We are looking toward a future where civic tech is no longer remarkable, it is just part of how government functions, says the MIT Media Lab professor.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/11/17
By: g0v.news

Editor’s note: Ethan Zuckerman, Associate Professor at MIT Media Lab and the Director of the Center for Civic Media at MIT, joined the g0v summit 2018 in Taipei this October. Zuckerman is a renowned internet activist. He is also author of “Rewire: Digital Cosmopolitans in the Age of Connection” (W. W. Norton, 2013). He co-founded the international blogging community Global Voices and founded Geekcorps, a technology volunteer organization. g0v.news had a chance to talk to him about the internet, fake news and more.

g0v.news: What do you think we should do about apathy in democratic socieities?

Zuckerman: Everything I am trying to talk about is to fight disengagement. The most dangerous force is disengagement. II would prefer to see people be angry and unproductive and engage, rather than disengage. An angry and unproductive person at least has energy, and you can channel that energy in different directions. Disengaged people have no energy and there is no power for change. We have to look at why people disengage, [which] is that they feel participating in a system won’t have any benefit for them. And often they are right. Often participating in democracy that isn’t representing them, maybe it’s not a good use of time. I started investigating this because whenever people talk about low voting rates, they blame people for [being] disinterested and lazy. But what if the answer is that the voting is not meaningful; you can vote but the system doesn‘t change, and has the same outcome?    [FULL  STORY]

TVBS reportedly removed a clip of the network’s exclusive interview with AIT Chairman James Moriarty, other media outlets are asking why

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/11/17
By: Duncan DeAeth, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A local Taiwanese media outlet TVBS is coming under

criticism this election cycle for its decision to pull a network exclusive interview with the current Chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT).

Chairman James Moriarty visited Taiwan earlier in November, and on Nov. 5, just before the U.S. mid-term elections, granted an interview to the TVBS network. Portions of the interview were finally broadcast on Nov. 9 at 5 p.m.

In the very simple and straightforward interview clip, Moriarty expressed his view on possible outcomes of the U.S. elections, and how U.S.-Taiwan relations might be affected. He also shared his views on the current election cycle in Taiwan, in the lead up to the nine-in-one elections being held on Nov. 24.

Curiously, after the clip was aired a single time on TV, and then uploaded to the website, an editorial decision was made to remove the clip from the TVBS website, reports Nextmag.     [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International 
Date: 16 November, 2018
By: Charlie Storrar

A section of the Cross-island Highway in central Taiwan has reopened to medium-sized bus traffic after being closed for 19 years.

The buses are bound for Lishan, way up in the central mountain range. They are the first to take the route since it was cut off by the devastating 921 earthquake of 1999. Before the reopening, it would take six hours to reach Lishan either from Puli or Hehuanshan. Now it will take just an hour and a half from Guguan.

Places are limited however. Only three buses a day will operate the route in either direction between Guguan and Lishan. Each can carry up to 20 passengers, who will need to have made an online booking in advance.     [FULL  STORY]

Casting Taiwan as a casus belli is outdated and unhelpful.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/11/16
By: Gerrit van der Wees, Taiwan Insight

Professor Graham Allison of Harvard University got it wrong, again! In a Nov. 9 article in the WorldPost, a partnership of the Berggruen Institute and the Washington Post, Professor Allison took the commemoration of the end of World War I as an opportunity to elaborate further on his “Thucydides Trap” theory, pitting a rising power (China) against an established power (the United States).

In the article, Professor Allison described Taiwan as a major flashpoint, because – as he wrote: “For China, Taiwan is a “core interest” – regarded as much a part of China as Alaska is to the United States. Any attempt by Taiwan to become an independent country could easily become a casus belli. In 1996, when the Taiwanese government took initial steps toward independence, China conducted extensive missile tests bracketing the island to coerce it to stop.”

The problem is that Professor Allison rather recklessly adopts the Chinese narrative on how it sees Taiwan, and fails to present the facts as they are: in its long history, Taiwan was never ever part of the PRC: it was a Japanese colony until the end of World War II, and it was then occupied by the Chinese Nationalists, the losing side of the Chinese Civil War.    [FULL  STORY]

Bruce Jacobs was once accused of involvement in triple murder of dissident family

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/11/16
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Australian Asia expert Bruce Jacobs, once accused of

involvement in one of the highest-profile murders in modern Taiwanese history, received a top award from the foreign minister Friday.

Jacobs, 75, first visited Taiwan as a student in 1965 and now bears the title of emeritus professor of Asian Languages and Studies at Monash University in Melbourne, the Central News Agency reported.

In 1980, he was falsely accused of involvement in the murder of the mother and seven-year-old twin daughters of dissident Lin Yi-hsiung (林義雄) and was detained for three months before being banned from the country for 12 years.

The murders were never solved, but were widely believed to be the work of people close to the martial law authorities. Lin later became chairman of the main opposition Democratic Progressive Party.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/11/16
By: Elaine Hou, Tien Yu-pin and Frances Huang

Taipei, Nov. 16 (CNA) Taiwan’s anti-money laundering efforts have impressed an evaluation team from the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG), but there is more work to be done, the Executive Yuan said Friday.

In a statement, the Cabinet said the preliminary results of a mutual evaluation by the APG, a mechanism set up in February 1997 to prevent money laundering-related crimes in the Asia Pacific area, found Taiwan’s anti-money laundering system to be functioning well.

Through the system, Taiwan is able to provide instant mutual legal assistance to its peers in the region to prevent money-laundering, the government said, citing the APG’s initial findings.

A team organized by the APG held the third round of a peer review in Taiwan from Nov. 5 to Friday, when it released its preliminary results.    [FULL  STORY]

‘HAN TIDE’:Organizers said the march should counter the negativity that has dominated campaigns in the city, with KMT mayoral candidate Han Kuo-yu calling it ‘old and poor’

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 17, 2018
By: Ko Yu-hao and Wang Jung-hsiang  /  Staff reporters

A rally to be held in Kaohsiung today by civic groups is to call for an end to malicious

attacks and ridicule, which they said have overshadowed the city’s mayoral election.

The “1117 We Care” parade is to set out from the Kaohsiung Cultural Center at 1:30pm and continue along a 5km route ending at the Hamasen Railway Cultural Park. The march is to take an hour-and-a-half to two hours, with performances along the way.

The event would send a message that the Kaohsiung residents “reject smear campaigns, stand up against bullies, oppose intervention, and want to stop hatred and safeguard Kaohsiung,” the organizers said.

The alliance was launched by civic groups and prominent figures in the city’s culture and arts scene.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International 
Date: 15 November, 2018
By: Jake Chen

The government will work hard to improve water cycling technology to contribute to environmental protection. That was the word from Wang Mei-huan, deputy minister of the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

Wang’s words came on Thursday, after an investment proposal from TSMC failed to clear an environmental evaluation due to lack of information on total water and electricity usage. The proposal from TSMC, or Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd., has long drawn criticism from environmental activists for its potential damage to the natural ecology.

Wang said that manufacturing is a pillar of Taiwan’s economy and there is no going around the fact that these companies have to use a massive amount of water and electricity. She said the government will improve water recycling technology to better protect the environment.    [SOURCE]