Sixteen Taiwanese-American organizations urged former US president Bill Clinton in a letter to be “scrupulously neutral” politically when he visits Taipei this weekend. The signatories fear that Clinton, who will be in Taiwan making a paid speech on Sunday, could be misrepresented as endorsing the policies of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration. “Many topics, such as the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement [ECFA], have turned into sensitive campaign issues,” the letter said, in reference to the hotly contested Nov. 27 special municipality elections. The Ma administration, it said, has frequently used foreign visitors to give the impression that its policies of accommodation with China have “reduced tension” across the Taiwan Strait. “In our view, this is a flawed and superficial argument,” it said. “China lessened its threats only because the Ma administration has made Taiwan subservient. In fact, the number of missiles China targets at Taiwan has increased.” It will be Clinton’s first visit to Taiwan since February 2005, when he charged NT$8 million (US$258,000) to make a speech. On that occasion, tickets to attend a book-signing event for his autobiography, My Life, were NT$10,000. The letter warned Clinton that the Ma administration has “drifted in China’s direction” at the expense of freedom and human rights, adding that he should speak out openly and forcefully for Taiwan’s democracy during his visit. “We are apprehensive that unwittingly your visit may be used by the Ma administration to score political points,” it said. “If a meeting with President Ma Ying-jeou is entertained, we hope you will also grant an audience to Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen [蔡英文] of the Democratic Progressive Party.” The letter reminded Clinton that in February 2000 he declared that the issues between Beijing and Taiwan “must be resolved peacefully and with the assent of the people of Taiwan” and implored him to repeat this statement. Among the letter’s signatories were Terri Giles, executive director of the Formosa Foundation; Linda Lin (林純容), president of the Formosan Association for Human Rights; Bob Yang (楊英育), president of the Formosan Association for Public Affairs; and James Chen (陳少明), chairman of World United Formosans for Independence-USA. Clinton’s visit comes after unsuccessful attempts by former US president George W. Bush and former House speaker Newt Gingrich to visit Taiwan earlier this year. The Taipei Times has learned that Bush had initially intended to visit Shanghai, Hong Kong and Taipei, but after his office in Dallas, Texas, allegedly received multiple protests from Chinese officials, the former president’s office said Bush could skip Shanghai and Hong Kong altogether and visit only Taiwan. Chinese officials then allegedly changed their strategy and shifted the pressure onto Taipei, whereupon the latter allegedly asked Bush to reconsider the timing of his visit, in reference to the Nov. 27 elections. According to a source, Bush’s visit would not have received any funding from the Taiwanese government. The Taipei Times has also learned that Gingrich’s visit, which would have been sponsored by a private firm, was initially planned for between June and August, and that the former speaker could not come to Taiwan any later than September, given the midterm elections in the US earlier this month. After a series of delays, organizers allegedly appealed to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Presidential Office, but approval for the visit was received four months later, by which time Gingrich could no longer visit Taiwan.
Taichung has the highest crime rate of all the major cities of Taiwan. Kidnapping, sexual assault, prostitution, illegal gambling, organized crime and burglary are of major concerns for local inhabitants. Much of the crime is ignored by the local police authorities.
Air pollution in Taichung is one of the most obvious problems for residents. Taichung is the third largest city and like many other Taiwanese cities, notorious for the poor air quality. Taichung is on a coastal plain surrounded by mountains, which trap pollutants. The primary cause of urban air pollution is the large number of vehicles (mostly motorbikes and scooters) used by residents. There are more than 11 million scooters in Taiwan and the per capita distribution in Taichung is much higher because of the lack of public transportation available.
Despite the rhetoric by both the elected and appointed government the EPA has failed in its attempts to solve the motorbike problem. In July 1999 the EPA began issuing monetary rewards to residents who report cars and motorbikes that emit unusual amounts of dark exhaust but the program never made it past the pilot program. The agency also made poor use of subsidies intended to encourage the purchase of fuel efficient and low-emission vehicles. Motor vehicles are subject to air pollution control (APC) fees levied by the EPA. These fees also are applied to larger emitters like factories. The government credits the APC system with helping to reduce the number of days when the country's pollution standard index score exceeded 100 from 7% of days in 1994 to 3% of days in 2001. However the cultural norm encouraging creative accounting and the general lack of accountability in Taiwan makes official statistics highly suspect.
Under no circumstances should untreated tap water be used for human consumption. Despite the affluence of the local inhabitants, water pollution is considered a significant threat to the health of Taichung's people as well as to the economy. Agricultural run-off, coastal aquaculture, industrial effluents, and domestic sewage are responsible for the pollution of coastal areas, surface water and ground water in Taichung. Water pollution is most severe in areas with a high concentration of industrial activity such as the Taichung industrial park and surrounding areas. Much of the fault lies with Taiwan's inadequate sewer system, which covers only 10% of the country as well as the inability of both local and regional governing authorities to enforce existing regulations.
The government of the Republic of China on Taiwan has been reluctant to address the problem of water pollution for fear of retribution from local businesses. There has been much discussion on the matter but little to no effective measures or action has been taken. The central government has placed numerous rivers under government supervision and established river and stream water quality sampling stations as of 2001. Businesses are officially required to meet a set of standards for effluent discharge, and a water pollution control fee was due to start being collected by the end of 2003 but has yet to been fully implemented. Lack of oversight and rampant corruption have made any efforts to combat widespread pollution in Taichung ineffectual.
The narrow streets of Tunghai were a mad jumble of stores, signs, people, cars, scooters, odors, power lines and noise - in other words, a typical Taiwanese street scene.
我每次想到蔡守訓, 就想到拍 Deep Throat 的 Linda Lovelace. It is possible that 蔡守訓 will never regret for being openly unjust as a judge; for handing out not guilty verdict to 馬英九 and life sentence to 陳水扁 in two very similar cases. 但如果他, 像 Linda Lovelace, 後悔了呢? 如果他的子孫認為蔡守訓在歷史上留下一個最荒謬, 最不公正的法官的惡名使他們感到可恥? 如果台灣人有一天能對他進行紐倫堡大審, 要他為他的判決負責?
AFP: Poverty in Taiwan at record high: report
TAIPEI — The number of Taiwanese households living in poverty rose to a record high of 108000 in the three months to June despite the continued growth of ...
