Sunday, March 23, 2008

Ma Yingjiu (馬英九) - Taiwan's new Prez!



Elections in Taiwan usually leave me a little conflicted. I'm no fan of the KMT, or even of the Republic of China - I identify with Taiwan, not the R.O.C. However, I think the party that usually claims to represent Taiwan (as opposed to the R.O.C.) has been a huge disappointment over the last eight years, and throughout the campaign. And the opposition candidate, Ma Yingjiu (Yes, I know he spells it Ying-jeou, but I prefer the standardized romanization of the Hanyu Pinyin system, so sue me.)is a candidate that has a lot of potential to do good. He promotes internationalization, not localization. He wants to get flights going between China and Taiwan - daily! He should be able to get a much -needed arms bill passed in the legislature, and most importantly, he'll have the support of a very blue (blue means KMT) legislature to implement his agenda. If Frank Xie had won, he would have been a lame-duck president, and probably even recalled. That would not have been good for the country.

The KMT has enough bad apples inside to make me nervous, though. They still have strong ties to organized crime, and they are already showing an arrogance of power. And while most KMT supporters pay lip service to the notion of a single China, some deluded old geezers in the KMT actually want that day to come!

I have a lot of faith in the people of Taiwan to not put up with anything to outrageous. The KMT's decisive victory aside, I believe that "Taiwan consciousness" is as strong as ever. It's now time for the opposition DPP to lick its wounds, and come back stronger and smarter. To be honest, they deserved this defeat. Their administration had become an embarrassment - corruption, insider trading scandals, a totally incompetent Ministry of Education, and a Government Information Office that was so hopeless, it was almost funny.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Why Do We Scream At Each Other?

Taiwan's Politicians are Dorks!



Today's Taipei Times writes:
The DPP has asked its supporters to:
1. attend a campaign rally, dubbed "Million People High Five, Come-back Win"
2. to wear their baseball caps backward
3. flash the thumbs-up sign
4. exchange high fives
5. form a 1,000km line encircling much of Taiwan,
6. at 3:14 pm begin a 5km march in a counter-clockwise direction to symbolize "reversing the tide" against the KMT's dominance


The Million People High Five Come-back Win? Couldn't they think of a cheezier name? I'm surprised they're not also asking Taiwanese people to do the Macarena whilst taking out the garbage in green undies!

Of course, the KMT are no better - they don't even have original wackiness - they have to borrow the DPP's:
The KMT is holding simultaneous marches throughout the country, in which participants will wear their caps backward and exchange high fives at 3:14pm. The KMT yesterday brushed off the DPP's criticism, saying that wearing a hat backward symbolizes an athlete's determination to win by giving his or her last best shot.
"It is a gesture well known to sports lovers. It was not invented by the DPP," KMT communication and cultural committee head Huang Yucheng (黃玉振) said.


Edit: And I just noticed the DPP T-Shirts in the picture: "Yes, we can".

Frank Xie = Barack Obama?

Sure he does! Hahahahahahaha

Monday, March 10, 2008

Sunday, March 09, 2008

Vacation Showertime

Every day in Boracay, we'd have to give Trudi several showers to get the salt and sand off.