Unequal treatment
I find it remarkable that it took the government less than 24 hours to find the body of Taishin Financial Holdings president Lin Keh-hsiao (林克孝).
If it were any average person, it would take weeks — as has been proven with the death of other hikers. This is yet another example of how the rich get special perks.
If you are wondering why London is burning up and revolutions are taking place in the Arab world, look no further than these types of injustices. While the weak suffer, the rich bask in their little world of grandeur.
It is about time that rich people, investors, bankers and their kind wake up and see that ordinary people cannot survive while their companies make a killing.
I feel deeply sorry for the loss to Lin’s family, but I hope that more people will speak out against the unfair treatment we peasants receive.
HARRY ADAMOPOULOS
Taipei
Banning the anthem
No school band, from any country, should ever be asked to refrain from playing their national anthem (“School band told to drop national anthem: official,” Aug. 9, page 3). That the request apparently came from a citizen of their own country betrays the presence of a turncoat in their midst.
To invite a band to play, then dictate what it cannot play, would be like booking Elvis and telling him not to sing Blue Suede Shoes or telling the Beatles to skip Help. There is no reason for it. None.
D. H. RIDGWAY
Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Bad driving in Taipei
I have lived in Taiwan for more than eight years, and the last four in Taipei. I have always been impressed at the safety of living in this city; being able to walk the streets any time of day without fear. It is a reflection of the decency and civility of people in Taipei.
So why is it that when these same people are seated behind a wheel, all sense of decency and concern for others transforms into an arrogance that defies belief, and a sense of entitlement where other people’s safety, even their very lives, are of no importance? Not all drivers in Taipei are like this, but after observing this behavior on a daily basis for some years now, it is clearly an endemic problem.
Suggesting drivers in the city “can’t drive” is to say they don’t know how to drive. For anyone who has completed a driving test in Taiwan, it is of no surprise that the training and testing are hopelessly inadequate.
Go to any major intersection on Zhongxiao E Road at midday and watch drivers taking a left-hand turn. It involves dangerously veering into and across the other lane, establishing a personal inside lane on the opposite side of the road, even if it runs over a pedestrian crosswalk, and finally pushing through a gap of crossing pedestrians. Left-hand turns are mentioned in the written driving test; they are not practiced nor rigorously tested in an actual road test.
Suggesting drivers in the city “won’t drive properly” is to say they know how to drive, but they choose not to. This is a more unfortunate reality of life in Taipei: racing through red lights, not using an indicator before changing lanes, not stopping the car for crossing pedestrians.
The other factor in this madness is what motivated me to write now. While walking home from lunch recently, I encountered a typical scene: a small road with an intersecting street running through it; no traffic lights, but with a pedestrian crosswalk. While crossing the street, a car approached coming down the street from the opposite side of the road and heading through the intersection. When the driver saw I was continuing across the crosswalk, he accelerated toward me; I had to literally dive backwards to avoid him. This is not the first time it has happened, but it was the closest I ever came to being hit full on.
The dangerous ignorance of this particular driver is not what motivated me to write. When I turned to pick myself up, there on the other side of the road was a policeman on a scooter, who had been driving behind the driver of the car coming into the same intersection. He had witnessed the scene. He looked down at me, smiled, and then took a left-hand turn and drove on.
He didn’t use his indicator to signal a left turn.
SHANE JOHNSON
Taipei
A gap appears to be emerging between Washington’s foreign policy elites and the broader American public on how the United States should respond to China’s rise. From my vantage working at a think tank in Washington, DC, and through regular travel around the United States, I increasingly experience two distinct discussions. This divergence — between America’s elite hawkishness and public caution — may become one of the least appreciated and most consequential external factors influencing Taiwan’s security environment in the years ahead. Within the American policy community, the dominant view of China has grown unmistakably tough. Many members of Congress, as
After declaring Iran’s military “gone,” US President Donald Trump appealed to the UK, France, Japan and South Korea — as well as China, Iran’s strategic partner — to send minesweepers and naval forces to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. When allies balked, the request turned into a warning: NATO would face “a very bad” future if it refused. The prevailing wisdom is that Trump faces a credibility problem: having spent years insulting allies, he finds they would not rally when he needs them. That is true, but superficial, as though a structural collapse could be caused by wounded feelings. Something
Former Taipei mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) founding chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was sentenced to 17 years in prison on Thursday, making headlines across major media. However, another case linked to the TPP — the indictment of Chinese immigrant Xu Chunying (徐春鶯) for alleged violations of the Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法) on Tuesday — has also stirred up heated discussions. Born in Shanghai, Xu became a resident of Taiwan through marriage in 1993. Currently the director of the Taiwan New Immigrant Development Association, she was elected to serve as legislator-at-large for the TPP in 2023, but was later charged with involvement
Out of 64 participating universities in this year’s Stars Program — through which schools directly recommend their top students to universities for admission — only 19 filled their admissions quotas. There were 922 vacancies, down more than 200 from last year; top universities had 37 unfilled places, 40 fewer than last year. The original purpose of the Stars Program was to expand admissions to a wider range of students. However, certain departments at elite universities that failed to meet their admissions quotas are not improving. Vacancies at top universities are linked to students’ program preferences on their applications, but inappropriate admission
RSS