What's transparent on the blogs this week?
BLOGS:
- Asia Eye's weekly under the radar news
- Craig Ferguson has another image in the Nat Geo contest. Great job, Craig!
- Blame the Pirates, Not Washington, says J Michael
- Taiwan's first miniature golf venture?
- Richard goes to Youmeikeng Waterfall. Lovely.
- Taiwan in Cycles on the US military remembrance of a cyclist here.
- "I am crazy of your taste"
- The Teacher on Face and Guanxi
- Folk ceremonies: anti-drooling ceremonies.
- Peking Duck reviews Troy Parfitt's Why China Will Never Rule the World. My review should be up shortly.
- Stock market promises redux
- Hidden islands off Matsu: way cool
- Michael Fagan with an excellent post on his trip to Wushantou
- Kastner argues that saving the HSR will doom its profitability.
- As expected, President Ma picks Premier Wu as running mate. Yawn.
- Singapore asks Beijing to clarify territorial claims.
- Falungong-related TV to be carried on Chunghwa Telecom satellite.
- Taiwan-China air links to be increased.
- CSM: Taiwan opens up more to China, risks and benefits
- Taiwan export orders may exceed forecast.
- Religious stats + the government wants gods to give up their land holdings.
- Suicide rate among elderly appalling
- China's ghost towns and our economy
- SPECIAL: Taiwan now plays for Raiders.
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[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums! Delenda est, baby.
Good list this week. I especially got a good laugh from the Atlantic from "7 months ago experts felt the US would be in a strong recovery" and 12 things you need to know about Rick Perry.
ReplyDeleteHmm - is it correct that the Taiwanese vessel was stealing Fish in Somali territorial waters?
ReplyDeleteI appears as if a lot of Somalis join or support the pirates because the illegal fishing deprives them of their livelihood. If that's true the international community should not just hunt pirates but make sure the illegal fishing stops as well.
International community do something? ROFLMAO! Who the hell do you think benefits from illegal fishing, let's just pick out the big fish poachers like Russia, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, China and Spain. I'm sure there are a few more illegal fish poaching EU countries as well, most likely the Greeks and Portuguese are in on it too.
ReplyDeleteThey've been raping the coasts off of Africa for awhile now. They throw some coin in an EU bank acct at the corrupt rulers for fishing rights and then go about taking whatever they can.
Believing in the international community is like believing in fairies.
@Stefan - But if you blamed illegal fishermen (and the Taiwanese fleet is one of the worst in the world), then the Taipei Times editorial writers wouldn't be able to easily criticize the government. And in the world of Taiwan media, being able to blame the opposite side is more important than being accurate.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous: "But if you blamed illegal fishermen (and the Taiwanese fleet is one of the worst in the world), then the Taipei Times editorial writers wouldn't be able to easily criticize the government."
ReplyDeleteIf you'd actually read actually read the editorial, you'd see that (a) it says nobody's blameless, and (b) it points fingers mostly at Somali pirates, not the Ma government. Your facile accusations against Taiwanese media are no better than the claims you make against it.
I love this beetle picture! My son is into bugs recently, when I showed him your beetle picture, he couldn't believe its real!!
ReplyDeleteTaipei ren
@Anon 12.31
ReplyDeleteLet's see.
Taiwanese officials who are growing impatient with the US over the death of a Taiwanese ship captain earlier this year should think twice before lodging accusations
That opening is clearly criticizing Taiwanese officials.
Wu’s accidental death should not be used to drive a wedge between Taipei and Washington, which it threatens to do as senior Taiwanese officials signal their impatience.
That too.
It even says we should not forget that ultimately it was the Somali pirates, and not the officers on board the USS Stephen W. Groves or NATO members involved in counterpiracy efforts, who bear responsibility for his death.
The reasons the pirates started operating in the first place was from illegal fishing by other nations and dumping of pollutants. If you want to point to where the blame ultimately lies, you must go all the way. The editorial doesn't.
No one is blameless, that's true, but unless you're going to go to the source of piracy and the reasons for that, the blame lies with whoever pulled the trigger on the bullet that killed him. If those on the warship knew that an innocent hostage was onboard and opened fire anyway, they are equally in the wrong, and should be punished appropriately, whether that's under Taiwanese law or the ICC.
@Anon: "The reasons the pirates started operating in the first place was from illegal fishing by other nations and dumping of pollutants."
ReplyDeleteUh, no. The reason there are pirates on the coast off Somalia is because Somalia is a failed state that has been ravaged by civil war for decades. There is little, if any, government control on land, let alone out at sea.
The reason there's piracy, therefore, is the failure of the international community (and Somalis themselves) to resolve that conflict, which would require efforts that go well beyond the fiasco of the early 1990s.
I agree with you: we must go all the way, and all the way in this case means fixing Somalia.