Thank you, Dalai Lama
Anonymous officials in the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) have voiced concerns that the signing of an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China may have to be postponed — the implication being that the postponement is a result of the Chinese leadership’s displeasure at the Dalai Lama’s visit to Taiwan. If this is true, as a Taiwanese, I would like to thank the Dalai Lama for this, on top of my profound gratitude for his unwavering compassion and loving kindness toward the victims of Typhoon Morakot who suffered from devastating floods and the Ma administration’s disastrous relief efforts.
This externality of the Dalai Lama’s visit is literally a god-send for Taiwanese, who have lost almost all checks and balances against the Ma administration’s abuse of power after his party won an absolute majority in the legislature last year. After losing faith in the often-dysfunctional judiciary, the opposition launched a campaign for a referendum to stop the administration from imposing an ECFA on the public, to whom the administration had not bothered to explain honestly and clearly the content and effects of the agreement. Unfortunately, the referendum proposal has been turned down by the administration’s Referendum Review Committee because the proposal “was not clear enough and asks the public to vote on something that has not yet happened.”
There have been numerous commentaries on the absurdity of this decision. That aside, it’s widely expected that, short of extraordinary measures, any appeals within the current system — now tightly controlled by the KMT, whose top leadership have been trying hard to placate China — will not likely succeed.
Just when the 150,000 people who signed the referendum proposal and others who have cast doubt on Ma’s leadership and competence were in a state of disbelief and despair, the news of a likely postponement of an ECFA came as a much needed source of relief, even though it may be more temporary than we would like given how reckless the Ma administration has been on the economy and national security.
Dear Dalai Lama, thank you for your wonderful gift to Taiwan. You more than achieved the goal of comforting the victims of Typhoon Morakot, which you set out to do on the trip. Your deep concern for Taiwan is heartfelt; your wisdom and compassion have touched and inspired many; and you’ve reminded us how precious our democratic values are. You have successfully brought the Taiwanese together. With this spirit, we are better warriors defending humanity and our rights as citizens of this country.
S. CHUAN CHIU
Bloomington, Indiana
Japan’s unacceptable hunt
One thing I’ve noticed since coming to Taiwan is the love of all things Japanese and although I have great respect for Japan, its people and culture, there is something that I feel needs to be openly deplored. Every year in Japan, starting Sept. 1, the Taiji dolphin hunt commences. This year, the hunt was delayed by a few days because of media attention brought by the man who trained dolphins for the popular 1960s US TV show Flipper.
The Taiji hunt is largely hidden from the Japanese public, although the meat from this uncompassionate act is supplied to many elementary schools, even though it has been found to contain dangerously high levels of toxins, such as mercury and PCB.
The method by which the dolphins are hunted is called oikomi (or “drive fishing”). Early in the morning, a group of boats track migratory dolphins about 1.5km from the coast and drive them in to a cove. They are kept imprisoned in the cove by nets tied across the entrance. Then members of the aquarium industry purchase the best dolphins in order to sell them worldwide, so they can entertain us at zoos and so on. The remainder will be killed by fishermen using sharp spears to stab at the throats of these highly sensitive and intelligent marine creatures.
To highlight this atrocity, director Louie Psihoyos and others made a movie entitled The Cove, which was released on July 31. In the documentary, which is set in Taiji, the place where the largest number of dolphins face this horrible fate (an estimated 2,500 annually), the filmmakers expose this scar on Japan’s dignity for what it is. Images of the sea literally turning red with blood are not uncommon during the dolphin hunting season as is shown in this award-winning movie.
The best thing we can do is to raise awareness of the situation, to educate ourselves on the issue and to spread this information to whoever wants to listen. The fact is, the hunt is inhumane and is in contradiction to all international standards of animal welfare laws and guidelines and it must be stopped.
Hopefully the Japanese government will listen and finally put an end to what even most Japanese think is a totally unnecessary and unthinkable act.
ASEEM KAWATRA
Society for the Advancement of Animal Wellbeing, Taipei
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