Politically correct pork
Dear Johnny,
Is saying "Happy Lunar New Year" politically correct nowadays in Taiwan or will a group of irate "trade unionists" attack me if I say it?
Also, if the coming year is the Year of the Pig, will it be possible to buy decent bacon instead of the crap streaky bacon sold here?
Pete Jones
Taipei
Johnny replies: I've never been one to advocate political correctness. But I've never been one to advocate political incorrectness either. The actual content of both are vulnerable to whoever has the power to induce guilt or outrage at any time.
But I can tell you that "Chinese New Year" is a politically incorrect expression at this newspaper, not just because Taiwan isn't part of China, but also because China is not the only state or national "culture" that marks the lunar calendar.
So if some demented "trade unionists" (politically polite code for pro-blue-camp labor bosses) take you to task for daring to name a calendar event after the moon, refer them to me and I will find out why it is exactly that the Republic of China is averse to politically correct pork.
Zero sum blame
Dear Johnny,
I saw an article on the front page of the Sept. 29 edition of the China Post that stated Taiwan (under the name "Republic of China") was "ousted" from the UN in 1971. From what I have read, this is not exactly true.
There was a proposal for both Taiwan and China to join the UN in 1971, but Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek (
The casual reader would get the impression that Taiwan was simply kicked out of the UN. Is there some reason this article glosses over the facts? Your clarification would be most appreciated.
Jeff Frazier
Taipei
Johnny replies: Sorry about the delay in replying, Jeff. The China Post is loath to cast Chiang and his kleptomaniacal clique in a bad light -- if it did, it would be dumping all over the Chinese Nationalist claim to Taiwan and it would have to rename itself the Taiwan Post. And yes, there is a debate about whether Chiang forfeited continued UN representation by playing a zero sum game instead of looking to the future. Then again, Chiang was never known for his insights into the currents of geopolitical thought.
But these things don't matter any more. As I've said before, Jeff, who cares about the UN? It can't save Darfur, Iraq or the bulk of their tormented residents, and it can't save Taiwan from future Chinese molestation.
Chiang got kicked out and richly deserved it. But he took the rest of us with him into purgatory, and if the UN can't atone for that, then to hell with it, as well as its gutless agencies like the WHO, and the rest of the drivel that passes for debate in the General Assembly.
And believe me, when UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon gets into the swing of things, we will be privileged witnesses to not only faux Inscrutable Oriental posturing, but also some of the most repulsive scenes of Sinofellatio yet seen at UN headquarters.
You'll be wishing Kofi Annan were still around as you dash off to buy a raincoat.
The Johnny Neihu Manual for the Identification of Dissembling UN Secretaries-GeneralTM can spot a China shill oceans away. And I tell you, the diagnostic results for this South Korean do not look very good at all.
In their New York Times bestseller How Democracies Die, Harvard political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt said that democracies today “may die at the hands not of generals but of elected leaders. Many government efforts to subvert democracy are ‘legal,’ in the sense that they are approved by the legislature or accepted by the courts. They may even be portrayed as efforts to improve democracy — making the judiciary more efficient, combating corruption, or cleaning up the electoral process.” Moreover, the two authors observe that those who denounce such legal threats to democracy are often “dismissed as exaggerating or
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus in the Legislative Yuan has made an internal decision to freeze NT$1.8 billion (US$54.7 million) of the indigenous submarine project’s NT$2 billion budget. This means that up to 90 percent of the budget cannot be utilized. It would only be accessible if the legislature agrees to lift the freeze sometime in the future. However, for Taiwan to construct its own submarines, it must rely on foreign support for several key pieces of equipment and technology. These foreign supporters would also be forced to endure significant pressure, infiltration and influence from Beijing. In other words,
“I compare the Communist Party to my mother,” sings a student at a boarding school in a Tibetan region of China’s Qinghai province. “If faith has a color,” others at a different school sing, “it would surely be Chinese red.” In a major story for the New York Times this month, Chris Buckley wrote about the forced placement of hundreds of thousands of Tibetan children in boarding schools, where many suffer physical and psychological abuse. Separating these children from their families, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) aims to substitute itself for their parents and for their religion. Buckley’s reporting is
Last week, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), together holding more than half of the legislative seats, cut about NT$94 billion (US$2.85 billion) from the yearly budget. The cuts include 60 percent of the government’s advertising budget, 10 percent of administrative expenses, 3 percent of the military budget, and 60 percent of the international travel, overseas education and training allowances. In addition, the two parties have proposed freezing the budgets of many ministries and departments, including NT$1.8 billion from the Ministry of National Defense’s Indigenous Defense Submarine program — 90 percent of the program’s proposed
RSS