Double Ten Day is the national birthday. It is natural to arrange programs and activities around the country to mark the day and create an atmosphere of joy and excitement.
Recently, however, some media have reported that this year's "National Day performance" will not only be a waste of resources but is designed solely to praise the president. However, this event provides a chance for us to recognize both our military strength and the importance of national security. In the face of warmongering China, we need to carry out activities that boost people's confidence and morale.
Furthermore, I think soldiers shoulder the mission of defending the nation and its people. As China spends lots of money on an arms race and considers the government of Taiwan as its enemy, it is a matter of course that we must demonstrate our military force and weaponry on our national birthday. This serves to enhance the confidence of our people in our national security.
Yu Tai
Taipei
Taiwan heads to the polls next month for local elections. Beneath the campaign ads lies a deeper question: What do we call this place and who gets to decide? In the pages of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), that question has been playing out across three centuries. The entries for “Formosa” and “Taiwan” chart an island’s journey from colonial fantasy to self-named reality. Names are rarely neutral; they are the first act of possession. Nowhere is this more evident than in the OED, where the two entries serve as a linguistic seismograph for one of the world’s most enduring geopolitical fault lines.
There are two space races that the democracies must win: one to deter military campaigns near Earth, and the other to secure positional deterrence on the Moon and beyond. The good news is that the US is engaged in both races, which will also benefit US allies and partners in Asia, including Taiwan. On Sept. 14, US Air Force Secretary Troy Meink disclosed, “...the US now has on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the Joint Force against hostile adversary action.” No details about these “space control weapons” have yet been disclosed. However, a graphic apparently issued by French Space Command and posted
Taipei’s school lunch program has run into trouble yet again. This time, Shilin District’s (士林) Shihtung Elementary School (士東國小) was exposed by parents on social media for serving rotten, blackened pears. The incident once again sparked criticism about food safety in Taipei schools and the quality of the city’s free lunch policy. Free school lunches for all elementary and junior-high schools is a flagship policy announced by Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) in January, but at the time it attracted criticism from other administrative regions. Since the policy’s official implementation last month, the city — which has the largest budget
Upon entering Taipei Railway Station, what greets us at the interchange of Taiwan’s three major rail systems are not testimonies to the city’s technological development or cultural heritage, but an inescapable barrage of cosmetic surgery and aesthetic medicine advertisements. Advertising itself has always been more than commercial activity; it is a manifestation of the collective unconscious. When the entranceway of the nation is lined with legions of cookie-cutter perfect faces and plastic surgery adverts, it both reveals and provokes society’s collective body-image anxiety. From a psychological perspective, these advertisements are an exercise in social conditioning of the public. They do