Nation needs innovators
The crushing financial burden that the Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) administration is leaving to young people is the crime of the century.
With the lowest wages for graduates ever, young people are faced with the inevitable consequences of the rapacious greed that has infected every part and party of Taiwan.
It is time for Taiwanese students to demand a better level of education from their teachers.
Physics and chemistry students should be demanding that their teachers explain how the element thorium can be used to build small modular molten-salt reactors that can safely create localized energy while also destroying the appalling mountains of nuclear waste that have been building up over the years.
Taiwan more than anything needs a sensible approach to farming and energy.
It produces only 23 percent of its own food, which is shocking, considering the number of farmers (and rich landowners) who are paid taxpayer money to not grow crops.
Apart from food, nearly all of the nation’s energy sources are imported, like oil and coal.
For fast-track thorium development in universities, an award should be given to the Taiwanese college that produces the best design. Bring back the days when “Made in Taiwan” actually meant something, and leverage the nation’s amazing innovation abilities and value-added knowledge.
It is time to get moving. The global economy is more fragile than ever, and China is clearly an “irresponsible stakeholder.”
If shipping lanes were to be disrupted through financial collapse, natural disaster or war, half of the people in Taiwan would starve within two weeks.
Industrial hemp could be a solution to increase exports and boost employment. It can reduce deforestation by being used to make paper, cloth, biofuel, some medicines and “hempcrete” — an all-green concrete substitute. Hemp grows four times faster than trees do and rejuvenates the soil. Students should look into this and start asking their teachers questions.
Students have opportunities through 3D printing and Taiwan’s amazing pre-fabricated building industry. Vocational-technical students should be finding out more about this, and perhaps why Nikola Tesla’s secrets are still being held by the US.
Paradigm-shifting breakthroughs are needed in Taiwan.
Humankind will, one way or another, learn to adapt to a future where unlimited supplies of fossil fuels will not be taken for granted.
Given all of the above and taking into consideration climate change, the first country that makes a self-sustainable move will be the winner.
If Taiwan can deregulate electricity generation and sell superficies rights to roads, enough bond-buyers near E-Da World theme complex in Kaohsiung could build a sufficiency of solar panels to keep the ice rink frozen in summer, but only if there is a plan for people to invest productively in IT projects.
Students everywhere should read Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt to learn how the economy works. They would also learn what the lines are between government intervention and a free-market economy based on individual choice.
Torch Pratt
New Taipei City
Damage overvalued
The Executive Yuan plans to seek compensation from the protesters who broke into the Executive Yuan on March 23 (“Student donations illegal: ministry,” April 10, page 1). Outrageously, the allegedly damaged items’ combined worth is NT$3 million (US$100,000). Anyone perusing the brief list will note that it basically consists of office furniture: “four timber doors, 13 windows, a refrigerator, a photocopy machine, a fax machine, a cabinet and some tables and chairs.”
Where did the Executive Yuan procure these items? Sotheby’s? They are obviously not from IKEA. It is surprising that no one is complaining that this is how taxes have been spent. Doesn’t the current administration want to minimize waste? Aren’t the contents of the building insured?
This minor issue needs to be addressed, because as it stands, it smacks of economic terrorism designed to discourage protest. What next? Presenting protesters with bills covering the costs of policing the protest? Invoicing students for their own evictions? Where will it end?
Ainesley Crabbe
Yunlin County
With escalating US-China competition and mutual distrust, the trend of supply chain “friend shoring” in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the fragmentation of the world into rival geopolitical blocs, many analysts and policymakers worry the world is retreating into a new cold war — a world of trade bifurcation, protectionism and deglobalization. The world is in a new cold war, said Robin Niblett, former director of the London-based think tank Chatham House. Niblett said he sees the US and China slowly reaching a modus vivendi, but it might take time. The two great powers appear to be “reversing carefully
As China steps up a campaign to diplomatically isolate and squeeze Taiwan, it has become more imperative than ever that Taipei play a greater role internationally with the support of the democratic world. To help safeguard its autonomous status, Taiwan needs to go beyond bolstering its defenses with weapons like anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles. With the help of its international backers, it must also expand its diplomatic footprint globally. But are Taiwan’s foreign friends willing to translate their rhetoric into action by helping Taipei carve out more international space for itself? Beating back China’s effort to turn Taiwan into an international pariah
Typhoon Krathon made landfall in southwestern Taiwan last week, bringing strong winds, heavy rain and flooding, cutting power to more than 170,000 homes and water supply to more than 400,000 homes, and leading to more than 600 injuries and four deaths. Due to the typhoon, schools and offices across the nation were ordered to close for two to four days, stirring up familiar controversies over whether local governments’ decisions to call typhoon days were appropriate. The typhoon’s center made landfall in Kaohsiung’s Siaogang District (小港) at noon on Thursday, but it weakened into a tropical depression early on Friday, and its structure
Taiwan is facing multiple economic challenges due to internal and external pressures. Internal challenges include energy transition, upgrading industries, a declining birthrate and an aging population. External challenges are technology competition between the US and China, international supply chain restructuring and global economic uncertainty. All of these issues complicate Taiwan’s economic situation. Taiwan’s reliance on fossil fuel imports not only threatens the stability of energy supply, but also goes against the global trend of carbon reduction. The government should continue to promote renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power, as well as energy storage technology, to diversify energy supply. It
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