Freedom from sabotage
Dear Johnny,
Someone has sabotaged your viewer counter. When I first saw your article “Hogwash + whitewash = whiteout” (Feb. 21, page 8) and saw that I was the first reader, I couldn’t and wouldn’t believe it, so I opened three different browsers and went back to the column. Yup, zero views.
Now, if you get paid by the number of views your column gets, your paycheck is going to be a big fat NT$0. I am a US-based fan and look for your latest column all the time. I worry your boss is going to get pressure from the “Ma Mob” to silence “The Neihoo Dragon” — and one of the last democratic voices in Taiwan will disappear.
But even Taiwan may disappear if the editorial writer at the China Post who wrote the editorial “Freedom, the natural enemy of Taiwan’s independence” (Feb. 20) has his or her way.
I would only ask: Freedom to be a communist? Freedom to not be Taiwanese? These are not good choices as far as I can see.
Johnny ... you’ve got a lot of work to do.
D. BUTLER
Johnny replies: Look, D, I have as much computer literacy as a skink and even less interest. What I can tell you is that I am not paid by page views, but if I were I would ensure that the words “teen sex” appeared in all of the titles.
Do you doubt this wisdom? Look up my archive.
As for the unholy United Front that threatens us all, you’re right: I have a lot of work to do. Starting with finding a skink willing to teach me about computers.
Stupidification
Dear Johnny,
On the Taipei Times story “Environmentalist aims to fight desert’s expansion” (March 18, page 4), I would like to know more about Wender Yang (楊文德), this bold “Taiwanese” who cares so much for China’s deserts. Doesn’t China care about Xinjiang or are the Chicoms so intelligent that they have to find a Taiwanese to work on their deserts?
His actions somehow remind me of the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation and its venerable master Cheng Yen (證嚴). When there is a disaster in China, the omnipresent blue-dressed benevolents of Tzu Chi always ask for money and make big donations to China!
They seem to overlook the Taiwan-China rivalry and forget that China spends so much money developing weapons and military plans to use them against Taiwan.
Okay, Buddhism’s message is love — but surely not stupidity.
I would suggest to Mr Yang and the Tzu Chi Foundation that they look after Taiwan’s ecological emergencies, poverty and other social problems. What about you, Johnny?
STEVE TSO
France
Johnny replies: Actually, I’m going to take a conciliatory stance on this one. Growing deserts are nobody’s friend, Steve, especially if they belong to a country next door.
And I think you’re being hard on the Tzu Chi people. Most of the recipients of their labors are victims of the state as well as the forces of nature.
Notable germanclature
Dear Johnny,
Excellent piece, mein Herr (“Abbreviated development, ROC on!”, March 7, page 8).
CECA, ECFA ... whatever. Excrement by any other name stinks just the same.
FREIHERR VON BELCHENPHART
Mount Vernon, Washington
Johnny replies: Silly me ... I thought this loyal reader was using a trick name until I came across Karl-Theodor Maria Nikolaus Johann Jacob Philipp Franz Joseph Sylvester Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg, the German economics and technology minister.
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