2007 April | The View from Taiwan

Entries for April, 2007

EU Parliamentarian Says Taiwan should beef up its defense

Apr.30, 2007 in China, European Union, US, arms purchase, submarines

Taiwan’s parliament was informed again that it should purchase weapons…..
A European parliamentarian urged Taiwan yesterday to bolster its defense capabilities while acknowledging that the EU would not intervene militarily should China attempt to take Taiwan by force because it would be outside Europe’s regional security responsibility.
Dr. Georg Jarzembowski, the head of the Taiwan Friendship [...]

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Su Beng’s new book

Apr.30, 2007 in Uncategorized

Feli, who is writing a biography of Su Beng, the longtime democracy and independence activist, announces….
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The official book release for Su Beng’s latest book, The Ideology of Democracy, will be held on May 5 from 2:00pm-5:00pm at the Taiwan National University’s Alumni Building: JiNan Road Section 1, No. 2-1, 4th Floor. There will be some [...]

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New Blog to Oppose Hushan Dam Project

Apr.30, 2007 in Hushan dam, environment, water policy

Robin Winkler of Wild at Heart alerted me to a new blog on the Hushan Dam project….
Plans were first laid to submerge You-cing Valley in December 1994. Located in the Hushan area, 10 km south-east of Douliu City in Yunlin County, the valley would be filled with water diverted from the Cing-shui River and dammed [...]

Meh News: WHO snubs Taiwan; Good news: US doesn’t on Torch

Apr.30, 2007 in China, Olympics, US, WHO

Amazingly, the WHO rejected Taiwan’s bid to enter it. After all, it had only been ten years in a row….
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) lodged a protest yesterday with the World Health Organization Secretariat over its rejection of Taiwan’s application for WTO membership this year.
Taiwan’s bid to join the WHO is not an issue that can [...]

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Judging the Speech Contest

Apr.30, 2007 in speech judging

Selling me breakfast before the judging begins….
This year once again the Taichung county government called me in to act as a judge for the English speech contest. I always enjoy these occasions, meet new people, interact with enthusiastic children and their parents, see schools around the county….

The contest was held at Daya Elementary School in [...]

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Daily Links, April 30, 2007

Apr.30, 2007 in Uncategorized

Crowded throughways on the blogs today….

Former expat here Newley Purnell writes a brief introduction to the island’s leisure farms.

A pro-Blue blogger points to propaganda by the DPP?

Prince Roy has a great post on the POW camp and memorial on the northeast coast.

A-gu comments on the KMT plan to avoid splits in the party, although Taiwan [...]

The Bushman Takes a Wife

Apr.29, 2007 in wedding

This weekend we headed down to the southern port city of Kaohsiung for the wedding of my good friends Chu Hui-chen and Michael J. Klein, alias the Bushman. Had a very good time….married people love to see other people get married. After all, misery loves company….(ka-ching!)
In other cultures, weddings are time for expansive celebrations. People [...]

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Beeb on Torch and China-Taiwan Forum

Apr.29, 2007 in BBC, China, Olympics

The BBC reports on the Torch Relay Row and the recent China-”Taiwan” Forum…offering a peek at how the news is constructed. The Beeb opens with the following two sentences:
Chinese President Hu Jintao has called for closer economic and cultural exchanges between China and Taiwan.
Mr Hu was speaking at a China-Taiwan forum in Beijing, aimed at [...]

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Daily Links, April 29, 2007

Apr.28, 2007 in Uncategorized

The Central Weather Bureau says we can expect rain for the next two months….and there’s plenty of traffic on the blogs….
SPECIAL: Spent this weekend in Kaohsiung as my friend The Bushman Is Now Married! More on that later.

nostalgiaphile rips NTU for studying Shakespeare.

The meiguotaiwanren blogs on Mr Donut. Hey, my sympathy for the lost post. [...]

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The Torch is Passed

Apr.28, 2007 in China, Olympics, Taipei

The Taipei Times put out a hard-hitting editorial on the vapid International Olympic Committee and the torch situation:
The disingenuousness of the International Olympic ommittee (IOC) is breathtaking. To allow China to host an Olympics at all should have been warning enough; for IOC officials to now feign surprise at Taiwan’s unhappiness with its proposed [...]

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Statues and Colonialism here and there

Apr.28, 2007 in China, Estonia, name rectification

Recent events in Estonia show how colonial monuments are typically treated during a transition to democracy, with some strong parallels to our situation here in Taiwan:
Estonia took away the controversial statue of a Red Army Soviet soldier from the center of the capital early yesterday after violent riots against its removal in which one [...]

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Google Maps: Now with full Taiwan Support!

Apr.28, 2007 in Google Maps, Taiwan resources

Jason at WTT now informs me that Google Maps now supports Taiwan right down to the individual alleyway!
[Taiwan]
Related PostsA Cry for Help With Google Earth!I got this letter today — edited version follows. Can one of you Google Earth Whizzes help this per…Google Maps and Taiwan ProvinceGoogle says Taiwan is a province of China, and [...]

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IHT: Taiwan Refuses Olympic Torch

Apr.27, 2007 in China, North Korea, Olympics, South Korea, Vietnam

It’s all over the news, so go see it for yourself: Taiwan has become the first nation to ever refuse the Olympic Torch:
Within hours of Beijing’s announcement Thursday of what would be the longest torch relay in Olympic history — a 137,000-kilometer (85,000-mile), 130-day route that would cross five continents and scale Mount Everest — [...]

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Warner Warns Taiwan

Apr.26, 2007 in China, Taiwan Relations Act, Taiwan independence

The good Senator from Virginia, a crusty old school paleocon, yesterday warned Taiwan not to do anything provocative yesterday in a hearing aimed at the new US commander in the Asia-Pacific region:
A leading critic of Taiwan in the US Congress has warned Taiwan not to cause “another problem” for the US [...]

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Sunday (4/29) English Language Night at the Brass Monkey

Apr.26, 2007 in Uncategorized

The Brass Monkey, a Taipei pub, sent this around:
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The Brass MonkeyEnglish Language Night this Sunday
April 29 at 6:00 PM
The Brass Monkey’s language program continues this month! If you want to practice English or Chinese in a fun environment, this is the chance you’ve been waiting for. Come and meet people like you, who want to [...]