The nation’s armed forces, which count hundreds of thousands of people in their ranks, represent a sizable constituency in Taiwan, and as such should be called upon to help the nation in whatever way they can in times of need.
Already, many of the men and women who serve in the military put their lives at risk, whether it is during training, in the wake of natural catastrophes, or — and let us hope it never comes to this — in time of war. Far too often their efforts and dedication are taken for granted or made the object of ridicule.
Facing such odds, soldiers’ morale understandably suffers. What’s more, bad press makes the goal of creating a fully professional military even less attainable, as young people would rather turn to the private sector than join an organization that is constantly under fire. A country need not be martial or fascistic to accord its armed forces the respect they deserve. Just like politicians, business owners, nurses, academics or farmers, soldiers and military officers are an integral part of society.
Which brings us to the habit of using soldiers whenever large quantities of agricultural products need to be disposed of or their prices stabilized. In recent years, hundreds of tonnes of oranges and bananas have been purchased by the military and “force-fed” to soldiers amid efforts to help farmers. More recently, it was proposed that the Ministry of National Defense purchase large quantities of pork to serve a similar objective.
This is grotesque. While there is no doubt that soldiers want to contribute to society like everybody else — and they do, every single day they put on the uniform — it is difficult to imagine that proposals by politicians to bloat soldiers’ stomachs with whatever produce needs stock reduction or price adjustment makes them feel that their sacrifices are fully acknowledged. Quite the opposite, it probably makes them feel used, and we can be assured that this is of no benefit to morale.
As has been the case almost every year, the nation faces surfeits of products or price destabilization. Quick fixes, such as those used for oranges, bananas and now perhaps pork, will always fail to address a problem that is structural rather than seasonal. Rather than proposing to dump unwanted produce on soldiers, legislators and government officials should put their minds together to identify the underlying causes of what are recurring problems and, once those have been understood, come up with long-term solutions to fix them. Doing so would not only be of great service to the nation as a whole, but would also avoid alienating a sector that is already doing more than its share of heavy lifting.
Relations between the military and civilians, especially in democracies, are inherently tense. However, that relationship can be enhanced when proper respect is paid to both sides. Civilians should show respect for the men and women who put their lives on the line to ensure they can continue their way of life; it is just as essential that soldiers and officers regard society with equal justness, while remembering that the powers given them — force of arms — is a great responsibility and must only be wielded at the service of society.
Should that respect be lost, we cannot expect soldiers to fight and lay down their lives for a society that treats them like second-rate citizens. Using them as garbage dumps does just that.
On May 7, 1971, Henry Kissinger planned his first, ultra-secret mission to China and pondered whether it would be better to meet his Chinese interlocutors “in Pakistan where the Pakistanis would tape the meeting — or in China where the Chinese would do the taping.” After a flicker of thought, he decided to have the Chinese do all the tape recording, translating and transcribing. Fortuitously, historians have several thousand pages of verbatim texts of Dr. Kissinger’s negotiations with his Chinese counterparts. Paradoxically, behind the scenes, Chinese stenographers prepared verbatim English language typescripts faster than they could translate and type them
More than 30 years ago when I immigrated to the US, applied for citizenship and took the 100-question civics test, the one part of the naturalization process that left the deepest impression on me was one question on the N-400 form, which asked: “Have you ever been a member of, involved in or in any way associated with any communist or totalitarian party anywhere in the world?” Answering “yes” could lead to the rejection of your application. Some people might try their luck and lie, but if exposed, the consequences could be much worse — a person could be fined,
Xiaomi Corp founder Lei Jun (雷軍) on May 22 made a high-profile announcement, giving online viewers a sneak peek at the company’s first 3-nanometer mobile processor — the Xring O1 chip — and saying it is a breakthrough in China’s chip design history. Although Xiaomi might be capable of designing chips, it lacks the ability to manufacture them. No matter how beautifully planned the blueprints are, if they cannot be mass-produced, they are nothing more than drawings on paper. The truth is that China’s chipmaking efforts are still heavily reliant on the free world — particularly on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing
Keelung Mayor George Hsieh (謝國樑) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on Tuesday last week apologized over allegations that the former director of the city’s Civil Affairs Department had illegally accessed citizens’ data to assist the KMT in its campaign to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) councilors. Given the public discontent with opposition lawmakers’ disruptive behavior in the legislature, passage of unconstitutional legislation and slashing of the central government’s budget, civic groups have launched a massive campaign to recall KMT lawmakers. The KMT has tried to fight back by initiating campaigns to recall DPP lawmakers, but the petition documents they
RSS