Two government policies have been halted recently -- the establishment of private arms company Taiwan Goal and the privatization of the Grand Hotel. After these measures became public, they were questioned by the media and criticized by the opposition, which led the government to abandon the plans to avoid difficulties ahead of the presidential elections.

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By Tan Ui-chi 陳威志
On Feb. 18, Academia Sinica's research group for environment and energy resources took aim at global warming by issuing a statement addressing the government's energy policy, but the different players seem to focus only on the position of former Academia Sinica president and Nobel laureate Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲), who is in favor of the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, and use this as evidence that the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) anti-nuclear energy policy is inappropriate and bad for Taiwan's economy.

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In his book Risk Society, sociologist Ulrich Beck proposed the concept of a "risk society." He used this concept to highlight the unpredictable high risks that modern technology brings, such as nuclear disaster or global warming. The concept implies that risk distribution has become a major issue external to wealth distribution and can only be prevented by the concerted effort of humanity as a whole.

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Some well-meaning NGOs have done more harm than good, but assessing them poses challenges
By Robert Glasser
When disaster strikes, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are among the first on the scene. The UN estimates that there are now more than 37,000 international NGOs, with major donors relying on them more and more.

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The inauguration of a new president in South Korea and an ice-breaking concert in the North seemed to have little effect
By Richard Halloran
The news flowing out of the Korean peninsula lately has been almost euphoric. Even so, a dollop of skepticism about its ultimate effect seems to be in order.

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By Seumas Milne
It might have been expected that the catastrophe of Iraq and the bloody failure of Afghanistan would have at least dampened the enthusiasm among Western politicians for invading other people's countries in the name of democracy and human rights. But the signs are instead of a determined drive to rehabilitate the idea of liberal interventionism so comprehensively discredited in the killing fields of Fallujah and Samarra.

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With all the people looking forward to this month's presidential election, we may start speculating about what new policies the nation's next leader will come up with to invigorate our long-lasting education headache.

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While we may congratulate the nations that have recently recognized Kosovo for their boldness or principled assertions of self-rule, we may now take fresh occasion to scold them all for their continued scorn of Taiwan's national sovereignty. And while the merits of Kosovo's case for independence have at least lingering grounds for debate, there is no uncertainty, outside the scope of China's flagrantly false propaganda, that Taiwan is anything but an independent nation.

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