Land Expropriation

After series protests from farmers and activist, the Land
Expropriation Statute was amended in Jan 4, 2012.
The compensation mechanism has been improved in the new version law,
however, the activists are apparently not satisfied yet.

The two links below reflect the point of view from government and folks.

farmers and activists
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2011/12/17/taiwan-disconcerting-land-expropriation-act/

official media
http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=174549&ctNode=413

Land expropriation is an extreme example on how the state can use her
power to deprive citizens' right of property.

I hope you never encounter an issue like those farmers in your life.

But the conflict of personal interest and public development is always
a good topic for discussion.

I would not show the questions beforehand, but I do require you take a
side on this issue and give reasons to defend your position.

Be prepared for challenging questions from other members.

Foreign Housekeepers

This week, I would like to talk about the foreign housekeepers in Taiwan.

I was trying to find an English article which describes the current regulation of hiring a legal foreign housekeeper in Taiwan, but I couldn't find it.  So please allow me to post a Chinese article link as below:

http://www.coolloud.org.tw/node/47997

Here is another article about hiring a housekeeper:
http://www.ehow.com/how_6827021_hire-foreign-live_in-housekeeper.html

Following the mode last week, I'll leave the questions open to everyone.
Please feel free to make any comment and tell your experience related to the foreign housekeepers.

Convenience store

Amazing fact: Taiwan has the world’s highest density of convenience store per person. (2500 people/store)

After three weeks life in America, I aware that convenience store in USA is not convenient at all. They only offer awful food and colorful beverages. I really miss the familiar doorbell ring around the every corner, and services and food they provide. The following links describe the services offer by Japanese convenience store, and the contents are similar. So if you are busy, just pick one to read is enough.

Reading materials

1.     http://thisjapaneselife.org/2011/04/27/japan-convenience-konbini/

2.     http://www.tofugu.com/2012/02/03/japanese-convenience-stores/

3.     http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/07/AR2008110703512.html

Discussion

1.     How often do you go to a convenience store? Which brand do you prefer and why?

2.     The activity of sticker collecting in trade of dolls or coupons in convenience store is very popular in Taiwan. Would you buy things there more often because of the dolls or coupon?

3.     Which service they provide you like the best? Why? Or what kind of service you think they should provide in the future?

4.     What do you think about their food in terms of quality and safety?

8/26 "the ice age"

Japan used to be the second biggest economies in the world. With bloom future, countless job opportunities provided by multinational companies, such as Sony, Panasonic, Toyota, and etc..  Now, the younger in Japan face “ the ice age,” a age of opportunity freeze. Japanese culture is somehow different than others. Junior need to attend “find work activity.” If they can't find an offer before senior, then they will miss "the promised road." It will be more difficult for them to get an offer after graduation. Pls see follow link to get more story.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/0d158be8-c633-11e1-a3d5-00144feabdc0.html#axzz202JXYG8a

Discussion:

1.     Do you think Taiwan also faces the same “ice age” as Japan? Share your opinion to us.

2.     What kinds of difficulties do you think is fresh Graduates face now? 

3.     Give some suggestions to fresh Graduates.

4.     Do you have difficulties when getting your first job? Pls share your experience.

5.     Do you want to be an entrepreneur? Say more!

6.  “Once you drop off the promised road, you’re evaluated as ‘not a good person’.”  In my opinion, it's the same in Taiwan. Do you know any story about people who  drop off the promised road?

It is a long story. If you do not have much time, the front five paragraphs will help you get a glance of Japanese problems now.

Gun Policy in United State

Gun shooting in Denver theater which caused at least 12 people death became the head news in American. Why these kind of mass shooting keep happening in United State? Gun laws popped into my head immediately. Gun policy has long been the most controversial issues in America. Americans believe that U.S. Constitution ensures their right to self-defense. In my opinion, gun control legislation is the best prevention to stop these tragedies.

Reading Materials
1.Gunman turns 'Batman' screening into real-life 'horror film'
2.Gun control won’t stop mass murder


Discussion
1. Do you agree that gun control can effective stop or decrease the mass murder?

2. Do you agree or disagree that people should have right to own a gun?

3. If Taiwan government derestricts the gun policy, will you buy a gun? Why?

4. To my surprise, according to the poll, most Americans agree the current gun policy. That’s maybe what we call culture differences. Can you name other culture differences between Taiwan and America?

7/1 Health Care Law

Health Care Overhaul Is Still Not Hit For Public
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/30/us/politics/health-care-overhaul-is-still-no-hit-with-public.html?pagewanted=all

二代健保明年元旦上路
 http://mag.udn.com/mag/life/storypage.jsp?f_ART_ID=381704

 As there is a new act for the second generation of health care under discussion in Taiwan, in the USA, President Obama and his team are devoting themselves in health care overhaul. You may hear that it's expensive to see a doctor in the USA, it's hard to imagine when we live in Taiwan having the privilege of low medicare cost. And there are some concepts in the health care which worth thinking twice. Let's see the discussion question below:

 1. How do you think about the medical environment in Taiwan?

 2. What do you feel about owning the health care in Taiwan? Address the like and dislike, or tell your experience regarding go to the doctor with or without the health care.

 3. Some people think that Health Care Act can't be paralleled with Act for promoting economy, what's your opinion?

 4. Except for the health care by government, everyone will buy insurance for himself or herself, how many percentage do you invest in insurance?

 5. How do you see the difference between of health care in Taiwan and the USA? Please feel free to bring up more questions. Thank you.

6/10 Discussion cancelled

Dear all,

I got a sun stroke this Saturday and still have terrible headache right now. I am afraid that I have to cancel tonight's discussion. Sorry for all inconvenience.

TINA

6/10 Men who do women's work

In Chinese society, men are considered to opt for jobs such as construction work, knowledge-intensive work (doctors, professors, CEO). On the other hand, women are considered to be the right persons to take care of children (child babysitter), students (teachers), and patients (nurses). However, nowadays, this situation is undergoing a change. In job markets, there are more and more men looking for jobs that are traditionally preferred by women and on the other hand women choosing men's jobs. In today's discussion, we are going to discuss this change. It is great if you can read all three articles listed below. If you are short of time, please read one of the following article. 


http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jun/05/men-who-do-womens-work
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/21/business/increasingly-men-seek-success-in-jobs-dominated-by-women.html
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/22/pink-collar-jobs-that-attract-the-most-men/


Questions:

1. Do your parents have same expectations to your brothers and sisters? (Any differences in their expectations influenced by gender?)

2. What did your parents and friends in your generation think of gender differences? Did they choose their interests or jobs depending on their gender?

3. What do you think of male nurses, female construction workers, male nursery teachers, etc? Do you think male nurses can do well like female nurses, etc?

4. In job markets, men sometimes get more salary and get promoted easily than their female counterparts. In your opinions, is it possible to reach gender equity when more men do women's work and more women do more men's work?

5 ?

Musical Education

I am looking for a digital piano recently, and thinking about musical education for my daughters.

It seems learning music has so many benefits for kids. 

What would be your opinion?

http://musiced.about.com/od/beginnersguide/a/pinst.htm

1. This article provides five positive reasons about the benefit of playing musical instrument, do you agree with the reasons for musical education?

2. Do you play any musical instrument? Do you agree with the idea that learning music can mold one’s personality in positive way?

3. what is your attitude toward kids learning music? Should it be demanding or just for fun?

4. How much time and cost do you spend yearly on music, such as concert, CD, instrument, etc?

I am thinking about ways to arouse my daughters' interest and curiosity about piano playing.

Here are some ways I may use:

watch video about musicians playing piano

listen to music of piano playing frequently 

play it by myself for demonstration

Any recommandation?

"Justice" on the Internet

A drunk driver ,Master Yeh (葉少爺) killed three people and ruined two families in the early May. Suddenly, every news channel, newspaper, and website was full of the critique and discussion and webizens started to human flesh search (人肉搜索) this person, his friends and his family. Also, you could find a group of facebook users (more than 80 thousands likes) created a webpage to condemn him.  With the prevalence of the Internet, similar scenarios have happened for countless times, such as celebrity scandals and injustice social events. A group of people spontaneously gathered on the Internet to judge a person, debate a topic, discuss rumors, condemn, or defend points of view, usually disappearing before long. We call them “Internet mob” or call this behavior " Internet vigilantism." I think this phenomenon is worthy to discuss.

Reading Material:

1. 8 awesome cases of Internet vigilantism

2. Internet mobs

Discussion Question:

1. Do you think Internet mob bring more positive effects or negative effects to the society?
2. Did you condemn someone that you don’t even know in the real world on the Internet? What triggered you to do so? How was your feeling?
3. I believe that you must familiar with this famous saying from a Bible story. “And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” <<John 8:7>>                                                                                                         Some people believe being a Internet mob to condemn bad guys is a way to uphold justice; while others consider it is a lynching. The line between them is vague. What is your opinion on this issue?
4. The anger can be amplified as ripple effect through the message transfer. Under anonymous circumstance, the irrational behaviors of Internet mobs erupt easily. Do you think the freedom of speech on the Internet should be regulated?

4/29 Hero deserves a second chance?

Wang Chien-Ming was regarded by Taiwanese people as a national hero especially his achievements in baseball field. We were all proud to see his success abroad and proud to say he is a Taiwanese baseball player to our overseas business partners and friends. However, after he revealed his affair in USA with a girl, we know that he is just a normal man with fears, desire and other sensations. His hero image was broken into pieces in my mind and  I wonder shall I still support him? Fans on the websites have two completely different views toward his infidelity. Some people support no matter what he has done but some people like me have doubts on his personal behaviours.

Please read the article provided in the following link.

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/national/national-news/2012/04/25/338980/MLB's-Wang.htm

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1236435/Why-men-forgive-wifes-affair--theyd-expect-YOU-forgive-them.html

Questions:

1. As a normal person, do you think Wang's wrongdoing deserves forgiveness? As a national hero, do you think Wang's wrongdoing deserves forgiveness?

2. When Tiger's sexual scandal broken out, he was chased by a crowd of media workers and news about his scandals appeared on the news for quite a while. On the contrary, Wang's news about his affair with a girl only appeared on the media for less than 3 days. What do you think of this phenomena?

3. Wang's wife chose to forgive Wang (at least the news reported that she chose to forgive him). For female members, if your partner betrays you will you choose to forgive him and why? For male members, if your wife betrays you what will you react to her infidelity?

4. Do you think we as a human being can forgive and "forget"?

5. ?

Fuel Prices Hike

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2012/04/17/2003530504
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2012/04/19/2003530716

In the past few weeks, fuel prices hike causes some commodity goods to rise their prices. It seems to be a sign of inflation. Today we are going to discuss the impact of energy price rise to our daily life.


(1) Does oil and electricity price hike have any obvious influence on your life? What is your reaction to this wave of inflation?

(2) Do you think it is reasonable for government to adjust the fuel prices with large percentage increase?

(3) Do you have any share points to save energy and living cost? Or do you have any good way to explore additional income?

(4) From the article, a scholar said the fuel prices hike will cut the GDP growth by 0.22 percentage points. However, GDP cannot truely reflect life quality of most people. Where is the apple of our economic growth?

The Wang Family in Shilin District

Protest fails to stop eviction, demolition
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/local/taipei/2012/03/29/336119/Protest-fails.htm

TVBS news
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOa5SZYD8OE&feature=related


Today let's share our opinion to Urban Redevelopment Project from the conflict happened to the Wang family in Shilin District.

1. To your own opinion, who's the beneficial side in the Wang family case?

2. How do you think about Urban Redevelopment Project?

3. If where you are living now was included into a Urban Redevelopment Project, what's your reaction?

4. What do you think the procedure should go if the whole Wang family case started over?

We need to be smart

I got my first smartphone last night--Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray.

It took me one and half year to finally make my mind to jump on the bandwagon.

Am I the last one to have a smartphone in our study group?

Please follow the link below to download the discussion article.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19367394/20120404topic.pdf

Discussion Questions

1. Why and when did you decided to use a smartphone? Or why not?

2. What is the most useful benefit people can get from a smartphone?

3. What is the side effect of using a smartphone?

Brands v.s. Counterfeits

We can not deny the fact that we are living in a brand-obsessed world. In most of cases, brand represents quality and tasty, but it also means more expensive. Sadly, we are manipulated by the allure of brand in different way. Some get in debt or even bankrupt because cannot resist desire, on the other hand, some choose to buy cheaper substitutes. In order to meet the latter consumer demand for owing brand product in low price, counterfeits has skyrocketed in the past decade. Today we're going to talk about these two relative topics.

Question:
1. Have you bought a counterfeit product before? What did you buy and how did you feel about the quality of the product? Why did you choose it over a real product?
2. When you make a buying decision does brand matter to you? Why?
3. What is your favorite brand? Why do you love their products over other products?
4. Some people think that counterfeiting market helps stimulate the economy, while others think it would damage the economy. What's your opinion and Why?

3/11 Is Genius Born or Can It Be Learned?

Have you ever wondered why someone is successful and others are not? Or have you ever wondered can you be a Steve Jobs one day in the future if you work hard (not dead of course, I mean the achievements he did and personal influences to the world)? I believe success does not come without reasons and it definitely takes time to make it happen. However, what are these factors to success?

Links for reading materials:

http://www.forbes.com/2009/02/27/genius-innovation-oreilly-technology-breakthroughs_genius.html

http://www.businesswings.co.uk/articles/Genius-Born-Or-Made

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12140064

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1879593,00.html

Questions:

1. Have you ever met someone who is really talented (in music, painting, sports, etc.)? What distinctive characteristics did they have?

2. Do you have friends who were not exceptionally excellent at school but are successful when they grow up? Or the other way round? Share your stories with us.

3. In your opinion, do you think genius is born or can it be learned?

4. What kind of education do you think is best fitted with geniuses? (Invent one if it does exist in the real life)

5. If your life can be restarted, do you want to be a genius? Why?

Lean-Sanity: US Beef Controversy Raises Again

Recently, the issue on importation of US beef with Paylean stimulates
extensive discussions. People for lifting bans of US beef with Paylean
additive claim that no evidence shows eating animal meat with Paylean
(a kind of ractopamine) residue under normal dosage will cause harm to
human health. Others have different opinions. They think we cannot
come to such a positive and solid conclusion since the cited report
only investigates a small-size of samples.

So far, no conclusion was drawn in three official cross-department
meetings. It seems the new lean-sanity will continue.

For more information about the debate on ractopamine additive of US
beef, please see following links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1xaphN2SBI

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2012/03/04/2003526943/1

http://www.fda.gov.tw/files/list/%E8%90%8A%E5%85%8B%E5%A4%9A%E5%B7%B4%E8%83%BA_Ractopamine_%E9%A2%A8%E9%9A%AA%E8%A9%95%E4%BC%B0%E5%A0%B1%E5%91%8A_%E5%B0%88%E6%A5%AD%E7%89%88__1010220%E4%BF%AE%E8%A8%82.pdf

1. Without considering other political or trade issues, most Taiwanese
consumers may refuse to eat US beef with ractopamine. However, we don't
know what we will pay for keeping the ban. In your opinion, do you
think the government should open the door to welcome US beef? Why?

2. Between yes or no, do you have any good idea to reach a win-win
solution(You win some, I win some)?

3. If the government finally decides to agree importation of US beef
(or pork) with Paylean, what will you react or just do nothing?

Apple & Global Economy

Apple has become an enormous economy trigger nowadays. Not only the products like iMac, iPod, iPhone, create big fortunes, but also the image and success of this company make millions of ideas invented and to make money. Even the founder, Steve Jobs's death, created profits for people like publisher, book sellers, I believe there will be a movie of the great man soon and that will be another hit.

As everything related to Apple looks so attractive and such a money maker, there are worrying issues need to be concerned. Please check below two links, one is from New York Times and another is a Chinese article, and find the questions as below:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/business/apple-america-and-a-squeezed-middle-class.html?_r=4&smid=tw-nytimes&seid=auto&pagewanted=all

http://tw.news.yahoo.com/%E8%A1%80%E6%B1%97%E5%B7%A5%E5%BB%A0-%E7%BE%8E%E5%AA%92%E8%BD%9F%E8%98%8B%E6%9E%9C%E6%89%8D%E6%98%AF%E5%85%83%E5%87%B6-213000737.html

1. After reading these two articles, what is your opinion and impression to Apple if you were an American?

2. It mentioned the flexibility and cost efficiency of Chinese factory in the first article, and these are exactly the advantages of China to be the fastest growing economy in global market, but in the another one, it mentioned the negative status which caused in China. Do you think there is a balance between them? What is your opinion regarding the situation?

3. Do you think the disappearance of the middle class is the pinnacle of the Capitalism?

4. As we all aware, employees in Asia compared to the ones in Europe and the U.S.A. are more hardworking and less freedom and rights. Some say this is all about culture, what do you think? Do you think we can be like employees in overseas?


As there are lots of issues worth discussing in these two articles, I'll just leave only 4 questions here. Please feel free to raise any topic you would like to talk about.




1/

Bad Driving Habits

Most drivers think that they are good drivers; safe, respectful and in compliance with the rules of the road. But there are a lot of bad habits ingrained in drivers that are quite common and hardly given a thought – until they result in a ticket or an accident.

See the article link below and think over the following questions.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Driving-Us-Mad---The-Ten-Worst-Driving-Habits-Exposed&id=41522

1. What bad driving habits have you ever observed? Try to rate the top three annoying ones.

2. Name some terrible accidents resulted from bad driving habits. Do you have personal experience of traffic accidents?

3. Imagine you are road users (e.x. pedestrians, scooter drivers, car drivers, truck drivers), what road etiquette would you expect people to follow?

4. Please try to propose three solutions to improve the traffic safety.

Voting for the first lady or president? Taiwanese election culture

Finally, the result of our next president came out smoothly and peacefully. Some may feel relaxed and happy; while some may feel frustrated and angry. No mater what, at least, we can get rid of those election news and go back to our normal lives.

"Man is by nature a political animal" said by Aristotle. Based my observation, I found that Taiwanese become really irrational and frenzied when it comes to politics, especially the biggest election of the country, the presidential election. In this campaign, our first lady, Chow Mei-Ching, was seen as a trump card by KMT. My mom canvassed me to vote for Ma because she is a big fan of Chow. Moreover, the famous poet, Yu Kuang-chung (余光中), asked "Does the public really want a new first lady?" I think this is a very interesting phenomenon, but it seems like a successful strategy. Today let's discuss the special election culture in Taiwan.


Reading Material:
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2011/12/19/2003521079

Discussing Questions:
1. In general, voters could be separated into three categories: the first group is the advocates of KMT, the second group is the advocates of DPP and the last group is the median voters. Which group do you fall into? Why?
2. Do you think the behavior of first family really matter? Does that influence your decision?
3. Have you seen any other weird election phenomenons? Please share with us.
4. What the pros and cons of the democracy? If you have a chance to choose, would you like to live in a democratic or a communist country? Why?

1/8 Training, Retaining, and Recruiting: Taiwan’s Talent Problem

Welcome back to our "Skype Study Group" discussion. Hope you all have a wonderful christmas and new year.

At today's discussion, we can first take turns to briefly share our life in the past two weeks or simply talk about new year resolutions if you have any.

Our topic for discussion this week is "Training, Retaining and Recruiting Taiwan's Talents". The website link is as below: http://www.sinorama.com.tw/en/show_issue.php?id=201210101006E.TXT&table=3&year=2012&month=1

In recent years, we can hear or read news such as a distinguished scholar in a top university in Taiwan leaves for a position in countries like Mainland, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore that offers better salaries and benefits from time to time. It is a clear fact that we are losing these talented scholars and losing competitiveness in other words. If the government does not do anything to retain talents, the situation might get worse when talents retire in the near future and not enough young talents to fill this gap due to low birth rate. Since this is a big issue, the questions I pose below have no right and wrong answers. Please answer with your own experiences and thoughts.

Questions:

1. In your days for pursuing undergraduate or graduate degree, have you ever encountered good professors that not only offer you the fish but teach you how to get the fish? (Or think about some good professors you met in your school life.)

2. For people who once pursued their degrees abroad, are there any learning or teaching differences between east and west? For people who intend to study abroad in the near future, what will you expect to learn abroad?

3. Are there any differences between scholars from abroad and local scholars in terms of their research qualities or others? (If you have no ideas on answering this question, just think about examples from work. For example, is it better to hire a foreigner to fill the position than a local one?)

4. Nowadays, there are more and more distinguished scholars and highly-skilled employees who leave Taiwan to work for countries like Mainland, Hong Kong, Singapore due to tempting incentives. If you are in these people shoes, will you consider to work abroad? Why?

5. Can you think of any solutions to brain drain issue in Taiwan? Any changes in foreigner law or others?