Republic of Corruption

This cartoon was stolen from CartoonStock.com

A few weeks back I read in the Taipei Times that Taiwan’s volunteer rate has been climbing for the past few years. Last year 64, 000 people volunteered for an average of 3.2 hours per week. I was a bit surprised because I have never met a Taiwanese person who volunteers and haven’t found Taiwanese people to be very altruistic or giving especially to strangers. To be fair this may be a taboo subject or something that would never come up in ordinary conversation. The Times said:

Since the Volunteer Service Law (志願服務法) was promulgated in January 2001, the governments of all special municipalities, cities and counties around the country have been required to form social welfare volunteer service corps.

At the end of last year, ministry officials said, there were 1,169 volunteer service corps, up 17.1 percent from a year before.

This section piqued my curiosity, as it seems to indicate that the rise in volunteerism is more the result of the Volunteer Service Law and not in any change in attitudes. I also thought that 64, 000 people sure is a lot of people to be volunteering. Then I broke out the calculator and quickly realized that my earlier skepticism was accurate. According to the CIA Fact Book, Taiwan has over 16 million people between the ages of 15-64. Unless my math is wrong that would show a volunteer rate of 0.4%. Now that is a number that will make every Taiwanese person proud.

To put Taiwan's numbers it in perspective my hometown of Calgary has a 37% volunteer rate with people giving about 10 per hours per month. This works out to 350 000 volunteers in a city of 950 000 people. It is also important to note that Calgary is lower than the Canadian average. I am not sure why only 64 000 people volunteer in Taiwan but believe it is probably because there isn’t much of a civic culture in Taiwan and people only really care about money. I am sure some Taiwanese people will pull the culture card. the Taiwanese culture card is usually played as an explanation given by locals when asked the reasons behind inexplicable facts about their country.

I have illegally volunteered a number of times since living in Taiwan; 921 relief and Children’s Day events. Now that I have a wife and kid I am really not that willing to illegally volunteer. I would love to volunteer more but believe that I need some kind of work visa to do so legally. If this is truly the case, I will probably respect the local culture and do like the locals and not volunteer.


Tags: [Taiwan], [Volunteer] and [Volunteer Service Law]

Republic of Corruption

Original image posted at Swampmaster.org

Dog eat Dog in the Year of the Dog

I was chatting with a co-worker (Fraser) the other day. His wife Joanne’s hobby/calling is saving animals, usually cats. He told me a story about dogs eating dogs in Taichung. Apparently overcrowding and lack of food in Taichung’s dog shelter has caused the imprisoned dogs to eat the bodies of dead dogs. I tried to find out if this was indeed true. I used all known research tools (the internet) and failed to find anything, so I figured it was some kind of Taichung urban myth. Then I opened the Taipei Times today and saw the story on page 2.

A Taichung city councilor and animal rights groups yesterday slammed the Taichung City Government for its inaction over an animal shelter incident earlier this week that involved dogs eating the bodies of other dogs. Dogs kept in the animal shelter in Taichung were found on Sunday to be feeding on the carcasses of other dogs out of hunger, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taichung City Councilor Tseng Chao-jung (曾朝榮) said.

The article goes on to quote Huang Pi-chu (黃璧珠), head of the Taichung Universal Animal Protection Association. She say that Environmental Protection Agency workers in Taichung are under immense pressure to catch stray dogs. They need to catch 45 dogs a day. The dogs are then kept for a week before they are euthanized unless homes are found. So I am guessing that they are all killed. My math skills are rusty but the article says ti works out 1000 dogs a month or 12 000 dogs a year.

Animal rights advocate Chen Chien-chung (陳憲忠) was pissed and said:

if Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) couldn't even take care of his city's dogs, a case of "panda-eating-panda" might be next.

This nearly made me spit out my cheerios. It is an awesome line referring to the ongoing Panda gate controversy that has been all over the Taiwan Blogoshpere since Lien Chan put on his kneepads in China last year. The best post on Panda Gate was from the Foreigner in Formosa.

Chen Chien-chung also said:

The dogcatchers just capture every dog they see on the street, even house pets

Well I am glad that my dog didn’t get picked up. Those stray dogs would have made short work of Arthur. He is no match for the vicious Taichung stray dog breed. Shit, he goes to a dog spa once a month. Apparently this isn’t the first time this has happened in Taiwan. Starving dogs tucked into some other dogs in Taipei in 1998. This caused Steven Seagal to come to Taiwan to meet then President Lee. He will be pissed again and is sure to be Out for Justice. Some kind of protest is planned for next Thursday but I don't know any of the details.

Tags: [Taiwan] [Taichung] [animal cruelty] [animal canibalism]

Republic of Corruption

Photo by Lee Ying, Taipei Times

KMT Legislator Hong Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) is very angry that someone defaced her service center in Yonghe (永和), Taipei County. According to the China Post a male aged 40-50 wrote ‘whore,’ on her sign when her real nickname is ‘Little Chili.' I was confused because the Taipei Times reported that the offensive characters written were biaozi (bitch, 婊子). The Times also states that Hong’s center received several obscene or threatening telephone calls. It is believed that the incidents are linked to clashes between Hung and Government Information Office (GIO) Minister Pasuya Yao (姚文智) on Monday where Hung called Yao a pizi (ruffian, 痞子). So I went to Zhongwen.com to find the answer.

I must admit I was disappointed to find out that whore and bitch are essentially the same words in Chinese.

I don’t know much about Legislator Hong Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) but found this bit interesting from the China Post article.

I demand the police to crack the case within 24 hours." said Hong in the morning. She said that, since law enforcement agencies took only a day to uncover Tu Shih-san, a disgruntled poet and writer who phone the Executive Yuan to deliver a death threat to Premier Frank Hsieh and his family, she is entitled to the same treatment.

I can’t believe that Hong actually believes that being called a bitch/whore is the same offence as threatening to kill someone. I am not sure about Taiwan law but I doubt you do serious jail time for calling someone a bitch/whore. I would argue that being called a bitch/whore is worse than being called a ruffian but not as bad as having the nickname 'Little Chili.'

[Taiwan] [Election] [Hong Hsiu-chu]

Republic of Corruption

This picture is from Chu Pei-Hsiung of the Taipei Times.

It looks like there was a great Halloween party at the KMT headquarters yesterday. I am only kidding. It wasn't a Halloween party but yet another attempt by the KMT to appeal to 'uncouth, low class Taiwanese,' voters. Just kidding again The goal of the Taike ampaign group is to turn this negative term into a positive one. Lien Sheng-wen or Sean Lien or Lien Chan's boy is in the middle of the back row and appears to be the leader. Am I the only one who looks at this picture and sees West Side Story with Lien Sheng-wen playing Riff?

Now everyone wants to be `taike' Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators and officials -- including party spokeswoman Cheng Li-wen, center front, and Central Standing Committee Member Lien Sheng-wen, center back -- yesterday establish a ``Taike'' campaign group for the upcoming elections, vowing to turn the negative term referring to uncouth, low-class Taiwanese into a positive one.

Republic of Corruption

Taiwaner of the Week:
Chiu Yi (邱毅)

Taiwanese cable conglomerate TVBS is in big trouble. According to the Taipei Times they are wholly owned by a Chinese company. This is against the law in Taiwan which I believe requires a minimum 50% local ownership. So the DPP government is going to try and shut them down.

In completely unrelated news; the DPP corruption scandal deepens as TVBS continues showing video of the gamblin' man Chen Che-nan (陳哲男) ad nauseum. I think it is fair to say that TVBS is the equivalent of Fox TV in the States. The TVBS News Program "2100 All People Talking," has enjoyed a field day with ongoing anaylsis given by the immortal and politically 'Independent,' Chiu Yi (邱毅) . It is strangely popular because in fact all people are talking at the same time. Chiu is if I remember correctly the rpick who rode on the back of a jeep while it drove through a courthouse door back during the election 'troubles,' of 2004. I need to find the time to write a whole piece on this asshole. Meanwhile Ma continues to lash out at Chen Shui-Bian. Who then apologizes to the people who in turn shrug and change the channel.

Republic of Corruption

Who Shot A-Bian?

It was an especially interesting week in the Republic of Corruption. Noted TV presenter Xiao S said she may be getting married, China released its Anti Secession Law and the police identified the alleged 319 shooter, Chen Yi-hsiung. For those of you who don’t live in the ROC, 319 (March 19th) was the date when Taiwanese President A-Bian [Chen Shui-bian] and his Vice President Anette Lu were lightly wounded in an apparent assassination attempt in Tainan. Coincidentally it was the day before the federal election. Unfortunately for the Pan Blues (KMT-PFP), A-Bian wasn’t killed but the assassination attempt and bungled investigation have led many people to question the validity of the incident.

I don’t have the time or inclination to recap the the 319 shooting. Unfortunately, I wasn’t blogging at the time. The Pan Blues thought the shooting was staged and led island wide riots to demand truth and justice about the shooting. It was ironic that the same mainlanders and local sycophants that were directly and indirectly responsible for tens of thousands of deaths during Chiang Kai Shek and Chiang Ching-Kuo's White Terror were now so concernedwith ‘truth and justice.’

To make a long story short, the police announced on Monday that Chen Yi-hsiung was believed to be the 319 shooter. The police held a press conference to show some of the evidence compiled during the almost one year investigation:

* A video of a 50ish man in a yellow jacket running and not walking away from the scene of the crime.
* An old video of Chen Yi-hsiung denouncing A-bian on a popular TV talk show.
* Chen’s desk calendar where he wrote that the re-election of Chen Shui-bian would cause more people to emigrate from Taiwan.
* An explanation of the extensive investigation into the weapon. The weapon was traced back to the suspect who purchased his modified handgun shortly before the shooting.
* Three suicide notes given to family members that said Chen was becoming more and more depressed about the president being re-elected, and wanted to kill himself to reduce the burden on his family.
* A confession told to Chen’s wife. 'I did it and I will handle it myself.'
* The wife also claims to have given him a wash and a shave to change his looks.

Chen Yi-hsiung was from the same hometown as A-Bian, Tainan. He was an unemployed printer who liked fishing and swimming. He kept to himself and seldom argued with his neighbors. Tainan is A-Bian and DPP country but Chen Yi-hsiung had never denied his dislike for the President. Chen Yi-hsiung is said to have been eccentric and tight with his money. He had four children and it’s believed that after he retired he invested in the stock market. Before the shooting, it’s been said that Chen had faced a huge financial crisis. He owned property valued at nearly NT$10 million and was angry that he couldn’t sell his house because of A-bian’s alleged mismanagement of the economy.

The most intriguing aspect of this whole whodunit is that Chen Yi-hsiung is dead. It looks like Chen drove his car into a river in Tainan. The noted swimmer drowned on March 28 with his body being found on March 29, in and apparent suicide attempt. In addition the suicide notes and calendar were burned by the family. The man who allegedly sold him the weapon, Huang Hung-jen, was also found dead at his home of a suspected self-inflicted gunshot wound. The police didn’t release the date of his death . So there you have after a one year investigation the police have no weapons, no live witnesses, no hard evidence and no yellow jacket. Wow five years of A-Bian and we have been given 'four more noes'. Big Ell thinks Chen Yi-hsiung’s English name may have been Oswald.

Background information was used from CNN
The picture of Chen Yi-Hsuing was found at the Taipei Times
Big Ell

Republic of Corruption

The Taiwan election year is over and things are back to normal. The Pan Blues (KMT and PFP) managed to win another slim majority in the legislature. I was pissed but with a low voter turnout the Greens (DPP-TSU) were doomed. I was even more depressed that the Big Ell endorsed candidate TS Young failed to win a seat. No Nose managed to win a seat which didn't surprise me, she has moxy. I am not sure what happened to the Angry Guy. Hopefully I will see the Angry Guy 'throwdown,' with No Nose in the legislature in the near future.

Some other things going down in Taiwan and China.

• Beijing makes the decison to enact a law against secession. Where do you think this law is directed? Not to mention the numerous missiles pointed our way. Lien Chan has to be thinking, "How long before I am named Emperor once the Chinese come?
• So in the category of unlikely bedfellows the DPP-PFP may be getting closer. It would be sweet to see James Soong finally lose it and back his swarn enemy Chen Shui Bian.

Republic of Corruption

The Dirty Three

It is now less than a week until the Taiwanese Legislative Election. Taiwan newspapers are abuzz with rumors of who will claim the endorsement from the influential Big Ell’s Blog. It has been difficult for Big Ell to get a feel for the many candidates in Taichung County. Normally Big Ell would back any DPP candidate but with Chen Shui Bian’s gun shot wound causing him to go insane all bets are off. So Big Ell is weighing his options and may even endorse the murdering, stealing, vote buying KMT.

There are over 20 candidates for the many legislative seats in Taichung County. I don’t have time to explain how the electoral system is based. Just believe me when I tell you it is fucked up. My criteria are as follows: the number of junk mail, its quality and the number of traffic snarling campaign rallies each candidate has led. The fact that I can’t read Chinese has been quite helpful in analyzing the election material.

The first candidate is #3. Her caricature looks like a 30 something woman who has had too much too drink. Her caricature is also posing doing that V shaped thing with her fingers that seems to have been engrained into the Taiwanese DNA. She is running for the DPP. Her campaign literature is slick and animated; in fact it is difficult to see what she really looks like. So I will call her No Nose (scroll back up and look at the picture). I have heard that No Nose is also quite connected which normally means strong mob ties; which is always a plus. No Nose’s campaign literature has some English and I believe her campaign platform is as follows: creative, cute, young and some other idiotic adjectives. She has had at least three traffic snarling rallies but the crowds seemed well behaved and are certainly well dressed. She has to be considered the front runner.

The second candidate is #6. He appears to be a middle aged man with a bad haircut and the ubiquitous Taiwan golf jacket. Mrs. Big Ell tells me that #6 is running for the KMT and that if I endorse him I will be looking for a new Mrs. Big Ell. His campaign literature sometimes has a small Taiwan flag (the KMT party logo) but in his latest ads there are pictures of him with President Chen and Premier Yu Shyi-kun. Mind you they both appear to be ignoring him and it looks like the Premier is flipping him the bird. I will take my wife’s word for it and say he is a KMT candidate. He has also sent out more literature than the other candidates and has regular ads on television. These ads are illuminating (not because they run over paid ads on CNN and ESPN) because he seems to be threatening and yelling aggressively at people in some sort of legislature. Apparently, the reason #6 is so pissed is because Taiping doesn’t have a freeway exit (or a nearby freeway for that matter). He is a very angry man and I will call him the Angry Man. Angry Man has also had two rallies with dumb people waving flags in my eyes while I weave through jaywalkers on my 50 scooter. I gave thought to running some of them down in Mrs. Big Ell’s car but he doesn’t need the publicity.

The last candidate is #14 T.S. Young. He looks old with bad glasses but has a sharp tie. I am not sure of his party affiliation but the color of his literature appears to be the TSU colors. The TSU led by former President Lee Deng Hui (who is a Christian and says he will die on his 90th birthday) is all about Taiwan becoming independent and fuck the consequences not to mention Chinese ICBM's. But then again he could be part of James Soong’s PFP; the pro-reunification, sell-out Taiwan for a 1000 NT$ and a blowjob to China party. Who knows and at this point who really cares? There are some pictures of a school so he may be a teacher; too well dressed to be the janitor unless it's a private school. He also has many pictures of the local championship baseball team the Sinon Bulls. His literature actually has five of the teams stars with the biggest star (Chang "Prince of the Forest" Tai-shan 張泰山) giving him an apparent big thumbs up. Mrs. Big Ell thinks he might be part of the family that owns the team. Wow, what a potentially multi faceted candidate.

So there you have it the top candidates from Taichung County; The Angry Man, No Nose and T.S. Young. It is difficult for me to give the Big Ell’s Blog endorsement to only one as I am a difference maker. While No Nose may be tied to the mob her ads make me want to vomit. Angry Man is menacing in a Zell Miller kind of way and I am sure I’d want to punch him if we ever met. I have weighed all of these variables and will go with T.S. Young. For the following reasons: He is old and may die before his term runs out causing some kind of by-election. He has an English name. He may be affiliated with my favorite Taiwan baseball team with the apparent endorsement of Chang "Prince of the Forest" Tai-shan (張泰山). In addiiton, his supporters haven’t had any major rallies that would cause my blood pressure to rise and trigger my imminent heart attack. So if any of you can vote in Taichung County, cast your vote for Young, T.S Young.
Big Ell

Republic of Corruption

Big Ell's Peace and Love Summit 2004

With the Taiwanese Legislative elections only a month away, Big Ell of Big Ell's Blog decided to invite the leaders of the main parties to his Taiping Hideaway. The summit focused on issues of National Security, the March Election and James Soong. While not much was accomplished, both parties did agree that the PFP leader Mr. Soong wasn't to be trusted and should be sent back to China along with all his waishenren (mainlanders) friends. When asked if he was a weishenren the KMT's Lien Chan responded "I chew beetle nut, run red lights and have a harem of Chinese whores, I am as Taiwanese as they come!" They also agreed that Big Ell and Mrs. Big Ell put on quite a spread. From his Taipei mansion Lien Chan added "It was a good meeting but A-Bien still won't admit to staging the shooting. It wasn't a total waste I did take $5000 NT off the little bastard playing Mah Jong." Taiwanese President Chen Shui Bian responded from the Presidential Palace"I enjoyed the weekend but Lien still won't return the money the KMT stole from the Taiwanese People. But hey at least I got to sample some Taiping beetle nut girls." Big Ell is always happy to make his house a home in the name of peace and love.

Big Ell

Republic of Corruption

This is a piece by Mac William Bishop on the developing 'spy scandal,' in Taiwan. I have read a bit on this topic but Bishop's article is good even if I don't agree with all of his conclusions.
Asia Times Online - News from greater China; Hong Kong and Taiwan

Republic of Corruption

The controversy surrounding the Taiwanese Election on March 19th hasn't stopped. A group of Taiwanese expatriates has set up a web site detailing their grievances with President Chen. The same group sent e-mails to members of Congress in the USA apparently trying to show that President Chen is a dictator. They claim he will lead the USA into war with China. They also rehashed many old criticisms that came out after the shooting. They also claim to be independent of the KMT, which is dubious because the arguments they use are almost word for word the KMT-PFP party line. Most Big Ell-ites are up on history, do some comparative analysis and see if Chen and Hitler are comparable. Personally I think it may be more of a diversion from the ongoing investigations into KMT political corruption. I will detail this subject in a later post and try and detail a number of former KMT stalwarts on the run or doing jailtime in the ROC. I am sorry that I haven't been writing much on the election been more preoccupied with corruption but it is all one in the same. I will try to do better. Thanks to Geoff for sending this link to me.

AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT BUSH

Republic of Corruption

Like Father like Daughter 

The city of Kaoshiung straddles the Love River and is over 350 years old. According to the Kaoshiung city web page the Chenghe people first settled the area in 1405. The Chinese didn't arrive until Cheng Cheng-kung (Koxinga) expelled the Dutch in 1661. With the world's fourth largest harbour, companies like Formosa Plastics have been using Kaoshiung to supply the world with all the vinyl acetate and styrene it can handle. Some may argue that companies like Formosa Plastics have caused irreparable environmental damage to the city. Yet the government has declared that the Love River is now 'clean,' and can be best described as the 'Taiwanese Riviera,' so I guess all is forgiven

After being named the host city for the 2009 World Games the citizens of Kaoshiung were eager to elect 18 new members for the 44-seat city council in a by-election. Kaoshiung was also trying to shed its image as the 'black gold,' capital of Taiwan. According to the Fact Index 'black gold' (黑金), refers to political corruption. The "black" here refers to the obtaining of the money (the "gold") through a dark, secretive, and therefore corrupted method. According to this web page Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (KMT) was noted for his 'zealous,' fight against black gold politics. I am not sure about this dubious claim but the by-election shows that his compatriots in Kaoshiung certainly weren't up to the task.
 
Many potential voters may have been turned off by the on going vote buying scandals in Kaoshiung. With 32% voter turnout, almost anybody with a pocket full of cash and a name could become a legislator. According to the Taipei Times "Six of nine candidates with family ties to councilors forced off the the council because of the (vote buying) scandal didn't win." Who are the three 'lucky' winners? Two independent candidates Tsai Wu-nan, Chu Ting-shan and Chen Li-na of the KMT. It is interesting to note that Chu is the daughter of fugitive ex-speaker Chu An-hsiung. Chu An-hsiung allegedly paid $3-$10 million NT per vote for the Kaoshiung speaker position in 2002. According to the Taiwan News he was able to secure all of the KMT and PFP support. Many DPP legislators were also interested in the kick back scam but were prohibited from doing so by DPP Chairperson President Chen Shui-bian. According to Lawrence Eyton Lien Chan also forbade KMT legislators from voting for Chu. Unfortunately for the citizens of Kaoshiung, not even KMT chairperson Lien Chan could prevent city legislators from taking the large bribes. Apparently, PFP chairperson James Soong didn't even bother trying to reign in his greedy Kaoshiung lackeys.
 
The citizens of Kaoshiung must now be ecstatic that a political dynasty is developing. Generational 'black gold,' politics is here to stay in Southern Taiwan. Hopefully, Chu Ting-shan can get on the Urban Planning board like her father and keep all of their partners in the Kaoshiung construction industry happy. Try to picture the scene in the Chu house after her victory. Construction bosses smiling ear to ear awaiting the promise of 100s of millions of dollars in contracts for World Games construction. Chu said "I am so happy for the connections my parents have given me." She only needs to become the house speaker to make this dream come true. Allegedly Lien Chan is also happy with the results in Kaoshiung. Gaining seats for the KMT made him happy but knowing that 'black gold,' will remain in Taiwan should keep his heart warm even if his wallet becomes lighter. He may be experiencing a bit of nostalgia remembering how his father taught him these very same political lessons all those years ago in Taipei County.

Elliott

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