trying to defend their freedom and democratic rights get tired and have spurts of pushing forward, but then after a while they want to get on with their normal lives. Therein lies the problem -- those corrupt ones who seize power and money never stop pushing their agenda. They also always lie about it and say whatever they think will lull those already tired into giving up defending their freedoms, losing their vigilance.

We need to be ever vigilant. We can prevail, but it will take more than a month or a year.

Catch Up with the People Sovereignty March and Activities in Kaohsiung in December

2009-11-21T00:33:00.000-08:00

Events in Kaohsiung in December "高雄市人權系列活動":

11/23~12/23 美麗島30週年及世界人權影像展 (高雄捷運美麗島站 inside of KMRT station)
PS.KMRT 正中央之非常大型 stained glass "Dome of Light" 是一個public art, which was created by N. Quagliata, based on
the main theme of "tolerance". 十分值得去觀賞

12/10 "回首三十.美麗重拾" concert ( 文化中心至德堂)

12 11 "人民住主.千里苦行" 行走高雄市區
PS. Mr.林義雄 gives a talk in the evening at the big city, after his walking, such as 台中.彰化...

12/12 "民主團結愛台灣.美麗島30週年紀念晚會" (outdoor KMRT 圓環,美麗島事件原地)

12/12, 12/13 "人權.正義.美麗島~美麗島事件三十週年紀念研討會" (高美館演講廳)
PS. 現正展示太平洋南島原住民之精彩作品. 包括撤古流的新創作

12/13 "人權之旅" 高雄市人權景點巡禮

Picture Power: Let's get the People Sovereignty March as widely publicized as possible...

2009-11-13T18:49:00.000-08:00

Images speak volumes. Remember some classic pictures from Martin Luther King's marches?

We need to get the international media organizations to pick up on the Taiwan people's sovereignty march. We need professional photographers to spend a few days following the marchers. So let's make some phone calls, let's get to writing to our friends, letters to the editors, distributing pictures, creating press releases that can be sent to different reporters and news organizations as a basis for articles. The more publicity this march gets, the more your average busy working Taiwanese person will think it valuable, and also the more it will have an effect on grass-roots momentum and elections.

Here are some blogs with pictures...
• Darren Melrose's pictures.
• David on Formosa

Here is the Nuke4 Referendum Organization's website

Try to do a google image search on 人民作主運動 and you don't come up with many great pictures. Many of them are static. They do not capture a human element. There is no drama of a long-fought hard-won cause of right.

Pictures can speak of joy and hope and a vision for the future. These kinds of pictures will resonate with the people of Taiwan and turn them from distant spectators into involved individuals who own the cause of Taiwan. Please help capture that with your cameras, your keyboards, and your letters and blogs.

--------------------------------------
Notice how the photo from the Central News Agency shows people frowning. I think that of all the pictures they probably have on file, they deliberately chose the one with the frowns to manipulate the populace to have a vague negative feeling about the march.

Lin I-hsiung speaks out...

2009-11-03T20:38:00.000-08:00

Lîm Gī-hiông speaks out.

This is a group that particularly focuses on advocating for referendums on major matters including Taiwan continued independence as a true expression of democracy.

Pastor Ko Chùn-bêng (Kao Chun-Ming) opens with a prayer.

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) dictatorship of Chiang Ching-kuo unjustly imprisoned Pastor Kao after the 1979 Kaohsiung Incident. While in prison, he wrote a poem that has become a rallying point of hope for the Taiwanese people. It is called "Chhì-phè hō͘ Hóe Sio" (The Burning Thornbush) and was inspired by the Taiwanese Presbyterian Church's 140-plus year-old motto: 焚而不燬 "Nec Tamen Consumebatur" (It burned but was not consumed). This motto in turn harkens back to the "Killing Times" of the late 1600's in Scotland where there was intense government persecution of the Scottish Covenanters who refused to submit their religious beliefs to state rule. The government made non-sanctioned field meetings treasonable and preaching at these assemblies carried the death penalty. Scottish pastors were systematically hunted down, imprisoned and executed for their stand for freedom of religion and freedom of assembly.

Roughly translated the song reads: "See the bush of thorns burning, it burns fiercely. But it is not consumed, it continues to stand. When the flames die out, there will be new leaf shoots. When the spring comes again, it will put forth new flowers to blossom. " This song has a dual meaning. On the one hand, it can refer to Christian churches (such as those in China) which are persecuted by governments yet these churches still grow stronger. And its contextual religious backdrop is the seeming defeat and elimination of Jesus by arrest, torture, humiliation and execution that was turned into the very means of redemption for God's people -- victory out of defeat, resurrection after death. The song also, and more immediately, refers to the fact that no matter how much dictatorships (such as the ROC government-in-exile in Taiwan) use injustice and oppression, eventually, justice, freedom and democracy must prevail.

This poem has been put to music by Lo̍h Î-tō in the traditional Khàu-tiâu-á, a wailing song motif used in the Taiwanese Opera -- Koa-á-hì (歌仔戯) . (This form of musical theatre - the Koa-á-hì - was invented in I-Lan in 1910. It became so popular for village and temple festivals that it spread all over southeast Asia and also China and replaced previous musical opera styles. As I understand it, the Beijing Opera copied this Koa-á-hì style that originated right here in Taiwan in I-Lan.)

Teach your children that Taiwan is a nation.

2009-11-03T20:35:00.000-08:00

Teach your children that Taiwan is a nation. Don't buy maps or globes that show Taiwan as part of China. Of if you cannot find a correct map, make the correction yourself on the map.

Symposium on Taiwan's International Status (November 21, 2009)

2009-10-22T22:37:00.000-07:00

2009.11.21
Taipei City, Roosevelt Road Sec. 3, No. 62

7-week march around Taiwan -- Sovereignty Derives from the People -- 人民作主苦行 Citizens are the Boss Walk

2009-10-17T01:11:00.000-07:00

This just in from Sue Fan:
Please get the word out.
=====================================
Yesterday (10/15) while we were still in Taipei, I went to the press conference of 「人民作主運動」苦行活動 held at 2.28 Memorial Park. I could tell then that this movement indeed needs and should have as many Taiwanese as possible to come out and join.

Mr. Lin I-Hsiung (林義雄) and his friends have been planning for the event for some time. Originally, the 人民作主苦行 "Citizens Are the Boss Walk" was to begin last month. However, due to 8/8 Morakot disaster, the event has to be postponed to 11/8.

At the press conference, I was very glad to see Miss Tseng Li-Chung (鄭麗君), who was a leader of 逆風行腳 (Walking Against the Wind) early last year. She had 4 Wild Strawberry (野草莓) young friends with her at the press conference. She and her friends promised that there will be many young people coming out to join the walk from 11/8 to 12/26. Looks like this event will have many folks, men and women, young and old, participating in it.

On 10/18 Mr. Lin, I-Hsiung will participate in a short walk from Long-San Temple (龍山寺) to 2.28 Memorial Park and help distributing flyers along the way to publicize the planned event. Mr. Lin will then participate the 7-week (11/8 - 12/26) walking event. This planned walk will start in Taipei on 11/8, follows the west coast going south to the southern end of Taiwan and then turns northward along the east coast to return to Taipei on 12/27.

政黨輪替以來，台灣政治陷入行政和立法部門由單一政黨掌控，監督制衡機制嚴重失靈的困境。馬政府自恃一黨獨大，強行推動「一中」政策，向中華人民共和國大幅傾斜，造成台灣社會的惶惑不安。有鑑於此，核四公投促進會經過數個月的討論，慎重發起「人民作主運動」，要求馬總統確實遵守「台灣前途應由兩千三百萬人民決定」的競選承諾，即刻：

1. 依公民投票法第十七條所賦予的職權，就「台灣公民是否同意本屆政府在『一個中國』的前提下，和對岸簽訂經濟合作或其他協議。」一案舉行公投，並以投票結果做為兩岸會談與協商的原則。

2. 要求行政院迅即向立法院提出公投法修正案，補正現行「公投法」之不合理條文、落實主權在民精神。

我們將於近日內展開密集行動：

10月15日（四）：記者會

時間：上午 10::00am

集合地點：228紀念碑前

10月18日（日）：台北市苦行及發傳單。

時間：上午 8:30am

集合地點：台北市龍山寺對面廣場

後續：

10月25日（日）：台中座談會

11月01日（日）：高雄座談會

11月8日至12月26日：「人民作主運動」全國苦行

竭誠歡迎疼惜台灣的你/妳一起來參與。

感謝

核四公投促進會敬上

Threatening former President Chen with the death penalty...

2009-10-16T19:06:00.000-07:00

Michael Richardson Reports:

52台帛出了高雄(或高等) 法院已經因外患案件要求林志昇... court in Kaohsiung issues subpoena to Roger CS Lin as an accused for TREASON, carrying a mandatory death penalty upon conviction, and the rules in place permit Taiwan to proceed in secret

New allegations of KMT-organized crime / gangster links

2009-10-14T03:04:00.000-07:00

New allegations of KMT-organized crime / gangster links.... Premier Wu 吳敦義...

For reference, please read the following posts:

Penghu & Gambling
KMT-spawned mafia
Taiwan's president Ma hosted American China-town mafia organization in the presidential office

Read the post from Taiwan Matters in 2007 how the KMT actually was the one to create the Bamboo United Gang in order to carry out murders.

Would Taiwan have peace if it allowed China to annex it?

2009-09-30T18:14:00.001-07:00

One blog comment asks basically: "Why not let China annex Taiwan? Then the Taiwanese people could have peace."

We must constantly remind both our Taiwanese friends and those from other countries. The specifics of the answer need to be ever present in the foreground of their sight and thinking:

If China would leave Taiwan alone, the Taiwanese would never choose to invade China or go to war with China.

The problem is, for Taiwan at the moment there is no choice between peace and war. Peace is not the absence of war, but instead true peace is the presence of justice.

China taking over Taiwan would take away peace, democracy and human rights. China taking Taiwan would be an injustice that begets more injustice.

So the choice is between slavery or fighting for freedom -- currently in non-military ways but perhaps one day with weapons of war.

Unfortunately many in Taiwan delude themselves into thinking that being annexed by China is better than fighting for their freedom. People from many other countries share the same delusion about China and Taiwan.

So did Neville Chamberlain regarding Nazi Germany.

Allowing China to annex Taiwan will lead to more war in the future as China's aggressive expansionism and militant nationalism and leninist imperialism is felt by other neighboring countries, and not just ones on the border.

Not only this, but the entire world would be affected as other brutish authoritarian regimes are emboldened by the lack of consequences over China's actions. Many other wars would be started as these regimes think they can get away with anything with impunity.
- JL

-------------------------

Allowing China to do such a seemingly trifling little thing (to-some-people) like annexing Taiwan would be the first step down the path to World War III. In this current era of history, if China is not disciplined by the world community, it will continue down the path, and will ultimately be defeated in a world war, but because of said war, there will be untold misery, death and destruction for billions of people. (Note: billions, not millions.)

Nations of the world, do you think Taiwan is a small matter? Think again, very carefully.

China's "National" Day of Infamy -- October 1, the World's Day of shame for not standing against China's authoritarian regime

2009-09-30T01:51:00.000-07:00

While China celebrates is brutish dictatorship, people in Taiwan can support those whom the Chinese regime oppresses. Watch the following:

"Ten Conditions of Love" will be screened in Daan park tomorrow nigh (Thursday, Oct. 1) at 7pm to coincide with China's 60th National Day. A recent documentary about Tibet "Leaving Fear Behind" will also be shown. The film's director Dhondup Wangchen has been jailed since March in China on charges of inciting separatism. The films will be shown at the outdoor theater. To access the outside theater, enter the park on the east side of Xinsheng S. Road across from Jinhua St. Here is a map. The nearest MRT station is Guting Station, about a 20 minute walk. Entrance begins at 6:30pm and is free althoiugh donations will be accepted.

There will also be screenings tomorrow evening in Taichung, Tainan, Kaoshiung, and Pingtung at the following locations:

Taichung: Taichung Broadcast Station (放送局) No. 1 Diantai St.
Tainan: Tainan Theological College and Seminary
Kaohsiung: Central Park
Pingtung: Pingtung County Cultural Center

------->NOT SURE of the accuracy REGARDING THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION about the city council building screening: "There will be also showings tonight (Wed.) and Thursday , starting at 7:30 both times, at the Taipei City Council building. located at No. 507 Renai Rd. Sec. 4. That's just next to the SYS Memorial park's Renai entrance. The nearest MRT is also SYS Memorial Hall station."<------------

For more locations around Taiwan: see Taiwan Matters blog

See how the KMT subverts every democratic institution

2009-09-25T17:56:00.001-07:00

First the KMT subverted democratic elections by its use of overwhelming advantage in stolen money as well as control of all the major media... It subverted the 2008 elections by refusing to work with the duly elected DPP administration from 2000 to 2008 but instead passed laws, and blocked laws all with a view of destroying any meaningful reform or action by the DPP government. With its control of the legislature during those years, it did nothing to help Taiwan, but did only to help create a negative impression on the DPP and to lay the groundwork for 2008.

Second the KMT subverted democratic referendums by setting such a high threshold that the referendum would not pass...

Third, the KMT subverted the justice system to cause not-guilty verdicts for its own party members. Then it used the judicial system to attack any former members of the DPP administration whether or not there was any real evidence. And finally, it corrupted the judiciary to control the outcome of verdicts related to former President Chen. (Democratic institutions were doubly subverted because the lack of impartiality both renders untrustworthy any decisions of the judiciary as well as prevents true justice from being done in the Chen case for any actual offenses he may have committed. Because of the lack of impartiality from the justices, Chen's guilt will forever remain a question.)

Now with the referendum on gambling casinos in the Penghu Islands of Taiwan, the KMT has rigged the "referendum" so that it has little chance of being thwarted by concerned citizens through a normal democratic process of persuasion and public debate. It did not follow the same rules that it did for the referendums it wished to block. It also brought all the resources of government, media, etc. to push its side and block any debate or hearing of the opposition.

Please read Michael Turton's blog post.

Don't be fooled by sham democracy. The KMT fooled much of the world for over 50 years that it was supposedly "Free China" and that Chiang Kai-shek was supposedly a "Champion of Democracy."

China's values: seizing the lands of other nations by force

2009-09-25T17:49:00.000-07:00

Two new English words to learn:

irredentism
revanchism

Both of these ideologies are part of the driving force of China's attempts at annexing Taiwan as well as its claims to territories of other nations. (A similar thing is driving part of Russia's foreign policy these days.)

What this government in China needs to relearn is that the Manchu Empire was not Chinese. If they want to rebuild the territory of the Manchu Empire, perhaps they should return to wearing the cue and also speaking and writing in the Manchu Language as the language of government.

But China is more greedy than simply reclaiming supposedly lost territory, China demands all of Taiwan, not simply the western half of the island that the Manchu Empire nominally controlled.

We are thankful that Japan is not irredentist or revanchist. But then again, Japan is a free democracy. In this era of history, democracies tend to be peaceful instead of expansionist. The authoritarian dictatorships tend to seek war to seize territory by violence.

Sever your links with the KMT and its organized crime before it is too late

2009-09-14T02:06:00.001-07:00

Click on this link to read the sad story of a man who seems to have gotten connected with the Chiang Kai-shek's Chinese Nationalist Party - spawned mafia -- the Bamboo United. Dead at age: 42. Ten years ago, his wife was murdered at age 33.

Corruption hovers around the KMT and its mafia-connected organizations like flies over a rotting carcass.

Addendum: When people pick one example of a DPP corrupt politician and say, "See, the DPP is corrupt, too," they fail to make the accurate distinction between individuals and systematic corruption in an organization. They also fail to realize that the ability of the few corrupt individuals who have associated themselves with the DPP to profit from the political system is because the KMT with its 60 years of one-party rule specifically design the system to be profited from by corrupt politicians in the KMT party. The KMT multiplied positions, even putting an entire redundant "provincial" bureaucracy covering the same territory as the national government so that even more KMT party elites could put government money into their pockets.

To extend the metaphor further, one could say that flies will try hang around any animal, but the animal will continue to try to swat them away with its tail, so there are never many. But a rotting carcass no longer tries to stop them. They swarm without being resisted. The dead carcass's state encourages the flies, and they multiply.

It is interesting that the word "corrupt" can refer to a political organization, and also to dead rotting flesh.

Did Ma know ahead of time?

2009-09-13T23:32:00.000-07:00

It was quite revealing that several days before the announcement of the verdict against former-president Chen Shui-bian, current President Ma spoke in multiple ways about how he wanted to be law abiding, and that the ROC was a country with the rule of law, that he respected the law, etc.

One can infer that Ma already knew what the verdict would be, so he was preparing the political spin on it with his statements. It does not take much stretch to conclude that there were a group of KMT elites who colluded with the prosecutors and the judges (after first doing a bit of judge-shopping) to decide politically what they thought would be the best verdict for the KMT and so they as a group decided what verdict to hand down which then the judges announced.

Naturally, anyone in on that group of KMT elites' deliberations would know the verdict ahead of time, and so someone like Ma would then begin talking big about the rule of law -- since the "law" would in a day or two give Chen a life-sentence.

---------
Hopefully, the Taiwanese people will come to realize the necessity of a multiparty democracy and a balance of power. They also must realize that the KMT has not changed at all from its old authoritarian ways; this "Chinese" Nationalist Party, its legislatures and President Ma do not at all value democracy. Whenever they get a chance, they replace true democracy with a sham facade of democracy so that they can keep control in their elitist hands. For Taiwan's future national health, the unrepentant KMT itself perhaps needs to be done away with as the Baathist Party in Iraq whose decades of privilege and loyalty to a dictator gave it a destabilizing and democratically destructive advantage in manipulating elections and shutting down any separate voices. More and more, as the months go by, it seems their ilk and the ROC-in-exile KMT regime ultimately will need to be expelled from Taiwan, because they as an organization have not been able to repent of their past Leninist-Fascist authoritarianism.

Some in the international media are skeptical of the verdict. For example:
Agence France Presse (AFP)
Economist
Vancouver Sun

Taiwan News gives a good summary of the situation comparing Ma's acquittal on similar charges with Chen's conviction.
Global Voices Online has some comments by individuals responding to the verdict.

An Open Letter of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan to Obama

2009-08-13T20:15:00.000-07:00

An Open Letter of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan
to
The U. S. President Barack Obama

An Appeal of the People in Taiwan

Dear Mr. President:

Your upcoming meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao, and the possibility that Taiwan may be discussed, raises again the dilemma of Taiwan’s uncertain status and is compounded by the changing situation in the Taiwan Strait. The future of Taiwan and our destiny as a people in Taiwan may be in jeopardy.

The Presbyterian Church in Taiwan has been identified with the people here for almost a century and a half; we feel the anxiety of the people of this island. Believing that the Church is the fellowship of God’s people, called to proclaim the salvation of Jesus Christ, called to be ambassadors of reconciliation, rooted in this land and identified with all its inhabitants, and through love and suffering called to be a sign of hope, we issue this appeal to you.

Under the daily threat of over thirteen hundred Chinese missiles, the yearly expansion of its military forces, and its constant obstruction of Taiwan’s participation in the international organizations, the people in Taiwan feel the threat to our personal lives, the violation of our national sovereignty and basic human rights. We are concerned that, if Taiwan were taken over by dictatorial China, not only would the hard earned democratic system in Taiwan be destroyed, but the welfare of people here would be sacrificed, and the peace and stability of Asian Pacific region would be threatened.

Taiwanese people heartily love freedom and cherish deeply our democratic achievements. We do not want to live under totalitarian rule. This can be seen in the results of a recent poll that over eighty per cent of people in Taiwan are opposed to unification with China. The people of Taiwan will adhere to the principles of justice and peace, and will steadfastly defend the right of self-determination.

We believe that human rights are God-given. The right of self-determination is a principle stated in “The Charter of the United Nations,” and is a basic right guaranteed by “The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” Therefore, we appeal to the Government of the United States to review its policy toward Taiwan and China, to recognize that Taiwan and China are two separate countries, and cooperate with all peace and justice loving countries in the world to prevent China from taking over Taiwan by force or any other means. We also appeal to the international communities to be attentive to the wishes of Taiwanese people, assisting Taiwan to participate in international affairs as an independent country, so that the people of Taiwan will be given an opportunity to contribute to the justice, peace, and welfare of the whole human race.

“He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you? But to do justice, and to live kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)

The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan,
July 17th, 2009, in Tamsui, Taiwan.

The Rev. Leonard Tsung-jeng Lin, the Moderator

The Rev. Andrew Chang, the General Secretary

Taiwan's Judicial System is Infected by Biased Pro-KMT Judges

2009-08-06T20:05:00.000-07:00

This just in from Luby
================================================

Prosecutor 林勤綱s theatrical performance in court (檢察官激情演出)

The media hailed his performance as touching. The problem is that 林勤綱 is not an actor paid to perform. He is a public servant getting paid to present beyond-reasonable-doubt evidence that the accused was guilty.

What 林勤綱 did was akin to singing in a library. He might be a tremendous singer, but his behavior is completely inappropriate. And yet the media applauded: praising his performance while ignoring the paucity of evidence presented against Chen.

A fellow who calls himself 《建國廣場》傅雲欽律師 wrote a very long article entitled 我所認識的林勤綱. The article, as his other articles, does not condemn judicial system's unrestrained violation of due process, does not condemn its open and completely shameless use of double standards in dealing with Ma and Chen in particular and KMT and others in general, does not condemn 林勤綱's theatrical performance with absence of legal merits.

Instead, he praised 林勤綱:
林勤綱以昔日戰友的身分指控陳水扁的罪行，相當震撼人心，也搶盡陳水扁最後答辯的鋒頭。他的「爆紅」引起陳水扁的慌張。
I expected 傅雲欽 as a lawyer to educate people about the merit of the case. He did none of that. Worse, he handed Chen an early guilty verdict (陳水扁的罪行), and cheered 林勤綱:
震撼人心
搶盡陳水扁鋒頭
他的「爆紅」
陳水扁的慌張
What kind of person is 林勤綱?
林勤綱曾跟我說他年輕時加入國民黨是充滿熱血的。
This should make us reasonably and strongly question 林勤綱's integrity as a prosecutor. We must demand to know whether 蔡守訓 and others are also KMT members.

The following, just as 林勤綱's performing in court, is completely irrelevant and inappropriate:
林勤綱是虔誠的基督徒。他1980年結婚時，採行宗教儀式。我和事務所的同事都有去參加他的結婚喜宴。為了組織家庭他那年也買一棟房子。房子在台北市忠孝東路七段。那時，我們覺得那是很遙遠的地方。但他說那邊比較便宜，才買得起。他的老婆是台大歷史系畢業的學妹。聽說後來又到台大夜間部讀法律系。
Why is 虔誠的基督徒 relevant? Why is 他的老婆是台大歷史系畢業的學妹。聽說後來又到台大夜間部讀法律系 relevant?

Finally, a sample of 《建國廣場》傅雲欽律師's surprisingly colorful writing in which he showed satisfaction with KMT-owned judicial system.
陳水扁的打手說林勤綱不是「綠色」，不過是司法機關塑造的「綠色樣板」，用來迫害陳水扁而已。這簡直是異想天開，鉤索羅織。如果這種人掌權，可能比國民黨還要兇狠。試問現今這個時代，法官還要分藍綠嗎？綠色的、挺扁的法官才是好法官嗎？別笑死人了，扁蟲！試問這些陳水扁的打手，林勤綱1979年冒著讓家人擔心的風險，去參與「黨外」運動的時後，你們不是還在吃國民黨人或統派的屎嗎？現在雖然改吃扁屎，但扁屎吃多了，就可以以滿口胡言亂語嗎？
Notables:
《建國廣場》傅雲欽律師: 你們不是還在吃國民黨人或統派的屎嗎？現在雖然改吃扁屎，但扁屎吃多了，就可以以滿口胡言亂語嗎？ Translated: Aren't you still feasting on the feces of KMT or pro-annexation school? Now you switch to eating Chen's feces. Do you get a ticket to be full of gibberish if you get an overdose of Chen's feces?
《建國廣場》傅雲欽律師: 別笑死人了，扁蟲！ Translated: Don't make me laugh to death, Chen-insects!
《建國廣場》傅雲欽律師: 試問現今這個時代，法官還要分藍綠嗎？ Translated: At this age, should judges still be partisan?
The last bullet shows 傅雲欽's satisfaction with KMT-owned judicial system. He sees no problem with judicial system's unfairness and violation of due process in Chen and Ma's cases judicial system's stonewalling Diane Lee's (李慶安) case for 513 days as of today judicial system's stonewalling all treason cases against Ma ying-Jeou. The sidebar shows: 柯建銘2008年8月9日控告馬英九叛國, 距今 363 天 judicial system's refusal to investigate Ma and Hau for 貓纜, 捷運木柵內湖線, and 新生高架橋改善工程
Jerome Cohen and Jerome Keating, among so many others, wrote repeatedly to criticize the judicial system's persecution of Chen. Are these people 陳水扁的打手, 扁蟲, or 扁奴?

Getting close to China is like getting close to a vomiting drunk.

2009-08-03T02:32:00.000-07:00

Taiwan's government under Ma and his KMT party is foolish in their attempts to force Taiwan into closer connections with China. China cannot even take care of its own problems. See the following article by Reuben F. Johnson in the Weekly Standard.

Ma Ying-jeou's KMT government continues to brainwash Taiwan's schoolchildren.

2009-07-30T08:31:00.000-07:00

The article: Activists angered by ministry’s use of ‘Minnan’ for Hoklo

The video:

Also, check out the blog post from Hui-hông in Taiwanese Identity about the Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights.

Fascist-Leninist Dictators Worshipped by the KMT

2009-07-29T16:07:00.001-07:00

There is a good article on the facts of history regarding the KMT in Taiwan.

Look at the numbers:

Chiang Kai-shek - one of the top 10 worst dictators -- Death by Government by Rudolph Rummel, a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Hawaii.

The article continues...
"Even if we view Chiang from a layman’s perspective, we see that in the 50 years from obtaining power as commander-in-chief of the Northern Expeditionary Army in 1926 to his death in 1975, his government held no democratic elections and his word was law. What is this, if not a dictatorship?"

"Putting aside Chiang’s responsibility for the 228 Incident, he and his son Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) oversaw 38 years of martial law in Taiwan. According to a report by the Ministry of Justice when Ma was minister, “military courts handled 29,007 political cases with approximately 140,000 victims” under the two Chiangs. In 1960 alone, the government listed 126,875 people as “missing” and withdrew their household registration, showing just how many people were executed publicly or in secret. If Chiang, who ruled the nation through violence and political prisons, was not a dictator, then who is?

Just like any other dictator, Chiang loved erecting statues of himself. According to media reports, there were at least 45,000 such statues around Taiwan, making it the country with the highest density of statues of a national leader in the world. In addition, his dozens of villas and items that he used are now treated as historical monuments and relics — even one of his handkerchiefs is on exhibit at the memorial hall."

Ma Ying-jeou's KMT -- Fascist and Leninist

2009-07-28T03:10:00.000-07:00

Many in the media including the Taiwan News often use the short-hand descriptor "right-wing" for the Chinese Nationalist Party. A much more accurate description is the "Fascist-Leninist" Chinese Nationalist Party. The accurate "Fascist-Leninist" label very appropriately brings up images of dictatorship. Need we name the ones in 20th Century history?

The party might have moved on to embrace democracy and freedom in this 21st Century. But the government under President Ma Ying-jeou has proven to not have changed at all. The only thing that might hold Ma's KMT party back from pursuing again a Leninist and Fascist One-party Dictatorship is the nature of the world in this 21st Century.

Taiwanese better stand up now before their legs that embody the freedom of democratic change and movement are cut off.

Taking Responsibility for Your Society

2009-07-17T18:10:00.000-07:00

Will you stand up to unjust government and political parties with evil ideologies? Sophie did.

Nazi Germany had the White Rose Movement against the fascist dictator Adolf Hitler.

Taiwan had the Wild Lilly Movement (野百合學運) against the fascist/leninist anti-democratic KMT party.

Sadly, this new generation that grew up under the greater democratic freedoms of the late 1990's through 2008 are not even aware that there is an erosion of freedom and justice. They remain largely ignorant of what happened in the recent past. Their schools never taught them about the true nature of the Chinese party in exile on Taiwan -- the KMT. And the parents did not teach them either. In that brief era of freedom, the parents wanted to move on instead of dwell on the recent fight that had brought them the precarious and hard-won democratic freedom. So the parents moved on. The kids were not taught. And the schools which had barely changed at all continued to spew out KMT propaganda.

remove evil dictator images from among Eslite merchandise

2009-07-01T04:41:00.000-07:00

The following is a video by ahbying that shows how Eslite bookstore has put out some giftshop items including even t-shirts that express endearment to the evil dictators of Taiwan. If you go to Eslite bookstore and department stores -- look for them and when you find them call the manager to complain. Abying calls for a boycott -- whether you do so or not, you must first go complain in loud voices to the managers of each store.

Ahbying says: "蔣友柏 has made some "pop art" shirts with 蔣介石 and 蔣經國. It takes no creativity to take one of the biggest murders of all time (CKS: 蔣介石) and put his pictures in color. How many people were killed because of these two dictators."

Taiwanese need to fight to preserve 台灣人權景美園區 Jing Mei Human Rights Park before the KMT erases its memory

2009-07-01T04:35:00.000-07:00

Taiwanese need to fight to preserve 台灣人權景美園區 Jing Mei Human Rights Park before the KMT turns it into a "culture park" to erase the KMT party's brutal and criminal human-rights-violating past. Following is a video documenting the human rights park as it is now. This is a formal secret police prison for political prisoners. (Special thanks to Taiwan Dream Foundation blog and youtube videographer ahbying)

Ahbying: "This is Taiwan history. This is a part of Taiwan history that maybe we don't want to think about; we don't want to see. And the KMT definitely does not the Taiwanese people to remember this ... longest period of martial law ever. Just think of how many thousands of innocent people [were persecuted] just because they wanted to say they were Taiwanese ... to tell the world that they were not Chinese. Just think of how many people were probably killed. How many innocent Taiwanese people like your mom, your dad, my mom, my dad -- you know, the Taiwanese people we see every day -- how many of those people would have been locked up if they had not gone to the United States?"

Time to End the KMT/CCP's myth of China

2009-06-01T01:16:00.000-07:00

This week's issue of World Magazine lists on its cover spanning the entire page two words in black and white caps with a background of red: "TIANANMEN MASSACRE". Would that the world's media followed this magazine's example.

This arcticle by Jamie Dean begins:

"Type "Tiananmen Square massacre" into the Chinese-language version of the popular Chinese search engine Baidu, and the first link leads to a video with this title: "The Myth of Tiananmen Massacre." A subhead describes the massacre as "a popular Western myth," and the video features a Chinese man claiming he saw no government violence against civilians in Tiananmen Square on the morning of June 4, 1989. Zhou Fengsuo tells a different story...the gunfire, tanks and blood..." [...more...]

The CCP and the KMT think nothing of rewriting history. They feel no problem with inventing myths and calling history myth if that will deceive people. They care nothing for a free press or freedom of speech but use all to uphold their unjust rule. Back in 1947, US embassy attache George Kerr's urgent reports of the 228 Massacre fell on deaf ears in the US State Department with its "China Desk" pro-China see-no-evil, hear-no-evil attitude. No Formosa Massacre was announced or remembered.

Leaders in democratic nations have to realize that the KMT party governing Taiwan and the CCP regime that governs China both are not operating out of the values that mark nations of the world from Europe to the Americas to Japan, Korea and Australia.

Ruling elites of the KMT in Taiwan and CCP in China are still operating in the imperial and colonial mindsets of the 19th century and earlier. They do not respect international boundaries. They think to grab whatever is within the reach of their power. They think that China should rule the world, or be at the top of the world, and all else annexed or at least become as much as possible an equivalent to a vassal state. They view ethnic Chinese in an almost racist nationalism so that they think about and treat Chinese citizens of other countries differently from other citizens of those countries.

The KMT in Taiwan have created myth after myth to pretend that they govern China -- because they cannot accept the governing in exile of some other country or territory. Nothing less than mythical greater China will do for them. They still foster imaginations that somehow Mongolia should be annexed by China. They claim the ocean and undersea territory all the way to the very edge and shores of Malaysia because at some time, at some legendary point in their "history" maybe some Chinese sailor or fisherman sailed in those seas. And in perhaps the biggest dream of all, the KMT nurture the hope that they may one day seize the throne of China away from the CCP, and then they can finally throw Taiwan out with the trash and be done with it. Or perhaps just cut off Taiwan's head and mount it on a plaque to be displayed in their imperial palace in some side corridor.

They seem to think that if any point in history any kingdom paid any tribute to any empire that had governed the region now known as China, that somehow this kingdom's territory should be annexed if at all possible.

They are wholly self interested, self-centered -- truly a "Center" kingdom.

What is most troubling is that so many in the international media and so many foreign country leaders including President Ma of Taiwan will use whatever mythical language that China dictates in describing the present.

Little do these foreign ministries, departments of state, and international media consider that to encourage this brutal authoritarian dictatorship in China is to expand the number of brutal dictators around the world and to expand the level of human rights abuse in other countries.

Sudan dictator -- supported by China
Myanmar dictators -- supported by China
Iran -- supported by China
North Korea -- supported by China

Sri Lanka -- supported by China. (Now that the Tamil Tigers are defeated, look for some military coup in the future if the present government in Sri Lanka looks like it is beginning to resist China's demands for access to Sri Lanka's ports for China's navy.)

How many others have been emboldened to seize power and ignore the rights of people because the regime in China brazenly continues to do so without consequence!

It is laughable to say -- we need China to help resolve the North Korea situation and to stop North Korea from having nuclear weapons. China could have stopped North Korea over and over and over again. Instead China kept North Korea afloat so that it could use it as leverage to get other countries to make concessions on other issues in accordance with its will. How can anyone expect them to stop North Korea? China will keep holding out for more and more concessions. Will Obama be so naive as to think that making further concessions regarding Taiwan's sovereignty will cause China to crack down on North Korea?

When will the world wake up from their dreams of China? China's violations of human rights are so egregious that even rose-colored glasses are not enough. But, hey, the nations will then put on blindfolds if the glasses don't do the trick.

It is time, this year, to confront China fully for all of its human rights abuses, world destabilization, aggression towards peaceful neighbors, annexation (Tibet) and attempted annexation (Taiwan), and support of dictators, regimes and their human rights violations that even extend to genocide.

Too many in this world have become Neville Chamberlains.

It is time to replace these leaders with Winston Churchills before the appeasement of China leads to a repeat of a history most dark. For that which happened is no myth.

The voice of the Taiwanese people -- pics from the 517 march in Taipei

2009-05-17T02:19:00.001-07:00

Taken in Taipei City, in the nation of Taiwan on May 17, 2009
(I have heard one estimate so far -- not yet confirmed -- that at the convergence of the four march routes, there are at least over half a million people -- ~ 600,000 people.)
[Permission is given to copy and distribute these photos and use them in the media and blogs. The more people around the world who see this expression of the voice of the Taiwanese people, the better.]

============================
UPDATE: Here is an album of pictures from the march.
============================
NOTE: Email your photos to reporters in around the world -- both in local, national and international news media. Especially if you have pictures that show the crowds and also pictures with clear slogans and signs about why people are there marching and protesting. Give them permission to use the photos and tell them the basics -- what city, what date, what march, whom to list for the photo credit. If there are good photos to use, newspapers etc. are more likely to do a story on the event.

Video: Police illegally stop someone from crossing a public street

2009-05-16T03:06:00.000-07:00

Someone in white shirt -- non-uniformed blocking them.

Protect Taiwan from KMT/CCP Imperialism/Fascism/Colonialism on 517

2009-05-15T02:13:00.000-07:00

517 Rally for Human Rights and Democracy in a Free Taiwan

***Special Notes***
In Taipei:

1.) Marchers will meet at four different locations at 2pm, and will depart at 3pm for Ketagalan Boulevard. Everyone will meet at Ketagalan Boulevard by 5pm.

A prominent DPP leader will march with the protesters from each meeting point.

Location #1: Zhongxiao East Road at the Dinghao Shopping Plaza

Location #2: Minzu West Road at the Zhongshan Soccer Stadium

Location #3: The corner of Xinsheng and Roosevelt Roads by the main gate of National Taiwan University

Location #4: Bangka Avenue at the Wanhua Train Station

2.) After the rally, the DPP will stage a 24 hour sit-in on Ketagalan Boulevard near the Presidential Palace to protest the strict new assembly law. This is only the second 24 hour sit-in in the DPP’s history. The last time was in 1993, for the presidential elections (before the first direct election in 1996). See you there!!!

src: http://dpptaiwan.wordpress.com/

More info:

Taiwan Matters

Taiwan meets all the criteria of a sovereign nation

2009-05-11T19:35:00.001-07:00

Here is an excellent letter to the editor in the Taipei Times by Michael Scanlon that illustrates clearly, yet again, that Taiwan meets the criteria of nationhood. Because of short-term economic interests, or simple ignorance, those nations that deny Taiwan's sovereignty show they value or believe the propaganda of political and historical myth over reality.

Weekly Standard article by Michael Goldfarb -- hit and miss

2009-05-05T04:01:00.000-07:00

Factual errors and misrepresentations, perhaps out of ignorance, by Michael Goldfarb in an article in the upcoming May 11 issue of the Weekly Standard need to be corrected by sending letters to the editor.

----------------

First of all, Goldfarb needs to replace the propagandist wording "mainland China" with accurate wording. If he would like to give a longer title, then call it "People's Republic of China," or "China" for short. Taiwan is not connected with any "mainland." Taiwan is "Taiwan."

The government ruling Taiwan now has the long title of the "Republic of China," or "Taiwan" for short. From 1996 to 2008, it looked like the government was moving away from authoritarianism and colonialism towards becoming a legitimate government of Taiwan. It was also moving towards a new name -- either the "Republic of Taiwan" or just "Taiwan" as its official name. After the elections that saw the current President Ma Ying-jeou get elected and his party gain a larger majority in the legislature, it has increasingly moved away from democracy towards authoritarianism and again a colonialist attitude by an ethnic minority of elites ruling the majority population. Since these elites control the KMT party and huge amounts of money stolen from Taiwan over the 50 years of dictatorship, they can control the legislators who owe the party for the campaign financing and so are more loyal to the party than to the constituents who elected them.

President Chen did not pursue "creeping independence" but rather a gradual move from de facto independence to de jure independence. Taiwan has been independent since 1951's Treaty of San Francisco where Japan gave up its claim in perpetuity but did not designate a successor. Until 1996, Taiwan was subject to a colonialist government in exile -- the one-party Leninist dictatorship of the Chinese Nationalist Party who lost a civil war in China and fled as refugees to Taiwan.

Switzerland had de facto independence for more than a century before other nations recognized it. Taiwan has more international recognition than either Switzerland had or the United States had for several decades after it first won its independence from England.

Goldfarb is to be commended for correctly recognizing that Ma Ying-jeou did not get elected with a mandate to pursue unification with China but rather the opposite -- he got elected by pretending to be pro-Taiwan and pro-status quo of de facto independence. He got elected by having overwhelming campaign finances, a party that fully controls almost 90 percent of the television and news media, and eight years of KMT legislative obstructionism. He got elected by promising an improvement of the economy and drawing on the connection of the economic strength of the 1990's under the KMT administration of President Lee Teng-hui.

If he had run on what he is doing now, he probably could not have won the middle electorate and we might have seen Frank Hsieh with 50-60 percent and Ma with the 40 percent instead of the 2008 outcome that was the other way around.

Later on again Goldfarb gets his wording straight out of the propaganda of China -- calling direct air links between the "island and the mainland." We would not use that description for direct air links between Cuba and the USA. Note to all journalists and writers in the media around the world: stick to these words: "China" and "Taiwan."

Unlike the article's take on the situation, the Ma policy of engagement has not led to any success for Taiwan. It has led to success for Ma's real goal of eventual forced unification. China has played the KMT for fools. Each of the "concessions" China has made has only served China's interests. No great economic benefit, no large crop of Chinese tourists -- there has been nothing substantive to benefit Taiwan. It has served to cause business know-how, intellectual capital, money, etc. to flow in a one-way direction -- out of Taiwan into China.

Taiwan has not gained any more international space. Malawi, disgusted with China's colonialist attitudes and empty promises had made gestures to restore ties with Taiwan. Ma sat on his hands. He could have re-established ties with Malawi this year, but he held back -- and only to China's benefit.

The DPP is not "exploiting protectionist sentiment" but raising legitimate economic issues when the policies of Ma, so blinded by the propaganda and ideology in which he was immersed from childhood in the elitist KMT circles, that his policies are not leading to economic parity, but only leading toward a gutting of Taiwan's economy. The DPP cannot take credit for the Taiwanese public outcry at all of the poison, food scares, and corruption in China that would lead Taiwanese to want to be literally protected from China's dangerous goods. Furthermore, with the complete lack of transparency of fair market practices in China, Taiwan also needs to be protected from "dumping" and other procedures that China will design to destroy Taiwan's economy.

The KMT and the CCP have the same goal -- a 21st century Chinese colonial empire. Annexation of Taiwan to China is a mere start. The problem with KMT has is that this vision of empire can only have one emperor. The KMT and the CCP will not be able to share power. And the KMT does not wish to settle for a vassal state kingdom that their party controls. They also cannot handle settling in a separate nation that is not China.

The KMT itself probably does not know how to reach an end game with it on top of the Chinese empire. But in the meantime, it pursues whatever steps will seem to bring it more power. With that in mind, a democratic Taiwan is anathema, something to be tolerated only until they can get away with getting back to the good old days of one party dictatorship.

-JL

KMT using "Greater China" ideology to suppress any loyalty to a Taiwan distinct from China

2009-04-22T19:59:00.000-07:00

Please see the post in the Taiwanese Identity blog.

A few quotes:

"Whereas Ma Ying-jeou pretended to a Taiwan-centric consciousness during the presidential campaign, upon his election and inauguration, he has pursued the ruthless Greater China ideology of the authoritarian one-party KMT dictatorship of his father's generation."
...
"Fortunately for the Siraya people, they had registered their ethnicity in the Japanese colonial era, and some had taken very unique Han surnames. So their descendants have been able to ascertain their ancestry and now seek to reclaim their cultural heritage while throwing off the Han culture that was forced on their ancestors.

But with the colonialist "Greater China" ideology of the Chinese Nationalist Party now currently in power in Taiwan, any attempts to revive non-Chinese Austronesian culture are either treated with neglect and indifference or even suppressed if neglect and indifferent do not do the trick to put out the fire of the cause."

The Taipei Times has an April 23, 2009 article exposing the Ma Ying-jeou administration's opposition to the struggles of the Siraya people to restore their ethnicity.

A World-wide problem: Journalism's Propaganda, Lies, Spin and Distortion

2009-04-12T23:43:00.000-07:00

We need a reformation in Taiwan's journalism and in the journalism of the world. We also need to educate and equip the readers and watchers of the news to sift what they see and hear with critical and logical eyes and ears. The citizens in today's nations, including the nation of Taiwan, seem very susceptible to manipulation and even brainwashing by the media. Corrupt politicians, parties, regimes and despots, together with ideology-driven power wielders in the media and society seem eager to take advantage.

In Taiwan, in particular the Chinese Nationalist Party with its massive bank accounts and stolen assets from the one-party dictatorship era -- along with the Communist party in China which is being given more and more open doors, open windows and inroads by Taiwan's president Ma and the KMT-controlled legislature -- are in the best position to take advantage of and subvert the media of Taiwan even further than it already is. Taiwan Thinktank chairman Chen Po-chih issued a warning about this threat at a freedom of speech forum in Taipei on April 12, 2009 [more... from A-gu]. Furthermore, the KMT authoritarian era designed the education system to create compliant citizens who could easily be brainwashed and manipulated. Even though that era is behind us, there has not been a drastic reform of the education system.

Now more than ever, it is time for us to encourage our neighbors and friends to get educated and inoculated from this pernicious influence in the media.

Following are a few good quotes from a book, Flat Earth News by Nick Davies:

Everyone reported that "The Earth is flat." until someone bothered to check.

Definition of Flat Earth news: "A story appears to be true. It is widely accepted as true. It becomes a heresy to suggest that it is not true -- even if it is riddled with falsehood, distortion and propaganda." (p. 12)

"... the more I looked, the more I found falsehood, distortion and propaganda running through the outlets of an industry which is supposed to be dedicated to the very opposite, i.e. to telling the truth. The more I searched for an explanation, the more alarmed I became by the scale of the problem and by the complexity of its causes."

"... Over the years which I spent running around with a notebook in my pocket, of course I came to see that frequently we fail to tell the truth. The unavoidable reality of journalism is that all of our work is tethered by a deadline and we can never be free to roam as far as we want in search of the evidence we need..."

"... almost all journalists across the whole developed world now work within a kind of professional cage which distorts their work and crushes their spirit..." (p. 2-3)

"The truth is that there is ideology in journalism. Our stories overwhelmingly tend to cluster around the same narrow set of political and moral assumptions about how the world should be run."

(Flat Earth News © Nick Davies 2008, ISBN 9780701181451)

---------
Here is an editorial from Peter Wilby from the Guardian. He seems to single out the Wall Street Journal which might be considered a more "conservative" less "progressive" newspaper which might reflect his own political preferences. But his comments can be applied to the New York Times or any of the major newspapers and wire services around the world.

Ma's anti-Taiwan attitude

2009-04-11T05:20:00.000-07:00

Original article in the Wall Street Journal

[Mandarin translation 中文]

Ma, Mafia, and the KMT

2009-04-02T18:50:00.000-07:00

Developing --- Present and recent past evidence show links with president Ma Ying-jeou, the KMT and organized crime.

Most recent: Bamboo United gang members meet and escort anti-Taiwan racist and former GIO member Kuo Kuan-ying
(More from: The View from Taiwan)

Earlier this year: on the same week as the legislature passed laws allowing for gambling casinos in Penghu, President Ma met with the "civic organization" wing of Chinese mafia in the U.S. -- "Hip-Sing Association". He did not only meet them, but actually welcomed them into the presidential office. (For perspective: what U.S. president would dare to welcome mob bosses into the White House?). Of course correlation does not necessarily equal causality, but if the Penghu Casino's are allowed by residents, you can be certain that they will not benefit much, but rather the money will go to the mafia and other investors. You can also be certain that the mafia will organize prostitution and drugs and other associated activities as well as extortion, racketeering and other applications of force to keep its control over the gambling industry money there. (A January 9, 2009 Taipei Times article quotes comments made when Ma was hosting the U.S. Chinatown Mafia's association in the presidential office.)

CNA photo -- Ma greeting members of the Hip Sing Association

In prior years: before death of exiled notorious mob boss and assassin of Taiwanese professor in the U.S., Ma Ying-jeou's older sister visited him to pay him respects. Later when his body was brought back to Taiwan and a funeral held, his funeral was like a funeral for a head of state with many KMT politicians and many in the media visiting to honor him. (It is also true a few DPP politicians went, but the vast majority were the KMT elite.) I

And more and more questionable and shady deals will go on. As long as KMT elites are in power -- those who do not love Taiwan -- Taiwan will be treated as a place for exploitation, corruption, and making one's fortune before some glamorous retirement in China.

For a crash course on the myriad ties of corrupt politicians and the mafia, Dr. Ko-lin Chin's book, Heijin, is a must read.

Chin, Ko-lin
Heijin : organized crime, business and politics in Taiwan
(An East Gate Book)
© 2003 by M.E. Sharpe, Inc.
ISBN 0-7656-1219-4 (cloth)
ISBN 0-7656-1220-8 (paper)

------------------------
UPDATE 1: More evidence of KMT-Mafia connections -- reported by Taiwan Matters

Take a look at the police allowing mafia thugs to harass students participating in a legal protest at an event when president Ma was giving a speech. How high up did the order come from to the police that they must not interfere with the thugs? Were the thugs actually planted there by the KMT party or Ma himself? If President Ma Ying-jeou is not party to it, he should be outraged that police behaved this way in his country.

UPDATE 2: More on the abuse of student's rights in Tainan by police and unidentified thugs.

Taiwanese youth speak up...

2009-03-31T19:57:00.000-07:00

This is not a "Taiwan Area", rather this is the nation of Taiwan.
I do NOT want to become a citizen of China.

Deer in the Headlights, Sheep for the Slaughter -- Taiwanese Citizens Blind to the Reality of the KMT

2009-03-13T01:46:00.001-07:00

J. Michael Cole writes in the Taipei Times on how it is possible that the majority of the Taiwanese population in a free press society may be effectively as blinded as those under the thumb and propaganda of the dictatorship in China.

Dr. Jerome Keating writes a piece entitled, "When will Taiwan awaken ... the KMT leech has always Been at your Throat" in three parts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 2, and a Post Script which surveys recent news illustrating "the condescending and demeaning attitude that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has always had towards Taiwan and its people." In the end he appeals to the Taiwanese people, "You were duped by Ma's election promises in 2008, but you still have the power to vote the vermin out once and for all. 2009 has many elections, prepare!"

March 16 talk on Taiwan - U.S. - China relations

2009-03-10T18:52:00.000-07:00

Stephen J. Yates, a former advisor to V.P. Dick Cheney on Asia will be speaking on 30 years of Taiwan, U.S. and China relations at the Taiwan National Security Institute on Monday, March 16. (The announcement letter mentions that the talk will be in the Beijing Mandarin 北京話.) The event is from 2-4:30 p.m. There will be a time for Q&A.

It is always good to reach out to former administration officials in the United States and help them have a better connection and better understanding of Taiwan because it is always possible that they will be posted to an even higher office in a future administration.

Location: 臺北市徐州路21號Taipei City, Hsu-Chou Road, No. 21 (National Taiwan University Law School International Conference Center)

Please RSVP if you'd like to go.

RSVP fax 0 2 . 2 3 5 6 . 3 5 4 2
E m a i l : w u f i . d a t a @ m s a . h i n e t . n e t
For More information: 黃小姐 0 2 . 2 3 5 7 . 6 6 5 6

A small bit of good news for Taiwan from the U.S.

2009-03-10T18:49:00.000-07:00

"Charles W. Freeman Jr. has requested that his selection to be Chairman of the National Intelligence Council not proceed. Director Blair accepted Ambassador Freeman's decision with regret," the statement said.

The announcement came just hours after [Dennis] Blair defended Freeman before a Senate committee.

But Freeman had become a political lightning rod since he was tapped two weeks ago for the post.

Lawmakers had objected to several controversial statements Freeman has made about Israel and Iraq. And they said the former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia was too close to that country, as well as to China."

-- Fox News

At the Gravesite

2009-03-09T03:19:00.000-07:00

浴火歷史的民主價值 --- 撰文/吳乃德 Wu Naiteh

二、二八週年將至。社會輿論的主流意見是：拋棄歷史悲情，迎向光明未來。可是在拋棄歷史悲情之前，我們是否已經從它獲得足夠的教訓和反省呢？我們已經從中知道如何建立更光明的未來了嗎？

「一個由獨裁政治過渡到民主的國家，有兩個必須履行的義務。第一個責任是對它的受難者。第二個責任是對國家的未來：確保獨裁永遠不再回來。這個國家必須創造一個新的、民主的政治文化。」一個民族如何面對它的過去，決定了它將如何建立未來。 ...continued...

[PDF text of the Full Speech]

How pro-KMT or China's media in Taiwan attempted to neutralize the 228 issue this year

2009-03-05T20:15:00.000-08:00

Here is an article analyzing an attempt by pro-China or pro-KMT media including the China Times, CTV and CTITV to distort the issues of 228, to mischaracterize those who are seeking justice, and to divert the blame and responsibility for the massacre away from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the tens of thousands who supported and profited from this corrupt regime.

As I watched evening news cycles of February 28th, I wondered why in the world CTV went to Shanghai and kept highlighting an interview with some old man living in Shanghai who was reminiscing about the 228 events. Why go all the way to Shanghai, when you have so many people in Taiwan whom you could interview? Now we see the agenda behind it.

China and KMT loyalists cannot seem to bring themselves to directly face the evil of the regimes they followed and profited from. They speak about healing and regret, but all of their comments ring hollow --as if what is really going on in their minds if they dared say it: never bring up the issue again; don't talk about it any more; we don't want it to be used against us or be negative political baggage in our pursuit for power.

In contrast to the distortions in the media, here is an actual perspective representing victims of the KMT regime:

In an interview on February 28, Lin I-hsiung (林義雄) -- someone who along with his family has suffered the most outrageous and grievous injustice perpetrated by the the KMT dictatorship -- said the following:

“It is a great insult to the Taiwanese people when the government employs abundant resources to commemorate a man who is perceived by most historians in other countries as a dictator,” Lin said when asked by reporters for comments on the government's plan to change the name of the hall back to Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall

“To this day, who should be held accountable for the 228 Incident remains unknown,” he said. “All the memorial services and compensation for the 228 Incident are meaningless if it remains unclear who should be held responsible.”

[and about Ma's comments...]
"...whether or not one apologizes is meaningless to overall social progress."

"...People who have committed mistakes should admit their wrongdoings and make a sincere effort to right their wrongs — not just offer an apology..."

"...to the families of the 228 Incident victims, an apology would not erase the wounds...The key is to set the record straight and let truth about the 228 Incident be known so that future generations can learn from the past."

Taipei Times 2009/3/1

The KMT might not be afraid of the Communists in China anymore, but they certainly seem to be afraid of the truth of their past governance and their self-exalting dictators Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Ching-kuo.

In a letter to the editor, one reader - Kris Liao of San Francisco - comments that "Despite Ma’s gestures of reconciliation toward 228 victims’ families, the wound of the savage incident will never heal because Ma and his KMT followers continue to exonerate the Chiangs’ crimes by saying they did not do the killing themselves and therefore should not be held accountable."

One might add, when such a crucial piece of Taiwan's history and identity is not clearly taught and studied in the schools, then the current Ma government apologies are meaningless.

When the subject in Taiwan is brought up, there is often the response of "let's not talk about that." But actually that is precisely what needs to be done, in the neighborhoods, in the schools, in the work place, in the government, in the public eye. Only after there is genuine truth and reconciliation can the matter be at peace.

===========
So let's talk about it:

Massacre in
• Taipei at National Taiwan Normal University and National Taiwan University
• Keelung
• Yunlin & Nantou book release, individual families
• Pingtung