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

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

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...

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

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...

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.



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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...

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.

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.