Tuesday, March 23, 2004
games of state, and whatnot
so somebody shot taiwanese president chen shui-bian in an apparent assassination attempt while he was campaigning the day before elections and a controversial "pro-independence" referendum (saturday). i saw this friday, but didn't have time to post anything before leaving for the weekend. with all the craziness that's already going on in the world, i suppose i shouldn't have been surprised that something like this happened, but i was nonetheless. and now, with chen having won the election in bush-like fashion (courts invalidating ballots that would change the outcome and such), the opposition is insinuating that chen faked the whole thing in a last ditch effort to garner sympathy votes in a dead heat election. well damn, if he wants the job so badly that he's willing to have himself shot to win the election, i say let the man be president! i'd like to see that kind of desire and dedication among some of our own political elite in the u.s., instead of pandering to special interest groups with deep pockets (and that applies to BOTH sides of the political spectrum, ahem!).
i know this is really serious, world changing stuff, but i have to take a somewhat light-hearted approach to the matter if i'm to retain my sanity for any length of time. on top of the whole election fiasco, mainland china is blatantly planning to undermine chen's authority while expanding its own influence on the island. what bugs me about the situation is that if it were the u.s. in china's place (as it has been in past western hemisphere elections) the worldwide community would be up in arms about us sticking our nose where it doesn't belong and how it's so wrong to tamper with a democratically elected institution. but i guess since it's china and not the u.s., it's ok, cuz nobody is making a stink about it worth smelling.
while we're on the whole china/taiwan subject, i want to let the u.s. state department know that they definitely left their collective balls at home when they came up with our supposed "stance" on china-taiwan relations. i really wish someone would grow a pair and tell mainland china to back off. yes, i know they consider taiwan a renegade province, but that's what great britain said about the 13 colonies in 1776, and we all know how that worked out for them, dont we?
i'll admit i'm wholly oppposed to beijing's persecution of the christian church, repression of the general population, and poor human rights record (but that can be said about pretty much any country in the world). but more than that, if we're going to claim ourselves defenders of the free world and democracy, why don't we support taiwan? 2 million people chose not to be part of the communist revolution that swept the mainland after wwII, and set up a democratically elected government that has been functioning for over 50 years now. in the meantime, we've fought a war in korea, another in vietnam, and two in iraq (at least 17 years of open hostilities), all in the name of freedom and democracy, but we wont even recognize taiwan as a legitimate government?
the worst thing about it is i know that money is at the bottom of our foreign-policy in the taiwan strait. china has the potential to become one of, if not the biggest economy in the world, and all the money grubbing politicians are afraid to piss them off because we want access to that development and for our businesses to be able to set up shop over there. problem is they're not cooperating very much in that sense (at least not enough for me), even after a string of 'most favored trading nation' rubber stamps over the past few years. basically, i feel like we're doing the whole free market thing with them, but they're not reciprocating to an equal degree. we're so committed to the free market economy, why can't we do the same for democracy? because the all-mighty dollar has become our new god. and that, ladies and gentlemen, explains the mess we see in this world.
symphonic melodies: green day - haushinka
brain eats: the lord of the rings part III: the return of the king by j.r.r. tolkien
so somebody shot taiwanese president chen shui-bian in an apparent assassination attempt while he was campaigning the day before elections and a controversial "pro-independence" referendum (saturday). i saw this friday, but didn't have time to post anything before leaving for the weekend. with all the craziness that's already going on in the world, i suppose i shouldn't have been surprised that something like this happened, but i was nonetheless. and now, with chen having won the election in bush-like fashion (courts invalidating ballots that would change the outcome and such), the opposition is insinuating that chen faked the whole thing in a last ditch effort to garner sympathy votes in a dead heat election. well damn, if he wants the job so badly that he's willing to have himself shot to win the election, i say let the man be president! i'd like to see that kind of desire and dedication among some of our own political elite in the u.s., instead of pandering to special interest groups with deep pockets (and that applies to BOTH sides of the political spectrum, ahem!).
i know this is really serious, world changing stuff, but i have to take a somewhat light-hearted approach to the matter if i'm to retain my sanity for any length of time. on top of the whole election fiasco, mainland china is blatantly planning to undermine chen's authority while expanding its own influence on the island. what bugs me about the situation is that if it were the u.s. in china's place (as it has been in past western hemisphere elections) the worldwide community would be up in arms about us sticking our nose where it doesn't belong and how it's so wrong to tamper with a democratically elected institution. but i guess since it's china and not the u.s., it's ok, cuz nobody is making a stink about it worth smelling.
while we're on the whole china/taiwan subject, i want to let the u.s. state department know that they definitely left their collective balls at home when they came up with our supposed "stance" on china-taiwan relations. i really wish someone would grow a pair and tell mainland china to back off. yes, i know they consider taiwan a renegade province, but that's what great britain said about the 13 colonies in 1776, and we all know how that worked out for them, dont we?
i'll admit i'm wholly oppposed to beijing's persecution of the christian church, repression of the general population, and poor human rights record (but that can be said about pretty much any country in the world). but more than that, if we're going to claim ourselves defenders of the free world and democracy, why don't we support taiwan? 2 million people chose not to be part of the communist revolution that swept the mainland after wwII, and set up a democratically elected government that has been functioning for over 50 years now. in the meantime, we've fought a war in korea, another in vietnam, and two in iraq (at least 17 years of open hostilities), all in the name of freedom and democracy, but we wont even recognize taiwan as a legitimate government?
the worst thing about it is i know that money is at the bottom of our foreign-policy in the taiwan strait. china has the potential to become one of, if not the biggest economy in the world, and all the money grubbing politicians are afraid to piss them off because we want access to that development and for our businesses to be able to set up shop over there. problem is they're not cooperating very much in that sense (at least not enough for me), even after a string of 'most favored trading nation' rubber stamps over the past few years. basically, i feel like we're doing the whole free market thing with them, but they're not reciprocating to an equal degree. we're so committed to the free market economy, why can't we do the same for democracy? because the all-mighty dollar has become our new god. and that, ladies and gentlemen, explains the mess we see in this world.
symphonic melodies: green day - haushinka
brain eats: the lord of the rings part III: the return of the king by j.r.r. tolkien
