Sunday, July 05, 2009

July 11 Meet Up News

Jerome sends around greetings and news of the meet up:

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To all,

A Happy July 4th for those of the USA, but actually for all since Independence Day marks a day of independence for all; the country is based on the premise of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness being rights of all. (unfortunately while rights they are not guarantees and have to be fought for regularly) but back to business for our topic relates to democracy, rights and Taiwan.

We will have our breakfast gathering on Saturday July 11, at 10 am at our usual place (see below)

The speaker is Maysing Yang, Vice President of the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy (TFD) -- both the foundation and Maysing have been in the news of late.

The topic: The Taiwan Foundation for Democracy, its purpose and aims; the reason for its establisment and its history; its past and current achievements.
and its future???

The venue is the same as it has been for the past months.
The meeting location is the restaurant 婷婷翠玉 at 174 AnHe Road, Section Two. (rough translation of name is Tender, Pretty Green Jade.) You will be able to tell the restaurant by the lace curtains on the window--it was used in a TV commercial a while back. (We will have the downstairs room--breakfast cost will range between NT$100 and NT$150. Phone if lost 2736-8510.

Restaurant is between Far Eastern Plaza Mall/Hotel and HePing East Road--about a half a block north of the corner of HePing East Road Sec. 3 and AnHe Road. or a half a block south of Far Eastern Plaza on the AnHe Road side.

Take the MRT Mucha Line to the Liuchangli Station exit there, and walk west on HePing East Road 3/4 of a block till you reach where AnHe Road dead-ends into it.Then go north on AnHe Road; it is a half a block up on the west side of that street.

Or take any bus down HePing East Road and get off at the first stop that is east of Tun Hua South Road. That will put you at the corner of HePing and AnHe.
You can also take a bus down Tun Hua South Road to the stop right across from Far Eastern Plaza and walk over to AnHe Road.
Or if you take the 235 bus east, it turns off of HePing onto AnHe Road and the first stop is right across from the restaurant.

To keep me abreast of headcount; let me know if you will be there.

A brief Background on Maysing Yang:

Blacklisted by the KMT she lived for more than 20 years in the USA, she was a human rights activist for the democratization on Taiwan and testified twice before the Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives, U.S.A. on the issue of democratization on Taiwan. (1987, 1991)

Returning to Taiwan in 1992, she joined the opposition party to become the DPP Director of the Foreign Affairs.

Ms. Yang was also one of the most important founders of the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats (CALD) established in 1993. Members cover most of the South Asia and North Asia countries. CALD members share the basic values of liberal democracy with the strong conviction that these values will eventually contribute to better regional security and cooperation.

She served as vice chair in Research and Planning Board of MOFA, and worked closely with the Vice Minister, Michael Kau to establish Taiwan Foundation for Democracy in 2003 after the model of National Endowment for Democracy, USA.

Recent events as Ma Ying-jeou seeks to reshuffle the TFD have put her position in jeopardy, but you will have to come to hear about that.


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2 comments:

funnytoss said...

Hi Michael,

I was wondering how I would "get in on" the headcount if I was interested in participating.

Michael Turton said...

Just show up, there's usually enough space.

Michael