Brian's Report on Taiwan Human Rights

[brianlkennedy]

Good Morning Cyber-folks,
It is time for my annual Human Rights in Taiwan report.

Item One:
I (Brian) got reappointed to my august position on the Executive Yuan's Committee on Human Rights (行政院人權保障推動小組) I would like to thank my parents, the Academy and the MOJ for this great, great honor. I got the nice little letter earlier this week.

Item Two:
None of Greaseball's (excuse me, I mean the Honorable Chen Shuai-bian El Presidente del Taiwan) various human rights plans made any progress this year. There is not now, nor is there ever anticipated to be:
1. A Basic Human Right Law
2. A Human Right Commission
3. Ratification of any international human right treaty

Item Three
Although I no longer bother to pay any attention to Taiwan's NGO community, I would nonetheless assume that MOFA's (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) plan to co-opt Taiwan's NGO community into basically being an arm of MOFA, continues and is a success. The DPP has done an outstanding job of copying the "Evil KMT's" approach of funding NGOs and then telling them to go out and spread the Good Word that "all is well in the ROC because of the enlightened government of the KMT/DPP". The DPPs willingness to undermine Taiwan's NGO community (which was never very strong anyway) for their own nitwit goals (i.e. Taiwan Independence) is a nice bit of evidence that the fucking DPP is the KMT without the brains or the money. Go Green!

Item Four
The use of the death penalty is back in vogue now that Greasball and his various stooges have gotten all the political mileage they can out of the End the Death Penalty Plan. As a former public defender I am happy to report that defendants facing the death penalty in Taiwan are afforded some of the worst criminal defense representation I have ever seen in my life. It must be nice going to the execution grounds knowing you were represented by an underpaid moron provided for you by the much heralded Taiwanese Legal Aid Society.

Item Five
As to the idea that there is lots of human trafficking in women and children in Taiwan, that is utter nonsense. The US State department was bullshitted into believing that by a couple of Taiwanese fake NGOs (i.e. NGOs that are actually tax dodges for some husband and wife teams who want to form a little NGO to launder money and beat the taxes.).

Item Six
Let me close on a positive note. Other than the death penalty, Taiwan, at least as far as I can see, has no super pressing human rights issues. Note, I said super pressing. I define super pressing (using the Old Skool Amnesty International definition) as being torture, extrajudicial killings, prisoners of conscious and the death penalty.

I am not saying Taiwan is some New Jerusalem of human rights; civil rights protections in Taiwan is horrible, especially for anyone who is not
Taiwanese
Male
With connections
And money

If you are not in that category (i.e. you are an aboriginal, a woman, a foreigner, a poor person, a person sans connections or just a regular Taiwanese Joe Six Pack with blue rubber sandals) you could easily be fucked over. Put simply the law, fairness, justice---do not mean a fucking thing in Taiwan.

Respectfully submitted,
Brian
The Sanchong Human Rights Czar

[Yellow Cartman]

A good read! When's the next publication???

[Huang Guang Chen]

Agreed. Great stuff!

. . . and yet, so sad . . .

HG

[brianlkennedy]

Thanks folks. Yeah, it is sad for the Taiwanese people. What I have come to see in my late 40s is some things simply are "in the cards", some things are not.

Yellow Cartman, my wife and I's next book publication will be down the road about a year or so. It will be an english book on Daoist training manuals of the late Qing dynasty.

take care,
Brian

[Juba]

If you have any annual statistics on the death penalty (convictions and executions), please post them here - I am under the impression that the number of exections has fallen but I would like to see the figures.

[Feiren]

表33 監獄出獄及在監受刑人單位:人
2000 17
2001 10
2002 5
2003 7
2004 3
2005 3

In the 1990s, figures were in double digits every year.

[Okami]

Item Five
As to the idea that there is lots of human trafficking in women and children in Taiwan, that is utter nonsense. The US State department was bullshitted into believing that by a couple of Taiwanese fake NGOs (i.e. NGOs that are actually tax dodges for some husband and wife teams who want to form a little NGO to launder money and beat the taxes.).

How do the foreign wives(1 in 5 taiwanese men marry them now) and Mainland hookers fit into all of this? I'm just asking because it seems like a system ripe for abuse.

Dad is old needs someone to take care of him. Son marrying a foreign bride to provide kids, family care and sexual services. Seems a whole lot cheaper than going through a labor broker.

Nice to see you back Brian. I've always enjoyed your posts.

Okami

[SinoTheTimes]

I'm with Okami. The numbers of who's trafficked into Taiwan, from where, and for what purpose differ depending upon what NGO, activist, or politico you talk to. So, Brian, without quoting State Department figures, what's your best guess (besides just saying "minimal") and what's your take on the use of fake marriages to bring mainland and Vietnamese women over here as endentured servants if not full-out sex slaves?

[Eric W. Lier]

Item Five
As to the idea that there is lots of human trafficking in women and children in Taiwan, that is utter nonsense. The US State department was bullshitted into believing that by a couple of Taiwanese fake NGOs (i.e. NGOs that are actually tax dodges for some husband and wife teams who want to form a little NGO to launder money and beat the taxes.).

If these NGO's are tax write offs why are they being funded from the immigrant communities in the US?

Ta's predicament illustrates the growing abuse of migrant workers in Taiwan. Vietnamese workers at the shelter have been raped, beaten, sexually trafficked, coerced into forced labor and cheated out of their wages. The problems are endemic in a flourishing industry in which brokers in both countries profit by duping workers. Abusive employers are complicit, and lax Taiwanese labor laws criminalize workers who flee.

Taiwan officials acknowledge the problem, but critics say they're not doing enough to stem it.

``This is a big, big problem -- trafficking of Vietnamese workers and labor slavery,'' said Father Nguyen Van Hung, who runs the Vietnamese Migrant Workers & Brides Office outside Taipei in a gated compound that houses a small Catholic church and preschool. ``But nobody wants responsibility to protect them, not the Vietnamese or Taiwanese governments.''

The office has dealt with 2,500 cases of victimized Vietnamese since it opened in spring 2004. Several hundred are sheltered each year.

The plight of the laborers has alarmed the Vietnamese-American community in California, which covers most of the shelter's operating costs. Bay Area community groups raised $15,000 at a fundraising dinner for the shelter Friday. Nguyen flew from Taiwan for the event, and was given a standing ovation by nearly 300 in attendance.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercuryn ... 220205.htm

[guangtou]

my wife and I's next book publication will be down the road about a year or so. It will be an english book on Daoist training manuals of the late Qing dynasty.

I was all set to continue this gag when it occured to me that it might not actually be a gag...

I have a mate who's into travel diaries from the early Qing, so I guess anything's possible.



Ignore me I'm hungover and dribbling. Continue...