Improving ‘competitiveness’
I’d like to offer some observations on President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) announcement concerning university classes taught in English (“Ma calls for more university classes taught in English,” Nov. 8, page 3).
“If we refuse to make changes, great teachers and students will be gone and it will be more difficult for us to raise competitiveness,” Ma was quoted as saying.
This fragment is ambiguous. In what sense did Ma mean “competitiveness” — in relation to the economy or to Taiwan’s universities versus universities in other countries?
Unfortunately, the article does not clarify this. If Ma intended it in the former sense rather than the latter, then that is substantially different. However, I suppose it would strike most people as obvious that more competitive universities would improve general economic competitiveness.
Yet there is overwhelming evidence that this is simply not true. Two months ago, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, in China, reported that graduates from Chinese universities were earning salaries equal to or in many cases lower than those of migrant field workers from Southeast Asia.
The situation in Taiwan is not vastly different. How does it raise economic competitiveness for a young person to spend large sums of their parents’ money (often financed by debt) and four crucial years of their young lives only to graduate and work at a deli counter or a KFC?
This is lunacy.
Earlier in the article, Ma is quoted as saying: “Higher education in Taiwan should not keep its doors closed any more.”
Might I suggest that Taiwan do precisely the opposite? It is high time that many universities and technical colleges were deprived of state funding. This would not only result in the closure of many smaller, less prestigious universities, but, perhaps more importantly, force the government to repeal or relax laws and regulations that stand in the way of entrepreneurial start-ups.
The best way to raise economic competitiveness is to allow young people to learn to compete economically. The traditional Chinese attitude of revering education, along with disproportionate state support for education, is destroying the potential for many young people to create and sustain their own lives.
Michael Fagan
Tainan
Nazi camps weren’t ‘Polish’
I was shocked to read your photo caption describing a survivor of a “Polish concentration camp” (“Auschwitz survivor speaks against hazards of hatred,” Nov. 11, page 4).
There were no Polish concentration camps — only German ones. This is a complete mix-up of victims and aggressors.
Polish nationals were killed just like Jews in numerous German concentration camps during World War II. Polish citizens regardless of ethnic background were victims of barbaric German and Soviet acts.
It’s completely unacceptable and insensitive to make this kind of mistake. The infamous Auschwitz concentration camp was built by the German government and run by the German military from beginning to end.
I have much higher expectations of the Taipei Times, in particular when touching on issues related to history or human rights. I think most Taiwanese would feel outraged if an international media outlet made a mistake like this regarding Taiwan’s history.
TOMASZ SWATOWSKI
Taipei
China has not been a top-tier issue for much of the second Trump administration. Instead, Trump has focused considerable energy on Ukraine, Israel, Iran, and defending America’s borders. At home, Trump has been busy passing an overhaul to America’s tax system, deporting unlawful immigrants, and targeting his political enemies. More recently, he has been consumed by the fallout of a political scandal involving his past relationship with a disgraced sex offender. When the administration has focused on China, there has not been a consistent throughline in its approach or its public statements. This lack of overarching narrative likely reflects a combination
Behind the gloating, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) must be letting out a big sigh of relief. Its powerful party machine saved the day, but it took that much effort just to survive a challenge mounted by a humble group of active citizens, and in areas where the KMT is historically strong. On the other hand, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) must now realize how toxic a brand it has become to many voters. The campaigners’ amateurism is what made them feel valid and authentic, but when the DPP belatedly inserted itself into the campaign, it did more harm than good. The
US President Donald Trump’s alleged request that Taiwanese President William Lai (賴清德) not stop in New York while traveling to three of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies, after his administration also rescheduled a visit to Washington by the minister of national defense, sets an unwise precedent and risks locking the US into a trajectory of either direct conflict with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) or capitulation to it over Taiwan. Taiwanese authorities have said that no plans to request a stopover in the US had been submitted to Washington, but Trump shared a direct call with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平)
Workers’ rights groups on July 17 called on the Ministry of Labor to protect migrant fishers, days after CNN reported what it described as a “pattern of abuse” in Taiwan’s distant-water fishing industry. The report detailed the harrowing account of Indonesian migrant fisher Silwanus Tangkotta, who crushed his fingers in a metal door last year while aboard a Taiwanese fishing vessel. The captain reportedly refused to return to port for medical treatment, as they “hadn’t caught enough fish to justify the trip.” Tangkotta lost two fingers, and was fired and denied compensation upon returning to land. Another former migrant fisher, Adrian Dogdodo
RSS