firstly, the big news of the day. for the most part, real news from the world outside my head usually never make it into these posts (hence tossing this post straight into the “misc” category), but this was definitely worth noting. there was an assassination attempt on the taiwanese president today a day before the taiwanese presidential elections. chen shui-ban was shot in the stomach, and the vice-president annette lu was grazed in the leg as they rode in the back of an open-roofed jeep during a rally in tainan. neither injury was life-threatening, and the president immediately went about to calm the nation after being released from the hospital. there have been no arrests, and nobody saw the assailants as they had fired from the crowd as firecrackers were being set off.
this is personally a bit unsettling, since my dad is back in taiwan for the elections and id rather not have him being caught amidst political violence. taiwan for the most part doesnt see much political violence (other than the fist-to-fist brawling in the legislature), so its odd to hear of assassination attempts. tho this years election in particular is hotly contested, with the two platforms, the ruling dpp party and the older kmt nationalists, having opposing ideas about the future of taiwan. for those unfamiliar with taiwans history, the nationalists who ruled china after wwii fled to taiwan after the communist revolution. the nationalists, or the kuomintang (kmt), ruled taiwan for the next 50 or so years under the auspices of the “republic of china”…signaling that they had always intended to return to china. over the years however, taiwan prospered economically as a sovereign nation, as did china after the death of chairman mao. it wasnt til just 4 years ago that the kmt finally lost the elections and the democratic progressive party (dpp) came into power, with their stance that taiwan should be more independent. so this year sees a crossroads of sorts, whether taiwan should continue its path towards more independence, or a more moderate approach to sustain the ambiguous ties between taiwan and china. if put in the situation, im not even sure which one i would pick. one is idealistic, and the other more pragmatic…two contrasting poles that never seem to offer a right or wrong answer.
> google news of assassination attempt
