Worst Nightmare

The New Journalist has pulished its "10 nightmare ministers" edition.

Government Information Office Chief Pasuya Yao has topped the list. They arrived at the list of the 10 most unsuitable Cabinet ministers through interviews with 166 legislators.

According to the United Evening News last night, lawmakers cited Yao as being "unprofessional, careless, lazy, rude, and ill-tempered."

No argument here. I was telling this to a GIO employee last night and he said, "They missed arrogant."

Apt comparison

PFP legislator Sun Daqian compared his party today to "a piece of toilet paper with a historical mission."

I'll go along with that.

Michael Turton has posted about Why the DPP Lost the Election. I agree with much of his analysis, but I also think that the DPP's attempts to capture the middle have also contributed to their problems.

Taiwan and the US are similar politically in that the vote is pretty much split down the middle. The DPP has been following an outdated strategy used by Clinton and Blair in the 1990s to reposition leftist parties back in the mainstream. But what Karl Rove has realized is that without a true left and with parties split down the middle, the key is to energize your base.

The blues, who have lost two straight presidential elections, are energized with the emergence of a viable candidate. Ma energized them even further by threatening to resign as KMT Chairman if the KMT did poorly in Saturday's 3-in-1 elections.

The greens, however, are alienating, rather than mobilizing their base by their attempts to move to the center. Taiwanese nationalists feel let down by a party that fired them up with calls for a new constitution and a new name for the country and then turned around and told them to forget about it.
There's also a lively discussion of Michael's post over on Forumosa.

Dog Day Night

Every dog has his day … and DogOfTheSouth had his Friday night. I have to say it was some of the best Chinese wedding banquet food I have had. And I was introduced to the magnificence of Maker’s Mark. I learned that Jack Daniel’s is not bourbon. All in all, a very productive evening.

I think we can excuse Dog for reduced posting frequency in consideration of nuptial-related activity … and Congratulations!

Watching America


This article came with my Google news search email (keywords: Taiwan and Media).

It turns out the the editor William Kern used to work as an editor at the Taiwan News.

The idea is interesting - to provide articles in translation from around the world to show Americans an unvarnished view of how America is portrayed abroad. According to the article linked above, they only provide articles in translation and not English-language editions of foreign publications. However, I believe the articles from People's Daily are just the English-language versions. I'll keep my eye out for interesting Chinese-language articles they might be interested in publishing ...

Mahjong Defamation?

I’ve been asking colleagues about this Lee Teng-hui defamation verdict. Lee was ordered by the court of first instance to pay NT$10m to James Soong for saying he went to play mahjong during a post-election rally last year. The verdict apparently hinged on whether or not Lee made it clear he was referring to Soong. Two pan-green lawmakers got off the hook because they didn’t make it clear. Am I the only person who doesn’t understand how Lee’s comment can be construed as anything other than satirical?

My colleague just explained to me that Soong left an April 10, 2004 rally for 30 minutes and so there was no way he could have played a round of mahjong, which would take at least 90 minutes? So Lee exaggerated. The remark he made – “one went home to sleep [presumably Lien Chan] and one went to play mahjong [presumably Soong]” – seems to me quite offhand and not intended to be taken seriously. I asked if the “playing mahjong” is code for something else. Apparently not. But the fact that one gambles while playing mahjong puts a negative cast on it. Would this count as defamation in the West? I’d appreciate any explanations.

GIO Position

The GIO has posted its position paper on the TVBS case onlne. One has the immediate impulse to stop reading at the first paragraph.

In an interpellation on October 7, 2005, Legislator Tseng Tsahn-deng raised evidence of forgery and withholding information on foreign shareholdings by Liann Yee Production Co., Ltd. (widely known as TVBS) when obtaining its business license, and demanded that the Government Information Office (GIO), the authority in charge of radio and television affairs, investigate whether any unlawful practice was involved.

The pan blues are also asking the GIO to act on FTV's shareholding structure, but will the GIO act in this case? Why not? The only answer seems to be that the GIO is not acting to preserve the rule of law, but in order to punish its enemies. See Michael Turton's post from yesterday. The View from Taiwan: GIO Budget Slashed

Yeaooooow!

This dialectic between the Taipei Times and Su Chi is shaping up to be a real cat fight.

It's not hard to believe that Su Chi actually peruses the English-language newspapers daily. There are enough small errors in his letter yesterday to believe it was written by a non-native speaker (and not edited by a native speaker), but it's quite readable. Too bad he can't seem to get his facts straight.

Media BS

My colleagues tell me that the reason the GIO didn’t renew the ETTV News S license back on Aug. 2 was to send a message to all news channels that they had better slant their bias in favor of the DPP in upcoming city and county elections here in Taiwan. I had thought the non-renewal was an honest and ill-conceptualized attempt to force news channels to adopt higher standards. I am starting to think my colleagues are right.

For the GIO to say, “we’re simply doing our job” is predictable and an understandable rationalization for considering the revocation of TVBS’s license on the grounds that it is foreign-owned (by Hong Kong interests). A DPP lawmaker was quoted in the Taipei Times today as saying “We refuse to tolerate any intimidation exerted by a media outlet that is entirely controlled and financed by Chinese investors” (article here). The way I read this, he is saying that the GIO is being asked to put pressure on TVBS because it dares to criticize the government (and by extension, the DPP). To all who share this view, I say: Grow some more layers of skin and learn to truly respect the freedom of the press. Taiwan simply won’t be taken seriously internationally if it fails to exhibit sincerity when it claims to embrace press freedom.

I’m not taking a stand on whether or not TVBS should be licensed in Taiwan, but the way this issue was raised is all wrong.

Update (a few minutes later): I just finished posting this and immediately came across this article in Chinese. It says that President Chen said today that no media outlets were going to be pulled on his watch – as an expression of his commitment to press freedom. That’s more like it. I hope DPP rank and file politicians take note.

Update (11/8): This is a bit dated, but it’s the first I’ve noticed of an international press freedom organization mentioning the TVBS situation. In this case the International Federation of Journalists. I have to say I’m not that impressed with the accuracy of IFJ and RSF (Reporters without Borders) commentaries.
     

NCC - Built for Deadlock


The Pan Blues have done it again. They’ve passed an incoherent bill that will create more problems that it solves. This China Post article seems itself to be a paradigm of incoherence, but the process it describes matches the descriptions in Chinese media. Parties will nominate a total of 15 people to the National Communications Commission. The Cabinet will nominate an additional three for a total of 18 nominees. An 11-member legislative panel will confirm 13 nominees through a vote. The interesting wrinkle is that a nominee needs at least 60 percent of panel votes to be appointed. Given the current legislature’s record on cross-party cooperation, this virtually guarantees the NCC legislative panel will be deadlocked: based on the current legislature, five members would be pan green and six would be pan blue. Do the math. The pan blues won’t be able to push through nominees unless at least one pan green panel member is absent during a vote. How likely is that?

There are all kinds of “what if” scenarios right now. For example, what if the panel actually decided to confirm all the nominees by the same vote count (say 11-0)? What would happen to the five excess appointees? However, the biggest question is what kinds of obstacles the administration and pan greens will put up. There are several options, beginning with recalling the bill and asking for a constitutional interpretation (with a strong argument that the bill that has been passed goes against the principle of the NCC being an independent commission). The only good thing about yesterday’s legislative antics is there was no blood on the floor.

Lee Speech
Lee Teng-hui gave a hell of a speech in LA Friday evening. Here's the full text in English. Lee gave the speech in Taiwanese.

Usually when Taiwanese politicians give speeches, they try to say as little as possible while pushing the correct buttons. This speech worked in reverse: Lee said a lot, but his rhetoric was pitched in a cold war register that will make tough for US Democrats and other people on the left to hear what he is actually saying. That's unfortunate because Taiwan would attract more sympathy and support from a wider slice of the American political spectrum if would stop pandering to its supposed friends in the Neocon movement.

I also wish he would stop calling the Chinese government 'communist' when they have obviously abandoned Marxism and replaced it with a form of nationalist authoritarianism. Despite its extensive labor camps, China is also not a 'slave state', as Lee claims, any more than Taiwan was in the 1960s and 1970s when Taiwan developed without paying much attention to labor conditions. Lee is trying to say that China is a new Soviet Union just as baby boomers in the US keep insisting that Iraq is another Vietnam.

While his comparison to the Soviet Union is misguided, Lee is absolutely correct in his central theme which he states forcefully: China is a major threat to freedom. He also makes some excellent points about why people don't see this. Lee argues that the West applies a double standard to China when it is assumed that China is not 'ready' for democracy or human rights. He also right about the way China presents two faces to the world rather than the simple face of intimidation that the Soviet Union showed.

I think perhaps he might have also added the war against terrorism to this list. People in the US don't see China as a problem because they are so worried about terrorism. It's hard to worry about two problems at once, but because China is a state commited to modernity (unlike the Islamic mullahs who are resisting modernity), we tend to overlook its threat to freedom.

A Price to Pay for Rice Bombing

Chaos at the Taipei District Court today after Taiwan’s rice bomber was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison after planting several “rice bombs” to warn Taiwanese away from imported rice. Friends and relatives of Yang Ru-men gathered for a noisy protest, saying the sentence was too harsh. Yang’s lawyer said the convict was expecting five years and that he’ll appeal the sentence. I wonder whether there’s broad public sentiment here that a self-confessed bomber should get off relatively lightly. The bombs were not powerful – and most of them were found intact – but my sense is the person who planned and executed these acts should expect to be punished. Maybe I’m just getting intolerant in my middle age.

UPDATE (10/20): Here’s an article on the sentencing from the Taiwan News to augment the scant details I provided on the rice bomber.


UPDATE (10/26): Here's an opinion piece from the Taipei Times that discusses some of the issues surrounding popular support for the rice bomber.

Lily Livered KMT Chairman

One has to wonder about Ma Ying-jeou’s willingness to push the envelope to any extent at all. Today, he criticized the Presidential Office for selecting LY President Wang Jin-ping to represent Chen Shui-bian at an APEC summit. In this Chinese-language article, Ma is quoted as saying that you need to do a backroom deal first; then you make the announcement. This comes just a day after Ma and the KMT gave their blessing to Wang’s trip (Shortly afterward, Beijing said they opposed Wang's appearance at the APEC summit; Ma found out through KMT-CPC channels that the PO knew Beijing's position before announcing Wang would go to Busan).

Lee Teng-hui and then Chen Shui-bian have been strategically pushing the envelope in various kinds of announcements. The result has been that Beijing no longer reacts strongly to certain kinds of statements and Taiwan has more international leeway. Sure, Wang may never have had a chance to represent Chen, but if you don’t try to advance your position, you certainly won’t get anywhere. I hope that when Ma is elected president, he won’t take such a spineless approach as he seems to be advocating now.

Panda diplomacy

A gesture of goodwill indeed. Panda spies, I say! According to this article, a nine-person team has whittled down the field of eligible pandas to 11. They plan to match the pandas to their destination based on “physiology, psychology, behavior, appearance, genetics and age.” Right. It’s clear to me they’re choosing pandas that are likely to make good operatives. Note that a couple of the males are described as having big mouths. Fat chance they’ll be finalists. They’d spill the bamboo shoots before Taiwanese interrogators even pulled out their instruments of panda torture.

According to the Chinese source, 70 percent of Taiwanese are in favor of accepting the pandas. I’m not saying I’m against it, but let’s remain vigilant and not give away any state secrets while within earshot of these enemies at the gates (of their enclosures)!

A historic American visit

Nat Bellochi’s reminiscence of Lee Teng-hui’s famous 1995 visit to Cornell in the Taipei Times today takes me back. At that time, I was living in Kunming and immersing myself in socialism with Chinese characteristics. Every once in a while, I would pick up a copy of the International Herald Tribune that some running dog left behind at the Journey to the East coffee shop. But for the most part, my news of the world came from the cankao xiaoxi, a Chinese-language compendium of wire stories that the CPC felt told the truth about the world. Mostly, the stories were critical of Western governments at the time - as one could imagine. There wasn’t really a whole lot about Lee Teng-hui’s visit to Cornell that I recall, but all of us in China were regaled with glorious footage of the military exercises that are now known as the Taiwan Missile Crisis.

Bellochi says he was the one who suggested the “elongated transit” for Lee that still serves as a model for unofficial visits in the United States by Taiwanese leaders. IMHO, in his honor we should start calling them Bellochi transits. In any case, it’s notable that these transits are no longer a big deal. In fact, President Chen placed so much importance in his last scheduled San Francisco transit stop that he went to the United Arab Emirates instead. As Bellochi notes, it will be interesting to hear what Lee has to say this time around on his visit. It will be even more interesting to see whether Taiwanese leaders will be officially welcomed in Washington a decade hence.

History 101

Sigh!

Keith Bradsher from the New York Times writes:

The history of tea itself reaches back to ancient times in China. The earliest known literary references date back nearly 5,000 years, when Emperor Shen Nung is said to have discovered the infusion when leaves dropped into his hot water by chance.

Nonsense. China's oldest book, the Book of Songs (Shijing), may have sections that are 3,000 years old. And Shen Nung doesn't appear in Chinese literature until the late Warring States period (c. 475 BCE to 221 BCE). There's just no way that "[t]he earliest known literary references date back nearly 5,000 years."

Civics 101

This comment to the Asia Times by Chin-Hao Huang contains the following glaring error.

Chen has repeatedly expressed his admiration for Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's ability to dissolve the diet and in turn win a snap election. Chen appears tempted to make a similar call as a way out of the current political deadlock in Taiwan's legislative yuan. However, doing so would further polarize domestic politics and cause more unrest in Taiwan's unconsolidated democracy. Chen ought to be mindful not to sacrifice the long-term goal of political stability for short-term political gain.

Chen can't make a similar call. The Constitution doesn't allow it. For this to happen, the legislature would have to pass a motion of no confidence against the cabinet. Only then could Chen dissolve the legislature. In effect, this means that the legislature would have to dissolve itself and risk new elections, something the pan-blue coalition would never dare do given their behavior over the past year.

Et tu, Google?

The China Times is reporting that Google Maps calls Taiwan "Taiwan, Province of China." You can see for yourself by typing 'Taiwan' in the search field at http://maps.google.com/. Seems that Google's "Don't be evil" code of conduct excludes the aspirations of the Taiwanese people to remain free.

Turton on weapons purchase

Rank does not have time to join the fray today, but hats off to Michael Turton over at The View from Taiwan where he destroys a recent commentary in the Washington Times by one Jeff Logan about Taiwan's supposed unwilligness to buy weapons from the US. As Michael pithily explains:

The Pan-Blues oppose the weapons purchase not because they have faith in the US to defend Taiwan, but because they support Beijing and not Taiwan -- they oppose it because because it helps Taiwan defend itself.

People in Washington seem to be incapable of understanding that the KMT-PFP alliance represents a serious threat to US interests in the region. If the US is not careful and Ma Ying-jeou becomes president, Taiwan may go the way of South Korea--a supposed ally that in reality is doing everything it can to realize its nationalist goals at the expense of US interests.

One disturbing note that Logan also hits is criticism of Taiwan for 'excessive' social spending. While Taiwan probably should spend more on defense, there are still significant segments of Taiwan's population that need help and don't get it. Just because Taiwan's government doesn't want to reduce have-nots in Taiwan to the kind of desperate poverty we saw in New Orleans doesn't mean that Taiwan isn't serious about its defense.

So Mr. Logan, in between those sips of wine that is older than you are, have a heart and think for a minute about the old people who would go hungry or the aboriginal kids who couldn't go to school if you got your way and Taiwan scaled back on social spending.

Trial by Taiwanese Media

See Taiwanese entertainer Peng Qiaqia taking a popular brand of stomach medicine at a tearful press conference where he revealed that a much-rumored sex CD was actually just Peng masturbating. Peng has been in big trouble with the mob for a year or so since he allegedly made a pass at a gangster's girlfriend. Peng's problems have apparently gotten worse in the last few weeks and he had been in communicado for the last week until yesterday's press conference. Peng claims the VCD was secretly taken while he was high on a quarter tab of FM2 and he doesn't remember what happened. With his weeping wife by his side, Peng described the video as " a 48-year old man with a big belly naked just like a white pig jacking off on his bed."

I can't upload the picture (of the press conference of course. What is the matter with you people!) for some reason, but check out the shirt the guy on Peng's right is wearing. If you still not sure what taike means, this guy has got it down.

Bold Predictions

I loved the headline in today's China Times. Roughly translated it read:

Global Experts Make Bold Prediction: Huge Changes in the Next 35 Years

No, really? I thought everything was going to stay the same. Where can Rank get one of them thar global expert jobs.

I'm about 99 percent sure that the editors at the China Times were forced to run that story by management who is undoubtedly trying to burnish the paper's credentials as a serious newspaper. The story is an obvious plant--it refers to some kind of feature in Foreign Affairs that I can't find on the their site. The fairly new editorial blogs at the China Times are a much better indication of the intelligence of the people over at Rank's favorite Chinese-language paper.

Don't play dead!
If you go to Yushan National Park, you may see stickers like this posted by Park Headquarters. The rangers want to warn you not to play dead if you run into a Formosan Black Bear. The white words under the drawing say "Playing Dead is Prohibited." The smaller lettering says "Playing dead is wrong . Don't do it for the sake of your personal safety." So don't say Rank didn't warn you...

Koizumi: You can't touch this!

A painting of KMT Chaiman and Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou now hanging in an art gallery on the fifth floor of KMT headquarters in Taipei. The caption in the China Times explains that this photo has been popular with female visitors (I guess only straight people go to KMT headquarters?).

The portrait actually evokes a campaign ad from the KMT chairman election in July showed a brooding, windswept Ma staring into the pounding surf on Taiwan's coast. Maybe he's thinking of getting direct links with China going by swimming across the Taiwan Strait in the buff?

Rank will be visiting KMT headquarters on Wednesday. Fear not art lovers and faithful readers--Rank will not miss this golden opportunity to find out what other treasures lurk in the KMT art gallery.

The Hong Kong Model

Whenever the subject of One Country, Two Systems comes up, I sometimes hear the argument that since China has not substantively diluted Hong Kong's freedoms, Taiwan should accept the same deal from China. Now this is simply wrong because completely different sets of historial circumstances govern Hong Kong and Taiwan's contemporary political realities. Under the British, the people of Hong Kong did not have basic political rights. So Chinese rule has not diminished political freedoms in Hong Kong because there weren't any in the first place. But China has not kept its promises either. Hong Kong was promised an independent legal system, and that promise has been abrogated. And in the Basic Law, China committed itself to future political freedoms such as free elections. Those commitments have been deferred indefintely.

But Taiwan has a full set of political freedoms in place on the ground right now. China would have to be trusted to respect those freedoms, which given China's track record in Hong Kong vis a vis the Hong Kong legal system there is little reason to believe that it would.

Still, it's nice to have a concrete example on hand of what kind of place Hong Kong is turning into. Here's a great Traveller's Tale from FEER about how Yahoo! Hong Kong ratted out a Chinese journalist and got him sent to jail for ten years. The bigger issue in the case is of course how major multinational high tech companies like Microsoft, Cisco, Google, and now Yahoo! are cravenly cooperating with China's police state to enforce its reign of terror, but the Yahoo! Hong Kong case is notable because it shows how what you say in Hong Kong privately can be held against you in China.

Honored Guests

The China Times reports that Four Seas gang leader Chen Yong-he celebrated his 26 year old son's marriage at the AsiaWorld Hotel Tuesday evening. Guests at the 83 table reception included legislators Zhong Rong-ji (PFP, Legislator at large and Vice Speaker), Cai Hao (independent, Pingtung), and Luo Ming-cai (KMT, Taipei County. Son of notorious but now retired gangster-legislator Luo Fu-zhu.) Variety show host Jackie Wu also graced the event.

The groom, whose Chinese means 'the likeness of goodness', has recently completed his studies in the US and will work in the high tech industry. The bride is a saleswoman at a department store boutique. Her name was left unmentioned in the article.

And all this just a week after what has to be one of the great quotes of the year. Ke Jun-xiong (KMT, Hsinchu) and TSU caucus leader He Min-hao took advantage of their taxpayer-funded junket to Japan to visit a notorious Yakuza leader there. Ke defended the visit by telling reporters that "I'm sure that most of the men sitting in this room have friends in the mob." Ke and He are both members of the legislature's defense committee.

Infant mortality

Nicholas Kristof writes:

If it's shameful that we have bloated corpses on New Orleans streets, it's even more disgraceful that the infant mortality rate in America's capital is twice as high as in China's capital. That's right - the number of babies who died before their first birthdays amounted to 11.5 per thousand live births in 2002 in Washington, compared with 4.6 in Beijing.

While I share Kristof's outrage at the Bush Administration's disgraceful response to the disaster in New Orleans and his concern about the poor in America, I wonder about this figure. I suspect that when health authorities in Beijing calculate infant mortality rates, they are looking at infants born to registered residents of Beijing. I believe there are something like 3 million migrant workers in Beijing whose childern are not counted. Since these workers basically have no access to health care, the real infant mortality rate is likely to be much higher.

Rice King 2005

Li Xian-long, an Amis from Chihshang, was named Taiwan's rice king last week for his Hegeng No. 2 organic rice. Chihshang is in the Eastern Rift Valley, and has won the competition three years in a row.

When Li was named the winner, he strode to the stage with both arms raised in the air shouting 'I'm an Amis! I am an Amis!' The Amis are the largest of Taiwan's officially recognized indigenous peoples and live primarily on the eastern coast. 100 kilos of Li's rice was auctioned off for 1.1 million NT$ although the China Times reports that Li will only receive about 30 percent of that. The rest goes to the local Farmer's Association.

A picture in the print version of the ChinaTimes showed Premier Frank Hsieh scarfing down a bowl of Li's rice. If my memory serves me correctly, the paper says that works out to be about NT$800 for one bowl of rice.

Chihshang itself is a kind of humdrum market town, but the surrounding countryside is beautiful. If you find yourself there you might want to visit the Chihshang Lunch Box Museum. This is in fact a moderately interesting musuem devoted to the history of Chihshang. There are some nice photographs of what Chihshang looked like 60 years ago--tree-lined streets with hundreds of people out shopping. A far cry from the barren, hot main street that runs through the town now. All the trees were cut down long ago, and the streets are empty.

Here's a strange one that didn't make the English papers

Ms. Wang, a 38 year old woman who says she is a virgin, goes to Cathay General Hospital with her mother, where Dr. Lin Hui-lin, a minor celebrity herself, gives Ms. Wang a pelvic exam without getting Ms. Wang's permission first.

During the examination Ms. Wang's hymen was ruptured. Ms. Wang then filed a complaint with the Consumer Foundation. After mediation by the Consumer Foundattion, Cathay General Hospital said that it would repair Ms. Wang's hymen free of charge or give her NT$100,000.

The Wangs, however, were not satisfied. Ms. Wang's father, one Wang Xian-ji, held a news conference where, brandishing his daughter's bloody panties (the print version of the Apple Daily story actually had a picture of this), he demanded NT$5 million in compensation and an apology from Dr. Lin or he would take her to court for medical malpractice. In the China Times verion of the story Mr. Wang said that although his daughter had had boyfriends, she had protected her virginity like a treasure. Now her ill-fated doctor's visit had destroyed a woman's most valuable possession-her hymen.

Mr. Wang, it turns out, is a Taiwanese independence activist who started something called the 8 Sept. Taiwan National Day Movement. The Movement wants to establish Sept. 8 as Taiwan's national day to commemorate the date in 1951 on which Japan relinquished sovereignty over Taiwan in the Treaty of San Francisco.

Dr. Lin has appeared in shampoo commercials and Mandopop music videos. Apparently this is not the first time this issue has come up. A Taipei prosecutor asked a judge to sentence a Dr. Huang to six months in prison for the same crime in late 2004.

Great picture from today's China Times. Talk show host Little S puts the moves on an embarrassed Mayor Ma Ying-jeou. Shameless blue hussy!

This has nothing to do with Taiwan. It's a picture of the California coast near Santa Cruz.

Silly Frank (And a Rant about Dao)

Yesterday's China Times Evening Express ran a very silly picture of Frank Hsieh admiring a toy sword he was given at a press conference to announce that August 1 will be now be (get this) "Indigenous People's Re-designation Day" [sic] . Hsieh revealed that his great-grandmother was an aboriginal Taiwanese. Update: It gets better yet. In today's Taipei Times, Hsieh says that he is probably a Bunun because

...whenever I hear Bunun music I become excited and emotional.

Hsieh is truly the master of the silly sound bite. You still hear him talking about 'mutual symbiosis' as the ideal relationship between the DPP and the KMT. And since the essence of Taiwanese politics seems to be a race to see who can be the silliest, one can conclude that Hsieh must have an inside track on the presidency.

[begin rant]
Dictionary translations really bug me. The Taipei Times article I just quoted also has a picture of Frank holding what can only be described in English as a sword. But since the Chinese said 'dao', and the dictionary translation of 'dao' is knife, the translator dutifully entered knife into the copy cheerfully ignoring the visual evidence to his right. 'Dao' in the sense of sword has probably crept into Chinese from Taiwanese, but this usage is very firmly established now.
[end rant]

Turton on Arms Package

Michael Turton over at The View from Taichung has a very useful and detailed discussion of the arms package the US wants Taiwan to buy so badly. I'm beginning to feel that some critics of the arms package have legitimate issues with its content. But that does not change the fact that the KMT and the PFP oppose the purchase because they want Taiwan to remain militarily weak so that they can bring it more effectively into China's orbit.

Misrepresenting Taiwan

The New York Times ran a story about China's military buildup that had this misleading paragraph:


Administration officials said parts of the report were intended as a subtle reminder to Taiwan. Many administration officials are concerned that the Taiwanese are increasingly using their relationship with Washington as a shield against the Chinese military buildup. New weapons programs - many using technology sold by American firms - have been languishing in Taiwan's parliament. The report strongly suggests that Taiwan must take a greater role in building up its own defenses, an argument that the Taiwanese often say is a cover for American efforts to increase military sales.


The problem is the verbal slide with 'the Taiwanese' as if Taiwan, a nation divided, is speaking with one voice. Washington has protected Taiwan from China since Truman decided to save Taiwan from China at the beginning of the Korean war. The real issue is reforming Taiwan's military so that it can defend Taiwan until the US can come to Taiwan's aid. Unfortunately, the Chen administration simply does not have enough political capital to make kinds of qualitative reforms--like abolishing the draft--that Taiwan needs to make.

Washington cannot be held responsible for that lack of political capital, although the Washington establishment's unrelenting hostility to the Chen administration certainly hasn't helped.

The reality is that the 'Taiwanese' who are adamantly against building up Taiwan's defenses are the quislings in the blue camp who welcome China's rise and hope that the US will leave East Asia immediately.

OK, so Hyatt asks me ...

to post on his blog and I pay a visit to see what it's about. It's called Rank and so I choose an appropriate handle. Now I go to look at previous posts and the first one I see after DogOfTheSouth's is about the RANKing of universities in Asia. Now I think I understand what blogging is about. I will begin.

Ranking of my favorite Taiwanese politicians:

1. Chiu Yi
2. Lee Ching-hua
3. Sisy Chen

I also like many rank-and-file politicians. Since this is Taiwan, I should say so-called rank-and-file politicians. Hyatt is sure to be wondering why he ever invited me to post. I just know my position is falling in his rankings. I'll try harder.

Taiwan's Universities compared with other Asian institutions.

This is interesting.

More on Bird Flu ...

Chinese authorities use human vaccines on birds, now the strain is far more resistant. More in this Washington Post article.

The Long Goodbye ....

Many of Rank's diehard fan's already know why the site has been somewhat lackluster as of late. I'm making preparations to leave Taiwan, and in the course of trying to get things done to cross the Pacific again, I have little time these days to devote to the blog.

I've discussed keeping Rank open, and keeping it centered on Taiwan by trying to mollycoddle or goad a couple of people who are sure to make this blog even more interesting and pertinent than it has been during my tenure.

The idea of talking the blog with me strikes me as counterintuitive. The readers we have come here because they want to keep up with events in Taiwan and read a bit of punditry while they're here. Because I'm still obsessed with the medium, I may very well start up another one when I get settled in the states. And perhaps I'll insist that Rank list it in the blogroll. I'll keep you posted.

Excellent ...

Feiren saves the otherwise blogless day by bringing this link to our attention! Thank you sir!

To the dogs.

Media coverage of dogcathers in Keelung has prompted an uproar from animal rights activists. The wire "collars" and the cavalier methods that the catchers use often result in injury or death for the animals. Public pressure and education for county and city employees that deal with animals would be a good way to begin addressing these problems.

Sometimes earnest efforts fail to convey the gravitas intended. In a letter to the Taipei Times, a writer asks the central government to address the problems with national reform. The flourish is at the end of the letter when we find it comes from the "International Alliance for Taiwan Dogs, Sante Fe, New Mexico."

Any suggestions?

Here's US President George Bush at a recent press conference talking about Taiwan and China: "China is a -- obviously, there's tension on -- about Taiwan that we have to deal with. And I made my position very clear and very consistent about Taiwan. The Taiwanese understand my position; the Chinese understand my position. So, in this case, the relationship is one of helping to solve that problem, is to keeping stability in the region so that eventually there will be a peaceful solution to that issue."

Now my question is, do we understand his position? I thought I did during the beginning of his first term when he said on ABC News that he would do "whatever it takes" to protect Taiwan. Now, however, after Colin Powell's remarks in China last year, one is led to believe that the US and the State Department are reevaluating the Taiwan issue. I guess we're back to clear and consistent studied ambiguity.

That was a fright.

Around 12:30am we had a good shake from moving tectonic plates. A 6.0 on the Richter scale, but only a 3.0 here in Taipei city. More here.

The opposition makes political hay out of gang leader's funeral.

Legislators are upbraiding government officials for allowing the massive funeral for one of Taiwan's most notorious crime figures. Click here. (The site is counterintuitive, so you have to scroll down to get to the story.)

Best Farkin Blues Band in Town.

Okay I need a refresher course in how to be cool. I'm getting old. Nevertheless, check out the Muddy Basin Ramblers. In the links section you toads.

From the Taipei Times.

"He became famous for his willingness to physically attack fellow lawmakers with his fists or other handy items." The article.

Fists are pretty darn handy, have to give 'em that.

Taiwan's DPP legislators tell the Yankees how to run the club. Funny.

The legislators encouraged Taiwan's baseball fans to write Yankee management to insist, after pitcher Wang Chien-ming's performance against the Detroit Tigers last week, that Wang be kept on the Yankee roster. The Yankees were not amused. The link.

It's not true.

Feiren points out that unlike Japan, South Korea and China, Taiwan's conviction rate sits at 85 percent instead of 99 in 2004. Here is the MOJ link.

Taiwan's godfather "mosquito brother" laid to rest.

Over 10,000 people showed up to pay their respects to one of the most notorious organized crime figures in Taiwan's history. Gang members from Hong Kong and Japan came to pay their respects as well. More here.

I wonder if this is true in Taiwan.

On the FEER blog, there is an entry about how if you get accused of a crime in Japan, South Korea or China, all three would probably convict you as they all have a 99 percent conviction rate because of the power of prosecutors. Check it out.

International waters ... pppphhhhttt!

Taiwan's Coast Guard forces Chinese research vessel out. This was the second time in seven days that the vessel had entered Taiwan's territory. More from the Taipei Times.

Joan Didion's piece in the New York Review Of Books on Terri Schiavo.

A long read, but worth it.

An uplifting find ...

What could buoy the heart more on a Saturday afternoon than the discovery of new fish off the coast of Taiwan? More here.

US Congressmen put pressure on KMT Chairman Lien Chan

Thirty-three congressmen signed a letter asking KMT Chairman Lien Chan to support the defense appropriations bill. Somehow, I don't think Lien will be moved. The KMT has invested what little political capital they have in opposing this bill. It probably wouldn't do them much good among their constituents to flip-flop after years of flogging the appropriations as an pricey US swindle. Here's the link.

Typhoons are good for shell games.

New York State's firebrand Attorney General Eliot Spitzer talks about the state's case against US insurance giant AIG. The company allegedly covered up losses by "linking" damages from a typhoon to its Taiwan-based subsidary to losses in a Brazilian-based subsidary.

These charges, however, are peripheral compared with the allegations that the company has been inflating its worth to ward off regulators and please investors. More here.

That's just silly ...

When was the last time you heard of a statesman giving out an award for an abstract moral achievement? The chastity medal, the order of noncovetousness, the five-point star for humility and rectitude? President Chen Shui-bian hands out awards for filial piety. More here.

(Editor's note: The picture above is the Order of the Chrysanthemum, a Japanese miltary medal, obviously not the awards that Chen handed out to school kids. Rank does not endorse or condone Japanese military expansionism during World War II. Picture is of historical interest only.)

China bans eating off of naked women.

I stole this from Peking Duck.

On Bird Flu ...

One of my early Rank entries points out how unequipped and underfunded developing nations are when it come to tackling the avian flu virus. What's more astounding is the cavalier attitude among wealthier nations when it comes to protecting their own populace from something that, were it to get out of control, would be far more problematic than any of the real or imagined threats we hear so much about. More in The Guardian.

Bahraini Bloggers in Hot Water

More from the Guardian.

More reasons for that defense budget ...

Wendell Minnick from Jane's Defense Weekly has a piece in today's Taipei Times. Most interesting is the comment from the US official.

Cockamamy Reasoning

One of the most bizarre political arguments I've seen in Taiwan since I've been here is the KMT's assertion that Taiwan doesn't need to increase its military spending because eventually, China will outspend Taiwan, so its futile to even consider raising the budget.

What gives? Here is something in the Taipei Times that puzzled me:

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ting Shou-chung said China's miltary spending accounts for 2.8 percent of GDP, and that its military budget has been growing at a double-digit rate for over a decade. Noting that China's military budget would be 20 timesTaiwan's within 15 to 20 years, Ting askedLee, "will the military be able to safeguard the country if the gap of military spending between Taiwan continues to grow?"

China's military budget will continue to grow, and will eventually exceed Taiwan's. Is Ting (whose father is aROC general) a maverick suggesting that the KMT should get the military budget passed, or is he part of the tiring chorus that says spending the money is silly because China will eventually be victorious.

That argument is akin to a homeowner saying that they won't make repairs to their home because the next door neighbor has so much money, he'll eventually buy the property off the homeowner, but we all know the real result of such behavior. A drop in property values.
Is that what Taiwan wants?

James Soong is either out of his tree ...

... or mutiny is spreading within his party. On Monday the PFP said they would no longer cooperate with the DPP, effectively sinking the agreement made between James Soong and President Chen Shui-bian at their February meeting. And on Tuesday, the PFP vowed to stop any legislation proposed by the DPP as I noted yesterday.

Today we find out through the Taipei Times that PFP Legislator Lee Chin-hua (the brother of the PFP's infamous harridan Diane Lee) is leaving the party. Lee says he cannot see how the PFP can cooperate with both the ruling party and KMT. This doesn't come as a shock as Lee, Chou-yi and several other PFP legislators held a press conference on Monday criticizing Soong.

I didn't know anything about that press conference until this afternoon, so at first I thought that one of two things must be brewing. Either Soong had diabolically engineered this week's kerfuffle for political advantage, or he was losing control of the party. Soong must have put the kibosh on the uproar, thus leading to Lee's resignation.

In any case, Soong should get his house in order and consider merging with the KMT. Once the National Assembly ratifies the constitutional reforms, and the legislative elections are held, the PFP will wither and blow away as Taiwan moves toward a two-party system.

Another new link ...

Take a gander a Peking Duck. Again, look at the blogroll.

They're at it again.

Earlier, I wrote up several paragraphs on the recent shenadigans of the PFP. They have broken their promise to President Chen Shui-bian and vowed to block any legislation until Chen gets down on his hands and knees and praises all the good work PFP leader James Soong has done by travelling to China.

Unfortunately, the original post fell into the blackhole of the Firefox browser, so I'm only going to point to this link, the first entry on Rank. While some of the invective is dated, much is still relevant as the KMT and the PFP once again seek to block the arms appropriations bill.

The PFP are a bunch of crybabies.

On the front page of the Taipei Times today we find out that the James Soong sycophant party is unhappy once again. They thought because Soong had a heart-to-heart talk with China's Hu Jintao, the people of Taiwan would wake up and see the nimbus floating around the demagogue's head. Well, it didn't happen as the weekend vote for the National Assembly proved. And to add insult to injury, Taiwan's own circus clown party, the TSU, ran over Soong and his minions like so many overstuffed Volkswagens.

Now Soong's stooges want a constitutional interpretation from the Council of Grand Justices on the legitimacy of the elections. Why is it exactly that these people can never be bothered to challenge the legitimacy of an election BEFORE they lose?

After the rains.

Off the beaten path ...

I know that one of the weaknesses of this blog early on was my fanatical inability to focus on a single issue. Having logged entries on Caravaggio and Eminem videos, it would be a understatement to say that the content was "all over the place." So, with the help of DogOfTheSouth, Rank has for the most part focused its attention on Taiwan.

Yet occasionally there are things of such importance that they seem to transcend the need for focus, and this piece is one of them. An American journalist writes about how, by attempting to be more than a stenographer for the US military in Iraq, she can no longer rely on the support of her own government, and what's more she's viewed with suspicion by insurgents, ordinary Iraqis and US officials. It's a compelling piece.

I cadged the link off Eschaton, but thought for those of you who don't look at that site, this shouldn't be missed. If anything, it's refreshing to see that there are still journalists who understand the importance of telling both sides of the story, who strive for balance and who are willing to put themselves at risk in order to broaden our understanding of the serried conflicts of the world.

New Link ...

Feiren tipped me off about the Far Eastern Economic Review's blog. I gave it a cursory glance, and it looks like it's worth checking on the coffee break. Here's the link for the post. In the future you can find it on the blogroll.

Here we go ... (rubs hands)

DogOfTheSouth was laid up in bed sweatin, his bones was aching too. Something nasty has been running around. I just spent the last hour trying to get the damn battery cover off my camera with no success (which also means no light meter.) This is especially depressing because I figured this problem out on a photoshoot tonight.

Anybody out there got damn strong thumbs?

On other fronts, I saw Premier Frank Hsieh yesterday at a special press conference for the foreign press. On the whole it was, as most press conferences are, unenlightening. Yet when a French journalist asked him about whether Taiwan had a reciprocal gesture in mind for the incoming pandas, the premier inexplicably started talking about France's moves to lift the arms embargo. Granted, questions were asked in English, translated to Hsieh in Chinese, then he gave his answer in Chinese, which was translated back into English, so perhaps we can give him the benefit of the doubt.

For Great Britain on election day ...

Since the returns are coming in tomorrow morning, here are three faux commercials, which might have been run if the parties said what they really wanted to. (Be sure to use the arrows!)

A note on the Splittist Panda...

Hey there. First off, I have to give credit to William Meldrum for asking the question: what if the two pandas arrive in Taiwan and one of them thinks after awhile that it is Taiwanese and refuses to go back to China?

For those of you who are wondering what the hell I am talking about, China offered two pandas to its "Taiwanese compatriots" as a goodwill gesture during KMT Chairman Lien Chan's trip to China.

But the story doesn't stop there. Xinhua is claiming that the pandas are on their way to Taiwan despite the fact that the ruling DPP government has yet to make up its mind. For the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the two are obviously Trojan pandas and the ministry wants nothing to do with them. KMT Mayor Ma Ying-jeou, would be more than happy to accept the pandas in his city zoo, and according to Xinhua has already started training zoo keepers how to keep and train the pandas.

And according to the Taiwan News: "Council of Agriculture Chairman Lee Ching-lung said Tuesday that his council will act according to the law and professionally assess, without regard for political considerations, whether Taiwan can adequately care for the pandas." even though the government has yet to decide whether it will take the pandas or not. Got it? Good!

Now, we can only hope that whatever the result of the panda issue, the Taiwanese don't give up their freedom and democracy for a pair of bamboo-eating bores.

Here are some panda facts if you need them. Pandas sing about biscuits here.

Musicians in Taichung.

Complex issue with no easy answer.

I have a close friend who enjoys playing devil's advocate over coffee on Saturday afternoons. He is taking me to task for what I wrote earlier about the government's decision to eject the Chinese journalists who work for Xinhua and The People's Daily.

To begin with, he told me about the press release from Reporters sans frontieres, which condemned the government's position and suggested that the reporters be allowed in. Here is graf from the organization's statement:

Urging Taiwan to reconsider its decision, the worldwide press freedom organisation said, "Even though the People's Republic of China is certainly no model of press freedom, using censorship against its media makes no sense. We believe that the right to news and information should in no circumstances be compromised because of political differences."

While I understand the point, I still believe that these reporters are reporters in name only. Perhaps this situation could have been handled more smoothly by government officials who, rather than do what many democratic government' officials do, i.e. bullshit, chose to criticize the reporting and tell the world how angry they are about Chinese journalists misrepresenting Taiwan in communist newspapers. What they should have done is either never allowed the journalists into the country to begin with or at the very least spin the issue as a visa problem and not a press problem, though it would have been clear to everyone what was going on.

I am not, however, suggesting that all Chinese journalists or even those who work for party organs, are fake reporters. Anyone who has been keeping up with the ebb and flow of the Chinese press must be aware of the number of significant contributions China's journalists have offered their readers. China seems to have a number of investigative reporters, all of whom probably know the risks they are taking, who continue to uncover corruption, sometimes at the very highest levels of government.

At this juncture, I'd be interested in hearing other opinions on the issue, especially from journalists or those who agree with Reporters sans frontieres' position.

Excuses, excuses ...

I know the frequency of posts leaves something to be desired. I am busier now than I have been in a long time. I'm scrambling about trying to fill out financial aid forms for graduate school, plus I have a number of stories to work on and the magazine must be put to bed by Friday. So for the regulars, my apologies. Things should return to normal in May.

And as I understand things, DogoftheSouth is also often beholden to deadline pressures around the same time I am.

A blow to freedom of the press? I think not.

When the Mainland Affairs Council decided to eject two Chinese reporters-- one from Xinhua and the other from the Communist Party's mouthpiece, The People's Daily--earlier this week, we were blessed with the unsurprising hue and cry from the KMT and the biased media outlets that tacitly support the pan-blues.

We were told that ejecting the two reporters was a blow to Taiwan's burgeoning democracy, that freedom of the press was now on its knees begging for mercy and that by sending the reporters back the government would irreparably damage cross-strait relations. We were, so to speak, invited to a horsefeathers banquet.

Just because these reporters work for news agencies doesn't make them real journalists; they are nothing more than hacks for the Chinese Communist Party. They have no interest in balance, fairness, getting at the truth or even reporting the facts. They are paid to file stories that confirm what the boys in Zhongnanhai want to hear. The stories must fill out the narrative that Taiwan is the Rebel Province brimming with evil splittists trying to lead the good people of Taiwan astray on their inexorable journey to "reunification."

How anyone can pretend that these people are anything more than the cogs of a propaganda mill or outright spies baffles...

Hot spots, trouble zones ...

whatever you want to call them, news junkies are always keeping an eye out for the next revolution, coup d'etat or outright act of aggression. In Taiwan--considered one of the hot spots of the world because of China's intransigence--people are aware of the potential for things to get out of hand, so much so that the country's awkward relationship with China defines day-to-day politics.

But if Al Giordano is to be believed, the next international flare up is nigh. Vincente Fox may be about to wager his legacy as a shephard of democracy on a power grab sanctioned by Washington. Read the full piece here. (via James Wolcott)

An item that should concern bloggers or readers thereof ...

Via Steve Gilliard.

Talking shit

in the Legislative Yuan means you are dooooomed. or canned or harassed ... In any case, it's not good. More here.

The People's Daily gushes over the KMT's visit.

I guess they just can't help themselves. Here are two choice passages:

People on both sides of the Straits have the same roots and share weal and woe, a strip of the shallow straits cannot cut off the feeling of reminiscence. The "tour of reminiscence" embodies such a feeling of history and continuation of tradition, and exhibits the Chinese people's unique national sentiments, so naturally it is easy to strike a responsive chord in people's hearts.

and ...

During its tour, the KMT stressed that it would provide the Taiwan people with "another kind of expectation and choice," and would not "follow the authorities in running amuck," obviously, this remark was made strictly in light of the reality, which deserves deep thoughts to be made by various social circles on the Island.

I'm still stumped about where, if anywhere, the KMT thinks this will lead. The CCP and the KMT inked a 10-point proposal, but since the KMT doesn't represent the government of Taiwan, that piece of paper is merely symbolic. Perhaps one day it'll be considered symbolic of the Nationalists' perfidy. You can read the piece here.

Beijing tames the shrew?

Now that Beijing has tentatively agreed to see Lien Chan, the chairman of the KMT, to talk about cross-strait relations, one has to wonder what the KMT thinks they'll get out of this. At this juncture even the most naive of us have to ask why the KMT seems intent on rewarding Beijing's belligerence--after China passed the anti-secession law--with talk of thawing realtions. If anything, the KMT's behavior will reinforce the CCP's thinking when it comes to Taiwan; prove you're a tyrant and be rewarded with supplication.

The KMT will have to make a choice soon, whether its members would prefer to draw their power from the people in Taiwan, or instead try to curry favor from the ghoulish lot at Zhongnanhai.

Here's something on ducks and necrophilia.

Important research from Holland.

Here's something I desperately need ...

Clocky.

Food poisoning sucks ...

After having holed up in the bathroom for well over eight hours, and recovering in bed for another 24, I say stay away from ice cream.

On a brighter note, we'll see on Saturday if President Chen Shui-bian can get a million marchers to the streets to protest the anti-secession law. I for one am hoping that the numbers go through the roof. Of course such a protest won't change Beijing's mind, but it might remind China's martinets that their ham-fisted approach to Taiwan leaves something to be desired.

More to the point ...

Moral indignation is certainly edifying; you can snort and stomp like a rhinocerous. With all the hand wringing over the French push to sell arms to Beijing, US officials are lashing out at Gallic hypocrisy. At first glance, one can hardly blame them. Indeed French efforts to lift the arms embargo on China stink of avarice and blandishments that flow like the Loire.

Yet waving the fist may be premature. This Asia Times article describes a US$5 billion loan, approved by the US Export-Import Bank to China National Nulear Corp. If true, the US is bankrolling China’s growing nuclear ambitions as Janus-faced US officials berate Beijing for its cavalier approach to proliferation. The Times’ sources say that Chinese officials have assured the US that proliferation is a thing of the past. If Washington takes such statements at face value while castigating France for its naivite in dealing with China, then something other than principle is afoot. At this juncture, the US’ argument with France is one of style, not substance.

The late Edward Said once wrote: “One of the shabbiest of intellectual gambits is to pontificate about abuses in someone else’s society and to excuse exactly the same practices in one’s own.”

Let's cut to the chase; everyone wants in on the game. Australia has floated the idea of exporting enriched uranium to China. The US has pulled off a back-door deal at the behest of American nuclear firms. Russia’s planned joint military exercises with China is more about Moscow’s desire to show off the hardware to a prospective buyer than it is to strengthen ties. Ukraine has admitted to selling ballistic missiles to China. France’s true sin, it would seem, is that he asked first if he could kiss the girl.

What happened?

Well, I suppose I should at least say a word or two about why I haven't been posting much this week. I've caught another severe cold, and it has taken all the energy I could muster just to make it in to work. (It was deadline week at the magazine.)

I'm also about to pull a variation of the much-hated Josh Marshall here by telling you that I have written a post that I think should be seen, but I have to give it further consideration, because by posting it, I could adversely affect a friendship, so I may not. How's that for a lame tease?

Big News.

The beginning of the week was a smashing success if you think of bad news as a house party. The Central Intelligence Bureau (CIB) announced that they apprehended, ahem, a dead man, Chen Yi-hsiung, who, according to the CIB tried to kill President Chen Shui-bian last March. It's not always good news when you get your guy, especially if he is as stiff as a board and can neither defend nor incriminate himself. This end is just grist for the mill for the die-hard conspiracy lot. And die-hard they are; their raison d'etre is to find the "truth," which means getting the public to swallow their scurrilous lies.

Then China leaked some of the language contained in the "anti-secession" bill, a bill that reinforces China's threats to invade Taiwan, while reminding the world that Beijing would prefer the international community to treat China's belligerence toward Taiwan as an internal matter. The story got good play in the press, and CNN trotted out its China-Taiwan expert who parroted a number of Beijing's characterizations of Taiwan. Sigh.

Changes.

It looks like Rank is about to have a new blogger aboard. Dog of the South has expressed an interest in writing on Taiwan, which should give the blog more focus than it has had up until now. I'll let him fill you in on what he's about.

In addition, I've altered the masthead, intend to fix the uppercase lettering of the blog's title and have changed the weekly archives to monthly now that the blog is beginning its sixth month. I'm also looking into getting an RSS feed set up.

"My own mind is my own church."

The US wasn't founded on Christian values. More here.

Moo now means more than we thought ...


Just read the article.

Hammering the point home.

I just got back from the videoconference held here in Taipei at the Presidential Office where President Chen Shui-bian spoke with members of the European Union's Parliament in Brussels. What was eminently clear (a redundancy I know, but hell, I'm tired) was the fact that Chen had one point he wanted to get across; the European Union member states, by lifting the arms sanctions on China, was abandoning its universal values such as democracy and human rights, to serve national interests. Without being explicit, he implied that the EU member states were being hypocritical. And he made the point over and over again. No EU MP could have left that meeting without having an idea of what Chen wanted to say.

I was wondering how long this would take.

China is upset again. Asia's powerhouse sure does have a thin skin. They don't want Bill Clinton to meet with President Chen Shui-bian because they don't like "political" leaders from other countries being seen as lending legitamacyto Taiwan. Then again, one can understand their frustration and confusion. For even when someone such as Jiang Zemin steps down from the presidency, he still can hold onto a few state posts and exert his power within the party. Not so in a democracy. Bill Clinton is coming to Taiwan as a private citizen and collecting a hefty speaking fee as well. More here.

Cannabis helps prevent memory loss.

Who'd have thunk it? Back when you lost your keys, playing both detective and suspect in your tableau vivant of Poe's The Purloined Letter to the throb, crash and hum of Captain Beefheart, you may have been staving off Alzheimer's disease. So says The Guardian.

Pugilism.

I cannot say that I am a boxing fan, but I am a fan of boxing, an incongruity that has surprised a few friends. I've never paid to see a live fight, nor have I played part in the pay-per-view scheme. Perhaps if I were to see a live fight, my interest would wane. Yet, I think Norman Mailer's "The Fight" is great piece of journalism, and I have enjoyed a number of Joyce Carol Oates pieces on the sport. The two sports that have captured the imagination of American writers are baseball, of course, and boxing. This piece in the Washington Monthly on women's boxing paints an ugly picture of the sport. Take a look.

The Big Dawg is on his way?

As a US citizen, an Arkansan, a resident of Taiwan and two-time supporter of former president Bill Clinton, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that he has been invited to stop in Taiwan and is scheduled to make his appearance on February 27. As for the question mark, something could always go wrong. Enough dignitaries and performers have made last-minute cancelations on their way here, so I'll believe it when I see him on the concourse of Chiang Kai Shek Airport being hassled by Taiwan's overzealous press. More of a news release than a story, but if you like there's more here.

Hunter S. Thompson is dead.

At the age of 67, Thompson shot himself. The inventor of "gonzo" journalism takes his leave. "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." HST. The New York Times has cobbled together a shoddy obit, of which I'm not going to post because its not worth your time or mine. I'm sure we'll see better and fuller soon.

On Caravaggio ...

I tend to shy away from reading about art extensively. John Berger is great, and I remember enjoying Otto Freidrich's book, Olympia: Paris in the Age of Manet some 15 years ago. Yet this three-part series in the Guardian on Caravaggio is well written, intriguing and absent the offputting jargon that many an art writer falls prey to.

Caveat lector- you shouldn't open the link if you have dinner plans or an appointment any time soon. It's a long, engrossing read. Here.

He's a funny man.

James Wolcott, who writes for Vanity Fair, is damn funny. His blog entries have a spluttering guffaw in every other sentence. I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of his pen. Read his post on Michael Medved, laconically titled "Michael Medved is an Idiot."

And you were worried about the coming invasion!

The real worry is of course the drying up of Taiwan. Yes, this plum of an island will be a shriveled prune by 2035. I know I shouldn't be so flippant when it comes to environmental issues, but this Taiwan News headline doesn't help. More.

The suicidal chef.

A book review on mental depression, the kitchen and the vain search for perfection makes me want to read it, but the biographer's quote at the end of the review "he was like a souffle that had fallen," strikes me as a trite, overpushed metaphor. And that makes me reconsider. Here it is.

Chinese New Year's vacation has ended.

So, if you think you sinned too much, here is a test to tell you where in Dante's hell you can expect to be when you meet your maker. The final exam.

On rationalizing legitamacy ...

For those of us who are creatures of habit, who lack credibility because we refuse to fork out the cash for a Mac or cannot be bothered to learn Linux, the Firefox browser (as in I love tabs and the find function) brings with it a sniff of the alternative and an air of street cred.

As in, "I can't believe you still use Explorer." And "I'm sticking it to the man." (Of course we are doing this on a Windows operating system.)

Last week's wacko repents ...

I know I've relied a bit too much on other blogs out there lately and will attempt to nip that problem in the bud. Yet there has been an update on the wacko post, Billie's letter outraged many a reader, and she has since apologized for her offensive drivel.

You can read the letters and her response here. (You may have to scroll down a few posts. It should be at the top of Atrios' Thursday, January 27 entries.)

The sparrows ...

This is one of the funnier discussions I've seen up over at Testy Copyeditors. Talk about bad writing. Jeebus!

In politics, every day is a new day!

Well, Kaohsiung Mayor Frank Hsieh has been named as President Chen Shui-bian's pick for the premier post. Though the rumors have been flying about for over a week, a number of people have tilted their heads and said, "I thought Chen didn't even like Hsieh, that they didn't get along. They are from different party factions." (Or something to that effect.)

So, I mentioned this today to a government official, and he just laughed and waved his hand at my naivite. "You know in politics, yesterday is just that, yesterday. Old enemies can become friends overnight."

If you want to check out Bloomberg's account on the Hsieh appointment, here it is.

In Vino Veritas ...

When Republicans party, they let it all hang out. A piece in the Washington Post on inauguration balls covers this morsel:

Though there was no official poem for the occasion, impressionist Rich Little, emceeing the Constitution Ball at the Hilton Washington, did provide a bit of inaugural doggerel.

The gist of it was: "Let's get together, let bitterness pass, I'll hug your elephant, you kiss my ass!" And the crowd went crazy.

Little said he missed and adored the late President Ronald Reagan and "I wish he was here tonight, but as a matter of fact he is," and he proceeded to impersonate Reagan, saying, "You know, somebody asked me, 'Do you think the war on poverty is over?' I said, 'Yes, the poor lost.' " The crowd went wild.

I first saw this at Daily Kos, the site says it comes from David Corn and of course, here is the Washington Post link.

Some bloggers I like, but don't have on my list.

Steve Gillard, Jesus General and fafblog.

Wackos, they are out there.

Atrios posted this up at Eschaton, but I have yet to figure out how to link individual posts on his site unless they are already in the archives, so I am posting the link here. A letter to the editor in Ridgecrest, California.

This is stunning in its ignorance and underlying theme. Free speech for only god-fearing Christians.

Chen Shui-bian hits back with brass knuckles or cotton candy?

Well, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot on this yet, but I'm sure we'll have more details tomorrow. The president says that if China passes its "anti-secession" law in March, then China would have unilaterally upset the status quo, thus giving Taiwan the right to hold a referendum on an "anti-annexation" law. What that law would entail is anyone's guess, but it's nice to know that the president will stand up to China after such a provocation. Then again, it's difficult to say if this is substance or bluster. More here ...

The good news and the bad news ...

The bad news first: Taiwan has lost yet another diplomatic ally as Grenada switches its allegiance to China. Officials in Grenada said that Taiwan didn't take the realtionship very seriously. More here.

And the good news? The good news is that Taiwan has been taken off the "Special 301" list, meaning that the US is, for the nonce, convinced that Taiwan takes Intellectual Property Rights seriously. Here is the Taipei Times story.

Sacha Baron Cohen, also known as Ali G and Borat ...

I'd heard about this several months ago, but had yet to see it. Cohen as Borat, a TV host from Kazakhstan, sings a song to a group of regulars at a country-western bar. Cohen, a brilliant satirist, wants to see how the crowd reacts to a blatantly anti-semitic song. Seems like they warmed up to the idea. To see "Throw the Jew Down the Well" click on this link.

Cohen, despite the fact that he's Jewish, earned an admonishment from the anti-Defamation League for this stunt.

Seymour Hersh turns up the heat, again!

God bless the man. He just doesn't stop. Here is his story on the Bush administration's plans for Iran, the mullahs and their nuclear program.

The Taipei Kid has a new look ...

I know that some who visit this site do so because they come here from there, so if that's the case, then this is old news. If it's not the case then get on over there and take a gander. Go on, go. Oh, you will need the link, won't you?

On why Beijing gets nervous ...

when old party members die. 1976 and 1989. More here.

Nice Saturday piece for all the romantics out there ...

In the Guardian.

On the save Social Security boondoggle ...

I haven't written a thing about this, and there are many who understand it far better than I. But one thing seems certain, the Bush administration, as a hallmark of his second term, fully intends to try to convince the American people that Social Security is approaching full-blown crisis stage and that if we don't do something fast (as in privatize so money managers can skim huge percentages off the accounts), then the whole thing will fall apart. This assertion avoids the uncomfortable fact that Social Security will be able to pay out full benefits without any adjustments until 2042.

Just as he sold the American people on the Iraq war, Bush is content to distort, lie, obfuscate and play the shell game in order to get the public on his side. Luckily, not as many of the fish are biting. The AARP has come out against Bush's plan, and now there are a number of Republicans who are lining up to say "Hell No."

Here, in the New York Times, Paul Krugman tells us what happens when such a system is privatized.

It could happen to you, it could happen to me ...

Oh, fer fuck's sake, this is the third time I've written this entry. Hope this time it's a go.

Yikes! You too could soon be fired for slagging off your boss or colleagues in your blog. Well, not yet exactly, but if Waterstone's Bookstores has their way, you may end up looking down the barrel of a gun for having written less than flattering comments about the people who sign your checks. So put that ladle of scorn back in the cupboard and get ready to do some righteous PR! More in this Guardian article.

Late night blogging because there will be no time tomorrow ....

I've been laid up in bed for the better part of the week with a bout of bronchitis, a sort of New Year's welcome for lack of sleep and chilly weather. During that time though, I've had the opportunity to get through a few books. One I would heartily recommend is Janet Malcolm's "The Journalist and the Murderer." Anyone interested in the ethical dilemmma that journalism presents would find this book a provoking read.

I've also been reading, but have yet to finish, Robert Caro's book "The Power Broker" about what Robert Moses did to make New York City what it is today. And I also raced through "Where the Money Is," a true crime memoir by a former bank robbery expert with the FBI. This kind of stuff isn't usually my cup of tea, but I have enjoyed watching how the book was crafted by the crime journalist who coauthored the book.

That's it for now.