Another round of links for the week.... I moved the islands stuff to the post above, tons of it this week....
BLOGS:
- Cycling updates from Drew: Fight cancer, rest your junk on a mountain of trash
- A manifesto for Taiwan's youth
- Proposed legislation will actually enable Kuomintang to hide its assets: "However, critics say, a glaring loophole exists which would allow assets to be placed in opaque trusts, a move that would turn into farce numerous pledges by President Ma Ying-jeou of the KMT to level Taiwan’s political playing field.".
- Criterium racing in Taiwan
- Jiufen: overhyped lamps, underhyped views
- Interactions of Introduced Anoles and Native Agamids in Taiwan
- A proposal for the new terminal in Keelung, whose port is being developed as a major tourist port.
- China's demographic bombshell: in 2010 China actually passed the tipping point.
- China production hits three-year low
- AP on Matsu: it's going to be a $2 billion bonanza! ROFL. Please! The island will see little; the money will be shipped elsewhere, and Taiwan taxpayers will foot the bill. In any case Matsu is just a stepping stone to Jinmen....
- Government thinking about marine park for three northern islands
- A ferry for the Suao-Hualien run? What a great idea!
- Taipei must admit defeat in the arms race
- Taiwan Rail is suffering a shortage of train drivers and technicians
- Re those thugs from the Chinese consulate pressuring the Oregon town to have a mural removed; here are Japanese consular officials pressuring a town to have a comfort women monument removed.
- Queensland Taiwan festival, 22-23 of Sept
[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.
"Re those thugs from the Chinese consulate pressuring the Oregon town to have a mural removed; here are Japanese consular officials pressuring a town to have a comfort women monument removed."
ReplyDeleteThere is a crucial difference between the two cases. China was asking the government to force someone to remove the mural from their business's property. Japan was asking the government to remove the monument from the government's property.
In a democracy, the former request should be impossible to fulfill and is repugnant regardless of the content of the mural - whether the mural was celebrating Ghandi and MLK or Stalin and Che. People have rights.
But the appropriateness of the Japanese request depends on the message of the monument. It is entirely right for the government to decide what monuments it will erect and what monuments it will remove. Japan was asking the government to do something that is entirely within the proper scope of the government's power.
It's similar the difference between the government deciding what is appropriate criterion for its own hiring, firing, selling and purchasing, and the government deciding for everyone else what appropriate criterion is for hiring, firing, selling, and purchasing.