Notes on the 326

Why am I here?

Many people thought it strange that I, a foreigner, would appear at a political event. I fully expect to be called in to the local foreign affairs police office about it. As I told them during the recent nuclear waste debacle, I have been on Taiwan for 20 years. I'm married to the island. I have 2 sons who are Taiwanese and American.

By current reckoning, I have more friends and family in Taiwan than anywhere, nay, everywhere else in the world. I have property and a business here. For some this may be a political issue. But for most of us, it is a survival issue.

I considered bringing my kids to the rally. My wife considered it unwise even for me to go. "Why look for trouble?" If she had been brought up in a free and democratic society, I suppose she would have felt differently.

Democracy works because people participate. You have a voice. Use it.

Recognizing the possibility that certain persons might corrupt the stated purpose of the rally, PEACE, to promote independence, I wrote my own banner which read, quite simply, "Taiwan Peace".

And that is what I went for. If by adding my voice to the cry for peace could add as much as a raindrop to the desert it is worth it.

Taiwan today

I have watched the people who live on this island, Han Chinese, Taiwanese, and Aboriginals, and others, work TOGETHER to transform a back water tropical island into a major technological power, a banana republic into a land of opportunity, a dictatorship into a reasonably free and democratic society... in a mere 20 years. Taiwan is a collection of 23,000,000 people who deserve the right to enjoy the fruit of their labors, the freedoms that they have struggled for, and above all, peace.

What is the problem?

There are those would stubbornly bring the peace process to a grinding halt by promoting their own private agendas, Independent Taiwan or Chinese Taiwan. That is not the spirit which has built this society, nor ANY civilized society. Nor can this issue be stated as simply as that.

The problem across the Straits is a unique problem which requires a unique solution. It's time to start thinking out side the box, outside the history books. Start by reframing the question:

What are the terms of a relationship under which the people of Taiwan and the people of China mainland can be mutually satisfied and live in peace?

If government leadership is unwilling to discuss this question rationally, than the burden for open forum falls on the shoulders of the academic community. Scholars on both sides of the Straits should begin informal, low level, non binding exploratory discussions to address the myriad problems inherent in defining a relationship which can mutually satisfy the needs of the people of Taiwan and of China mainland.

Folk wisdom

I live in the countryside and have taken to rural wisdom.

I recently watched a man trying to move a water buffalo in a rice field. He wielded his stick mercilessly to no avail. If the cow could talk he would say, "Try the carrot." I spoke for the cow and told the old farmer, "Try the carrot."

He replied," I don't have one."

Alas, the farmer is poorer than the cow. I wonder if Beijing isn't like this farmer. She doesn't have a carrot.

A global perspective

Today, China, Taiwan and all of Asia are enjoying greater prosperity and equitable distribution of that prosperity than ever in history. Who would be so foolish to throw it all away by casting all of Asia into war?

Then come the divestments, the boycotts and lobbies. And all the foreign investment goes looking elsewhere.

The world will not welcome the beginning of a Chinese century if it starts at the end of the barrel of a gun.

I'm sure that a culture that boasts a 5000 year old history can raise up leadership who has learned to be more diplomatic, who need not resort to such barbaric strategies as intimidation.