Sunday, August 31, 2008

李嗣涔: President of the best university proved illiterate and hypocritical

2008-08-30: 中華聯合數位映像: 前總統陳水扁及兒子陳致中都是畢業於台大法律系,對於兩人學法玩法,最後甚至涉及洗錢風暴,台大校長: 首度以台大大家長身分,針對校友陳水扁父子對社會造成的不良影響,對外界道歉,同時還強調會加強學生的品德教育,希望不要再教出這樣的學生。

台大校長李嗣涔 is illiterate. If he had common sense, he would have known that 陳水扁 at the time of his statement was a suspect, but has not yet been indicted, let alone convicted. On what ground could he justify throwing stones at a suspect before he is proven guilty? Isn't this what his law school teaches, that one is innocent before proven guilty?

台大校長李嗣涔 is hypocritical. He was compelled to criticize an innocent alum, but never felt any need to condemn convicted felons such as 邱毅, or a morally bankrupt man like 馬英九. If he cares about education, he should lecture the news media on the social injustice of labeling 陳水扁's case 'Money Laundering' before any evidence has been found that his bank deposits came from illegal dealings. By definition, 馬英九's case was closer to 'Money Laundering' as public records showed that he deposited public funds into personal accounts. Yet 馬英九's case was never labelled as such and 台大校長李嗣涔 never felt any need to protest the unfairness of the treatments.

Why is our Wonderland so sick? The answer is obvious.

Friday, August 29, 2008

Vancouver Sun editorial speaks for the confused Wanderlanders

Here is an excerpt of the editorial, which is included at the end in its entirety:

Taiwan is a self-ruling entity, collecting taxes from and delivering services to its citizens. It has trade ties internationally and does more than its share at times of international crisis. Taiwan sent aid to China at the time of the Sichuan earthquake.

But China, with a veto on the UN Security Council, refuses to recognize Taiwan's independence and demands other countries do the same -- which they do, out of fear of losing trade with China.

So the world pretends Taiwan is not a nation, leaving it in a state of international limbo.

Meanwhile, Taiwan continues screaming the truth, describing itself a thriving, functioning democracy with its own elected government and standing military. It conducts is own foreign relations. Historically the nation has not -- even for so much as a single day -- been ruled by the People's Republic of China.

"Taiwan is an independent and sovereign state. No other individual or government can legitimately claim to represent the Taiwanese people any more than the U.S. can claim to represent the people of France."

--

Barbara Yaffe, Vancouver Sun

Published: Thursday, August 28, 2008

Taiwan has signalled a stunning shift in its long-standing bid to assert its sovereignty and independence from China.

In an attempt to appease Beijing, the small island country -- for the first time in 15 years -- has dropped its annual request to the United Nations for full membership.

Taiwan, controversially, is now asking only for participation in 19 UN-related agencies, bodies like the World Health Organization, the International Monetary Fund and the International Civil Aviation Organization.

The request coincides with the reconvening of the UN's General Assembly on Sept. 16.

The shift is a reflection of a strategy being deployed by Taiwan's new government. Last May the nationalist Democratic Progressive party government was replaced by the Chinese Nationalist party or KMT, which campaigned on improved Taiwanese relations with China.

Since then, the two countries have negotiated direct flights between their capitals. In the past, the connection was limited to transit through Hong Kong.

But tensions across the Taiwan Strait remain high and the KMT decision regarding UN membership is being met domestically with significant resistence.

"All in all, the latest UN approach misses the key point," huffed an Aug. 16 Taipei Times editorial, "which is working to have the people of Taiwan treated with respect and having their voice represented at the UN."

A Democratic Progressive party spokesman, Pan Meng-an, asserted that the new UN strategy has "broken the hearts of the Taiwanese people."

Beijing has reacted to the policy shift, with the Chinese ambassador to the UN, Wang Guangya, turning thumbs down: "The mainland and the Taiwan region are not yet reunited but the fact that the two sides belong to one and the same China has never changed."

Some background: Taiwan lost its United Nations seat in 1971 when the world body turned the China seat over to the People's Republic of China.

Taiwan marked nationhood in 1949 when, after a civil war on the mainland, KMT politicians set up their own headquarters in nearby Taipei, ruling by martial law and leaving China to be ruled by the Communists.

Taiwan made the transition to democracy in the late '90s and now stands as a freedom-loving, technologically advanced nation that is the world's 18th largest economy.

For its part, China insists Taiwan is a breakaway province. Beijing uses its trading clout to block Taiwan's bids for international membership.

A press release this week issued by Taiwan's diplomatic office in Vancouver, asserted: "It is the fundamental right of the Taiwanese people, including the 80,000 Taiwanese-Canadians residing in Greater Vancouver -- many of whom still maintain close ties with their families in Taiwan -- to be represented in the world's largest and most important international organization."

Taiwan is a self-ruling entity, collecting taxes from and delivering services to its citizens. It has trade ties internationally and does more than its share at times of international crisis. Taiwan sent aid to China at the time of the Sichuan earthquake.

But China, with a veto on the UN Security Council, refuses to recognize Taiwan's independence and demands other countries do the same -- which they do, out of fear of losing trade with China.

So the world pretends Taiwan is not a nation, leaving it in a state of international limbo.

Meanwhile, Taiwan continues screaming the truth, describing itself in its press release as "a thriving, functioning democracy with its own elected government and standing military. It conducts is own foreign relations. Historically the nation has not -- even for so much as a single day -- been ruled by the People's Republic of China.

"Taiwan is an independent and sovereign state. No other individual or government can legitimately claim to represent the Taiwanese people any more than the U.S. can claim to represent the people of France."

The Harper government has been unwilling to speak in support of Taiwan, fearful of a backlash from Canadians doing business in China.

But that should not prevent individual MPs who feel strongly about such things as freedom and reality from stepping forward to back Taiwan's legitimate quest to join the world's international bodies.

byaffe@vancouversun.com


Thursday, August 28, 2008

Wonderlanders defy logic and common sense

中國阻我參與UN 府:不能稱非善意. My first attempt at comprehending the incomprehensible 府:不能稱非善意 was to translate the whole thing into English: "China again blocked our attempt to get into UN; Our government stated that we should not regard China as being unkind." Damn right! This is much beyond being unkind! This is indescribable hostility. Hold it, what is so stunning is that the government spokesman 王郁琦 actually tried to say that China was OK! The government spokesman 王郁琦 was defending China. Is he a Chinese agent or worse, is our government a China proxy?

Another shocking news is 陸委會民調/53%民眾:北京對我不友善. Only 53% say China is unfriendly when China
  1. aims thousands of missiles at their friends and families. Do they care about their friends and families?
  2. claims that it owns their land
  3. openly hurt them in the SARS near-pandemic and openly prevented them from getting international assistance
  4. hurt them whenever it can. For example: because of China, Taiwan was rejected by WHO for the 11th times in 2008 after 11 attempts. China can't care less about Wonderlanders' health. Surpringly, neither do Wonderlanders themselves.
Do Wonderlanders consider China friendly to Tibetans? Will they consider genocide friendly or 'not really unkind' (不能稱非善意)?

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Foul-mouthed 邱毅

Celebrities talking irresponsibly and uncivilly is commonplace in the Wonderland. Here are excerpts of the infamous 邱毅 in his recent attack on 陳致中 and 黃睿靚:
陳致中 黃睿靚夫妻 賊公賊婆! ... 一定心裡有鬼 ... 不要再藉由挑眉、轉動眼珠、故做優雅來逃避問題 ... 不簽授權書一定是做賊心虛。

陳致中黃睿靚拒簽授權書 邱毅:做賊心虛: 中時電子報

扁家兒子陳致中、媳婦黃睿靚昨(二十五)日赴特偵組偵訊時,拒絕簽署查帳授權書,國民黨立委邱毅表示,這對夫妻真的是「賊公賊婆」,說要接受司法調查不是嘴巴講講就好,應拿出實際行動簽署海外銀行授權書,兩人不簽授權書一定是做賊心虛。

邱毅痛批,不管是吳淑珍堂哥吳景茂、堂嫂陳俊英、吳淑珍本人都不簽授權書,現在連主角黃睿靚跟陳志中也不簽,一定心裡有鬼,這樣叫什麼面對 司法,一定是做賊心虛。對於黃睿靚跟陳致中有很多質疑,希望黃睿靚跟陳致中要實問實答,不要再藉由挑眉、轉動眼珠、故做優雅來逃避問題。

邱毅說,黃、陳兩人在美國有多少財產,有沒有房子、車子、存款、投資?有沒有駕照?有沒有第三國護照?在銀行開戶、辦駕照是用哪一個護照?是用中華民國護照,還是邱毅派他辦公室主任去美國調查的時候看到的第三國護照?

--

Angered by this report, the Civilized Wonderlanders, an organization devoted to promoting civility, issued the following condemnation:

  1. 邱毅 should not call anyone 賊 unless he has evidence of thefts.
  2. 不要再藉由挑眉、轉動眼珠、故做優雅來逃避問題 ... OK. tell our citizens when they are allowed to move their eye balls and eyelids. Is it OK that their hearts beat 65 times? Please teach them how to be 優雅 naturally.
  3. 邱毅's existence proves the extreme sickness of our once beautiful land:
    • Expression like 賊公賊婆 is so uncivilized whose utterance should only be expected from the least educated. Yet, it came out of a 台大 Ph.D. and once a 台大 professor 邱毅.
    • 不簽授權書一定是做賊心虛 shows 邱毅 freely uses double standards. Why did he not likewise criticize 馬英九 and 李慶安 不簽授權書 for US citizenship investigation?
    • Instead of being shamed by 邱毅, news media treated him as if he is credible and respectable and uses him to poison our land.
    • Instead of being shocked by 邱毅, some Wonderlanders regard him as a hero, proving that ethics is now lost in many Wonderlanders.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Taiwan, the Wonderland!

Taiwan is the ultimate wonderland! In this land,
  1. People elected a Hong-Kong born, US permanent resident as its president in 2008. Once elected, this foreigner president stopped recognizing Taiwan as a country.
  2. The judicial system is controlled by a party called KMT, which uses it to persecute KMT's enemies 24 hours a day (for example, 陳水扁) and protect its friends (for example, 馬英九, 李慶安). To understand what this means, imagine USA's Justice Department is owned by the Republican Party and all judges are Republicans.
  3. The media is free to report what it likes to report and suppress what it does not. It is allowed to fabricate news and opinion polls. It is a common practice to mix news with commentaries so news and comments are not easily distinguishable.
  4. There is a referendum law in place since 2003 that was designed to fail any initiatives. Five years after its inception, nothing is able to pass. The wonderland people are overjoyed with their referendum right. Here is a proof: 方齋夜話:入聯公投同意率達94.01% 鳥籠公投法卻讓它無法過關- 樂多日誌
Let this be a humble start of an epic. I do not come close to Lewis Carroll's literary prowess. But I suspect my wonderland is beyond his wildest dreams that perhaps gives me some advantage. You can help with a guest blog or comments.