The art of slow walking
The article “The art of slow walking” (Sept. 14, page 12) by Dana Ter is thought-provoking. I am fascinated with the quote from Etienne Allaix: “Walking and thinking are very similar since you need to constantly make decisions.”
I came across a quote from a book by Meyer Friedman, Type A Behavior: Its Diagnosis and Treatment, which said: “Beware the mind-destroying drug of constant action.”
Friedman elaborated: “Creative thinking cannot be easily accomplished by a person rushing at a breakneck speed at his or her daily life.”
These two quotes together demonstrate the benefit of slow walking.
It is not only pleasurable and therapeutic, but also creative. However, people in industrialized and urbanized societies like Taiwan are gradually being deprived of this benefit brought about by slow walking.
Still, it is delightful to know that a French artist is using this method to understand and represent Taiwan’s people, environment and culture through a camera. It is very exciting.
Chingning Wang
Sydney, Australia
‘Stable’ is window dressing
Political pundits often use the word “stable” to describe the current relationship between both sides of the Taiwan Strait. Western observers breathe a sigh of relief every time they hear the word, hoping that it will justify their continual denial of the current situation Taiwan is facing. Before addressing the various headwinds Taiwan will have to confront, it is important to understand what it really means to live in “stability.”
Taken to one extreme, some would argue that cross-strait relations have never been better. Their arguments often rely on the simplistic notion that Taiwan is no longer under threat, because the Chinese People’s Liberation Army is not conducting missile tests reminiscent of the 1995-1996 Taiwan Strait Crisis.
In some respects those commentators are correct, but why must their analysis of what is stable take us to the brink of immediate destruction? When students stormed the Legislative Yuan as part of their now famous Sunflower movement, the general population was taken by surprise. The Sunflower movement and the subsequent push for a more transparent democracy were accumulations of previous events.
The question, however, remains, what is stability? Can it simply be measured by trade volume or GDP statistics? Or should we look elsewhere for our understanding of the word.
It is no secret that wages have been stagnant for more than 15 years, well-paying jobs have moved overseas and Chinese media companies are itching at the chance to begin their conquest of the Taiwanese market.
Are these factors unimportant when analyzing the stability of Taiwan’s relation to the People’s Republic of China?
Rage Against the Machine front man Zack de la Rocha once famously sang, “hungry people don’t stay hungry for long, they get hope from fire as they reach for the dawn.” The KMT government has purposefully ignored the fire growing over the past decade in an effort to mask the nation’s problems. If this is what stability looks like, maybe it is time for a little disruption.
Nicholas Serasis
Taipei
Taiwanese banned from UN
Tsai Yu-ling (蔡淯鈴), a Taiwanese woman, wanted to visit the UN in Geneva, but was denied entry because she carried a Republic of China passport instead of a People’s Republic of China passport (Liberty Times Net, Sept. 16). As Tsai said, the UN discriminates against Taiwanese.
The UN is governed by the universal principles of equal rights and self-determination. When the UN bans Taiwanese from visiting its facilities, it violates its own principle of equal rights. Taiwan has been separate from China for 120 years.
When the UN and the US adopt a policy of “one China” that includes Taiwan — without the consent of Taiwanese — the principles of self-determination and human rights are breached. This policy does not contribute to peace; it only makes China aggressive toward Taiwan.
More than 1,500 missiles are aimed at Taiwan. Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) has warned that he will solve the “Taiwan problem” within his term and that Taiwanese will “feel the ground shake and mountains move” if he is not satisfied with the results of next year’s presidential and legislative elections in Taiwan on Jan. 16.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon observed the Chinese military parade in Beijing to mark the end of World War II. As the head of the world’s peace organization, Ban must have had mixed feelings witnessing massive displays of Chinese missiles, fighter jets, tanks and soldiers.
US President Barack Obama should respect the basic human rights of Taiwanese and discuss the status of Taiwan with Xi, in accordance with the Treaty of San Francisco. The so-called “1992 consensus” has been a controversy for 23 years.
Taiwanese love freedom, democracy and peace. Whether Taiwan is a part of China or not is for Taiwanese to decide according to the UN principle of self-determination. The US should help Taiwan and Taiwanese enter the UN.
Charles Hong
Columbus, Ohio
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