Whenever someone asks me what's my nationality, I always proudly say 'I am Taiwanese!' Sometimes people questions if that is the same thing as Chinese, I always tell them no, being Taiwanese means being a citizen of Republic of China, not People Republic of China. The biggest difference between Taiwan and China is that Taiwan is a democratic country. The citizens have the right to speak of their opinions. This is something that Taiwan is most proud of. As of today, my country's future is in serious jeopardy. In June 2013, the Taiwanese government signed a agreement with China, without publicly releasing the details of the agreement. This agreement allows the Chinese come to Taiwan and open up their own companies, hold residency for an undetermined period of time and receive free healthy care benefits, as long as they invest certain amount of money in the Taiwanese government. As much as this would help boost Taiwan's economy, the price that the Taiwanese nation must pay is to allow the Chinese take over the majority of Taiwan's business industry. While this seems like a huge problem for Taiwan's future, the bigger problem we face today is this: Taiwanese government singed this agreement with China without the consent of the nation. If Taiwan still wants to keep it's democracy, such action cannot be tolerated. Democracy is what Taiwanese value the most, if the government can make decisions for the country without the nation's support, how long before the Chinese move in, take control of the government and have Taiwan become a part of China? Taiwan has been fighting for more than 60 years to keep it's independence, and we are not about to stop now. On March 30th, 500,000 students and citizens gathered in the heart of downtown Taipei to protest against the government's decision. (Sunflower Student Movement)
I myself is not big in politics, but I will defend for my country until the day I die. I believe that it is necessary to keep a friendly bond with China, but merging with them or having the Chinese move in is not an option. I don't know what kind of fate Taiwan faces right now, I just hope in a few years I can still proudly tell people that I am Taiwanese, and I am a citizen of Republic of China.
Monday, 31 March 2014
Tuesday, 25 March 2014
Thing That You Might Have Missed In Disney's Frozen
Disney's feature film of 2013 Frozen just received 2 Academy Awards for Best Original Song and Best Animated Feature Film. Though this heart warming family movie rose popularity fairly quickly, some might have missed certain details in film that would make you look at this movie in a completely different way.
For example: In the beginning of the film, it was shown that there are several grown men harvesting ice with little Kristoff and little Svan. It was never established if any of these men are Kristoff's father. Though, most would think not because it was shown that these men left Kristoff and Svan behind, leaving them to find their own way home (which is when they encountered Elsa's family on their way to consulting the magical trolls). After following the ice trail left behind by Elsa, Kristoff and Svan encountered a female trolls that said: ''Oh! cuties! I'm gonna keep you!''. Now, in many legends and myths, it was known that trolls have magical powers to temper with people's memory. For example: a troll was able to take out Anna's memory, alter everything she ever remembered about Elsa's magical power, and leading her to believe her sister never had any sort of magic. Here's the kicker: How do we know if the trolls didn't use the same magic on Kristoff to make him believe that he never had real parents?
Spooky isn't it? in some other legends, trolls are also known for kidnapping children. For all we know, Kristoff's real parents could have been searching for him for years and eventually gave up. Are trolls really friendly and nice? ARE THEY?!
For example: In the beginning of the film, it was shown that there are several grown men harvesting ice with little Kristoff and little Svan. It was never established if any of these men are Kristoff's father. Though, most would think not because it was shown that these men left Kristoff and Svan behind, leaving them to find their own way home (which is when they encountered Elsa's family on their way to consulting the magical trolls). After following the ice trail left behind by Elsa, Kristoff and Svan encountered a female trolls that said: ''Oh! cuties! I'm gonna keep you!''. Now, in many legends and myths, it was known that trolls have magical powers to temper with people's memory. For example: a troll was able to take out Anna's memory, alter everything she ever remembered about Elsa's magical power, and leading her to believe her sister never had any sort of magic. Here's the kicker: How do we know if the trolls didn't use the same magic on Kristoff to make him believe that he never had real parents?
Spooky isn't it? in some other legends, trolls are also known for kidnapping children. For all we know, Kristoff's real parents could have been searching for him for years and eventually gave up. Are trolls really friendly and nice? ARE THEY?!
Act of Kindness at Sochi 2014
Olympics is the world's most competitive sporting event. Athletes train for years for years to represent their country. Though there are only gold, silver and bronze for every category, everyone gets credit for competing in the sport. Sometimes, unfortunate situations do occur, some fall on ice, some lose balance in the air and some misses a goal. But that is the thing about Olympics, it was never about beating another country, it was about celebrating these athlete's hard work and being kind to one another. That's exactly what Canadian coach Justin Wadsworth did for a Russian skier.
At the men's cross country sprint final, Russian skier Anton Gafarvo's left ski had broken and fell off during the race. Canadian head coach Justin Wadsworth who was watching the race, ran to Gafarvo's aide, giving him Alex Harvey (a Canadian skier that wasn't quality for the final)'s spare skii. The grand gesture of Wadsworth caught a lot attention, especially because no Russian staff had came to help Garfarvo. When interviewed for Wadsworth's act of kindness, he simply said ''It seemed like the Olympics thing to do... It was about giving him some dignity so he didn't have to walk to the finish line.''
This was not the first time act of kindness had been done in Olympics. In 2006, during women's cross country team sprint final, Beckie Scott and Sara Renner from Canada were racing when Renner broke her pole. Watching the race, Norweigan coach Bjornar Hakensmoen, gave Renner a new pole allowing her to finish her race. In the end, Renner and Scott finished the race in second place winning a silver medal and Norway finished in fourth place.
As a thank you, Canada donated 8000 cans of maple syrup to Norwegian embassy. Phone calls and letters of appreciation was sent to the embassy as well. Now a days, it's rare to see such honorable sportsmanship. I am glad in 2014, we can still witness such acts of kindness.
Monday, 24 March 2014
Missing Plane
One of the most trending topic is probably the Malaysia Airline's missing plane, flight 370. Where did the plane go? What happened to it? Has it been found yet?
Flight 370 departed from Kuala Lumpur Airport, has gone missing after less than one hour after take off. The last message coming from the aircraft was 'Alright, good night' which was not a code for any potential hijacking. Soon after, the transponder on the plane was turned off, and the Malaysia Airport Control was not able to contact the flight since. On the military radar, it was shown that the plane was way off it's course, 200 miles south of Penang. 2 hours after it's scheduled arrival the Beijin Airport, it was reported missing.
Though there's been several sighting of the debris in the Indian Ocean, none has been able confirm if the pieces were in fact part of Flight 370. The missing plane carried 239 passengers and crew members, all the relatives of the passengers from the flight has been gathered at the Kuala Lumpur airport awaiting for the plane to be found.
There are several theories on what could have happen to the plane. Some say it was hijacked as it was reported that there are 4 passengers on the plane with stolen passports. Some say it must have crashed in the Indian Ocean as it would have ran out of fuels by now. Personally, I feel lucky to able to witness such stranger event in my lifetime (though still sad that the plane has not been found) All of the other missing boats.or aircraft myths all occurred before I was born. Some of my theories is that the plane must have landed somewhere; hijacked or not, because how can anyone possibly lose an airplane? My other theory is more supernatural, my guess is that the plane went through some kind of portal and went into an alternate universe, and that it should turn up years later.
Nonetheless, Flight 370 is perhaps the most mysterious case of our time. Crashed or not, I hope the missing flight will turn up soon.
Flight 370 departed from Kuala Lumpur Airport, has gone missing after less than one hour after take off. The last message coming from the aircraft was 'Alright, good night' which was not a code for any potential hijacking. Soon after, the transponder on the plane was turned off, and the Malaysia Airport Control was not able to contact the flight since. On the military radar, it was shown that the plane was way off it's course, 200 miles south of Penang. 2 hours after it's scheduled arrival the Beijin Airport, it was reported missing.
Though there's been several sighting of the debris in the Indian Ocean, none has been able confirm if the pieces were in fact part of Flight 370. The missing plane carried 239 passengers and crew members, all the relatives of the passengers from the flight has been gathered at the Kuala Lumpur airport awaiting for the plane to be found.
There are several theories on what could have happen to the plane. Some say it was hijacked as it was reported that there are 4 passengers on the plane with stolen passports. Some say it must have crashed in the Indian Ocean as it would have ran out of fuels by now. Personally, I feel lucky to able to witness such stranger event in my lifetime (though still sad that the plane has not been found) All of the other missing boats.or aircraft myths all occurred before I was born. Some of my theories is that the plane must have landed somewhere; hijacked or not, because how can anyone possibly lose an airplane? My other theory is more supernatural, my guess is that the plane went through some kind of portal and went into an alternate universe, and that it should turn up years later.
Nonetheless, Flight 370 is perhaps the most mysterious case of our time. Crashed or not, I hope the missing flight will turn up soon.
Saturday, 22 March 2014
Oscar 2014 Highlights
''Welcome to the Academy Award! Here is your host! Ellen Degeneres!'' Oh my Ellen, Ellen, Ellen. Oscar 2014 has been on e of the most highly anticipated even of the year. 2014's nominees are high quality films, featuring big name actors such as Bradly Cooper, Christian Bale, Julia Roberts, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Matthew Mcconaughay and Leonardo Dicaprio. There are also some new faces such as Lupita N'yongo, Chiewtel Ejofor, Jared Leto, Barkhad Abdi and Joaquim Pheonix. Here are some highlights from the award show.
First of all, Ellen Degenres did a fantastic job hosting the show. It was recorded as the most watched TV live event since 2000. There were multiple musical performances during the show for Best Original Song category. Pharrell Williams kicked off the show with his hit song Happy that brought many celebrity on their feet and danced Pharrell himself.
However though, Pharrell's Happy had no chance standing up against Idina Menzel's Let It Go from Frozen. Prior to Idena's performance, she was introduced by John Travolta where he complete mispronounced Idina's name!
John: Please welcome the wickedly talented, the one and only, ADELE DAZIM
Oh no John!
After about two afters into the show, Ellen decided to ask if anyone wanted Pizza, half an hour later, Ellen arrived on the stage with a pizza guy and started distributing dinner for the biggest celebs in Hollywood!
After dinner, Ellen pulled out her Smartphone and asked Meryl Streep for selfie wanting to break Twitter's record for the most retweeted picture. Here is the result of the selfie:
And yes, Ellen did break Twitter's record and became the most retweeted selfie with 3 millions + retweets!
Overall, Oscars 2014 was hell of an event and it did not disappoint me one bit. It was everything I expected and more from a show hosted by Ellen. It was a very entertaining and satisfying and amusing. Whoever hosts the show has a lot of legacy to live up to!
Game of Thrones Season 4
April 7, journey back to Westero, where dragons and White Walkers roams the realm. Prepare yourself as the seven noble houses continues their battle for the Iron Throne. Game of Thrones Season 4 is returning in less than 2 weeks.
HBO's original TV series Game of Thrones is coming back for it's fourth season. After nearly 10 months of waiting, the fans are dying to see their favorite TV show making it's way back on screen. Last season, Game of Thrones left off with the aftermath from the devastating Red Wedding. Arya has escaped The Twins with The Hound after witnessing his brother's corpse being paraded around, Bran and his companion encountered Sam and Gilly in the north, Jon Snow made his way back to The Wall after being pierced with several arrows by Ygritte, Yara was determined to rescue Theon Greyjoy from Ramsey Snow, and Daenerys Targaryan freed all the slaves of Yunkai.
HBO has released several thrilling trailers hinting some big changes that is about to happen in the series. New Characters are introduced such as Oberyn Martell, the first of House Martell to appear in the series. Tyrion Lannister seems to face great dangers in Kings Landing, Arya seems to be lost in Westero with The Hound, while Jon Snow is off to fight the evil spirits beyond The Wall. HBO promises many more heart stopping jaw dropping turns of events for the new season.
Personally, being a huge fan of the Game of Thrones book and TV franchise, I cannot wait to see the series return. Geroge R.R Martin made it clear that season fourth truly stays authentic to the book and he himself could not be more excited to watch the show. HBO has really done a terrific job with Game of Thrones in the past and I have very high hope for season 4!
HBO's original TV series Game of Thrones is coming back for it's fourth season. After nearly 10 months of waiting, the fans are dying to see their favorite TV show making it's way back on screen. Last season, Game of Thrones left off with the aftermath from the devastating Red Wedding. Arya has escaped The Twins with The Hound after witnessing his brother's corpse being paraded around, Bran and his companion encountered Sam and Gilly in the north, Jon Snow made his way back to The Wall after being pierced with several arrows by Ygritte, Yara was determined to rescue Theon Greyjoy from Ramsey Snow, and Daenerys Targaryan freed all the slaves of Yunkai.
HBO has released several thrilling trailers hinting some big changes that is about to happen in the series. New Characters are introduced such as Oberyn Martell, the first of House Martell to appear in the series. Tyrion Lannister seems to face great dangers in Kings Landing, Arya seems to be lost in Westero with The Hound, while Jon Snow is off to fight the evil spirits beyond The Wall. HBO promises many more heart stopping jaw dropping turns of events for the new season.
Personally, being a huge fan of the Game of Thrones book and TV franchise, I cannot wait to see the series return. Geroge R.R Martin made it clear that season fourth truly stays authentic to the book and he himself could not be more excited to watch the show. HBO has really done a terrific job with Game of Thrones in the past and I have very high hope for season 4!
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