說真的，身為一個每年繳稅繳得痛苦不堪的納稅猴，
事實上，政府也是經濟重要的參與者，一個社會要能正常運作，
我覺得「減稅救經濟」其實是一個過份單純的口號。
資料來源：財政部；2000年以前資料有調整會計年度
或者有人會說，降稅率不見得會降稅收，低稅率刺激經濟成長，
當然，台灣不在這張圖上，但看看這張圖我們來想想，
所以台灣是在拉弗曲線的哪一端？所以降稅率可以提振稅收？
雷根最大的1981減稅法案讓國庫稅收短收了3%（1987年美
以我國的狀況，據財政部的估算，
好，或許有人又說，雷根時代雖然為美國國庫留下了一屁股爛債，
很明顯的，是通膨先由1980年中近15%的水準降下來，到19
1980-1981之間Fed Fund Rate高到19%的歷史天價，很明顯的都在努力打通膨；
所以，減稅到底是不是今天台灣的當務之急呢？
說真的，我個人贊成減稅，而且一定要減到我。人同此心，
更重要的是，減稅要減誰的稅？
冷水坑院長的名言是：「台灣要成為亞太金融中心，
總而言之，要減稅可以，先減我們這些受薪階級的稅！如果辦不到，
聯合報昨日新聞報導金嶝大橋馬屬意「五龍山到大嶝島」中指出
再者，這樣一條橋能服務多少人？
議者或以為，外地來的小三通需求，
我們且不論直航對小三通的影響，就假設金嶝大橋建好後，
8,760萬元？這個數字夠不夠大？好像很好很強大的樣子，
或者說這樣一條橋可以促進金門經濟發展，金門人有了錢多繳稅，
| 金嶝大橋的經濟效益 | |
| 年收入 過路費收入 8,760萬元 金門縣產值上升 ???? | 年支出 道路養護管理 7,000萬元 利息支出 25,000萬元 定期整修改建 ???? |
| → 何時能開始還本？？？？？ | |
我們就拿中國在今年五月通車，
所以錢是不是問題？他ＸＸ的從上帝創造世界以來，
所以我真他ＸＸ的覺得馬冏和李炷烽這種話可惡，
If you believe the tides of democratization are irreversible, just look at Taiwan. On March 22, 2008, Ma Ying-jeou, a Harvard-educated politician with the ability of charming the crowd out of their souls with one single smile, won the presidential election with more than 7 million votes from people angry and frustrated with endless scandals marring Chen Shui-bian’s reign. People brought Kuomintang(“KMT”), once notorious with its corruption and one-part rule over China and then Taiwan, back in power in their own will. Technically it was a flawless democratic process, without mass vote-rigging, voter intimidation or other frauds observed. However, it is the same thing as what we saw in the Eastern Europe in late 1990’s to early 2000’s: ex-communist swept through all elections, and the king is back.
One thing is different: ex-communist winners embraced things they had once detested, at least as a disguise to cheer the crowd, but Kuomintang is enshrining things their voters once overthrew.
On August 17, the executive branch of Ma’s Government announced a plan to revert “Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall” back to “Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall”, calling the renaming by the previous government illegal and should be voided. This monument, sometimes ridiculed as “Shrine of the Hairless One” (Chiang is hairless) and once a favored venue for demonstrations against KMT’s one-party rule, has become a hot spot for partisan conflicts after being remodeled and renamed in 2007 to honor the memory of agelong struggle for democracy by the Taiwanese people. Bloody violence by pro-China protesters during the removal of the old plaque shadowed that historical moment, and debates over the renaming decision continue to widen the rift between supporters of KMT and the pro-independence Democratic Progress Party (“DPP”) in Taiwan.
Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek led KMT from 1928 to 1975 and ruled China from 1928 to1949. After being defeated in the Communist Revolution, he fled to Taiwan and ruled it for another 26 years as the president of “Republic of China” in exile. Chiang imposed in Taiwan the longest period of martial law in modern history and ripped Taiwanese of political rights. More than 140,000 dissidents were either killed or imprisoned under his rule in Taiwan, and KMT enjoyed an unchallenged grip of political and economic powers. After taking into accounts of his deeds in China, Professor R.J. Rummel put him in the sixth place of the “Bloodiest Dictators in the Millenium” list. You may also want to know President Truman’s well-known quote about the Chiangs: “They’re all thieves, every damn one of them.”
Despite his bloody suppression of human rights, Taiwanese seem to have mixed feelings about this dictator. Before the late 1980’s, the KMT-controlled education system kept instilling students with “love for the leader”, and telling them “you are not ready for democracy yet, and dictatorship make this place safer.” Amazingly, such rhetorics have a profound impact till now. Some Taiwanese still believe the Generalissimo did protect Taiwan from Communist China and his policies did make this place stable and prosperous, even though decades ago some of their fathers and uncles never came back after Chiang’s gendarmes knocked on their door at midnight.
As Taiwan’s democratization process was gaining momentum since the 1990’s, ugly facts were being revealed and voices began to pop up everywhere calling for “liberation” of Taiwan from the memory of this dictator. Finally steps were taken as DPP won the presidential election in 2000. Chiang’s 27 secret retreats, featuring prime sceneries but inaccessible by ordinary people, were opened up to all visitors as parks and commercial hotels. Taoyuan International Airport, the largest airport of this country, is no longer named after the Generalissimo, and thousands of Chiang’s statues, once filling up every corner of Taiwan, were tore down and melt. The Memorial Hall seems to be the last battle to get rid of Generalissimo’s shadow.
Hard-core KMT supporters, mainly consisting of refugees from the 1949 Chinese Revolution and their descendents who enjoyed preferential treatments in the “good old days”, were infuriated by a series of “de-Chiang-ization” and gathered together to defend their last stand. Local media, mostly controlled by KMT allies even after DPP came into power, initiated propaganda campaigns denouncing such efforts as “dirty politics maneuvers” to profit from widening partisan rift that destabilize the society. Taipei city mayor, whose father is one of Chiang’s generals, preempted the central government by designating this 27-year-old hall a “historical site”, a status that makes unauthorized alternations unlawful. The KMT-controlled Legislative Yuan (parliament) also boycotted related budgets and legislations to stop the proposed renaming.
War did not end after DPP government devised a way to circumvent parliament’s boycott and renamed this monument in honor of Taiwan’s democratization. Local media kept heating up this event by attaching things like gossips and conspiracy theories to it. As the renaming was successfully tagged as a “DPP’s dirty maneuver” instead of a “public issue”, people soon got tired of it and reasons gave way to partisan emotions in related discussions.
Ma’s decision to restore the Generalissimo’s memorial hall is just a new move by one side, but not a real end to this war. While some Taiwanese may accept Ma’s rhethoric of “Look ahead, but don’t look back”, others still insist that harms done by Chiang have not been justly undone yet. Besides, many Taiwanese also cherish memories of agelong struggle for democratization, and to them the monument is where so many important things happened. Both sides honor conflicting memories in this special monument, and no unilateral move can successfully resolve this deadlock.
While the whole enshrining thing may look ridiculous to outsiders (just imagine if now there would be any German still worshipping Hitler, or any Italian worshipping Mussolini publicly), KMT might have a reason for that. For more than 50 years KMT has successfully established a saga linking Chiang’s image with the “social stability in the good old days”, which, as a prerequisite for economic prosperity, has been one of KMT’s major appeals in every election. Revaluation of Chiang’s era would be a direct challenge to this winning formula. However, as archives are being declassified and academic works are shedding more light on the other side of the past, Chiang’s revaluation is almost a certainty now, making KMT’s insistence look stupid.
So emotional attachment may be one last explanation for that. Those 1949 refugees once placed their hope on the Generalissimo, who gave them so much and kept promising to bring them home in triumph. Even though the false hope for return to glory is gone, their psychological reliance has not. Such reliance, strengthened by fears that dominance by native Taiwanese would mean disaster for 1949 refugees (which did not happen in Chen’s regime, but fear still remains), holds them together against any move to challenge Chiang’s “historical position”.
On the other hands, native Taiwanese, long taught to stay away from politics since the period of White Terror, care more about economic growth for next year than about such “partisan maneuvers”.
Taiwan’s example surely tells a story about how a notorious dictator can come back to posthumous glory after his kingdom is democratized. You can still hear them hail “Viva la Generalissimo!” Yes, the Generalissimo’s ghost is back in Taiwan, smiling at the extravagant banquet his disciples prepared for him.
Soon after China had its best time at the Opening, which it expected billions to watch in awe, stories behind are rendering this proud presentation into a magnificent joke. The Giant Footprints over Beijing surely deserves a place in the Guinness World Records, and the mimed solo by the cute starlet Miaoke Lin is bringing this comedy to another height. What else? Deserted “Olympic Protest Parks” where Beijing shows its hospitality for human right activists, or the “Volunteer Cheerleaders” that fill the seats? Not to mention those empty Olympic promises. Beijing is surely full of wonders, but no truth.
Welcome to China, where everything is possible! Possibility is always the main ingredient of dreams, but what is the “One Dream” mantra they have been chanting? The spectacular Opening, where numerous individual performers are used to mimic display pixels (at fine resolutions!), is nothing more than a reprise of ancient imperial ceremonies where all barbarian tribes come to pay homage to the Heavenly Dynasty (in Chinese: “萬國來朝，四夷賓服”). So exactly whose dream is it? This great country may have many hands, but still only one collective mind that can think and dream. That is why they have only one dream: the dream of nationalism fevers. Dreams of a free Tibet, a free Eastern Turkestan, and an undisturbed Taiwan are simply not cherished here. Dreams of speech freedom, a viable civil society and open elections are not cherished here. Dreams of displaced Darfur refugees are certainly not cherished here either. Only the “One Dream” can be dreamt of, and now all the imperial subjects, and all the envoys from “barbarian tribes” are also chanting about that “One Dream” in Beijing.
And “One World”? Try traveling to rural areas in Hunan, Henan or even Tibet yourself to see if you really find people living in the same world as Beijingers do. “Equality” is a foul language in this country. If you are not impressed with the alerting Gini Coefficient of 46.9, you might want to take a look at the this picture of a little Tibetan girl who kept begging for candies for her friends:
I got this from a forwarded email (please kindly let me know if you are the original owner) with many beautiful pictures of Tibetan children. I am astonished by their poverty, especially when the PRC Government keeps telling us how quick Tibet’s economy has been expanding, and how China conquistadors have improved Tibetans’ life.
Tibetans are too far away and thus is not a good example? OK, try googling for “petitioners’ village” and see what you will find (better google for pictures, so that you can see what it actually looks like). Many Chinese still cherish fictional belief of imperial intervention in local injustice as a final relief (Yes, I really think such belief comes directly from classic novels and theater plays), so wronged people have a natural tendency to flock to Beijing for help. They lived in terrible condition in urban slums, not very far away from the masterpiece Birds’ Nest Stadium and Water Cubic Swimming Gym, spent years on their fruitless petitions and were consistently harassed by policemen and gangsters. Of course, Beijing got rid of such nasties just in time to greet the World in her prime. Now Beijing is one world, while those displaced petitioners live in another.
除了名聞遐邇的台灣名產「中正路」「中山路」，以及「中國症候群式路名」以外，其實我一直都對「光復路」「光復鄉」這種強迫台灣人民叩首謝恩的地名感到五內翻騰，噁心不已。這個世界上有存在了任何一個正式條約把台灣交給中國處置嗎？誰光復了台灣來著？1945年一群土匪軍登台後，到處吃喝拉撒打砸搶以外，還像小狗到處撒尿般，在各地四處標上「光復路」「光復鄉」，告訴台灣人民：「是我光復你的，崇拜我吧！」。據說某人敗逃到台灣來以後，這些地名除了要提醒台灣人叩謝皇恩以外，也有勉勵全島軍民「不忘光復大陸，解救我們還沒剝削夠的同胞」的另一層意涵。我手上找不到政府機關的正式統計，不過用Google Maps一查，大大小小以「光復」為名的地名路名至少七十個以上，還不算什麼「光復隧道」之類的小東西。看來台灣人對1945年土匪軍入駐的歷史真的感受深刻，不敢須臾忘懷。
連吳宋一干人懷著老老闆「光復大陸」的遺志，從八年前開始了朝聖之旅以後，無時無刻不以重演1945年兩岸一家的感人畫面為己任。2008年3月765萬 台灣人幫他們把夢想向前推進一大步以後，他們的工作就更加得心應手，順暢無比了。如果在不久未來他們得償所願那一天（請想像掮客們搞了好久一個案子終於成 交，終於拿到仲介費那一天），「光復」這種封建遺臭臭不可聞的地名當然不能繼續存在台灣遺害親愛的台灣同胞們了。為了紀念全球華人同歡，解放台灣的大日 子，這種地名當然要改成充滿人民革命光榮傳統的「解放」二字，我們來稍微想像一下在那一天台灣的風貌：
| 地區 | 地名 | 未來想像地名 |
| 花蓮縣 | ||
| 台北市 | ||
| 台北縣板橋市 | ||
| 台北縣三重市 | ||
| 台北縣蘆洲市 | ||
| 台北縣永和市 | ||
| 台北縣鶯歌鎮 | ||
| 宜蘭縣宜蘭市 | ||
| 宜蘭縣蘇澳鎮 | ||
| 桃園縣平鎮市 | ||
| 桃園縣蘆竹鄉 | ||
| 新竹市 | ||
| 新竹縣關西鎮 | ||
| 新竹縣湖口鄉 | ||
| 新竹縣橫山鄉 | ||
| 苗栗縣苗栗市 | ||
| 苗栗縣竹南鎮 | ||
| 苗栗縣通霄鎮 | ||
| 台中市 | ||
| 台中縣清水鎮 | ||
| 台中縣大雅鄉 | ||
| 台中縣神岡鄉 | ||
| 台中縣梧棲鎮 | ||
| 彰化縣彰化市 | ||
| 彰化縣員林鎮 | ||
| 彰化縣鹿港鎮 | ||
| 彰化縣北斗鎮 | ||
| 彰化縣埤頭鄉 | ||
| 彰化縣田尾鄉 | ||
| 彰化縣二林鎮 | ||
| 彰化縣芳苑鄉 | ||
| 彰化縣大城鄉 | ||
| 南投縣埔里鎮 | ||
| 南投縣鹿谷鄉 | ||
| 南投縣竹山鎮 | ||
| 雲林縣土庫鎮 | ||
| 雲林縣麥寮鄉 | ||
| 雲林縣斗六市 | ||
| 雲林縣斗南鎮 | ||
| 雲林縣林內鄉 | ||
| 雲林縣莿桐鄉 | ||
| 雲林縣北港鎮 | ||
| 嘉義縣太保市 | ||
| 嘉義縣布袋鎮 | ||
| 台南縣關廟鄉 | ||
| 台南縣麻豆鎮 | ||
| 台南縣善化鎮 | ||
| 台南縣六甲鄉 | ||
| 高雄縣茄萣鄉 | ||
| 高雄縣橋頭鄉 | ||
| 高雄縣彌陀鄉 | ||
| 高雄縣鳳山市 | ||
| 高雄縣大寮鄉 | ||
| 高雄縣美濃鎮 | ||
| 屏東縣三地門鄉 | ||
| 屏東縣九如鄉 | ||
| 屏東縣鹽埔鄉 | ||
| 屏東縣潮州鎮 | ||
| 屏東縣崁頂鄉 | ||
| 屏東縣東港鎮 | ||
| 屏東縣新園鄉 | ||
| 台東縣成功鎮 | ||
| 台東縣鹿野鄉 | ||
| 花蓮縣花蓮市 | ||
| 花蓮縣新城鄉 | ||
| 花蓮縣鳳林鎮 | ||
| 花蓮縣玉里鎮 |
以後，華視就在「台北市解放南路100號」，新竹清華大學就在「新竹市解放路二段101號」。以這次奧運「中屬台北」對中央政府曲意承歡的地步來看，我想這一天好像也不太遠了。
