Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Do not sell Taiwan’s dignity off with its land

Ko Yu-fen 柯裕棻

When it comes to developing the tourism sector, Taiwan often finds itself in a clearly contradictory situation. On the one hand, Taiwanese envy the natural and tranquil beauty of the countryside in developed countries, while on the other hand, the nation’s own countryside is being destroyed as fast as possible, almost as if any area without large buildings, highways or large hotels is a sign of backwardness. However, there is nothing backward about a lack of large buildings and highways; what is backward is the lack of confidence this mode of thinking represents.

Citizen journalists want rights

Taipei Times

Civic and citizen journalist groups hold banners in front of the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday denouncing the legislature’s rules barring them from attending legislative committee meetings as unconstitutional.
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times

A group of citizen journalists yesterday demanded that the legislature uphold the Constitution by recognizing citizen journalism and allowing the public to attend legislative sessions after their attempt to cover legislative affairs was rejected.

As the nation’s top legislative body, the legislature should not violate the Constitution by barring citizen journalists and legislation session visits, several citizen journalists and dozens of representatives from civic groups said during their protest in front of the legislature in Taipei which coincided with Constitution Day.

China intensifies media war over Tibet self-immolations with new documentary

Phayul.com

DHARAMSHALA, December 26: China has intensified its propaganda blitzkrieg over the self-immolation protests in Tibet, this time with the release of a documentary which claims to “disclose the truth” about the protests.

According to Xinhua, the state news agency, the documentary titled ‘Facts About Self-Immolation in Tibetan Areas of Ngapa (Aba)’ was broadcast on CCTV-4, an international channel targeting overseas viewers of Chinese language on Sunday night. The documentary was later aired on CCTV's English, Spanish, French, Arabic, and Russian channels on Monday.

Ma keeps evading key issues

Taipei Times Editorial

In September, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) asked his Cabinet to improve the economy within three months. That period expires tomorrow. This promise has been as well kept as his other promises, like the one about selling the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) ill-gotten assets and the infamous “6-3-3” campaign pledge to deliver GDP growth of 6 percent, an unemployment rate of less than 3 percent and achieve a per capita income of more than US$30,000.

A Taiwan Thinktank survey showed that 95.7 percent of respondents believe this policy is just another bounced check, 84.7 percent think the economic situation this year was bad and 68.1 percent are finding it difficult to get a job. As many as 89.1 percent of those polled consider the poverty gap to be big, 84.9 percent are dissatisfied with their salaries, 72.8 percent think the tax system is unfair and 63.9 percent are pessimistic about the future.

More Articles...