Monday, January 18, 2010
"I am just speculating" - [This blog post by China's top blogger was deleted by the blog hosting service Sina.com.] By Han Han - bULLOCK.CN
"I am just speculating"
[This blog post by China's top blogger was deleted by the blog hosting service Sina.com.]
(Bullock.cn) I am just speculating. By Han Han. January 17, 2010.
2010: China begins an Internet clean-up campaign with the slogan: "If you don't do anything for three days, you get on the roof and remove tiles."
2010: The relevant department expands the list of banned terms. The Chinese word for "file" (which has the same sound as Party) and the English letter "D" disappear in mainland China. Dangdang was changed to Angang, while Douban became Ouban.
2010 June: The government inaugurates the "Protect the Children" campaign. Children's Day is elevated to the same status as National Day. It is also announced that all information that is unfavorable to the healthy development of children and adolescents will be strictly prohibited. At the same time, the Shanghai World Expo introduces the slogan "World Expo, World Expo, catch ten thousand adulterous couples in bed" in order to conduct online and offline anti-pornography (anti-"yellow") campaigns simultaneously. The government makes it clear that anything and everything connected to pornography shall be censored because they stand for obscenity and feudalism. Elementary school students are mobilized to march in the streets to demonstrate against anything pornographic ("yellow").
2010 July: The Elementary School Students Patriotic Committee finds out that the five yellow-colored five-pointed stars on the national flag are inconsistent with contemporary progressive ideas. The relevant department decides to change the five-pointed stars from yellow to red.
2010 August: The government discovers that the red five-pointed stars are the same color as the background, so that it is hard to find them. Representatives of elementary school students propose the five-pointed stars be changed into green color, to represent green scarves and Green Dam.
2010: Based upon the recommendations of the Elementary School Students Loving Care Committee and representatives of elementary school students, the government tightens the censorship standards on photographs, with guiding principles such as "erect nipples equal bare nipples."
2010: All Internet forum masters are formally given public service worker status.
2010: The government introduces a brand new Internet Great Wall. This Great Wall system is based upon the collective wisdom of innumerable of experts from all walks of life in China. They work together at a military base. The satellite photos of their work site was misinterpreted by people inside and outside of China as those of an aircraft carrier under construction.
2011 January: The government allocates 100 billion yuan to hire Internet commentators from its next round of economic stimulation package. The pay for Internet commentators rises from 50 cents per post to 1 yuan per post. The target for 2011 is to have 100 billion positive posts. The Fifty-cent Gang members at the various forums weep in gratitude because their long, arduous work over the years has finally allowed them to join the big team. From there on, the ratio of Internet commentators versus normal people is about 50:50 at the large Internet forums.
2011: Google, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter announce that they are re-entering China and opening up registration. At the same time, the aforementioned websites announce from the United States that they are not developing any businesses in China. But their announcements are instantly censored, so that nobody in China knows.
2011: All those who register at the aforementioned websites are systematically tracked down by the Great Wall system. Their computers are re-installed. Afterwards, if the users want to visit a general-purpose website, they can only reach People.com.cn and Xinhua; if they want to visit a forum, they can only go to Strong Nation Forum and Tiexue Forum; if they want to visit a video site, they can only go to CCTV 1. Once the system is re-installed this way, there is no way to undo the settings.
2011: The price of computers goes up by 100%. Computer scalpers proliferate. When users buy new computers, they find that they can only access the aforementioned websites.
2011: Housing prices go up by 100%. At the real estate transaction websites, the housing unit must be identified as either "full Internet access" or "restricted Internet access."
2011: Southern Metropolis Daily and Southern Weekend are renamed Male Metropolis Daily and Male Weekend, and reclassified as marital agency newspapers. The ratio of Internet commentators and ordinary people there reaches 9 to 1.
2011: A certain city leader comes under human flesh search.
2011: In the second round of Internet clean-up, all search engines are closed. The major portals and the newspapers publish articles with titles such as "Searching made us lazy people," "Internet searching seriously detrimental to ability of elementary school students to use their brains" and so on. The leaders say, "we never use Internet searching. The situation today says clearly that Internet search has a hundred bad points and nothing good whatsoever."
2011: Baidu is acquired by Pepsi Cola and becomes an official beverage website.
2012: Sina.com reports that a certain village leader received 500 yuan in bribes. This news story is rated as the top news story in China for the year 2012 with more than 500 million page views. Many people read it repeatedly. Even after censorship, there are more than 1 million comments. Many people think that this was a new high point in watchdog journalism. But according to the Internet polling, 90% of netizens still think that the news story should not have been published because it destroys social stability and may lead to ethnic splits.
2012: Elementary school students denounce Sina.com for having an erect nipple. Sina.com is shut down for re-organization.
2012: All forums stop accepting registrations or comments. The Chinese Writers Association and the Chinese Literary Union take over the Internet to become Internet content providers. The Internet goes back from Web 3.0 to Web 0.3. The Internet is read-only with no comments being allowed.
2013: The Elementary School Students Healthy Development Committee denounces Sina.com for having another erect nipple.
2014: Sina.com ("new wave" in Chinese) is acquired by Mountain Dew ("powerful wave" in Chinese) and becomes an official beverage website.
2015: The government cuts off the Internet altogether. A universal online computer is introduced. This is the only way to go online. This computer does not have a keyboard. You are only given a mouse. The slogan for the re-organization project is "You only have a mouse -- what can you do?"
2016: The number of Internet users in China drops down to 1 million. All websites are merged into a single website. It does not matter what URL you enter because you will be directed to that website. All updates are synchronized to the People's Daily. In the same year, the Internet industry disappears in China. This causes 5 million people in the Internet-related industry to lose their jobs either directly or indirectly. The disappearance of e-mail means that the previously closed but now revived Postal Office hires 100,000 of them. But 4.9 million people still have no jobs. At the same time, almost 1 million Fifty-cent Gang members lose their jobs. The Fifty-cent Gang members complain that they worked like dogs for their whole lives but now they don't even get pensions.
2016: The People's Daily writes: One industry was sacrificed in return for the stability of the nation, but it was worthwhile.
2016: comments that the nation faced the risk of break-up if the Internet industry had continued. The anti-China forces outside the nation and the splittists inside China were using the Internet to incite the masses. Fortunately, the relevant departments took strong measure and prevented the situation from worsening.
2016: Zhou Jiugeng is vindicated. He gets out of jail and becomes the Minister of Information Industry. Meanwhile Yu Qiuyu is appointed as the Minister of Culture.
2016: The 1 million jobless Fifty-cent Gang members have no other skills and therefore could not find new jobs. They could not feed themselves. Several tens of thousands of Fifty-cent Gang members gather in Beijing. During Children's Day, 150,000 Fifty-cent Gang members sit down in front of the government headquarters office to conduct a silent hunger strike. They ask the government to arrange jobs for them, give them credit for their prior work, and grant them public service worker status retroactively. The People's Daily writes that the government never had the job position of Internet commentator. Therefore, all those Fifty-cent Gang members wrote on their own. The Fifty-cent Gang members are unable to show any labor contract to prove that they had an worker-employer relationship with the government.
The spokesperson for the Fifty-cent Gang members say that they were underground agents who had done great work to secure national stability.
The government gives the Fifty-cent gang members three days to leave Beijing or face arrest. People's Daily writes that if one praises the government, one should not apply pressure on the government. Praising the government cannot be a condition for obtaining money. Praises should be uncompensated.
2016: The Fifty-cent Gang members continue their hunger strike. The citizens say that they fully support the hunger strike by the Fifty-cent Gang members. They also do not provide any food to hunger strikers and they block off all possible channels that can bring food in. Thus, they make sure that the Fifty-cent Gang members will stick to their hunger strike.
The next day, Minister of Culture Yu Qiuyu visits the scene of the hunger strike and reads the "Tearful advice to the Fifty-cent Gang." The Fifty-cent Gang members say that Minister Yu's speech is too profound for them to understand.
2016: The Fifty-cent Gang is accused of the crimes of illegal assembly, illegal marching, illegal demonstration, attacking the government, violently resisting against the law, smearing the government, endangering public security, disrupting social order, spitting in public, etc. The organizers are arrested. But the government says that they will be lenient towards blind followers who don't know the truth and offer them an opportunity to reinvigorate themselves: they give 50 cents to each of them to feed their hunger. comments on the scene: Fifty-cent Gang members see fifty cents and break out in tears.
2016: The Fifty-cent Gang crisis is peacefully resolved, once again showing the ability of the Party and the government to maintain stability. The Fifty-cent Gang leader tells the CCTV reporter on camera: "I am so sorry about before."
2017: Unemployment figures continue to rise drastically. The collapse of the Internet industry leads to a serious economic recession. The government says that the manufacturing industry will be the backbone of the nation once more. China will use all its natural resources to export at low prices.
2017: Hostile anti-China forces overseas get together and mislead the United Nations and various nations to pass a resolution to forbid the importing of Chinese goods anywhere in the world in order to express their opposition to the shutdown of the Internet in China. The Chinese government issues strong condemnations. They say that the administration of the Internet in China is an internal matter which other countries have no right to interfere with. The other countries counter that it is also an internal matter for them to ban Chinese goods and China has no right to interfere with that either.
2019: It is the military parade on the seventieth anniversary of the founding of the nation. On that day, the government announces that China will lock down its national borders and concentrate on strengthening itself so that all reactionary forces will tremble in fear. On that day, China makes a statement to the rest of the world: "If you don't do anything for three days, you get on the roof and remove tiles." Many nations say that they don't know how to translate this sentence.
2020: ...
2020: Earth is destroyed. The descendants of the Mayans say that it is normal to see a margin of error of plus or minus ten years on such events.
[This blog post by China's top blogger was deleted by the blog hosting service Sina.com.]
(Bullock.cn) I am just speculating. By Han Han. January 17, 2010.
2010: China begins an Internet clean-up campaign with the slogan: "If you don't do anything for three days, you get on the roof and remove tiles."
2010: The relevant department expands the list of banned terms. The Chinese word for "file" (which has the same sound as Party) and the English letter "D" disappear in mainland China. Dangdang was changed to Angang, while Douban became Ouban.
2010 June: The government inaugurates the "Protect the Children" campaign. Children's Day is elevated to the same status as National Day. It is also announced that all information that is unfavorable to the healthy development of children and adolescents will be strictly prohibited. At the same time, the Shanghai World Expo introduces the slogan "World Expo, World Expo, catch ten thousand adulterous couples in bed" in order to conduct online and offline anti-pornography (anti-"yellow") campaigns simultaneously. The government makes it clear that anything and everything connected to pornography shall be censored because they stand for obscenity and feudalism. Elementary school students are mobilized to march in the streets to demonstrate against anything pornographic ("yellow").
2010 July: The Elementary School Students Patriotic Committee finds out that the five yellow-colored five-pointed stars on the national flag are inconsistent with contemporary progressive ideas. The relevant department decides to change the five-pointed stars from yellow to red.
2010 August: The government discovers that the red five-pointed stars are the same color as the background, so that it is hard to find them. Representatives of elementary school students propose the five-pointed stars be changed into green color, to represent green scarves and Green Dam.
2010: Based upon the recommendations of the Elementary School Students Loving Care Committee and representatives of elementary school students, the government tightens the censorship standards on photographs, with guiding principles such as "erect nipples equal bare nipples."
2010: All Internet forum masters are formally given public service worker status.
2010: The government introduces a brand new Internet Great Wall. This Great Wall system is based upon the collective wisdom of innumerable of experts from all walks of life in China. They work together at a military base. The satellite photos of their work site was misinterpreted by people inside and outside of China as those of an aircraft carrier under construction.
2011 January: The government allocates 100 billion yuan to hire Internet commentators from its next round of economic stimulation package. The pay for Internet commentators rises from 50 cents per post to 1 yuan per post. The target for 2011 is to have 100 billion positive posts. The Fifty-cent Gang members at the various forums weep in gratitude because their long, arduous work over the years has finally allowed them to join the big team. From there on, the ratio of Internet commentators versus normal people is about 50:50 at the large Internet forums.
2011: Google, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter announce that they are re-entering China and opening up registration. At the same time, the aforementioned websites announce from the United States that they are not developing any businesses in China. But their announcements are instantly censored, so that nobody in China knows.
2011: All those who register at the aforementioned websites are systematically tracked down by the Great Wall system. Their computers are re-installed. Afterwards, if the users want to visit a general-purpose website, they can only reach People.com.cn and Xinhua; if they want to visit a forum, they can only go to Strong Nation Forum and Tiexue Forum; if they want to visit a video site, they can only go to CCTV 1. Once the system is re-installed this way, there is no way to undo the settings.
2011: The price of computers goes up by 100%. Computer scalpers proliferate. When users buy new computers, they find that they can only access the aforementioned websites.
2011: Housing prices go up by 100%. At the real estate transaction websites, the housing unit must be identified as either "full Internet access" or "restricted Internet access."
2011: Southern Metropolis Daily and Southern Weekend are renamed Male Metropolis Daily and Male Weekend, and reclassified as marital agency newspapers. The ratio of Internet commentators and ordinary people there reaches 9 to 1.
2011: A certain city leader comes under human flesh search.
2011: In the second round of Internet clean-up, all search engines are closed. The major portals and the newspapers publish articles with titles such as "Searching made us lazy people," "Internet searching seriously detrimental to ability of elementary school students to use their brains" and so on. The leaders say, "we never use Internet searching. The situation today says clearly that Internet search has a hundred bad points and nothing good whatsoever."
2011: Baidu is acquired by Pepsi Cola and becomes an official beverage website.
2012: Sina.com reports that a certain village leader received 500 yuan in bribes. This news story is rated as the top news story in China for the year 2012 with more than 500 million page views. Many people read it repeatedly. Even after censorship, there are more than 1 million comments. Many people think that this was a new high point in watchdog journalism. But according to the Internet polling, 90% of netizens still think that the news story should not have been published because it destroys social stability and may lead to ethnic splits.
2012: Elementary school students denounce Sina.com for having an erect nipple. Sina.com is shut down for re-organization.
2012: All forums stop accepting registrations or comments. The Chinese Writers Association and the Chinese Literary Union take over the Internet to become Internet content providers. The Internet goes back from Web 3.0 to Web 0.3. The Internet is read-only with no comments being allowed.
2013: The Elementary School Students Healthy Development Committee denounces Sina.com for having another erect nipple.
2014: Sina.com ("new wave" in Chinese) is acquired by Mountain Dew ("powerful wave" in Chinese) and becomes an official beverage website.
2015: The government cuts off the Internet altogether. A universal online computer is introduced. This is the only way to go online. This computer does not have a keyboard. You are only given a mouse. The slogan for the re-organization project is "You only have a mouse -- what can you do?"
2016: The number of Internet users in China drops down to 1 million. All websites are merged into a single website. It does not matter what URL you enter because you will be directed to that website. All updates are synchronized to the People's Daily. In the same year, the Internet industry disappears in China. This causes 5 million people in the Internet-related industry to lose their jobs either directly or indirectly. The disappearance of e-mail means that the previously closed but now revived Postal Office hires 100,000 of them. But 4.9 million people still have no jobs. At the same time, almost 1 million Fifty-cent Gang members lose their jobs. The Fifty-cent Gang members complain that they worked like dogs for their whole lives but now they don't even get pensions.
2016: The People's Daily writes: One industry was sacrificed in return for the stability of the nation, but it was worthwhile.
2016:
2016: Zhou Jiugeng is vindicated. He gets out of jail and becomes the Minister of Information Industry. Meanwhile Yu Qiuyu is appointed as the Minister of Culture.
2016: The 1 million jobless Fifty-cent Gang members have no other skills and therefore could not find new jobs. They could not feed themselves. Several tens of thousands of Fifty-cent Gang members gather in Beijing. During Children's Day, 150,000 Fifty-cent Gang members sit down in front of the government headquarters office to conduct a silent hunger strike. They ask the government to arrange jobs for them, give them credit for their prior work, and grant them public service worker status retroactively. The People's Daily writes that the government never had the job position of Internet commentator. Therefore, all those Fifty-cent Gang members wrote on their own. The Fifty-cent Gang members are unable to show any labor contract to prove that they had an worker-employer relationship with the government.
The spokesperson for the Fifty-cent Gang members say that they were underground agents who had done great work to secure national stability.
The government gives the Fifty-cent gang members three days to leave Beijing or face arrest. People's Daily writes that if one praises the government, one should not apply pressure on the government. Praising the government cannot be a condition for obtaining money. Praises should be uncompensated.
2016: The Fifty-cent Gang members continue their hunger strike. The citizens say that they fully support the hunger strike by the Fifty-cent Gang members. They also do not provide any food to hunger strikers and they block off all possible channels that can bring food in. Thus, they make sure that the Fifty-cent Gang members will stick to their hunger strike.
The next day, Minister of Culture Yu Qiuyu visits the scene of the hunger strike and reads the "Tearful advice to the Fifty-cent Gang." The Fifty-cent Gang members say that Minister Yu's speech is too profound for them to understand.
2016: The Fifty-cent Gang is accused of the crimes of illegal assembly, illegal marching, illegal demonstration, attacking the government, violently resisting against the law, smearing the government, endangering public security, disrupting social order, spitting in public, etc. The organizers are arrested. But the government says that they will be lenient towards blind followers who don't know the truth and offer them an opportunity to reinvigorate themselves: they give 50 cents to each of them to feed their hunger.
2016: The Fifty-cent Gang crisis is peacefully resolved, once again showing the ability of the Party and the government to maintain stability. The Fifty-cent Gang leader tells the CCTV reporter on camera: "I am so sorry about before."
2017: Unemployment figures continue to rise drastically. The collapse of the Internet industry leads to a serious economic recession. The government says that the manufacturing industry will be the backbone of the nation once more. China will use all its natural resources to export at low prices.
2017: Hostile anti-China forces overseas get together and mislead the United Nations and various nations to pass a resolution to forbid the importing of Chinese goods anywhere in the world in order to express their opposition to the shutdown of the Internet in China. The Chinese government issues strong condemnations. They say that the administration of the Internet in China is an internal matter which other countries have no right to interfere with. The other countries counter that it is also an internal matter for them to ban Chinese goods and China has no right to interfere with that either.
2019: It is the military parade on the seventieth anniversary of the founding of the nation. On that day, the government announces that China will lock down its national borders and concentrate on strengthening itself so that all reactionary forces will tremble in fear. On that day, China makes a statement to the rest of the world: "If you don't do anything for three days, you get on the roof and remove tiles." Many nations say that they don't know how to translate this sentence.
2020: ...
2020: Earth is destroyed. The descendants of the Mayans say that it is normal to see a margin of error of plus or minus ten years on such events.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
The sadness of a poorly edited English newspaper in Taiwan causes expats islandwide to blush at the paper's incredibly poor editing and rewriting: if this newspaper is trying to make a good impression in the international community, it might as well face facts: it needs to hire a completely new copyediting staff or shut the paper down: it's embarassing for TAIWAN to have such an English-language newpaper published on these shores! Communist China would never stoop to such a poorly-edited newspaper on its shores, so why does democratic Taiwan allow this to go on this way? It's embarrassing!
Examples of what appeared in the newspaper today, verbatim: (and this happens every day, 24/7/365)
"one was found drown offshore yesterday"
"holding on to a portable fridge and floating in sea"
"Wang ...was seen drown offshore almost 45 minutes after..."
"the temperatures in sea was only 10 degree Celsius"
"people who fall into sea will lose body temperature in a short while"
The maritime patrol said that the temperatures in sea was only 10 degree Celsius"
"While Some members of the team..."
"Another rescue squad with 33 people comprised rescuers and medical staffers from Taipei arrived in the quake-ravaged country ..."
"but the 4 year old daughter of a Taiwanese businessman in Haiti ....was proved dead as of yesterday.."
"Her mother....continued to look for miracle in the stricken city"
"Looking to visit the famous shave ice mounted with big chunks of mangoes on Yong Kang Street?"
"..when it began selling the huge portion of mango shaved ice that now rings up at NT$160 a plate."
"Nine firefighters were injured after attending a blaze in a factory...."
SEE IF YOU CAN SPOT THE ERRORS above. That was just 4 stories in a newspaper with over 100 stories. And this newspaper calls itself "an English newspaper". It is not an English newspaper. It is an embarrassment to Taiwan and the international image of Taiwan. Either hire a competent editing staff or get out of the newspaper business! This puts a serious black eye on Taiwan's international reputation. And this newspaper is presented this way, in the same poorly-edited way, every day, 365 days a year. It's a disgrace to newspapers everywhere, but especially to the international image of Taiwan.
Imagine what a Western businessman reading this newspaper in the morning at his hotel in Taipei must think! Said one traveller to me one day: "Omigod, this English-lanuage newspaper in Taiwan is basically illiterate! It makes Taiwan look like a Third World banana republic of uneducated hacks posing as newspaper publishers!"
"one was found drown offshore yesterday"
"holding on to a portable fridge and floating in sea"
"Wang ...was seen drown offshore almost 45 minutes after..."
"the temperatures in sea was only 10 degree Celsius"
"people who fall into sea will lose body temperature in a short while"
The maritime patrol said that the temperatures in sea was only 10 degree Celsius"
"While Some members of the team..."
"Another rescue squad with 33 people comprised rescuers and medical staffers from Taipei arrived in the quake-ravaged country ..."
"but the 4 year old daughter of a Taiwanese businessman in Haiti ....was proved dead as of yesterday.."
"Her mother....continued to look for miracle in the stricken city"
"Looking to visit the famous shave ice mounted with big chunks of mangoes on Yong Kang Street?"
"..when it began selling the huge portion of mango shaved ice that now rings up at NT$160 a plate."
"Nine firefighters were injured after attending a blaze in a factory...."
SEE IF YOU CAN SPOT THE ERRORS above. That was just 4 stories in a newspaper with over 100 stories. And this newspaper calls itself "an English newspaper". It is not an English newspaper. It is an embarrassment to Taiwan and the international image of Taiwan. Either hire a competent editing staff or get out of the newspaper business! This puts a serious black eye on Taiwan's international reputation. And this newspaper is presented this way, in the same poorly-edited way, every day, 365 days a year. It's a disgrace to newspapers everywhere, but especially to the international image of Taiwan.
Imagine what a Western businessman reading this newspaper in the morning at his hotel in Taipei must think! Said one traveller to me one day: "Omigod, this English-lanuage newspaper in Taiwan is basically illiterate! It makes Taiwan look like a Third World banana republic of uneducated hacks posing as newspaper publishers!"
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Thomas Friedman's "Moustache of Understanding"
http://gawker.com/5077380/thomas-friedman-will-never-stop-trying-to-outdo-paul-krugman
Any mention that his wife is worth a gazillion dollars and that's how he got to go to all these hot spots before the NY Times was picking up the tab? Reply Randall Tex Cobb was starred Randall Tex Cobb was unstarred Baroness
@Randall Tex Cobb: It does mention that his wife's family is quite rich- billions- but she herself is a schoolteacher, which is admirable.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Visiting New York Times snailpaper writer Thomas Friedman said that people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait should be honored someday soon by the Nobel committee for promoting peace ....
NOBLE DIPLOMACY: Visiting New York Times snailpaper writer Thomas Friedman said that people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait should be honored someday soon by the Nobel committee for promoting peace ....
When New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman visited ROC Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) in Taipei recently, while visiting Taiwan during a three-day lecture tour/book-signing campaign he made the bold suggestion that the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize should go to China and Taiwan for maintaining peace across the Taiwan Straits for dozens of years without the so-called Asian flashpoint flashing or exploding.
ROC Government Information Office Deputy Minister Alice Wang (王麗珠), relaying their conversation to reporters afterwards, said Tom Friedman was curious to understand why Taiwan, which he said was regarded as one of the flashpoints in the world 13 years ago, could maintain peace with communist China over the years without much shuttle diplomacy and US intervention.
Friedman was quoted as saying in a report in the Taipei Times [on January 12, 2009] that people on both sides of Strait should have been honored with the Nobel Prize last year rather than U.S. President Barack Obama.Friedman said that he considered the way that deomocratic Taiwan and communist China created peace, which he said was to build a supply chain economically on the basis of complementary needs, was a better approach to peace as it could last for a longer time.
So: will Thomas Friedman nominate Hu Jintao and Ma Ying-Jeou for next fall's NOBEL PEACE PRIZE? Stay tuned. Finely tuned. This story has legs, as they say in Oslo.
When New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman visited ROC Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) in Taipei recently, while visiting Taiwan during a three-day lecture tour/book-signing campaign he made the bold suggestion that the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize should go to China and Taiwan for maintaining peace across the Taiwan Straits for dozens of years without the so-called Asian flashpoint flashing or exploding.
ROC Government Information Office Deputy Minister Alice Wang (王麗珠), relaying their conversation to reporters afterwards, said Tom Friedman was curious to understand why Taiwan, which he said was regarded as one of the flashpoints in the world 13 years ago, could maintain peace with communist China over the years without much shuttle diplomacy and US intervention.
Friedman was quoted as saying in a report in the Taipei Times [on January 12, 2009] that people on both sides of Strait should have been honored with the Nobel Prize last year rather than U.S. President Barack Obama.Friedman said that he considered the way that deomocratic Taiwan and communist China created peace, which he said was to build a supply chain economically on the basis of complementary needs, was a better approach to peace as it could last for a longer time.
So: will Thomas Friedman nominate Hu Jintao and Ma Ying-Jeou for next fall's NOBEL PEACE PRIZE? Stay tuned. Finely tuned. This story has legs, as they say in Oslo.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Two Musicians and the Wife Who Isn't - a new novel by Taipei resident Syd Goldsmith
Two Musicians and the Wife Who Isn't
a new novel by Taipei resident Syd Goldsmith
COMING SOON TO A BOOKSTORE OR INTERNET ORDER SITE NEAR YOU!
About the author
Syd Goldsmith’s writing flows from multiple careers. Musician, diplomat, management consultant, and entrepreneur, his zest to have a go at everything has led him to taste life in some thirty countries. Much of this international adventure has been as the flutist of “Five Hundred Years of Romances for Flute and Guitar,” which performed on every continent except Antarctica and recorded for Klavier Records.
As a diplomat, Syd served mostly in South America and Asia. Early on, he survived the Cultural Revolution in communist China by convincing Red Guards he was not a spy. Later, as the unofficial U.S. Consul General in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, he played a bit part in Taiwan’s transformation from a marshall law dictatorship to the first ever democracy in an ethnically-Chinese nation -- TAIWAN!.
Syd returned to Asia after the USA Foreign Service, as a management consultant to Chinese state-owned and private companies as well as American multi-nationals. The most exciting assignment was a temporary stint running a Chinese footwear manufacturing conglomerate with 8,000 employees and factories in China, Thailand, and Taiwan. Then he was heavily involved in an internet startup as the dotcom bubble blew up in his face.
Syd sees his life as a series of survivals. As with any life, wonderful stories can emerge from the magic mix of experience and imagination. In his first novel, Jade Phoenix, the severed head of a chicken dooms a hero, a stroke of the pen shatters dreams of nationhood, and love blooms in a wilderness of misunderstanding. You can have it all by clicking here and taking it from there.
A native of New Jersey in the USA, Syd still lives in Taipei with his Taiwanese wife Hsiu-chen and their two children. "Two Musicians and the Wife Who Isn't" is his second novel.
a new novel by Taipei resident Syd Goldsmith
COMING SOON TO A BOOKSTORE OR INTERNET ORDER SITE NEAR YOU!
About the author
Syd Goldsmith’s writing flows from multiple careers. Musician, diplomat, management consultant, and entrepreneur, his zest to have a go at everything has led him to taste life in some thirty countries. Much of this international adventure has been as the flutist of “Five Hundred Years of Romances for Flute and Guitar,” which performed on every continent except Antarctica and recorded for Klavier Records.
As a diplomat, Syd served mostly in South America and Asia. Early on, he survived the Cultural Revolution in communist China by convincing Red Guards he was not a spy. Later, as the unofficial U.S. Consul General in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, he played a bit part in Taiwan’s transformation from a marshall law dictatorship to the first ever democracy in an ethnically-Chinese nation -- TAIWAN!.
Syd returned to Asia after the USA Foreign Service, as a management consultant to Chinese state-owned and private companies as well as American multi-nationals. The most exciting assignment was a temporary stint running a Chinese footwear manufacturing conglomerate with 8,000 employees and factories in China, Thailand, and Taiwan. Then he was heavily involved in an internet startup as the dotcom bubble blew up in his face.
Syd sees his life as a series of survivals. As with any life, wonderful stories can emerge from the magic mix of experience and imagination. In his first novel, Jade Phoenix, the severed head of a chicken dooms a hero, a stroke of the pen shatters dreams of nationhood, and love blooms in a wilderness of misunderstanding. You can have it all by clicking here and taking it from there.
A native of New Jersey in the USA, Syd still lives in Taipei with his Taiwanese wife Hsiu-chen and their two children. "Two Musicians and the Wife Who Isn't" is his second novel.
Taiwanese American
Taiwanese American
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Taiwanese Americans
臺灣裔美國人
Táiwān yì měiguórén
Jerry Yang, Steve Chen, Michael Chang
Total population
529,147
0.16% of the US population[1]
Regions with significant populations
California, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Missouri, Texas, Washington, Georgia, Virginia, Illinois
Languages
English, Chinese: Mandarin, Hokkien, Hakka
Religion
Buddhism, Christianity, Chinese folk religion, Confucianism, Taoism
A Taiwanese American (Traditional Chinese: 臺灣裔美國人) is an American having Taiwanese ancestry.
Americans born in Taiwan whose ancestors immigrated to Taiwan in the 1940s are sometimes called Taiwanese American as well. Whether Taiwanese Americans should also be called Chinese Americans is a subject of some controversy.[2] Supporters of Taiwan independence often object to classification of Taiwanese Americans as Chinese Americans and overseas Chinese, while advocates of unification of Taiwan with mainland China often object if Taiwanese Americans are not included in these groups.[dubious – discuss] The controversy over the inclusion or exclusion of Taiwanese Americans as Chinese has extended to the name of the government bureau of the Republic of China handling Taiwanese Americans affairs which was controversially changed in 2006 from the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission to the Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission.
Demographic research tends to include immigrants from mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan as well as overseas Chinese who have immigrated from South East Asia into the broadly-defined Chinese American category as both the governments of the Republic of China (as ethnic Chinese, not Chinese that alludes to the statehood of China) and the United States account for Taiwanese Americans as a subgroup of Chinese Americans.[3][4][5]
Most statistics for the number of Taiwan-born Americans, including one by the Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA), puts an estimate at around 500,000.
Contents [hide]
1 Immigration history
2 Occupations and citizenship status
3 Politics
4 Immigrants vs. native-born
5 Settlement
6 Organizations
7 American media
8 Businesses
9 Prominent Individuals
10 See also
11 References
12 External links
[edit] Immigration history
Prior to the 1950s emigration from Taiwan was negligible. During Taiwan's early history, the island was populated by Austronesian aboriginals and in the 17th and 18th centuries it served as a destination point for migrating Chinese, primarily Hoklos and Hakka. In 1895, Japan took over control of Taiwan following Japan's victory over China in the First Sino-Japanese war. Japanese control severely curtailed any movement off the island in the interest of containing dissent against the Japanese Empire.
On the other side of the Pacific Ocean, opportunities for immigration from Taiwan to the United States were virtually nonexistent before the 1950s. Previously, in the 1840s when American companies began recruiting cheap, accessible labor from Asia to develop Hawaii and the frontier West, Taiwan was too small to be a target for recruiters.
In 1949, the Chinese Communist Party took control of mainland China, and the remnant armies of the Republic of China under Chiang Kai-Shek retreated to Taiwan. Because of the Cold War, the United States continued to recognize the Kuomintang-led Republic of China as the sole legitimate government of all of China from 1949 until 1979. As a result, immigration from Taiwan was counted under within the same quota for both mainland China and Taiwan. However, because the Communists banned emigration to the United States until 1977, this quota for immigrants from China was almost exclusively filled by immigrants from Taiwan. After the national origins system was relaxed and repealed by Immigration Acts in 1952 and 1965, many Taiwanese people came to the United States, forming the first wave of Taiwanese immigration. Their entry into the United States was facilitated by the immigration act of 1965, which created a system in which persons with professional skills and family ties in the United States were given preferential status, regardless of the nation of origin.
In 1979, the United States broke diplomatic relations with the Republic of China, while the Taiwan Relations Act gave Taiwan a separate immigration quota from that of mainland China.
Before the late 1960s, Taiwanese immigrants to the United States tended to be waishengren (mainlanders) who were people that immigrated to Taiwan with the Kuomintang after the fall of mainland China to the Communists. Later immigrants tended to increasingly be benshengren, whose ancestors had lived on Taiwan before 1949. With improving economic and political conditions in Taiwan, Taiwanese immigration to the United States began to subside in the early-1980s. The proportion of waishengren among Taiwanese Americans is significantly higher than the waishengren population in Taiwan.[citation needed]
[edit] Occupations and citizenship status
Many Taiwanese Americans are very highly educated. They often hold such occupations as doctors, engineers, professors and scientists. Taiwanese Americans also hold various positions in America within the aerospace, defense, research, academic, and health-care sectors. Several distinguished academics, including Nobel Prize winners, are Taiwanese Americans. Among Taiwanese Americans, medicine is regarded as a particularly high status for historical reasons. During the Japanese occupation of Taiwan before 1945, Taiwanese were barred from politics and administration but were encouraged to become doctors and nurses, leading to this profession being regarded as a high status means of social advancement.
In the 1960s, many Taiwanese Americans chose to make America their permanent home and had children in the U.S. By the late 1970s, improving economic conditions in Taiwan slowed the rate of immigration. During the 1990s, political liberalization in Taiwan encouraged many who had left Taiwan for political reasons to return.
Legally, the children of Taiwanese parents in the United States are considered to be both American citizens and citizens of the Republic of China. Although the oath of naturalization for the United States contains a statement renouncing other citizenship, the Republic of China does not recognize this renunciation as sufficient to end ROC citizenship, and requires that a person who wishes to renounce ROC citizenship make another oath before an ROC consular officer and get approval from the Ministry of the Interior,[6] subject to denial for certain reasons.[7] Without the formal renunciation, the ROC government considers Taiwanese immigrants with American citizenship to continue to be citizens of the Republic of China. In addition, the ROC technically regards almost all ethnic Chinese as citizens of the Republic of China, the important status is not merely ROC citizenship but also residency registration on Taiwan, which allows an ROC citizen hold an Republic of China National Identification Card which allows the holder to enter the island. Acquiring US citizenship does not cancel the holder's status as a resident of Taiwan, which makes Taiwanese Americans eligible to vote in the ROC elections, provided that they physically travel to their place of residency.
[edit] Politics
Politically, Taiwanese Americans play a fairly active role in the politics and culture of the Republic of China which is aided in large part by recognition of dual citizenship. The identity politics of Taiwan also influences at least first generation Taiwanese Americans. Many future Kuomintang officials including Lee Tenghui, James Soong and Ma Ying-Jeou received graduate degrees in the United States. On the other hand, the United States was a major destination where anti-Kuomintang figures such as Peng Ming-min and Shih Ming-teh were effectively exiled. Still others including Nobel Prize laureate Lee Yuantze were educated in the United States.
The close connections between Taiwan and the United States has led to some interesting political dynamics. From time to time, the issue of loyalty to Taiwan is raised. For example, the fact that the President of the Republic of China Ma Ying-Jeou has sisters and a daughter who are American citizens was raised during the 2008 election campaign. James Soong has been criticized for having extensive property holdings in the United States and for the fact that his children are American citizens. Chen Shui-bian has been charged with corruption and money laundering and was alleged by the prosecution that his family has hidden extensive wealth and investments in the United States. Several legislators and government officials from both sides of the political spectrum have been controversially alleged to be having U.S. permanency residency status or U.S. citizenship. Similarly, this has been raised as an issue in the feud between Li Ao and Lee Yuantze, whose children are also American citizens. This issue is partly one of socio-economic status as people with extensive connections with the United States are considered richer and more privileged than the average Taiwanese.
However, this issue has not become a large part of Taiwanese political discourse largely because links with the United States are so extensive on both sides of the political spectrum, that no one can use this issue to their political advantage. Both the pan-Blue coalition and pan-Green coalition rely on Taiwanese Americans for votes. In the 2004 ROC Presidential Election an estimated 10,000 Taiwanese Americans traveled to Taiwan to vote in an election in which the margin of victory was 30,000, and both groups campaigned extensively in the United States and held campaign rallies on Taiwan to welcome their voters.
While dual citizens are banned from high political office,[8] there has not been a significant movement within Taiwan to ban dual citizenship in general. The Supreme Court has ruled that all citizens, dual or singular, are entitled to the same rights. US natural born citizens were emphasized in the decision.[citation needed]
[edit] Immigrants vs. native-born
First generation immigrants from Taiwan usually share a common language, Mandarin, although many also speak Taiwanese and to a lesser extent, the Hakka language, depending on heritage and whether the individuals are exposed to Mandarin through Mandarin Chinese schools. As with most immigrants to the United States, linguistic fluency in the heritage language quickly disappears in the second generation. Many second generation Taiwanese Americans are exposed to Taiwanese, but their level of proficiency varies. Many second generation immigrants speak Taiwanese as their heritage language and know little Mandarin, while others, especially whose families are from the Taipei Metropolitan Area, speak Mandarin as their heritage language and know little Taiwanese. Second generation Taiwanese of Hakka descent tend to speak better Mandarin as their heritage language. There are many first generation Taiwanese of full Hakka heritage who may speak all three languages. Taiwanese Americans of mixed Hoklo and Hakka Heritage may speak only Mandarin as their heritage language. Second Generation Taiwanese who are of mixed Hoklo Taiwanese and waishengren (mainlander) heritage or full mainlander heritage may only know Mandarin at most and not a word of Taiwanese.
[edit] Settlement
Owing to their relative wealth and education attainment, many Taiwanese immigrants have not settled in the old Cantonese-speaking Chinatowns. Instead, they have generally immigrated directly to American suburbia and in effect, they started new Taiwanese communities. For example, beginning in the late 1970s and early 1980s at the height of Taiwanese immigration, the Taiwanese emigrants were instrumental in the development of Monterey Park, California in Los Angeles - thus causing it to earn the moniker of "Little Taipei" and derisivery as "Mandarin Park" - and vicinity and in Flushing, New York, which generally reflected new investments and capital flowing from Taiwan into newer Taiwanese enclaves instead of the well-established and mostly dilapidated Chinatowns.
While Monterey Park is no longer the major Taiwanese community in Los Angeles today, Flushing remains the main vibrant Taiwanese cultural, commercial, and political center in New York City. In Los Angeles County, California, newer communities such as Rowland Heights, Hacienda Heights, Arcadia, Diamond Bar, Walnut, San Gabriel, Temple City, give the ambience of "Little Taipei" . However, many annual Taiwanese cultural events (especially during Taiwanese Heritage Week) are still held in Monterey Park. As an attempt to duplicate the Taiwanese success of Monterey Park in Houston, Texas, Taiwanese immigrant entrepreneurs pioneered in the mid 1980s what is now widely considered as Houston's new Chinatown on Bellaire Boulevard (although many Vietnamese-born Chinese immigrants have increasingly settled and set up shop in the area as well). A number of Taiwanese American businesses and organizations still operate and flourish in this part of Houston.
The prestige and performance of particular school districts, as well as access to careers in high-tech firms, have in general played significant parts in influencing the settlement patterns of Taiwanese Americans.
Chinese American culture abounds in this busy and vibrant strip mall in the southeastern San Gabriel Valley of Los Angeles.Areas with high concentrations of Taiwanese immigrants include the San Gabriel Valley (Greater Los Angeles), Santa Clara Valley (Cupertino, San Jose), East Bay (El Cerrito, California and Oakland), Los Angeles/Orange County border communities (Cerritos/Artesia), and Irvine in Central Orange County. Outside of California, there are also major Taiwanese concentrations in Flushing, New York, Rockville, Maryland (northwest of Washington, D.C.), Sugar Land, Texas (near Houston), Richardson, Texas (near Dallas), Bellevue, Washington (and adjacent areas) (part of the Greater Seattle Area's "Eastside" communities). Additionally, the northeastern suburbs of the Atlanta, Georgia area has also received a significant influx of Taiwanese immigrant residents. The Taiwanese population was formerly dominant in Monterey Park, California. The San Gabriel Valley has a larger population of "49er" Taiwanese (also known as Waishengren), essentially outnumbering native Taiwanese. Since the middle 1980s through the 1990s, however, large numbers of mostly 49er Taiwanese Americans seeking greener pastures began moving out to more upscale neighborhoods like San Marino, Arcadia, and Temple City in Western San Gabriel Valley; Hacienda Heights, Rowland Heights, Walnut, and Diamond Bar in Eastern San Gabriel Valley; with immigrants from the People's Republic of China and Cantonese and Teochew (mostly from Vietnam) taking their place in Monterey Park.
Similarly, for the past 10 years, Benshengren have been immigrating to upscale neighborhoods in Los Angeles and Orange County such as Cerritos and Irvine respectively. The city of Cerritos is located in Los Angeles County but borders Orange County and has a large diversity of Asian immigrants. The city of Irvine has a very large Benshengren population, though now more and more Waishengren and Mainland Chinese immigrants have flocked to the city. The Irvine Chinese School, which serves mostly the American-born children of Taiwanese immigrants, is one of the largest Chinese Schools in the Orange County area. These immigrants belong to branches from some of the most politically and economically powerful Taiwanese families (with the surnames Chiang, Chen, Cheng, Kung, Tsai, and Wu).
Convenient Taiwanese-oriented strip malls and shopping complexes are typically complete with supermarkets and restaurants, thus Taiwanese American suburbanites have very little need to visit the older Chinatowns. In addition, shops offering imported Taiwanese goods allow for young Taiwanese expatriates in the United States to keep up with the current trends and popular culture of Taiwan. Taiwanese Americans have also brought with them Taiwanese cuisine to the communities they have settled, which, possibly excluding bubble tea, is not generally well-known or served outside these aforementioned Taiwanese immigrant enclaves.
[edit] Organizations
Organizations geared towards Taiwanese Americans include the Formosan Association for Public Affairs, Taiwanese American Citizens League, and the Intercollegiate Taiwanese American Students Association. In addition, most cities with concentrations of Taiwanese Americans have a Taiwan association or Taiwan Center.
The first Taiwanese church established in North America is Winfield Reformed Church in 1969 in Woodside, New York.
[edit] American media
The Taiwanese also run several of North America's major Chinese-language newspapers, such as the World Journal and the International Daily News. However, these influential and highly-circulated newspapers are not geared solely to the Taiwanese, but rather serve the Chinese-speaking immigrant readership. Pacific Journal is weekly Taiwanese-run newspaper that is geared more exclusively toward Taiwanese readers.
Due to the significant Taiwanese American community, Taiwan media dominates the Chinese-language airwaves in the United States. Cable and satellite television of Taiwan-based media keeps Taiwanese Americans abreast of news developments and programming in Taiwan. For example, satellite stations ETTV America and CTI cater to Mandarin-speaking Taiwanese immigrants.
[edit] Businesses
There are several businesses targeted towards the Taiwanese American immigrant population, such as the 99 Ranch Market chain. Other well-known Taiwanese American businesses include Lollicup (serving boba tea).
Other businesses run or co-founded by Taiwanese Americans include Acer, Asus, Yahoo!, Viewsonic, Nautica, Nvidia, Garmin, Newegg.com, and YouTube.
[edit] Prominent Individuals
Main article: List of Taiwanese Americans
[edit] See also
Taiwanese people
Asian American
Demographics of the United States
Diaspora politics in the United States
Hyphenated American
Nationality Law of the Republic of China: American Taiwanese, opposite of Taiwanese American
Chinese American
[edit] References
This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (September 2009)
^ "TAHW STATEMENT BY REP. GERALD D. KLECZKA (D-WI)". http://www.fapa.org/TAHW/2001/kleczka.html.
^ Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender: Men and Women in the World's Cultures Volume 2 * Cultures L-Z page 858, ISBN 978-0-306-47770-6 (Print) ISBN 978-0-387-29907-5 (Online)
^ "Race groups". United States Census Bureau. 2002-08-09. http://www.census.gov/population/www/cen2000/SF4-race.html. Retrieved 2007-03-21.
^ "About OCAC". Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission, R.O.C. (Taiwan). http://www.ocac.gov.tw/english/public/public.asp?selno=706&level=C&no=683. Retrieved 2007-03-21.
^ "The Ranking of Overseas Chinese". Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission, R.O.C. (Taiwan). http://www.ocac.gov.tw/english/public/public.asp?selno=1163&no=1163&level=B. Retrieved 2007-03-21.
^ Article 11 of the Nationality Law of the Republic of China.
^ Articles 12 and 13 of the Nationality Law of the Republic of China.
^ Article 20 of the Nationality Law of the Republic of China.
[edit] External links
Formosan Association for Public Affairs
ITASA - Intercollegiate Taiwanese American Students Association
Taiwanese American Citizens League
Taiwanese American Foundation
TaiwaneseAmerican.org
Taiwan Center of America
U.S. Census 2000 - People Born in Taiwan
[hide]v • d • eAsian Americans
East Asian Chinese · Japanese · Korean · Mongolian
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Taiwanese Americans
臺灣裔美國人
Táiwān yì měiguórén
Jerry Yang, Steve Chen, Michael Chang
Total population
529,147
0.16% of the US population[1]
Regions with significant populations
California, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Missouri, Texas, Washington, Georgia, Virginia, Illinois
Languages
English, Chinese: Mandarin, Hokkien, Hakka
Religion
Buddhism, Christianity, Chinese folk religion, Confucianism, Taoism
A Taiwanese American (Traditional Chinese: 臺灣裔美國人) is an American having Taiwanese ancestry.
Americans born in Taiwan whose ancestors immigrated to Taiwan in the 1940s are sometimes called Taiwanese American as well. Whether Taiwanese Americans should also be called Chinese Americans is a subject of some controversy.[2] Supporters of Taiwan independence often object to classification of Taiwanese Americans as Chinese Americans and overseas Chinese, while advocates of unification of Taiwan with mainland China often object if Taiwanese Americans are not included in these groups.[dubious – discuss] The controversy over the inclusion or exclusion of Taiwanese Americans as Chinese has extended to the name of the government bureau of the Republic of China handling Taiwanese Americans affairs which was controversially changed in 2006 from the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission to the Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission.
Demographic research tends to include immigrants from mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan as well as overseas Chinese who have immigrated from South East Asia into the broadly-defined Chinese American category as both the governments of the Republic of China (as ethnic Chinese, not Chinese that alludes to the statehood of China) and the United States account for Taiwanese Americans as a subgroup of Chinese Americans.[3][4][5]
Most statistics for the number of Taiwan-born Americans, including one by the Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA), puts an estimate at around 500,000.
Contents [hide]
1 Immigration history
2 Occupations and citizenship status
3 Politics
4 Immigrants vs. native-born
5 Settlement
6 Organizations
7 American media
8 Businesses
9 Prominent Individuals
10 See also
11 References
12 External links
[edit] Immigration history
Prior to the 1950s emigration from Taiwan was negligible. During Taiwan's early history, the island was populated by Austronesian aboriginals and in the 17th and 18th centuries it served as a destination point for migrating Chinese, primarily Hoklos and Hakka. In 1895, Japan took over control of Taiwan following Japan's victory over China in the First Sino-Japanese war. Japanese control severely curtailed any movement off the island in the interest of containing dissent against the Japanese Empire.
On the other side of the Pacific Ocean, opportunities for immigration from Taiwan to the United States were virtually nonexistent before the 1950s. Previously, in the 1840s when American companies began recruiting cheap, accessible labor from Asia to develop Hawaii and the frontier West, Taiwan was too small to be a target for recruiters.
In 1949, the Chinese Communist Party took control of mainland China, and the remnant armies of the Republic of China under Chiang Kai-Shek retreated to Taiwan. Because of the Cold War, the United States continued to recognize the Kuomintang-led Republic of China as the sole legitimate government of all of China from 1949 until 1979. As a result, immigration from Taiwan was counted under within the same quota for both mainland China and Taiwan. However, because the Communists banned emigration to the United States until 1977, this quota for immigrants from China was almost exclusively filled by immigrants from Taiwan. After the national origins system was relaxed and repealed by Immigration Acts in 1952 and 1965, many Taiwanese people came to the United States, forming the first wave of Taiwanese immigration. Their entry into the United States was facilitated by the immigration act of 1965, which created a system in which persons with professional skills and family ties in the United States were given preferential status, regardless of the nation of origin.
In 1979, the United States broke diplomatic relations with the Republic of China, while the Taiwan Relations Act gave Taiwan a separate immigration quota from that of mainland China.
Before the late 1960s, Taiwanese immigrants to the United States tended to be waishengren (mainlanders) who were people that immigrated to Taiwan with the Kuomintang after the fall of mainland China to the Communists. Later immigrants tended to increasingly be benshengren, whose ancestors had lived on Taiwan before 1949. With improving economic and political conditions in Taiwan, Taiwanese immigration to the United States began to subside in the early-1980s. The proportion of waishengren among Taiwanese Americans is significantly higher than the waishengren population in Taiwan.[citation needed]
[edit] Occupations and citizenship status
Many Taiwanese Americans are very highly educated. They often hold such occupations as doctors, engineers, professors and scientists. Taiwanese Americans also hold various positions in America within the aerospace, defense, research, academic, and health-care sectors. Several distinguished academics, including Nobel Prize winners, are Taiwanese Americans. Among Taiwanese Americans, medicine is regarded as a particularly high status for historical reasons. During the Japanese occupation of Taiwan before 1945, Taiwanese were barred from politics and administration but were encouraged to become doctors and nurses, leading to this profession being regarded as a high status means of social advancement.
In the 1960s, many Taiwanese Americans chose to make America their permanent home and had children in the U.S. By the late 1970s, improving economic conditions in Taiwan slowed the rate of immigration. During the 1990s, political liberalization in Taiwan encouraged many who had left Taiwan for political reasons to return.
Legally, the children of Taiwanese parents in the United States are considered to be both American citizens and citizens of the Republic of China. Although the oath of naturalization for the United States contains a statement renouncing other citizenship, the Republic of China does not recognize this renunciation as sufficient to end ROC citizenship, and requires that a person who wishes to renounce ROC citizenship make another oath before an ROC consular officer and get approval from the Ministry of the Interior,[6] subject to denial for certain reasons.[7] Without the formal renunciation, the ROC government considers Taiwanese immigrants with American citizenship to continue to be citizens of the Republic of China. In addition, the ROC technically regards almost all ethnic Chinese as citizens of the Republic of China, the important status is not merely ROC citizenship but also residency registration on Taiwan, which allows an ROC citizen hold an Republic of China National Identification Card which allows the holder to enter the island. Acquiring US citizenship does not cancel the holder's status as a resident of Taiwan, which makes Taiwanese Americans eligible to vote in the ROC elections, provided that they physically travel to their place of residency.
[edit] Politics
Politically, Taiwanese Americans play a fairly active role in the politics and culture of the Republic of China which is aided in large part by recognition of dual citizenship. The identity politics of Taiwan also influences at least first generation Taiwanese Americans. Many future Kuomintang officials including Lee Tenghui, James Soong and Ma Ying-Jeou received graduate degrees in the United States. On the other hand, the United States was a major destination where anti-Kuomintang figures such as Peng Ming-min and Shih Ming-teh were effectively exiled. Still others including Nobel Prize laureate Lee Yuantze were educated in the United States.
The close connections between Taiwan and the United States has led to some interesting political dynamics. From time to time, the issue of loyalty to Taiwan is raised. For example, the fact that the President of the Republic of China Ma Ying-Jeou has sisters and a daughter who are American citizens was raised during the 2008 election campaign. James Soong has been criticized for having extensive property holdings in the United States and for the fact that his children are American citizens. Chen Shui-bian has been charged with corruption and money laundering and was alleged by the prosecution that his family has hidden extensive wealth and investments in the United States. Several legislators and government officials from both sides of the political spectrum have been controversially alleged to be having U.S. permanency residency status or U.S. citizenship. Similarly, this has been raised as an issue in the feud between Li Ao and Lee Yuantze, whose children are also American citizens. This issue is partly one of socio-economic status as people with extensive connections with the United States are considered richer and more privileged than the average Taiwanese.
However, this issue has not become a large part of Taiwanese political discourse largely because links with the United States are so extensive on both sides of the political spectrum, that no one can use this issue to their political advantage. Both the pan-Blue coalition and pan-Green coalition rely on Taiwanese Americans for votes. In the 2004 ROC Presidential Election an estimated 10,000 Taiwanese Americans traveled to Taiwan to vote in an election in which the margin of victory was 30,000, and both groups campaigned extensively in the United States and held campaign rallies on Taiwan to welcome their voters.
While dual citizens are banned from high political office,[8] there has not been a significant movement within Taiwan to ban dual citizenship in general. The Supreme Court has ruled that all citizens, dual or singular, are entitled to the same rights. US natural born citizens were emphasized in the decision.[citation needed]
[edit] Immigrants vs. native-born
First generation immigrants from Taiwan usually share a common language, Mandarin, although many also speak Taiwanese and to a lesser extent, the Hakka language, depending on heritage and whether the individuals are exposed to Mandarin through Mandarin Chinese schools. As with most immigrants to the United States, linguistic fluency in the heritage language quickly disappears in the second generation. Many second generation Taiwanese Americans are exposed to Taiwanese, but their level of proficiency varies. Many second generation immigrants speak Taiwanese as their heritage language and know little Mandarin, while others, especially whose families are from the Taipei Metropolitan Area, speak Mandarin as their heritage language and know little Taiwanese. Second generation Taiwanese of Hakka descent tend to speak better Mandarin as their heritage language. There are many first generation Taiwanese of full Hakka heritage who may speak all three languages. Taiwanese Americans of mixed Hoklo and Hakka Heritage may speak only Mandarin as their heritage language. Second Generation Taiwanese who are of mixed Hoklo Taiwanese and waishengren (mainlander) heritage or full mainlander heritage may only know Mandarin at most and not a word of Taiwanese.
[edit] Settlement
Owing to their relative wealth and education attainment, many Taiwanese immigrants have not settled in the old Cantonese-speaking Chinatowns. Instead, they have generally immigrated directly to American suburbia and in effect, they started new Taiwanese communities. For example, beginning in the late 1970s and early 1980s at the height of Taiwanese immigration, the Taiwanese emigrants were instrumental in the development of Monterey Park, California in Los Angeles - thus causing it to earn the moniker of "Little Taipei" and derisivery as "Mandarin Park" - and vicinity and in Flushing, New York, which generally reflected new investments and capital flowing from Taiwan into newer Taiwanese enclaves instead of the well-established and mostly dilapidated Chinatowns.
While Monterey Park is no longer the major Taiwanese community in Los Angeles today, Flushing remains the main vibrant Taiwanese cultural, commercial, and political center in New York City. In Los Angeles County, California, newer communities such as Rowland Heights, Hacienda Heights, Arcadia, Diamond Bar, Walnut, San Gabriel, Temple City, give the ambience of "Little Taipei" . However, many annual Taiwanese cultural events (especially during Taiwanese Heritage Week) are still held in Monterey Park. As an attempt to duplicate the Taiwanese success of Monterey Park in Houston, Texas, Taiwanese immigrant entrepreneurs pioneered in the mid 1980s what is now widely considered as Houston's new Chinatown on Bellaire Boulevard (although many Vietnamese-born Chinese immigrants have increasingly settled and set up shop in the area as well). A number of Taiwanese American businesses and organizations still operate and flourish in this part of Houston.
The prestige and performance of particular school districts, as well as access to careers in high-tech firms, have in general played significant parts in influencing the settlement patterns of Taiwanese Americans.
Chinese American culture abounds in this busy and vibrant strip mall in the southeastern San Gabriel Valley of Los Angeles.Areas with high concentrations of Taiwanese immigrants include the San Gabriel Valley (Greater Los Angeles), Santa Clara Valley (Cupertino, San Jose), East Bay (El Cerrito, California and Oakland), Los Angeles/Orange County border communities (Cerritos/Artesia), and Irvine in Central Orange County. Outside of California, there are also major Taiwanese concentrations in Flushing, New York, Rockville, Maryland (northwest of Washington, D.C.), Sugar Land, Texas (near Houston), Richardson, Texas (near Dallas), Bellevue, Washington (and adjacent areas) (part of the Greater Seattle Area's "Eastside" communities). Additionally, the northeastern suburbs of the Atlanta, Georgia area has also received a significant influx of Taiwanese immigrant residents. The Taiwanese population was formerly dominant in Monterey Park, California. The San Gabriel Valley has a larger population of "49er" Taiwanese (also known as Waishengren), essentially outnumbering native Taiwanese. Since the middle 1980s through the 1990s, however, large numbers of mostly 49er Taiwanese Americans seeking greener pastures began moving out to more upscale neighborhoods like San Marino, Arcadia, and Temple City in Western San Gabriel Valley; Hacienda Heights, Rowland Heights, Walnut, and Diamond Bar in Eastern San Gabriel Valley; with immigrants from the People's Republic of China and Cantonese and Teochew (mostly from Vietnam) taking their place in Monterey Park.
Similarly, for the past 10 years, Benshengren have been immigrating to upscale neighborhoods in Los Angeles and Orange County such as Cerritos and Irvine respectively. The city of Cerritos is located in Los Angeles County but borders Orange County and has a large diversity of Asian immigrants. The city of Irvine has a very large Benshengren population, though now more and more Waishengren and Mainland Chinese immigrants have flocked to the city. The Irvine Chinese School, which serves mostly the American-born children of Taiwanese immigrants, is one of the largest Chinese Schools in the Orange County area. These immigrants belong to branches from some of the most politically and economically powerful Taiwanese families (with the surnames Chiang, Chen, Cheng, Kung, Tsai, and Wu).
Convenient Taiwanese-oriented strip malls and shopping complexes are typically complete with supermarkets and restaurants, thus Taiwanese American suburbanites have very little need to visit the older Chinatowns. In addition, shops offering imported Taiwanese goods allow for young Taiwanese expatriates in the United States to keep up with the current trends and popular culture of Taiwan. Taiwanese Americans have also brought with them Taiwanese cuisine to the communities they have settled, which, possibly excluding bubble tea, is not generally well-known or served outside these aforementioned Taiwanese immigrant enclaves.
[edit] Organizations
Organizations geared towards Taiwanese Americans include the Formosan Association for Public Affairs, Taiwanese American Citizens League, and the Intercollegiate Taiwanese American Students Association. In addition, most cities with concentrations of Taiwanese Americans have a Taiwan association or Taiwan Center.
The first Taiwanese church established in North America is Winfield Reformed Church in 1969 in Woodside, New York.
[edit] American media
The Taiwanese also run several of North America's major Chinese-language newspapers, such as the World Journal and the International Daily News. However, these influential and highly-circulated newspapers are not geared solely to the Taiwanese, but rather serve the Chinese-speaking immigrant readership. Pacific Journal is weekly Taiwanese-run newspaper that is geared more exclusively toward Taiwanese readers.
Due to the significant Taiwanese American community, Taiwan media dominates the Chinese-language airwaves in the United States. Cable and satellite television of Taiwan-based media keeps Taiwanese Americans abreast of news developments and programming in Taiwan. For example, satellite stations ETTV America and CTI cater to Mandarin-speaking Taiwanese immigrants.
[edit] Businesses
There are several businesses targeted towards the Taiwanese American immigrant population, such as the 99 Ranch Market chain. Other well-known Taiwanese American businesses include Lollicup (serving boba tea).
Other businesses run or co-founded by Taiwanese Americans include Acer, Asus, Yahoo!, Viewsonic, Nautica, Nvidia, Garmin, Newegg.com, and YouTube.
[edit] Prominent Individuals
Main article: List of Taiwanese Americans
[edit] See also
Taiwanese people
Asian American
Demographics of the United States
Diaspora politics in the United States
Hyphenated American
Nationality Law of the Republic of China: American Taiwanese, opposite of Taiwanese American
Chinese American
[edit] References
This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (September 2009)
^ "TAHW STATEMENT BY REP. GERALD D. KLECZKA (D-WI)". http://www.fapa.org/TAHW/2001/kleczka.html.
^ Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender: Men and Women in the World's Cultures Volume 2 * Cultures L-Z page 858, ISBN 978-0-306-47770-6 (Print) ISBN 978-0-387-29907-5 (Online)
^ "Race groups". United States Census Bureau. 2002-08-09. http://www.census.gov/population/www/cen2000/SF4-race.html. Retrieved 2007-03-21.
^ "About OCAC". Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission, R.O.C. (Taiwan). http://www.ocac.gov.tw/english/public/public.asp?selno=706&level=C&no=683. Retrieved 2007-03-21.
^ "The Ranking of Overseas Chinese". Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission, R.O.C. (Taiwan). http://www.ocac.gov.tw/english/public/public.asp?selno=1163&no=1163&level=B. Retrieved 2007-03-21.
^ Article 11 of the Nationality Law of the Republic of China.
^ Articles 12 and 13 of the Nationality Law of the Republic of China.
^ Article 20 of the Nationality Law of the Republic of China.
[edit] External links
Formosan Association for Public Affairs
ITASA - Intercollegiate Taiwanese American Students Association
Taiwanese American Citizens League
Taiwanese American Foundation
TaiwaneseAmerican.org
Taiwan Center of America
U.S. Census 2000 - People Born in Taiwan
[hide]v • d • eAsian Americans
East Asian Chinese · Japanese · Korean · Mongolian
Tony Hsieh - CEO zappos.com shoe firm in USA
Tony Hsieh - CEO
Tony Hsieh (pronounced "Shay") is the current CEO of online shoe seller Zappos.com. Prior to joining Zappos, Hsieh co-founded and sold the internet advertising network LinkExchange to Microsoft for $265M in 1998. Hsieh graduated from Harvard University with a BA in Computer Science. He is a second-generation Taiwanese American.[1]
On July 22, 2009 Amazon.com announced the acquisition of Zappos.com in a deal valued at approximately $887.9mm.[2] He is said to have made at least $214 million from the sale not including money made through his former investment firm Venture Frogs. [3]
Zappos Core Values
As we grow as a company, it has become more and more important to explicitly define the Zappos core values from which we develop our culture, our brand, and our business strategies. These are the ten core values that we live by:
Deliver WOW Through Service
Embrace and Drive Change
Create Fun and A Little Weirdness
Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded
Pursue Growth and Learning
Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication
Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit
Do More With Less
Be Passionate and Determined
Be Humble
Tony originally got involved with Zappos as an advisor and investor in 1999, about 2 months after the company was founded. Over time, Tony ended up spending more and more time with the company because it was both the most fun and the most promising out of all the companies that he was involved with. He eventually joined Zappos full time in 2000. Under his leadership, Zappos has grown gross merchandise sales from $1.6M in 2000 to over $1 billion in 2008 by focusing relentlessly on customer service.
Tony focuses on continuing to grow the business at a rapid pace while maintaining the culture and feel of a small company. Prior to joining Zappos, Tony co-founded Venture Frogs with Alfred Lin. Venture Frogs is an incubator and investment firm that invested in Internet startups, including Ask Jeeves, Tellme Networks, and of course, Zappos.com. Prior to Venture Frogs, Tony co-founded LinkExchange, an advertising network that was successfully sold to Microsoft for $265M in 1998.
Tony met Alfred Lin (COO/CFO) in college, when Tony was running a pizza business and Alfred was his #1 customer.
Tony Hsieh (pronounced "Shay") is the current CEO of online shoe seller Zappos.com. Prior to joining Zappos, Hsieh co-founded and sold the internet advertising network LinkExchange to Microsoft for $265M in 1998. Hsieh graduated from Harvard University with a BA in Computer Science. He is a second-generation Taiwanese American.[1]
On July 22, 2009 Amazon.com announced the acquisition of Zappos.com in a deal valued at approximately $887.9mm.[2] He is said to have made at least $214 million from the sale not including money made through his former investment firm Venture Frogs. [3]
Zappos Core Values
As we grow as a company, it has become more and more important to explicitly define the Zappos core values from which we develop our culture, our brand, and our business strategies. These are the ten core values that we live by:
Deliver WOW Through Service
Embrace and Drive Change
Create Fun and A Little Weirdness
Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded
Pursue Growth and Learning
Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication
Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit
Do More With Less
Be Passionate and Determined
Be Humble
Tony originally got involved with Zappos as an advisor and investor in 1999, about 2 months after the company was founded. Over time, Tony ended up spending more and more time with the company because it was both the most fun and the most promising out of all the companies that he was involved with. He eventually joined Zappos full time in 2000. Under his leadership, Zappos has grown gross merchandise sales from $1.6M in 2000 to over $1 billion in 2008 by focusing relentlessly on customer service.
Tony focuses on continuing to grow the business at a rapid pace while maintaining the culture and feel of a small company. Prior to joining Zappos, Tony co-founded Venture Frogs with Alfred Lin. Venture Frogs is an incubator and investment firm that invested in Internet startups, including Ask Jeeves, Tellme Networks, and of course, Zappos.com. Prior to Venture Frogs, Tony co-founded LinkExchange, an advertising network that was successfully sold to Microsoft for $265M in 1998.
Tony met Alfred Lin (COO/CFO) in college, when Tony was running a pizza business and Alfred was his #1 customer.
The view from my window on January 10, 2010, at 2 pm in the afternoon: snow on Mt. Jade, highest mountain in East Asia, higher than Mt. Fuji in Japan IN FACT
WINTRY PEAKS
Snow covers the peaks of Jade Mountain in this picture taken in Chiayi City in subtropical southern Taiwan on January 10, 2010. Photo by Liberty Times reporter Ms. YU HSUEH-LAN
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/photo/2010/01/11/2008043647
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Christmas Tree in Taiwan
The Christmas Bra Tree (as displayed in the window of an Easy Shop women's lingerie store in Chiayi City on December 25, 2009)
http://pcofftherails101.blogspot.com/2010/01/only-in-taiwan-christmasbra-tree-as.html
http://pcofftherails101.blogspot.com/2010/01/only-in-taiwan-christmasbra-tree-as.html
阿凸仔也民調 by Biko Lang, translated by Terry Huang, letter to Liberty Times re ADOAH
阿凸仔也民調
◎ Biko Lang
Dear Editor of the Liberty Times
自由廣場的讀者或許還記得筆者去年七月中旬發表有關西方人對「阿凸仔」這個稱呼的負面觀感。其實這篇文章的英文版早在去年五月份台北時報(Taipei Times)發表之後，TNS模範巿場研究公司(TNS Taiwan)就阿凸仔的問題舉辦了一次民調。從2009/5/22到2009/5/24三天期間，超過兩萬五千多位台灣人參與了是項民調。
就因為這份民調相當有趣，筆者特別引述其簡要如下，以饗讀者：
您是否使用「阿凸仔」來通稱西方人士？ 45％ 說（是），55％ 說（不）。
當您發現有些在台西方人士認為「阿凸仔」帶有無禮的負面感覺時，您是否會停止使用？ 93％ 說（會停用），7％ 說（繼續使用）。
值得一提的是，這項民調受訪人數高達25.276位，而受訪人的剖面概況是依目前台灣總人口之性別及年齡層的比例來取樣的，其中年齡層則限定在十三到六十四歲之間。
筆者邀請有興趣的讀者們繼續回應。
（作者本名 Biko Lang, aka, Dan Bloom，為美籍資深新聞從業人員；翻譯者黃大河）
部落格http://www.goodweber.com/?terry
==================
Dear Editor, Taipei Times:
======================
'Adoah' poll inconclusive
==========================
Dear Editor,
Some readers of the Taipei Times may remember an article that
appeared in this newspaper last summer about the use of the local
Hokklo term "adoah" for
Westerners in Taiwan ("'Adoah': A demonstration of familiarity or an
insult?", May 19, 2009, Page 4).
After the article appeared, a poll was taken by a local
marketing firm in Taipei based on the article, and the results are, if
not conclusive, nevertheless very interesting.
The online poll was conducted by "TNS Taiwan", a Taipei marketing
firm, from May 22 to May 24, 2009 with about 25,000 Taiwanese people
participating, and with several
questions being asked.
When those polled were asked "Do you use the term 'adoah' to refer to
Caucasians?" the results were as follows: 45% said
they do use the
term while 55% said they do not use the term.
When people were asked "If you learned that this term of adoah was considered
offensive by some Westerners living in Taiwan, would you
stop using it?" the results were as follows:
93% said they would no
longer use the word "adoah" while 7% said they would continue to use
it.
In the poll, the total sample
size was 25,276 respondents, distributed in terms of age and gender
proportionately to the general population, with ages ranging from 13
to 64, according to the polling firm.
Sincerely,
◎ Biko Lang
Dear Editor of the Liberty Times
自由廣場的讀者或許還記得筆者去年七月中旬發表有關西方人對「阿凸仔」這個稱呼的負面觀感。其實這篇文章的英文版早在去年五月份台北時報(Taipei Times)發表之後，TNS模範巿場研究公司(TNS Taiwan)就阿凸仔的問題舉辦了一次民調。從2009/5/22到2009/5/24三天期間，超過兩萬五千多位台灣人參與了是項民調。
就因為這份民調相當有趣，筆者特別引述其簡要如下，以饗讀者：
您是否使用「阿凸仔」來通稱西方人士？ 45％ 說（是），55％ 說（不）。
當您發現有些在台西方人士認為「阿凸仔」帶有無禮的負面感覺時，您是否會停止使用？ 93％ 說（會停用），7％ 說（繼續使用）。
值得一提的是，這項民調受訪人數高達25.276位，而受訪人的剖面概況是依目前台灣總人口之性別及年齡層的比例來取樣的，其中年齡層則限定在十三到六十四歲之間。
筆者邀請有興趣的讀者們繼續回應。
（作者本名 Biko Lang, aka, Dan Bloom，為美籍資深新聞從業人員；翻譯者黃大河）
部落格http://www.goodweber.com/?terry
==================
Dear Editor, Taipei Times:
======================
'Adoah' poll inconclusive
==========================
Dear Editor,
Some readers of the Taipei Times may remember an article that
appeared in this newspaper last summer about the use of the local
Hokklo term "adoah" for
Westerners in Taiwan ("'Adoah': A demonstration of familiarity or an
insult?", May 19, 2009, Page 4).
After the article appeared, a poll was taken by a local
marketing firm in Taipei based on the article, and the results are, if
not conclusive, nevertheless very interesting.
The online poll was conducted by "TNS Taiwan", a Taipei marketing
firm, from May 22 to May 24, 2009 with about 25,000 Taiwanese people
participating, and with several
questions being asked.
When those polled were asked "Do you use the term 'adoah' to refer to
Caucasians?" the results were as follows: 45% said
they do use the
term while 55% said they do not use the term.
When people were asked "If you learned that this term of adoah was considered
offensive by some Westerners living in Taiwan, would you
stop using it?" the results were as follows:
93% said they would no
longer use the word "adoah" while 7% said they would continue to use
it.
In the poll, the total sample
size was 25,276 respondents, distributed in terms of age and gender
proportionately to the general population, with ages ranging from 13
to 64, according to the polling firm.
Sincerely,
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Is there a Y1C computer glitch in Taiwan's future?
Is there a Y1C computer glitch in Taiwan's future?
by Webposter / Webposted January 32, 2011
Is Taiwan facing its own immanent Y1C computer problems next year when
the ROC turns 100?
When most of the Western world was getting ready for the year 2000 and
all the Y2K computer problems the change-over from year 1999 to year
2000 might create -- and lo and behold, nothing really happened and
the change-over went smoothly with almost no glitches at all -- Taiwan
is currently facing its own Y2K problem. Call it Taiwan's Y1C problem,
because Taiwan's government uses the year 1911 as its founding date as
a republic -- The Republic of China (or R.O.C.) -- and since this year
is year 99 in Taiwan using this calendar system, next year will mark
year 100. And the extra digit just might cause some headaches for
Taiwan's computer systems that handle bank transfers, university
tuition bills, insurance premiums, medical records and driver's
license applications.
So get ready, Taiwan, for your own special Y2K problem -- Y1C to be more exact!
According to a post on Wikipedia, not to worry. Or, as the case might be, worry.
"Since, generally speaking, only government offices use the official
1911 dating system, the impact on the private sector in Taiwan should
be minimal," the Wikipedia entry says. "However, the potential to
affect government systems is another matter. Then again, on the other
hand, looking at the bright side of things, a large number of
government computers are already using a three-digit system for dates,
with a zero being used as the first digit for years below 100 (Western
year 2010 A.D. or earlier). Some government documents such as driver’s
licenses already refer to years over 100; fortunately, nothing more
than minor glitches have so far been reported."
According to David Reid, an Australian post-graduate student in Taipei, the
blogosphere began discussing this issue four years ago.
"The problem has been labelled 'Y1C' for Taiwan, and there is even a
Wikipedia page about it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y1C_Problem,"
he said in a recent email to this reporter. "A blog called Pinyin News
wrote about it in 2006, or the year 95 as some might prefer. I expect
the issue will cause some minor problems, but I doubt it will prove to
be a disaster.:
"However, what would be a good thing is if the entire date issue
promoted more debate in Taiwan about whether using the ROC calendar is
relevant or practical," Reid added. "This is unlikely as the KMT will
be obsessed with marking the centenary and unwilling to engage in
debate about the issue."
Roger Chen, a computer science graduate student at Chung Cheng
University in Chiayi, doesn't think the problem will become too big or
unmanageable.
I think we can solve what problems come up," he told this reporter.
"However, it's true, many banks and hospitals will have to stay on top
of it. I don't think it going to be a big problem, but then again, you
never know."
An American expat in Taipei who works for a ROC government branch as
an editor, thinks this is all much ado about nothing.
"I don't think there will be any problem on January 1, 2011, which
will be Year 100 in Taiwan's calendar system," he said. "Every PC I've
ever seen -- and most
of them have parts or are completely made by Taiwanese-owned
companies -- run a BIOS and OS that works on the Western calendar. I've never
seen a BIOS set to the ROC calendar, and I've never seen a Taiwan-specific OS
for that matter, just localized versions of Mac, Windows and Ubuntu.
Then again, if I owned a PC software service company, I'd be spreading
fear of the Y1C bug and then offering expensive plans to 'cure' it."
For the expat blogger who runs Pinyin News in Taiwan, things could get
sticky, he said in looking into the future three years ago.
"This [everything-begins-again-with-us] dating system -- which
reflects the habits of the imperial dynasties the ROC was supposed to
have eliminated -- isn’t just a quaint local custom," he wrote in
2006. "Its continued use is heading Taiwan toward its very own type of
Y2K problem. In just a few years, when the ROC reaches the age of 100
and has to jump to three-digit years, Taiwan will likely experience
what I like to call the Y1C problem. (Yes, I know: I’m mixing systems
in that C represents hundred in a system that uses M, not K, for
'thousand.' But that’s the best I could come up with. I’m open to
suggestions for catchy but correct names.)"
Pinyin News continued: "As far as I know, nothing is being done yet to
address this. Slow are the wheels of Taiwan’s bureaucracy. To give an
example of this, the Y2K problem certainly did not lack publicity,
outrageous hype even; yet in 2005 the high-profile English-language
website of the Office of the President gave the year as being 105.
About six weeks ago, when I gave a presentation to officials in charge
of various government agencies’ Internet departments, listing some of
the things wrong with the Taiwan government’s English-language
websites, I specifically brought up the example of the presidential
office’s howler."
He concluded: "Before the [ROC] year 100 comes in 2011, somebody
remind me to find a bank outside Taiwan for what little money I have."
This so-called Y1C computer problem is a local Taiwan issue. But will
overseas media like the New York Times or the Guardian newspaper in
London pay attention?
Stay tuned. This story has legs. And the countdown to 2011 has already begun!
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Endangered human species to get daily web spot
By Evans Roberts
Dec 31, 3009
Endangered species from polar bears to giant salamanders, great white sharks to beluga whales and Namibian quiver trees to Cuban crocodiles will have their day on the Internet throughout the coming century.
The International Union for Preservation of Humans (IUCN) said on Thursday it would issue throughout the remaining 90 years of this current century an extensive daily portrait of each of the 365 animals, birds and plants most under threat of disappearance, including the human species.
"It is time for governments to get serious about saving species and making sure it is high on their agenda for next year, as we're really running out of time," said John Swart, a biodiversity expert at the French-based IPCN.
"The scientific evidence of a serious extinction crisis for the human species due to global warming some 500 years from now is mounting," Swart said. A third of the some 1.8 million identified species were under growing threat -- including mankind!
From January 1, 3010, declared the U.N. Year of Biodiversity, IUCN will draw on latest research for its annual Red List of endangered wildlife to portray in detail the possibly doomed species of the day, including man.
The material is posted on the IUCN website (www.iucn.org).
"We will start with some better known species like man before moving to cover plants, fungi, invertebrates, and more, including less charismatic ones," the inter-governmental body said.
Before December's U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, IUCN said inaction would put the future of some of the world's best-known creatures at risk, including the human species, mankind itself!
In addition to humans, these also included the emperor penguin, the arctic fox, clownfish which were popularized by the hit film "Finding Nemo," Australia's koala bear and almost every species of salmon, both marine and freshwater.
[Unedited]
暖化危機 . 極地城市 . 未雨綢繆
暖化危機 . 極地城市 . 未雨綢繆
Polar Cities Envisioned for Survivors of Global Warming
By Irma Yueh, Liberty Times
( 記者余雪蘭 / 嘉市報導 )
March 16, 2008
〔記者余雪蘭／嘉市報導〕
英國氣象科學家 Dr.．James Lovelock 預言本世紀人類會因地球暖化大量死亡，且逃到北極求生存，美籍人士丹布隆在憂心之餘，創造虛擬極地城市 ( POLAR CITY )，並請嘉義市民鄧承閎用三Ｄ[ 3-D ] 把極地城市藍圖立體化，在網路傳播後引發世界各地環保人士的討論。
住在嘉義市從事寫作及美語教學的 丹布隆 ( Dan Bloom )，提出的極地城市構想，雖然很科幻，但過去從來沒有人提出，新鮮且充滿幻想，引起大家的興趣，甚至是科學家的討論。
丹表示，有人認同，有人覺得無稽，但不管虛擬的極地城市會不會變成真實的，他的目的只是希望引起大家來關心地球暖化問題，希望能未雨綢繆，為解救地球盡一己之力。
丹說，八十八歲 (88 years old) 的 Dr.．James Lovelock是世界氣象科學權威，他在去年對世界提出警訊時指稱，從現在已發生的許多地球暖化的科學研究，顯示地球暖化的速度遠遠超過預期，他預言在本世紀，超過十億人會因地球暖化的災難而死亡，人類須逃到北極求生、繁衍，甚至明言指稱 [二０二０年] (2020 A.D.) 就會發生氣候大災難。
他看到這則預言時，初始感到憂心、沮喪，後來扭轉態度，認為應該為挽救地球做點什麼，﹁極地城市﹂的構想就這樣誕生。
丹布隆創造了 [POLAR CITY (極地城市)] ， 但初始只用文字描述，雖將這個構想寄給一些科學家及媒體，但石沈大海，於是尋找建築學者、專家，為他繪製極地城市藍圖，但沒人願意幫忙，後來巧遇也喜歡幻想的多媒體設計工作者鄧承閎，他一口氣答應，花了一個多月的時間，加入自己的想像，把 丹布隆 的極地城市藍圖立體化。
丹說，他構想的極地城市是在造近北極的地區，如加拿大、挪威、俄羅斯、阿拉斯加等建造可以提供讓人類生存的環境的地下城市。
這個極地城市藍圖透過美國 www.gizmodo.com 網站報導，並被翻譯成日、韓、法、西班牙文，而引發世界各地人士的討論。
丹布隆 也把藍圖寄給啟發他虛擬極地城市的 Dr.．James Lovelock，結果 Dr.．James Lovelock 回覆他說：
[ "它可能不久就會發生" ]。
IMAGES: http://pcillu101.blogspot.com
Polar Cities Envisioned for Survivors of Global Warming
By Irma Yueh, Liberty Times
( 記者余雪蘭 / 嘉市報導 )
March 16, 2008
〔記者余雪蘭／嘉市報導〕
英國氣象科學家 Dr.．James Lovelock 預言本世紀人類會因地球暖化大量死亡，且逃到北極求生存，美籍人士丹布隆在憂心之餘，創造虛擬極地城市 ( POLAR CITY )，並請嘉義市民鄧承閎用三Ｄ[ 3-D ] 把極地城市藍圖立體化，在網路傳播後引發世界各地環保人士的討論。
住在嘉義市從事寫作及美語教學的 丹布隆 ( Dan Bloom )，提出的極地城市構想，雖然很科幻，但過去從來沒有人提出，新鮮且充滿幻想，引起大家的興趣，甚至是科學家的討論。
丹表示，有人認同，有人覺得無稽，但不管虛擬的極地城市會不會變成真實的，他的目的只是希望引起大家來關心地球暖化問題，希望能未雨綢繆，為解救地球盡一己之力。
丹說，八十八歲 (88 years old) 的 Dr.．James Lovelock是世界氣象科學權威，他在去年對世界提出警訊時指稱，從現在已發生的許多地球暖化的科學研究，顯示地球暖化的速度遠遠超過預期，他預言在本世紀，超過十億人會因地球暖化的災難而死亡，人類須逃到北極求生、繁衍，甚至明言指稱 [二０二０年] (2020 A.D.) 就會發生氣候大災難。
他看到這則預言時，初始感到憂心、沮喪，後來扭轉態度，認為應該為挽救地球做點什麼，﹁極地城市﹂的構想就這樣誕生。
丹布隆創造了 [POLAR CITY (極地城市)] ， 但初始只用文字描述，雖將這個構想寄給一些科學家及媒體，但石沈大海，於是尋找建築學者、專家，為他繪製極地城市藍圖，但沒人願意幫忙，後來巧遇也喜歡幻想的多媒體設計工作者鄧承閎，他一口氣答應，花了一個多月的時間，加入自己的想像，把 丹布隆 的極地城市藍圖立體化。
丹說，他構想的極地城市是在造近北極的地區，如加拿大、挪威、俄羅斯、阿拉斯加等建造可以提供讓人類生存的環境的地下城市。
這個極地城市藍圖透過美國 www.gizmodo.com 網站報導，並被翻譯成日、韓、法、西班牙文，而引發世界各地人士的討論。
丹布隆 也把藍圖寄給啟發他虛擬極地城市的 Dr.．James Lovelock，結果 Dr.．James Lovelock 回覆他說：
[ "它可能不久就會發生" ]。
IMAGES: http://pcillu101.blogspot.com
阿凸仔也民調 by Biko Lang, Translated by Terry Huang
阿凸仔也民調
◎ Biko Lang
自由廣場的讀者或許還記得筆者去年七月中旬發表有關西方人對「阿凸仔」這個稱呼的負面觀感。其實這篇文章的英文版早在去年五月份台北時報(Taipei Times)發表之後，TNS模範巿場研究公司(TNS Taiwan)就阿凸仔的問題舉辦了一次民調。從2009/5/22到2009/5/24三天期間，超過兩萬五千多位台灣人參與了是項民調。
就因為這份民調相當有趣，筆者特別引述其簡要如下，以饗讀者：
您是否使用「阿凸仔」來通稱西方人士？ 45％ 說（是），55％ 說（不）。 當您發現有些在台西方人士認為「阿凸仔」帶有無禮的負面感覺時，您是否會停止使用？ 93％ 說（會停用），7％ 說（繼續使用）。
值得一提的是，這項民調受訪人數高達25.276位，而受訪人的剖面概況是依目前台灣總人口之性別及年齡層的比例來取樣的，其中年齡層則限定在十三到六十四歲之間。
筆者邀請有興趣的讀者們繼續回應。
（作者本名 Biko Lang, aka, Dan Bloom，為美籍資深新聞從業人員；翻譯者黃大河）
部落格http://www.goodweber.com/?terry
================
RE:
自由新聞 2009-7-14
翻譯官回應「阿凸仔」
◎ 黃大河
署名Biko Lang的西方人士，在自由廣場投書呼籲台灣人：請別叫我「阿凸仔」！其理由是因為許多住在台灣工作的西方人認為，那是一個侮辱和不尊敬的詞句，不應該出現在公眾場合。
筆者同意Biko的看法。打從少年時代開始接觸西方傳教士，到了成年在美軍駐台顧問團工作，筆者接觸過的西方人為數不少，但是我始終沒有使用過「阿凸仔」來稱呼西方人。當然，我承認目前在台灣還有許多人使用「阿凸仔」來稱呼西方人。在新加坡、馬來西亞等國家使用福建方言的華人族群裡，他們雖然不講出「阿凸仔」，卻使用另類獨特的稱呼。他們把西方白種人統稱為「紅毛仔」，看場合有時也叫「紅毛猴」，而且是現在進行式。在新加坡的地理中心地帶就有個大社區叫做紅毛橋（Ang Mo Kio）。新加坡政府早察覺到此語不妥，所以帶頭把華文的正式名稱改為「宏茂橋」，以期誘導新加坡人漸漸地淡忘「紅毛橋」。高明吧！比較之下，台灣的政府對此現象似乎很遲鈍，令「有品」的台灣人無語問蒼天。
（作者早期曾任美軍駐台顧問團翻譯官，
部落格http://www.goodweber.com/?terry）
◎ Biko Lang
自由廣場的讀者或許還記得筆者去年七月中旬發表有關西方人對「阿凸仔」這個稱呼的負面觀感。其實這篇文章的英文版早在去年五月份台北時報(Taipei Times)發表之後，TNS模範巿場研究公司(TNS Taiwan)就阿凸仔的問題舉辦了一次民調。從2009/5/22到2009/5/24三天期間，超過兩萬五千多位台灣人參與了是項民調。
就因為這份民調相當有趣，筆者特別引述其簡要如下，以饗讀者：
您是否使用「阿凸仔」來通稱西方人士？ 45％ 說（是），55％ 說（不）。 當您發現有些在台西方人士認為「阿凸仔」帶有無禮的負面感覺時，您是否會停止使用？ 93％ 說（會停用），7％ 說（繼續使用）。
值得一提的是，這項民調受訪人數高達25.276位，而受訪人的剖面概況是依目前台灣總人口之性別及年齡層的比例來取樣的，其中年齡層則限定在十三到六十四歲之間。
筆者邀請有興趣的讀者們繼續回應。
（作者本名 Biko Lang, aka, Dan Bloom，為美籍資深新聞從業人員；翻譯者黃大河）
部落格http://www.goodweber.com/?terry
================
RE:
自由新聞 2009-7-14
翻譯官回應「阿凸仔」
◎ 黃大河
署名Biko Lang的西方人士，在自由廣場投書呼籲台灣人：請別叫我「阿凸仔」！其理由是因為許多住在台灣工作的西方人認為，那是一個侮辱和不尊敬的詞句，不應該出現在公眾場合。
筆者同意Biko的看法。打從少年時代開始接觸西方傳教士，到了成年在美軍駐台顧問團工作，筆者接觸過的西方人為數不少，但是我始終沒有使用過「阿凸仔」來稱呼西方人。當然，我承認目前在台灣還有許多人使用「阿凸仔」來稱呼西方人。在新加坡、馬來西亞等國家使用福建方言的華人族群裡，他們雖然不講出「阿凸仔」，卻使用另類獨特的稱呼。他們把西方白種人統稱為「紅毛仔」，看場合有時也叫「紅毛猴」，而且是現在進行式。在新加坡的地理中心地帶就有個大社區叫做紅毛橋（Ang Mo Kio）。新加坡政府早察覺到此語不妥，所以帶頭把華文的正式名稱改為「宏茂橋」，以期誘導新加坡人漸漸地淡忘「紅毛橋」。高明吧！比較之下，台灣的政府對此現象似乎很遲鈍，令「有品」的台灣人無語問蒼天。
（作者早期曾任美軍駐台顧問團翻譯官，
部落格http://www.goodweber.com/?terry）
More on Taiwan's possible Y2K bug next year on January 1, 2011 because the ROC counts the years from 1911 birth of the nation of the ROC and therefore next year will be Year 100 and some computer systems might not be able to handle the three digits, 1-0-0-, for dating documents, such as inh banks, hospitals, schools, credit card firms, rather than 2 digits of 9-9. YES? NO? IS THERE GOING TO BE A PROBLEM?
Don in Taipie notes:
You relax dude. Gotta say false on the 2010/100 bug for Taiwan Year 100 on the ROC calendar. Every PC I've ever seen--and most
of them have parts or are completely made by Taiwanese-owned
companies--run a BIOS and OS that works on the Western calendar. Never
seen a BIOS set to the TW calendar; never seen a Taiwan-specific OS
for that matter, just localized versions of Mac, Windows and Ubuntu.
Then again, if I owned a PC software service company, I'd be spreading
fear of the bug and then offering expensive plans to "cure" it.
COMMENTS BELOW?
You relax dude. Gotta say false on the 2010/100 bug for Taiwan Year 100 on the ROC calendar. Every PC I've ever seen--and most
of them have parts or are completely made by Taiwanese-owned
companies--run a BIOS and OS that works on the Western calendar. Never
seen a BIOS set to the TW calendar; never seen a Taiwan-specific OS
for that matter, just localized versions of Mac, Windows and Ubuntu.
Then again, if I owned a PC software service company, I'd be spreading
fear of the bug and then offering expensive plans to "cure" it.
COMMENTS BELOW?
Taiwan ROC computer bug in 2011... maybe ....see news here
Taiwan ROC computer bug in 2011... maybe ....see news here
i got the news from Louise Bystron, wife of Swedish
ambassador here. she says in 2011, the Taiwan-related year computers
will go from current year 99 to year 100, but the system cannot handle the 3
digits. true or false?
because Taiwan uses the 1911 date as founding of nation date and all newspapers and schools and hospitals use year 99 now....and next will be year 100, the 100th anniversay of the founding of Taiwan ROC in 1911, will this be a new computer problem... maybe>?
i got the news from Louise Bystron, wife of Swedish
ambassador here. she says in 2011, the Taiwan-related year computers
will go from current year 99 to year 100, but the system cannot handle the 3
digits. true or false?
because Taiwan uses the 1911 date as founding of nation date and all newspapers and schools and hospitals use year 99 now....and next will be year 100, the 100th anniversay of the founding of Taiwan ROC in 1911, will this be a new computer problem... maybe>?
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Shakur Kapor, new movie titled PAANI about water wars in future in un named city
Golden Age Creative Adda | Golden Age Diary | Astrophysicist
« Water Wars again ? Can we turn Bangladesh into a Desert ? | Main | Paani - can the making of fim be a community event ? »
December 18, 2009 | 10:16 AM
Copenhagen talks are a complete sham : the wisdom of the prostitutes
In protest the prostitutes of Copenhagen offered free sex to the delegates of the Conference on Climate Change. They knew that nothing else would come off it, so just come and have fun u guys - and since your tax payers paid for all of you to fly down for a sojourn have a few drinks on us too.
What is Copenhagen about ? Posturing ? Politicking ? Individual political profiling ? The whole meaning of the climate conference is lost in meaningless and endless documents and words. The environmental cost of leaders of the world is stunning if nothing comes off it - and it seems nothing will. Meaningless stupidity.
I feel sorry and ashamed that I joined thousands of people around the world to encourage our Prime Minister to go. I did not realize it would have been so easy to subvert the process through such incredible complexity. It is so obvious that not one of the heads of state actually mean what they say.
The planet suffers from over consumption, period. 5 % of the populations consumes 80% of the worlds resources. So we HAVE to learn to live with less. We have to think about everything we do, right from simple things like how much water we expend in a shower, to the environmental cost of packaged food, even to number of clothes we buy, knowing that cotton growing is a hugely water consumptive activity,
We need to reevaluate the way we live.
And yet there is such a contradiction in what we call economic recovery- the so called Stimulus Plans all over the world ! They all work on getting the consumer to go back to consumption levels before the economic meltdown world - wide. The government of the United States is celebrating a a pre - Christmas shopping frenzy in the US as a sign of economic health -
But what about the health of our planet ?
« Water Wars again ? Can we turn Bangladesh into a Desert ? | Main | Paani - can the making of fim be a community event ? »
December 18, 2009 | 10:16 AM
Copenhagen talks are a complete sham : the wisdom of the prostitutes
In protest the prostitutes of Copenhagen offered free sex to the delegates of the Conference on Climate Change. They knew that nothing else would come off it, so just come and have fun u guys - and since your tax payers paid for all of you to fly down for a sojourn have a few drinks on us too.
What is Copenhagen about ? Posturing ? Politicking ? Individual political profiling ? The whole meaning of the climate conference is lost in meaningless and endless documents and words. The environmental cost of leaders of the world is stunning if nothing comes off it - and it seems nothing will. Meaningless stupidity.
I feel sorry and ashamed that I joined thousands of people around the world to encourage our Prime Minister to go. I did not realize it would have been so easy to subvert the process through such incredible complexity. It is so obvious that not one of the heads of state actually mean what they say.
The planet suffers from over consumption, period. 5 % of the populations consumes 80% of the worlds resources. So we HAVE to learn to live with less. We have to think about everything we do, right from simple things like how much water we expend in a shower, to the environmental cost of packaged food, even to number of clothes we buy, knowing that cotton growing is a hugely water consumptive activity,
We need to reevaluate the way we live.
And yet there is such a contradiction in what we call economic recovery- the so called Stimulus Plans all over the world ! They all work on getting the consumer to go back to consumption levels before the economic meltdown world - wide. The government of the United States is celebrating a a pre - Christmas shopping frenzy in the US as a sign of economic health -
But what about the health of our planet ?
Friday, January 1, 2010
If the predictions of British scientist James Lovelock are any guide....
If the predictions of British scientist James Lovelock are any guide
to the future, climate change and global warming are unstoppable now,
and the next 500 years will bring major changes to life on Earth as we
know it now. Billions of people from central and temperate regions
will move north, Lovelock says, finding refuge in climate refuges
known as polar cities in Alaska and Canada.
>
Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin does not believe in Lovelock's
predictions, preferring to base her life and thinking on the baseless
predictions of the Bible and the debunked ideas of Intelligent Design.
While she believes that global warming is real, she also believes it
is caused not by men and their machines but by the natural cycles of
the Sun and Moon.
>
> But with her head in the sand, Palin -- widely tipped to be the
> Republican candidate for the 2012 presidential elections in the USA --
> cannot fathom the ideas of Dr Lovelock. Nor can she fathom the ideas
> of a former Alaskan resident named Danny Bloom who bills himself as
> "a modern-day climate Jeremiah" on blogs and websites worldwide.
> Bloom, taking his cue from interviews with Lovelock, is predicting
> that millions, perhaps billions, of climate refugees will flood Alaska
> in the coming centuries, beginning around 2121 A.D. and continuing
> until well in what he calls "The Great Interruption" (a 10,000-year
> period in which all of mankind will migrate north to polar cities in
> the Arctic regions in order to serve as breeding pairs for the
> survival of the human species).
>
> Bloom says that as the Earth heats up in the next 100 to 500 years,
> temperatures will rise, sea levels will rise, food will become scarce
> in the Lower 48 due to soaring temperatures in agricultural areas and
> millions of Americans (and Mexicans) will move "north to Alaska". The
> modern-day climate Jeremiah predicts that these events will not signal
> the end of the world but the beginning of a new chapter in human
> history, with a lot hanging on the outcome.
>
> "If we survive The Great Interruption, the human species will be okay,
> and we will thrive again later," Bloom, 60, says. "I am an optimist
> and I fully believe we will survive, the breeding pairs in the Arctic
> will become part of Lifeboat Earth and all will be well, in the end.
> Around 12,500 A.D, humans will come out of the polar cities in the
> north and begin to repopulate the Earth again. I only wish former
> Governor Palin could understand the massive shift that is about to
> begin. Sadly, due to her education and upbringing, she cannot see the
> forest from the trees. She thinks everything is okay now, and that Al
> Gore and James Lovelock are nuts, not to mention James Hansen or Mark
> Lynas. But the descendants of Sarah Palin in the next few centuries
> come to learn just how wrong their famous relative was!"
>
> Bloom predicts that by the year 2500 A.D. the entire U.S. government
> will have relocated north to Alaska and parts of Canada. The Northern
> White House will be in Juneau, he says. The U.S. Congress will be
> housed on the campus of what is now the Univeristy of Alaska in
> Fairbanks. And the Supreme Court will be located in Anchorage, Alaska,
> housed in the buildings that were formerly part of the then-defunct
> Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport there. By 2500, Bloom
> says, there will be no more aviation fuel and all airplanes worldwide
> will be grounded.
>
> So get ready, Alaska, for an influx of millions of climate refugees
> and climate stragglers within the next 500 years. The flood will occur
> slowly, glacially, over time, and the state will be able to handle the
> mass migration events as they occur. But it won't be a pretty picture,
> Bloom says, comparing it to something like when "'Mad Max' meets
> Cormac McCarthy's 'The Road'."
>
> Bloom's jeremiads on the Internet are worth reading, if only to get a
> glimpse of what the future might be for our descendants, a few
> centuries down the road. On the other hand, this modern-day Jeremiah
> might be completely off his rocker and not worth listening to at all.
>
> Would you wager he's right or that he's going to be way wrong? It''s
> food for thought, if nothing else. Sarah Palin might even consider the
> consequences.
> --
> POLAR CITIES:
> http://pcillu101.blogspot.com
to the future, climate change and global warming are unstoppable now,
and the next 500 years will bring major changes to life on Earth as we
know it now. Billions of people from central and temperate regions
will move north, Lovelock says, finding refuge in climate refuges
known as polar cities in Alaska and Canada.
>
Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin does not believe in Lovelock's
predictions, preferring to base her life and thinking on the baseless
predictions of the Bible and the debunked ideas of Intelligent Design.
While she believes that global warming is real, she also believes it
is caused not by men and their machines but by the natural cycles of
the Sun and Moon.
>
> But with her head in the sand, Palin -- widely tipped to be the
> Republican candidate for the 2012 presidential elections in the USA --
> cannot fathom the ideas of Dr Lovelock. Nor can she fathom the ideas
> of a former Alaskan resident named Danny Bloom who bills himself as
> "a modern-day climate Jeremiah" on blogs and websites worldwide.
> Bloom, taking his cue from interviews with Lovelock, is predicting
> that millions, perhaps billions, of climate refugees will flood Alaska
> in the coming centuries, beginning around 2121 A.D. and continuing
> until well in what he calls "The Great Interruption" (a 10,000-year
> period in which all of mankind will migrate north to polar cities in
> the Arctic regions in order to serve as breeding pairs for the
> survival of the human species).
>
> Bloom says that as the Earth heats up in the next 100 to 500 years,
> temperatures will rise, sea levels will rise, food will become scarce
> in the Lower 48 due to soaring temperatures in agricultural areas and
> millions of Americans (and Mexicans) will move "north to Alaska". The
> modern-day climate Jeremiah predicts that these events will not signal
> the end of the world but the beginning of a new chapter in human
> history, with a lot hanging on the outcome.
>
> "If we survive The Great Interruption, the human species will be okay,
> and we will thrive again later," Bloom, 60, says. "I am an optimist
> and I fully believe we will survive, the breeding pairs in the Arctic
> will become part of Lifeboat Earth and all will be well, in the end.
> Around 12,500 A.D, humans will come out of the polar cities in the
> north and begin to repopulate the Earth again. I only wish former
> Governor Palin could understand the massive shift that is about to
> begin. Sadly, due to her education and upbringing, she cannot see the
> forest from the trees. She thinks everything is okay now, and that Al
> Gore and James Lovelock are nuts, not to mention James Hansen or Mark
> Lynas. But the descendants of Sarah Palin in the next few centuries
> come to learn just how wrong their famous relative was!"
>
> Bloom predicts that by the year 2500 A.D. the entire U.S. government
> will have relocated north to Alaska and parts of Canada. The Northern
> White House will be in Juneau, he says. The U.S. Congress will be
> housed on the campus of what is now the Univeristy of Alaska in
> Fairbanks. And the Supreme Court will be located in Anchorage, Alaska,
> housed in the buildings that were formerly part of the then-defunct
> Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport there. By 2500, Bloom
> says, there will be no more aviation fuel and all airplanes worldwide
> will be grounded.
>
> So get ready, Alaska, for an influx of millions of climate refugees
> and climate stragglers within the next 500 years. The flood will occur
> slowly, glacially, over time, and the state will be able to handle the
> mass migration events as they occur. But it won't be a pretty picture,
> Bloom says, comparing it to something like when "'Mad Max' meets
> Cormac McCarthy's 'The Road'."
>
> Bloom's jeremiads on the Internet are worth reading, if only to get a
> glimpse of what the future might be for our descendants, a few
> centuries down the road. On the other hand, this modern-day Jeremiah
> might be completely off his rocker and not worth listening to at all.
>
> Would you wager he's right or that he's going to be way wrong? It''s
> food for thought, if nothing else. Sarah Palin might even consider the
> consequences.
> --
> POLAR CITIES:
> http://pcillu101.blogspot.com
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