Feared Information to Expose Attitudes?

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

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

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

Watch Formosa Betrayed on Netflix

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

Register Now for the Taiwan Culture and History Camp/Tour

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.

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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
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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.