Donations

Some Typhoon Morakat disaster donation information from DPP's website:

http://dpp0808.blogspot.com/2009/08/blog-post_4671.html

Organization listed on Liberty Times:
http://iservice.libertytimes.com.tw/2009/specials/Morakot/h.php?p=3

Typhoon Morakat (UPDATE)

Worst flood disaster in southern Taiwan in 50 years.

Right now rescue and delivering aids operations are still on going. I wish those in central and southern Taiwan will be alright....

It is one of the worst in recent history...Right now it seems the amount of rain fall is abnormally high, but still there are quite a lot of lessons that can be learned about flood prevention and rescue operations...I hope those experts within the government and society can learn from it.

Also, a lot of bridges etc collapse again...the long time construction quality problems that have plagued Taiwan for so long once again surface...something has to be done about it. Given Taiwan's constant Typhoon and earth quakes, every structures in Taiwan should be made more sturdy than the structures in other places...

Unfortunately Taiwan has to cope with Earth quakes and typhoons. Taiwan has typhoon every year, and without typhoons Taiwan will have constant water shortage,...but for quite a long time it seems every time there is a major typhoon, some disasters happen. Taiwan should always be prepared for the worst...

Update: BillyPan mapped out the disasters using google map...

Update: Great news, many mudslide survivors found...

Kaohsiung Success is A Good Lesson

I think we can learn a lot about the successful transformation of Kaohsiung in the past decade...

Claudia Jean has a nice blog on the story of the preparation of World Games in Kaohsiung.

This quote is quite interesting:

Prof. Lin pointed out the two main reasons which make high quality public construction work in Taiwan difficult. One is corruption where people’s representatives and civil servants at various government levels take bribes or kickbacks. Another is actually the law that is meant to prevent corruption.

Connecting this with what is happening in Taipei...it seems that there are many interesting issues that can be studied. Why is it that under KMT, there are a lot of poor construction and severe pollutions? Is it impossible to improve Taiwan? Kaohsiung showed that it is possible. It is possible to have beautiful cities in Taiwan. It is possible to clean up a stinky river. It is possible to break through and change the corrupted policies that have always plagued Taiwan. Starting from Frank Hsie, the consecutive DPP mayors of Kouhsiung continuously contribute to the improvement, and follow trough their policies, no matter the pressure. And it is not just the politicians, but a lot of engineers and officials sacrificed their reputation and life on the great task, on what they believe is right.

Comparing this to Taipei, which has a lot more money...it is real good contrast. Of course, Kouhsiung still has room for improvement, but it has taken the first most difficult step. Its success shows that...yes, with the right attitude, heart and leadership, it is possible in Taiwan.

UPDATE: This article is also very interesting...it indicates the similar problems that were mentioned by Prof. Lin: http://www.hi-on.org.tw/bulletins.jsp?b_ID=92575

Continueous Problem with Neihu MRT

There are quite a lot of news on the Neihu MRT lines. The problem seems to be much larger than previously anticipated. For the past month, almost everyday there are problems (LINK). Yesterday apparently the computer crashed and the service is suspended for 4 hrs. This is quite unprecedented in Taiwan's history. Not only that, the incompatible systems between Neihu and the older Muzha line seems to cause Muzha lines to go nuts as well (LINK). In summary, the new system is causing more trouble instead of providing more services.

IMO, it is very likely that Neihu will become the next Maokong. Its service has to be suspended until it is fully fixed. However, it actually looks like the problems is quite huge and fundamental, not some small bugs that can be fixed easily. From the beginning it is ill designed. The new Neihu system uses wireless communication in open environment. (the same Bombardier system is supposed to be used in closed, less complicated environment like an airport. I do not know why Bombardier agreed to do this contract because I think professionally they shouldn't. But seriously though I never like Bombardier as a company, because I heard a lot bad news from that company, and from my understanding their internal management is quite lousy as well...but this blog is about Taiwan, not Bombardier so I will stop here and focus on Taipei's problem). The line has a more than 90 degree turn toward the airport, which indirectly causing the train to be very narrow. Even if they fix the fundamental network, computer and electrical problems, the whole system is limited in capacity and comfort. Plus...the cart seems to LEAK WATER :-o. It is really a very bad construction.

Also, 謝長廷 and the DPP now point to the relations between the construction company 工信工程 and Ma (http://www.shadowgov.tw/23988_0_nc.htm) as a possible cause of all these fiasco. The newest development also includes 新生高架橋...once again this maintenance project is given to 工信工程. Will keep an eye on this for later development.

It is quite clear though, that Ma and KMT messed up in Taipei big time.

Why Are We Funding This?

The recent fiasco regarding the Hong Kong film removal in Melbourne International Film Festival is quite interesting:

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2009/08/07/2003450566
http://fareasternpotato.blogspot.com/2009/08/gio-angered-by-removal-of-film.html
http://michaelturton.blogspot.com/2009/08/melbourne-film-festival-success-afp.html

This quote from Michael should be heeded by all artists in Taiwan:

I hope Taiwanese artists and others involved in collaboration with Chinese observe that their work will always be nothing more than a pawn in Beijing's political strategies.

This is actually a very interesting phenomenon in Taiwan that exists for quite a long time. In the movie and entertainment industries especially, the government often funds and supports projects in places like Hong Kong with more money than for Taiwan's own project.

This is quite weird. It is not like those films really benefits Taiwan's images. If the government does not want to help out Taiwan's own movie industries, that is fine. But they actually fund other countries' projects that has nothing to do with Taiwan. It is like the US government giving money to Honda and Toyota.

The full review on this type of illogical policies is warranted IMO. Instead of wasting money on some Hong Kong films that no body watches, they should give more indirect supports to Taiwan's film makers...etc. After the success of Cap No. 7, it is clear more support for Taiwan's film makers is not illogical or irrational.

DDRP...Interesting

Interesting report (recommendation) from Project 2049 Institute:
Deter, Defend, Repel And Partner

I got this link from Mr. Turton blog.

Some of the ideas in it was mentioned else where before, but this one seems to be able to describe those ideas with a more understandable terms, I think. Many concepts and recommendations in it is also quite interesting....worth a read.

UPDATE: Taipei Times has more reporting on this report.

The Long Term Problems

I am just pondering...

After looking at Ma's performance for the past 400 or so days as president, IMO, there is little hope of Taiwan actually improving much over the next few years. Taiwan will be lucky just to stay alive. Sure, the economy will start to recover eventually in the next few years, but the fundamental economic problem will not be solved. Problems in other areas will also surface. If Ma gets re-elected, it will be a total nightmare, but that might actually become a reality.

Also, looking at what Ma did in Taipei you wonder what kind of long lasting negative effects Ma will leave in Taiwan in the next few years. If Taiwan is lucky, and Ma doesn't get re-elected, the next President and his/her team will still face some huge challenges. Some already exist but for sure cannot be solved by Ma, some I suspect Ma will leave behind:

Judiciary System Reform
As shown by the Chen case, the Judiciary system has some huge problems both in its system and people. The system, from my understanding, is resemblance to German Nazi's system. It gives too much power to the judge and prosecutors etc. I am no expert, but I know a lot of it does not make any sense, especially if you comparing it with the courts in the US or UK. A lot of the people under the system is also problematic. The prosecutors leaking confidential information to the media, judges mocking the accused, unreasonable/unnecessary detention, too much KMT influence inside are all big problems.

The reform I imagine will take a long time and will face very stiff opposition, but it has to start somewhere now. First, the system has to be changed gradually, and the law education system has to be adjusted.

National Defense
Recently a lot of news seem to show some deterioration of the military both in hardware and software. The maintenance, training and the morale seem to be down. Combining this with Ma's current policy, it is not hard to imagine in the next few years the military would be in a poor state. The next government I imagine will face huge challenge in this area, and will need to pay a lot of attention to it.

Also, as the recent Japanese defense white paper mentioned, Taiwan's military has no counter to China's short range ballistic missiles etc. This problems will need to be addressed sooner or later...and better sooner than later.

Education
Some small improvement has been made during Chen's time but really not even near enough. IMO in a lot of area the education system is still tightly controlled by the KMT.

Economy
I cannot think of any thing solid on this one, and I doubt there are a lot of people out there that can actually propose a good economic strategy etc. The only people that are fully confident in their economic strategy are those KMT BShitters that keep saying invest in China. I do not know where their "confidence" come from, but I know those kind of policies are wrong, as been shown in the past decade, after Taiwan starts to pour money into China.

Basically, I think a lot of pan green people know what is not good, but they are not sure of what is good, regarding this topic. For sure, there are a few things that need to be achieved:

• Lower Unemployment Rate: We have to be careful about what kind of unemployment, because different unemployment means different things. For sure though the unemployment rate is rising and right now it is ridiculously high (for Taiwan) comparing to neighboring countries like Singapore, Japan and South Korea etc. The most problematic unemployment is IMO Structural Unemployment. Actually this part is also related to the education problem.
• Attracting Investment into Taiwan: How to retain and encourage people inside and outside Taiwan to invest in Taiwan is a big question. Right now there are still huge tendency for people to throw their money into China instead of invest in Taiwan. The fundamental cause has to be found, and policy that encourage investment in Taiwan has to be formed.

Those problems might even be underestimations...because there is a chance that Ma will do something catastrophic to Taiwan's economy in the next few years (signing ECFA might, for example). Given the lousy jobs he did when he was a mayor...this is actually a likely scenario.

Conclusion
In any case...even if Ma will not get re-elected, I think the next government will have a real hot potato in its hand.