In your recent article ("Lack of evidence flusters magazine," Jan. 9, page 1), doesn't convention have it that one is presumed innocent until proven otherwise?
Isn't it true that People First Party Legislator Chin Huei-chu (秦惠珠), in accusing President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) of being in league with China, has on multiple occasions provided the "evidence" to attempt to convince the general public. I am thus somewhat bewildered by the report that The Journalist(新新聞) says it lacks proof to back up its story that Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) was spreading rumors of an affair in the Presidential Office and trying to undermine Chen. Could it be that the "credibility gap" between Yang Chao (楊照) of The Journalist and Chin is so vast that Yang can automatically be exempted from the burden of proof in providing some sort of material evidence? It seems only fair to presume that the vice president is innocent unless The Journalist can demonstrate otherwise.
Chang Tien-hsien
Columbus, Ohio
The cable TV vacuum
It seems that cable TV presents particularly large problems in Taiwan. After three years here, I have come across many of these, especially each Jan. 1.
I have never understood why the cable companies need to change all the channels each year, sometimes several times per week. This year, in the Ta-an area (
If we didn't care about illegal ads, or those small yellow messages at the top of the screen, it may be that we could say that cable TV isn't so bad in Taiwan after all. But there is another problem. Why is CNN the only foreign news channel? Where is BBC World, Australia TV, Deutsche Welle or the French TV5? Is it so hard to put them on the air? In Ta-an there are 20 vacant channels. If Taiwan wishes to enter the third millennium like a member of the international community, if Taiwanese people want to open up to other cultures, other ways of life, I think cable companies need to understand this problem. It is incredible that a person can go to Manila or Bangkok and watch all the international TV channels, but that Taiwan should be so poor in this respect.
Jerome Chaussard
Taipei
Who used whom?
Though it glossed over the significance of his Aboriginal roots, Rick Chu's piece on former Olympian Yang Chuan-kuang (
I was intrigued by Chu's assertion that the DPP "used him in turn, degrading him and turning the Iron Man into a spirit medium and so dispensed with him." Whether it is fair to imply that working as a spirit medium is the degraded outcome of disenchantment is for the reader to decide. But on the eve of the presidential election, Yang was on stage at the Chungshan Soccer Stadium, surrounded by pro-DPP Aborigines from around Taiwan, exhorting voters to support A-bian. And backstage, most of the Aborigines [at least] seemed to know who he was and were taking photos with him. This is not entirely consistent with being thrown away "like an old shoe." Things might be a little more complex than they first appear. After years of frustration with the KMT, my guess is that Yang is no fool and still had an agenda that evening, even in the face of the DPP's brittle record on Aboriginal affairs and the fact that Aboriginal voters firmly backed James Soong (宋楚瑜).
Martin Williams
Sydney, Australia
Two sets of economic data released last week by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) have drawn mixed reactions from the public: One on the nation’s economic performance in the first quarter of the year and the other on Taiwan’s household wealth distribution in 2021. GDP growth for the first quarter was faster than expected, at 6.51 percent year-on-year, an acceleration from the previous quarter’s 4.93 percent and higher than the agency’s February estimate of 5.92 percent. It was also the highest growth since the second quarter of 2021, when the economy expanded 8.07 percent, DGBAS data showed. The growth
In the intricate ballet of geopolitics, names signify more than mere identification: They embody history, culture and sovereignty. The recent decision by China to refer to Arunachal Pradesh as “Tsang Nan” or South Tibet, and to rename Tibet as “Xizang,” is a strategic move that extends beyond cartography into the realm of diplomatic signaling. This op-ed explores the implications of these actions and India’s potential response. Names are potent symbols in international relations, encapsulating the essence of a nation’s stance on territorial disputes. China’s choice to rename regions within Indian territory is not merely a linguistic exercise, but a symbolic assertion
More than seven months into the armed conflict in Gaza, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to take “immediate and effective measures” to protect Palestinians in Gaza from the risk of genocide following a case brought by South Africa regarding Israel’s breaches of the 1948 Genocide Convention. The international community, including Amnesty International, called for an immediate ceasefire by all parties to prevent further loss of civilian lives and to ensure access to life-saving aid. Several protests have been organized around the world, including at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and many other universities in the US.
Every day since Oct. 7 last year, the world has watched an unprecedented wave of violence rain down on Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territories — more than 200 days of constant suffering and death in Gaza with just a seven-day pause. Many of us in the American expatriate community in Taiwan have been watching this tragedy unfold in horror. We know we are implicated with every US-made “dumb” bomb dropped on a civilian target and by the diplomatic cover our government gives to the Israeli government, which has only gotten more extreme with such impunity. Meantime, multicultural coalitions of US