Balto. Co. Council speed camera vote set -- baltimoresun.com

Balto. Co. Council speed camera vote set -- baltimoresun.com

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(My favorite lines from people opposed to the speed cameras: "Tickets will go to faceless recipients in an unwarranted exploitation of rights." And "This is Orwellian, and it limits personal freedom." Folks, these are about speed cameras for in front of schools. No one's talking about limiting your personal "right" to drive 100 mph on 83...)

Taiwanfeed.com site compromised?

I just tried going to the Taiwanfeed.com website. I got a warning from Google and the "Google Safe Browsing diagnostic page" for Taiwanfeed says,

What is the current listing status for taiwanfeed.com?

Site is listed as suspicious - visiting this web site may harm your computer.

Part of this site was listed for suspicious activity 1 time(s) over the past 90 days.

What happened when Google visited this site?

Of the 1 pages we tested on the site over the past 90 days, 1 page(s) resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent. The last time Google visited this site was on 2009-08-09, and the last time suspicious content was found on this site was on 2009-08-09.

Malicious software includes 1 scripting exploit(s).

Malicious software is hosted on 1 domain(s), including coumter.cn/.

This site was hosted on 1 network(s) including AS26347 (DREAMHOST).

Has this site acted as an intermediary resulting in further distribution of malware?

Over the past 90 days, taiwanfeed.com did not appear to function as an intermediary for the infection of any sites.

Has this site hosted malware?

No, this site has not hosted malicious software over the past 90 days.

How did this happen?

In some cases, third parties can add malicious code to legitimate sites, which would cause us to show the warning message.

My antivirus program also told me that the site was trying to download a Trojan Horse program called "HTML:IFrame-GG [Trj]".

Has anyone else experienced this?

More about Vijay Prashad, The Darker Nations

I mentioned last night that I thought The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World by Vijay Prashad would be a good book for students of transnational rhetoric (or rhetoric and transnationalism). The reason for this is that the Third World "project" that Prashad depicts in his book was arguably a rhetorical project, one in which the leaders of newly (and some not-yet) independent states worked together to try to craft an alternative to domination by US or Soviet power and ideology. As Indonesian President Sukarno argued at the 1955 Bandung Conference, the newly independent states' lack of economic and military strength left them with few alternatives for resisting imperialism. However, he argued, "[w]e can inject the voice of reason into world affairs. We can mobilize all the spiritual, all the moral, all the political strength of Asia and Africa on the side of peace" (qtd in Prashad 34).

Prashad makes extensive use of the documents that came from meetings and conferences run and attended by leaders of the non-aligned movement in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The deliberations done at these conferences were important to the rhetorical project of the Third World.

The Afro-Asian meetings in Bandung and Cairo (1955 and 1961, respectively), the creation of the Non-Aligned Movement in Belgrade (1961), and the Tricontinental Conference in Havana rehearsed the major arguments within the Third World project so that they could take them in a concerted way to the main stage, the United Nations. In addition, the new states pushed the United Nations to create institutional platforms for their Third World agenda: the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) was the most important of these institutions, but it was not the only one. Through these institutions, aspects other than political equality came to the fore: the Third World project included a demand for the redistribution of the world's resources, a more dignified rate of return for the labor power of their people, and a shared acknowledgment of the heritage of science, technology, and culture. (xvi-xvii)

Prashad is quick to note, though, that taking speeches like Sukarno's at face value "can be gravely misleading. Most of the documents and speeches are triumphal, and few of them reveal the fissures and contradictions within the Third World" (13). Sukarno's articulation of what came to be called the "Bandung Spirit" was an attempt to assert moral strength in the absence of any other form of power, and despite the moral argument made for disarmament, participants in the Bandung Conference "continued to horde weapons--a fact that led many to charge them of hypocrisy" (43). The rest of Prashad's book is a close look at how "the fissures and contradictions within the Third World"--with the help of organizations like the IMF and the World Bank--undermined the ideals that were represented by the Bandung Spirit. It's a complicated story, but it's well-told in this book. For students of of rhetoric, the book suggests both the possibilities created through discourse and the limits on what rhetoric can do by itself.

Some reviews of The Darker Nations by Vijay Prashad

I've been reading Vijay Prashad's The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World lately. It's a fascinating book, one that I think people doing work in transnational rhetoric should read. I haven't finished it yet, but I wanted to link to some reviews of the book that I've found on the web.

• "A Review of "The Darker Nations" by Saswat Pattanayak on the Crosscurrents.com site
  This is a long, generally positive review, though it questions part of Prashad's thesis about the decline of the Third World "project" and points out some areas that need further research.


• Review by Jacqui Freeman in Socialist Review
  This is a shorter review. Freeman is also generally positive, though she has one criticism that I share: "My criticism would be that, although his sympathies obviously lie with the masses, the vast majority of the book is devoted to discussion of nationalist elites."


• Review by Jeffrey McFadden in Political Affairs Magazine


• An interview with Prashad by Rohit Chopra, on the SAJAforum website

CFP: 3rd Global Conference: Interculturalism, Meaning and Identity

website

3rd Global Conference
Interculturalism, Meaning and Identity

Tuesday 10th November - Thursday 12th November 2009
Salzburg, Austria

Call for Papers
The relaunch of this multi-disciplinary project seeks to explore the new and prominent place that the idea of culture has for the construction of meaning and identity, as well as the implications for social political membership in contemporary societies. In particular the project will assess the larger context of major world transformations, for example, new forms of migration and the massive movements of people across the globe, as well as the impact and contribution of globalisation on tensions, conflicts and the sense of rootedness and belonging. Looking to encourage innovative trans-disciplinary dialogues, we warmly welcome papers from all disciplines, professions and vocations which struggle to understand what it means for people, the world over, to forge identities in rapidly changing national, social and cultural contexts.

Papers, workshops and presentations are invited on any of the following themes:

1. Contemporary Rediscoveries and Redefinitions of Culture
~ Multiple, polyvalent and contradictory conceptions of culture
~ Infinite source of meaning and identity, of membership and exclusion, of privileging and stigmatising, of worth and misery, of place and history, of violence and destruction
~ Cultural remaking of self and other; recasting of links, bonds and relations
~ The contradictory forces of culture: diversity versus homogeneity, multiplicity versus sameness, alterity versus normality, recognition versus misrecognition
~ Textures of cultures: fixed, fluid, porous, hermetic, rigid and flexible

2. Cultural Boundaries, Peoples and Nations
~ Dislocation and decoupling of culture and nation, of culture and place, of culture and history
~ Resurgence of the local, the diminishing importance of the national and the forces of the global
~ What does it mean, today, to be part of a culture, to be part of multiple cultures?
~ Massive and new forms of global migration and the new hybridity of cultures
~ Assimilation, integration, adaptation and other forms of ‘forcing’ cultures on migrants

3. Cultural Formations
~ What are the dynamics and processes that define the central tenets of a culture?
~ How are cultures defined and redefined? Who participates in the social and political task of defining and redefining culture?
~ What is shared from cultures? How are cultures shared? Who has access to the sharing of cultures?
~ Symbols and significations that connect people to cultures other than ‘their own’
~ Culture and the construction of identities: destiny, happenstance, choice and politics

4. Politicising Culture
~ Political battles over the principles and core values of a culture, of many cultures
~ The dynamics of cultural recognition and misrecognition
~ What is the place of cultural claims in today's forms of social and political membership?
~ Trans-cultural connections that escape institutional and political control
~ Cultural claims and human rights

5. Art and Cultural Representations
~ Media and the construction of cultures and identities
~ Production and reproduction of cultural recognition and misrecognition
~ The contested space of representing meaning and identity, culture and belonging
~ Art, media and how to challenge the rigid and impenetrable constructions of culture
~ Living, being and belonging through art; life imitating art and fiction

6. Crossing Cultural Boundaries
~ Interpenetration, overlapping, crossovers, interlacing, hybridisation and interdependence
~ Languages, idioms and new emerging forms of bridging the ‘invisible’ divide of cultures
~ Conceptualisations that foster the breaking down of rigid cultural boundaries
~ Equalising cultures; recognition and respect across cultures
~ How to revamp historically old concepts like tolerance, acceptance and hospitality?
~ An ethics for cultural relations

Papers will be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 19th June 2009. If your paper is accepted for presentation at the conference, an 8 page draft paper should be submitted by Friday 9th October 2009.

300 word abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:

a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract.

Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.

Joint Organising Chairs:

Alejandro Cervantes-Carson
Research Director,
Inter-Disciplinary.Net,
Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain
E-Mail: acc [at] inter-disciplinary.net

Rob Fisher
Network Leader
Inter-Disciplinary.Net,
Freeland, Oxfordshire,
United Kingdom
E-Mail: ic3 [at] inter-disciplinary.net

The conference is part of the 'Diversity and Recognition' research projects, which in turn belong to the 'At the Interface' programmes of Inter-Disciplinary.Net. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore discussions which are innovative and challenging. All papers accepted for and presented at the conference will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be developed for publication in a themed hard copy volume.

For further information about the project, please visit:
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/at-the-interface/diversity-recognition/interculturalism/

For further information about the conference, please visit:
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/at-the-interface/diversity-recognition/interculturalism/call-for-papers/

CFP: 15th International Conference on Cross-Cultural Communication

Deadline extended to June 15, 2009

website

Intercultural Communication and Collaboration within and across Sociolinguistic Environments

Final Call for Papers

The 15th International Conference on Cross-Cultural Communication

September 18-20, 2009
Kumamoto Gakuen University, Japan

The continuing globalization of the world brings ever-increasing opportunities to share knowledge and ideas across sociolinguistic boundaries. This is not simply a matter of the world becoming smaller or more alike--on the contrary, recognition and respect of diversity have become prerequisites in face of the need to understand and get along with each other. Moreover, intercultural sensitivity and accommodation are necessary for successful collaboration towards exchange and resolution of global issues.

The importance of effective communication across different environments has long been recognized; however, it is becoming more apparent that the need for enhanced communication skills to share ideas effectively even within the same sociolinguistic environment is posing an ever increasing challenge. This is at least partly due to the relative decrease in face-to-face communication that has become a dangerous side-effect of the bewildering increase in methods of global communication and the speed of change in the environment itself. The challenge of successful cooperation not only across but also within sociolinguistic and cultural boundaries, then, remains in the limelight today.

This year's conference aims to bring together experts in cross-cultural communication studies with a focus on recognition of the changing communicative environment in which we live and work, with the hope that new ideas and opportunities for collaboration will result. As an interdisciplinary conference on human communication across cultures, the suggested paper topics, therefore, cover a wide range of communication related themes. The following are potential paper topics.

• Approaches to intercultural communication study
• Business communication across cultures
• Communication accommodation
• Communication and globalization
• Communication education
• Computer mediated communication
• Conflict and negotiation
• Crisis management
• Cross-cultural adaptation
• Cultural and linguistic diversity
• Cultural identity and globalization
• Digital communication
• Ethnicity and communication
• Group or organizational communication across cultures
• Harmony and diversity
• Health communication across cultures
• Information technology and culture
• Interpersonal/intercultural communication
• Intercultural / global communication competence
• Language and cultural education
• Language and media
• Language and society
• Language attitude
• Language change and language stability
• Language policy
• Media and culture
• Media literacy
• Rhetoric studies
• Risk communication across cultures
• Theory of intercultural communication from different perspectives
• Research methodology in intercultural communication studies
• Translation theory
• Verbal and nonverbal communication across cultures
• Interpersonal communication across cultures

Guidelines for Submission

Categories: Abstracts and panel proposals may be submitted.

• Abstract, 150-200 words in English, including affiliations, email addresses and mailing addresses for all authors. See the sample format of the abstract below.
• Panel proposal reflecting the conference theme may be submitted. All panel proposals should provide a 100-word rationale and 150 word abstract of each panelist's paper, mailing addresses and email addresses of all panelists.
  

Deadline: Please submit the abstracts and the complete panel proposals online as an MS Word attachment by June 15, 2009. Completed paper should be done by the time of the conference. Authors will be informed at the conference where to send the completed paper and when the deadline is for the consideration of being published in one of the two issues of the IAICS journal, Intercultural Communication Studies, which will be devoted to conference papers. All submissions will be carefully reviewed.

Conference language: International English

Organizational website: http://www2.kumagaku.ac.jp/teacher/~judy/cgi/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=IAICS.IAICS

Submission to: Judy Yoneoka and/or Yuko Takeshita at iaics2009 [at] kumagaku.ac.jp

Tunghai's water supply threatened

From the Taiwan News:

The management of Tunghai University in Taichung confirmed yesterday that they had received blackmail threats both yesterday and on Thursday threatening to poison the water on campus. The management revealed that police had retrieved fingerprints from the blackmail letters and are looking for the suspect.

Tunghai University phoned the police upon discovering a blackmail letter at the door of the president's office on Thursday. A phone call was made by an unidentified male yesterday morning to the school, threatening to put poison in campus water. The school immediately shut down the water source.

The blackmailer demanded NT$5 million in cash and 50 taels of gold (about 1850g) from the university in the letter which also included a threat of throwing a chlorine bomb, which is lethal when dissolved in water or in air. A sketch of the design of the chlorine bomb was attached with the letter to prove the blackmailer's bomb-making ability, said the police.

They've turned the water back on here, but as of last night they told us not to drink it.

[Update, 10:50 p.m.: According to an e-mail sent this evening from Tunghai's president, the water towers do not show signs of contamination. The drinking water machines are still not to be used until they are all thoroughly cleaned and their filters replaced. He also hints that some news reports on the incident are not entirely accurate, but says the school administration isn't yet at liberty to go into any detail. Stay tuned for more...]

[Update, 5/3/09: The Taiwan News reports that police have caught a suspect in the extortion plot. As is often the case, closed-circuit video played a role in the arrest:

According to police, Wang had made a series of phone calls the previous two days in which he gave instructions on where the money and gold should be placed.

In one of the phone calls, he asked Tunghai University administrators to relay a demand to seven other universities and colleges in Taichung County that they must each remit NT$80,000 to a designated bank account, or their water supplies would also be poisoned.

Police traced several of the calls to a public phone. They used footage from nearby roadside close-circuit television cameras to find the registration number of the motorcycle used by the person making the phone calls.

After establishing that the suspect was a man living in Daya Township in Taichung County, police zeroed in on him Saturday night.

According to TV news, the suspected extortionist was out of work and had gambling debts.]

CFP: Writing Research Across Borders II

website

Call for Proposals: Writing Research Across Borders II

George Mason University

February 17-20, 2011

Proposal Deadline May 3, 2010

As societies become more knowledge-intensive and communication technologies draw us more closely together, the importance of writing in economic, scientific, civic, personal, and social development becomes more apparent. Correspondingly, the imperative to conduct research on writing in schools and the workplace, in relationship to learning and development, and in all aspects of our lives has invigorated work among scholars in all regions of the world. The conference Writing Research Across Borders II will provide an opportunity for researchers to share their findings and set research agendas for the coming years.

Continuing the success of the three previous international research conferences held at the University of California, Santa Barbara, the 2011 Writing Research Across Borders II will be held at George Mason University in the Washington D.C./Northern Virginia area. We invite proposals that will continue to deepen the cross-disciplinary, international dialogues across the many different domains of writing research.

As in past years, this conference will focus on writing development across the lifespan, including the impact of new technologies on learning to write, early acquisition of writing, writing across grade levels (K-20), writing in the disciplines and professions, and writing in the workplace or other community and institutional settings. We invite proposals presenting research in these areas. We also invite proposals on any other areas of writing use and practice, such as writing in progressive or large scale educational programs, or proposals that link writing research and policies. We welcome papers raising methodological issues about researching writing. We invite work from any research tradition that is grounded in the tradition's previous research and pursues the methodical gathering of qualitative or quantitative data appropriate to its claims.

Proposals should identify the format preferred (panels, roundtables, individual presentations, and poster presentations). Individual or poster proposals should be a maximum of 500 words. Proposals with multiple presentations (panel and roundtable) should contain a short overview statement and then no more than 400 words per speaker. Proposals should specify the relevant research literatures, research questions, methods, data, and findings, as well as the scope and duration of the research projects.

The deadline for proposals is May 3, 2010. Please submit proposals in .doc or .rtf format by email attachment to writing [at] education.ucsb.edu. Also, be sure to include a title for your proposal and each speaker's individual talk, as well as contact information for each individual presenter.

Update on A Pail of Oysters

This has been quiet for a while, and will probably continue to be quiet for the foreseeable future. But I wanted to mention that after finishing an article a while back on A Pail of Oysters (Vern Sneider's 1953 novel about martial-law Taiwan), I came across a new/old reference to the book. In a 1954 report of a US Senate subcommittee on "Strategy and Tactics of World Communism", former Director of the USIS in China John Caldwell had the following to say about the effects of Communism on the US publishing industry:

The Communists have made use of American naivete to so poison the minds of editors, writers, and publishers and Foreign Service personnel that it is difficult to make an honest decision today on either Nationalist China or Korea. The Department of State, like our courts, operates on a body of precedent. When it is necessary to draft a cable of instructions, an officer goes into the files to see what has been done, what has been reported and advised previously. The files are stacked today with anti-Chiang, anti-Nationalist material. The same situation prevails with respect to Syngman Rhee. Until several years have passed during which we have objective, anti-Communist reporting it will be difficult to expect decisions and actions favorable to our friends in Asia.

Newspapers, magazines, and book publishers suffer in a similar manner. For years Edgar Snow was a prominent editor of the Saturday Evening Post. His pro-Chinese Communist bias is well known. But what has not been recognized is the influence he left behind. The "body of precedent" he bequeathed has undoubtedly had a profound effect upon the Post's selection of articles. As far as I know there has never been a best selling or even moderately well selling book on the Far East basically favorable to our logical allies. There have been numerous books on the other side. These titles have been vigorously promoted and have sold well. This has been the pattern since Thunder Out of China by White and Jacoby became a best seller and a Book-of-the-Month Club selection in 1945 until the most recent effort to smear Chiang bookwise appeared in the form of a book titled "A Pail of Oysters" by Vern Sneider. Published last fall this thoroughly dishonest book received rave reviews. In the Saturday Review of Literature it was reviewed by one Pat Frank who stated that the book cast a bright light thrust into the infected peritoneum of Formosa * * * it is a true light." Mr. Frank says that the Nationalists are rightly described as "swine" and concludes his review with the statement that anyone who reads A Pail of Oysters will understand "why all of our money and all our men can't put Chiang Kai-shek together again." Also published last fall, Formosa Beachhead by Geraldine Fitch is a factual, honest account of the tremendous progress made on Formosa, of the promise this progress holds for the mainland of China. Mrs. Fitch's book has been ignored by the reviewers, has sold less than 3,000 copies. (p. 99)

I haven't seen "rave reviews" for Oysters--they seem to have been pretty mixed, in fact. (I'm not surprised the more left-leaning Saturday Review of Literature would have had a positive review of the novel, though.)

Source: Strategy and Tactics of World Communism: Hearing before the Subcommittee To Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws of the US Senate Judiciary Committee, 83rd Cong., 2nd Sess., 95 (1954) (testimony of John C. Caldwell). (Available online.)

Update, 3/6/09: More on Caldwell--a brief biographical sketch from another part of the source cited above:

Mr. Caldwell, author of the Korea Story and China Coast Family, is a former State Department official. He was born on the China coast, son of missionary, speaks the Chinese dialects spoken on Formosa. He also speaks Korean. His present reports from the Far East have special value because he can communicate with locals in their language. His China Coast Family is a major book club selection for December. (105)

Article about Doris Brougham in Taipei Times

Profile of the English teacher/missionary who has been in Taiwan for over half a century

Michael Turton's review of recent Brookings conference on cross-strait relations...

... confirms to me that my earlier pessimism about the incoming US administration's position on Taiwan isn't too far off.

Michael has a good review of a presentation by Richard Bush, former head of the US's de facto embassy in Taiwan and currently director of the Brookings Institution’s Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies. Bush, Michael says, "will no doubt oversee Taiwan policy for the Obama Administration". In his talk, Bush stressed the importance of the "process" in Taiwan-China relations and the importance of "pragmatism". Michael has some choice words for what "process" might actually mean to those emphasizing it:

The emphasis on process resulted, inevitably, in questions from the audience asking what the outcomes would be, or what the benefits of continuing the process might be. Bush dodged these and refused to specify what outcome would be desired or likely. The process was put forth as the goal, suggesting that (1) the Establishment wants to deliver Taiwan to China with a big bow-tie on it since we all know where the KMT is heading; (2) the Establishment thinks that the Taiwan-China diplomatic process is going to be like the Middle East peace process: interminable, and providing plenty of employment for diplomats, hence outcomes are irrelevant; (3) the Establishment thinks the US has little power to influence outcomes; or (4) the Establishment knows that as long as they emphasize process and appear to do China's bidding, China will be happy, while the independence movement in Taiwan will never permit the actual annexation of Taiwan to China. Hence, stalemate, no real loss. The reader may choose; I cannot.

Michael also analyzes what the dual emphasis on "process" and "pragmatism" actually means for the so-called status quo between Taiwan and China:

Many people, including many in the DPP, have expressed fear at the likely negative impact of Obama's China policy on Taiwan. I have to say that I saw nothing to reassure me on that score. Whatever the actual reasons for the Establishment's position, the emphasis on a process that can only result in Taiwan's annexation to China in some form, legitimated by an emphasis on a pragmatism that for practical purposes is ostensibly value-free, cannot be good for Taiwan. Another bit of interesting fall-out is the "ratchet effect" on the status quo -- as the process becomes the status quo, by default, moves away from it and in defense of Taiwan's sovereignty and democracy will be termed status quo violations, while moves toward China, though violations of any rational definition of the status quo, will be applauded.

All in all, rather depressing prospects. I doubt I would have voted for McCain if I were only thinking about Taiwan, but I'm sad at the prospect that the incoming Democrat administration might care as little about Taiwan as the previous administrations have.

CFP: Conference on Human Rights, International Law & Collective Violence

Very timely...

*International and Interdisciplinary Conference*

Dates: April 17-18 2009

Topic: Human Rights, International Law & Collective Violence

Sponsored by the Center for Spirituality, Ethics and Global Awareness and International Program,

Davis and Elkins College, WV

*Call for Papers
*Deadline for Abstract: *February 20th, 2009*

*Suggested Subtopics:*

Psychology of Violent Group Behavior; Genocide, Rebellion, Cults; Mass Murder; Intentional Criminality and Criminal Violence; Workplace Violence; Collective Violence and Social Pluralism; Collective Violence in Groups and Social Pluralism; Groups and Governments; Violence and Collective Responsibility; Violence and Politics; Bio-Terrorism and Counter Measures; Gender Violence; Collective Identity and Escalation of Ethnic Conflict; Collective Violence and Individual Punishment; Criminality of Mass Atrocity; Computer Ethics and Collective Violence; Violence in Prison; Globalization and International Law; International Environmental Law and Policy; International Human Rights; Terrorism, Pacifism and the Culture of War; Gandhi and the Philosophy of Non-Cooperation; Television, Terrorism and War/Peace Discourse(s); Muslim-Christian Relations in an Age of Terror; Origins of Terrorism (past and present); Arts, War and Peace; Strategies for Peace in a Time of Terror; Peace Narratives in Contemporary Film and Literature; Terror, Politics & Economics; The Internationalization of Terrorism; Violence and Religion Post 9/11; Gandhi and MLK, Jr.: Theories of Resistance and Nonviolence; The Paradox of Violence; Film, War and a Discourse of Dissent; Contemporary Anti-War Poetry; Terrorism: What is it?; Terrorism and the Role of Radical Religions; Suicide Terrorism; The Objectives of Terrorism; Tactics of Terrorism; Terrorism, Targeting, Ethnicity and Race; Homeland Security (Anti-terror Policy); Fundamentalisms, Pluralism and the Conditions for War and Peace; Terrorism & Nationalism; Europe & Islamic Fundamentalist Terrorism

- *Selected papers from Conference will be subjected to editorial review*
- There is a small travel fund available for early submissions**

*Contact:*
Chandana Chakrabarti,Ph.D.

Dean of International Program
Director of the Center for Spirituality, Ethics and Global Awareness
Phone: 304-637-1293

E-mail: Chakrabartic@DavisAndElkins.edu
Chandanachak@gmail.com

Tell the new US administration you want support for Taiwanese self-determination

Via Tom Benson's blog, I found out about the incoming US administration's website, Change.gov. They've got forms for people to submit their hopes and vision for the new administration. The cynic in me suggests that this attempt at "open" government isn't really going to go anywhere, but the idealist in me wrote something to them, anyway. I expressed my hope that the US would be more supportive of the rights of the Taiwanese people for self-determination regarding their future. (This assumes that Taiwan remains a democracy...)

Add your stories and visions! (I don't want to be the only fool doing it... ;) )

Mixed feelings

I don't know how to feel today. On the one hand, I'm happy about the results of the election in the US. On the other, I can't avoid getting the feeling that we're slowly sinking back into martial law here.

I'm going to copy a statement by international scholars and writers that Michael Turton posted since I'm pretty sure that the two or three people in the States who read my blog aren't the same as the (many more) people who read his. Hope the word can get out.

November 4, 2008

JOINT STATEMENT

US, European and Australian scholars and writers express concern about prosecutions in Taiwan

The undersigned, scholars and writers from the US, Europe and Australia wish to express their deep concern about the recent series of detentions in Taiwan of present and former DPP government officials. To date there have been at least seven such cases (See list below).

以下聯署的國際學者對於近日台灣政府一連串拘留卸任與現任民進黨政府官員的行動，深表憂慮。直至今日，據我們瞭解共有七件類似案件。

It is obvious that there have been cases of corruption in Taiwan, but these have occurred in both political camps. The political neutrality of the judicial system is an essential element in a democracy. It is also essential that any accused are considered innocent until proven guilty in the court of law.

很明顯的，貪污這個問題在台灣依然存在，但是這樣的案例在兩大政黨裡均曾發生。司法系統維持政治中立是民主的基本要素。堅持任何被指控者在裁定有罪前均是無罪的法律理念也是必要的。

We also believe that the procedures followed by the prosecutor's offices are severely flawed: while one or two of the accused have been formally charged, the majority is being held incommunicado without being charged. This is a severe contravention of the writ of habeas corpus and a basic violation of due process, justice and the rule of law.

我們認為檢察官所採取的法律程序有著嚴重的缺失：雖然當一、兩位被指控者已被正式起訴時，大多數被指控者卻在未被正式起訴情況之下就遭到收押禁見。這嚴重違反了人身保護令以及正當法律程序、公義與法治。

In the meantime, the prosecutor's offices evidently leak detrimental information to the press. This kind of "trial by press" is a violation of the basic standards of judicial procedures. It also gives the distinct impression that the Kuomintang authorities are using the judicial system to get even with members of the former DPP government. In addition, the people who are being held incommunicado are of course unable to defend themselves against the misreporting and the leaks in the news media.

在此同時，檢察官辦公室很明顯地將相關不利消息透露給媒體。這種「透過媒體辦案」的方式違反司法程序的基本標準；也讓外界認為國民黨政府利用司法系統來報復已下台的民進黨政府。此外，被收押禁見的人，在與外界斷絕聯繫的情況下，無法澄清外界不實報導與媒體洩密。

We do firmly believe that any alleged wrongdoings must be dealt with in a fair and open manner in an impartial court. Justice through the rule of law is essential to Taiwan's efforts to consolidate democracy and protect fundamental human rights.

我們深信任何宣稱的犯罪行為應該以公正與公開的方式，在中立的法庭裡審判。透過法治落實司法，才能強化台灣民主與保障基本人權。

We do not want to see Taiwan's hard-earned democracy jeopardized in this manner. Taiwan can justifiably be proud of its transition to democracy in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It would be sad for Taiwan and detrimental to its international image if the progress which was made during the past 20 years would be erased. Taiwan needs to move forward, not backwards to the unfair and unjust procedures as practiced during the dark days of Martial Law (1947-87).

我們不願見到台灣辛苦得來的民主陷入如此困境。台灣因 為在八零年代後期與九零年早期成功轉型為民主國家，而引以為傲。如果過去二十年來的民主進展從此抺煞，這不僅將令人難過，台灣的國際形象也將受到嚴害傷 害。台灣必須向前邁進，而不應是開倒車回到過去戒嚴黑暗時代的不公與不義。

Signed:

簽署人：

Nat Bellocchi, former Chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan 　
Julian Baum, former Taiwan Bureau Chief, Far Eastern Economic Review
Coen Blaauw, Formosan Association for Public Affairs, Washington DC
David Prager Branner, Director at Large (East Asia), American Oriental Society
Gordon G. Chang, author, "The Coming Collapse of China."
June Teufel Dreyer, Professor of Political Science, University of Miami, Florida
Edward Friedman, Professor of Political Science and East Asian Studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Bruce Jacobs, Professor of Asian Languages and Studies, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
Richard C. Kagan, Professor Emeritus of History, Hamline University, St. Paul Minnesota
Jerome F. Keating, Associate Professor, National Taipei University (Ret.). Author, "Island in the Stream, a quick case study of Taiwan's complex history" and other works on Taiwan
Daniel Lynch, Associate Professor, School of International Relations, University of Southern California
Victor H. Mair, Professor of Chinese Language and Literature, University of Pennsylvania
Donald Rodgers, Associate Professor of Political Science, Austin College, Texas
Terence Russell, Professor of Chinese Language and Literature, University of Manitoba
Scott Simon, Professor of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Ottawa
John J. Tkacik Jr., Senior Research Fellow, The Heritage Foundation, Washington DC
Gerrit van der Wees, Editor Taiwan Communiqué, Washington DC
Vincent Wei-cheng Wang, Professor of Political Science, University of Richmond, Virginia
Arthur Waldron, Lauder Professor of International Relations, University of Pennsylvania
Stephen Yates, President of DC Asia Advisory and former Deputy Assistant to the Vice President for National Security Affairs
---------------------------------------------------------------

Specific cases of concern:
-- The arrest and detention on October 15th of former Interior minister Yu Cheng-hsien;

-- The arrest and detention on October 27th of former Hsinchu Science Park Director and Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection Dr. James Lee;

-- The arrest and detention on October 29th of DPP Chiayi County Commissioner Chen Ming-wen;

-- The indictment on October 30th of DPP Tainan City Councilor Wang Ting-yu;

-- The arrest and detention on October 31st of former National Security Council (NSC) secretary-general and Deputy Prime Minister Chiou I-jen;

-- The questioning of former Foreign Minister Dr. Mark Chen on November 3rd and insinuations in the press that he might be charged and arrested.

-- The arrest and detention on November 4th of DPP Yunlin County Magistrate Ms. Su Chih-fen.

Note: Ms. Su Chih-fen has refused to post bail and is currently on a hunger strike in protest of her detention. She has several health conditions already, including high blood pressure and liver problems. Here's an article about her arrest.

Three new Taiwan-related books in the former native speaker's library

Been out-of-my-mind busy recently, but I bought these (or they've arrived) within this past week.

• <<自由中國>>與臺灣自由主義思潮: 威權體制下的民主考驗 by 何卓恩
• When Valleys Turned Blood Red: The Ta-pa-ni Incident in Colonial Taiwan by Paul R. Katz
• The Taiwan Confrontation Crisis by George H. Kerr

The first book is about the famous journal Free China Fortnightly that was started by Lei Chen and Hu Shih and shut down around the time Lei Chen was arrested in 1960. The book looks pretty tough, though--lots of political philosophy (and in Chinese, yet!). The author, He Zhuo'en, is actually from Hubei and teaches at Huazhong Normal University. We'll have to see how that fact colors his perspective (or my perspective on his book).

The third book was published in 1986 by FAPA and the Formosan Association for Human Rights.

Now if I can ever get any time to read any of them...

CFP: Local memories in a nationalizing and globalizing world (1750 up to present)

via H-Memory:

CALL FOR PAPERS; LOCAL MEMORIES IN A NATIONALIZING AND GLOBALIZING WORLD (1750 UP TO PRESENT)

The Center for Political History, the Center for Urban History (University of Antwerp) and
FelixArchief (Antwerp City Archives) are organizing a conference on:
LOCAL MEMORIES IN A NATIONALIZING AND GLOBALIZING WORLD (1750 UP TO PRESENT)

Place: FelixArchief, Oudeleeuwenrui 29, 2000 Antwerp
Date: 15th-16th October 2009

In academic discourse, the concept of 'collective memory' has migrated, since the 1950s from the field of the social to that of the cultural sciences. Maurice Halbwachs' intuition that collective memory was essentially a pre-existing social fact structuring individual past-relationships, gave way to the recognition that social memories are more or less intentionally construed with the aim of creating and consolidating identities. It was in this constructivist vein that the concept became successful among historians, thoroughly influenced by the cultural turn. Their focus was on the way memories were forged through stories, monuments and other cultural artifacts, that came to serve as lieux de mémoire within specific collectivities. Among these collectivities, nations have received the lion's share of the historians' attention. In spite of a recent re-orientation to the memories of other - most often smaller - 'milieux de mémoire', the central premise has remained that intellectual and political elites deliberately produced memories, which were consumed by the masses. Even when it is admitted that 'consumption' can consist of active and creative appropriation, the overall top-down perspective seems to be largely unquestioned.

This conference opts for a more dynamic view of the creation and transmission of memories. It focuses on the ways in which memories were recurred to and used in the everyday discourses and practices of groups at a local level. These groups can be defined along different lines (socio-professional, geographic, generational, religious, ethnic, ...) and have various extensions (a neighborhood, a village, a town, a region); moreover, the discourses and practices can bear upon the most diverse aspects of life and take on the most diverse forms (textual, oral, visual, material). Not the straightforward creation of master narratives about the group's own past will be the main concern of the conference, but the way in which these groups more or less consciously - and more or less successfully - combined diverse, sometimes even conflicting memories. Doing so, the organizers hope fully to re-inscribe the concept of memory into the field of social history. The period that will be investigated - from 1750 until today - is characterized by the rise and the expansion of the nation state, and by the competing process of globalization. The efforts that were made during this period to create homogeneous national memories will serve during this conference as a background to the study of local memories. Did these local memories resist the growing prominence of national memory, did they incorporate aspects of it, or did they exist and develop without any interference of 'the national'? And how did local memories interact with globalizing processes
such as colonization and migration?

Within this general framework, papers should address one of the following themes:
- The deliberate creation of institutions for the preservation and transmission of local memories (local museums, associations, courses in primary schools on local history, citizen initiatives,...).
- Local forms of historiography, without or within the academic sphere.
- The presence of the past in ritualized forms of community building at a local or regional level (celebrations, liturgies, monuments,...).
- The presence of the past in non-ritualized, group-specific practices and discourses (the transmission of professional skills, name-giving, ...).
- The recurrence to the past in conflicts between groups or in acts of local resistance.
- The transmission (and alteration) of traditions as a way of preserving group-specific memories in changing contexts.
- The experience of the local past by individuals, through the study of ordinary writings, oral sources or their material heritage.

Organizing committee:
Marnix Beyen (Center for Political History - Univ. of Antwerp )
Bert De Munck (Center for Urban History - Univ. of Antwerp)
Brecht Deseure (Center for Urban History - Univ. of Antwerp)
Inge Schoups (FelixArchief, Antwerp City Archives)
Carolien Van Loon (Center for Political History - Univ. of Antwerp)
Tom Verschaffel (KULeuven - Subfaculty of Arts Campus Kortrijk)

Contact:
Tel. : ++ 32 (0)3 220 42 68
Email: local.memories@ua.ac.be
Website: www.ua.ac.be/localmemories

PLEASE SEND YOUR ABSTRACT (OF ABOUT 500 WORDS TO local.memories@ua.ac.be BEFORE 1ST NOVEMBER 2008

New book in the former native speaker's library

• Formosa: Licensed Revolution and the Home Rule Movement, 1895-1945, by George H. Kerr (Honolulu: U of Hawaii P, 1974)
  Good condition, but no dust cover; title page autographed by George H. Kerr; inscription on inside front cover: "For Bill Kerr the 2nd, from Jack Kerr, the 1st, Honolulu, November 16, 1974" ("Jack" is most likely George Kerr, since Jack was his nickname [click on the image of the letter].* But who's Bill Kerr the 2nd?)

*Or check out these letters to Jack Kerr, written in 1947...

Our new pet?

This critter has decided to move in with us recently. What shall we call it?


(Click on the picture for a larger version... if you dare...)

In fact, what is it? I mean, I know it's a spider, but...



It doesn't seem to do much but wander around, yawning and stretching...



and occasionally picking its nose...



Seems to have taken a shine to us, though. Maybe it's the reincarnation of Mei-Mei.

The spammers are getting more creative

Here are the subject lines of three four lots of e-mails I just received:

• "Stray javelin kills promising US sprinter"


• "Russia launches nuclear plant"


• "Charred bodies found on White House lawn"


• "Freak accident causes Tom cruise to be paralysed"


• "Two-headed baby born in Texas"


• "Michael Vick escapes from Federal jail" (this one might need a footnote)


• "Madonnas Former Home Destroyed By Jesus"

More as I get them... maybe it could be a found poem.

(Pardon me for a moment while I put my fist through this computer monitor...)

[Update: There. That felt better.]