Strays trouble traveler
Traveling around Taiwan for a few weeks, I have noticed that your nation faces a serious problem with stray dogs, especially in the countryside. There are way too many stray dogs. While hiking or cycling, I had a few encounters with unfriendly packs of them. I have not been bitten, fortunately, but it was close a few times.
Your authorities should take care of this issue by catching stray dogs, sterilizing them and yes, putting them down in areas where their numbers are just too high. Tourists coming to Taiwan should be able to enjoy hiking or cycling at ease without having to watch out for dogs and having to chase them away too many times.
Tom Tasman
Germany
Reader commends pilot
I believe the TransAsia Airways pilot was a hero. I looked at the video and was curious as to why the aircraft banked so sharply left at the last moment. It seems he did so to avoid power lines. He ditched the aircraft and saved lives... under control... on one engine.
Ronald Gladiuk
United States
Suspects need punishment
I am not Taiwanese by birth, but I am Taiwanese by choice. Please then allow me the indulgence of an opinion to one of your rather disturbing articles. I have been an educator for many years in Taiwan and my numerous students have included the young and the not-so-young.
This week one of my students asked me if amorality is innate. The simple answer is “Yes,” but with a caveat. It is a blight that strikes few people. The simple acid test is to ask: “How many times have I been shot, bludgeoned or violently robbed?” I would tend to venture that the answer is few to none. So where is this amorality displayed? The sociopath hides in business pursuits and in the military, to name but a few. If they display this sickness, they must be dealt with extremely harshly to serve as a deterrent and to keep this behavior in check.
The article shows that this malaise can be displayed even in young people (“Video of teenagers beating elderly man sparks investigation,” Jan. 22, page 3). These are extremely lucky boys. The victim (an already broken old man) fled, not wanting to give his name or get involved in this chicanery.
He is obviously hiding from something — societal opprobrium or further embarrassment to his family. Who knows? The teens will get a minor slap on the wrist, charged under the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法). The parents, cowed, offered an apology and money.
Not good enough, in my opinion. This is the fault of the parents. They have created these monsters.
When was the last time that you beat a defenseless old man with a scooter helmet? These boys must be punished in a way that they reflect on this incident and will not do it again. Pure sociopaths are incurable, but their behavior can be kept in check.
In addition, the parents should be forced to take some sensitivity training classes, for they have instilled this lack of respect and caring in their children. I know that I sound harsh, but we must control this societal sickness, mostly created by the “me-ism” spawned from unbridled capitalism.
I believe that the world is intrinsically good. However, it will not remain so if we idly stand by and allow little to big acts to go unpunished — the correctness of holding the door open for the next person to the more serious example we have just spoken of. Let us all get in sync for the advancement of the common good.
Leon La Couvee
Taichung
On March 22, 2023, at the close of their meeting in Moscow, media microphones were allowed to record Chinese Communist Party (CCP) dictator Xi Jinping (習近平) telling Russia’s dictator Vladimir Putin, “Right now there are changes — the likes of which we haven’t seen for 100 years — and we are the ones driving these changes together.” Widely read as Xi’s oath to create a China-Russia-dominated world order, it can be considered a high point for the China-Russia-Iran-North Korea (CRINK) informal alliance, which also included the dictatorships of Venezuela and Cuba. China enables and assists Russia’s war against Ukraine and North Korea’s
After thousands of Taiwanese fans poured into the Tokyo Dome to cheer for Taiwan’s national team in the World Baseball Classic’s (WBC) Pool C games, an image of food and drink waste left at the stadium said to have been left by Taiwanese fans began spreading on social media. The image sparked wide debate, only later to be revealed as an artificially generated image. The image caption claimed that “Taiwanese left trash everywhere after watching the game in Tokyo Dome,” and said that one of the “three bad habits” of Taiwanese is littering. However, a reporter from a Japanese media outlet
An article published in the Dec. 12, 1949, edition of the Central Daily News (中央日報) bore a headline with the intimidating phrase: “You Cannot Escape.” The article was about the execution of seven “communist spies,” some say on the basis of forced confessions, at the end of the 713 Penghu Incident. Those were different times, born of political paranoia shortly after the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) relocated to Taiwan following defeat in China by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The phrase was a warning by the KMT regime to the local populace not to challenge its power or threaten national unity. The
Since taking office, President William Lai (賴清德) has been an active proponent of the Healthy Taiwan initiative. As a member of the Healthy Taiwan Promotion Committee, I have also contributed recommendations on various pharmaceutical policies. After the committee concluded its seventh meeting on Saturday last week, Lai announced that the government is considering a three-year suspension on the Drug Expenditure Target (DET) system’s routine drug price surveys, highlighting the need to further support drug supply resilience. While I am supportive of this policy direction, I must also stress the importance of maintaining our original objective of improving the quality of
RSS