With Super Typhoon Maria passing by Taiwan yesterday, most parts of northern Taiwan outside of Taipei and Keelung have declared a typhoon holiday for today...
Taiwan has instead sought to emphasize that it should be a member of the international community through good works. This is why one observes that pan-Green political actors, such as current President Tsai Ing-Wen, have a pronounced tendency to try and emphasize Taiwan as a progressive nation-state internationally. But America, Taiwan's major guarantor of security, has continued to lurch rightwards, as observed in America withdrawing from the UN's Human Rights Council and recent Supreme Court rulings upholding Trump's controversial "Muslim ban" and dealing blows to labor and abortion rights...
Conservative social reactions to the Huashan murder case have continued, with further attempts to pin blame on the residents of the 120 Grassroots Self-Autonomous Zone artistic community by the media and society. As with before, much outrage has been centered on PTT, which has hardly proven to be a progressive social force in this case, and instead an enforcer of a highly conservative social morality. On the other hand, we might note that members of Taiwan’s artistic community have in many cases proven little better, with greater emphasis on pointing fingers, and apportioning blame than rallying together in solidarity...
Hong Kong's annual pro-democracy march took place yesterday, with an estimated 50,000 taking to the streets to mark the twenty-first anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong from British control to Chinese control...
On June 21st, 2018, with Intro No 936, New York City officially joins the movement in an attempt to ban single-use plastic straws, spearheaded by Council Member Espinal with the support of a coalition of business leaders, activists, and environmental organizations. Given public discussion in Taiwan regarding an upcoming ban on plastic straws, we might take a look at this in comparison...