My Life as Adoga

Michael Turton has a very perceptive article that fits well with my previous posting, although he's a bit more professional than I. His blog, which is really worth visiting, can be found at: http://michaelturton.blogspot.com/ Wednesday, August 26, 2009 Ma Administration Typhoon Shock Doctrine In The Shock Doctrine Naomi Klein writes extensively on how governments use economic, natural, and social shocks to carry out social engineering that benefits elites while leaving ordinary individuals amid wrecked societies with decaying infrastructure, a smaller share of wealth, and diminished future prospects.* I've made this point before, but it is worth making again: the Ma government's response to the typhoon disaster in the south is identical to its response to the economic crisis last year. The only difference is in the speed of events. As I noted then , the crisis had been used by the Ma Administration in a classic shock doctrine way, as leverage to get the shellshocke...

In yesterday’s Taipei Times newspaper (August 18) I read more of the horrible blunder that led to almost a week’s delay in the request for and arrival of international relief aid to help rescue and assist victims of rain-swollen Typhoon Marakot, which devastated the southern half of the island nation on August 8, 2009. [ See: “ Back in Taiwan , Ou Apologizes… ” ] What I am reading yet again informs my suspicion that Taiwan ’s civil service machine, its deeply entrenched network of bureaucrats, remains a holdover of Chinese Nationalist colonialism whose purpose is contrary to the survival and well-being of Taiwan and its people. Yesterday’s news (August 18) reports Ministry of Foreign Affairs chief Francisco Ou as apologizing again for a memo instructing all overseas offices and embassies not to accept foreign aid other than cash. Minister Ou, in classic Nationalist Party (Kuomingtang--KMT) fashion, then tried to push the blame onto the shoulders of others. Why do I say “c...

Oh my goodness, the mess on my desk is that bad! I'm referring to the foot-high pile of papers and assorted documents that has been sitting there, well, for over a year according to the date on a news clipping I just unearthed midway through the pile. I see why I saved the article. I was inte rested in a front-page Taipei Times (4 December 2008) piece titled "Losheng Activists Block Demolition." The article is about the last holdouts of protesters and residents of the Losheng Leprosy Sanatorium in Taipei County (Sinjhuang City). The sanatorium was partially demolished to make way for an MRT line extension, despite protests and also despite promises from Ma the Incompetent who as a candidate promised to preserve the Japanese colonial era landmark (and the only home ever known by many or most of the patients). The quote that caught my eye was: "Sinjhuang Precinct Chief Hsu Yung-sheng said through a loudspeaker (to the students barricaded inside and protesters outside)...