News (Recent)

Check out 0:25 to 0:29. Nice metaphor.

The Back Stage Making Process of the DPP video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxTnJ2J1F1s&feature=related

It was hard making the video and all kinds of propaganda, but all the work is needed for every commercial to look good. But just be warned, not all the advertisement is true.

DPP video for the Magistrates Election

it corresponds with Nelson's post earlier

Toss-up Counties

In every election, there are toss-up counties that each side are battling for. These counties usually have almost equal supporting rate for each party's candidate

Keelung City: Keelung has always been ruled by the KMT. Of all magistrates, Hsieh Guan-yi, Lin Fan-wang, and more, all the way down to the current Chang Tong-rong, there has only been one DPP mayor: Lee Jing-yung. (Chang won re-election after Hsu Tsai-li's sudden death). Traditionally, Keelung city has a 6:4 KMT lead. But this year, things get a little different. DPP's Lin You-tsang is determined to advocate "youth" and "change" to the city people. Although he doesn't have a stable voter base, his slogans and several ads seem to attract many supporters, giving Chang a slightly harder time to lock his voter foundation. Others have slightly complained Chang for "digging roads" and "renovating streets", saying that these actions have disturbed the people. Will Chang successfully win re-electrion or will Lin bring another 4 years of DPP rule in this traditionally KMT ruled city?

Yilan County: In 2005, KMT successfully ended 16 years of DPP rule and elected its KMT Magistrate Lu Guo-hua, seeking relectrion on the 5th. According to past polls, KMT's Lu Guo-hua and DPP's challenger Lin tsong-hsien are leading each other from time to time but within 5% margins. Lu is known as "Yilan's Ma ying-jeou" and has an advantage as the current magistrate. But Lin attacked Lu by saying: out of 25 magistrate, Lu's approval rating ranks 17th. Lin also said Lu is unable to operate Yilan properly and unable to make Yilan prosper.

Hsinchu County: Originally, Hsinchu County had a 3:1 KMT lead, but after County Council Head Chang Bi-ching lost the primary in the KMT, she decided to run as an independent and was determined to win. She travelled through the county begging for support. Even current magistrate Zheng yung-jing supported her. To KMT's candidate Chiu jing-tsun, this battle is not easy at all. On DPP's side Pang Shau-Qin is hoping to win this election because of KMT's lack of uniity.

Hualien County: Hualien County had 60 years of KMT rule. But this county is now in danger. If fact, it has became a three-way election. KMT's Tu Li-hua won the primary against Fu kuen-qi, who signed up to run as a non-affliated but still rallying much support. Fu, originally a KMT legislator, is determined to build the Su Ao-Hualien Highway (Su-hua highway) because he has realized that the people need a safe way to travel, especially in times of crisis. There is also Chang Zi-ming, former deputy magistrate, vying for magistration in Hualien. Recently, Ma has been spending time in Hualien campaigning for Tu, but will his efforts pay off? No one knows until the 5th of December.

Chang hua County: In 2005, current magistrate Zuo Bo-yuan defeated DPP's Wong jing-zu. This year, both will face up against each other again. Although Zuo has the "incumbent advantage", Wong has been spending time in other positions governing Chang hua and is also a former magistrate. Ma hasn't been spending a whole lot of time here. It seems like he is confident that Zuo will win re-election. But no one knows until the 5th.

Note: This post is also in my blog for Asian Studies, even though the teacher did not require it.

KMT newest ad

County Magistrate Election in 10 days

There is only 10 days left until the fate of the magistrates contestants are revealed. Check this site for updates: http://election2009.yam.com/

KMT's latest campaign for 2009 Magistrate Election

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAcGCjYH5BA

Important notice: The Vigils of Reason have not been active for approximately one week and the death of our blog is closer and closer day by day. The fate of our community lies between the touches of our fingertips and our keyboard. So post, comment, and do what we can!

DPP Newest Ad

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD3uKZkBIqE&feature=topvideos

All comments are welcome.

South Korea troops on high alert after navy battle:

Article: China Post

Yesterday, the South Korean troops went into high alert after a cross fire engagement with the North Korea. Both Navy met at the west coast, after a short shoot-out with South Korea, the North Korea navy returned to their own sea region after being severely damaged. Both countries accuses each other for constantly crossing the border over the rich crab-fishing area. Earlier in Tuesday morning, a North Korean patrol boat crossed the sea border, South Korean patrol vessels then fired warning shots indirectly to trying and force the boat to return. But later on, the North Korean boat engage fire at the South Korean vessels, so South Korea had no choice but to open fire too, in result, the North Korean patrol boat was heavily damaged, no death casualties were reported. Political tension had boosted so much over the week; Obama will be visiting within a week, and this event just pulled the rope a bit tighter for the three nations. Some Analysts said the clash actually could have been accidental.

North Korea has DONE IT AGAIN! Just after everyone thought a launch of a pacific atmosphere had taken place between the two nations, North Korea blew it again; and this time its over a rich crab-fishing region in the ocean near west coast. North Korea has no body else to blame, how come these unfortunate things' origins always trace back to the NK? Coincidence? don't think so. We all know NK is just a like a time bomb, with the ability of going off anytime without even a slight warning, that is why they are to blame. North Korea wasn't smart either, they tried firing at the South Korean vessels when they have only one patrol boat on site while the South had around four "vessels". Obama was scheduled to meet with the North Korean officials within a week, but now tension had increased at such a rapid and dense pace that Obama's plans might fail himself in act of a pacifier. North Korea has no one to blame but themselves, Kim Jong II will need to either step down or start LONG-TERM negotiations with the outside nations, and set their citizens free (not like the government officials care a slight about their citizens). And if NK continues to act like an unpredictable bomb, the world really needs to start doing something, and the UN (piece of junk) needs to start forming decisions. First, China's leader (Wen Jiabao) and the prime minister of Russia (Vladimir Putin), Both have permanent seats in UN, NEEDS to stop permanently backing up and supplying military resources to the North. Permanent seats in the United Nations NEEDS to come into agreements. Again, a communist country has proved it's lack of trustworthiness and instability. Long Live Anti-Communism!

COMMON DICTATOR

In the manner of some other fellow vigil-holders, I am going to plagiarize my work for social studies (I realized after submitting the assignment that we were supposed to write only one paragraph):

Comparison of Holocaust and Oppression of Uyghurs

To fully understand certain entity's act, one must also evaluate its motivation in performing such an act. I think the Holocaust's purpose was simply to appease the general anti-semitism. Jews at the time were generally wealthier than the common German. Being of socialist roots, the Nazis associated, in demagogue fashion, the poverty and weakness of Germany to the affluence of Jews (a common bourgeois tactic of attaching actual social relations to irrelevant social constructs). Thus, the common Nazi depiction of Jews is that of some fat, well-dressed industrialist. As such, other artificially set-apart groups, such as Catholics, homosexuals, and communists, were also persecuted as a result of this German-centrist populism. The separation of these people from the human-ness of the majority Aryans, allowed for the countless atrocities that occurred during the Holocaust.

In the case of the Uyghur oppression, however, the ultimate goal is not of separation, but integration. The official Party rhetoric is not of Han superiority but rather of national solidarity. There are no propaganda posters showing rich Uyghurs stealing a poor Han peasant's money (though in reality the rich Han is probably stealing some poor Uyghur's money). The word "Chinese" in Party-speak does not refer to only the Han, but is instead an all-encompassing term integrating all 56 ethnic groups in China. In Xinjiang, children are taught Mandarin but are barred from any religion - does the exact same treatment not befall all other children in all other provinces? The Uyghurs in some areas are even "more equal" than the Han, being allowed more than one child per family. The Chinese unity, however, was intrinsically contradictory to the Uyghur traditions. The Amnesty International report states that "In the mid to late 1990s, Uighurs in the region experienced a sharp reversal in policy". This "reversal in policy" was caused by nothing else than actual separatist terrorist attacks such as the 1997 bus bombs in Urumqi. Attacks were quite frequent, including the recent riot again in Urumqi. The state uses these attacks as a reason to continue repression, sparking more unrest - continuing the justification for constant sinicization and erosion of traditional Uyghur culture.

However, while the Nazi/Gestapo/SS sought to end Semitic heritage through directly mass-murdering millions of Jews, the PRC is slightly subtler. Firstly, it establishes an "autonomous region" (which in effect is still under direct control by CPC bureaucrats). Also, news of the concentration camps slowly leaked out during the course of WWII, even when the SS worked hard to censor the murders. The PRC, on the contrary, simply ascribes the Uyghurs executed to be terrorists. On another level, while Jews were denied basic living necessities like water (Mrs. Ban went for forty days without water) or shelter (Mrs. Ban's family had to fit in another few families into their small home), Uyghurs are denied things higher on the Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Symbolically, Noemi's mother had her menorah forcefully taken from her, when in the Uyghurs' case the chance of religion is not even there. Public prayer and other expressions of Islam like head-coverings are banned. Also, the Uyghur language is suppressed in the prime arena of indoctrination of school. Culture in general is being washed away with masses of Han worker migrating to Xinjaing (the majority of the capital city Urumqi's population is Han). Also, the Nazi opposition to Jews and other "reactionary" groups were based solely on their inherent identity; the PRC suppression is a more utilitarian control of anything anti-PRC (such as underground churches or Falun Gong, in addition to Uyghur traditions). Still, with evaporated national identity, the Uyghurs then become part of the Chinese nationalism complex: both Jews and Uyghurs have been subject to the tyranny of the majority - or at least some misrepresentation of this majority.

Premier Wu Promises No New Taxes for Now

Yesterday, another talk made by our new Premier Wu Deng-Yi was on taxes. He argued that the environmental and green taxes, that have not been proposed yet, should come only gradually.

Since the economic downturn around two years ago, companies are still struggling to stand up, and more taxes would increase the "atomospheric weight" making it harder to rise.

As it may be obviously, small business owners and even individuals are only welcome to tax cuts and deeply detest tax raises, especially taxes, like this time, on petroleum and coal.

After making his point, Wu is a magician: "With Wu's guarantee, the weighted share price index on the stock market managed to make a minor gain of 2.20 points to 7753.52 points."

Head of Legislative Yuan, Wang, sounded nonchalant. He said that the Yuan will only discuss the bill if it is constructive, and when the time is mature

I think that Wu himself has fought many hard battles, and won and lost across the island. Upon being defeated by Hsieh in 3 elections ago on Kaohsiung, he was promoted to secretary. Then, he kept his position as Nantou Legislator. And the first day as Premier, DPP's three whips launched a vulgar verbal revolt on him. Wu himself is to be commended because he himself never gave up.

Campaigning Begins

With the 2009 County Magistrate Elections on the doorsteps of each party's headquarters, both Ma Ying-jeou and Tsai Ing-wen have made great efforts to ensure his or her party's "cleanness, anti-corruption, solidarity, diligence, and unselfish love of the people and land with the aim of winning". This election is actually very crucial because the results of this elections can greatly reflect Ma's administration, almost like a mid-term exams TASers will receive in December as well.

Today Ma went to the Central Advisory Commitee of the KMT. "Ma told the senior party members that the KMT aims to become a decent, clean, and diligent political party with love to the people" and stated that ones who go against voting rules will be punished. The DPP on the other hand called up Tsai and three Legislative Whips to disparage Ma's actions, stating that there had been too many violations since Ma was inauguarated as president of ROC. Tsai also expressed that this victory would lead to more future wins.

Personally, I believe this election would be more of an uphill battle for the KMT because not only has Typhoon Morakot baned Ma's reputation, but are the KMT members also vying for nominations, causing great internal conflict. KMT really needs to settle down its members so it can secure wins. DPP on the other hand, is more on a revival state but still needs to be aware of the plausible hardships that lay ahead.

Source: http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/national/national-news/2009/10/19/229154/Campaigning-begins.htm

Heavy Rains batter Yilan County Again

Yilan of the Taiwan East is known for its climate instability and constant floods due to typhoons. This time, the typhoon Parma has dislocated many and turned roads into rivers. The convenient Su Hua Expressway is closed down and many farmers are angry because they have to ship their goods down to Kaoshiung first then up to Taipei, increasing the cost of shipping and decreasing the value/quality of their goods.

County Magistrate Lu Guo-hua is seeing his change for re-election by his doorstep and must take immediate action to help the Yilan civilians lest he angers them. Last time in the 2005 County Magistrate elections, KMT replaced Yilan's and Taipei County's green fields with blue skies and hope to keep the skies blue in December.

Source: China Post

Nobel Peace Prize

President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,” a stunning honor that came less than nine months after he made United States history by becoming the country’s first African-American president. (quoted from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/10/world/10nobel.html)

It was given to Mr. Obama for his effort to rid the world of nuclear weapons, as stated in New York Times, but I wonder it means for the whole world to get rid of nuke weapons, or only for North Korea, and Iran.

The Nobel Prize committee said he created a new international climate. And that's because yes, of course, his smiley face works most of the time.

Obama will discuss for more Troops to Afghanistan

According to the white house spokesman, Obama will be discussing the number of troops needed in Afghanistan this Friday. The rise of violence in Afghanistan by the Taliban have let the Obama administration into another major challenge (as this is the 9th year of the war). The highest US commander in Afghanistan called for another 40,000 to put their counterinsurgency tactics into action. Later, he "informally" requested more resources during a talk with Obama last week. But some are saying that he is treating the informal request over the formal needs of more troops. But Obama's spokesman told the press that he was not considering such things and the formal request of more troops will come as first priority. Since the war had started, 865 American soldiers and 570 allied troops were killed in action, and the public support for the war had dropped sharply for the last past two years. "Our troops are waiting for an answer. The Afghan people are waiting. Our enemy, the Taliban, is not waiting" said Republican Ted Poe.

9 years had passed, thousands of soldiers had sacrificed for the country, and still the war is not over yet. And who is this to blame? The answer, the only answer, Bush. Due to the overreaction and unintelligent decisions of the Bush Administration, the citizens of the United States have to clean up the leftovers for them. What the Bush administration should have done instead was to just finish off Iraq and return. The problem with the USA is that they think themselves as the Big Brother, the global police, always telling what the world should do. And then look at their own country now, there's over taxation, racism, high job losses, health care and education failure, and then lastly a series of failed administrations. All the failed decisions results in major impact to the citizens.
So what I seriously suggest Obama to do is just let everything go, let Iraq and Afghan go, let the government there figure out themselves. Due to the great influence of the US, foreign countries also loss numerous lives while fighting alongside with the US troops. It is finally the time for the US to lower their heads and clean-up what they messed up when they started this "Vietnam" war.

Article Via CNN

DEFINITION HIJACKING

Today in social studies class I managed to bring up communism in the discussion about ancient kingdoms. I commented how the criteria for an economy's "greatness" could change over time, and that communism is not necessarily inherently unable to achieve such "greatness". At that my bourgeois-liberal teacher commented how communism is a political system.

This brings me to a point I have been insinuating at through many of my previous posts. Communism is, by its original definition, a classless society. It is not a democratic and economically equal welfare state, nor is it a despotism with forced collectivization. COMMUNISM IS SIMPLY A CLASSLESS SOCIETY.

Yes, people are entitled to form their opinions of how communism could be reached or why it should not be (in fact I will post sometime in the future about the communist nature of Confucius). However, it seriously becomes a definition hijacking when one takes for granted his or her own views on something, as its basic definition. This is highly akin to the Newspeak of 1984 (I am selectively critical of the government of Oceania), where words are deleted en masse from the dictionaries, grabbing from the people the power to think. Words generate thought, and thought generates power. When bourgeois oppressors take away the true meaning of words, we have to be careful about when, perhaps, "freedom" has come to mean the number of cars you have or whether or not you are deluded enough to think communism is an inherently political system.

















Hijackers the Quran, hicjackers of definitions.

(terrorist image: http://nicedeb.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/terrorist.jpg)

DEATH OF NATIONALISM

As Eddie wants only posts about current news, I will post about my comments for a required essay for English which I recently read. The essay is "Mulatto Millennium" by Danzy Senna in Half and Half. It talks about the rising status of mixed people in American popular culture. Read it yourself if you want to as this post is not really about the essay.

In Taiwan today, the minds of the youth is dominated by popular culture - a black messy mix of brainlessness from various countries. Globalization is clearly evident - from the popularity of manga to the failed interpretation of rap to the US-democracy-fetish. Nationalistic patriotism is nowhere to be seen but the names of some streets and districts. Even the street names though, fail to retain any sense of patriotism. I recall conversing with a Chinese restaurant owner in San Francisco. Trying to tell me where she used to live in Taiwan, she was not able to remember what the street name is: "什麼孝東路的". The loyalty to one's nation - 忠 - is corrupted and replaced by globalist capitalist erections.

But you might say, "But you're a Trotskyist internationalist!" (or maybe you might not as I have not posted anything about this yet). However, we should consider the analogy of Sun Yat-sen in his 民族主義:

從前有一個苦力，天天在輪船碼頭，拿一枝竹槓和兩條繩子去替旅客挑東西。每日挑東西，就是那個苦力謀生之法。後來他積存了十多塊錢，當時呂宋彩票盛行，他 就拿所積蓄的錢買了一張呂宋彩票。那個苦力因為無家可歸，所有的東西都沒有地方收藏，所以他買得的彩票也沒有地方收藏。他謀生的工具只是一枝竹槓和兩條繩 子，他到什麼地方，那枝竹槓和兩條繩子便帶到什麼地方。所以他就把所買的彩票，收藏在竹槓之內。因為彩票藏在竹槓之內，不能隨時拿出來看，所以他把彩票的 號數死死記在心頭，時時刻刻都念著。到了開彩的那一日，他便到彩票店內去對號數，一見號單，知道是自己中了頭彩，可以發十萬元的財。他就喜到上天，幾幾乎 要發起狂來，以為從此便可不用竹槓和繩子去做苦力了，可以永久做大富翁了。由於這番歡喜，便把手中的竹槓和繩子一齊投入海中。
(from http://zh.wikisource.org/zh-hant/%E4%B8%89%E6%B0%91%E4%B8%BB%E7%BE%A9/%E6%B0%91%E6%97%8F%E4%B8%BB%E7%BE%A9%E7%AC%AC%E4%B8%89%E8%AC%9B)

It is not that we should become racist or be isolated in North Korean Juche. Simply, our national solidarity and unity must NOT be sacrificed for globalization. We can still be Chinese while retaining economic power (especially in collaboration with the mainland).

Aung San Suu Kyi appeals house arrest

Aung San Suu Kyi appeals house arrest

Article From CNN.

Summary:

Two weeks ago, well-known pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi tried appealing her 18-month house arrest to the high court of Myanmar on Friday, the time when the nation’s ruling junta gave freedom to thousands of other political prisoners.

Saturday will be the day that the government will announce the decision of whether Suu Kyi will be freed from home confinement or not. The government will be releasing around 7000 prisoners on Friday if they show good conduct and discipline.

A Human Rights organization estimates there are 2100 political prisoners in Myanmar, and Aung Sun Suu Chi is one of the most well-known under captive. She had spent the last 14 of the 20 years in Burma under house arrest. The U.N Security Council has expressed “serious” concerns over the fairness of the government and the European Union added additional sanctions against the country. Journalist Aung Zaw stated that the chance of the release of Aung San Suu Kyi is indeed very slim, since the regime wants to prevent her from participating in the Myanmar 2010 elections.

Due to her unstopping support for human rights, she had become an iconic face of democracy in her home land and around the world. Her house arrest date extended when a man named John Williams broke into his house months ago just to warn her about something bad is about to happen.

She stated that she didn't want to report Yettaw to the authorities because she didn't want him to get into trouble.

Analysis:

We know that Aung Sung Suu Kyi is a hardcore supporter for human rights, she is a the founder and the leader of the NLD (National League for Democracy). Due to her persuit towards freedom and human rights, she was placed under house arrest for the 14th year of her last 20 in Myanmar. She was disallowed to meet her party supporters and international visitors since she is considered bad influence according to the government. I really think it is about time that she is to be freed from the government, she had been under house arrest for 14 years and even the government didn't have a good reason to hold her in captive anymore. She should definitely be freed when October 2 comes, because if she is not, this will cause another global shudder to the world. More sanctions will be placed upon Myanmar and it's international relationships will be even more fragile. What I found funny was the reason that the regime continued to place Suu Kyi underhouse arrest. The reason that the regime stated was due to the the illicit house entering of an uninvited man named John Williams. The man managed to swim into her backyard and enter. Isn't this hilarious that it was Suu Kyi's fault instead of the governments? In case you didn't know, the house of Suu Kyi was extremely heavily guarded, so does this mean that the man got in without the gaurds noticing?? So what are the purposes of the guards? Had they fallen asleep? Are they just standing there just to prevent Suu Kyi from escaping? I think Suu Kyi should be released if Myanmar's government still wants to withheld their internaitonal relationships.