Yet another typhoon is on its way. Jangmi is its name, and it's going to be a big one. As I'm writing this at a quarter past 11 on a Saturday night, the wind is starting to pick up outside. I just hope the destruction can be kept to a minimum. If there's any good to come of an approaching typhoon, it's that the views from our building's rooftop were very clear all throughout the day, and this evening's sunset was spectacular:
Meanwhile, Saturday's edition of the Taipei Times has this story:
"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) 中華国民外交部 would welcome support from Japan and the EU for Taiwan’s bid to gain 'meaningful participation' in UN agencies, MOFA spokesman Henry Chen said yesterday."
The Japanese appear to be sympathetic:
"...on condition that all parties are satisfied, Japan supported Taiwan’s efforts to obtain observer status in the World Health Assembly (WHA), the supreme decision-making body of the WHO. Japan also supported Taiwan’s attempts to expand participation in WHO technical-level meeting..."
Taiwan has been trying to get some kind of representation within the WHO for a number of years now, but each time China has worked to block it. During the Chen Shui-bian 陳水扁 administration, entry was attempted under the name "Taiwan", but to no avail. The current government has been willing to downgrade Taiwan's image as a sovereign nation by accepting the ridiculous Olympic moniker of "Chinese Taipei" in its application attempts, but the Chinese government has refused to budge, leaving the elected representatives of this island with precious little in the way of bargaining chips in negotiations with Beijing.
The government of Ma Ying-jeou 馬英九 has bungled a lot of things lately, not just foreign relations. The latest fiasco is the ongoing Melamine scare over tainted milk products from China. The Taipei Times' Johnny Neihu has a great take (as always) on all this in his regular Saturday column (Johnny Neihu's News Watch: Aiya, your business? My kidneys!). Here are a couple of his observations:
"The Chinese people are the worst victims, of course. Yet at what point do they, too, deserve a share of the blame? I mean it’s they who are tolerating — even, at times, extolling the virtues of — an authoritarian government built by a party that’s corrupt to its foundations and completely unaccountable. No doubt some of these same citizens whose babies are tragically dying today were yesterday championing their government for returning China to its 'proud, rightful place among the big powers.' At any rate, China’s present role among big powers appears to be spewing out a barrage of toxic, shoddy and all-round crap products and keeping national health regulators the world over scrambling to keep up."
And:
"Here’s how the crisis will be solved: Some health official in China will get fingered for blame and have a bullet put through his head. That will scare the living bejeezus out of his corrupt colleagues for a few weeks, before they return to their rent-seeking, high-rolling ways, and toxic crap will fly out of factories anew. In a few months, the entire cycle will repeat."
Sad, but true. Time and time again, tainted, dangerous products come out of China, harming people and animals. Time and time again, the rest of the world acts like Captain Louis Renault from "Casablanca" ("I'm shocked!"). Time and time again, the Chinese government, after initially denying/misleading/stalling, assures everyone it won't happen again. And, of course, time and time again, it continues to occur.
In case you're wondering, Amber's current milk formula is made in Denmark. We hope.
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