2011年10月27日 星期四

中國大愚民: “防火長城”/ 壓制文化的解放Reins in Liberalization of Culture

新聞報導 | 2011.10.20
中國“防火長城” 美國要個說法

美國再度向中國政府施壓,要求北京就封鎖諸多美國公司網頁、以至於給這些公司造成經濟損失的做法作出解釋。


美國政府就中國實行互聯網封鎖一事再度向北京施壓,要求做出解釋。美國駐世貿大使彭克(Michael Punke)本週一至信給中國駐世貿大使,其中寫道,許多美國公司都將在網上提供公司的信息和服務概況等作為重要的經營途徑,而一些公司的網站在中國被屏蔽是對其開展業務的嚴重阻礙。彭克說,"一些美國公司已經對此表達了強烈不滿。"

一些美國的網絡巨頭,比如社交網絡"臉譜"Facebook,和即時新聞平台推特twitter,以及視頻網站Youtube均在中國大陸遭防火牆封鎖。美國谷歌去年也因抗議北京的網絡過濾,而關閉中文版搜索服務,將服務器轉至香港。

美國貿易代表榮·柯克(Ron Kirk)也警告北京方面的互聯網限制會影響美國企業打開中國市場。美國貿易代表處此前已經多次向國會遞交關於中國互聯網政策及其對美中貿易影響的報告。柯克本週表示,要根據世貿規則來評判中國封鎖美國公司網頁的做法是否違規。

許多問題有待解答

美國駐世貿大使彭克在致中國駐世貿大使的信中還提出了多個具體問題,包括:北京方面如何定義所謂了"非法內容"?怎麼具體進行網頁屏蔽?被屏蔽的對像是否能獲得賠償?決定屏蔽境外公司網頁是否有什麼具體依照的原則?這些原則是否會有改變,如果改變,多久進行一次改變?在屏蔽一個網頁之前是否會作公開宣布?

位於華盛頓的計算機和通信工業協會主席布萊克(Ed Black)評價彭克致中國駐世貿大使的信是促使中國解除國際貿易阻礙的重要一步:"中國的互聯網管制很不透明,相對中國本國企業來說,國外公司遭到屏蔽更為頻繁,這是違反世貿規定的。"

美國貿易代表彭克同時強調,美國政府不是"挑戰"中國限制互聯網言論自由,只是想表達,尊重個人權利的政策有益於全球互聯網業和社會發展。

綜合報導:謝菲

責編:樂然




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China Reins in Liberalization of Culture

Sim Chi Yin for The New York Times

An Internet cafe in Beijing. China is trying to rein in microblogs.


BEIJING — Political censorship in this authoritarian state has long been heavy-handed. But for years, the Communist Party has tolerated a creeping liberalization in popular culture, tacitly allowing everything from popular knockoffs of “American Idol”-style talent shows to freewheeling microblogs that let media groups prosper and let people blow off steam.


CHINATOPIX, via Associated Press

Protesters in August forced the closing of a chemical plant in Dalian. Blogs may have fanned the protest.


Now, the party appears to be saying “enough.”

Whether spooked by popular uprisings worldwide, a coming leadership transition at home or their own citizens’ increasingly provocative tastes, Communist leaders are proposing new limits on media and Internet freedoms that include some of the most restrictive measures in years.

The most striking instance occurred Tuesday, when the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television ordered 34 major regional television stations to limit themselves to no more than two 90-minute entertainment shows each per week, and collectively 10 nationwide. They are also being ordered to broadcast two hours of state-approved news every evening and to disregard audience ratings in their programming decisions. The ministry said the measures, to go into effect on Jan. 1, were aimed at rooting out “excessive entertainment and vulgar tendencies.”

The restrictions arrived as party leaders signaled new curbs on China’s short-message, Twitter-like microblogs, an Internet sensation that has mushroomed in less than two years into a major — and difficult to control — source of whistle-blowing. Microbloggers, some of whom have attracted millions of followers, have been exposing scandals and official malfeasance, including an attempted cover-up of a recent high-speed rail accident, with astonishing speed and popularity.

On Wednesday, the Communist Party’s Central Committee called in a report on its annual meeting for an “Internet management system” that would strictly regulate social network and instant-message systems, and punish those who spread “harmful information.” The focus of the meeting, held this month, was on culture and ideology.

Analysts and employees inside the private companies that manage the microblogs say party officials are pressing for increasingly strict and swift censorship of unapproved opinions. Perhaps most telling, the authorities are discussing requiring microbloggers to register accounts with their real names and identification numbers instead of the anonymous handles now in wide use.

Although China’s most famous bloggers tend to use their own names, requiring everyone to do so would make online whistle-blowing and criticism of officialdom — two public services not easily duplicated elsewhere — considerably riskier.

It would “definitely be harmful to free speech,” said one microblog editor who refused to be named for fear of reprisal.

This newly buttoned-down approach coincides with a planned shift in the top leadership of the ruling party and government, an intricate process that will last for the next year. During such a period, tolerance for outspokenness outside official channels tends to shrink, and bureaucrats eager for promotion show their conservative stripes.

The crackdown also follows popular uprisings across the Middle East that appear to have given China’s leaders pause regarding their own hold on absolute power. In the view of some, it also tracks the influence in China’s ruling hierarchy of hard-liners like Zhou Yongkang, the public security chief who helped preside over the suppression of riots by ethnic Uighurs in western China’s Xinjiang region.

On Tuesday, Xinhua, the state news agency, reported that Mr. Zhou was urging authorities “to solve problems regarding social integrity, morality and Internet management” and that he had called for “the early introduction of laws and regulations on the management of the Internet,” among other things.

Nobody outside China’s closeted leadership knows the true reason for the maneuvers, beyond a general and intangible sense of uneasiness over the degree to which freer speech is taking root here.

The microblogs, or weibos, are perhaps the prime example. In the last year, weibos have become the forum of choice for Chinese to pass on news and gossip about scandals involving government and the elite. The two largest, run by the privately held Sina Corporation and Tencent Holdings, each count more than 200 million registered users.

In the face of official censorship, their weibos are filled with salacious tales of official malfeasance, such as a July frenzy — photographs included — over a Yunnan Province city official’s sex orgy. Industry insiders say the principal weibo (pronounced way-bwah) regulators, based in Beijing and the Shenzhen Communist Party Internet offices, have been assailed by government leaders elsewhere for allowing the scandals to spread online unchecked.

In fact, the government could easily shut down microblogs. Officials disconnected the entire Internet in Xinjiang for 10 months after the ethnic riots there in 2009. But their growing popularity makes that highly unlikely. The number of users has quadrupled in a single year.

Song Jianwu, dean of the school of journalism and communication at China University of Political Science and Law, said Chinese leaders accepted the need for such outlets for expression. But in the case of weibos, he added, “they are also concerned that this safety valve could turn into an explosive device.”

He said the government might gradually require more and more users to register under their real names, while demanding that operators monitor posts more closely. “I think they will do it in a step-by-step fashion,” he said. “We hope and we have suggested that they will do it in manner that is not antagonistic.”

Some changes are already evident. Besides the in-house monitors who already scan posts for forbidden topics, operators in recent months have bolstered “rumor refutal” departments, staffed by editors, to investigate and knock down information deemed false.

Top officials, including Liu Qi, the party secretary of Beijing, have held publicized visits to microblog companies, sometimes accompanied by popular microbloggers, in which he urged people to uphold social order and the proper ideology — and implying that their own status in official eyes would depend on their cooperation.

State restrictions on television are murkier. The rules ostensibly apply to CCTV-1, the general programming channel of Central China Television, but not to CCTV-3, which specializes in arts and entertainment, according to a report in the English-language edition of Global Times, an official newspaper.

Many people in the industry have interpreted the decree and earlier measures by central officials as attempts to bolster the ratings of CCTV against the onslaught of entertainment shows produced by satellite stations, which have been wildly successful. Last year, officials told producers of “If You Are the One,” a popular dating show on Jiangsu Satellite Television, to tone down the program. Last month, the authorities suspended a talent show on Hunan Satellite Television, “Super Girl,” for exceeding a broadcast time limit.

Many industry observers said the show may have been offensive for other reasons, including prompting home viewers to show support for their favorite contestants through cellphone texting, an action akin to voting. The shutdown of “Super Girl” was taken as a warning throughout the television industry and presaged the new rules.

Bill Bishop, a business consultant and media industry analyst in Beijing, wrote on his blog, DigiCha, that the new limits could drive television viewers to look for entertainment on the Internet. On the other hand, he added, officials might be preparing restrictions for online video content. “The trend in China appears to be towards more, not less, regulation,” he wrote. “Investors may want to consider factoring in greater regulatory risk.”

Li Bibo and Edy Yin contributed research, and Jonathan Ansfield contributed reporting.


新闻报道 | 2011.10.20

中国“防火长城” 美国要个说法

美国再度向中国政府施压,要求北京就封锁诸多美国公司网页、以至于给这些公司造成经济损失的做法作出解释。

美国政府就中国实行互联网封锁一事再度向北京施压,要求做出解释。美国驻世贸大使彭克(Michael Punke)本周一至信给中国驻世贸大使,其中写道,许多美国公司都将在网上提供公司的信息和服务概况等作为重要的经营途径,而一些公司的网站在中国被屏 蔽是对其开展业务的严重阻碍。彭克说,"一些美国公司已经对此表达了强烈不满。"

一些美国的网络巨头,比如社交网络"脸谱"Facebook,和即时新闻平台推特twitter,以及视频网站Youtube均在中国大陆遭防火墙封锁。美国谷歌去年也因抗议北京的网络过滤,而关闭中文版搜索服务,将服务器转至香港。

美国贸易代表荣·柯克(Ron Kirk)也警告北京方面的互联网限制会影响美国企业打开中国市场。美国贸易代表处此前已经多次向国会递交关于中国互联网政策及其对美中贸易影响的报告。柯克本周表示,要根据世贸规则来评判中国封锁美国公司网页的做法是否违规。

许多问题有待解答

美国驻世贸大使彭克在致中国驻世贸大使的信中还提出了多个具体问题,包括:北京方面如何定义所谓了"非法内容"?怎么具体进行网页屏蔽?被屏蔽的对象是否 能获得赔偿?决定屏蔽境外公司网页是否有什么具体依照的原则?这些原则是否会有改变,如果改变,多久进行一次改变?在屏蔽一个网页之前是否会作公开宣布?

位于华盛顿的计算机和通信工业协会主席布莱克(Ed Black)评价彭克致中国驻世贸大使的信是促使中国解除国际贸易阻碍的重要一步:"中国的互联网管制很不透明,相对中国本国企业来说,国外公司遭到屏蔽更为频繁,这是违反世贸规定的。"

美国贸易代表彭克同时强调,美国政府不是"挑战"中国限制互联网言论自由,只是想表达,尊重个人权利的政策有益于全球互联网业和社会发展。

综合报道:谢菲

责编:乐然

2011年10月26日 星期三

造反有理 他們全端走了: "Occupy Wall Street" gets a boost: The 99 percent

Income inequality in America

The 99 percent

Oct 26th 2011, 15:34 by The Economist online

"Occupy Wall Street" gets a boost from a new report on income distribution

OF ALL the many banners being waved around the world by disgruntled protesters from Chile to Australia the one that reads, "We Are the 99%" is the catchiest. It is purposefully vague, but it is also underpinned by some solid economics. A report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) points out that income inequality in America has not risen dramatically over the past 20 years—when the top 1% of earners are excluded. With them, the picture is quite different. The causes of the good fortune of those at the top are disputed, but the CBO provides some useful detail on that too. The biggest component of the increase in after-tax income for the top one percent is "business income" as opposed to income from labour or investments (though admittedly these things are hard to untangle). Whatever the cause, the data are powerful because they tend to support two prejudices. First, that a system that works well for the very richest has delivered returns on labour that are disappointing for everyone else. Second, that the people at the top have made out like bandits over the past few decades, and that now everyone else must pick up the bill. Of course it is a little more complicated than that. But this downturn ought to test the normally warm feelings in America of the 99% towards the 1%.

台灣的女總統/new boss

德國董事會邀請更多女性參與German boardrooms to get more women – one way or another = 德國董事會邀請更多女性參與German boardrooms to get more women –...
德國董事會邀請更多女性參與
此舉約慢美國10年

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早再數十年前 有識之士就開始鼓吹女性當主管的優點
請參考Lewis Thomas 先生的一些著作
The Youngest Science: Notes of a Medicine-Watcher (Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Series) (9780140243277): Lewis Thomas

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幾年前 杜邦公司出女董事長
現在輪到IBM...

IBM's new boss

The other transition

Oct 26th 2011, 10:31 by M. B. | NEW YORK

“IT’S a normal transition”, says Ginni Rometty. Indeed, her promotion to be chief executive of IBM, announced on October 25th, was both planned and smoothly executed—two things that are anything but the norm in the tech industry these days (think Yahoo! and HP, for starters). Ms Rometty’s forthcoming promotion had been hinted for some time, internally and increasingly externally, in particular during this summer’s celebrations of Big Blue’s 100th birthday.

Yet the transition is also exceptional. In January, when Ms Rometty will take over the executive reins from Sam Palmisano, who will remain as chairman, she will become the corporate world’s most powerful woman. IBM boasts annual revenues of more than $100 billion and a market capitalisation exceeding $210 billion—a fraction more than its old rival, Microsoft, and second only to Apple among tech firms. Ranking 18th in the Fortune 500, IBM is far bigger than the next largest firm run by a woman, 39th placed Archer Daniels Midland, whose chief executive is Patricia Woertz. Indra Nooyi, arguably the world’s best known female boss (for now), runs PepsiCo, which holds 43rd place.

Still, the transition is likely to be smooth, not least because “change at the top does not mean a change of strategy”, insists Ms Rometty. She worked directly with Mr Palmisano to develop the firm’s “roadmap to 2015”, which states among other things that IBM wants to double its earnings per share by that year and to increase the share of its revenue coming from growth markets such as China from 21% to 30%.

Ms Rometty also played a key part in two moves that have made such an ambitious growth strategy seem possible: the acquisition of the consulting arm of PricewaterhouseCoopers, which she helped integrate, and the development of IBM’s delivery centres for IT services in China and India. IBM’s growth strategy, Ms Rometty points out, is in its early phases, so in no need of being changed—at least for now.

Mr Palmisano’s legacy, says Ms Rometty, is that “he taught IBM to remember how to constantly reinvent itself”. He changed IBM’s portfolio, shedding slow-growing commodity businesses such as personal computers and moving into booming sectors such as consulting and cloud computing. In India he rose to the challenge posed by Infosys, Wipro and other Indian IT service firms by building a huge office in Bangalore and running it as a local operation. He also approved dozens of acquisitions to fill gaps in IBM’s portfolio—another thing Ms Rometty says she intends to continue.

With this strategy, Mr Palmisano managed to turn IBM into a money-making machine, with huge cash reserves and a soaring share price. Lately however, Wall Street analysts have started to question whether it can maintain its break-neck growth. Ms Rometty may find her first challenge as boss to be convincing doubters that everything is on track to meet those 2015 goals.

2011年10月25日 星期二

國立台灣歷史博物館 (台南)

國立臺灣歷史博物館基地位於台南市安南區和順寮農場


國立臺灣歷史博物館

www.nmth.gov.tw/ - 頁庫存檔
進行臺灣歷史、民俗相關之史料及文物的蒐集、整理、保存、研究、展示與教育、推廣工作,並藉由博物館之典藏、研究、展示及教育四大功能.

籌建12年 台史博週末開館
圖/文建會提供

籌 建12年的國立台灣歷史博物館,終於要在10月29日正式對外開放。整體園區廣達20公頃,其中10公頃為綠地、滯洪池,涵養多樣物種。建築本身則擷取了 漢人合院紅磚建築、原住民干欄式建築與石板屋等建築語彙。常設展「斯土斯民──台灣的故事」,主要展現台灣的文化與生活。 (文/記者凌美雪)

新聞: Taiwan identity in independence heartland

(馬英久)黃牛四年 ..... (宋)...

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This autumn, Sadler's Wells presents a collection of works from across Asia. The Out of Asia season brings together artists from China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Japan and Taiwan.

Sadlers Wells - Out Of Asia - Sadler's Wells Theatre - London's ...



---又一名藏族僧侶自焚
柏林據德國西藏動議從西藏人權與民主中心處獲悉,週二(10月25日)早晨又有一名西藏僧侶自焚。位於四川境內的東藏甘孜地區38歲的達瓦次仁(Dawa Tsering)在一次宗教儀式上往自己身上澆上汽油點燃,並呼喊希望達賴喇嘛回來以及要求西藏自由的口號,在場的其他僧侶努力撲滅火焰,並將已被燒傷的他送往醫院。據信,達瓦次仁傷勢嚴重。達瓦次仁是本月以來自焚的第六位藏人,今年以來的第10名自焚藏人。這些人以自焚方式表達對北京鎮壓政策的抗議。德國西藏動議主席格拉德爾(Wolfgang Grader)指出,再度發生自焚事件表明,藏區喇嘛廟的情況已到了何等不堪忍受的程度。他指出,聯邦德國政府在歐洲各國中是唯一個公開表達了對藏東地區局勢關注的政府,他對此表示歡迎。他並希望,聯邦總理默克爾會在即將召開的20國集團坎城峰會上提出保障西藏人權問題。

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洪峰進逼 曼谷洪水假備戰
泰國曼谷第二大機場廊曼機場因受水患影響,已於二十五日傍晚關閉。圖為一架泰航班機二十五日被困在泡水的機場跑道上。(歐新社)

放假5天避水難

〔編 譯張沛元/綜合報導〕泰國五十年來最嚴重水患二十五日持續惡化,隨著大水逼近首都曼谷,泰國政府宣布放五天洪水假,讓民眾有機會躲避洪患。內閣也通過三千 兩百五十億泰銖(約台幣三千一百七十八億元)重建預算。此外,曼谷北部淹水情況嚴重,廊曼機場已暫時關閉,河水水位上升與適逢漲潮導致曼谷岌岌可危。

儘 管防洪當局企圖疏排大水從曼谷東西兩側入海,但由於暹羅灣二十三日正值大潮,穿過市區的昭披耶河(湄南河)水位也創下歷史新高,二十五日晚間又下起大雨, 曼谷市中心因而籠罩在可能於漲潮時淹水的陰影下。再加上曼谷附近巴吞塔尼府的擋水牆破裂,導致首都人心惶惶,民眾忙著強化住宅擋水,囤積食物與飲水。

廊曼機場宣告失守

以 國內航線為主的曼谷廊曼機場,當地時間二十五日傍晚五時(台灣時間同日晚間六時)暫時關閉,預定十一月一日重開。由於政府的救災指揮中心設於此地,一座航 廈也成為擠滿四千災民的避難中心,機場被迫關閉,是政府防洪抗災迄今遭遇到的最重大挫折之一,勢必重創民眾對總理盈拉的信心。

救災指揮中心發言人表示,由於道路仍可通行,指揮中心暫時不會撤離廊曼機場。估計機場主體設施可能在二十八日被大水攻陷,但積水不會超過一公尺。位居高處的蘇凡納布國際機場則未受影響,但可能會因人手不足而考慮減班。

曼谷蘭實大學「氣候變遷與災難中心」主任瑟利說,情勢瞬息萬變,大水是否會漫過昭披耶河堤防還很難說;最糟的情況是堤防擋不住大水,曼谷所有地區或多或少都泡水。

災區停課至11月7日

泰 國內閣宣布,曼谷與二十個受到洪水影響的省份,從二十七日到三十一日放假五天;教育部也下令曼谷和十二個受災省份各級學校停課到十一月七日。此外,內閣也 宣布一項主要提供中小企業、小販與個人紓困的三千兩百五十億泰銖重建預算。日本央行也考慮與泰國央行合作,提供泰國日商以日本國債為擔保的融資計畫。

此外,面對物資短缺,泰國商業部二十五日表示,將放寬食物、飲水與部份消費物資的進口關稅與規定。

曼 谷北部的廊曼、拉席與賽邁等部分地區自二十二日起已經淹水,部分地區淹水深度甚至達兩公尺,救災指揮中心二十五日還要求曼谷北部的曼亞克社區居民撤離。泰 國水患自七月中旬起,已造成至少三百六十六人喪生,受影響人口近兩百五十萬人。大水還迫使曼谷附近的大城、暖武里與巴吞塔尼等省份的七大工業區關閉,造成 數十億美元損失、工業供應鏈中斷與六十五萬人暫時失業。


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Looming China fosters Taiwan identity in independence heartland

A man walks past a row of Taiwan's national flags in Taipei, October 14, 2011. REUTERS/Pichi Chuang

KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan | Tue Oct 25, 2011 5:30am EDT

(Reuters) - Tsai Chin-sheng's voice rises with emotion when asked whether he feels Taiwanese or Chinese. Then he utters the response that Beijing fears most.

"Of course I'm pure Taiwanese. I'm not Chinese. We are not a province of China. We are our own country," Tsai said in thickly accented Mandarin through teeth stained red from chewing betel nut, a popular stimulant.

"We have democracy and human rights here. What the hell does China have to offer?" added Tsai, an enthusiastic supporter of Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP.L), which hopes to unseat the China-friendly Nationalists in presidential elections on January 14.

"Maybe the Chinese tourists who come here now can learn a thing or two from us and apply it when they go home," said the businessman, a resident of southern Taiwan's balmy port city of Kaohsiung, a DPP stronghold and pro-independence hotbed.

China claims Taiwan as its own, to be taken back by force if necessary, though the two have been ruled separately since defeated Nationalist forces fled to the island in 1949 at the end of a civil war with the Communists.

Decades of dictatorship and repression followed by a gusty uptaking of democracy have engendered not only pride at Taiwan's generally smooth transition to rule by the ballot box, but also a growing feeling of distance and difference from China.

Many Taiwanese look with nervousness, if not fear, at China, where the ruling Communist Party remains unmoved by calls for political liberalisation.

Taiwan's free-wheeling press covers the island's politics in a critical way unthinkable for China's stodgy state-controlled media, and giving ink to Chinese dissidents and unrest in the mainland that would never make it past Beijing's censors.

This open debate helps reinforce the deep unwillingness in Taiwan to be absorbed politically by China, and the popular feeling that the island is very different from the mainland and this is something to be cherished and protected.

The sentiment is felt particularly keenly in Kaohsiung, one of the main heartlands of Taiwanese cultural identity and where, in 1979, rights activists held a landmark rally which helped spark Taiwan's eventual democratic transition.

"We can talk to China but it must be on the basis of equality, as nation-to-nation," said Hsiao Chuang, a supporter of opposition presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen, out pressing the flesh on a trendy Kaohsiung shopping street.

"Ma Ying-jeou stinks. He wants to sell us out to China," he added, referring to the current president, who signed a series of landmark economic deals with China after taking office in 2008, sparking a rapprochement between the two sides.

China has recently hinted those deals could be at risk if the DPP does not adopt a more positive policy towards Beijing.

The party has sought a more moderate line. It no longer openly backs independence which earned Chen Shui-bian, president from 2000 to 2008, such enmity from China.

But some DPP supporters in Kaohsiung don't seem to have got that message, or at least don't believe the softer stance.

"I will vote for them because they will make us independent," said taxi driver Chen Wen-ling. "Native Taiwanese have to vote for the DPP. It is our duty."

STATUS QUO PREFERRED TO INDEPENDENCE

Most Taiwanese, though, say they would rather maintain the status quo of de facto independence as the "Republic of China" than declare formal independence and risk a Chinese attack.

But they show little enthusiasm to join up with their ethnic kin across the narrow Taiwan Strait, even if ancestrally many can trace their origins to the province of Fujian, which faces Taiwan and shares the same main dialect.

Even among Nationalist Party supporters, there is little willingness to accept that they are Chinese, apart from culturally or historically.

The Nationalists, who once tried suppressing Taiwan's own cultural identity, are also now trying to portray themselves as Taiwanese, hoping to win the voters' hearts.

Though friendly to China, Ma has resisted any efforts at opening political dialogue with Beijing or committing himself to making a decision on Taiwan's future status.

He has been successful at identifying himself with Taiwan, learning to speak the island's predominant Hokkien dialect and portraying himself as a "new Taiwanese", despite not being born on the island, a source of suspicion for some.

MA SUPPORTERS KEEP LOW PROFILE

In Kaohsiung though, most Ma supporters keep a low profile.

One exception is Yang Yu-mei, who runs a shop selling clothing decorated with Republic of China flags and displaying several pictures of her meeting Ma. Brushes with DPP supporters, whom she says sometimes kick the flags outside her store, have not dampened her ardour.

She is so keen on the Nationalists that her mobile phone ringtone is former president Chiang Ching-kuo, who fostered Taiwan's transition to democracy in the 1980s, leading a crowd shouting "Long Live the Republic of China!"

Still, even she is lukewarm on getting any closer to China.

"The current status quo is best. We don't want war with China," said Yang.

"I am a citizen of the Republic of China who lives on Taiwan," she added. "We can say and do what we want here without the fear of anyone looking over our shoulder, and that is very important."

China has hoped that with closer economic links, and with the series of trade agreements signed by Ma, the island will start to feel more positive about Beijing.

While Taiwan's airlines, hotels and major corporations have certainly benefited, many ordinary people say they have felt little impact.

The media has lapped up stories of mainland tourists being too noisy, jumping queues and generally behaving badly. It's something that plays well in the pro-independence south.

"I've seen no benefit from them being here," complained Huang Hsiao-yan, a cook at one of Kaohsiung's heaving night markets. "The mainland tourists buy only fruit or trinkets. They don't eat here. I don't like them at all."

ECONOMIC IMPACT

The once heavily industrialised Kaohsiung has lost many of its companies and factories to China, drawn away by a massive population and low manufacturing costs.

The effect can be seen on the city's sleek new subway network, where it is easy to find a seat even at rush hour. Many would-be commuters have long since decamped to China to work.

"Business has not been good in Kaohsiung for many years now. Everyone has gone to China," complained bar owner Landy Hsu.

"The only Chinese tourists we see around here are men asking us if we have any women, if you know what I mean," piped up her friend and colleague Melody Chin.

When it comes to China, the crucial aspect for many in Taiwan is they want the right to decide their own future.

"You can't choose your relatives, but you can choose whether to spend time with them," said Kaohsiung gallery curator Jemmy Chu, overseeing an exhibition on 100 years since the fall of China's last emperor and establishment of the Republic of China.

One day, perhaps, China could have a democratic revolution too, he added.

"At the moment China is like a bad grandmother who you would not want to have anything to do with. That could change. People complain about China but the Taiwanese have short memories. We were once exactly like them and we were able to change."

(Editing by Brian Rhoads and Jonathan Thatcher)

2011年10月22日 星期六

中國: 看你Ai Weiwei 有多大政治影響力/ 老鄧第一號鎮壓者



How Deng Did It

Brent Frerck from Bettmann/Corbis

Deng at a Houston rodeo during a tour of the United States in 1979.


Two mighty rhetorical questions conclude this enormous biography of Deng Xiaoping (1904-97): “Did any other leader in the 20th century do more to improve the lives of so many? Did any other 20th-century leader have such a large and lasting influence on world history?” The answers emerge from this comprehensive, minutely documented book, but not as predictably as Ezra F. Vogel, a Harvard University emeritus professor of social sciences, assumes.

DENG XIAOPING AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF CHINA

By Ezra F. Vogel

Illustrated. 876 pp. The Belknap Press/Harvard University Press. $39.95.

After Mao’s death in 1976, Deng became the champion of the economic reforms that transformed the lives of many, but not most, Chinese. (Vogel observes that Mao’s immediate successor, Hua Guofeng, was the initiator of the reforms.) Deng had long been a central figure in the Communist Party. Vogel rightly says that “for more than a decade before the Cultural Revolution” — 1966-1976 — “no one had greater responsibility for building and administering the old system than Deng Xiaoping.” Yet, most of Deng’s life and career takes up only a quarter of Vogel’s 714 pages of narrative.

By 1978, Deng had become China’s “paramount leader.” It follows, therefore, that apart from his long period of house arrest and banishment during the years 1967-73, and during another year in 1976-77, when Mao again removed him from the political scene, Deng must share the blame for much of the agony Mao inflicted on China and the Chinese. He certainly bears the major responsibility for the Tiananmen Square killings in 1989.

It is a curiosity of “Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China” that Deng the man is almost invisible. There is a well-known list of his personal characteristics: he played bridge; liked bread, cheese and coffee; smoked; drank and used spittoons. He was unswervingly self-disciplined. Though Deng left no personal paper trail, Vogel ably relates what is known.

Deng came from a small-landlord family in Sichuan Province, yet his formal education, apart from his time at a local school when he was a child, consisted mainly of a single year, 1926, of ideological indoctrination at Sun Yatsen University in Moscow. For five years before that, he lived in Paris, where he received a practical, and enduring, education inside the infant Chinese Communist Party, serving under the leadership of the young Zhou Enlai.

After Paris and Moscow, Deng went back to China, and before long had ceased being “a cheerful, fun-loving extrovert.” He commanded a small force against warlords, was defeated and may have run away. Eventually, he joined the “Mao faction,” rising and falling with its inner-party fortunes. During the Long March of 1934-35 Deng attended the meeting where Mao took supreme power, and after the Communist triumph in 1949, he served as party commissar for the army that occupied Tibet, although he seems not to have set foot there. In the southwest Deng organized the land reform program of 1949-51 “that would wipe out the landlord class.” Mao praised Deng “for his success . . . killing some of the landlords.” (As part of a national campaign in which two million to three million were killed, “some” seems an inadequate word.) In 1957, Deng oversaw the “anti-rightist campaign,” a “vicious attack on 550,000 intellectual critics” that “destroyed many of China’s best scientific and technical minds.” As for the Great Leap Forward of 1958-61, when as many as 45 million people starved to death, Vogel provides no evidence that Deng objected to Mao’s monomaniacal policies. Frank Dikötter’s well-documented book “Mao’s Great Famine,” however, shows that Deng ordered the extraction of grain from starving peasants for the cities and export abroad.

In late 1966, Vogel tells us, Deng was accused of “pursuing the capitalist road.” Under house arrest in Beijing until 1969, he was transferred to Jiangxi Province to work half days in a factory. Red Guards harassed his five children, and the back of one of his sons was broken when he may have jumped from a window after the guards frightened or bullied him. Mao permitted Deng to return to Beijing in 1973.

Vogel contends that during his internal exile Deng concluded that something had gone systemically wrong with China: it was economically backward and isolated from the international scene; its people were poorly educated. China under Deng became an increasingly urban society. And following Deng’s view that corruption crackdowns limit growth, many officials, Vogel writes, “found ways not only to enrich China, but also to enrich themselves.” The result, he says, is that China is more corrupt than ever and its environment more polluted.

While Deng believed that science and technology were important — as have many Chinese reformers since the late 19th century — he feared that the humanities and social sciences could be seedbeds of heterodoxy; he never hesitated in punishing intellectuals, whose divergent views could “lead to demonstrations that disrupt public order.” It is telling that for Deng perhaps the worst development in the Communist world after Tiananmen was the execution on Dec. 25, 1989, of the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife. Ceausescu was the only Eastern European leader whose troops had fired on civilians.

Vogel calls Tiananmen a “tragedy,” and quotes Deng brushing aside doubts from colleagues that using troops to smash the uprising would disturb foreigners; “Westerners would forget.” Actually, it is young Chinese for whom the demonstrations in over 300 cities are a dim fact absent from their history lessons. Vogel’s account of the crackdown is largely accurate, although he omits the shooting down on Sunday morning of many parents milling about at the edge of the square, searching for their children. In this, as in other parts of this narrative, Vogel could have spoken with journalists who were there, and not just read their accounts. (I declare an interest; I saw these events.) What is disappointing is Vogel’s comments about why “the tragedy in Tiananmen Square evoked a massive outcry in the West, far greater than previous tragedies in Asia of comparable scale.”

Part of the answer, Vogel correctly says, citing another scholar, was the real-time television in Tiananmen. Then he perplexingly adds that viewers “interpreted” what they saw “as an assault on the American myth that economic, intellectual and political freedom will always triumph. Many foreigners came to see Deng as a villainous enemy of freedom who crushed the heroic students.” Furthermore, Vogel contends, for foreign reporters the Tiananmen uprising “was the most exciting time of their careers.” Such comments are unworthy of a serious scholar. He states flatly that “Deng was not vindictive.” If he means Deng didn’t order his adversaries and critics killed, that is true — as far as individuals are concerned. But Deng never shrank, either in Mao’s time or his own, from causing the murder of large numbers of anonymous people.

The most valuable part of Vogel’s account is his survey of Deng’s economic reforms; they made a substantial portion of Chinese better-off, and propelled China onto the international stage. But the party has obscured the millions of deaths that occurred during the Maoist decades. In the end, what shines out from Vogel’s wide-ranging biography is the true answer to his two questions: for most of his long career Deng Xiaoping did less for China than he did to it.

Jonathan Mirsky is a journalist and historian specializing in China.



****

China slams art magazine for honoring Ai Weiwei

Dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei speaks to members of the media in the doorway of his studio after he was released on bail in Beijing June 23, 2011. REUTERS/David Gray

BEIJING | Thu Oct 13, 2011 4:19am EDT

(Reuters) - China on Thursday criticized a U.K.-based contemporary art magazine for naming dissident artist Ai Weiwei as the art world's most powerful figure, saying the selection based on "political bias" runs contrary to the magazine's principles.

Ai, whose 81-day detention earlier this year caused an international outcry, topped ArtReview's 10th annual "Power 100" list on Thursday.

Mark Rappolt, editor of ArtReview, had said the choice of Ai, famous for his "Bird's Nest" Olympic Stadium in Beijing and a recent installation at London's Tate Modern gallery comprising millions of replica porcelain sunflower seeds, by a panel of experts was not political.

But Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin was skeptical.

"China has many artists who have sufficient ability. We feel that a selection that is based purely on a political bias and perspective has violated the objectives of the magazine," Liu told a regular news briefing.

Ai was released in late June after he was taken from the Beijing airport and held in two secret locations.

Under the conditions of his release, Ai is not allowed to be interviewed by journalists and use the Internet. He has gone largely silent since he wrote a commentary in late August, criticizing Chinese officials for denying citizens their basic rights.

When Ai was released on bail, the Chinese government said he remained under investigation for suspicion of economic crimes, including tax evasion. Ai told Reuters earlier that he had not received a formal notice from the authorities to explain the allegation of suspected economic crimes.

His family says he was targeted by authorities for his criticism of censorship and Communist Party controls.

Ai has gone back to creating art, giving art direction via Skype for a series of photos for W magazine, an American fashion magazine, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Sabrina Mao and Sui-Lee Wee, Editing by Jonathan Thatcher)

2011年10月19日 星期三

馬的投降論: 不清不楚賣啦....


蘋論:馬要講清楚 別糊弄選民

內行人早已預料馬第一任的兩岸政策是經濟層面,第二任是政治層面。就像切香腸,先切三通、然後經貿,最後一定切到政治。三通只是前戲,經貿是交媾,政治才是高潮。
按照民主體制的邏輯,總統當選人掌握十足的正當性(得到多數選民的委託)去執行他的競選政見。2008馬英九大勝謝長廷200多萬票,於是可以推動馬提出的兩岸政策,主要是經貿部門的ECFA。明年大選,如果馬再勝出,等同再度獲得多數選民授權處理兩岸政治問題。

和平協議比ECFA的風險高,事實上所謂和平協議就是政治協議的代名詞和美麗的包裝。歷來和平條約很快變成政治條約(佔領或併吞)或交戰狀態的紀錄,史不絕書。
綠營批評和平協議是統一時間表,是投降協議,是統一的終極安排等,言之過早。馬現在只提出一些原則性、綱領性和一廂情願性的看法,還沒有實質性的內容,所以不宜太早反對。

和平協議風險太高

但是,由於政治協議的風險太高,影響太大,選民必須謹慎投票。也就是說,如果選民認為台灣應該與中國進入政治協商階段,那就投馬一票;若認為不應該,或太倉促、或太危險,就千萬不要投馬。因為馬的第二任一定要做這件事;而且沒有再連任的壓力,他應該會大膽地放手一搏。
馬 說的和平協議前提在台灣沒有人反對,但是政治協議絕對碰到主權爭執,而主權議題是中國自證自存的宇宙第一原理,不可以挑戰的。中國一開始就反對台灣主權, 還談得下去嗎?除非馬在主權上做出讓步與妥協,才可能有進展。可是台灣人民會同意嗎?不會,最後不是談判破局就是馬偷偷使用中國人對文字遊戲的天賦,把民 眾糊弄過去。因此台灣人民和在野黨有權利嚴厲要求馬把話講清楚。
台灣提出政治談判,將立即引起美國、日本的關切。經貿上台灣已依賴中國了;政治上如果台灣也靠攏中國,美國的東亞戰略即可能繞過台灣,把中、台當作一個實體看待。何況美國國內已出現放棄台灣、修改《台灣關係法》的呼聲,到時盟友沮喪、反台派獲勝,中了中國的挑撥離間計,那時台灣就是甕中之鱉了。
因為風險太高,馬有責任、有義務在大選前講得清清楚楚,包括實質的內容、和平的保證機制、第三方(最好是美國)的功能、煞車機制、兩黨、國會共同參與等,要比ECFA那時講的更透澈、更誠實,然後由選民決定投票給誰。兩岸政治協議將定義本次的大選。







批馬和平協議主張 小英:4危險、3堅持
【17:45】

民進黨主席蔡英文以黨主席身分召開記者會,指總統馬英九拋出兩岸和平協議的議題,是拿國家的前途作為賭注,為了選舉,將台灣人民的未來推入政治險境。(記者劉信德攝)
〔本報訊〕隨著2012年總統大選時間越來越近,馬英九總統日前拋出「審慎思考兩岸簽和平協議」的議題。民進黨主席蔡英文今(19)日召開記者會嚴詞批 評,提出「4危險、3堅持」,認為馬英九未將台灣主權擺在協議的前提,形同將台灣推入中國的「和平統一」框架。

 蔡英文堅持選舉以來的「台灣共識」主張,強調兩岸發展和平是立基於台灣對民主人權的堅持,而非一紙「和平協議」,且中國至今仍不是一個民主國家,和中國 打交道不得不注意其風險。蔡英文舉出西藏和中國簽署和平協議後,不但沒有帶來和平,反而換來數十年的武力、政治壓迫為例,批評馬英九讓台灣陷入危險。

 蔡英文提出「4個危險」,第1個危險批馬英九談判未堅持以主權為前提,讓台灣陷入中國「反分裂法」中的「和平統一」政治框架;第2個危險,「和平協議」 可能改變台海現況,能否保證未來兩岸事務不會淪為「中國事務」?第3個危險,馬政府此舉「輕率冒進、不尊重民意」,徒增台灣社會的爭議與對立;第4個危 險,破壞兩岸之間處理中國問題的戰略縱深。

 「3個堅持」部分,蔡英文強調一定要堅持捍衛「主權」、「民主」、「和平」,任何協議都不能把「一個中國」當成政治前提,且任何的協議都必須訴諸公民投票,敦促中國落實撤除對台武力威脅。

 蔡英文表示,處理兩岸事務必須「穩健處理、不宜躁進」,透過彈性務實的政策,逐步建構出穩定的互動機制,並以「和而不同、和而求同」的精神,建立出一個可長可久的互動架構。

相關新聞請見:
馬倡簽和平協議 小英:讓台灣人民更不安
馬拋和平協議 李問:目的是什麼
簽和平協議 陳唐山批馬︰沒代表性
讓和平制度化 馬:不是要談統一
中媒冷處理 官方還沒反應


*****


2011年10月16日 星期日

蔡英文台一線大捷


雙英北台拚場 民進黨凱道論國政 【2011/10/16 21:17】

民進黨總統參選人蔡英文(左)的台一線活動,今晚抵達台北市凱達格蘭大道,並在總統府前舉辦造勢晚會,與搭檔副總統參選人蘇嘉全(右)攜手向台下群眾致意,營造團結勝選氣勢。(記者廖振輝攝)
民進黨總統參選人蔡英文的台一線活動,今晚抵達台北市凱達格蘭大道,並在總統府前舉辦造勢晚會,大批支持民眾將凱道擠得水洩不通。(記者廖振輝攝)
民進黨總統參選人蔡英文的台一線活動,今晚抵達台北市凱達格蘭大道,並在總統府前舉辦造勢晚會,並向台下群眾發表演說。(記者廖振輝攝)
〔本報訊〕民進黨候選人蔡英文的11天的台一線造勢活動今晚在凱道壓軸登場,蔡英文細數一路走過的14縣市、79個鄉鎮市區所受到的感動,並以「公平正 義」作為核心主軸,提出自己為各個縣市所做的未來規劃,痛批台灣社會的不安與焦慮,是來自馬政府的執政,現在已經來到改變的交叉口,人民已經「鬱卒很久 了」,蔡英文誓言2012「女人要做總統了」。

8萬群眾湧會場 四大天王相挺

台一線活動壓軸造勢晚會今晚在凱達格蘭大道登場,除了總統參選人蔡英文及搭檔蘇嘉全外,前副總統呂秀蓮、前行政院長蘇貞昌、謝長廷、游錫堃等黨內天王全員 到齊現身力挺,展現民進黨大團結氣勢,據估計,現場大約湧入8萬人,大批支持民眾將凱道擠得水洩不通,支持群眾舉旗揮舞,現場氣氛熱烈。

走過14個縣市 小英細數感動

 蔡英文以沉穩的嗓音,娓娓道來這11天的街頭感受,越往北、越感受到民眾的熱情,在新竹短短幾分鐘的車程走了30分鐘;在桃園中壢還錯以為自己置身台 南;連在小英眼中相當冷靜的台北城,民眾也都熱情走上街頭,讓小英紮紮實實地感受到,不一樣街道、卻有相同的熱情,「南北沒有差距」。

 接著蔡英文話鋒一轉,指這一路來除了感受民眾熱情支持、也同時感覺到人民的共同心聲「馬總統真的做不好」、「人民鬱卒很久了」,人民感受不到總統替人民 做了什麼事,只感受到政府花掉人民很多錢。蔡英文指出,就是因為政府做不好,才讓她這一路往北不孤單,許多民眾在街頭守候、淋著大雨,只為了聽蔡英文對國 家未來的願景以及計畫,在在都讓蔡英文感受到,改變的時機已經成熟、改變的時候即將到來。

蔡:聽到人民心聲 追求公平正義

 批馬政府的同時,蔡英文也提出民進黨對國家的未來展望,她將力圖改變民進黨的體質、政府體制,讓台灣從意識形態對抗的桎梏中走出來,轉向公共政策的討論、攻防。蔡英文強調,這個世代,我們已經擁有民主、自由、人權,而「公平正義」,則將為下個世代的訴求。

 呼應社會「公平正義」的訴求,蔡英文也一一提出這一路走來針對各個縣市所提出的計畫,作全觀性的總覽,從社會公平正義概念延伸,強調從每個縣市出發,替人民思考跟規劃,全國各縣市人民都有權分享相同的國家資源跟財政配置,彌補區域發展失衡問題。

政策展望由南到北 創建各地特色

 蔡英文的政策展望由南到北,分別是:針對屏東、高雄、台南,依其特有天然條件,打造綠能產業典範城市,讓北部人回鄉創業,打造南部高科技綠色能源產業; 雲林、嘉義則是全國優質農倉,具備國家安全戰略地位,將設安全機制保障糧倉,並輔以完善農業政策,讓青壯人口走向農業,讓農業走向市場、走向科技化;而台 商最大故鄉的彰化,政府將拿出資源協助,讓台商回流投資彰化,創造新產業。

 台中將成副首都,蔡英文支持立院南遷計畫,以此帶動台中相關產業,讓大台中成為另一個政治經濟中心、實質升格為完整大都會;新竹的竹科將擴充到桃園、苗 栗,打造亞洲最大科技聚落;而擁有國際機場的桃園,則將改善對外連結,完善週邊的快速鐵路、捷運連結、以及公路等交通網絡,讓桃園四通八達、成為交通樞 紐。

 新北市、台北地區,則強打「都市發展」以及「都市翻新」,讓新北市成為現代都會、讓台北市的城內差距減小,以公辦都更的計畫,將讓老舊社區重生、讓都市毒瘤轉變為都市發展的重生力量。



前進總統府 台一線今晚凱道壓軸
民進黨總統參選人蔡英文台一線活動,昨抵達桃園,所到之處,支持者爭相握手,氣氛熱烈。(記者羅正明攝)

歷時11天 活動今最高潮

〔記 者林恕暉/桃園報導〕民進黨總統參選人蔡英文的「台一線活動」,從蔡英文的故鄉屏東出發,前後歷時十一天,今天最後一站將「前進總統府」,晚間七點在台北 市凱達格蘭大道舉辦大型國政演講會。前閣揆蘇貞昌、謝長廷、游錫堃等黨內天王都將站台演講,為這場總統大選造勢活動掀起最高潮。

蔡英文昨天在活動過程的演講中,對於馬英九總統只為「六三三」的失業率部份道歉提出批判。她說,馬英九提「六三三」時,國際經濟情勢已逆轉,顯示他對情勢判斷失準,他就任後執政能力不足,再給他四年,恐怕還是一樣的情況。

蔡英文強調,政治人物提出主張時,對情勢的判斷很重要,馬在「六三三」跳票之後,還把下一階段叫做「黃金十年」,這種判斷也讓人擔心。

「台 一線」活動六日自台灣南端屏東鵝鑾鼻燈塔出發,蔡英文搭乘「小英巴士」領軍,車隊沿台灣西部縱貫線行進,共經過十四縣市、七十九個鄉鎮市區,並自高雄起連 辦九場造勢晚會,民進黨原計畫透過台一線活動維持氣勢,避免因十月國慶、建國百年活動,導致氣勢被藍營壓過去,卻意外掀起熱潮。

台一線造勢晚會幾乎場場爆滿,民進黨表示,不僅在高雄晚會突破萬人,台南晚會有三萬人,前晚在新竹吸引近萬群眾,昨晚在桃園平鎮的演講會更超過兩萬人,在桃竹客家重鎮能有如此成績,讓民進黨輔選幹部相當驚訝,也讓蔡英文對自己的選情更具信心。

晚會很熱 幾乎場場爆滿

台 一線車隊每天也進行車隊拜票,不僅許多民眾沿路夾道歡迎,許多店面、大樓內民眾也主動探頭向蔡英文揮手致意,不少支持者見到蔡英文也主動塞紅包給她,蔡英 文也握手握到手掌、手臂都瘀青,因為造勢效果太好,民進黨已開始評估十一月是否在宜蘭、花東等地舉辦類似活動的可行性,甚至南投等地區也要求舉辦相關活 動,蔡英文競選總幹事吳乃仁表示,相關活動正陸續規劃中。

蔡英文台一線車隊今天上午將由桃園中壢出發,在中壢市區遊街後,車隊將前往桃園、 龜山進入新北市,三點至四點車隊將在新北市新莊、三重區遊街,下午四點半起「前進台北城」,北市黨部在台北市與三重的忠孝橋舉行手牽手活動,台北市黨公職 人員將在忠孝西路、重慶南路口集結,迎接蔡英文「前進總統府」。

民進黨今晚七點至十點在凱道舉辦大型晚會,蔡英文、蘇嘉全將聯袂到場,游蘇謝等黨內要角也都會出席演講,蔡英文將發表重要演說,為十一天、五百多公里的台一線活動劃下句點。



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蔡舉4大理由 轟馬應下台負責
民進黨「台一線」活動昨晚在桃園平鎮舉辦國政演講會,湧進大批支持者到場力挺。 (記者羅正明攝)

台一線活動抵達桃園

〔記 者林恕暉/桃園報導〕民進黨「台一線」活動昨晚在桃園平鎮舉辦國政演講會,民進黨總統參選人蔡英文列舉四大理由,批判馬沒有資格再連任總統。蔡英文說,馬 英九治理國家的能力不足,無法捍衛國家主權尊嚴,國內貧富差距擴大,四年累積債務增加超過一兆三千億元,馬應該下台負責。

人民質疑馬沒有做事

蔡 英文表示,馬英九說他不貪、不濫權,但人民質疑的是「總統,你有沒有做事啊?」馬英九說他要振興經濟,但為何許多人找不到工作?貧富差距越來越大,馬英九 說他改善兩岸關係,但他不堅持台灣主權,陳雲林來時說「叫我先生也可以」,如果他不堅持自己是總統,為何要讓他繼續當總統?

選出女總統象徵進步

蔡英文說,馬英九讓台灣經濟失衡、失業率擴大,年輕世代看不到希望、看不到未來,只會用短期措施因應困難,政府卻嚴重負債,人民也沒感受政府做事,更沒有理財能力,一定要換政府才能解決。

蔡英文說,選出一位女總統,代表台灣民主的進步,向世界證明台灣是進步的社會,能擺脫歷史的枷鎖,走向兩性平等;一個具有客家血統的總統,對台灣的歷史、文化多元有重要價值,她希望自己成為台灣第一位客家女總統,並讓其他族群的女性也接棒下去。

主辦單位估計昨天晚會吸引超過二萬名群眾到場,能在客家地區出現這麼多人潮,超乎輔選幹部的預期。

蔡 英文昨天一早參觀新竹中學前校長辛志平的日式平房故居,故居內準備黑色轉盤老電話,讓民眾可以拿起電話聆聽耆老談辛志平的錄音,蔡英文也好奇的拿起話筒聆 聽,蔡英文表示,二二八事件時,許多台灣學生保護辛校長等師長,後來威權統治時,辛校長也努力保護學生,族群之間互相保護、協助,值得省思、借鏡。

在參訪客家文化學院時,蔡英文說,她希望把客家語言跟其他族群的語言,漸漸發展成國家的語言,與現在使用的國語都併入國家語言,讓台灣變成多語文國家,並建立國家級客家文物保存機構,在全台找出具代表性的客家社區,並投入資源,讓民眾可以到社區體驗客家文化精神。

泰國大水災考驗新政府

泰國北部和東北部普降大雨 防洪形勢嚴峻洪峰肆虐
泰國大量工廠被淹 重創出口產業

Thailand’s new government

Swept away

After the euphoria, a deluge of problems

Après moi

ASKED what was the biggest test for politicians, the post-war British prime minister Harold Macmillan is said to have replied “Events, dear boy, events”. Yingluck Shinawatra, Thailand’s new prime minister, might concur. Elected by a landslide just over three months ago, the euphoria of victory is being swept away by an unforeseen calamity—the worst flooding in the country for 50 years. Economic forecasts are being revised downwards almost as fast as the sandbags stack up in the streets. The signature economic policies that helped get her elected, already under fierce attack, may never be fully implemented. It has been a harsh introduction to the realities of power for the 44-year-old neophyte, who is the younger sister of the populist former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra.

Thailand is used to monsoon rains at this time of year, but not of the intensity of the past few weeks. Over 270 people have been killed, about 700,000 homes destroyed or damaged and large areas of the central plains region have been inundated. The waters are heading for Bangkok, and an emergency call has gone out for people to donate sandbags to protect the ill-defended capital. Nonetheless, it is expected that the northern and eastern suburbs, at least, will be affected.

Ms Yingluck has been valiantly touring the flooded areas, offering moral and economic support. Nonetheless, her government’s response has been criticised as tardy and ineffective. On top of the short-term damage to the government’s reputation, however, the longer-term economic consequences of the floods will most worry Ms Yingluck and her ministers. The University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce (UTCC) has estimated that the cost of the flood damage could be as high as 150 billion baht ($4.8 billion), and that total will rise significantly if Bangkok is badly affected. The rice-growing areas of the rural north have been hardest hit; more than 3.4m acres (1.4m hectares) of farmland are already under water. So are industrial estates. Many economists are predicting that the disaster could shave 1% or so off the country’s GDP growth rate this year: UTCC, for example, is revising its forecast down from 4.4% to 3.6%.

A dip on that scale could begin to dent the government’s ambitious policies. These depend on the economy staying in the rude good health that it enjoyed under the previous government. Proposals such as a new form of rice subsidy, a doubling of the salaries of new civil servants and free tablet computers to all children starting school will cost a lot of money. Even at the best of times, all these schemes would probably have led to higher inflation and a growth in public debt. But these could now be the worst of times, particularly if the world economy slows a lot more. Exports make up more than 60% of the country’s GDP—Thailand is the world’s largest exporter of rice.

In this context, the proposed increase of the minimum wage to about $10 a day, another election pledge, is under particular scrutiny. Kittiratt Na-Ranong, a deputy prime minister and the government’s co-ordinator for economic policy, argues that this proposal reflects sensible economics rather than vote-grabbing economic populism: “Our problem is that our domestic consumption is too low”. He wants to increase the purchasing power of millions of poorer Thais so as to make the economy less reliant on the vagaries of the export markets.

Most agree that Thailand’s economy is unbalanced. However, there is plenty of argument over whether a rise in the minimum wage is the best remedy. Employers’ representatives say some small businesses could collapse if they have to accept a 50% rise (or more) in their wages bill.

It seems the government has been forced to listen, and the policy is in flux. Mr Kittiratt says the government will now start by implementing the scheme just in Bangkok and five other provinces (out of 77). However, it is unclear what will happen after that, or whether the wage will apply to the 2m or so foreign workers, many of them from neighbouring Myanmar, whose low pay depresses salaries in the first place.

韓國教會與交易

South Korean mega-churches

For God and country

An influential pastor comes under scrutiny for his business dealings

Big in Korea

KOREA has long been a hotbed of religiosity. Before a certain Kim Il Sung began having other ideas, Pyongyang (now the capital of North Korea) used to be known as “The Jerusalem of the East”. And in today’s Seoul, practitioners of traditional shamanism, Buddhism, Christianity and even cults such as the Unification Church (better known in the West as the Moonies), all have plenty of followers.

Many of them also have lots of money (not least because religious institutions are tax-exempt). The Protestant church, in particular, seems to have produced a tribe of flashy, mansion-dwelling pastors. This is partly a result of the character of Korean Protestantism: a common theme, for instance, at the Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul is that a poor Christian is not a good Christian. However, it is also a result of the incentives created by the sheer size of some churches. Yoido itself ranks as the largest Christian congregation in the world, with over 1m members. Another, Somang Church, has hundreds of thousands of faithful, including South Korea’s president, Lee Myung-bak.

With all these people throwing their spare won into the collection plate, mega-churches have become big businesses. Yoido Full Gospel Church’s founder Cho Yong-gi, who has run the congregation since 1958, has family interests ranging from private universities to newspapers. Members of his church were once asked to pray for higher sales for one of his titles.

A pastor at a Seoul-based church of a mere 60,000 members notes that the likes of Yoido have become “so big, and with assets so huge, that human greed comes into play”. And in late September, following complaints by 29 church elders, prosecutors began investigating Mr Cho over the alleged embezzlement of 23 billion won ($20m) from Yoido’s funds. A documentary aired by MBC, a television station, claims that this money was used to buy property in America. The show also charged that Mr Cho’s wife sold a building constructed with collection money for her own gain. Its buyer was Hansei University—an institution where she also happens to be president. Mr and Mrs Cho deny the allegations.

Yoido Church’s founder is rarely out of the news in South Korea. In March he sparked a storm of criticism by claiming the earthquake and tsunami in Japan was “God’s warning” to a country that follows “idol worship, atheism, and materialism”.

He is also too political for some. When President Lee’s government drew up plans to legislate for Islamic sukuk bonds in South Korea, Mr Cho argued that this would aid “terrorists”, and that the president was forgetting the vital role the Protestant lobby had in electing him. Following concerted efforts by Mr Cho and other South Korean church leaders, the government blinked first, and the plan was dropped.

There are plenty of rank-and-file Christians in South Korea who do not indulge in the cathedralism of the mega-pastors. Many of the underground networks helping North Koreans on the run in China are organised by South Korean Christians. Refugees who reach South Korea are often cared for by church groups, and South Korean church aid-agencies are usually among the first to respond to natural disasters around the world, including the Japanese tsunami in March.

But in a country that thrives on group activities and collective bonding, as well as religion, Seoul is a natural home for mega-churches. The likes of Mr Cho, for all their flaws, provide something that millions of Koreans find irresistible.

不丹國的人民真的最幸福快了嗎?

不丹國的人民真的最幸福快了嗎
近年來屢有此類報導
植得進一步討論

Counting on Happiness in Bhutan

The world’s youngest democracy, the Kingdom of Bhutan – a small country
in the Himalayas - might have a thing or two to teach us. While most
countries strive to increase their economic growth to improve people's
lives and look to gross domestic product to measure how well they're
faring, the Bhutanese are more interested in gross national happiness.

2011年10月14日 星期五

Radiation on Tokyo sidewalk exceeds parts of no-entry zone 日本必須清理三分之一台灣大小的土地: Estimated 13,000 square km eligible for decontamination

日本研究人員在東京和橫濱兩地的人口密集區發現高濃度放射性物質﹐官方稱上述發現並不意味著日本大城市的居民面臨著急迫的危險。



Radiation on Tokyo sidewalk exceeds parts of no-entry zone

2011/10/14


photoWorkers commissioned by Setagaya Ward in Tokyo survey a neighborhood where high levels of radiation were confirmed. (Yusaku Kanagawa)photoParents accompany their children to school in Setagaya Ward on Oct. 13 after high levels of radiation were confirmed in one neighborhood. (Yusaku Kanagawa)

Radiation exceeding levels in the no-entry zone around the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant has been found on a sidewalk in Tokyo.

According to an Oct. 12 announcement by Setagaya Ward Mayor Nobuto Hosaka, the spot in the 5-chome neighborhood of the ward's Tsurumaki district had radiation levels of 2.707 microsieverts per hour, higher than the 2.115 microsieverts measured at a monitoring post on Oct. 12 in Iitate, Fukushima Prefecture, which is within the 20-km exclusion zone around the Fukushima plant.

An individual exposed to such radiation levels for eight hours a day and living in a wooden house could be exposed to about 14.2 millisieverts over the course of a year, below the 20-millisievert standard set by the central government for evacuation.

The sidewalk is used by students attending Matsugaoka Elementary School and school officials were guiding pupils away from the hot spot on Oct. 13.

A 34-year-old mother taking her third-grade son to school said: "My child used this sidewalk for the past six months. I am worried about whether there really was no effect on his health."

A 48-year-old mother said: "I want the ward to check the routes to school as well as parks."

Ward officials maintain that just walking through the hot spot will not seriously affect human health, but they have given instructions to limit access. They will start emergency measurements of radiation levels at 258 parks in the ward that have sandboxes.

The ward learned of the problem earlier this month from a resident who had made private measurements and found abnormally high radiation levels. Officials then conducted their own survey along a sidewalk by the fence of the home where the radiation was initially detected.

Measurements were taken at nine spots, each about 2.5 meters apart. At each spot, measurements were taken at three heights above ground: 1 meter, 50 centimeters and 5 cm. Five readings were made at the three heights at each location. An average measurement was calculated for each height at the nine locations.

The 2.707-microsievert average reading was found at one spot where the measurement was made at a height of 1 meter. Radiation levels were lower closer to the ground at the same location. At another location, the measurement at the lowest height found radiation levels of only 0.088 microsievert.

A company specializing in radiation measurements was commissioned to recheck the levels near the sidewalk and that firm also found radiation exceeding 2.7 microsieverts in one location.

The sidewalk where the high radiation level was detected is about 20 to 30 cm below the road.

One ward official said: "We believe the radiation level became high as a result of the accumulation of rain water."

However, officials admit they cannot explain some aspects of the case, including the fact that the highest radiation levels were found at the highest height measured and that much lower levels were measured in locations nearby. Radiation levels are normally highest the closer to the ground a measurement is taken.

Ward officials will look into the possibility of radiation coming from a source other than the Fukushima accident and work out ways of decontaminating the area.

Kunikazu Noguchi, an expert on radiation protection at Nihon University, said: "There was probably a condensation of the radiation through an accumulation of rain water. There may be other locations where there are limited areas of high radiation. The local government should be responsible in studying the matter and eliminating the concerns felt by residents."







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Estimated 13,000 square km eligible for decontamination2011/10/12
The central government will be responsible for decontaminating about 13,000 square kilometers across eight prefecture, or about 3 percent of Japan's total landmass, under new standards for cleaning up radiation from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, according to Asahi Shimbun estimates. The Environment Ministry on Oct. 10 endorsed a basic policy to make the government responsible for decontaminating all areas with radiation levels exceeding 1 millisievert per year. Based on an earlier annual threshold of 5 millisieverts, the ministry initially said about 1,800 square km of land in Fukushima Prefecture would be subject to decontamination. But under the new standard, the size of the area will grow sevenfold. Using airborne radiation measurements by the science ministry, the Environment Ministry drew up maps of regions where additional exposure to radiation due to the nuclear accident lies between 1 and 5 millisieverts annually. The Asahi Shimbun studied the measurements of the affected areas in Fukushima Prefecture as of Aug. 28 and outside the prefecture as of Sept. 18. The calculation found that about 6,200 square km in Fukushima Prefecture had radiation levels between 1 and 5 millisieverts per year, in addition to the estimated 1,800 square km above 5 millisieverts annually. In total, about 8,000 square km, or 60 percent of the landmass of Fukushima Prefecture (13,782 square km), will be eligible for decontamination under the new standard. There were no areas outside Fukushima Prefecture with radiation levels exceeding 5 millisieverts per year. But the following had annual exposure levels between 1 and 5 millisieverts: 2,100 square km in Gunma Prefecture; 1,700 square km in Tochigi Prefecture; 440 square km each in Miyagi and Ibaraki prefectures; 180 square km in Chiba Prefecture; and 20 square km each in Tokyo and Saitama Prefecture. The maps do not reflect "hot spots," or localized spots of high radiation levels. The science ministry is conducting airborne measurements in 22 prefectures. The results for Iwate, Niigata, Nagano and other prefectures have yet to be released, so the total area with radiation levels above 1 millisievert per year could expand. The costs for the cleanup could also grow. In late September, the Environment Ministry said that full decontamination in areas above 5 millisieverts per year and partial decontamination for areas between 1 and 5 millisieverts would involve removing about 29 million cubic meters of surface soil and fallen leaves in forests. It predicted the decontamination measures would cost the central government about 1.2 trillion yen ($15.6 billion). Following protests by local governments, however, the ministry decided that the central government would assume responsibility for decontaminating all areas above 1 millisievert per year. That basic policy plan was accepted by an expert panel on radioactive contamination on Oct. 10. (This article was written by Hiroshi Ishizuka and Harufumi Mori.)

2011年10月13日 星期四

明年大選 蔡贏馬4~6% (戴立安)/ 扁無罪 改判18年 二次金改 貪5億


遠見民調總監預測:明年大選 蔡贏馬4~6%

記者林美芬/專訪

距總統大選不到百日,遠見民調中心突然宣布轉型,不再進 行政治、選舉民調,引起外界議論,隨該中心轉型而請辭總監一職的戴立安以「相信公司高層有更整體的思考及決策」回應外界揣測。針對明年總統大選,戴立安追 蹤從八八水災後的資料預測,民進黨總統參選人蔡英文略勝國民黨總統參選人馬英九約四%至六%。

戴立安說明,依現有條件來分析,明年大選兩黨得票比率差距約在四%到六%之間,也就是彼此是在四十八%到五十二%之間拉鋸,但現有情況是蔡英文站在優勢四%到六%的贏面。

也因為差距太小,戴立安憂慮,改變選舉結果的成本因而變低,這也使得未來選舉必須考驗台灣選民及候選人陣營的成熟度。

中立選民挺蔡比例偏高 像○八年馬一樣

○八年國民黨在總統及立委選舉大勝後,戴立安開始做執政滿意度調查,隨著各項事件變化,也做○九年的地方選舉、去年五都選舉的預測調查。經數年的追蹤,國民黨的支持板塊已經低於五成,以朝野政黨平分秋色的情況下,打成平手對於執政黨而言,是很辛苦的。

戴立安指出,從中立選民的調查顯示,這一族群的自主性高,且支持蔡英文的比例偏高,如此的結果,和○八年中立選民挺馬比例偏高的態勢雷同。

具公信力選舉民調突中止 「深感惋惜」

上 週二突然被告知,遠見民調中心將轉型,終止政治及選舉預測調查,讓戴立安頗感突兀,他也因此請辭。由於整個民調中心是他在二○○六年一手創建,也開始「台 灣民心指數調查」,連續多年來執行,戴立安表示,獲得諸多的肯定,建立相當的公信力及中立的社會印象,甚至最近爆紅的維基解密,引用遠見選舉民調的部分也 指稱是「精確」及「可信」。如今突然中止,他除了惋惜,還是惋惜。

戴立安表示,手上的工作都必須善後,待完成後,在十月底就會正式離職,至於個人何去何從?他則說,沒有安排,只能看開一點。

由於馬總統在該中心民調的執政滿意度一直低迷,外界揣測「轉型」是否因政治壓力太大而被迫關閉?戴立安表示,因為是不確定資訊,所以不回答,但相信公司高層有更整體的思考及決策。

遠見雜誌五年多前成立民調中心,開始一連串的台灣民心指數調查,從經濟性事件到政治性議題,涵蓋民眾對執政黨的施政滿意度調查、政黨傾向追蹤等長期公布調查結果,獲得國內外研究單位及媒體的信任及引用。



扁無罪 改判18年 二次金改 貪5億「官邸變金融交易中心」

2011年10月12日 星期三

北京進退維谷 /緬甸政府開始釋放政治犯/ 台灣拍馬隨棍上

蘋論:捧周拍馬

關於周美青在國慶大典上造型的話題,昨天燒到立法院。立委劉盛良說,周清廉、不干政、有愛心慈善的形象,是很良好的風範。接著馬屁上身,建議國史館把這段編寫進去。
國史館長呂芳上立即馬屁隨棍上,順竿就爬,說完全同意,還申論說,真正偉大是從平凡中看出來,馬夫人對這個時代起了相當好的作用。

對比於吳淑珍的貪婪浮華,周顯得格外簡樸、自制,引人好感。她完全符合「凱薩之妻」法則,絕不過問政治,主動隔離外界,以堵倖進之門。而她的特立獨行尤其使人敬佩與欣賞。不過在國家的大典上穿 裝打扮的得體恰當,卻不是個人的事。蔣夫人宋美齡的高貴得體造型,在美國風靡政界、媒體,因此促成美援挹注中國抗日。
此外,周那樣的簡樸節約其實是農業社會的美德,現代社會鼓勵一定程度的消費,以暢旺經濟發展。3年前金融海嘯時,馬不是贈送全民消費券,還親自上街鼓勵消費嗎?周過度節約,是過猶不及的。



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2011年 10月 13日 07:23 中國已無力擔當世界經濟引擎
比全球經濟﹐中國經濟面臨更為顛簸的著陸。

近幾個月來﹐外界一直希望中國通脹率降低能為降息提供空間﹐並讓中國政府得以避免因樓市泡沫破裂所帶來的棘手局面。但是﹐隨著泡沫開始破裂﹐經濟開始動盪﹐食品價格高企以及維護社會穩定的需要卻在很大程度上阻礙中國央行放寬政策並確保經濟軟著陸。

想要知道當前地產業對中國經濟和銀行體系造成多大的威脅﹐只要看看這則消息就清楚了:中國主權財富基金受命買入中國四大國有銀行的股票。

這則消息發佈之前﹐國家統計局發佈公告稱﹐8月份﹐70個大中城市中﹐46個城市的新建商品住宅價格環比下降或持平。7月份這一數量為31個。

本週五即將公佈的消費者價格指數(CPI)預計將顯示﹐隨著經濟增速放緩﹐通脹也將有所消退。9月份CPI同比漲幅預計將從8月份的6.2%下降至6.1%﹐7月份CPI同比漲幅為6.5%。

這應該為中國央行開始扭轉近期不斷加息的勢頭掃清道路﹐尤其是因為通脹漲幅下降的部分原因是豬肉價格下跌。

不過﹐並非所有事情都是這麼簡單。

紐約銀行(Bank of New York-Mellon)駐倫敦高級策略師德里克(Simon Derrick)說﹐食品分項指數同比上漲了10%﹐其中肉和禽類價格同比增長了近30%。

既然如此﹐難道我們要寄望於減息來幫助提升房價嗎?

得了吧﹐特別是當食品價格和社會不穩定風險目前處於緊要關頭時。要記住﹐這是中國﹐也許在其他地方看似十分有效的經濟策略在中國不一定奏效。所以說﹐北京現在是進退維谷﹐無法通過減息來應對樓市泡沫的破裂﹐因為那將對已經高企的食品價格構成進一步的威脅。

近期似乎是肯定不會有什麼解決方案了。正如德里克提醒我們的﹐中國央行顧問李稻葵曾在前段時間警告說﹐通脹很可能會長期存在。

當 然﹐還有其它政策選擇可供中國政府使用﹐包括減少銀行存款準備金等。中國當局試圖放緩本國經濟增速時﹐中資銀行的存款準備金也被逐步推高。不過﹐這表明由 於北京方面不可能保證經濟軟著陸﹐所以中國不僅對人民幣匯率問題將一如既往持敏感態度﹐還可能很難加快人民幣當前穩定的升值步伐﹐亦很難為千瘡百孔的世界 經濟提供任何即時救助。

Count Even Less on China Now


Nicholas Hastings

China is headed for a much bumpier landing than the global economy would like.

For months now, the hope has been that lower Chinese inflation would provide the scope for lower interest rates and a way for Beijing to escape a nasty pop in the country’s property bubble. But, as the bubble starts to burst and the economy starts to shake, high food prices and the need to preserve social stability could well prevent the People’s Bank of China from easing policy and securing a soft landing.

A measure of just how large a threat the property sector now poses to the economy as well as to the country’s banking system came with the news that China’s sovereign wealth fund has been instructed to buy the shares of major Chinese lenders.

This came after the Nation Bureau of Statistics reported that prices fell or were unchanged in 46 out of 70 major Chinese cities during August. In July, the number was 31.

This coming Friday, new consumer price figures are expected to show that, as the economy slows, inflation is also subsiding. The consumer price index for September is forecast to fall to 6.1%, extending August’s decline to 6.2% from 6.5% in July.

This should clear the way for the PBOC to start reversing its recent rate increases, especially given that at least some of the fall in inflation is coming from lower prices in pork.

However, all is not quite so simple.

Simon Derrick, a senior strategist with Bank of New York-Mellon in London, said the food sub-index is up 10% on a year ago and, within this, meat and poultry prices are up nearly 30% on a year ago.

So, look for rate cuts to help property prices?

Forget it. Especially when food and the risk of social instability are at stake. This is China, remember. The economic equations that may seem to work obviously elsewhere, do not necessarily do the trick here. So Beijing is stuck between a rock and a hard place, unable to respond to the bursting of the property bubble with lower interest rates because of the threat that would pose to already high food prices.

And, there certainly doesn’t appear to be any early resolution. As Mr. Derrick reminds us, the PBOC advisor Li Daokui warned some time ago that inflation is “most likely chronic.”

Of course, China has other policy options at its disposal, including reduction in bank reserve requirements, which were pushed steadily higher as the authorities attempted to slow the economy down. Nonetheless, this implies that with Beijing unlikely to secure a ‘soft’ landing for the economy, China will remain as sensitive about its yuan exchange rate as it was before and is hardly likely to accelerate the current steady pace of appreciation and provide any immediate relief for the badly battered global economy.

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新聞報導 | 2011.10.12
緬甸政府開始釋放政治犯

2011年10月12日,緬甸戲劇演員、導演扎加納出獄

緬甸政府近日宣布,將釋放6400名在押囚犯,其中包括許多政治"良心犯"。外界認為,這似乎章顯了2010年上任政府推行改革的決心。另有外交界人士指出,緬甸政府的大赦其實有它實用主義的一面。


這些政治犯是緬甸軍政權統治時期入獄的,其中包括許多記者、藝術家以及宗教和民主人士。對政府持批評態度的導演扎加納於2008年6月被捕,並於同年11月以"干擾公共秩序罪"被判處59年的監禁,隨後獲減刑至35年。扎加納曾與400名志願者一起,為熱帶風暴"納爾吉斯"的災民組建起一家援助機構。因為他拒絕把從民間收集的捐款交給軍政府,而引起了後者動怒。據法新社報導,扎加納已經於本週三(10月12日)出獄。緬甸官方媒體以"遵循人道主義"以及其獄中表現良好為由,公佈了釋放扎加納的消息。

地處東南亞的緬甸2010年選舉產生了新的政府和議會,這也是該國20年以來首次議會選舉。該國的人權異議人士,外國政府都將這次選舉視為鬧劇。新成立的政府雖然表面上是由平民組成,但與軍隊的關係密切。許多人曾經是軍中將領,包括總統吳登盛。但據法新社報導稱,自從緬甸軍政府下台以來,由新總統吳登盛領導的政府愈發顯示出進行改革的決心。西方國家政府,緬甸流亡組織以及國際人權組織多年來一直要求緬甸當局釋放政治犯。美國、澳大利亞以及歐洲許多國家以此作為取消對緬甸實施經濟制裁的條件。路透社12日報導稱,這也在一定程度上促進了緬甸和中國發展關係。

美國國務卿希拉里·克林頓週三向外界表示,她受到緬甸政府"承諾改革"精神的鼓舞。但對於美國政府來說,對此作出反應時間尚早。路透社當日援引外交人士稱,緬甸改革的動力源於它需要從像世界銀行這樣的國際多邊機構獲得技術援助。出於對該國人權狀況的擔憂及批判態度,諸多國際機構多年來切斷了與緬甸的聯繫。聯合國掌握的數據表明,30%的緬甸國民生活貧困。

綜合報導:任琛

責編:葉宣

Hong Kong food banks see rise in business 香港食物銀行

美國近年來不景氣
食物銀行
的業務大增
了解:
http://www.answers.com/topic/food-bank-2
***

香港為何出現食物銀行?
Hong Kong food banks see rise in business
作者:英國《金融時報》 徐曉瑜香港報導


Late afternoon is the busiest time at the food bank in the Shek Kip Mei public housing estate. That is when mothers, having collected their children from school, drop by on the way home to pick up ingredients for dinner – rice, tinned fish in black bean sauce, fresh pork if there is any, spam if there isn't.


在香港石硤尾公屋地區的這家食物銀行(food bank),傍晚時分最為繁忙。這個時候,從學校接孩子的媽媽們順路來到這裡,領取晚餐所需的食物——米飯、豆豉魚罐頭以及新鮮豬肉(如果有的話)或火腿(如果沒有豬肉的話)。

Mrs Chow, a widow with a son and daughter aged nine and 11, is among an increasing number of low-income earners who have started using the service in one of Hong Kong's poorest neighbourhoods because rising inflation has stretched her already meagre income to the limit .


喪偶的周太太有一雙兒女,分別為9歲和11歲。居住在這個香港最貧困社區之一的她,是越來越多開始利用食物銀行服務的低收入者之一,因為通脹的不斷抬頭,讓她本自微薄的收入捉襟見肘。

“We eat less now because everything from fish to rice has gone up in price. We never eat out. In fact, we hardly ever do anything apart from going to work and school. As our one special treat this summer, I took them to the botanical and zoological garden, which is free,” the part-time domestic helper says sheepishly.


她有些窘迫地說道:“我們現在吃的少了,因為從魚到大米,所有東西都在漲價。我們從不在外面吃飯。實際上,除了上班和上學,我們幾乎什麼都不做。而今年夏季難得的一次活動,是帶孩子們去了一趟免費的香港動植物公園。”周太太兼職做一些家政工作。

Food banks like the one in Shek Kip Mei, which is run by the local St James' Settlement charity, are reporting growing demand – it has seen a 25 per cent increase in the number of people to around 1,500 a month collecting food handouts since the start of the year. There are now around 16 non-government organisations running food banks. Yet, the economy is booming. Gross domestic product is growing annually at more than 6 per cent and unemployment is at 3.2 per cent, the lowest level since 1998 . Hong Kong saw the world's fastest growth in the number of US dollar millionaires last year.


石硤尾食物銀行由當地慈善機構聖雅各福群會(St James' Settlement)經營,從此類銀行的反饋看,人們對它們的需求正日益升溫。今年年初以來,從食物銀行領取食品救濟的人數增加了25%,達到約1500人。目前香港有大約16家非政府機構運營的食物銀行。而另一方面,香港經濟正蓬勃發展。當地生產總值(GDP)每年增長逾6%,失業率為3.2%,為1998年以來的最低水平。去年,香港百萬美元富翁數量的增長速度位居全球首位。

But the bulk of that wealth is in the hands of a few. Hong Kong has the highest income inequality among developed economies, based on a 2009 report by the United Nations Development Programme. One in five – or around 1.5m people – live below the poverty line as defined by households earning less than half the median income and that ratio is not expected to come down.


然而,大部分財富落入了少數人手中。根據聯合國開發計劃署(UNDP) 2009年的一份報告,香港的收入不平等程度在發達經濟體中最高。按照貧困線的定義,家庭收入不及收入中值一半的家庭為貧困家庭。而香港有五分之一的人口(約150萬人)生活在貧困線以下,預計這一比例不會下降。

“The gulf between the rich and the poor is likely to get worse as the cost of doing business in Hong Kong has forced many businesses to move out. As a result, many back-office jobs, for example, have been relocated to mainland China . What's left is mainly a range of high-end services such as finance and luxury retail – where mainland China has no advantage over Hong Kong, yet.


東亞銀行(Bank of East Asia)經濟學家鄧世安(Paul Tang)表示:“貧富差距可能​​會擴大,因為香港的經商成本已迫使很多企業遷出。例如,很多後台職位因此轉移到了中國內地。留給香港的主要是一系列高端服務,比如金融和奢侈品零售,在這些行業,內地尚不具備相對於香港的優勢。”

“Unemployment may be low, but many people who are not suited for those service industries have been forced to take up poorly paid, menial jobs,” says Paul Tang, Hong Kong economist at the Bank of East Asia.


他表示:“失業率或許比較低,但很多不適合這些服務行業的人,被迫從事薪資微薄、且不太體面的工作。”

The Hong Kong government, which overcame years of fierce opposition from the business lobby to introduce a minimum wage of HK$28 ($3.60) an hour this year, is planning to provide transport subsidie​​s to poor households and has set up its own food banks in recent months. It is also in the process of distributing HK$6,000 to every resident, including the wealthiest, to help offset the effects of inflation.


香港政府今年頂住了商業遊說機構多年來的強烈反對,推出了28港元(合3.60美元)最低時薪計劃。港府計劃向貧困家庭提供交通補貼,最近幾個月還建起了自己的食物銀行。此外,香港還正在向包括最富裕人士在內的所有香港居民每人發放6000港元,以幫助抵消通脹的影響。

However, people like Mrs Chow say the government –​​ which is sitting on a budget surplus estimated at more than HK$3.9bn – has not done enough for those literally at the end of the food chain.


然而,在像周太太這樣的人看來,政府沒有為那些真正生活在最底層的人採取足夠的措施。據估計,香港目前坐擁逾39億港元的預算盈餘。

What worries the authorities is the potential for unrest. Hong Kong has seen an increase in the number of protests against the wealth gap involving a younger and politically active generation.


讓香港政府擔憂的,是當地有可能出現騷亂。在香港,針對貧富差距的抗議活動有所增多,涉及到更為年輕、在政治上更為積極的一代人。

“They were born into an already wealthy city, and they feel strongly about the fact that many people live in dire conditions when there is so much money about the place,” says Mirana Szeto, an academic and activist. “These kids are articulate, educated and they have harnessed the power of the internet. They are well informed, and very angry.”


“他們出生在一個已然富庶的城市,他們強烈地感受到,很多人的生活條件十分糟糕,而這個城市卻那麼有錢。”學者、維權主義者司徒薇(Mirana Szeto)表示,“這些孩子有著很強的表達能力、受過教育,他們利用了互聯網的力量。他們信息靈通,對現狀感到非常憤慨。”

Hong Kong's reliance on food and commodities imports, its currency peg to the weak US dollar and the high level of rents in the city helped push inflation up to 7.9 per cent in July, the highest level since 1995. While the figure softened in August to 5.7 per cent, food prices are expected to stay high.


香港對於食品和大宗商品進口的依賴、港元匯率盯住疲弱的美元,以及高昂的房租,使得7月通脹率升至7.9%,為1995年以來的最高水平。儘管8月份通脹率降至5.7%,但預計食品價格仍將居高不下。

“Everything has become more expensive,” says Mrs Chan, another food bank user, aged 75. “My husband and I are both retired and our children are not in a position to help us,”


“什麼東西都在漲價,”另一位食物銀行的消費者、現年75歲的陳太太表示,“我和丈夫都已退休,孩子們也沒有條件幫助我們。”

Like many impoverished retirees in Hong Kong, she has not taken up her share of social security, which can bring in a few thousand Hong Kong dollars a month. For her to do that, she would have to ask her sons to sign an official declaration saying they are not supporting their parents. In a society where filial duty is seen as sacred, it is considered shameful to have to admit that you receive no help from your offspring.


與香港很多貧困的退休人員一樣,她沒有申請公共福利金,這本能給她帶來每月數千港元的收入。如果她要這麼做,必須讓自己的兒子們簽署一份官方聲明,表明他們無法贍養父母。在一個“百善孝為先”的社會裡,要被迫承認自己無法獲得子女的贍養,是一件丟臉的事情。

Younger people, too, avoid collecting government handouts. Mrs Chow says that while she has been forced to accept short-term help feeding her children she would never apply for social security.


年輕人也不願接受政府的施捨。周太太說,儘管自己為了養活孩子,被迫接受了短期救助,但她永遠不會申請公共福利金。

“There are others more needy than myself. I want to set a good example for my children. I want to be able to say: your mother is working very hard. So should you,” she says proudly.


她自尊地說:“還有其他人比我更窮。我希望給孩子們樹立一個好榜樣。我希望能告訴他們:你們的媽媽工作非常努力。所以你們也應該這樣。”



譯者/梁艷裳