Taiwan Blog Feed

Some two weeks have passed since I wrote the post asking if Taiwan is becoming a police state? It was written during the middle of ARATS Chairman Chen Yunlin’s visit to Taiwan and it focused on the actions of police during that week. I now want to look more broadly at some of the major human rights issues that have occurred in Taiwan in the past few months.

The big news in the past week has been the detention of former President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁). In isolation it might seem that justice is being achieved, but Chen is yet to be formally indicted. Was it necessary for him to be detained for the investigation to proceed? Even if his detention was necessary his handcuffing certainly was not. Prosecutors have had more than two years to gather evidence in the state affairs fund case yet they have still been unable to prosecute Chen.

The former President’s detention must be seen as part of a broader pattern of the detention of DPP officials on corruption related charges. The cases of Yunlin County Commissioner Su Chih-fen (蘇治芬)and Chiayi County Commissioner Chen Ming-wen (陳明文) have also been in the news as they have gone on hunger strikes to protest their detention. Another case is that of Tainan City Councillor Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) who was swiftly given a 14 month jail sentence for an incident where he supposedly pushed ARATS Vice-Chair Zhang Mingqing.

The key issue is whether the judiciary is acting according to proper procedures or conducting a witch hunt on behalf of the KMT. It is clear that only detaining and investigating members of one party amounts to political persecution and is doing nothing to address the problem of corruption. It also seems that in Taiwan presumption of innocence is trumped by trial by media.

During the week of Chen Yunlin’s visit police acted outside the law on numerous occasions. Their actions went far beyond what was necessary to ensure the personal security of Chen Yunlin. Questions about whose orders police were acting under need to be answered.

Another issue of concern are the government interfering with the media during Chen Yunlin’s visit. The government were selective in giving media access to certain events. There were several incidents where police interfered with reporters doing their jobs. The Association of Taiwan Journalists, International Federation of Journalists and Reporters Without Borders have all expressed concern about various incidents that took place during the week.

What is also disturbing is the government’s response, or lack of, to many of these incidents. The Wild Strawberry movement’s demands for an apology from President Ma and Premier Liu and the resignation of the chiefs of the National Police and National Security Bureau are very reasonable expectations. Yet the Premier has merely remarked that everyone should forget about it in a few days. It shows that the government is arrogant and has no real concern for human rights. It is not bothered by discontent from the public and perhaps feels it can shift the blame to the DPP with rhetoric of violence and corruption.

All these incidents need to be thoroughly investigated, yet who can be trusted to conduct the investigation? The judiciary is clearly acting in the interests of the newly restored KMT party-state. This highlights the urgent need for an independent watchdog capable of monitoring the judiciary and police. Taiwan needs a Human Rights Commission that can operate without fear of government interference. It also needs human rights education for the judiciary, police and government officials.

Even worse is that events like these continue to divide Taiwanese society. Chances of reconciliation are being passed up as Taiwan continues to play by a familiar political script.  Many of these problems are rooted in the failure to achieve genuine transitional justice. For Taiwanese society to move forward human rights have to be seen as something valued and important. They are the foundation on which civil society and good government is built.

---

Related posts:

• Once was a prison
• Foreign workers raise their voice
• Time to end the death penalty
• Human trafficking in Taiwan
• Links 2 June 2008

---

Copyright © David Reid 2008
This feed is from the blog David on Formosa. Please respect the copyright of the author. Any questions please contact me. (Digital Fingerprint:
96ce0efd4c72536e61bdc1f9d92ff829)

Before attending the Pasta’ay in Wufeng I spent the day in Qingquan village (清泉). I met Sandy early in the morning in Zhudong and she drove me up to Qingquan. Sandy is my classmate at NCCU and she is a teacher at the Taoshan Primary School (桃山國小) in Qingquan.

Qingquan is an Atayal village located in Wufeng District, Xinzhu County at an altitude of around 600 metres. It is the last major village on the road. Beyond it is the Shei-pa National Park (雪霸國家公園) and the Syakaro Historic Trail (霞喀羅古道).

After a brief tour of the Taoshan Primary School I crossed the river to the Catholic Church. There I met Father Barry Martinson (丁神父). I have read Father Barry’s book Songs of Orchid Island and it was very interesting to meet him in person. I purchased another two of his books, Chingchuan Story and an illustrated bi-lingual children’s book The Fish Boy of Orchid Island (蘭嶼的魚男孩). He also showed me another book he was working on that will be published soon. It is about San Mao (三毛; Echo Chen) who was a friend of Father Barry and often spent time in Qingquan.

I asked Father Barry to describe some of the changes he had seen in Qingquan over the past 33 years. He said that one of the major changes was communication. When he first came to Qingquan there were no phones and the road was very poor. Now people have mobile phones and cars or motorbikes. This has lead to people being more individual in their way of life rather than centred on community. Another point he noted was the people no longer suffer as greatly from poverty. The National Health Insurance scheme has relieved people of a lot of burden.

Wandering around the village there were a number of interesting things to see. The Yawee Stained Glass Studio makes stained glass windows for churches in Taiwan and also as artwork. A lot of the designs are done by Father Barry including the Atayal man and woman in the circular frame pictured above.

At lunch time I watched some of the students in the primary school practice their music. They have recorded a CD titled “Lawkah! Momoyama!” (桃山小學的夏天音樂課). The music is very beautiful and the recording is of professional standard. The students have also travelled to the USA to perform.

The students also love to play with this spinning toy. I don’t even know what it is called.

There was a lot of work going on in the village associated with the Zhang Xueliang (張學良) Memorial Hall. The hall is set to officially open next month. Zhang Xueliang is a famous figure in the history of China. He kidnapped Chiang Kai-shek in 1936 to convince him to join with the Communists to fight the Japanese. Later Chiang Kai-shek arrested Zhang. He spent 50 years as a political prisoner coming to Taiwan with the KMT in 1949. He was held in Qingquan during the 1950s.

San Mao’s home is currently undergoing renovations. Once completed it will be open to the public.

The photo above shows some damage done to the retaining wall by Typhoon Jangmi. Qingquan suffered very serious damage from Typhoon Aere in 2004 which killed 20 people.

The day in Qingquan passed so quickly. It was such an amazing place with so much to experience and discover. I hope to go back there again soon.

*photos in the Qingquan Village set at flickr.

---

Related posts:

• Discovering the Taipei Artist Village
• Melbourne Uni alumni reception
• Journey to Smangus
• The right to live in the forest
• Motorbike tour to Maolin

---

Copyright © David Reid 2008
This feed is from the blog David on Formosa. Please respect the copyright of the author. Any questions please contact me. (Digital Fingerprint:
96ce0efd4c72536e61bdc1f9d92ff829)

about 6 years ago, karen and i went to the national center for traditional arts in one of our weekend getaways in yilan. unfortunately, it rained the whole time when we visited the center so we didn't get to see nor do anything. so ever since then, we've been wanting to go back but never got the chance to do so until this past saturday when we went with olivia and my parents.









































































google maps location of the traditional arts center.....

view larger map

i highly recommend visiting the center if you have kids. lots of traditional taiwanese arts and customs for young kids to see and learn. taking the hsuehshan ("snow mountain") tunnel, it's less than an hour (with normal traffic) from taipei, so it's not too far at all. even if you don't visit the center, there's still lots of places to visit around yilan. plus with the ocean on one side and mountains on the other; flat and farm lands in between with hardly any buildings, it's just such an easy going, laid back and relaxing region. the first sight of yilan when you come out of the hsuehshan tunnel is a feeling of instant relaxation. i simply love it out there.

Taiwan’s latest plan is to hand out free money to lots of people. That way, we won’t be in recession any more! Hurray!

Just one problem. It’s completely stupid and it doesn’t work.

As I understand it, Keynes’ idea of monetary stimulus involved government spending on projects in situations where consumers had stopped spending, in essence, becoming a forced spender of last resort. Handing out extra money to consumers, when they have started saving and paying down debt, is only going to make them save more or pay down debt more. A meaningless transfer from the public debt to private debt balance sheets, that has no short-term effect, and will be reversed years down the line, for no net gain overall.

Aha! But wait. There is a cunning plan. They’re going to give out ’spending coupons’ that you can’t save, so you’ll have to spend them.

The problem is that after about ten second’s thought, people will just substitute these coupons for ordinary money in their normal spending. Then, they will save or pay down debts with the money they saved.

There’s another cunning plan. Why don’t we give out ‘50% discount’ coupons - that way people HAVE to spend some money to get the government handout? Again, a moment’s thought makes it obvious that people will just use up the coupon in place of everyday spending, over twice as long a period. When it comes to adding unnecessary flourishes to a bad idea, you can always rely on academics and public officials. I am sure this weekend will be busy, as people work hard to re-arrange the deckchairs on the Titanic.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m sure a few people will get in the mood and go and pointlessly buy crap - after all, they’ve been doing it for the last 5 years with great enthusiasm, using borrowed money. But where is this money coming from? Ultimately, it’s coming from taxation, increased debt (which must ultimately be repaid through taxation) or from inflation (which is a form of taxation). So guess who’s paying for this mystery bonus? Either ‘future you’, or your children. And what could be better than stealing from the pockets of unborn generations? Isn’t that how society improves?

So, here’s my question. How does pointlessly buying crap fix a problem of overindebtedness, which is at the heart of the current difficulties? How does it fix the problem of overvalued assets (houses, particularly) which drove that excessive debt? How does it fix the problem of an export-driven economy when no-one is importing Taiwan’s stuff?

The answer is, it doesn’t solve the problem, or even come close. Actually, it makes it much worse. It pushes up public debt and price inflation at a time when people have not much money anyway. This drives up the short-term costs of debt, and increases future taxation.

Besides, Japan tried this years ago as a solution to recession in 1998 and surprise surprise, it didn’t work there either - even during the dotcom boom worldwide, Japan remained firmly stuck in recession as it handed out pointless spending coupons, while public debt ballooned. And did I mention that the JPY devalued completely, to record lows, over the decade that followed?

But, I guess it makes people feel good to ‘get money from the government’. Even though really, it’s just deferred taxation, and even though really, it does nothing but piss money up the wall, wasting the government’s ability to actually solve the problem later.

I mean think about it for a moment. The problem is that people have taken on something like 8 M NTD of debt, to buy houses that are worth perhaps 3-4 M NTD on a good day. We’re talking millions of dollars of unsustainable debt. And the government’s solution? Hand out 10,000 NTD to solve a 4,000,000 NTD shortfall per household? It’s like farting into a hurricane.

Oh, and you know what PISSES ME OFF IMMENSELY? This!

“At least one banker said the government should consider issuing a “tax reduction/rebate card” to all citizens if the Cabinet wants to see an immediate effect to encourage spending.”

So who will probably get these coupons? VOTERS, since this is a idiotic voter bribe as much as it is an idiotic effort to stimulate spending. But who will pay for these coupons? TAXPAYERS.

If, like me, you are not a Taiwanese citizen, I want you to think about the distinction between VOTER and TAXPAYER. It implies a forced transfer of cash from non-Taiwanese resident’s wallets to Taiwanese resident’s wallets. But I guess weiguoren probably deserve it because of their weiguo-ness and its apparently horrid effect on the Taiwanese economy.

In unrelated news. While ’supporting the price of shares’, the Taiwanese government has been busy buying shares at prices higher than their current level, as the market dropped. So… you, Joe Public, are now sitting on a gigantic stockmarket loss, thanks to the government. Gong xi!

---

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | Click here to visit Taoyuan Nights for more articles like this.

Fili has written a post asking people about the best travel spots in Taiwan. I thought I would make a list of my top five places in Taiwan.

Located in the mountains of Taoyuan County off the Northern Cross Island Highway the old trees at Lala Shan (拉拉山) are an amazing sight.

Just getting to Smangus is a journey in itself. Taiwan’s most remote village is located high in the mountains of Xinzhu County.

I love Tainan! The city has wonderful food, interesting historic sights and much better weather than Taipei.

While nearby Jiufen (九份) may be more well known, Jinguashi (金瓜石) is a place not to be missed. The Gold Ecological Museum highlights the rich history of this area. It makes a great day trip from Taipei.

Taiwan has many amazing temples. My favorite is Bao’an Temple (大龍峒保安宮) in Taipei.

I have only listed places that I have visited. It is quite a while since I have been to Hualian or Taidong, but the east coast is somewhere I would really like to explore more. There are some other places that I would like to visit and I am sure they would possibly shoot into the top five. Some places on my list include Orchid Island (蘭嶼), Jinmen (金門), Yu Shan (玉山) and the Southern Cross-Island Highway (南橫).

Readers are welcome to leave a comment with their own top five. If you have your own blog then you might like to write a post about your five favorite places in Taiwan.

---

Related posts:

• Putting Taiwan blogs on the map
• Not Chinese but Signese
• Another Lonely Planet
• More than just a rough guide
• Links 28 January 2008

---

Copyright © David Reid 2008
This feed is from the blog David on Formosa. Please respect the copyright of the author. Any questions please contact me. (Digital Fingerprint:
96ce0efd4c72536e61bdc1f9d92ff829)

• Taiwanese Identity has a great post detailing languages other than Mandarin being used in recent Taiwanese films.
• Claudia Jean asks is White Terror creeping back? A-gu says it’s not White Terror yet.
• Global Stories reflects on working for Hess.
• Lao Ren Cha goes to the Pasta’ay in Wufeng.
• Taiwan Air Blog has photos of Hakka Opera.
• Taiwan Democracy Movement has the statement of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan. Jerome has the statement of the Taiwanese Human Rights Association of Canada.
• The Far-Eastern Sweet Potato on the need for coordinated protest action.
• The Foreigner on the future of US-Taiwan relations.
• China e-Lobby on the arrest of Chen Shui-bian.

Wild Strawberry protests: The movement’s English blog is regularly updated and has quite a bit of material now. Jack Wu writes the protests mark a move away from Taiwan’s partisan divide. Some analysis of the German Assembly Law.

Events: Taiwan Photography Club meeting on Sunday 23 November. More details in the flickr group.

Media: USA Today interviews President Ma. In the Asia Times Cindy Sui writes about the detention of Chen Shui-bian. Taipei Times editorial on the problems of the judiciary. CNN iReport on Taiwan protests via Taipei taxi.

Please check my shared items at Google Reader and Taiwan delicious links for more.

---

Related posts:

• Links 27 August 2007
• Letter in the Taipei Times
• Links 2 August 2007
• Links 20 July 2007
• Links 10 November 2008

---

Copyright © David Reid 2008
This feed is from the blog David on Formosa. Please respect the copyright of the author. Any questions please contact me. (Digital Fingerprint:
96ce0efd4c72536e61bdc1f9d92ff829)