Thursday, July 31, 2008

ナショナリズム

It'd been a while since I last went out to the Chung-cheng (Jhong-jheng) Park 中正公園 area to do some walking, so this afternoon I rectified matters. I was expecting to see a lot of damage from the two recent typhoons, but surprisingly, there wasn't much at all. What I wasn't expecting to see, however, was how overgrown with vegetation one section had become since my last visit. It seemed like very few walkers had passed through in the interim, as I was constantly brushing away spider webs that had been spun across the path. There were also a lot of ants around - whenever I stopped to have a look at something, my feet and ankles would get stung by aggressive ants in the vicinity of my sandals. Something was definitely different about the Chung-cheng Park area. For one thing, I kept coming (no pun intended) across insects in the act of making more insects, such as these butterflies and spiders (I'm assuming the male spider is the small red one):


In fact, the whole area was crawling (pun intended) with bugs:


Meanwhile, back in the human realm, the Japan Times ジャパンタイムズ had an interesting article today for those who fret over the "rise of Japanese nationalism" (gasp!). "Nationalism isn't an issue in Japan" begins by stating:

"As Japan renews its claim on Takeshima 竹島 (Dokdo to Koreans) and prepares to mark the Aug. 15 anniversary of the end of the Great East Asia War 第二次世界大戦, we can expect more Asians — and some Americans — to warn against the dangers of rising Japanese nationalism. What is striking, however, is the absence of nationalism in Japan compared to its Chinese and Korean neighbors and its American ally. Regardless of the metric used, Japan scores very low on nationalism. Its investment in its armed forces as a percentage of national income is small, especially for a country living in close range of two potential war zones (the Korean Peninsula and Taiwan). Moreover, in the past two decades the offensive capabilities of North Korea against Japan, namely its ballistic missiles and nuclear program, have grown significantly. China, another potential adversary for Japan, clearly has a much stronger military than 20 years ago. But Japan continues to keep its military investment at around 1 percent of national income (perhaps a little more if other expenses are included). The phenomenal waste in Japanese procurement programs also shows that the military budget is as much a funding mechanism for Japanese businesses as a tool to build up a strong military. Moreover, when it comes to dealing with the outside world, Japanese diplomats are as unlikely as those of the Holy See to resort to threats of force. There are no John Boltons in the Japanese Foreign Ministry 外務省. This peaceful, low profile reflects a basic fact often ignored by outsiders: Japanese voters favor candidates who care about bread and butter issues over those whose concern is Japan's greatness and military might."

There were certainly no belligerent threats made by the Japanese side during last month's farcical standoff over the Senkaku Islands 尖閣諸島. The same could not be said for the administration of Mr. Ma 馬英九. The writer then proceeds to break down the reasons behind nationalist sentiment, and how Japan differs in these regards:

"Nationalism often arises out of a sense of national victimization. A major cause of Chinese and Korean nationalism is a belief that foreigners preyed upon and humiliated their countries. As a result, many Chinese and Koreans want to see no insult to their national dignity go unpunished, however insignificant. A case in point is South Korea's quixotic campaign to rename the Sea of Japan 日本海 the East Sea."

The last point has definitely not been one of South Korea's brighter moments. The Sea of Japan is called so because the body of water is defined by the geographical presence of the Japanese archipelago 日本列島. Remove Japan, and you're left with...the Pacific Ocean. Furthermore, the sea is only to the east if you're a Korean. Should the Japanese call it the "West Sea", and the Russians the "South Sea"? Is cultural myopia a side effect of nationalism?

"In Japan's case, however, there is no sense of victimhood. Yes, Japanese either experienced or know about U.S. terror bombings during the war. But, with a few exceptions, this pushes them toward pacifism. It fuels their contempt for the Japanese militarists who led the nation on a war that destroyed the country. It may also make them dislike the alliance with America, but it does not make Japanese long for a new Imperial Japan armed to the teeth ready to conquer lost territories."

Actually, the Japanese have a strong sense of victimhood over the war, but the writer's point is valid in that they tend not to blame outsiders for their devastating defeat.

"Another foundation of nationalism is a belief that one's country has a destiny to lead the world, or at least its region. This helps explain the support of Americans for military intervention and the conquests of Revolutionary and Napoleonic France. Though Chinese nationalism lacks the universalistic ambitions of America's, many Chinese think that history gave China a right to regional primacy. In Japan, however, there is none of the messianic urge found in Western cultures. Nor do Japanese have the same sense of civilizational and historical greatness that is common in China."

In other words, Japanese never considered their country to be the Middle Kingdom (although the Western Honshū region is called 中国). So why aren't there more articles about the "rise of Chinese nationalism"?

"There are also domestic factors that energize nationalism. One is fear for the country's territorial integrity and/or a belief that there are still unredeemed provinces. In the Chinese case, anxiety about Tibet, Xinjiang (Chinese Turkestan), and Inner Mongolia fuel Han 漢民族 nationalism. Moreover, for most Chinese, Taiwan is a Chinese island that must be brought back into the motherland. In the Korean case, national division can only encourage nationalism, even though South Koreans are lukewarm toward actual unification. Memories of Japanese aggression in both nations also generate a nationalist reaction in China and Korea. In Japan, however, there is no domestic separatism to be afraid of. And, despite the pro forma Japanese claims on the Northern Territories 北方地域 and Takeshima, few Japanese care about them."

One reason memories of Japanese aggression still get people riled up in China and Korea is that the governments there use history as a way to divert attention away from current problems in the respective countries. And while the Japanese right wing 右派 is very vocal about things like the Northern Territories (as anyone who has heard their sound trucks could tell you), the rightists are completely unable to mobilize mass demonstrations involving thousands of angry protesters. Most Japanese have more important things to do than slaughter innocent birds:


"A second domestic issue is nationalism as an alternative tool to confront the government. In autocratic China, nationalism is an indirect way to oppose the ruling party. When demonstrators throw rocks at the U.S. embassy or attack Japanese diplomats, they are also criticizing their rulers for being weak-kneed. Moreover, simply by marching through the streets, or gathering virtually on the Internet, they demonstrate to the Communist Party that the people can mobilize on their own. Though South Korea is now a liberal democracy, many of its leftwing nationalists came of age when anti-American (or anti-Japanese) nationalism was fused with the fight against the military regime. Japan, however, has been a free society for well half a century, if its citizens are unhappy they simply go to a voting booth rather than seek alternative forms of mobilization. Japanese society may have problems but nationalism is not one of them."

In other words, Black-billed Magpies (the national bird of Korea) can rest easy in Japan.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

もうひとつの台風

また?! Yep. Ten days after having to stay home from work due to Kalmaegi, Typhoon Fung-wong (a Cantonese word meaning "Phoenix") has given me another unplanned, not to mention unwanted, day off. Mother Nature owes me some back pay! The signs of the approaching typhoon were obvious yesterday, as it was very windy all day long on Sunday, though it didn't rain here in Fengyuan (Fongyuan) 豊原. From the early morning to the mid-afternoon this Monday, it was raining constantly, but there was little or no wind, and the amount of rainfall was no heavier than usual, so I was left wondering why I had to stay home from today (banks, financial markets, government offices and schools were all closed). The answer became apparent around 3:30 or so, naturally when we decided to go out to the supermarket. Here is a video I made of the windy and rainy conditions on our way back home from the store (note how the van in front of us can't be bothered to wait for the signal to change to green - standard driving practice here in Taiwan. You will also hear my daughter get very excited as we pass the local 7-Eleven. She says "Doraemon" ドラえもん, as the convenience store chain has been giving away little figurines of the Japanese アニメ character as part of a promotion):


Here's a photo, taken in our neighborhood, of a large potted tree that has been blown over, knocking over at least three parked scooters in the process. You can get an idea by the water droplets on the camera lens what it was like to be standing outside while the typhoon was passing through:


As of 9:30 this evening, I still don't know whether or not I'll be going to work on Tuesday. If I do go out tomorrow, I'm sure I'll be seeing a lot more damage from Fung-wong.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

In the aftermath of the storm

I went to the Tak'eng (Dakeng) 大坑 area this afternoon to do some walking and, unsurprisingly, found the area had been battered by last weekend's storm. There were several landslides along the No. 7 trail, like this one...:


...but they were all passable. The real damage was on the No. 8 trail. About halfway down from the top, a section of the wooden steps had been washed away by what appeared to be a large mudslide:


I was still able to cross at this point, but soon afterwards, the trail came to a sudden end, blocked by dirt and fallen trees. Retracing my steps, I took an alternate route and made it down to the end of the trail, only to soon find that the road beyond was completely impassable due to a series of large storm-caused earth movements. The view on the left is what forced me to turn around, and make my way back to the No. 7 trail. The photo on the right was taken from the approach to the No. 8 trail (from the other side of the landslide), when I stopped to have a look on my way home:


Considering the fact the No. 1 trail is still officially closed almost a year because of storm damage (hikers still use it, however), it looks like it's going to be a long time before the No. 8 gets cleaned up.

Despite not being able to walk my intended route, I was able to see a lot of wildlife on the paths today. No doubt this was due to the relatively little human foot traffic, being a weekday afternoon on top of the damaged trails. The snake on the left was one of two I came across today. This one was long, and in the bushes off to the side of the trail - I wasn't able to get a very clear picture of it as it slithered away:


Speaking of calamities, it seems that some in the ruling Kuomintang (Guomindang) 中国国民党 are beginning to wake up to the fact that the administration of Mr. Ma 馬英九 has so far been a disaster for Taiwan ("Taiwan official bemoans bad Japan relations"):

"A failure to maintain political ties and a lack of senior Japan-savvy Taiwanese envoys has caused 'fault cracks' and misunderstandings to emerge in bilateral relations, ruling Nationalist Party Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung 呉泊雄 said Tuesday. 'In these past few years, fault cracks in the Taiwan-Japan relationship have appeared, and because of neglect in maintaining contact . . . many misunderstandings have been generated,' Wu said...Referring to senior Nationalist Party diplomats with links to Japan, he said, 'Right now we lack this kind of talent.' Wu made the comments to a visiting delegation of Taiwanese living in Japan who...said Japanese officials had expressed concern to them over Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou's attitude toward Tōkyō 東京. Wu received them at his party's headquarters in Taipei 台北. His remarks are the strongest indication since Ma took office May 20 that Taipei's ties with Tōkyō are wobbling, despite what some pundits said were 'sugar-coated' assurances Monday by Ma that relations were on track."

The same Taiwanese delegation apparently received more "sugar-coated assurances" later on Tuesday from Wang Jin-pyng 王金平, Speaker of the Legislative Yuan 立法院, according to an article in today's Taipei Times ("Wang affirms Japan’s importance to Taiwan"). As the story notes:

"...many in Japan are skeptical about Ma’s stance toward the country because he failed to mention Japan in his May 20 inaugural address and played an active role in Taiwan’s campaign in the 1970s to claim sovereignty over the disputed (Senkaku islands) 尖閣諸島."

Of course, Gregory Clark would probably find some reason to excuse Ma and the KMT, and put the blame for any problems squarely on the Japanese government. In his most recent column in the Japan Times ジャパンタイムズ ("Birth of a massacre myth"), however, Clark avoids Taiwan and focuses on finding excuses for the Chinese government over the Tiananmen Square Massacre 天安門大虐殺. While trying to make his case that there was no massacre in Tiananmen Square on the night of June 4, 1989, Clark grudgingly admits:

"True, much that happened elsewhere in Beijing that night was ugly. The regime had allowed prodemocracy student demonstrators to occupy its historic Tiananmen Square for almost three weeks, despite the harm and inconvenience caused. Twice, senior members of Deng Xiaoping's regime had tried unsuccessfully to negotiate compromises with the students. Unarmed troops sent in to clear the square had been turned back by angry crowds of Beijing civilians. When armed troops were finally sent in, they too met hostile crowds, but they kept advancing. Dozens of buses and troop-carrying vehicles were torched by the crowds, some with their crews trapped inside. In the panicky fighting afterward, hundreds, maybe even thousands, of civilians and students were killed. But that was a riot, not a deliberate massacre. And it did not happen in Tiananmen Square."

Oh, those poor soldiers, victims of the heartless students and civilians:

"Photos have helped sustain the Tiananmen massacre myth. One showing a solitary student halting a row of army tanks is supposed to demonstrate student bravery in the face of military evil. In fact, it shows that at least one military unit showed restraint in the face of student provocation...Photos of lines of burning troop carriers are also used, as if they prove military mayhem. In fact, they prove crowd mayhem."

Unless I'm reading this wrong, Clark is suggesting that the demonstrators in essence got what they deserved. And the well-meaning Chinese government is the victim of:

"U.S. and British black information authorities ever keen to plant anti-Beijing stories in unsuspecting media...Damage from the Tiananmen myth continues. It has been used repeatedly by Western hawks to sustain a ban on Western sales of arms to Beijing, including refusing even a request for riot-control equipment that Beijing says would have prevented the 1989 violence."

The logic that Clark employs here is reminiscent of an Escher impossible reality woodcut. If Western governments hadn't banned the sale of riot-control equipment, Tiananmen wouldn't have happened. But the sale of riot-control equipment to China is banned because of Tiananmen, which could have been avoided had the sale of riot-control equipment to China not been banned due to Tian...

Clark is a product of the 1960's, so perhaps he's still suffering from the drug-induced paranoia so prevalent among many baby boomers. After all, JFK was killed as part of a massive government conspiracy to prevent him from revealing the truth about Roswell. Uh, wasn't he?

And like Uncle Rico in "Napoleon Dynamite", Greg must relive his one great moment in life:

"Despite having organized single-handedly over Canberra's opposition an Australia table-tennis team to join the all-important 'Ping-Pong diplomacy,'..."

This reference almost always manages to make it into Clark's writings on China.

On a more positive note, it seems that ASUS is doing pretty well these days in Japan ("A cheap belt is tightened"):

"When ASUSTeK Computer of Taiwan introduced a bare-bones notebook PC for the rock-bottom price of ¥50,000 ($464 or NT14,110) in Japan in January, consumers snapped up the entire stock of 10,000 units in three days. Since then, the company has struggled to keep up with demand, moving a total of 70,000 units by the end of May. Meanwhile, domestic (Japanese) makers, whose portable PCs were all priced at ¥200,000 ($1860 or NT56,440) or higher, scrambled to follow the Taiwanese lead."

No black information here, just cheap computers.

Monday, July 21, 2008

A Sunday afternoon in Ryūsei and Gosei

Or desperately looking for something to do on a day where the expected rain showers didn't materialize. Perhaps "Scraping the bottom of the barrel" might be a more appropriate subject heading. In any case, we first drove to the "seaside" town of Lungching (Longjing) 龍井, home to the world's highest carbon dioxide-emitting power plant in the world (41.3 million tons of CO2 annually, folks!). Despite the attempt of the plant's operators to hide this fact by painting the smokestacks in colors pretty enough to excite a 2 1/2 year-old child, the most interesting thing going on at the waterfront was a tugboat guiding a bulk carrier registered in Valletta called Conquistador into a berth (the cargo ship in the foreground is the Navios Felicity, out of Panama). Pretty gripping stuff, huh?

 

We then drove from the power plant to look for a nearby bicycle trail. The plan was to let Amber exercise her legs by riding her tricycle, but the bike path turned out to be a narrow lane on the side of a road, with only the eternal vigilance of worried parents separating children from cars. So at my wife's suggestion, we went to the neighboring town of Wuch'i (Wuci) 梧棲, home of Taichung Harbor.

I've been to the harbor several times over the years, and it never gets any better with each visit. Weekends, especially, are packed with people. Walking through the restaurant area means having to pass through a gauntlet of aggressive restaurant touts grabbing your arm, and shoving menus in your face (one woman even kept telling me how handsome I was in an attempt to get us to sit down and eat something!). The main fish market can be interesting, but only up to a point - how much noise, combined with pushing and shoving, and odors of dead sea creatures, can a normal human being put up with? All of the above could be tolerable if there was actually a beautiful sea view to compensate, but the ocean is hidden behind large concrete blocks, and the adjacent park area has deteriorated rapidly since my last visit several years ago. So naturally the editors of Compass Magazine, those masters of making silk purses out of sows' ears, rate the port as one of T'aichung's (Taijhong) 台中 "must-see" destinations!

Here's a video of a portion of the quiet, contemplative stroll we took through the fish market:



Shouldn't the sale of hammerhead sharks be banned (if it isn't already)?

I admit to tampering with the photograph on the top. The ocean didn't look anywhere near this nice from standing atop a concrete tetrahedron at Taichung Harbor!

Better luck next Sunday, I hope.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Don't know why there's no sun up in the sky...

In fact, I do know why - Typhoon Kalmaegi has come to town, and most things are closed today, including my workplaces. Except that I wasn't sure of that last fact, and so I left home as usual this morning, and rode out into the wind and rain. I arrived at work, only to find everything closed up (Doh!), and naturally got soaked to the skin in the process. Before that, I parked my scooter, and walked to a nearby 7-Eleven to buy a newspaper. The small lane that leads to the store was flooded, as you can see below from the short video I made. I ended up wading through it to the other side, with the water going up to my knees (I'm 6'3", or 189.5 centimeters tall, which should give you a good idea of how much water there was), and spilling into the front rooms of some houses. 


Just after filming this, a kid came riding by on his bicycle. He made it about halfway across, before having to turn around and find another route.
If I were a salaried worker, I would enjoy the opportunity of having the day off. Unfortunately, I'm paid by the hour, and Fridays are my busiest days. Typhoon days thus bite into my income. Actually, typhoon days bite, period.

UPDATE: I went out this afternoon with Pamela and Amber, in order to rent some DVDs from Blockbuster, and do some grocery shopping at a Sinon supermarket. The rain was still coming down pretty hard. On the way home, we came across this car. There are several underpasses in Fengyuan (Fongyuan) 豊原 that become flooded very quickly during heavy rainstorms, and a sight like this unfortunate Mercedes isn't uncommon.


Later, after the rain had stopped, I took Amber up to the roof of our apartment building. Thanks to Bryan from A Walk in Hachioji's comment about the view from up there, I've come to have a better appreciation of it, and have gone up several times in the past week to have a look. One good thing about typhoons is that they blow away all the dirty air, and thus leave clear views (for a while, anyway) in their wake. Maybe this is why I noticed for the first time that the Taiwan High Speed Rail 台湾高速鉄道 tracks are visible from our rooftop. Using binoculars, I was able to catch sight of two Shinkansen trains going by (the first one heading south, the other going north), but the trains could also be made out fairly well unassisted. I'm glad I don't live in a built-up urban area where the view would be one of ugly concrete apartment blocks.

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Take off, eh?

The normally on-target Japan Times ジャパンタイムズ has an overly optimistic editorial on the recent developments in relations between China and Taiwan ("Cross-strait relations take off"):

"The Taiwan Strait 台湾海峡 shrank last week as China and Taiwan began the first regularly scheduled nonstop flights between them. The flights will boost the Taiwanese economy and facilitate ties between the island and the mainland. Most important, however, they will give ordinary citizens on both sides of the strait a better understanding of each other. This should help build better relations, draining tension from a regional flash point."

Layman I may be, but other than hotel operators, restaurateurs and souvenir vendors in a few targeted areas, I don't see how the overall economy is going to benefit much from a small influx of Chinese tourists. Also, as I imagine the mainlanders are going to be bundled onto tightly-organized package tours, I don't see much interaction happening (other than with the aforementioned hotel staff, servers and trinket sellers), unless they happen to run into protesters from Falun Gong 法輪功.

Meanwhile, the rush to embrace China goes on:

"The Taipei 台北 government also allowed exchange between the Taiwanese and Chinese currencies, expanded cross-strait travel by ferry via offshore islands to all Taiwanese citizens, and allowed Taiwanese mutual funds to put more of their capital in mainland assets. It is contemplating lifting restrictions on mainland investment by Taiwanese businesses, allowing Chinese investment in Taiwan's real estate, and allowing Taiwanese banks to do retail business in the mainland."

And in return, the Chinese have upgraded the missiles they have pointing at this island. Yes, things are looking up!

Friday, July 11, 2008

Singing for her supper

My daughter Amber sings a song in Japanese that she picked up from watching the NHK children's programs which are broadcast during the weekdays at lunchtime:

Video of Amber singing for her supper


Thursday, July 10, 2008

It's raining, it's pouring, the Rams are scoring...

...or so went a variation on the old rhyme that I vaguely recall from childhood. It's been raining a lot here recently, and it's been doing so like clockwork. I got caught in nasty downpours while going home for dinner on both Monday and Tuesday, at roughly the same time, and in very similar conditions - heavy rain, with thunder and lightning. Today it rained almost the entire afternoon, but as this is the only time during the week that I now have to go walking in the mountains, I couldn't let the opportunity slip by. Besides, after having to give up a long-planned hike between Gas-san 月山 and Yudono-san 湯殿山 in Japan because of inclement weather, I am determined not to be a wuss when it comes to weather and mountains (within reason, of course!). And so I rode out again to Tak'eng (Dakeng) 大坑, and this time walked up the No. 6 Trail, and down the No. 7 (with some exploring in between). The rain was steady but not too hard, and the combination of an umbrella and a plastic poncho keep me reasonably dry (though I ended up soaked from perspiration). The wet weather had the added bonuses of shrouding the hills in atmospheric mist, while keeping other hikers away (though there were a few diehard KTV crooners out today).

Upon returning home, the rain let up somewhat, but the sky started to get more ominous-looking, so I took Amber up to the roof to have a look. Amber had fun playing around while I was taking pictures, and we both managed to get back inside before the heavens opened up again.


The air was so clean and clear that the ocean (in this case, the Taiwan Strait 台湾海峡) could be seen in the distance, thanks to the power of my camera's zoom lens. This is truly a rare sight.

Monday, July 7, 2008

やっと!

I've gone up and down the hiking trails in Tak'eng (Dakeng) 大坑 a number of times, but one thing I had never done was to walk the length of the trail on the ridgetop, the one that connects with all four paths leading to the top. Until today, that is. Not having anything specially planned for this Sunday, and with the weather looking OK (little did I know), and my daughter parked in front of the computer watching her new Barney the Dinosaur DVD, it seemed like as good a time as any to head out to Takeng, and so I did, arriving at the beginning of the No. 2 Trail around 11:15. After securing my scooter, I walked along the road to the No. 1 Trail (still technically closed from typhoon damage, but well-trodden with hikers in typical Taiwan fashion), climbed up to the top of the No. 1, walked the entire length on top of the ridge to where it joined the No. 4 Trail, took the No. 4 down to the bottom, then walked back along the road, and returned to my parked scooter. In all, it took 3 hours and 38 minutes to complete the circuit (and roughly 2 hours to cover the distance on the ridge between the No.'s 1 and 4), and according to my pedometer, I took a total of 15,325 steps in the process. Not a bad workout.

The haze over T'aichung (Taijhong) 台中, combined with the threatening skies over the Takeng region, meant there were no good views and precious little of interest to photograph. At least the heavens had the courtesy to wait until I got home to open up - there is a raging lightning and thunderstorm outside now as I write this!

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Johnny Naiko

The enigmatic Johnny Neihu, who has a column every Saturday in the Taipei Times, is in many respects the anti-Gregory Clark. Unlike Greg, Johnny does not search for ways to excuse the actions of tyrants, and his information is factual, and therefore grounded in the real world. Most of all, he has a sense of humor, something that Clark seems to have been born without (it's inspiring to see how Greg has managed to overcome this birth defect, and find success in life). Johnny shows his un-Clarklike grasp of things in today's commentary, "Between rocks and a chip trace", in which he writes about the recent Senkaku Islands 尖閣諸島 comic opera:

"Yes, just when you thought the kafuffle over last month’s sinking of a 'recreational' fishing boat by the Japanese coast guard had died down, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs this week started beating its chest again over news that several members of the Japanese Diet 国会 were preparing to inspect the islands."

Unlike many news reports on the Senkakus, Johnny provides some relevant background information on the issue:

"...the 'dispute' only really became one in 1968, when the UN’s Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East reported that there might be vast, Saudiesque oil deposits in the continental shelf below. Overnight the number of countries interested in the islands increased by 100 percent — to two. China then completed the gruesome threesome...in 1971."

In short, neither Taiwan nor China cared much about the islands until the possibility of there being oil under them thar sea rocks arose:

"...as we know from recent history, the thought of controlling gazillions of barrels of black gold makes fighting wars and reckless military action seem like a good idea."

Johnny then goes on to heap deserved ridicule on the great patriots of the Chinese nation:

"(People First Party 親民党) members like Yunghe (Yonghe) City 永和市 Councilor Huang Hsi-lin, a member of the Taiwan Safeguard Diaoyutai Movement Union, are so patriotic that they just can’t wait to sail to the islands at the first sign of trouble, whereupon they bravely defend the Republic of China’s 中華民国 territory by throwing plastic bottles at Japanese patrol boats. But this patriotic fervor isn’t the preserve of us folk in Taiwan; you even get crazy sons-of-bitches flying in from Hong Kong just so they can burn Rising Sun flags in front of the Japanese mission. Indeed, nutcases from Hong Kong seem to have almost cornered the market for pointless acts of fanaticism where the Diaoyutais are concerned. Anyone remember David Chan, an activist who drowned near the islets on Sept. 26, 1996, after leaping off a protest vessel with five others in an attempt to swim to the islands and assert China’s sovereignty? Poor Dave jumped, snared his foot in a rope and smashed his head against the boat. More idiotic than patriotic, I’d say. Even that mild-mannered toilet-paper obsessive, President Ma Ying-jeou 馬英九, goes into a full-on, fist-thumping frenzy at the mere mention of these sacred rocks."

In these situations, Gregory Clark tends to switch to automatic, blame everything on Japan mode. Johnny, however, thinks the fault lies elsewhere:

"In this situation I tend to do what everyone else around the world does when they can’t find a satisfactory explanation. I blame the US. After all, it was the Americans who controlled the Diaoyutais for 27 years following the Japanese surrender in 1945 before handing them back to Tōkyō. But even after giving them back to Japan, Uncle Sam refused to categorically state a position on the ultimate sovereignty of the rocks."

Johnny eventually leaves the topic of the Senkakus by asking:

"While we’re on the subject of protecting islands, why is it that the present government is so concerned about defending 7km² of rocky outcrop but doesn’t give a rat’s ass about protecting Taiwan proper?"

Funny how nowhere in his column does Johnny Neihu place the blame for the escalation in tensions between Japan and Taiwan over the Senkaku Islands on "Japan's muddled, nationalistic hard line over territory", as Gregory Clark would have you believe. Johnny Neihu may be a smart ass, but Clark is just...I'll let you figure out the rest of this sentence.

And just to show how, as Johnny describes it, these "rocks (are) capable of sending people over the edge and more often than not succeed in turning them into gibbering wrecks", the Japan Times ジャパンタイムズ had this story today, "Taiwan research ship nears Senkakus, snubs JCG":

"A maritime research ship of National Taiwan University 台湾大学 intruded into Japan's territorial waters near the disputed Senkaku islets in the East China Sea 東シナ海 early Friday, ignoring a warning from a Japan Coast Guard vessel 海上保安庁...The 794-ton, 50-meter ship at 5:25 a.m. entered the waters 22 km southeast of Uotsuri Island 魚釣島 of the islet chain, which is under Japan's control but also claimed by Taiwan and China. Despite the warning from the JCG patrol ship Hateruma, the research ship stayed in Japanese territorial waters for three hours...When the Hateruma's crew tried to ascertain by radio the purpose of the vessel's trip, the Taiwanese replied that they were collecting seawater for research. The Hateruma demanded the ship immediately leave Japan's territorial waters, informing it that research activities without advance notice and the consent of the Japanese government are not allowed. However, the Taiwanese ship failed to respond further and left the territorial waters around 8:20 a.m...."

In this brave, new world of the KMT 中国国民党-run Taiwan, even public universities have become tools for promoting nationalistic hard lines over territories. The same can't be said for Gregory Clark's Akita International University 国際教養大学, thank goodness.

On the home front, as in my home, I dusted off the child carrier, and for the first time in over a month, took Amber out to Chung-cheng (Jhong-jheng) Park 中正公園, to do some walking. A couple of my students, Angel and Sharon, came along, as did Sharon's son. Amber enjoyed seeing all the flora and fauna on the short trail that took us to the top of a ridge overlooking the park. But most of all, she enjoyed blowing bubbles.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

A return to normalcy

When you put two chairs close together, then put yourself between them and begin lifting your body with your arms and swinging back and forth (as my daughter did yesterday afternoon), it's safe to assume everything is back to normal. And the feeling was strangely reinforced this morning when I opened the homepage of the Japan Times ジャパンタイムズ, and saw that Gregory Clark had another one of his bizarre, "It ain't the fault of the authoritarians" opinion piece ("Puzzle awaits G8 delegates"). The focus of this article is mostly on the upcoming G8 summit in Tōya-ko 洞爺湖 in Hokkaidō 北海道 (where I spent a night during the summer of 1992), but Clark does manage to slip in a comment about recent events between Japan and Taiwan:

"Japan's muddled, nationalistic hard line over territory leaves it at loggerheads with all its other neighbors — South Korea, China and Taiwan. That the dispute with Taiwan over the Senkaku islands 尖閣諸島 should have led to a semi-formal break in relations is a much more serious setback for Japan's diplomacy than anyone in Japan seems to want to realize."

If one thing is clear above anything else, it's that Greg knows next to nothing about political developments in Taiwan (though I suspect he doesn't think so). Let's see...it was the Taiwanese premier that made the ridiculous remark about going to war, it was the Taiwanese foreign minister who recalled the unofficial ambassador to Japan back to Taiwan (with the latter being labeled a "traitor" by some KMT 中国国民党 legislators), and it was a group of right-wing Taiwanese politicians who sailed out to the Senkakus in an attempt to provoke trouble, and score a few points back home. While all this was going on, Mr. Ma 馬英九 was nowhere to be found, and even some in the sycophantic, pro-KMT media (like the China Post English newspaper) were calling for the government to get its act together before the situation got dangerously out of hand. The Japanese government, in contrast, remained calm, and offered apologies and compensation over the sunken fishing boat, while simultaneously reinforcing its claim over the Senkakus (and coming to an agreement with China over the gas disputes in the East China Sea 東シナ海, and having a Japanese destroyer pay a goodwill visit to a Chinese port). And Greg thinks this was a "serious setback" for JAPANESE diplomacy?! (Oh, and of course the South Koreans, Chinese and Taiwanese are never guilty of muddled, nationalistic hard lines over disputed territories!)

But what do you expect from a man who makes the claim that:

"...it was the same Washington that in 1951 almost certainly forced Japan to give up its legitimate rights to the disputed islands (meaning the Northern Territories 北方領土), as part of a secret U.N. deal with Moscow allowing the U.S. to use Guam as a military base — a fact that if admitted would greatly strengthen Tōkyō's position."

Perhaps I'm missing something, but what exactly is Gregory Clark talking about here? What "secret U.N. deal"? Why would the United States have needed the permission of the Soviet Union to use Guam as a military base, when the island had been an American territory since 1898 (and the last time I checked, still is)? Like I said earlier, things must be back to normal if Greg makes comments like these, without any evidence to back them up, nor any attempts to clarify the relevance of them to the topic(s) at hand. Details, Greg, it's all in the details.

Some things never change. Sigh...

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Never again, I hope

A nice day out to a new shopping center in T'aichung (Taijhong) 台中 yesterday ended on an very unhappy note when we had to take our daughter to the emergency room at the main hospital in Fengyuan (Fongyuan) 豊原. After spending the afternoon at Park Lane, checking out the shops, we went across the street to People's Park, to give Amber a chance to stretch her legs. While we were there, an old friend dropped by to say hello, along with his two children. Unfortunately, as he was playing with Amber by lifting her up by her wrists, something unfortunate happened, as our daughter started crying and holding her left wrist. The fault is mine as I thought about cautioning my friend about being a bit gentler with Amber, but not wanting to be the overprotective parent, I said nothing, and the result was a trip to the hospital. X-rays revealed no breaks or fractures, but I never want to have to visit an emergency room again, anywhere and at anytime, and certainly never with a child. Seeing a gurney soaked in some unfortunate soul's blood being wheeled out of the ER as we arrived is just one image I could have done without.

After a sleepless night for all three of us, things are much better today. Pamela took Amber to an orthopedist this morning, who diagnosed our daughter has having a possible pulled muscle. She seems better now, and as I write this, is sleeping peacefully in her crib (knock on wood). So here are several pictures from earlier in the day on Sunday:


On the left are four imported beers that we bought at Park Lane for NT500 ($16.50 or ¥1750). The last two on the right have alcohol contents of 9% and 14%, respectively. I look forward to drinking them when he have something to be happy about again...like when Amber can go back outside to blow some bubbles in the air, like she was doing at People's Park.

In a sign the world keeps turning no matter what happens, a couple of stories in the English-language Japanese media caught my attention over breakfast. From the Daily Yomiuri ザ・デイリー読売, "E. Asia fleets to suspend tuna fishing / Fuel costs hit Japan, China, ROK, Taiwan" explains how:

"Tuna-fishing boat operators' organizations in Japan, China, South Korea and Taiwan have agreed to suspend operations for several months in the face of soaring fuel costs...The economic conditions made it difficult for tuna fishermen to make ends meet, while the measure also is expected to help declining populations of the fish to recover...The suspension is expected to result in higher prices for bigeye and yellowfin tuna, which are mainly consumed as raw fish and processed into canned food."

Perhaps I'm still feeling the effects from a lack of sleep, but for some cynical reason, I have my doubts that many local tuna fisherman will strictly adhere to the agreed upon ban. The other article came from the Japan Times ジャパンタイムズ. "Taiwan's way with dignity" is written by Hisahiko Okazaki, a former diplomat who is generally sympathetic to Taiwan's situation. His advice this time:

"When conducting cross-strait talks, the Ma administration must never give in on Taiwan's sovereignty and security. Any kind of 'one country, two systems' formula is designed to set a time limit on Taiwan's freedom regardless of whether it is for half a century or a century. Again, Taiwan must not accept neutrality or any unilateral arms restrictions. There is no comparison between China and Taiwan in terms of size. Once security measures are abandoned, there will be none to defend Taiwan if the situation changes. Taiwan must keep this in mind."

And for his own country:

"This (meaning talks between China and Taiwan) would be a chance for Japan as well. With its hostile policy toward the DPP president of Taiwan, China used to stiffly oppose Japan's attempts to make contacts with Taiwan. Since the U.S. was also cold toward the DPP for some unexplainable reason, Japan had to pay heed to both China and the U.S. in dealing with Taiwan. Japan may no longer have to care about either's reaction. Since Taiwan and Japan have strong historical and economic ties, to treat Taiwan coldly in disregard of those ties is unnatural. Japan might now be freed from this bind. The DPP might be unhappy with Japan's about-face to establish friendly ties with the Taiwanese government under the control of KMT. Nevertheless, deepening relations with Japan would bring benefits that would be an asset for Taiwan when the DPP returns to power in the future — possibly four, eight or more years from now."

When, and not if (according to Okazaki), the DPP returns to power, will the next US administration maintain a more rational, reasonable approach?