The Age out of Australia has an excellent piece on our divided island that refracts the island's identity politics and democratic transition through the life of Peter Huang, the would-be assassin of Chiang Ching-kuo who now heads Amnesty Taiwan. Huang would have made a second attempt at a nuclear power plant in Nevada, Linda Arrigo told me once, using a rifle with a specially made sight -- which still exists. The article is long and does a good job discussing the island's identity issues...PETER HUANG doesn't look like an assassin. His grey hair is thinning and as he talks he sometimes pauses, as if lost in thought. Then he apologises and says he's 72 and these days sees a geriatric specialist. But he's lively and his eyes glisten when he laughs. He chain smokes as he sips iced tea on a humid night in Taipei, Taiwan's capital.
With his shorts, sandals and backpack, his glasses perched on the end of his nose, Huang looks like a veteran human rights activist, which is what he is.
He heads Amnesty International in Taiwan, and he's just come from an all-day meeting of human rights groups. He apologises for being late, but says such meetings are often complicated by intense debate, where everyone insists on being heard.
[Taiwan]
