It was announced without fanfare on Friday and few acknowledged its importance, but the decision by the Ministry of the Interior to allow the registration of previously banned political organizations was another step toward becoming a normal, moderate and mature democracy.

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By Paul Lin 林保華
As talks were being conducted between Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) in Beijing, the Chinese-language Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao published an article on June 13 entitled “How should Ma repay China for its big gifts?”

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By Ker Chien-ming 柯建銘
Before talks with his Chinese counterpart, Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) said that while former SEF negotiator Koo Chen-fu (辜振甫) traveled to China for political talks, Chiang and his delegation instead discussed economic matters.

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By Huang Yu-te 黃育德
The legislature’s assessment of the Labor Insurance annual pension plan has entered the stage of inter-party negotiation. The Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) has directed the focus on the financial situation of the Labor Insurance Fund (勞保基金), suggesting that the basic benefit rate should be linked to the rate of insurance contributions. If workers demanded a higher rate of benefits from their Labor Insurance pension, their rate of contribution would be raised. Media reports say the contribution rate could rise as high as 13 percent, so that a contribution of NT$1,300 would have to be made for every NT$10,000.

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For the new wave of herbivores, the agenda is more about human lives than sympathy for animals
By John Harris
Back in April, under the auspices of a campaign titled “No Meat, No Heat,” around 1 million people in Taiwan — including the legislative speaker, the environment minister and the mayors of Taipei and Kaohsiung — vowed to never again touch flesh nor fish. Given that Taiwan’s Buddhist traditions mean around 1.2 million people are already vegetarian, this was perhaps not such a bold move as it seemed. Still, the organizers of the mass pledge cited the often overlooked contribution of livestock farming to greenhouse gas emissions and presented it as an environmental move par excellence.

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The role of free trade in lowering prices and increasing quality is widely accepted. But trade in healthcare is another story
By Fredrik Erixon and Lucy Davis
As food and oil prices rocket all over the world, consumers are getting a crash course in economics: When demand increases, prices increase. Although food and oil dominate the headlines, life’s other essentials also obey this cast-iron law, including healthcare, which is threatening to bust government budgets all over the world. As with food, part of the solution lies in opening up trade and competition.

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By Jason Burke
The walls of the village have recently been repainted with trees, waterfalls and the uplifting slogan: “I will contribute to the success of the Olympics and help establish a civilized new community.”

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