The People of Taiwan and the surrounding islands have spoken.
On March 22, the Kuomintang of China fully regained power of the Republic of China government after 8 years of mismanagement and scandals under President Chen Shui-bian and his Democratic Progressive Party.
Under A-bian, as Chen’s supporter call him, Taiwan has lost its status as an economic power in the Pacific Rim. His presidency only focused on pissing off the Beijing government and not the economic problems that Taiwan has had since his rise as President of the Republic of China and the rise of the economy and markets of the People’s Republic of China.
With the election of President-elect Ma Ying-jeou and his running mate, Vice President-elect Vincent Siew, the Government will be an effective one as the Kuomintang now hold both the Legislative Yuan (Taiwan’s legislative body) and the Presidency.With a majority of 85 seats of 113, Ma Ying-jeou will be able to pass the reforms and laws he had promised during his campaign; focusing on the recovery of the island’s once vibrant economy.
As a result of this election, the people of the Taiwan strait, as well as the entire East Asian region, will sleep better tonight knowing that Beijing is happy and the threat of a People’s Liberation Army strike is now improbable with the Kuomintang back in the Captain’s seat.
As a full time undergraduate student at the University of Toronto, I am automatically a member of the U.T.S.U. (University of Toronto Students’ Union). As such, I receive emails and notices concerning issues, events, and of course, protests (even if they are organized by other student groups).
I received an email a week ago from my college’s student council informing students of a protest organized by a student group called AlwaysQuestion. This demonstration that AlwaysQuestion was organizing was to protest, as they alleged, a proposed increase of the residence fee by 20% at New College, which would be about an increase of at least $1000.
As a commuter, naturally, one could assume that this is not a issue for me as I do not live on residence and therefore the increase of the residence fee does not affect myself or my finances. However, as a student of the University of Toronto, the issues of my fellow students are to a certain extent my issues. I am always intrigued about different political socio-economic issues at the University and across Toronto and Ontario.
Anyways, I received an email in the evening of the 19th of March informing me that the protest was going to be held tomorrow afternoon.
I assumed that this protest was going to be a legal, peaceful demonstration just outside New College and outside Simcoe Hall. Man…was I wrong….
At 4:08pm on the 20th, I received an email stating this:
Hello Everyone,
I am writing this memo to inform you that we (the students) have occupied Simcoe Hall and refuse to leave until our demands are met.
our demands are as following:
1. immediate meeting with david naylor
2. removal of the motion to increase the new college residence fees be completely removed from the agenda
3. 15 minutes presentation at the UAB meeting on Tuesday March 25th. Here we will be presenting on the injustices of tuition fees ad the necessity of a fully accessible education
Sisters ad Brothers we need your support and solidarity as this increase will greatly hinder students access to affordable housing and will inevitably create a barrier preventing many individuals from accessing higher education.
What this meant was that this group was now was clearly illegal. New College Student Council President sent an email at 5:18pm withdrawing support from the activist group AlwaysQuestion and previous knowledge of their actions:
Dear New College:
Today at 1:00 pm EST, the activist group AlwaysQuestion staged a protest march at the University of Toronto to raise awareness about an increase in residence fees for New College students. As the AlwaysQuestion organizers kicked off their speech, the focal point of the rally changed dramatically from protesting the fee increase to other un-related issues.
In February, AlwaysQuestion approached the New College Student Council (NCSC) to seek an endorsement for their cause. Council voted in favour of a motion to support AlwaysQuestion’s campaign in which this increase in residence fees would set a precedent. It was for this reason and this reason only that NCSC supported this march. At no time did AlwaysQuestion indicate that the rally would include a sit-in at Simcoe Hall and make other demands that are un-related to the New College student community. In no way, form or fashion did AlwaysQuestion elicit NCSC endorsement for any other issues.
The NCSC would like to categorically state that due to the group’s misrepresentation of their purpose, Council disavows all ties to this organisation.
Furthermore, we withdraw our support for any and all actions and demands made by AlwaysQuestion.
New College Student Council (NCSC) 2007-2008
The following day, I received an email from AlwaysQuestion, linking it to a YouTube video of Police Officers removing protesters from Simcoe Hall:
After watching the video, I concluded that (1) the Police had every right to remove the protesters as they were technically trespassing on Private Property; (2) the Police did not at any time use brutal force to remove the protester, and used only acceptable and necessary force to remove them; (3) the protesters were only there to cause problems, they did something illegal, and they were completely irresponsible.
Do you know where most of the police overtime budget goes?
To the poverty protests. To the “lower our tuition” protests. To almost every single protest that the activist groups organize.
If there weren’t so many of these protests, the City would not have to allocate so much money to the police overtime budget and could redirect that cash to something more useful such as shelters, fixing our roads, and better services.
In my opinion, AlwaysQuestion does not represent the student population at the University of Toronto. AlwaysQuestion is a group that has shown itself to be irresponsible and are always willing to disregard the rule of law.
I ask you, Can we, as students of the University of Toronto, condone this type of behaviour from our fellow students?
NO.
I ask you, Should we, as students of the University of Toronto, condone this type of behaviour from our fellow students?
NO.
As a student of the University of Toronto, I am ashamed of the fact that my fellow students would be so irresponsible and were willing to disregard the rule of law. As future leaders of the world, we should be responsible people, and we should always follow the rule of law.
If you truly wished to lower our tuition and the other fees, then work with the government, work with the administration, work with the system, because working against the system, will get you no where.
Until then, I have one word to say to AlwayQuestion: Shame.
Granted, the CBC has shown to have slight bias to one side or the other when it deals with certain subjects and topic of a political nature. And yes, there are sometimes slight misrepresentations in its news stories. But one important thing is that, a large majority of the time, I can trust it to be trying to ride the centre road of neutrality. (or in Rick Mercer’s case, he takes comical, satirical shots at everyone and not just one group).
“Sticks and Stones” is a fifth estate investigative report/documentary on the Post-9/11 American Media and its takeover by the so-called “conservatives” in the United States. (Please note that our brand of Conservatism in Canada is different from the United States brand of “conservatism“).
After watching the entire 42:30 documentary, my reaction was “…wtf…” (please pardon my language). The reason for this type of reaction:
Ann Coulter. Nothing really needs to be said after that. As a person who graduated Cum laude from Cornell University – an Ivy League school, it’s pretty sad that she clearly did not know that Canada was never involved the Vietnam war and it never intervened in the conflict in support of the American position. Yes, there were Canadians in Vietnam, not as Canadian Soldiers or part of the Canadian Armed Forces, but as “American” Soldiers. If we were in the war, we wouldn’t have accepted all those draft dodgers. She acts like stubborn, tantrum making child, where she believes that every word out of her mouth and refuses to listen to other people and other views, even when she is clearly wrong. And if she can’t prove the other views are wrong, she insults the people who hold those views.
Bill O’Reilly. From what I’ve seen watching his show and watching the CBC’s the fifth estate episode “Sticks and Stones”, all I can say is that the impression that he gave me is that he is a jerk who makes up things as he goes along. His boycott of the French goods: phony baloney and total bullshit. According to the United States Census Bureau – Foreign Trade Division [1], trade actually went up during O’Reilly’s “boycott” (In thousands of USDs: 2003 = 29,219,280; 2004 = 31,605,739; 2005 = 33,842,058 2006 = 37,039,632; 2007 = 41,588,986). And his so called boycott of Canadian goods and services: again total bullshit. As each other’s largest trading partners, our economies depend on each other, and therefore a boycott is unrealistic and implausible, as such an action will be a suicide pill for the United States economy. Essentially, it’s “if you try to take us down, we’ll take you down with us” and due to the nature of the Canadian and United States economies and the agreements that bound them so tightly together, “we” will succeed in pulling down the United States economy into the fire with “us” if “we” are pushed in first. You know really makes him such a jerk? The fact that he insults people, and telling to shut up when the other side is trying to have an intelligent conversation and debate with the man.
In my opinion, American television and news networks are way too bias and and there is no standard to guarantee the neutrality and the accuracy of their programs. What these American television and news networks should do is look at Canadian television shows such as the Agenda with Steve Paiken, where the panelists are experts in their fields, the host is neutral, discussion is fair and the show is informative, not some propaganda tool for an ideology. When the Agenda brings up a topic, they bringing commentators that know the subject first hand and/or academics. If the topic was about Pakistan and Afghanistan, the show would have people who lived in the region and have studied the situation in the region, or even experts and academics such as international relations and studies professor Janice Stein. Or if the topic was about women in politics, again, they would bring in experts such as academics and women actually elected or running for office.
In my opinion, the American news media needs to reform: to rid themselves of these lopsided, overly bias self proclaimed experts and adopt a more neutral, fair, and balanced stance and present the news as is and not use it as some sort of ideological propaganda tool.
An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.
These are the personal views of Nathaniel and do not represent the views of the Conservative Party of Canada, The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, Facebook, Wikimedia Foundation or any of its projects, and/or WordPress.
Images and logos are property of their respective owners
Recent Comments