What use is investigation?
I found Presidential Office spokesman Lo Chih-chiang’s (羅智強) statements about the missing documents that compelled 34 interested global citizens to issue a group statement calling the KMT’s handling of the case a “political ploy” quite interesting (“Official hits back at academics’ letter,” April 12, page 1).
According to the article Lo said that “they [the current government] were not aware of any missing documents” at the time of the handover from the administration of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to the incoming administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
So, if they were not aware at the time of the handover, doesn’t that possibly mean that the documents became “missing” after the handover, instead of before it? If the Ma administration was unaware at the time, as they seem to be pretty much all the time, then what can an investigation discover?
ERIC MOORE
Greater Kaohsiung
Taiwan needs to go green
One lesson we can learn from the recent disasters in Japan is that humans, no matter how sophisticated their civilization, still live at the mercy of nature.
The enormous force of earthquakes, tsunamis or nuclear power are simply too overwhelming for humans to rein in. What happened at Fukushima and Chernobyl are apocalyptic signs. They remind us that man cannot and should not play God and tinker with forces of that magnitude.
Unlike earthquakes and tsunamis, which unleash their power instantly and cause tremendous visible damage right away, the release of radiation is slow and invisible and could harm people for thousands of years to come.
Like Japan, Taiwan is situated on geological fault lines. Its nuclear reactors are considered to be some of the most dangerous in the world. A disaster on the scale of that at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant would cripple Taiwan, a price the 23 million people of Taiwan cannot afford.
Taiwan’s best bet is to decommission its nuclear plants and use alternative energy sources. Likewise, the proposed petrochemical plant in central Taiwan would only aggravate environmental deterioration, polluting air and water and, in the long run, increasing the toll on the nation’s health.
The choice for Taiwan is clear — a green island, sustainable for future generations.
YANG JI-CHARNG
Ohio
Appreciating Hoklo
The Taiwanese language (also known as Hoklo) has been used in Taiwan for hundreds of years. It has many unique and interesting features.
A syllable can be used without a vowel (ng, “yellow”). The letter “n” has two sounds, n and nn (tsin, “true” and tsinn, “money”). The tone for the word “mister” (siansinn) is changed when a surname is added. Taiwanese songs are composites of musical and linguistic tones.
Guan, lin and yin are the plural forms of gua (“I”), li (“you”) and yi (“he”), formed by adding “n.” In Taiwanese, “a” is used in front and/or at the end of a noun to represent “lovely” or “little” (Ama, “Grandma,” kaua, “little dog”). It might indicate contempt instead, depending on the context.
An adjective is emphasized by repeating itself (sng, “sour”; sngsng, “very sour”; sngsngsng, “extremely sour”) or by using a repeated adverb (sui tangtang, “very beautiful”; ling, kiki, “very cold”). “Not a half” is used to emphasize “none” (bo puann lang, “not a half person”). Eyes are counted in “lui” like flowers, indicating the beauty of eyes.
Taiwanese has local accents, such as northern and southern. In Yilan and Lotong, rice and egg are pronounced as puinn and nuinn instead of penn and nenn, respectively.
As in English, “have” (u) plus a past participle is used to express a present perfect tense (u lai, “have come”). Taiwanese living in the US often say no car is like no feet — “feet” is pronounced “car” in Taiwanese.
The English “here” means “there” (hia) in Taiwanese. Santa Claus greets people in Taiwanese “Ho, Ho, Ho!” (Good, Good, Good!), and his beard is extremely beardy (hohoho in Taiwanese).
CHARLES HONG
Columbus, Ohio
When US budget carrier Southwest Airlines last week announced a new partnership with China Airlines, Southwest’s social media were filled with comments from travelers excited by the new opportunity to visit China. Of course, China Airlines is not based in China, but in Taiwan, and the new partnership connects Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport with 30 cities across the US. At a time when China is increasing efforts on all fronts to falsely label Taiwan as “China” in all arenas, Taiwan does itself no favors by having its flagship carrier named China Airlines. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is eager to jump at
The muting of the line “I’m from Taiwan” (我台灣來欸), sung in Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese), during a performance at the closing ceremony of the World Masters Games in New Taipei City on May 31 has sparked a public outcry. The lyric from the well-known song All Eyes on Me (世界都看見) — originally written and performed by Taiwanese hip-hop group Nine One One (玖壹壹) — was muted twice, while the subtitles on the screen showed an alternate line, “we come here together” (阮作伙來欸), which was not sung. The song, performed at the ceremony by a cheerleading group, was the theme
Secretary of State Marco Rubio raised eyebrows recently when he declared the era of American unipolarity over. He described America’s unrivaled dominance of the international system as an anomaly that was created by the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War. Now, he observed, the United States was returning to a more multipolar world where there are great powers in different parts of the planet. He pointed to China and Russia, as well as “rogue states like Iran and North Korea” as examples of countries the United States must contend with. This all begs the question:
Liberals have wasted no time in pointing to Karol Nawrocki’s lack of qualifications for his new job as president of Poland. He has never previously held political office. He won by the narrowest of margins, with 50.9 percent of the vote. However, Nawrocki possesses the one qualification that many national populists value above all other: a taste for physical strength laced with violence. Nawrocki is a former boxer who still likes to go a few rounds. He is also such an enthusiastic soccer supporter that he reportedly got the logos of his two favorite teams — Chelsea and Lechia Gdansk —
RSS