What others have said
This letter in response to your editorials on Thursday and Friday (“Comic book is no laughing matter,” April 28, page 8 and “Lame excuse for a lame comic book,” April 29, page 8).
First: “The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny” (James Madison, The Federalist No. 47).
Second: “It is characteristic of a tyrant to dislike everyone who has dignity or independence; he wants to be alone in his glory, but anyone who claims a little dignity, or asserts his independence, encroaches upon his prerogative, and is hated by as an enemy to his power” (Aristotle, Politics).
Third: “The tyrant is proud, and there lies his doom. He is proud because he thinks of strength as his own; thus he is in the clown role, as a mistaker of shadow for substance; it is his destiny to be tricked” (Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces).
Fourth: “If there is a single theme that dominates all my writings, all my obsessions, it is that of memory — because I fear forgetfulness as much as hatred and death” (Eli Weisel, Nazi Holocaust survivor, in his preface to From the Kingdom of Memory: Reminiscences).
Fifth: “Do we need conditioned adepts or free-thinking students? Scholastic fact--factories keep many a good pupil too busy to think and educate him in progressive immaturity. Students are caught up in compulsive school regimentation which imprints on them dependency and awe of authority” (Joost Meerloo, Pavlovianism Strategy as a Weapon of Menticide).
Sixth: “If you want a vision of the future, just imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever” (George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four).
The six quotes listed above speak for themselves. The following quotes about Orwell’s “memory hole” is precisely the exact metaphor to describe what has been done by the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) publication of a comic book history of the Republic of China military — a comic that, coincidently, “deletes” 20 years that were crucial in the development of democracy in Taiwan. The KMT is conducting its affairs every day more and more as an autocratic, totalitarian, tyrannical regime.
It is acting in the very same manner as the Chinese Communist Party that removes undesirables from photos by airbrushing them.
According to a Wikipedia article on the subject of memory holes: “A memory hole is any mechanism for the alteration or disappearance of inconvenient or embarrassing documents, photographs, transcripts, or other records, such as from a Web site or other archive, particularly as part of an attempt to give the impression that something never happened” — a concept first popularized by Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Finally, “In Nineteen Eighty-Four, the memory hole is a small chute leading to a large incinerator used for censorship.”
Michael Scanlon
East Hartford, Connecticut
Saudi Arabian largesse is flooding Egypt’s cultural scene, but the reception is mixed. Some welcome new “cooperation” between two regional powerhouses, while others fear a hostile takeover by Riyadh. In Cairo, historically the cultural capital of the Arab world, Egyptian Minister of Culture Nevine al-Kilany recently hosted Saudi Arabian General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki al-Sheikh. The deep-pocketed al-Sheikh has emerged as a Medici-like patron for Egypt’s cultural elite, courted by Cairo’s top talent to produce a slew of forthcoming films. A new three-way agreement between al-Sheikh, Kilany and United Media Services — a multi-media conglomerate linked to state intelligence that owns much of
The US and other countries should take concrete steps to confront the threats from Beijing to avoid war, US Representative Mario Diaz-Balart said in an interview with Voice of America on March 13. The US should use “every diplomatic economic tool at our disposal to treat China as what it is... to avoid war,” Diaz-Balart said. Giving an example of what the US could do, he said that it has to be more aggressive in its military sales to Taiwan. Actions by cross-party US lawmakers in the past few years such as meeting with Taiwanese officials in Washington and Taipei, and
Denmark’s “one China” policy more and more resembles Beijing’s “one China” principle. At least, this is how things appear. In recent interactions with the Danish state, such as applying for residency permits, a Taiwanese’s nationality would be listed as “China.” That designation occurs for a Taiwanese student coming to Denmark or a Danish citizen arriving in Denmark with, for example, their Taiwanese partner. Details of this were published on Sunday in an article in the Danish daily Berlingske written by Alexander Sjoberg and Tobias Reinwald. The pretext for this new practice is that Denmark does not recognize Taiwan as a state under
The Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan has no official diplomatic allies in the EU. With the exception of the Vatican, it has no official allies in Europe at all. This does not prevent the ROC — Taiwan — from having close relations with EU member states and other European countries. The exact nature of the relationship does bear revisiting, if only to clarify what is a very complicated and sensitive idea, the details of which leave considerable room for misunderstanding, misrepresentation and disagreement. Only this week, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) received members of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations