Mirror Signal Move

Notice

2017-08-26T17:14:00.000+08:00

As mentioned previously, I am changing everything and moving away from Google. To that end I have just set up a wordpress account...

... www.mirrorsignalmoveblog.wordpress.com

This is where I can be found from now on. I am in the process of transferring my important work from this site to the new one. I would have preferred to use Minds.com but the beta version still has basic issues and is awkward to use whereas wordpress is pretty straightforward.

Pictures Of Tainan...

2017-08-18T13:41:00.001+08:00

Ben Shapiro On Charlottesville

2017-08-15T23:10:00.002+08:00

I was going to write something about this earlier this morning, but ran out of time. Never mind, Ben Shapiro is far more thorough than I could have been with my limited time and multiple responsibilities. The utterly crass nature and stupidity of identity politics was obvious for years even before recent insanities. The only thing I would add to what looks like a looming civil conflict in the U.S. is that this conflict is not confined to the U.S. or even "the West" in general. Here in Taiwan for example, the obvious threat to our freedom is China but in my opinion there is also a growing liability of an increasingly politicized youth - largely because they are being radicalized by capital "L" Leftist SJW control freaks. It would be a terrible irony if Taiwan were to successfully deter Chinese annexation, only to self-impose mob rule and domestic Leftist tyranny.

Fortunately, we appear to still be some way from that happening.

James Damore Interview With Ben Shapiro

2017-08-12T08:39:00.003+08:00

"Goolag Archipelago"

2017-08-10T11:40:00.004+08:00

My output here has progressively declined in the last couple of years largely because I need to find another way to do it, and because I have a lot of distractions. But I have never kept quiet out of fear.

The story of the recently fired Google employee James D'Amore for circulating a memo on the upper echelons of the Google company being an insane, double-think, capital "L" Leftist echo chamber is yet another flashlight upon the intrusion of human monsters behind the scenes. Scott Alexander has a good post about it here. How many people are now choosing to remain silent and censor themselves for fear of the online lynch mob?

It is time for me to finally leave the Blogger platform and Google entirely. I am beginning the process of transferring and archiving all of my work here and setting up new social media accounts at the new platforms that are springing up to lure users away from Facebook, Google, YouTube and Twitter. My only regret is that I cannot get out instantaneously.

A prediction: the SJW lynch mob will eventually turn on each other and lynch themselves, and it will be some consolation to sit back from afar and watch evil consume itself.

First Trip To Deyuan Lake Reservoir (德元埤水庫)

2017-08-07T01:15:00.002+08:00

Looking eastward from the Tainan 171 over the rice paddies to the earth dam at Wushantou reservoir.

The little replica windmill for which the site garners a certain amount of local fame. Place names in Taiwan occasionally baffle me; this lake in Tainan's Liouying district is called "Deyuan", which can be translated as either "German" or "German currency", and yet the entire site is peppered with references to the Netherlands like this windmill and a giant pair of wooden clogs. In addition, the entire site is referred to as "Holland Village" (荷蘭村) even though there isn't a village here. I can kind of understand the Dutch references given that the area in Liouying, as with other districts west of the foothills, is entirely flat and so bears a superficial resemblance to one of the Netherland's more famous characteristics, but then why the lake is called "German currency" lake is a mystery. I've asked Taiwanese friends, but I'm none the wiser for it.

Oddly enough, the reservoir is empty. I'm not quite sure why this is yet, though the obvious guess is that there is a serious sedimentation problem, though raw, uninformed observation alone is not a sufficient judge of this.

You can see that the reservoir is formed only when the river overflows the banks of sediment.

The arrow in the sculpture points directly north and away from the windmill in the background. I have no idea why.

The local feeder stream flowing westward into Deyuan reservoir. It is heavily supplemented by water from the Chiannan irrigation canal issuing out of nearby Wushantou reservoir. An auxilliary function of Deyuan reservoir, I suspect, is to serve as a flood control facility for water that must be released from both Wushantou reservoir and the Chiannan canal system. The lake may be defined as a reservoir, or it may also be considered as a wetlands area.

Looking downstream (northward) as the feeder stream approaches Deyuan reservoir from the south.

The southward facing gates of the spillway at the westernmost end of Deyuan reservoir.

Tainter gates; of the five gates, all but the central gate (shown left) were opened to release water.

The small stilling basin immediately beyond the gates.

Upstream view of the five spillway gates.

I left Deyuan reservoir and drove north to Baihe reservoir to try and improve upon the pictures I had taken there on Thursday, and yet I found that, not only was the weather slightly better (no rain), but that there was actually water issuing out of the spillway for the first time in a long time.

Water leaving the spillway must be an indication that an awful lot of sediment has been shifted in the last six months or so.

The ogee crest at the end of the spillway with the water falling over into the after bay. The fresh concrete of the new sluiceway is to the left.

The water seems to be coming out of the central gate only and yet it doesn't appear to have been raised at all and is on a level with the other two gates, left and right.

Another shot of the new sluiceway tunnel mouth with the bags of cement stacked up above the rip-rap.

Some parting shots on leaving Baihe late in the afternoon. This particular mountain has become so familiar to me.

A little panorama showing just how concentrated the dark clouds were.

Final picture of the day before the long drive back to Tainan city.

Quick Afternoon Trip To Yuanshuidapi (鹽水大埤)

2017-08-05T14:11:00.001+08:00

Yuanshuidapi is a small reservoir in Tainan's Xinhua district. Although there are a couple of tiny feeder streams at the back, I suspect it is for the most part a directly rain-fed reservoir like Manzihmanpi or Jianshanpi reservoirs. I was last here about six months ago when the water level was low but yesterday's trip is the first time I've seen Yuanshuidapi full or close to full.

Yuanshuidapi serves as the source for the Yuanshui river which runs through Tainan and passes by the remains of the old Dutch fort in the west of the city before entering the Taiwan Strait. Built between 1954 and 1955 its' primary function however was to provide supplemental irrigation water to that already provided by the nearby Houtopi reservoir about a kilometer and a half to the south. It is unusual in that the basin of the reservoir is formed from entirely man-made embankments in an approximate figure 8. The brown color of the water indicates high turbidity which may result from the reservoir being so shallow and small; from my observations six months ago when the water level was very low I think the depth of the water here will be no more than four or five meters at the deepest point.

The height of the rushes all along the embankment is an indicator of just how forgotten and neglected this place is. Unlike Houtopi which is a popular fishing spot, there aren't even any locals coming here to go fishing.

The upstream face of the four spillway tainter gates. There is no dam as such because the embankments encircle the reservoir completely aside from the feeder streams at the back and the spillway gates at the front.

Downstream face of the four tainter gates. Even though they are closed, there is plenty of water seeping out from the eroded undersides of the concrete spillway lip.

Looking up from the end of the spillway channel.

The abrupt end of the channel walls.

The beginning of the Yuanshui river that flows to the Taiwan Strait just to the north of Tainan city proper and the old Dutch fort in Anping.

On the way home I took a detour to explore a newly constructed extension to provincial highway 39 which runs beneath the HSR line. It runs north from Alian district down in Kaohsiung, through Tainan's Guiren district and the HSR station up into Xinhua and now all the way over into Xinshih district via this bridge over provincial highway 1. Potentially, this could be a superior route for me to get to work in Xinshih's science park on weekday evenings. The river in the distance to the left is the Yuanshui river as it rolls westward between the city's Yongkang district to the left (south) and Xinshih and Annan districts to the right (north).

Looking directly southward over the local TRA railway line between Xinshih and Yongkang to the left and provincial highway 1 to the right with a green corridor in between and the Yuanshui river passing underneath from left to right.

Looking eastward over the railway line and the floodplains of the Yuanshui river toward Yongkang.

Quick Check-In At Baihe Reservoir

2017-08-04T12:55:00.003+08:00

Full scene at the downstream face of the dam yesterday: there are only a few visible changes since last time I was here, the most obvious being that the water flow out from the irrigation channel is much higher since the recent rains. The concrete walls for the new sluiceway are still separated from the tunnel mouth as work continues inside there.

The main visible development is that the shoulder adjacent to the tunnel mouth is now partially covered by boulder rip-rap; the white bags surmounting this are most likely cement mix that must be kept dry prior to its' application.

The dam crest and spillway gates.

Female golden orb spider (nephila pilipes) in the process of determining that a fallen leaf is not actually a food source.

Extreme sexual dimorphism: the tiny orange spider sitting astride the abdomen of the larger spider is actually the male of the species, most likely attempting to mate with the female.

Not the end of the road, a section in which the tarmac had been washed away. This was at the northwest end of the reservoir and I was following google maps to see if I could get a hirtherto undiscovered view from the north-west. As I have found so many times elsewhere however, I found that the google map image is not accurate; beyond this point the road breaks out into a number of trails used by the bamboo farmers that aren't represented on the map. I spent about an hour walking uphill and downhill through the bush until I ran out of time and was left frustrated and riddled with insect bites.

Looking west into the setting sun: a farmer in his flooded rice paddies.

Looking east back to the mountains that overlook Baihe reservoir.

Miscellaneous Images Over Summer 2017

2017-07-28T01:00:00.001+08:00

Over the past two months or so I've done a number of trips, but for several reasons have not got around to writing them up on my blog. I partially rectify that now by posting them here although there is no particular order to them. Most of these trips were in and around Tainan, Kaohsiung and Chiayi although there was also one trip to Taipei in which I discovered that my Taipei motorbike had been stolen. That is a considerable setback which will probably necessitate getting a new one at some point, although the question of how to prevent it being stolen in Taipei city whilst I am in Tainan will need some attention...

Tseng-wen reservoir viewed from the north-west.

My Taiwanese friend Gary, a TSMC engineer, at Qingyun waterfall.

Myself, mid-dive.

Chiayi mountains.

Crested Serpent Eagle.

My mate Syd in my spare boat.

The mid-section of Tseng-wen reservoir before the plum rains.

Namaxia with "Longfong" waterfall.

Syd and I made the climb to Longfong waterfall. It used to be a tourist attraction prior to the 2009 disaster.

Eagles: the lords of the mountains.

Jesus breathing.

The mid-section of Tseng-wen reservoir after the plum rains.

Overlooking the Laonung river valley in Kaohsiung's most remote district...

Looking eastward over the Laonung river to Xiaonienxi (spelling) waterfall.

With girlfriend at the former British Consulate in Sizihuan.

Better than 101? My favourite Taiwan building.

Mountains in Chiayi's Fanlu district.

My favourite waterfall: Qingyun wagterfall.

In a 7-11 in Xindian. Motorbike stolen!

Doughnuts in Banqiao station while waiting for the HSR train back to Tainan.

Deadlifts: I'm lifting 70kg for several sets on a daily basis. I could probably lift heavier if I went to a gym, but I prefer working out in my garage, the park and at the university.

Fried river crabs in Jiaxian with Syd. Shirtless because it was raining outside and the air conditioner would have had me frozen in my soaked T-shirt.

Kaohsiung harbour. Once upon a time this used to be my city.

Buying mangoes in Tainan's Yujing district. Slightly cheaper than buying them in the city, so buy as many as you can fit in your fridge.

Myself in my preferred element, with my favourite Texas rifle T-shirt.

Chaos In The UK

2017-06-11T19:54:00.002+08:00

There is no great mystery, so far as I can see, as to why Theresa May and the UK Conservative Party just lost their parliamentary majority in this latest UK general election. Last year she had campaigned for Britain to remain in the European Union, and the loss of her parliamentary majority, whilst an outcome she could not reasonably have been expected to foresee, does make the sort of severance of ties between Britain and the EU that many of us wanted, much more vulnerable to political stitch up, which is precisely how she obtained the position of Tory leader in the first place.

As to her decision to call the snap election in the first place, consider the following question: why was a follow-on election from the referendum necessary to execute the "will of the people"? It wasn't necessary at all. The Conservative Party had a functioning parliamentary majority and they could have got the job done. Ms May's decision to call the snap election was a deliberate attempt to find excuses not to do her job and withdraw Britain from the EU. Had she won an increased majority, she could have turned round and argued that her "hands were tied" and that she had no choice but to follow through with a clean withdrawal of Britain from the EU, and in so doing act against the embedded interests of established political, financial and academic groups. She was looking for a way out and a way to protect herself from later retribution.

I am once again disgusted and enraged that the parliamentary Tory party stitched up their leadership election to exclude Andrea Leadsom for the benefit of that obvious ghoul Theresa May.

Now however, with no clear parliamentary majority for the Tories or for Labour, it's anyone's guess how long a new government will last before another election will have to be called again. And yet the negotiations for Britain's withdrawal from the EU are due to take place in less than two weeks time. Ideally, the British negotiating team should offer certain protections to EU citizens in terms of visas and related matters, but otherwise the basic position should be complete severance with not a toss given for whatever punitive costs the Germans try to impose on the UK.

They should be told to fuck off and do their worst.

With the commies getting over 40% of the electoral vote however, the future is bleak. It is not difficult to predict more violence in the streets of the UK, and not just from Islamic terrorism this time. The Left have to be thoroughly gutted if Britain or even just England, Scotland and Wales are to survive separately with anything like a recognizable culture.

Response To The Islamic Terrorist Bombing Of Manchester Arena

2017-05-26T12:32:00.003+08:00

The UK is sick; it is a safe haven for radical Islam and, more importantly, its' governing institutions have been infiltrated by the radical political correctness that has now come to typify the political left. Organized political action against the one is hampered by the other's appetite for surveillance and punitive strictures.

I can envisage bypassing the left's presence on university campuses by means of online education to some extent, but I cannot see how their presence in the police and in Parliament can be got around by any means other than a concerted campaign to flush them out.

An obvious question is whether action on that purpose is a necessary condition for success in preventing Islamic terrorism? Unfortunately, I think the answer is yes. Any attempt to organize will be undermined by the surveillance state the Left have built up. Over the long term, intelligence infiltration of mosques isn't going to work when so-called "radical" Muslims can become "radicalized" online and do not need to go the mosque to become so. Putting British soldiers on the streets of Manchester or any other city is just security theater at best, and at worst makes these soldiers a target for unknown assailants.

Over the long term the political end must be the eradication of Islam from Britain. That doesn't mean forming vigilante groups or rounding up all the Muslims and deporting them to the bottom of the Mediterranean sea, but it does mean a concerted and systematic campaign of administrative, commercial and social discrimination against them in order to make it extremely difficult for Muslims to continue to live in the UK without first publicly renouncing Islam so that they become apostates and have some form of registration. The sociological question is whether large scale apostasy will actually work as a means of reducing or preventing home-grown recruitment for Islamic terrorism. I don't know what the answer to that is, but it is a conceivable course of action for an organized and dominant British political force to take.

However, I doubt that it can be achieved without action to purge our governing institutions of the radical political correctness which the political left has allowed itself to degenerate into.

Update

2017-05-06T14:29:00.000+08:00

Although I haven't been posting much lately, I have been out and about taking pictures of the work going on at Taiwan's southern reservoirs. In all likelihood I won't post any pictures for the next couple of weeks. Several houses adjacent to my house are in the process of being demolished and at some point construction will begin on a new house. In the meantime I have to live with the disruption to my internet access, using only my phone whilst my computers remain shut down.

Later this month, weather permitting, I will travel back up north to see about completing the field work I had almost finished last year. In particular, I want some late afternoon shots over certain areas of Feitsui reservoir and a couple of visits to Xinshan reservoir to see the dam and diversion tunnel exit point. After that, I will decide whether to move the motorbike south and east to Hualien or south and west to Hsinchu. I'm much more keen on Hualien, though there is still some unfinished business at Shihmen reservoir and further south in Taichung. As long as I can keep enough money coming in, then I should be able to finish off all of my remaining field work this year.

France: Too Early Or Too Late?

2017-04-25T16:01:00.002+08:00

Although I predicted the U.S. election of Donald Trump and was delighted by the Brexit referendum result, I am reluctant to make any predictions about the outcome of France's second round of voting in their presidential election.

Much though there may be to disagree with her on, Le Pen is the only candidate who is taking the threat of Islamic terrorism seriously. I do however, suspect that there is far more moral, intellectual and financial corruption in France than there is anger and sorrow over the innocent people murdered by Islamic terrorists.

The French political and academic establishment are probably much more resistant to change than in the U.S. or Britain, as evinced by their history of recurring bloody revolutions. Eventually, the French will probably elect someone from the Right who is prepared to take Islamic terrorism seriously.

Two questions occur to me: whether it is too early for them to elect Le Pen, and whether it will be too late for them to solve the problem of Islamic terrorism without recourse to bloody revolution if they don't vote for her?

Leave The Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) Statues Alone

2017-04-24T10:51:00.001+08:00

Among the news this morning is that a DPP legislator, Pasuya Yao (姚文智), has proposed a bill to remove all statues of Chiang Kai-shek to a mausoleum in Taoyuan county. Two reasons are given for this: first, that symbols of Chiang are reminders of Taiwan's anti-democratic past so should not be on public display, and second, that the decapitation of these statues (and that of the Yoichi Hatta statue at Wushantou reservoir) is the government's fault for not having removed them.

This is disturbing.

First of all, there is a deep stupidity in the decapitation of these statues; the crimes of which Chiang is accused are already deep in the past and cannot be undone. Chiang is a part of Taiwan's history and to seek to eradicate the cultural memory of him is a dangerous mistake, as this memory should serve a reminder of how far Taiwan has come in becoming a modern, liberal country. There is only the future and so the impulse to purge symbols of Taiwan's past portend the arrival of a dangerous sectarianism. I have long thought that the most likely threat to Taiwan is not military assault from China, but the shoots of domestic tyranny growing out of the cultural undergrowth and fertilized by the political system. The best answer for the government is not to acquiesce to the demands of these sectarian pathogens but to keep the statues on public display where they are and use existing laws to punish those who vandalize them. For the people, the best response is probably mockery of those who vandalize these statues.

You're a bit fucking late aren't you?

Second, the vandalism of these statues is obviously not the government's fault, but the fault of the people who actually perpetrated the vandalism. This is just basic common sense and the necessary principle of justice that individuals be accountable for their actions. To blame the government for these acts of vandalism, as Pasuya Yao is doing, is grossly irresponsible as that blame can only mean that individuals have no control over their actions and are subject to unattributed and unexplained social forces, which is the evil gibberish of the Left used to excuse any criminal behaviour they find useful to excuse.

If the motives which led people to decapitate statues are continually indulged by stupid politicians, then we are going to move step by step closer to domestic sectarian conflict. The people who vandalize statues, whether it be a statue of Chiang Kai-shek or of Yoichi Hatta or a statue of any other historical figure, should be publicly ridiculed and punished under existing laws.

Three Recent Irritants

2017-04-17T11:47:00.001+08:00

I want to quickly write down my thoughts on three recent things in the news.

First, a friend sent me news of the decapitation of the Yoichi Hatta statue at Wushantou reservoir the other day. Here's the Taipei Times report. I agree with the writers in their suspicion that this was the work of stupid kids in retaliation for the vandalization of Chiang Kai-shek statues elsewhere in Taiwan by college students. The question to ask is whether this kind of thing is happening now due to increasing political polarization as seen in the West? It's possible, and I have written before about the asinine function of Taiwanese politics in lionizing Hatta, whilst ignoring the legacy of those engineers responsible for Taiwan's other reservoirs (this is important: Wushantou reservoir would be nowhere near as effective as it is today without the construction of Tseng-wen reservoir between 1967 and 1973 during the martial law period). The complaint is not that Hatta doesn't deserve praise and memory for his excellent work, but that other engineers do too for their work not only at Taiwan's other reservoirs, but at other critical infrastructure projects (e.g. the massive power plant in Taichung). Yet instead of praise these men are purposefully ignored almost certainly for political reasons related to the ethnic and ideological divisions in Taiwan.

Second, I noticed a few articles (e.g. here) arguing that should the Trump administration offer to sell F-35Bs to Taiwan then the Taiwan government should refuse. Among the arguments used to justify this was cost and lack of effectiveness and I think both of these are flawed, although the argument from cost is more serious.

The F-35 B is very expensive obviously, but the argument from cost was that Taiwan's Airforce would have to retire its fleet of F-16s in order to pay for the maintenance of the F-35s, and I think this indicates a misunderstanding. The point of the F-35 is to augment existing military assets by means of its' superior situational awareness capabilities, not to replace them. Funding the procurement and maintenance of the F-35 might require a reorganization of how the military is funded, for example by (long overdue) budget cuts to education and increased debt. Those possibilities were not considered, and I would think a serious budget cut to education would be a very good thing on its' own as the universities and high schools are bloated and it should be increasingly obvious that much of what they purportedly achieve can be shifted online for a fraction of the cost.

The argument from lack of effectiveness is that in an all-out military assault on Taiwan, China would eventually prevail by destroying not only runways but also airbases and their logistical support facilities. This is a specious argument for several reasons. First it is not specific to the F-35 but to Taiwan having any sort of airforce at all and discounts entirely all other scenarios in which Taiwan might want to deter Chinese intrusions into Taiwanese airspace short of all out war. Second, it does not take into account that runways and airbases are fairly easy to repair - the high value targets are the expensive jets themselves, not the cheap runways and office buildings. Third, the F-35 has probably the best aircraft radar in the world at the moment - the AN/APG81 - as well as a suite of sensors that provide the pilot with a very great advantage in situational awareness and one which is communicable to other military assets such as other fighter aircraft, surface vessels, land-based missile defense systems and submarines. Instead of regarding the F-35 B as just a fancy jet capable of short take off and vertical landing, it needs instead to be seen as a force multiplier.

The third thing I wanted to note was my yawn at the recent legislative "landmark step" of amending the Animal Protection Act to double the punishments for cruelty to domestic pets. What angers me about this is the idiocy of using legislation as symbolism to "send messages". It's fucking stupid and has nothing to do with the actual problem. The problem is a moral one which has cultural and economic ties - cruelty to cat and dogs arises from personal irresponsibility, not from a lack of legal deterrents. It was only a month or so ago that I found yet another abandoned puppy in the park and adopted her - why always me? It's either that I'm a sucker who is soft on dogs, or because I'm the only person who is willing and able to assume the responsibility of looking after these animals. A big part of the problem as to why Taiwanese mostly do not adopt stray dogs is aesthetics. They typically want either a "cute" toy breed, or they want a relatively exotic, large breed dog (e.g. a Siberian Husky, or an Irish Setter) that is unsuited to the hot and humid climate. Another aspect of the problem is the old people, because old people in Taiwan typically view dogs as dirty pests to be either eaten or regarded with fear. Yet another part of the problem is women, because - in general - women are the ones who want to get dogs, but in general they only want a cute, toy breed and aren't capable of looking after a larger, more robust and energetic Taiwanese mongrel. I could rant about this all day, but it should suffice to say that this legislative change is not going to magic the problem away and will achieve little beyond making lazy, irresponsible people feel better about themselves - that instead of taking action on their own personal powers to address this problem, they successfully lobbied the government into pretending to give a shit. It's not that laws against animal cruelty aren't necessary, it's that the problem can't be solved without a bottom-up effort that involves individual people assuming responsibility. A prediction: there will be a decline in the stray dog population in the cities, and an increase in the stray dog population in the countryside, where many of them will fall sick, get injured and run over by trucks in the middle of the night. That's what Taiwanese people do: they drive the dogs out to the mountains and abandon them because they have a fucking Narnia-like view of nature.

I am going to be busy making videos for a while between work and other responsibilities, but I need to get back to my reservoir work soon. I am nearly finished my field work, but it is already the middle of April and I've done very little since the end of last year.

An Update On Several Developments

2017-03-26T18:44:00.001+08:00

I've written a lot less here recently, but I'm in the process of working out and planning a new YouTube channel for which I'll probably spend more time on in the future. Political events in Taiwan continue to cry out for a response, but I can't bring myself to do that here any longer. I need a new venue and a new approach. There are a lot of variables to be set, including interviewees and possible partnerships and it is going to take time. I have a friend in Kaohsiung who will be involved from time to time in some capacity, and I am thinking about recruiting some help. We've already done some videos, but a recurring difficulty has been the technical quality (picture and sound). New equipment will have to be bought, but I am also thinking about redecorating a spare room upstairs and getting some new furniture from which to make the videos, as my dogs are a distraction in the living room and my current coffee table and sofa combination contributes to bad posture. I should probably add some pictures in the background of my various reservoir trips, birds of prey I have photographed, and my dogs.

Besides that, I am also getting fit again by running, cycling, working out with my jump-rope and by lifting weights in my garage. I have a bar with two pairs of weights which I use for deadlifting and curls, a couple of little 16 lb dumbbells and a pair of heavy 44lb kettlebells. The aim is not to lose weight as such, but to reduce my body fat whilst increasing strength and stamina at the same time. In addition to the cardio and weight lifting, I'm also doing various calisthenics both with a mat in the garage and on the pull-up bars and benches in the park. I have even reduced my alcohol and sugar consumption to the point where I am going day after day after day without a drop of beer and maybe only one cup of coffee. I've already lost an appreciable amount of body fat and added some muscle mass, but the aim is to keep improving until I eliminate the beer belly entirely.

In addition, I have been trying to get more work outside of my three main gigs and figuring out how to do that on a largely trial by error process, which is time consuming (it basically eats up about 70% of my mornings before I go to work). The aim is to add another three to four gigs to what I am currently doing, but keep the time limited to mornings. If I can manage that, then eventually I may be able to add a few more and think about a few other changes.

And finally, about a week ago I adopted a new puppy. I was going to say reluctantly, and whilst another dog is an additional expense in time and money, I couldn't really say no once she was looking up at me with nobody else willing to take her in. The poor little thing was abandoned by her owners in the park and left there to either be adopted or eventually run over by a car once she strayed onto the road in search of food. All the other people who visit the park trotted out the usual excuses as to their unwillingness to adopt. So again it was left to me to pick up the pieces and assume the responsibility. And other than an episode yesterday in which she pulled the plug out on my laptop, she has been a delight and my other youngest dog Erhjen has taken to her much better than I expected. One surprising thing about her is how little she has urinated and defecated in the house - almost not at all, save for a few "squirts of excitement" from time to time. She already seems to know to wait until she goes to the park, which is great for me.

I'm calling her "Fresno". I have no idea why; it was simply the first proper noun that jumped into my head, for reasons I could only speculate on.

Last weekend trip to Nanhua Reservoir to observe the construction work on the new sluiceway...

2017-03-11T00:09:00.000+08:00

Downstream from Nanhua reservoir; the riverbed is split into sections by small dams designed to slow down the flow rate in order to alleviate soil erosion further downstream from fast-flowing discharge waters. To the left you can also see a series of silt traps downstream from the exit point for the new sluiceway tunnel.

That sluiceway tunnel exit mouth. Once the tunnel is completed, a channel will be dug to direct the water into the silt traps before entering the main course of the river downstream from the spillway.

The spillway; it has a discharge capacity of 4,332 cubic meters per second all of which is entirely uncontrolled due to the open overflow design of the lip-shaped sill.

The dam; 4,991,000 cubic meters in volume; which is fairly large for Taiwan.

Looking over to the higher of two adit points giving construction access to the new sluiceway tunnel.

The lower adit point with the twin-boom Fairchild C-119 in the background.

Profile of the sluiceway exit mouth from up on the hillside.

The additional, short dams downstream from the spillway's stilling basin. They double as silt traps in their own right but their primary function is to slow down the flow of water when the spillway is in operation.

The silt traps for the sluiceway.

Artificial wharf at the reservoir's southern end. This platform is used for loading equipment onto barges so that they can be sent northward (left) to the construction site at the upstream mouth of the new sluiceway. The reservoir is approximately half-full at the moment, and you can see from this image that there is a distance of about eight to ten meters between the water and the bridge. When the reservoir is full with the spillway in operation, this bridge is entirely submerged.

The construction site for the upstream point of the new sluiceway. If I am correct, then the tunnel mouth you can see is actually another adit point to allow workers' access to the sluiceway via a gallery, not the actual mouth of the sluiceway itself, which should be situated at a somewhat lower elevation.

Looking out northward over the management center from the public viewing platform with the curved arch dam in the background.

First YouTube Video

2017-03-08T21:20:00.002+08:00

My friend Nathan Novak and I are starting up our own part-time video series talking about various topics related to Taiwan. Hopefully, this is the first of many videos to come, though as this is our first one there are problems with the video and audio quality which we'll get sorted out as we go on. Also, in watching it back again I cringe when I realize I used the word "county" instead of "district" when referring to the areas around Agongdian reservoir. Arggh! And my girlfriend says the laptop is too low and should be raised higher so I can look into the camera. Lots of little details to improve for the next one...

Juan Browne's Reporting Work At Oroville Reservoir

2017-03-03T22:02:00.003+08:00

I've been following his videos from the beginning of the Oroville crisis and he has been doing splendid work reporting on what is actually happening, where other folks have been sat at home doom-mongering and speculating about what might happen. The words "reality check" are particularly apt to describe this man's work.

A Quick Response To Michael Turton's Article On Water Policy Published In Taiwan News, February 10th

2017-03-01T21:32:00.001+08:00

On February 10th, earlier this month, Taiwan News published an opinion piece by Michael Turton on water policy in Taiwan. It contains numerous factual errors and distortions and several dubious claims but rather than list every single one of these, I'll just look at four of them. There are three points I want to look at first which concern factual errors or distortions and a final point I want to discuss at slightly greater length concerning a difference of opinion.

1. Reservoirs and sedimentation.

The first of these is a claim that you can often see made in Taiwan's media concerning Taiwan's reservoirs, which is that precipitation from typhoons causes landslides high up in the mountains resulting in large sediment volumes drifting downstream into the reservoirs. This does happen and as Turton rightly points out, this sedimentation process reduces the capacity of a reservoir and requires a very expensive clean up operation. Here is Turton in his own words...

"An Academia Sinica analysis showed that the incidence of severe and extremely severe precipitation has increased 100% in just 45 years, much higher than the global average. By making extreme weather events more severe, it increases the silt flows into Taiwan's reservoirs, reducing their capacity and necessitating costly silt removal programs, like the NT$16 billion program to clean up Tsengwen and Nanhua Reservoirs after Typhoon Morakot."

However, in making this claim in the generic - by referring to Taiwan's reservoirs in general - Turton neglects to mention a crucial fact: most of Taiwan's reservoirs do not actually suffer from this problem. Shihmen reservoir in Taoyuan certainly has this problem as do Tseng-wen, Nanhua and Baihe reservoirs in Chiayi and Tainan, and there are considerable sedimentation problems along Taiwan's longest river - the Zhuoshui river - starting high up in the mountains of Nantou, including Wan-Da reservoir, the bend in the river at Wuchieh and the barrage downstream at Jiji. So that amounts to five reservoirs with sedimentation problems, and seven if you loosen the definition of "reservoir" to include those two areas of the Zhuoshui river behind dams at Wuchieh and Jiji.

Taiwan's other reservoirs do not suffer from sedimentation problems either because of design, peculiar river topography or strict watershed management (or a certain combination thereof). Sixteen of Taiwan's reservoirs were actually designed "off-stream" so that water inflow can be shut off in the event of catastrophic rainfall. These are Xinshan, Baoshan I, Baoshan II, Yongheshan, Liyutan, Minghu, Mingtan, Sun Moon Lake, Hushan, Renyitan, Lantan, Wushantou, Agongdian, Fongshan, Cheng-Ching and Longxi reservoirs. A further seven reservoirs avoid this problem owing to some combination of strict watershed management (e.g. Feitsui reservoir) and peculiar topographical features that limit the inflow of water. These are Feitsui, Dapu, Mingde, Deiji, Guguan, Tianlun and Mudan reservoirs. A further nine reservoirs are comparatively much smaller and so much so that they are either rain-filled rather than fed by rivers, or their feeder rivers are so small as to not be able to carry much sediment in the first place. These are Xishe, Neipuzih, Luliao, Jianshanpi, Yenshuipi, Hutoupi, Manzhihmanpi, Jingmian and Longluantan reservoirs.

The reason I know this is because I have personally visited each and every one of the reservoirs on the main island of Taiwan with only two exceptions (the remote Longxi and Guguan reservoirs).

2. Funding, maintenance and administration of Feitsui reservoir.

The second point on which Turton is wrong concerns his claim that central government policies are biased toward Taipei city at the expense of other areas of Taiwan. I do not dispute the claim itself, but the example he uses to illustrate it. He writes that Feitsui reservoir's maintenance operations are funded by the central government and insinuates that this is unusual because Feitsui reservoir is the major reservoir which supplies water to Taipei city. Here is Turton in his own words...

"The cost of maintaining Feitsui Reservoir, which supplies the capital, is paid for by the central government, not the city, one of the many ways Taipei continues to be a colonial capital that maintains its lifestyle by draining resources from elsewhere in Taiwan."

The problem with this claim is that the maintenance costs of Taiwan's other major reservoirs are also borne by the central government. There are two relevant agencies here; the first is the Taipei Feitsui Reservoir Administration, which is funded by the central government, and the second is the Water Resources Agency, which is split into three regional offices - the Northern, Central and Southern Taiwan Water Resources Offices and all three of these offices are funded by the central government too. These three offices of the Water Resources Agency are responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of all major water-related infrastructure in their respective regions and this includes the major dams and reservoirs as well as major rivers and their flood-prevention levees, coastal erosion defenses and large underground aquifers. Taiwan's various local municipalities also have their own water resources bureaus but these offices are responsible for smaller-scale infrastructure such as minor rivers, ponds and smaller reservoirs, underground sewage systems and flood prevention mechanisms.

Now if I wanted to draw the same point, what I would point out would be the priority of funding to Taipei's Feitsui Reservoir Administration and contrast it to the long-delayed construction of the new sluiceway at Baihe reservoir down south here in Tainan. For those who don't know, Baihe reservoir is a major reservoir built during the 1950s to provide water for irrigation for sugar and rice fields in the areas in northern Tainan east of the Chianan canal. It also provided water for industrial paper mills and for the residential areas of Baihe, Dongshan and Xinying which was once the county capital. However, the reservoir and dam contained two serious design flaws that are only now being corrected with remedial engineering, and this is because maintenance of the reservoir had been kept at a bare minimum for decades as a result of budgetary constraints upon the Southern Region Water Resources Office.

3. The problem of land subsidence and the insinuation of water hording

The third point on which Turton is incorrect occurs when he writes about the problem of land subsidence. Again for those who don't know, there are certain areas of three counties in central and southern Taiwan that suffer from relatively severe forms of land subsidence, and these are the western areas of Changhua county, Yunlin county and one particular northwestern stretch of Pingtung county in Jiadong township. For a number of reasons the local farmers often pump out groundwater from underground aquifers for use in irrigating their fields and local people also rely on pumped groundwater for their own residential use. The combined overuse of groundwater creates air-filled cavities underground which cannot support the soil above and eventually collapse, which is what we call land subsidence. Turton correctly points out that when rice paddies are flooded through irrigation, the process is extremely inefficient with most of the water seeping through the soil and replenishing the underground aquifers. On this basis he then claims that not releasing agricultural water in order to save water is a false economy, since most of the water would go to replenishing underground aquifers. Here is what Turton says about it...

"It will then have to implement concrete changes in the government's administration of water, putting a halt to industrial use of groundwater, making sure that rice fields are regularly flooded to enable water to percolate back to groundwater reservoirs to curb subsidence (not releasing agricultural water to "save" water is a false economy), and investing in new pipes, treatment plants, and other facilities."

This is wrong on several grounds. First, saving water does not mean transferring water from one place to another, rather it means using less water. The problem in these areas is that the incentives for local farmers and local residents are skewed toward pumping groundwater at little to no cost to themselves and with no mechanism for assigning individual responsibility for the resulting land subsidence. It is a classic "tragedy of the commons" scenario. Secondly, it is not clear how "agricultural water" is "not being released". Neither of the three areas with land subsidence problems - western Changhua county, Yunlin county and Jiadong township in Pingtung county are served by reservoirs that can hold water back (though I must include the caveat that Yunlin county contains Taiwan's newest reservoir just completed but it is not scheduled to commence operation until the end of this year). So presumably what he means by water "not being released" is water contained in the local irrigation canals and controlled by the irrigation associations. Yet the irrigation systems in these areas are fed entirely by local rivers (Yunlin's very substantial irrigation system being fed by two large intakes on the Zhuoshui river), and so the water either enters the irrigation canal or is lost to the sea. The canals themselves do contain a series of locks and gates to control the flow of water, but their function is not to conserve water but to control the volumes of flow and prevent damage to the smaller, subordinate water channels and dikes. So Turton misleadingly writes as if water is being deliberately withheld either in reservoirs or in irrigation canals, but neither scenario is true. There are no reservoirs in these regions and the only purpose of the gates in the irrigation canals is to make sure you don't destroy your water channels, not to conserve water and prevent rice paddies from being "flooded".

4. Water Prices

The fourth point on which I take issue with Turton concerns his claims about water prices. Here we are not dealing with a factual error or distortion as such, we are dealing with a difference in opinion. He insists that water prices in Taiwan are so low as to encourage the wasteful use of water and should be raised considerably in order to prevent water shortages during times of drought. It is, on the face of it, a reasonable opinion. The implication he draws from this is that the government (or rather the Taiwan Water Corporation and Taipei Water Department more specifically) should begin to raise water prices. This is Turton in his own words...

"Water in Taiwan is strongly mispriced. When Chen Shui-bian came to power, he vowed not to raise water prices, even though at that time water in Taiwan was cheaper than in Malawi. Such policies have been followed by subsequent administrations, and Taiwan's water prices remain at about one-fifth of the global average."

And here...

"With such low prices, it is inevitable that Taipei once experienced frequent water shortages. As any economist will say, when the price of something is lower than it should be, demand will be unreasonably high."

My difference of opinion with Turton here arises over those two words "should be"; what should the price of water be, and how should that price be determined? This boils down to a difference in political premises. Turton is arguing for government control of prices, whereas I believe prices can only be efficiently calculated in a free market. Another way of putting this is to say that Turton thinks that there are "correct" prices that can be determined relative to at least two political ends - one is allowing consumers as much water as possible and the other is preventing water shortages. The task is to discover what the "correct" or most efficient price should be that allows you to maximize both of these values. I, on the other hand, think that prices ought to be variable and set on the open market.

The problems with Turton's advocacy of continued government control of water prices are several, and it puts him in the rather odd position of arguing that water shortages have occurred due to government control of water prices and that nevertheless the solution is still government control of water prices!

One of the most obvious problems is that consumers differ in price sensitivity, so more price sensitive consumers (e.g. lower income people and industries that require large volumes of water for cooling purposes) are more likely to curb their water use at lower rises than less price sensitive consumers (e.g. higher income people and industries that use relatively little water). To address this problem he needs the Taiwan Water Corporation to charge different rates to different users, so high-volume users would have to pay more per liter of water than low volume users and perhaps people on higher incomes would have to pay more per liter of water than people on lower incomes. This does not really solve the problem however, as there are likely differences in price sensitivity within those groups and not just across them as well as differences in price sensitivity over time. And because the Water Corporation must get its' data from consultations with various different consumer groups rather than prices reflecting changes in supply and demand, it cannot therefore have sufficient data to accurately calculate and recalculate again and again what the various prices should be in order to get the most efficient use of water.

A second problem with this top-down, centralized approach to managing prices is that it ignores the possibility of water transfers and thus variable quantities of water to be consumed. Instead there is the assumption that the supply of water for industry, agriculture and residential use is fixed at certain, set quantities for a definite period of time and prices are then calculated as to how to best avoid shortages given these fixed quantities of water. But what if it were possible for one of several privatized water companies serving residential areas to act on behalf of its customers and bid for additional water from industrial or agricultural users? And vice versa - you could have industrial users bidding for additional water from privatized residential water companies. In this kind of situation, the quantity of water from which prices are to be calculated is not fixed but potentially variable, and the water economist David Zetland has written extensively about what he calls auction markets in water as the most efficient means of allocating water resources and avoiding the shortages that come from inefficient use. A good off-hand way to think about this is to consider agricultural goods that require large volumes of water to grow such as rice and then compare the price of those goods with the price residential water consumers would pay to be able to take a shower during water shortages. What would you prefer - more expensive rice, but the ability to take a shower - or cheap rice but the inability to take a shower?

Turton is right that water shortages are driven by public policy, but it is because public policy remains fixed on the premise of top-down management and fixing of prices by a State-owned utility that prevents a market emerging that would allow for more efficient transfers of water resources between different consumers at different times.

Baihe Reservoir: Pump Slope & Eagles

2017-02-27T22:40:00.001+08:00

Somehow I dragged myself out of bed early this morning and, after the usual necessities, drove back up to Baihe reservoir near the border with Chiayi county this time with the intent of heading over to the reservoir's northern side and getting a look at what has been happening in an obscured cul-de-sac north-east from the dam's northern point where the new sluiceway is being constructed. The weather was not as bright as it had been yesterday with the sun partially obscured by a dense layer of grey cloud all morning, and although the air was also somewhat dank and humid, the strong winds which had been a nuisance yesterday had now dissipated. That made the weather good for driving, but not so good for photography...

Although I saw a lot more birds today than yesterday, they remained for the most part far out of the range of my 300mm lens. There were only two exceptions and this was moment - captured from about fifteen meters away, was one of them.

I had hoped to close the distance some more, but this Crested Serpent Eagle had other ideas.

This was what I had came to see; on the other side of that slope is the northern end of the Baihe dam and the construction site for the new sluiceway. I had wondered what exactly the engineers had been doing down in this corner and now I know; they set up a pump and generator with a pipeline over to the other side to pump water out of the reservoir to continue feeding the irrigation outlet as the normal passageways are (presumably) blocked up by sediments.

Close up shot with the black pipe draped over the side of the pontoon whilst held in place by a cable on a winch. The green boxes in the background are the generators and the black drum will probably be diesel. What the rusted metal float is for to the right of the pipeline's pontoon I am not sure.

The problem: the sediments from the Baihe river have now extended so far that the entire corridor between the north-west and south-west of the reservoir is clogged up and blocked; water no longer flows freely between the two areas. Four years ago I took a boat through here, but that is no longer possible now. After the new sluiceway is eventually completed, all of this sediment will have to be excavated and removed from the reservoir.

This is what happens; the sediment build up continues for so long that plants begin to grow on top of it, making it a permanent feature.

Looking back into the as yet unspoiled northern section of Baihe reservoir. If no attempt had been made to arrest the sedimentation creep, then in another five or six years this area would start to turn into a muddy swamp too.

The other exception to my attempt to photograph the raptors; I caught this eagle just as I was rounding my last bend in the reservoir to go home. He's perched in the tree eating what I think is either a lizard or a snake (zooming in close, you can get some idea but the resolution becomes poor).

I tried to close the distance a bit more, but this was as close as he'd let me get. He flew into a denser nearby tree where I could no longer see him. Shooting from the boat is very difficult.

Sunday Afternoon With The Birds At Baihe Reservoir (白河水庫)

2017-02-26T23:08:00.000+08:00

Arrival at the mid-point of the reservoir's southern shore at about 2.25pm; most of this area would be submerged during the summer but the water has now receded, not simply due to the lower precipitation in the winter but because of the ongoing draw-down for the construction of the new sluiceway.

My favourite shot of the day; for years I've been waiting to get a shot as good as this of an Osprey; they are the most difficult birds of prey to photograph in and around Taiwan's reservoirs.

A breeding pair of Black Kites attack a Crested Serpent Eagle. Guess why?

The middle half of the reservoir's southern arm - to the right (west), the reservoir becomes a de-facto swamp flooded with reed-beds, and to the left the eastern half of the reservoir remains relatively unperturbed.

I believe these are Sandpipers; they are actually standing on the mud just below the reservoir's surface; as you go further westward, the reservoir's depth continually shrinks until it is less than an inch deep.

The Black Kites mentioned earlier have a nest, which raises the question of whether the Eagle was hanging around in order to poach the chicks. An unattended chick would be easy meat for a Crested Serpent Eagle, which is about 50% larger than an adult Kite. With the reservoir's water levels now very low, there may be fewer fish to catch.

Fewer fish to catch would certainly be a problem for the Ospreys, who are now in competition with the Egrets along the reservoir's shorelines.

Another well-decent Osprey shot taken from my boat.

And another.

Papa Kite on patrol once more; the proximity of the Ospreys to the Kite's nest has not gone unnoticed.

The Ospreys are my favourite birds, partly because they are usually so difficult to photograph. Today was an exception.

Papa Kite begins to chase off one of the two Ospreys, though nowhere near as aggressively as he had attacked the eagle earlier on.

The Osprey is wary of the Kite and banks to avoid him.

After some time circling and chasing the Kite eventually left the Ospreys alone and did not attack them, though whether this was due to fatigue or some altered perception of the potential threat they posed I don't know.

The mid-point on the southern shoreline as I was leaving at about 4.30pm. This section of the reservoir is almost completely separated from both the western, eastern and norther sections of the reservoir. That is partly down to geography, partly due to the swamp-like disaster at the west end, and partly due to the very low level of the water.

The dam crest has recently been excavated for repair; there is a new wall of fresh concrete on the upstream side and a new road will be laid along the top of the crest.

That corner of the southwestern end of the reservoir connects to the northern section and it was once possible to take a boat through there. Now excavators are driving through presumably to work on clearing out the massive sediment deposits that stretch out from the southwest and into the northern section some hundred meters or so.

The new wall along the dam crest as seen from the upstream side.

Closing panorama shot over the southwestern section of the reservoir; or what is left of it. There is an enormous amount of work to be done here in excavating all the excess sediment that underpins the reed-beds, and I can remember saying that this needed to be done about six years ago. Better late than never.

Reaction To The Oroville Spillway Damage In California

2017-02-15T09:39:00.001+08:00

Three immediate thoughts on the Oroville spillway damage:

1) The main spillway is too narrow with insufficient discharge capacity. That would explain the damage to the concrete channel halfway down - the force of the discharge was too great to be supported by the channel walls.

2) The emergency spillway does not appear to have any channeling structure whatsoever to lead discharged water back to the river. So aside from the erosion of the concrete overflow lip itself, that would seem to be a cardinal design error.

3) If, as reported, there is a risk of flooding to the urban areas downstream, then the river leaving the reservoir has insufficient carrying capacity and should have been widened or supplemented with diversion channels.

(Further thoughts added later)...

4) Where is the stilling basin at the end of the main spillway channel?

5) Did the engineers err in calculating the maximum possible inflow of water into the reservoir from its' feeder river? If so, that is a catastrophic error that would not only have meant an inadequately sized main spillway, but may also mean that the dam itself will eventually prove inadequate to the sheer stresses it is currently being put under.

6) The apparent lack of any sort of channel for the emergency open overflow spillway really is astonishing, and this is made more so by the fact that the mountainside below it actually supports a number of pylons to carry power lines. Erosion of the mountainside from that emergency spillway will almost certainly mean that the pylons will fall and the power lines collapse. More importantly, if that emergency spillway collapses, along with the mountainside beneath it, then there is going to be catastrophic flooding downstream.

The design flaws here are of the order of criminal negligence, and it is astonishing that remedial measures were not taken a long, long time ago. But I suppose that's probably down to the stupid public spending priorities of successive Californian State governments and the people who elected them and failed to hold them accountable.

This guy has aerial footage from his own private plane, which is superb, but his nonchalant manner is simply astounding. This is a fairly major disaster already, and could become much worse...

More aerial video available here, start from 2.29...

Miscellaneous Photos

2017-02-12T22:38:00.002+08:00

This is just a disorganized collection of pictures from various trips over the past three weekends. I've not really had the time or inclination to write up about any of them due to being preoccupied with other things. During all three weekends the weather has been overcast and dull, so for some of these pictures I messed about with filters to brighten them up a bit.

I made a couple of trips out to Yenshuipi, which is a small local reservoir here in Tainan that I hadn't previously visited. There is an interesting history to it as although it was built during the 1950s, it stands on the site of previous work of some kind both by the Chinese and, prior to that, the Dutch although I have struggled to find more information about this...

A transformer station in Shanshang district just up from the gas-fired power plant...

I also took a brief trip to observe the state of affairs at Baihe reservoir where the construction of the new sluiceway is ongoing. The downstream mouth has now been opened up and the sluiceway walls downstream from that opening have now reached all the way down to the discharge stream west of the spillway itself. In addition, a bridge has been constructed across the sluiceway walls to support the irrigation channel taking water out of the reservoir...

At the back of Baihe reservoir, there is still sufficient water to go boating despite the ongoing draw-down at the front...

There are, I suspect, no more eagles living at Baihe reservoir. There are however a pair of Ospreys...

We also made a trip out onto the water at Houtopi, where a section of the dam has recently been repaired, and though we were once again frustrated by the dull weather, I did manage to get some decent pictures of what I believe is a Crested Goshawk...

Defending Taiwan's Democracy: The necessity of answering criticisms, rather than dismissing them and of defending the unadulterated right to freedom of expression. Or alternatively: why "social justice" is pernicious bullshit that Taiwan's democratic order simply cannot afford to indulge.

2017-02-09T02:01:00.000+08:00

This will be a difficult post for me to write, and I am reminded of a recent post by a British engineer who previously worked in Russia for some years, in which he defended Vladimir Putin against the erroneous charge of being a "dictator" despite his own strong dislike of the Russian president. I am going to attempt something similarly awkward here, only in this case it is critics of democracy in China and elsewhere that I am going to appear to defend rather than Vladimir Putin, but it is only an appearance. My purpose is to point out that criticism of democracy is necessary in order that it may be answered, and that there is ample reason to think this is more necessary now, in the wake of recent events, than at any time in the past few years.

In a recent post at "Taiwan Sentinel", J.M. Cole remarks on an advertisement for a talk given at the City University of Hong Kong by professor Jiang Yi-Huah, who readers will recall was the Taiwanese premier during the 2014 Sunflower protests. Briefly, Cole puts the case that Jiang's talk on the failings of Taiwanese democracy plays into the Chinese Communist Party's attempt to discredit democracy, and while there may be something to this claim, I also think that Cole puts the case badly, and is in any case one of the least qualified people to do it. Here is the quotation from the ad to Jiang's talk...

"Taiwan is the only democracy in the Chinese world. In the process of democratization, Taiwan successfully realizes [sic] the democratic transition of [sic] an authoritarian regime, fair elections and peaceful change of powers, and the formation of a viable civil society, for which it is highly accredited [sic] by the international community. Nevertheless, Taiwanese democracy is also tainted by a serious divide of national identity, relentless partisan politics, disfunction [sic] of government, disrespect of the law, and notorious manipulation of mass media. The shortcomings of Taiwanese democracy is so appalling that more and more people become suspicious of the desirability of democracy in general, and the feasibility of democracy for the Chinese people in particular."

Irrespective of whether such a talk fits "hand in glove" with Beijing's anti-democratic propaganda, the charges brought by Jiang are to some degree valid and need to be answered, not dismissed. This must begin with reasons as to why the "flaws" Jiang points out are poor grounds for preferring non-democratic alternatives. Arguments can and should also be made as to how these problems might be ameliorated, if not solved. My own view is that these problems are consequences, to one degree or another, of excessively concentrated and centralized political power, from which it follows that they might be tackled through a process of depoliticization and decentralization.

But Cole does not attempt to make this or any other arguments and instead simply dismisses Jiang's criticisms of Taiwanese democracy as a case of a former premier talking out of turn. However, I am now of the view that Cole's position as a Canadian journalist and defender of Taiwan's democracy is somewhat undermined by his publicly stated views on a related matter. First however, here is what Cole says about the blurb for Jiang's talk...

"By agreeing to have his name associated with such language (assuming he has seen it), the former premier not only casts aspersions on the democratic accomplishments of the Taiwanese — who remain overwhelmingly committed to their political system, flaws notwithstanding — he furthermore risks becoming a pawn in Chinese propaganda, a voice arguing against a form of governance that is anathema to the CCP and that should remain an option for the people of Hong Kong and China."

Chinese propaganda is going to continue regardless of what Jiang or anyone else does or does not say, but that being said Cole is somewhat unfair here as Jiang's blurb contained both praise and criticism for Taiwan's democracy, not criticisms only. The talk would only have been propaganda if there was no possibility of answering Jiang's charges. Were answers to Jiang's criticisms permitted and tolerated in a Q & A session after the talk? Perhaps not, but we are not told, possibly because nobody knows. In any case, we are free to answer Jiang here in Taiwan and elsewhere where we are not yet censored. It would be an ironic sign of weakness if criticisms of Taiwan's democracy were discussed openly in the cryptocracy that is the People's Republic of China, whilst dismissed or otherwise shouted down by the supposedly "open" and "tolerant" supporters of democracy in Taiwan itself.

And this is where I part company with Cole. He is an ardent "social justice editor" who has in the past censored criticism of his writers whilst allowing them free reign to slander and denigrate political opponents. I also part company with him in his support for that identity-cluster at the apex of the victimhood hierarchy of political "virtue": the LGBTTQIAXYZ alphabet soup people. In particular, Cole is presumably an advocate of introducing "hate speech" legislation to Taiwan, which is a recent political weapon by which any criticism of anyone or anything related to the Left's victimhood hierarchy can be silenced by calling it "hate speech". Such legislation is a dangerous political weapon because there can be no clear, objective definition of "hate speech" (thus rendering the criterion subjective) and also because the people wielding it too often use hate speech allegations either indiscriminately, or with a selective application which reeks of hypocrisy. A white Christian who questions whether the State should be involved in certifying gay marriages may be charged with hate speech, yet a brown-skinned Muslim who advocates murdering practicing homosexuals may never be charged with hate speech. Hate speech legislation is a violation of the right to free expression, and it is this right - more than any other - which is part of the necessary consensus underpinning a democratic political order.

Democracy is not just about tolerating differences of opinion, but doing so within an underpinning framework of precepts and principles on which there is a consensus, such as those pertaining to the rights of the individual listed in the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Of standout importance here is the right to freedom of expression. A defense of democracy not rooted in such a consensus, and not rooted in free speech in particular is so flawed as to be no defense at all. Where there is no right to free speech, he who would articulate a set of ideas to which a "social justice warrior" may object can perhaps be cowed into silenced by the mere threat of being dragged through the courts. If that is considered unlikely to work, he can instead be marginalized by various online filtering mechansims, such as the deletion of his blog comments, the removal of his Facebook posts, the suspension of his Twitter account, the removal of his blue "check" on Instagram and the demonetization of his Youtube uploads. For people who are supposedly democrats to engage in such lower level suppression of alternative views and, on top of that, to advocate legislation introducing actual legal prior restrictions on freedom of expression is a confluence of two mistakes which together are of singular magnitude in the omnilateral nature of their political implications. I'll say it again: unadulterated freedom of expression is an essential prerequisite for a democratic order. Cole's misguided support for restrictions on freedom of expression places him outside of that basic consensus upon which Taiwanese democracy, and all other democracies, depend.

The U.S. relationship with Taiwan is often said to be based on "shared values", which is a commonly understood reference to democracy and freedom of expression. Yet perhaps these shared values are now on shaky ground. The problem will arise for Taiwan's social justice warriors (and unfortunately, for the rest of us who live here too) when, after having supported restrictions on freedom of speech and after having punished and marginalized the most prominent alleged purveyors of their various "-isms" and "-obias", they then find themselves the victims of ever more aggressive demonstrations of Chinese nationalist ambition. Will they then turn to the U.S. to ask for help and plead the case of "shared values" of democracy and freedom of speech? If things do eventually turn out that way, an impartial observer could be forgiven for seeing why a U.S. President and a U.S. Congress might think twice about what exactly those "shared values" are.