Australia Day^_^

It's my first time to celebrate Australia Day, and now I know it is on Twenty-Sixth February.

In fact, nithing's special on this day, however Aussie has really much love to make lots of celebrations than Taiwan. From 8 o'clock AM to around 10:30PM, there were many sideshows, fighter plane show, concerts and so on. In the morning, to be honest, I just learnt how to understand English in the film. It's a little bit boring.

Despite there was nothing particular, I was surprised by the airforce show nearby my sharehouse. As a result of the fighter was flying too near the ground, and the engine was so loud. Meanwhile, I was cooking and listening the music. After this, ha..... I considered to memorise all the vocabularies from the flim. Moreover, I was looking forward to enjoying the church tomorrow. The song in there was really fantastic.

We were late to the South Bank, nevertheless our good mates had already occupied some seats there. You can see the show in my Album. ^_^so..... Enjoying that^_^ HAHAHAHAHA......

Veronica Guerin

I have just finished matching the movie,Veronica Guerin, which I borrowed from the city library. After the movie, I saw the news of Heath Ledger's death. The press respected his family's feelings, so they wouldn't take a picture of Heath's body even for the newspapers. It make me feel the press in these countries has really shown their self-discipline. In comparison with Taiwan journalists, it wouldn't be happened.

This movie is based on a true story. It takes about how the press confronted a drug dealer in Ireland in the mid-1990s. Around 15,000 people injected heroin everyday and methadone clinic registered addicts as young as 14. For this reason, Veronica Guerin, who is known for reporting church scandals and corporate corruption, started writing about the crime.

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When I was a student reporter in Taiwan, I was always fascinated by the press' power. Even the prime ministers would go down to shake hands with the journalists. On one hand, they respected their policies. On the other hand, they needed them, especially the famous, popular and just reporter. Unfortunately, I've never seen this sort of the press in Taiwan. However, I think because of the different environment would make different person. Unfortunately, the boss of the broadcasting corporation's power is too big to make true and honest story. Especially, they are cooperating with the politicians even the criminals,but it's another agenda for anohter time.

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The end of the story is tragic. She was shot in the car in the daylight, when she was waiting for the traffic light. In spite of it was horrible and frightened to the mass, people were furious and they took place in many marches to force the government to legislate against drug trafficking. After her death it causes the constitution to be more and more completed.

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Eventually, we really need a reporter who is like her, Veronica Guerin. The Social Justice is deteriorating. The Taiwan President Election will take place this year. Every time at this moment, people always follow the politicians from television. Therefore I wish this year's election we will have a clean and practicable policies.

Desperate

The title has no meaning, just I want to make an article that many vocabularies I have learnt these past few days. Therefore maybe today, there will have some paragraphs strange.

Tomorrow, Nick, my another best friend, will leave Australia and go back to Taiwan. This guy is a genuine tourguide. Overseas students always ask him about the travelling where they can go and how to plan the itinerary. He can help you solve any conundrums of Australian trip. That's stunningly impression on me. As well as I am glad to meet him, actually we didn't know each other when I attended the Langports, the language school, in the first session. However, in the second session, we were in the same class and sometimes we were in the same group, but we still just had a few conversation. I thought because we both had same principle.

Firstly, when I arrived here, I didn't want to talk with Chinese speakers a lot, because I wanted to improve my English. That was my target and why I came here. I thought Nick had the same opinion as mine. Unfortunately, my thought was wrong.Ha.... I knew him because we had the mutual friends. When we are getting familiar, he is the same crazy as me, no... I am normal. We have ever collaborated in studying for a few time, that's cool and I can learn someting from him as well. We entered the IEP course together and had a wonderful studying period.

Eventually, I hope he can come back as soon as possible. Therefore, Nick, please study hard, ok?! We look forward to seeing you again in Aussie. Although we had an half-successful farewell, I still hope you really have a good time here. Find what you want, and come back here. Make up your mind. Just do it!^^

Taiwan nationalists in huge win--From UK BBC

Taiwan's opposition nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) party has won a landslide victory in parliamentary polls, official results show.

The KMT, which wants closer ties with China, secured 72% of the seats in the 113-seat chamber, beating President Chen Shui-bian's party, the DPP.
The independence-leaning president said he was "shamed", resigning as chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party.
The elections are seen as a barometer for the presidential poll on 22 March.
China regards Taiwan as a renegade province that should be reunified.

Referendums

With all the votes counted, the KMT secured 81 seats, Taiwan's election commission announced.
TAIWAN'S POLL RESULTS
KMT - 81 seat
DPP - 27 seats
other parties - 5 seats
The DPP got 27 seats (24%), while smaller parties won five seats.
Under a new electoral system, the number of seats in Taiwan's new parliament has been cut from 225 to 113.
The change was adopted in 2005 to reduce corruption and improve efficiency but observers say the new system may marginalise smaller parties in favour of the DPP and the KMT.

A new voting system was also introduced whereby voters cast ballots for both a party and a particular candidate in their constituency.

Seventy-three seats were contested by a total of 296 individual candidates representing 12 parties, while 34 seats were to be allocated on a party list system. A further six seats were reserved for ethnic minorities.

Two referendums were held alongside the legislative election.
The first asked voters to support legislation to force the KMT to return state assets the DPP says were illegally amassed during the 1950s, while the other, tabled by the KMT, called for action against corrupt officials.

Beijing quiet

BBC China analyst Shirong Chen says the two main parties concentrated on local issues and shied away from discussing China in the run-up to the vote, a tactic the Chinese government has also adopted.

Beijing has learned from its past misadventures during Taiwanese polls that verbal warnings and missile tests would backfire in favour of candidates from the pro-independence DPP, our correspondent says.

China has been focusing on getting countries like the US and France to oppose Taiwan's referendum on joining the UN, which will be held alongside the presidential election in March.

China has also been persuading Taiwan's diplomatic allies to switch recognition from Taipei to Beijing, prompting the Taiwanese foreign minister to make a futile trip to Malawi to consolidate bilateral ties.

Opposition sweep to victory in Taiwan--From USA CNN

TAIPEI, Taiwan (CNN) -- Taiwan's opposition Nationalist Party won a landslide victory in legislative elections Saturday, giving a big boost to its policy of closer engagement with China two months before a presidential poll it now seems poised to win.

President Chen Shui-bian, who has been criticized for aggravating relations with China by promoting policies to formalize Taiwan's de facto independence, resigned as chairman of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party immediately after the extent of the defeat became clear.
"I should shoulder all responsibilities," Chen said. "I feel really apologetic and shamed."
His resignation does not affect his status as president.

With all votes counted, the official Central Election Commission said the Nationalists had won 81 seats in the 113-seat Legislature, against only 27 for the DPP, with four going to Nationalist-leaning independents, and one to a Nationalist satellite party.

Critics say Chen's China policies have allowed Taiwan's once-vibrant economy to lose competitiveness and have ratcheted up tension in the perennially edgy Taiwan Strait.
The Nationalists ruled a united China before 1949 and were the mainland communists' enemies in the civil war. But the party and Beijing have in recent years found common cause in their opposition to Chen.

Washington also has made it clear it finds Chen's policies toward Beijing dangerous and provocative -- particularly a planned referendum on Taiwanese membership in the United Nations, which appears designed to underscore the democratic island's political separateness from the communist mainland.

A March 22 presidential election to chose a successor to Chen, who must step down after eight years in office, pits the ruling DPP's Frank Hsieh against Ma Ying-jeou of the Nationalist Party. Recent opinion polls give Ma a 20-point lead, and Saturday's win by his party is likely to give the former Taipei mayor a further boost.

The DPP wants to formalize the independence Taiwan has had since an inconclusive civil war nearly 60 years ago -- but has held off out of fears that China would make good on its repeated threats to attack. In contrast, the Nationalists favor more active engagement with China and do not rule out eventual unification.

Speaking at Nationalist headquarters in Taipei, Ma relished his party's victory -- enough to give it a three-fourths majority together with the five allies -- but cautioned against overconfidence going into the presidential elections.

"We need to be cautious about the presidential poll, and hopefully we can win," he said. "With a Nationalist presidency and Nationalist-controlled legislature, we can push forward the reform expected by the Taiwanese people."
If the Nationalists do go on to recapture the presidency, they will be in a strong position to end years of deadlock between Taiwan's legislative and executive branches, and stabilize the island's rocky relations with China.

During Chen's two terms as president, the Nationalists used a slender legislative majority to block many of his policy initiatives, including the purchase of a multibillion-dollar package of American weapons. Also left stagnating have been negotiations to open direct air and shipping routes between Taiwan and China.

In the legislative campaign, Ma emphasized his message that Chen's reluctance to engage China inflamed tensions and hurt the island's economy -- one of the 20 largest in the world, and a major research and manufacturing base for the computer industry.

Ma also drew attention to American unhappiness with Chen's China policies. Twenty-nine years after it shifted recognition from Taipei to Beijing, the U.S. remains Taiwan's most important foreign partner, supplying it with the means to defend itself against any future Chinese attack.
In contrast to Ma, Hsieh maintained a relatively low profile in the legislative campaign, apparently because of his ambivalence over Chen's pro-independence stance.

Hsieh hews to the DPP's pro-independence line in principle, but has made it clear he rejects some of Chen's hard-line policies, including his moves to limit Taiwanese economic ties to the mainland.

He favors ditching Chen's requirement that Taiwanese companies limit investments in China to less 40 percent of their asset value. He also has indicated a willingness to expand direct charter flights across the 100 mile-wide Taiwan Strait.

Ma and the Nationalists go considerably farther. They want to remove the asset requirement altogether, and sanction regular flights between China and Taiwan.
China's government did not immediately react to the election results, but was likely to be pleased with the Nationalist victory.

In May 2005, then Nationalist Party Chairman Lien Chan made a historic visit to the mainland despite objections from Taiwan's government.

"The election will have a positive impact, benefiting stability across the Taiwan Strait," said Yu Keli, head of the Taiwan Studies Institute, a Chinese government-backed think tank in Beijing. "The Taiwanese electorate has delivered a no-confidence vote on Chen Shui-bian.

Taiwan's nationalists want better ties with China--From Australia Press ABC

Taiwan's main opposition Kuomintang, which won parliamentary elections in convincing fashion, once viewed China as its worst enemy. Now, the party wants to develop closer ties with Beijing.

The Kuomintang (KMT), which had ruled Taiwan for more than 50 years until the election of pro-independence President Chen Shui-bian in 2000, now looks poised to reclaim the executive, heralding a new era in cross-strait relations.

The KMT was founded in 1894 by Sun Yat-sen in Hawaii, where he recruited supporters to fight against the Qing dynasty in China.
The young revolutionaries overthrew the Qing government in 1911 and established the Republic of China.

The KMT ruled mainland China until its forces, led by generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, were defeated by Mao Zedong's communists in a bloody civil war.
Under Mr Chiang, the nationalists set up a government in Taiwan in 1949, laying the foundation for the island's industrial development and eventual emergence as one of the world's major economies.

But Mr Chiang governed the island for nearly three decades with an iron fist, persecuting dissidents and limiting freedoms in an effort to counter the perceived threat from China. He died in 1975.

His son Chiang Ching-kuo, who served as president and KMT chief from 1978 until his death in 1988, is warmly remembered as a reform-minded leader who had lived a simple life and cared for the people.

Chiang Ching-kuo relaxed a 38-year-old ban on China-bound travels in late 1987, allowing Taiwanese to visit the mainland for family reunions and opening the door to the future expansion of cross-strait civilian exchanges.

But following his death in 1988, the party - under the leadership of Lee Teng-hui from 1988 to 2000 - fell victim to widespread corruption and factional fighting.

The Kuomintang collapsed in the 2000 presidential polls, as disgruntled voters handed power to Mr Chen's pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), hoping for clean politics. Mr Chen was re-elected in 2004.

The KMT's one-time animosity towards Beijing is now a thing of the past.
In 2005, Lien Chan became the first KMT leader to visit the mainland in 56 years, meeting Chinese President Hu Jintao to formally end hostilities with the Chinese Communist Party.

KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou, the current frontrunner, says he will push for a peace accord with Beijing if elected in March, and work to expand business ties and reinstate direct transportation and postal links.

- AFP

The First Day of 2008

Today is the first of 2008. In fact, I truly need to organize something.

In this few day, no...In these past two days, we had some enormous change such as friendship. Waht's friendship? In this New Year, I had big finding. The story is based on the truth. What is the things that can let friends who have known each other for 5 years fall out and become acquaintances. When I heard the reason which let me feel, what the hell??? I think everyone hears that will become furious. However, I don't want to judge kind of this thing, because I am not in there. Its just let me think about what is the friend? What is the friendship?

It seems to be a bad start, but it's still a new start. For me, I can easy to make a friendship with another people, but who is your friend, I think when you get along with them, you've already known. The point is how far will you connect with them? I mean even if long time you didn't meet each other, you still have a nice meeting next. We can see that Chatting, making funny, outspoken and being honest are filled. You won't find any difference between now and before. That's the best friendship for me. In fact, I am really glad to have lots of good friends now, I truly am. Although my crazy uni classmates make a gossip about me, I still love them.^_^

In the end, I would like to visit many places, particularly Tasmania and Woolooloo(I am not sure the spelling, it's a desert). As well as I want to meet different people of nationality. Nowadays I found except culture is distinct, other else like love, feeling, personality and so on all the same. Today nothing special, I saw a terrible movie. It's a little bit waste my time. However, I learnt some vocabularies from that sucks movie. I will finished another two which were rented from the city library. Anyway, I love you guys who really care about me, thanks a lot. ^^