Month: October 2006

Don’t people have better things to do than complain about a five-day weekend*? OK, fine, the announcement was handled poorly, given only seven days in advance.  But everyone should know that this is Taiwan, and sometimes surprise announcements like that are made here.

But we’ve already bought our train tickets, critics of the government whined.  Now we have to make A PHONE CALL to reschedule.  Imagine that.  In addition, some students who were scheduled to take a National English exam next Saturday will now have to endure the terrible ordeal of taking it on the Sunday instead.  I can just imagine the wailing and the gnashing of teeth:

"My English test was postponed by an ENTIRE day!  Of all the fates on heaven and earth, why did this one have to befall ME?"

Let’s be honest: students aren’t going to complain about something like this.  Kwitcherbitchin, already.  You got a five-day weekend out of the deal, so lighten up.

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* The date of the Moon Festival is determined by the occurrence of the full moon according to the Chinese Lunar Calendar.  This year, it fell on a Friday (Oct 6th), so that made for an automatic 3-day weekend.  But Taiwan’s National Day, which always falls on October 10th, was only two days later.  So the government said, let’s give folks Monday off too, to make it a continuous 5-day holiday.

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UPDATE (Oct 16/06):  23 million people living in Taiwan, and the China Post can’t find ANY who are pleased that they had a five-day weekend last week?  Not a one?

More unhappy campers here.

Heh, heh.

…DPP lawmakers also accused Chiang Kai-shek of embezzling state funds, and provided some examples.

"On Jun 13, 1961, Chiang Kai-shek used NT$4,560 ($100 US)from state funds to buy milk powder imported from abroad.  On June 14, 1963, he used NT$1,676 ($50 US) to buy medicines, picles and cigarettes, among other items.  On Sept. 14, 1973, NT$18,265 ($550 US) was used by Chiang for his grandson Chiang Hsiao-yung’s wedding photos," [legislator] Kuan [Bi-ling] said.

Does this mean Shih Ming-teh’s "anti-corruption" red shirts will start demanding the removal of the generalissimo’s statue from public places in Taiwan?

Not bloody likely.

President Chen recently visited Taiwan’s Military Police Academy, and was warmly received.  Maybe too warmly, it seems:

…we were surprised and shocked to see footage of the cadets being led in bizarre cheers for President Chen, including calling the president a "handsome boy" and "my chocolate".

The China Post denounces this as toadyism and a breach of the military’s political neutrality.  As far as I’m concerned though, being called "handsome boy" and "my chocolate" by a group of armed men in uniform sounds a lot more creepy than flattering, any day.

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UPDATE (Oct 12/06):  In the impartial style that it calls it’s own, the China Post reports how these cheers were later repeated during Taiwan’s National Day:

[When Chen Shui-bian appeared at the ceremonies,] opposition leaders [taunted him with] the toadying mumbo jumbo of Military Police Academy cadets: "President, President, you’re my chocolate!"

I can’t help but think that the officers of the Academy deliberately ordered the initial chants because they knew how ridiculous they were, and they knew the mockery the president would subsequently be subjected to.

Been hearing a lot of local aquaintances talking about Wang Chien-ming, a Taiwanese who pitches for the New York Yankees.  Not a big baseball fan myself, but I guess it takes everyone’s minds off the current anti-[President] Chen rallies.

(Wang Chien-ming photo from AG’s Blog.)

Well…it doesn’t take EVERYONE’S mind off the anti-Chen movement.  For the China Post, Wang’s success is nothing more than a cudgel to beat President Chen over the head with:

All of a sudden, Wang [Chien-ming] has become a national hero…He has put Taiwan on the map, just as our little leaguers did three decades ago when they won LL World Series year after year.  Wang Chien-ming is from the crop of Taiwan’s Little League baseball, like many others now playing in America’s Major Leagues.

But the cultivation of that crop in the 70s and 80s was done by dedicated government officials and diligent people, who worked single-mindedly for national development.  Had they been corrupt or lazy, the crop would not have yielded such a fine crop as Wang Chien-ming.

Like Wang, many of Taiwan’s proud products that have made this island rich and famous are the legacies of that older era, an era that is vilified by the current administration as authoritarian and corrupt.  What is ironic is that six years after the "son of Taiwan" siezed power and ruled this island as its imperial president, the people are taking to the streets to heave him out of office.

Whoa, hold on there, chumly.  The second paragraph quoted here is clearly implying that the government of a country with a great crop of international athletes is possessing of some great moral virtue.  The former Soviet Union gives the lie to that.

Second, it seems like a pretty big leap to suggest that Taiwan’s KMT government couldn’t possibly have been corrupt because Taiwan’s Little League happened to have been victorious a few years in succession.  Non sequitur, I believe that’s called.*

Third, let us all remember that Wang Chien-ming is a miracle of nature, one of the few men alive capable (given enough training) of throwing a baseball at 95 miles per hour.  And let us especially not forget that Wang got to where he is today through years of sweat, individual effort and practice.  It’s obscene for anyone to claim Wang Chien-ming’s success belongs to the KMT Party-State and not Wang Chien-ming.

Actually, I think there’s an irony here the editorial misses completely.  What’s the China Post‘s most common lament about Taiwanese society today?  That it’s losing it’s Confucian heritage.  And yet, what could be less Confucian than the KMT of the 70s and 80s encouraging kids to play baseball rather than study for school? 

I suspect that the advent of Taiwanese democracy changed all of that.  People were now FREE to indulge their own Confucian impulses, and preferred to send their children to cram schools rather than baseball camps.  Gone were the days of the government twisting parents’ arms to let the kids play ball instead of cracking the books.  It was actually the ADVANCEMENT of Taiwan’s Confucianism which led to the subsequent DIMINISHMENT of its Little League prowess.

That’s my theory, anyway.  Blow holes in it, if you like.

One of the implications of this is that the China Post‘s pessimistic conclusion is correct:  without authoritarian KMT government, Taiwan won’t have "new crops of young people like Wang Chien-ming."  So do I, along with the China Post, think "Taiwan won’t have a future"?

Hardly.  And the reason can be boiled down to one simple word: EXAMPLE.  Taiwanese parents at one time might have been reluctant to allow their children to spend time in Little League because they couldn’t see any future profit in it.  Today however, they have men such as Wang Chien-ming to provide them with examples of people who have succeeded – spectacularly so – in professional athletics.  The example of their success will provide the incentive for "the new crop."   What’s more, I think they’ll also provide examples for Taiwanese who want to explore other non-traditional occupational fields as well.  Which will only be to Taiwan’s benefit, because there’s a thousand paths to success in this old world of ours, and not all of them involve book larnin’.

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* It does bring to mind an apropos joke from p 174-175 of Keith B. Richburg’s Out of America:

An Asian and an African become friends while they are both attending graduate school in the West.  Years later, they each rise to become the finance minister of their respective countries.  One day, the African ventures to Asia to visit his old friend, and is startled by the Asian’s palatial home, the three Mercedes-Benzes in the circular drive, the swimming pool, the servants.

"My God!" the African exclaims.  "We were just poor students before!  How on earth can you now afford all this?"

And the Asian takes his African friend to the window and points to a sparkling new elevated highway in the distance.  "You see that toll road?" says the Asian, and then he proudly taps himself on the chest.  "Ten percent."  And the African nods approvingly.

A few years later, the Asian ventures to Africa, to return the visit to his old friend.  He finds the African living in a massive estate sprawling over several acres.  There’s a fleet of a dozen Mercedes-Benzes in the driveway, an indoor pool and tennis courts, an army of uniformed chaffeurs and servants.  "My God!" says the Asian.  "How on earth do you afford all this?"

This time the African takes his Asian friend to the window and points.  "You see that highway?" he asks.  But the Asian sees nothing, just an open field with a few cows grazing.

"I don’t see any highway," the Asian says, straining his eyes.

At this, the African smiles, taps himself on the chest, and boasts, "One hundred percent!"

I repeat this not because I think corruption is harmless, but because it illustrates the point that a certain level of corruption is indeed compatible with economic growth.  Or the success of a Little League baseball team.

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UPDATE:  This line cannot pass uncommented upon:

What is ironic is that six years after the "son of Taiwan" siezed power and ruled this island as its imperial president, the people are taking to the streets to heave him out of office.

Like it or not (and the China Post surely doesn’t), Chen received pluralties in not one, but TWO democratic elections.  That’s not "siezing power".

Furthermore, by definition, an imperial president is one who gets his way without any check or balance.  One can hardly be called an "imperial president" when most of your legislation has been tied up for six years by the opposition.  Chen’s more impotent than imperial.

Finally, it’s no more true to say that "the people" are taking to the streets to remove Chen from office than it is to say that "the people" are taking to the streets to defend him.  SOME do the former, OTHERS the latter.  If "the people" truly wanted Chen removed, then Chen’s OWN PARTY would have voted for his recall back in June under voter pressure.

UPDATE (Oct 10/06):  Michael Turton from The View from Taiwan ascribes Taiwan’s 70s and 80s Little League victories to neither diligence nor incorruptiblity, but instead, to rampant cheating.  If that’s true, then Taiwan’s Little League record since that time is actually a testament to a growing sense of fair play within the country.  The China Post often complains that Taiwan’s morality and ethics have declined since "the good old days"; this provides at least one case to indicate that the opposite may, in fact, have happened.

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Taiwan’s anti-[President] Chen protesters sure do speak a lot in military terms, which is a bit odd for a movement that bills itself as being about "peace and love".  On National Day (Oct 10), they’re going to "lay siege" to the Presidential Office Building.  To do that, they need "siege vehicles".  And and top of that, they’re now drawing up plans for an "attack":

…the campaign is considering four different plans of "attack," including asking protesters to conduct a sit-in around the Presidential Office, confronting the police near the cordoned-off area, pushing through [police] barricades or simply pretending to push through the barricades in a symbolic gesture.

They’re thinking about pushing through police barricades?  And what, pray tell, is the plan after that?  Sing "Kumbaya" while they confront the police and storm the Presidential Building?

Symbolic gestures like that are the ones which end up getting people hurt.

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UPDATE (Oct 12/06):  Correction:  The motto of the redshirts is actually, "Love, Peace and Non-Violence."  Whoops.