Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

TSU still against ractopamine after UN body accepts it

Taipei Times

The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) yesterday reiterated its opposition to the easing of a ban on residue of the livestock feed additive ractopamine in meat, despite the vote by a UN-affiliated food safety organization in favor of allowing certain levels of it.

On Thursday last week the Codex Alimentarius Commission in Rome, Italy, narrowly voted in favor of maximum residue levels (MRLs) of the additive.

Absolute power’s tendency to corrupt

Chiu Hei-yuan 瞿海源

During a recent Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Central Standing Committee meeting, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), said in response to the bribery scandal surrounding former Executive Yuan secretary-general Lin Yi-shih (林益世) that “regardless of how many people are involved in the case and regardless of rank, prosecutors and investigators must undertake a thorough investigation and use this case as an opportunity to get rid of all corruption.”

This all sounded nice and dignified, but he was in fact just saying what people wanted to hear, using empty phrases that are impossible to realize.

Fear not the great ‘brainwashing’

Taipei Times Editorial

Recent efforts by President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) government to emphasize Chinese studies in school curricula have led some people to warn of a possible “brainwashing” of the nation’s youth and the eventual dissolution of national identity. While the government’s measures are a cause for concern, their effectiveness in undermining Taiwanese identity is questionable.

No democracy without US support

Wu Li-pei 吳澧培

Modern Taiwan might appear to have the trappings of a democratic system — such as popular elections and political parties — but the sad truth is that the country’s political and judicial systems are being manipulated in such a way that elections in Taiwan are not free and fair. Without free and fair elections, Taiwan is not a fully functioning democracy.

In the past 70 years, Taiwan has transformed dramatically: from part of the Japanese empire, to an authoritarian state governed under martial law, to having a president elected by popular vote for the first time in 1996.

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