My Life as Adoga

This is a story worth investigating. It is a news item about a protest held in front of the government headquarters (the Executive Yuan) by a group of indigenous people who are facing forced removal from their squatters' village near the Kanjin Bridge in Taoyuan County. I do not know if this is the same community of aboriginal squatters that has annually, for at least the past decade, been "removed" from their riverside settlement by bulldozers only to return and rebuilt a few months later. Is this the same group that candidate Ma told: "We treat you like humans, so we hope you'll act like humans." Nice. Just days later the television showed scenes of riot police pushing away protesters and clearing the path for the big tear-down to begin. And yet the aboriginal peoples, by and large, still favor the fascist blues. Aborigines Protest to Remain on Land By Loa Iok-sin Published in the Taipei Times as " Aborigines Protest, Shave Heads " Friday, Feb ...

This editorial from the Taipei Times is worth repeating. A Slap in the Face of History Thursday, Feb 19, 2009, Page 8 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) caused an uproar this week by proposing that 228 Memorial Day no longer be a public holiday. Backtracking in the face of a wave of criticism from families, friends and sympathizers of 228 Massacre victims, Wu announced the following day that he would drop the proposal in the legislature. While the hubbub appears to have died down, the very fact that Wu thought he could submit such a proposal demonstrates an apparent ignorance of Taiwan’s history and a lack of respect for the country and its people. No history of Taiwan can be told without references to the 228 Massacre. The calamity could be billed as the darkest days in Taiwan’s post-World War II history. It left a deep imprint on the nation’s psyche and had a profound impact on the country’s development. It ushered in the White Terror, dur...

Is it any surprise that the concept failed?

KMT Aims to Reformat Democracy Out of Taiwan Taiwan News 2009-02-03 10:09 AM Shortly before the Lunar New Year holiday, the restored right-wing Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) government of President Ma Ying-jeou took actions that openly revealed its true core values. On Jan. 21, the Ministry of Education announced that the "Taiwan Democratic Memorial Hall" would be officially re-named the “Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hal" after the late KMT autocrat and to restore the former name of the complex, often referred to as the "Chiang Kai-shek Temple" which was built by the KMT martial law regime after his death in April 1975 and completed in 1980 at a cost to taxpayers of over NT$600 million. After announcing this decision in compliance with a resolution passed Jan. 15 by the KMT controlled Legislative Yuan, the military honor guard for the complex was also restored on Jan. 24. These actions culminate a series of moves by the Ma government and the KMT-controll...

It has long been my opinion that the DPP is doomed unless they are truly ready to re-establish themselves as a political party that puts concern for the people--and the issues that affect their lives--ahead of worries about "power" or "control." (Unfortunately, nobody's listening to me The DPP used to be the party that was associated with issues such as protecting the working class, the environment, human rights, etc. Then they got into power, and while so much good was done during their years of rule, the majority of the public never noticed the improvements. Indeed, with their dominance of the electronic media, the clever Kuomintang public relations people managed to connive the public into thinking that it was the KMT that was more concerned with the welfare of the nation's poorest and most disadvantaged. Now that they are in power, of course, the KMT is pushing through construction projects without debate about environmental actions, offering candy cash...

The photos offered here are taken in a small district within the larger municipality of Chao Tsou in Taiwan's Pingtung County.

At times it feels hopeless to imagine that the Chinese government will ever develop a sense of universal rights or even common decency. More proof of this from the following Associated Press article printed in the local Taipei Times newspaper on Sunday, February 08, 2009, Page 1. Days before China's human rights record comes under scrutiny before a UN panel, the government's grip on dissent seems as firm as ever. Government critics have been rounded up and some imprisoned on vaguely defined state security charges. Corruption whistleblowers have been bundled away, while discussion of sensitive political and social topics on the Internet remains tightly policed. On Friday, officers stationed outside a government building in Beijing took away at least eight people — members of a loosely organized group of 30 who had traveled to the capital from around the country seeking redress for various problems, almost all of them involving local corruption. One member of the group, Li Fengx...

On the way down the mountain, stopping to buy veggies from a roadside vendor, an old aboriginal woman who fed one stray dog and now has a pack following her all over... While my own "wild" dog waits in the car. Visiting a Buddhist temple that absolutely stinks of wealth...

A shot of the moon as worshipped by budding branches. When the bark is worse than the bite. New growth reaching to blue sky. Cactus in a crate. Fern struggling through a fence post. Dry and eerie branches. Daisies and a Ladybug. Finding a way through the old growth. Cherry blossoms as harbingers of Spring. A morning mist on the mountaintops. A mountainside scarred by the big earthquake.

Yesterday we drove to a mountaintop bed-and-breakfast somewhere in Nantou County. We were supposed to stay for two days, but Delia wasn't feeling well and that put us in the mind for leaving early. Had we stayed it would only have been to sit in the coffee shop where, while enjoying the view, I would also have spent a good deal of time "working." So, even when Delia recovered enough the next morning to make possible a second day, we nevertheless decided to go on to Kaohsiung to enjoy a few days visiting friends. The morning view from the coffee shop . A dam off in the distance. Apparently, Shangrila is closed. Feeling much better, thank you.