Dusting Off Lord Acton’s Dictum

“And remember, where you have a concentration of power in a few hands, all too frequently men with the mentality of gangsters get control. History has proven that. All power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

-Lord Acton

It may merely be a case of KMT bosses hyping their electoral chances, but there’s been some talk lately that Taiwan’s Chinese Nationalist Party might pick up a two-thirds majority in the upcoming legislative elections.  From today’s Taiwan News:

[Taiwanese president Chen Shui-bian] related that some rumors had claimed that the DPP would only win between 29 and 38 seats and observed that KMT leaders were "brimming with confidence" and expected to win a two-thirds majority, or at least 76 of the 113 seats in the new Legislative Yuan.

Chen elaborated a little on the consequences for Taiwan of the KMT winning so decisively:

…the DPP chairman warned that the "worst case" of the regaining by the KMT of absolute control over the Legislature "would not only be a grave setback for the DPP but will be a total defeat for Taiwan, democracy and justice."

The president said that the capture of a two-thirds Legislative majority by the KMT would cause Taiwan’s national status to retreat from the DPP’s position that "Taiwan and China constitute two countries, one on each side of the Taiwan Strait" to the KMT era of "one China and ultimate unification" as maintained by the KMT’s "National Unification Guidelines."

"Taiwan’s national survival and direction of development will face a 180-degree turn" and "’unification’ will no longer be impossible or a ridiculous ideological advocation but will become the accelerated policy goal of the Chinese Nationalist Party government," predicted Chen.

It’s a little surprising that Chen didn’t mention some of the more immediate effects of a two-thirds win by the KMT.  Dr. Joe Hung of Taiwan’s China Post has been good enough to reveal some of what could lie in store:

Should the KMT win a two-thirds majority or more, President Chen Shui-bian…might be recalled before he steps down on May 20.

Poor, naive soul I am.  Here I was, thinking the KMT had given up trying to recall Chen.  After all, the guy only has a few more months left in office.  But why let good old-fashioned practicality get in the way of political vendetta?

Now, it must be admitted that Chen leaving office a month or two early isn’t likely to make much difference in the grand scheme of things.  But what Hung fails to do is take the implications of this legislative power a step further: if the KMT can so easily dispose of President Chen with their hypothetical two-thirds majority, then they can just as easily do away with some OTHER successor president who has the misfortune of belonging to the "wrong" political party.

In other words, should the Taiwanese elect a legislature on January 12th composed of a KMT supermajority, they will have instantly rendered their March 20th presidential election an exercise in futility.  Vote for a KMT president, get a KMT president.  Vote for a DPP president – and you AGAIN get a KMT president.  Because the KMT both can and WILL recall that DPP president (and his vice-president) within a very short time after being elected.  Leaving the legislative speaker – a KMT man, of course – to assume the post of president.

(This might sound a bit crazy and conspiratorial to anyone unfamiliar with Taiwanese politics.  To those I would say, ’twasn’t me who wanted Chen recalled for abolishing a defunct unification committee that hadn’t met in seven years.  No, KMT members were the ones busy setting the bar that low.  Past being prologue, we can assume future KMT recall efforts will also be based on similarly flimsy grounds.)

Taiwanese polls are notoriously unreliable, and we’ll know in a few days just how well the Chinese Nationalist Party fares.  But give the KMT the power of automatic presidential recall via a two-thirds majority?  I wouldn’t even trust MYSELF to wield that kind of power responsibly over my political opponents – much less a party that had recently presided over 40 years of martial law.

Giving Putin His Props

He may be a polonium-poisoning, vote-rigging, opposition-jailing despot…but Vlad the Cad DOES know how to pick ’em.  For the State Duma, I mean.

First off, meet Alina Kabayeva, 24-year old former gymnast and newly-elected legislator from the United Russia Party.  She enjoys quiet, candle-lit dinners, long walks on the beach, and rolling around naked on synthetic animal fur.

Russian gymnast (and Putin legislator) Alina Kabayeva lying naked in fake fur.

Next up, let’s give another warm welcome to Alina’s distinguished parlimentary colleague, Svetlana Khorkina. A seven time Olympic medal-winning gymnast, cerebral Svetlana enjoys reading, debating new laws, and, from the looks of things, the occasional wardrobe malfunction.

Russian gymnast (and Putin legislator) Svetlana Khorkina poses with her shirt open.

Tyranny may indeed be the ugliest form of government…but Putin, the old dog, is sure doing his level best to persuade us otherwise!

(Photos from The Sun.  Hat tip to the Brussels Journal)

UPDATE:  The Times of London confirms the story, sans photos.  Now, just what sort of sick, twisted editor would run an article like this without any PICTURES?

UPDATE (Apr 19/08):  Rumors that Putin may divorce his 50 year-old wife and marry Alina Kabaeva.  I’m impressed, dude!

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The Writing On The Wall

[Warning:  This is a serious post.  If you’ve already seen the Jan 2 entry, you might want to take a cold shower or something before giving this a read.]

Taiwan’s vice-president feels the need to ask the electorate to forgive her party’s recent missteps.  Which would seem to augur poorly for her party’s chances, given that the legislative elections are only 12 days from now…

Vice-President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) yesterday blasted the Ministry of Education over its "manhandling" of the re-emplacement of the inscription at National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall, saying she was sorry the project had been handled without consideration of public sentiment.

At an election rally in Jhonghe, Lu, the first Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) heavyweight to criticize Minister of Education Tu Cheng-sheng’s (杜正勝) decisions regarding the hall, said the minister should be blamed for DPP’s recent waning popularity. 

"From my observations, the ministry’s mishandling of the former CKS Hall issue was a major blow to the party’s support over the past few months. Tu must apologize to the public for not handling the matter in a more genteel and agreeable manner," she said.  [emphasis added]

Time to play pin the tail on the scapegoat.  Yes, Tu engaged in some regrettable and counter-productive name-calling, but there are plenty of other people responsible for the independence party’s fall in fortunes – not the least of whom would be Lu’s boss, President Chen Shui-bian.  (Bit hard for her to blame the big guy in public, though.)

Anyways, let’s not forget the circumstances here.  Recall that the Taiwanese Central Government:

  • paid for 240,000 meters of prime real-estate in central Taipei *
  • paid for the construction of a monument to Chiang Kai-shek
  • paid yearly for the maintenance and upkeep of said monument

Then one day, after making this sizable investment, the national government decided it wanted out of the dictator-glorification business.  So it tried to rename the hall.  At which point, the Taipei City government said, not so fast.  We love CKS, and we WANT him glorified.  But instead of making the national government a fair market-value offer on the property so that the monument could continue to send this message, the city government decided to take the cheap and confiscatory route instead:

We hereby proclaim Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall to be a temporary historical site, they said.  The national government may still "own" it in some kind of legalistic sense, but from now on, we in City Hall, WE will control it.  Don’t even think of damaging or desecrating this ancient (27 year-old) artifact – not a SINGLE nail may be used to hang a new sign, nor a single old name-plate be removed.  And just to show you we mean business, we’ll call out the police and set up road blocks to prevent anybody from doing so.

(My, political speech sure is grand.  And cheap too, when it’s on someone else’s nickel!)

At this point the central government said, playtime’s over, and sent the national police to protect the folks sent in to change the name on the door.

In a nutshell, THOSE were the circumstances under which Tu said what he said.  He may not have been "genteel and agreeable," but it’s not always easy being "genteel and agreeable" when you’re in the middle of a good, old-fashioned showdown.

POSTSCRIPT: During the standoff, I often thought that both sides should have asked a court to decide who has jurisdiction over the monument.  (Based on purely libertarian principles, I think the national government had the stronger case.)  Surely that should have been the FIRST step, instead of the face-saving FINAL one, taken by City Hall only after it had already backed down.

(On the other hand, you might argue it was wise the courts weren’t involved.  Because no matter WHAT the judge’s ruling, someone was bound to be disappointed, and the court’s political impartiality would have been subsequently questioned by one side or the other.)

Leaving that aside, I wonder whether this affair hasn’t filled Taiwanese businessmen with a certain sense of unease.  After all, they just witnessed City Hall arbitrarily declare the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall a temporary historical site.  They know Taipei was busy spending big bucks finding a panel of "experts" to testify in favor of that ruling.  And if those businessmen happened to be CKS fans, no doubt they were busy applauding.

But here’s the thing:  if City Hall can do that to a 27 year-old monument belonging to the national government, why can’t it do the same to a 27 year-old FACTORY belonging to YOU as well?

Just think of the shakedown possibilities here:  "Hello Mr. Businessman, we’d like an especially LARGE campaign contribution from you this year.  And if we don’t get it, maybe we’ll announce your shop is a temporary historical site.  (We’ve done it before, you may have noticed.)  Now, don’t let the process worry you – we’ll just spend THE NEXT YEAR assembling a group of "experts" who’ll decide whether or not to make that status permanent.  In the meantime, please don’t forget you’re forbidden by law from making ANY changes to the building’s interior or exterior."

"Terribly sorry if that puts a crimp in your operations, old bean, but this is our precious historical heritage we’re talking about!"

As I see it, the only defense a businessman would ever have in that scenario would be public opinion.  And were I in his shoes, I’d be very uncomfortable having my investments protected by anything so fickle.

* Or stole.  Stole it fair and square, the KMT will have you know!

Puttin’ Away The Christmas Music

As is my wont, I picked up another boatload of Christmas CDs again this year.  Favorites were:

#1.  We Three Kings – Reverend Horton Heat

Christmas tunes done in Southern Rock style – wow!  Highlights include Frosty the Snowman, as well as instrumental versions of Jingle Bells, We Three Kings, and Winter Wonderland.   But best track would have to be What Child is This – a bizarro musical cross between Greensleeves and Ghost Riders in the Night.

#2.  Dig That Crazy Christmas – Brian Setzer

There’s no dishonor in placing second after the Rev.  Great jump blues versions of Angels We Have Heard on High, Let it Snow! Let it Snow!  Let it Snow!, My Favorite Things, and Jingle Bell Rock.  In addition, Gettin’ in the Mood (for Christmas) has some very fun lyrics set to Glenn Miller’s In the Mood.

(Didn’t much care for Setzer’s version of You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch, but on the other hand, his ‘Zat You, Santa Claus? hits the spirit of the song a bit more precisely than Louis Armstrong’s.)

#3.  The Venture’s Christmas Album

Instrumental Christmas music – 60’s surf style.  Nice versions of Sleigh Ride, What Child is This (titled Snowflakes on the album), Blue Christmas, We Wish You a Merry Christmas as well as White Christmas.

#4.  Cool Yule – Bette Midler

Pretty good stuff.  The title track bops along cheerfully – but it’s Midler’s very fun Mele Kalikimaka that really knocks me out.

#5.  A Perry Como Christmas

Taken as a whole, this album is far too slow for my taste, so it’s stretching things to call this a favorite.  However, some tunes will sound great on my compilation CDs, including Christmas Dream, My Favorite Things, (There’s No Place Like) Home for the Holidays, Here We Come a-Caroling and O Holy Night.

Postscript:  Purchased A Jolly Christmas from Frank Sinatra at the last minute, and only had time to listen to it once – so I can’t honestly rate it.  Only mention it at all because there was this interesting bit of trivia in the liner notes:

The stirring music [to Hark! The Herald Angels Sing] is by composer Felix Mendelssohn, who originally had it written as part of a choral work commemorating the Tercentenary of John Gutenberg’s invention of printing.

Wikipedia confirms the melody was never intended for Christmas use.  Well, I’ll be!

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas this year.  And if you’re living in Taiwan and you didn’t get any turkey, cheer up.  Your local 7-11 might still have some of this DELIGHTFUL poultry-flavored substitute in stock:

Roasted turkey-flavored Doritos tortilla chips.

(Photo by The Foreigner)

UPDATE:  There were other Christmas CDs I could’ve said good things about, but I’d hardly consider them favorites.  (While at the opposite end of the spectrum, The New Andy Williams Christmas Album was just about the only purchase I completely regretted.  Sorry – didn’t do anything for me.)

One final note: am I the only one greatly disturbed by the sight of Billy Idol singing Jingle Bell Rock?

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Not To Be Nitpicky, But…

Saw this Reuters story in one of the local Taiwanese papers sometime within the last week, and didn’t think this should go uncorrected:

Upcoming elections in Taiwan, with lawmakers keen to appear firm on defence, nudged parliament to pass the most extensive arms budget in years, including funds to produce a missile that can strike China.

[…]

The KMT initially threatened to slash the budget for the Hsiung Feng missiles but eventually passed one third of the T$3.84 billion (US$118 million) sought for 2008, and froze the rest.

The missile, early versions of which have already been built, is being domestically developed and is believed to have a range of about 600 km (400 miles), making it capable of striking cities as far away as Shanghai.   [emphasis added]

The Hsiung Feng IIE is a cruise missile, and is probably pretty accurate, even if one discounts its advertised accuracy of one meter.  Unlikely that something like that would be pointed at CITIES and employed as a crude weapon of terror against civilians.

By a democracy that cares about world opinion, at any rate.

Upstage ME, Will Ya?

Best Taiwanese photo of the year, IMHO.  And the kicker is that someone told me the shot was taken when KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou was having a serious discussion with reporters about Sino-Taiwanese relations.

(Because nothing, but nothing says, "Gravitas," to voters more than a politician talking foreign policy…in his bright red Santa suit.)

Christmas At Sea

by Robert Louis Stevenson

The sheets were frozen hard, and they cut the naked hand;
The decks were like a slide, where a seamen scarce could stand;
The wind was a nor’wester, blowing squally off the sea;
And cliffs and spouting breakers were the only things a-lee.

They heard the surf a-roaring before the break of day;
But ’twas only with the peep of light we saw how ill we lay.
We tumbled every hand on deck instanter, with a shout,
And we gave her the maintops’l, and stood by to go about.

All day we tacked and tacked between the South Head and the North;
All day we hauled the frozen sheets, and got no further forth;
All day as cold as charity, in bitter pain and dread,
For very life and nature we tacked from head to head.

We gave the South a wider berth, for there the tide-race roared;
But every tack we made we brought the North Head close aboard:
So’s we saw the cliffs and houses, and the breakers running high,
And the coastguard in his garden, with his glass against his eye.

The frost was on the village roofs as white as ocean foam;
The good red fires were burning bright in every ‘long-shore home;
The windows sparkled clear, and the chimneys volleyed out;
And I vow we sniffed the victuals as the vessel went about.

The bells upon the church were rung with a mighty jovial cheer;
For it’s just that I should tell you how (of all days in the year)
This day of our adversity was blessed Christmas morn,
And the house above the coastguard’s was the house where I was born.

O well I saw the pleasant room, the pleasant faces there,
My mother’s silver spectacles, my father’s silver hair;
And well I saw the firelight, like a flight of homely elves,
Go dancing round the china-plates that stand upon the shelves!

And well I knew the talk they had, the talk that was of me,
Of the shadow on the household and the son that went to sea;
And O the wicked fool I seemed, in every kind of way,
To be here and hauling frozen ropes on blessed Christmas Day.

They lit the high sea-light, and the dark began to fall.
"All hands to loose topgallant sails," I heard the captain call.
"By the Lord, she’ll never stand it," our first mate Jackson cried.
…"It’s the one way or the other, Mr. Jackson," he replied.

She staggered to her bearings, but the sails were new and good,
And the ship smelt up to windward just as though she understood.
As the winter’s day was ending, in the entry of the night,
We cleared the weary headland, and passed below the light.

And they heaved a mighty breath, every soul on board but me,
As they saw her nose again pointing handsome out to sea;
But all that I could think of, in the darkness and the cold,
Was just that I was leaving home and my folks were growing old.

What Does Santa Claus Say When He Gets To Taiwan?

Hao, Hao, Hao!*

Chinese terracotta warrior dressed as Santa Claus. From Taoyuan, Taiwan.

(Terracotta Warrior Santa from Taoyuan Furniture Store.  Photo by The Foreigner.)

Those interested for related shots might also want to check out this fellow’s compilation of The Top Ten Strange Santas from Japan.   Liked what commenter #4 at Neatorama had to say about them:

Wait a minute…we turn a Turkish bishop into a red-suited fat elf who lives at the North Pole and flies reindeer around the world and you wanna argue that the Japanese are the ones who got it wrong?

Touche’!

* Mandarin for good, good, good.

UPDATE (Dec 30/07):  This December’s political correctness news was that a store in Australia insisted its Santas say, "Ha, ha, ha," because prostitutes might find the more traditional "Ho, ho, ho," offensive.

If this is true, then someone obviously needs to be packed off to sensitivity re-education camp.  Because as John Derbyshire points out, the new laugh is **GROSSLY OFFENSIVE** to members of the Hha-ha ethnic minority.

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Spy For China? Get A Free Trip To The Fatherland!

From the Dec 21st ed of the Washington Times:

China’s intelligence service gained access to a secret National Security Agency listening post in Hawaii through a Chinese-language translation service, according to U.S. intelligence officials.

[…]

According to officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity, China’s Ministry of State Security, the main civilian spy service, carried out the operations by setting up a Chinese translation service in Hawaii that represented itself as a U.S.-origin company.

The ruse led to classified contracts with the Navy and NSA to translate some of the hundreds of thousands of intercepted communications gathered by NSA’s network of listening posts, aircraft and ships.

[…]

China’s intelligence service used intelligence officers and supporters to identify Chinese Americans with access to secrets who would be approached and offered free visits to China, often to meet relatives. The Chinese would then use the visit to attempt to recruit the Americans as spies.  [emphasis added]

Wretchard has more at the Belmont Club.