By Portnoy on February 28, 2008 4:33 AM
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Banai and her husband in front of their home
The first Presidential debate powered by citizen media platform Peopo was held on Feb 24. Two candidates running for President answers 20 questions raised by citizens who use Youtube-like video clips to express their wishes and problems. The form and the presentation of the debate itself is debatable, however, one interesting scenes from the debate is more ironic than anything else. When the candidates debated each other inside the film studio, many social groups including two aboriginal communities also debated with police forces outside; when Ma Yin-jeou, the candidate of KMT apologized to aborigines for his racial statement and when Frank Chang-ting Hsieh, the candiate of DPP said he also have aboriginal blood in his body, the people of the aboriginal communities protesting outside are facing forced eviction and fear caused by them and their colleagues. Banai and husband, sitting on the ruins.
Sanying Aboriginal Community in Taipei County, like Sijeou Aboriginal Community and many aboriginal communities spotted at corners of big cities in Taiwan, is a forgotten place where many aborigines live and count on.
However, the sweet homes to these indigenous people is not only vulnerable to typhoons and thunderstorms, but also to bureaucrats'construction blue prints. Inhabitants of Sanying Aboriginal Community are the latest victims whose self-made house have been torn apart on Feb 21 by bulldozers and excavators under the order of Taipei County Government.
An old man crying in his "home"...after the destruction
Pan, who sat on a stool in front of her home in an attempt to block the demolition, was forcibly removed by police. A hydraulic shovel then came in, and Pan's house was demolished in less than five minutes despite Pan and her daughter's tears and pleadings. "Where am I going to stay? I don't qualify for an apartment," Pan cried.
Bloggers and citizen journalists were at the scene when bulldozers and cranes moved to the land escorted by more than 70 polices. Torrent and other citizen reporters from Coolloud(zh) sent emergent calls for help:
Out of a sudden, the supporting groups for Sanying community had no time to motivate. Only more than a dozen people from Losheng Youth and Sijeou Self-Help came for help. However, under the fierce action of police forces, more than 10 homes of those who haven't sign the "waiver" were reduced to complete shambles at 5 pm.
According to the report, most people didn't have time to rescue their properties inside their houses, so they, most are elders, have to sleep on the bare ground without a shelter,or a pillow with the another cold current coming. Coolloud and other supporting groups had asked readers to donate sleeping bags and tents.
Taipei County Government offered limited national apartments only for people who have a household register or people who sign a waiver to abandon their shelter. The lands and mountains these aborigines once live upon were expropriated by Forestry Bureau and Taiwan Sugar Corporation. They then were forced to leave, drove away from one place to another, and now they are losing their last ground.
Bloggers and citizen journalists have build a blog call "Supporters for Sanying Aboriginal Community" to aggregate all relative reports and informations about Sanying right after the incident. They use online tools like google map and Youtube-like video services to tell netizens where is the Sanying community and the humble wishes these aborigines have in mind--to stay and to stay alive.
This video report above is the latest clip made by the video production group of "Aborigines in the City". Besides the video part, they wrote about the irony in the case of Sanying.
Many of our modern cities and houses were built by aboriginal immigrant workers, but some of them could not afford the high cost for the lifestyle in modern cities. They can merely survive at the edge of cities. Now, the local government authorities and business units are using "city development" and "security concerns of aborigines" as excuses to treat their homelands which has been established for decades as buildings without licenses in order to look legitimate and reasonable.
Taiwan Indigenous TV (a channel belong to Public Broadcasting Service) also reported the event:
Lin A-long, the abbot of the local religious center-Shan Yun Temple, says that even Amis people who have moved to national apartments in Long En Pu still left a lot personal properties in the houses here, and because of the lack of gas provision in Long En Pu, they still come back to the original houses under the Sanying Bridge to cook and sleep. However, because of their powerless, Amis people could not stop the excavators but only to see their houses, composed by iron sheets and planks, tearing apart into ruins one by one, with their own eyes.
The Amis people around the stove told us their wishes for living. It was simple: they don't want a top-down tribe on a high building; they want to see their neighbors and nature every time they open the doors like in the old times that they can exchange greetings and make small talks with each other, and be a part of greater nature; not like now, when corridors are the only things they see outside the door.
So I am very angry to hear the government say that we invaded and occupied the national land, so that our houses have to be pull down. I remember that the government did the same thing when I was still a kid; they say they need to commandeer the land so they drove us away. Because the government needed the land, we must leave for a living. We are always leaving, we are driven away everywhere we are, and now they say we invaded the national land. But who is really invading? We bring each wasteland we have been to cultivation, to make it a living earth. But the government would rather build a multi-story building on the land or return the land to a wasteland to let us live on it. From Taitung to Taipei, my husband and I work and live on our own--we don't live in good condition though, but we live with dignity. If the government "put" us in the suite of the building, we will soon become landless and then jobless beggars, without dignity.
The County Government asked them to find a guarantor when they are ready to sign the waiver, and I don't think that has any meaning while each of them is one another's guarantor with such kind of bad economical situation. No one is going to be able to pay one another's debts on rental.
Actually, the problem is not whether the officials from the County Government abide by the law or not, but the complete thoughtless at the very beginning to search for all possible solutions comprehensively. They did not invite officials from each section, people who live there, and social groups(NPOs and social welfare groups) to explore the best way out. They also didn't consider solutions that can be put into practice at the same time, such as giving them work to pay the rental or pushing them to participate in employment counsellings offered by Job Training Department or high schools. The object is to have them a house without rental but at the same time force them to raise their ability on making a living....it seems that the Government's basic missions are only "construction" and maintain the quality of public constructions.
The list of goods and materials supported by other social groups and activists.
Social activists and cyber-activists are working together to spread out the call for help and help rebuild the house again from the ruins. However, the situation does not look optimistic at all since the officials said they will be back and finish "their job" on Feb 28, the Peace Memorial Day. How sarcastic!
Because of the hyper-heated Presidential election, the stories of Sanying are not finding a place to stay on mainstream media either. If the two candidates really care about human rights, job creation, low house price, and cultures of Taiwan's aborigines, they should visit Sanying instead of accusing each other on TV anymore.
最後以史丹佛大學法學院教授，Free Culture作者Lawrence Lessig之言作結：「Creation always involves building upon something else. There is no art that doesn't reuse. 」
(參考自Wikiquote)
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多金微軟員外："Dear Yahoo, I want to fxxk you after deliberate consideration, and you can take twice the price you deserved from me. Or both you and me will be fxxked by You-Know-Who!"
雅虎子：......
一群圍觀的汁男："Fxxk on!!!!! Accept him! It's the best price and the best man you can get!! Or you two will be fxxked again and again by You-Know-Who...without any payment!"
另一群圍觀的汁男："If you let Microsoft fxxk you, you will lost your most precious thing!! So Don't!"
汁男又說："But she will lose everything if fxxked by You-Know-Who".
正當雅虎子猶豫之時，闖進大門的是一位白衣公子，不過沒有穿褲子。
股溝公子："You know who I am..."
微軟員外："But...how do you find our location!! It's impossible!"
股溝公子："I spent much more effort on searching skill than you do. So let's cut the crap: Yahoo, I can make you happier and give you my big xxxx as long as you reject the old ugly fella."
雅虎子：................
氣氛凝重...儘管這群穿著古裝的外國人都沒穿褲子...還是氣氛凝重。
"I have made my mind." 雅虎子總算開口了，不過沒人想聽他說什麼，在場所有人都準備把手上的東西塞進他的嘴裡。
"I decide not to decide now." 雅虎子甩著頭擋掉四面八方的射擊，喊出這句話。旁邊一個汁男說"You thought you deserve higher price?" 真不知道這個只是來跑龍套的傢伙那麼忿忿不平幹麼...
微軟員外表面平靜但口氣堅硬的說："I admit my micro-softness, but I will get what I want." 說完就走人了。
引述 :『Open Movie 除了使用 CC 發佈，讓世界各地的人可以任意拷貝與編輯以外，製作團隊同時還把整個專案過程中的所有資料，包括角色（characters）、物件（props）、場景（sets）、材質（textures）、動畫（animation data）、燈光設定（lighting setup）、合成樹（compositing tress）…等，全數也透過同一個 CC license 放出去，讓其它人可以一窺製作的技巧與細節，同時可以拿去重製、用來教學、當作個人學習的參考對象，甚至是裡頭程式碼的取用…等。』
引述 :『在史瓦濟蘭，電視系統為數位衛星接收，費用極高所以並不普遍，一般老百姓最常接觸的媒體即為報紙（常常看到黑人朋友看一份報紙可以看一個下午），而史瓦濟蘭的報紙皆使用官方語言之一的英文發行，兩大報（The Times of Swaziland與The Swazi Observer）中，常常會出現區域政治的重要新聞，南非ANC執政黨有了什麼樣的重大動作、美國總統初選有了什麼重要關鍵發展等等，連第三世界的媒體都知道有必要讓讀者看到更多不同的「那裡」的觀點，以讓讀者增加對「這裡」的系統性理解，如此也許就會對整體世局有更清楚的辨識能力；反觀台灣的媒體勒，只會拿南韓新總統來比喻政黨候選人，那請問李明博究竟在首爾立了什麼樣的政績，台灣媒體有告訴我們嗎？
』
不過今晚收穫最大的來自於TED的兩場演講podcast，這次的主題是a greener future。一場是Michael Pollan的the omnivore's next dillema，他引用生動活潑的例子（園藝）來告訴我們如何從植物的角度看世界，而這種新角度又會如何幫助我們人類跨越文化與自然的人為邊界。另一場是由Jamie Lerner主講的Sing a song of sustainable cities，我覺得他說的對，為什麼人類城市逼得我們非得在一個地方工作，在另一個地方居住，然後到另一個地方放鬆尋找娛樂呢？為什麼要讓道路侵蝕我們的生活空間？城市設計要有新觀念才是改善環境的最佳方式。車子就像是你的丈母娘，你應該跟她保持良好關係，但不能全聽她的，要是哪天你生命中最重要的女人竟然是你的丈母娘，那代表你有大問題了。
I presume that most people here don't know that tonight is the Eve of Chinese New Year, the most important holiday for Chinese community, but I still want to share with you my joy and happiness.
During Lunar New Year in Taiwan, most people are enjoying their 5-day -long holidays from today, stores are closed and street vendors are everywhere. Although people live in Taiwan do not suffer the snow disaster that happens in South China, but many people who work and travel there still encounter problems and cannot go home for the most important dinner in the new year.
The atmosphere of celebrating new year is getting lighter and lighter here in Taiwan. TV channels that produce special programs every year stopped this year to re-air low cost reality shows, and no fire crackers and ma-jong(a game for gambling) tables are allowed on the streets.
However, I would still like to wish all of you good fortune and good luck in the New Year, wish GV keeps on doing marvelously and wish all people in the world have more freedom of expression.
By the way, my mandatory military service officially ends today. YES! I am FREE!
引述 :『MANY YOUNG PEOPLE READ GVO AS A NEWS SOURCE AND ARE LOOKING FOR IN-DEPTH BACKGROUND ON ISSUES — GVO IS NOT UP TO THE JOB. WHILE SOME SECTIONS ARE BETTER THAN OTHERS, GVO's LATIN AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN SECTION IS PARTICULARLY DISAPPOINTING AND, AS SUCH, THIS BLOG WILL PLACE SPECIAL EMPHASIS ON THIS AREA.』
引述 :『What’s hard to answer is whether Bout has a unique genius for this business, or whether there are simply so many holes in regulatory systems that it would be possible for a thousand Bouts to bloom were Viktor Bout to be arrested.』
By Portnoy on February 2, 2008 11:55 PM
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Web 2.0在傳播學與傳播實務上皆具有特殊革命性意涵，你可能已經聽膩了人們講述Web 2.0的諸多精神，例如由下而上、多對多傳播、社會網絡化、快速及時又可非同步、民眾參與、平台開放...但是這些特點之所以存在，不是因為這些特點特別好，而是剛好能針對傳統大眾傳播模式的缺點做出補強跟改善，同時在必要的時候拯救傳播過程中造成的問題，而這正是傳播學門中最實務的一門：危機傳播所應付的課題。
