Ralph Jennings

Taiwan Premier Wu Den-yih has sued a former opposition legislator for defamation this week, seeking compensation of T$3 million ($92,715), the government news office said.

It's not just another lawsuit. Lee Wen-chung, the former lawmaker who is now running for county chief executive in central Taiwan, has publicly accused the premier of going to Bali in December with a man involved in a Taiwan gravel mine to protect the operation while benefiting from it himself. Wu, a legislator in December, acknowledges the Bali trip but says he committed no crime.

Taiwan's public will hope the accusations against the premier are false as their island lags developed Asian peers in surveys about public perceptions of corruption despite more than 20 years of democratic reforms. Graft is still classified as a risk to business on the island (see Reuters report ). Gravel mining was particularly suspect in Taiwan's history, with local officials feared to be cutting special deals for contracts.

"When you watch the Wu Den-yih saga, it's really ridiculous," said Shane Lee, political scientist at Chang Jung University in Taiwan. "It's people's desire (to change), but people feel so helpless."

Taiwan tourists are destroying a piece of exactly what they travel to see on an outlying mid-Pacific islet known -- at least at one time -- for its abundant coral reefs.

A pair of Taiwan environmental groups that marshaled 56 people to check the coral supply near Orchid Island, which is southeast of Taiwan proper, for the first time since 2004 found that the sensitive but colourful marine species covered only 18 percent of the surrounding ocean floor, down from 65 percent, said the Taiwan Environmental Information Center .

The Taipei-based information centre and its research partner the Taiwan Association for Marine Environmental Education suspect that the aftermath of a long-lasting August typhoon may have caused parts of the reef to break apart.

But they're more concerned about a long-term influx of overeager Taiwan tourists who visit the sparsely populated island for diving or snorkeling in its azure waters.  Humans are taking too much coral or other aquatic life out of the water, hurting the ecosystem, said information centre special projects manager Kung Lu.

"Tourists have been taking too much out of the ocean," Kung said. "Some of them just don't know."

Green Island, a neighbouring islet off the same subtropical coast and arguably northeast Asia's top diving spot, is fighting an epidemic of diseased coral  as tourist traffic surges to nearly 400,000 visits per year . Orchid had gotten off easier because it's farther from Taiwan's main island, with fewer flights and hotels.

Coral reefs, delicate undersea structures resembling rocky gardens made by tiny animals called coral polyps, are nurseries as well as shelters for fish and other sea life. It will take 50 to 100 years before Orchid Island's coral grows back to even 40 percent of the offshore ocean floor, the information centre estimates.

(Photo: Crushed plastic bottles at the Tzu Chi Foundation recycling factory in Taipei, 4 Nov 2009/Nicky Loh)

A plastic bottle thrown into a Taipei recycling bin could be reincarnated as a blanket to warm disaster victims in any of 20 countries, thanks to a unique project by the world's largest Buddhist charity.

The Taiwan Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation has been taking plastic bottles from the waste stream of Taipei, a city of 2.6 million, for three years to convert them into about 244,000 polyester blankets intended for disaster zones. It has sent volunteers with relief supplies to some of the world's biggest disasters, including Hurricane Katrina in the United States in 2005 and last year's devastating Sichuan earthquake in China.

This week, Tzu Chi expanded its one-of-a-kind recycling effort to begin making shirts, scarves and cloth shopping bags.  It sends the plastic bottles to a factory that breaks them down into a polyester fabric, which is then sent to crew of volunteers who fashion it into blankets or garments.

"They're faster than a normal factory because they're driven by kind-heartedness," said lead volunteer Wu Yueh-yin, as more than 100 others cut, stitched, folded and boxed the grey polyester fabric into blankets and scarves for the next crisis.

Read the whole story here.

Here's a video from Tzu Chi USA called "Green is the new Black" on the foundation's use of recycled plastic bottles:

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Taiwan's flagship sport is unravelling like an old rotted baseball, a university graduate said, reflecting the public mood of the moment, as she and I waited at a news conference for the cabinet spokesman to emerge with an official response to an illegal betting scandal.

The case, far from over, has put six people in jail and pointed fingers at eight more, including two of the island's best known pitchers, since it was announced in the final days of October after months of investigation.

Taiwan, population 23 million, wants to be an international player, rivalling South Korea and Japan in Asian baseball. Then from 2008 it lost twice to baseball upstart and political rival China, prompting calls for reform. As part of a broader baseball reform package, the government pledged to stamp out illegal gambling rings that pay players to throw impossible pitches or drop easy fly balls to make bets come true as the Chicago White Sox players did in 1919.

As the anti-gambling campaign got underway, a massive mafia-driven betting scheme unfolded throughout the Chinese Professional Baseball League (www.cpbl.com.tw) summer season, a local prosecutor said. Among the eight suspects are former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Tsao Chin-hui, a household name among Taiwan fans, and former Chinese Taipei (effectively a national team) pitcher Chang Chih-chia.

Fans stunned by nonstop broadcasts of the latest betting scandal and put off by the losses to China have turned to televised U.S. major league games, killing off the local league's TV viewership. Basketball is on the rise among younger folk who haven't picked a favoured sport. 

"Some fans might even start watching amateur baseball," said Yu Jun-wei, author and assistant professor at a Taiwan sports university. "This case could have a huge impact on the whole professional league."

The college grad waxed on about the Red Leaf Junior Baseball Team, legendary for beating a Japanese rival in 1968 and giving the sport's first big boost in Taiwan. Glory days that are gone for how long?

Cabinet spokesman Su Jun-pin said they'd come back as the government begins to strike at the dark heart of the "black channel," a literal translation of the Chinese term for mafia. "It's not just about players. What's important is that if we can't strike the leaders, the origin of the problem can't be exhausted," Su told the news conference.

Taiwan, hit by its worst typhoon in 50 years in August, has found a culprit for the disaster that killed about 770 people and begun using it to get precious attention overseas where the island is usually overlooked in favour of its giant political rival China.

Global warming is taking blame for Morakot, which was freakish as Taiwan's only major typhoon of the year and because it lingered instead of blowing straight through. The island's foreign ministry says that as global warming's victim it should get to participate in the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change  in time for its December talks in Copenhagen. Sixteen countries have already voiced support.

"We are a victim of this problem. It's closely related to the public's economic interests," said Yang Kuo-tung, director general of the foreign ministry's treaties and legal affairs. Morakot's incessant rain caused agricultural losses of T$16.47 billion ($510 million).  "It's no laughing matter."

But Taiwan's bid for participation faces a new kind of storm despite recent detente with China, a powerful veto-wielding Security Council member. China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since 1949 and blocked more than a decade worth of applications to enter the United Nations on grounds that the self-ruled island lacks statehood.

Taiwan dropped an the annual bid to join the whole United Nations this year  to avoid upsetting China, but figures that knocking at the door of a small U.N. agency would cause little stir, especially with the woes of Morakot in its back pocket. Taiwan would both teach and learn as a Convention participant, Yang said.

But although China-Taiwan ties have improved via trade talks since mid-2008, officials in Beijing have resisted opening international organisations to Taiwan. Unless it whips up a powerful public relations storm that generates the kind of populist momentum at home and abroad that followed Taiwan's colourful, music and video-enhanced U.N. bids, the island won't make it for the Copenhagen talks and may wait up to two years before it can participate in the Convention, political analysts say.

"I don't think ordinary people know about this organisation," said Alex Chiang, international politics associate professor at National Chengchi University in Taipei. "You have to let other people know we're qualified for participation. That's the job for the government, telling people about it. They haven't done much for public relations."

((Pictures -- Top right: Motorcyclists stop at an intersection in Taipei September 23, 2009. Taiwan is known as the one of the highest motorbike-density country in the world and motorbikes are responsible for a big share of Taiwan's greenhouse gas emissions, according to local media. REUTERS/Pichi Chuang. Left: Damaged buildings are seen after Typhoon Morakot swept Kaohsiung county, southern Taiwan August 11, 2009.  REUTERS/Stringer))

A chain of injuries suffered by New York Yankees star Wang Chien-ming is pushing a pair of more obscure Taiwan-born U.S. Major League Baseball pitchers into the limelight as dejected fans grudgingly seek alternatives.

Fans in baseball-crazy Taiwan, though far from giving up on Wang, say they are looking harder at Ni Fu-te and Kuo Hong-chih. But unlike Wang, a starting pitcher responsible for winning games, the other two are relief pitchers and neither is quite a superhero.

Wang, so famous in Taiwan that his jersey number, 40, is synonymous with his name, before 2008 was a league sensation whose sinker balls had earned him a 54-23 career win-loss record and a line-up of product sponsorships in Taiwan. Wang sat out much of the past two seasons.

"To say that Wang Chien-ming will be replaced by these other two because he was injured, I wouldn't go that far, but Taiwan's Yankees viewership has been affected," said Kang Cheng-nan, a physical education teacher at National Taiwan University. "The other two need to be monitored for longer, but if they do well, fans will watch."

Marginalised by giant economic powerhouse China, which claims sovereignty over the small, self-ruled Taiwan, the west Pacific island looks to its heroes for international recognition or for a sign that it can do something right overseas.

One of the alternative Taiwan-born players, left-hander Ni of the Detroit Tigers  was described by the Major League Baseball website as a "valuable piece" of the team's relief pitching staff since he debuted in June. Ni, 26, ended the 2009 season, his first in the U.S. major leagues, with a respectable earned run average (ERA) of 2.61, sparking Taiwan's celeb-obsessed media to mention his name.

Kuo, 28, of the Los Angeles Dodgers has a reputation for staying in play after five seasons despite four shoulder operations. He finished the 2009 season with a solid ERA of 3.0, and his name has appeared in commercials in Taiwan.

When either appears on TV, and Kuo's team is in the Major League Baseball post-season playoffs, Taiwan fans watch. "I personally think no one can replace Wang, and I hope he can come back," said Yang Chi-hsiang, a second-year university student and softball player in Taipei. "But the other two are Taiwan players, so we'll support them."

When Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou was elected ruling Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman in July, pundits jumped on the idea that he would use his new title to help secure a meeting with China's President Hu Jintao. The first-of-a-kind summit would follow six decades of strained relations including China's threats of military force against the island.

Ma's new job, which he will take in mid-October, allows him to meet Communist Party Chairman Hu in a party-to-party role, laying aside each side's presidential title. China does not recognise Taiwan's presidency or other government institutions as it claims sovereignty over the self-ruled island.

Beijing's state-run China Daily newspaper said such a meeting would signal "great reconciliation."

A meeting would best take place in 2012, according to a KMT spokesman, Lee Chien-jung.

Before then, Ma will be wary of Taiwan's divided public, Lee said. Taiwanese generally favour closer economic ties with China but oppose rushing into a relationship with the long-distrusted Communist government on fears that Beijing would compromise Taiwan's self-rule, including its democracy. Ma will monitor opinion polls for any change in sentiment, the spokesman said, ruling out any meeting in the short term.

Ma could also be embarrased at home if Hu declined to acknowledge his title as president.

Odds of a meeting will surge in 2012 if Ma wins re-election by a big margin in March of that year, which would be an endorsement of China-friendly economic policies that have characterised his administration since he took office in May 2008.

"That interpretation wouldn't be too far off the mark," Lee said.

No doubt the KMT would also like to see political dividends from any momentum it can build ahead of the election for an expected summit that could occur if Ma were to win.

In an exclusive interview with Reuters on Monday, Ma said he would not exclude the possibility of meeting with China's leaders one day, adding that there was no timetable for any such meeting. "At the moment, we have our hands full with economic issues," he said.

Hu, expected to step down as president in 2013, might see 2012 as his last chance to meet Ma while in office -- a historic moment that might qualify both sides for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Taiwan and China have tacitly agreed to lay aside issues of military tension, international space and sovereignty while they build up basic trust after 60 years of little or no official contact.

If the two sides break ice on these sensisitve political topics, in addition to the trade issues discussed to date, and can deliver any kind of tangible agreement beforehand, it would make sense for a summit 2012, said Raymond Wu, a political risk consultant in Taipei.

"If Ma's political standing at home is solid and Hu is the undisputed centre of power, then yes, I think both would like to meet," Wu said.

Photo: Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou speaks in an interview with Reuters at the Presidential Office in Taipei on Oct. 19, 2009. REUTERS/Nicky Loh

After Taiwan's worst storm in 50 years killed hundreds in massive mudslides last month, the government blamed the freak weather while survivors said the government's slow response after the Aug. 7-9 storm made matters even worse.

Only recently, with reconstruction under way, have officials in the six-county disaster area begun asking what contributing factors may have caused the steep mountainsides to give way, hurling boulders and walls of mud onto riverside villages below. Nearly 770 people are presumed to have died, most of them buried alive.

In the absence of any official declaration of the underlying causes, residents have filled the void with speculation.

Taiwan's forestry bureau says native subtropical trees had covered most of the deadly mudslide areas of Kaohsiung County in southern Taiwan, doing more to hold mountain sides intact than to loosen them. Villagers had planted mainly bamboo, mangoes, peaches and taro on the lower hillsides. They had shunned betel nut plantations and high-mountain tea, which are common elsewhere on the island and are notorious for destablising soil for lack of deep roots, an agricultural official said.

Later this month, officials will investigate accusations that blasting for a 15-km water diversion tunnel in the worst-hit village caused erosion that made the area susceptible to mudslides, the Government Information Office said. But Taiwan's water resources chief denied that tunnel construction might have weakened the moutain sides. Other disaster authorities point toward Taiwan's fragile geology and ecosystem, including repeated earthquakes, typhoons and an early 2009 drought that have left hillsides at increased risk, allowing even huge deep-rooted trees to fall last month.

"Taiwan is an important case study in climate change," said Chern Jenn-chuan, deputy minister of the cabinet's Public Construction Commission. "We can say that natural disasters will be more and more severe. We can be sure of that."

Mountain villagers and land-use experts offer a more ominous theory that could mean disaster for other communities on the steep and populous island during future typhoons, which are common every year from July through October. Their claim: Decades of forestry, farming and over-population have loosened mountain soil all over the island, leaving it prone to massive slides.

Government-sponsored logging through most of the 1900s thinned forests that would otherwise help fortify the soil. Logging is banned today, but the old forests have not grown back to their original scale. The widespread planting of high-elevation farms starting from former strongman Chiang Kai-shek's era decades ago has further weakened hillsides, especially where villagers rely on crops such as betel nut that do not anchor the soil.

"These are facts. The high mountain topography and climate of Taiwan are unique. You can't allow high-density farming," said Alang, an aide to legislator Chen Ying, who represents Taiwan's numerous mountain-dwelling aboriginals in parliament.

Taiwan's population of 23 million, the world's 15th densest, itself has spilled too far into the mountains along with tracts of city-like development rather than the well-spaced, tree-covered homes found at high elevations overseas, said Chen Hung-yu, a geosciences professor at National Taiwan University. "It should be said that the population is too high, that not so many people should be living up there," he said.

The island government, though hesitant to discuss historical factors behind the mudslides, will limit the width of new roads in disaster-prone areas and urge up to 60 communities of a few dozen to a few thousand households apiece to move to safer ground, Chern said. Officials will also re-examine farming and forestry policies with an eye toward change, he said.

Images from the typhoon disaster area: http://www.flickr.com/photos/shelterboxuk/3837129820/

Before the Dalai Lama spoke on the sober subjects of religion and the environment in Taiwan during a speech this week, he opened with a quip about his English.

"First thing, no grammar, no proper grammar," the 73-year-old said with a low-pitched staccato laugh while addressing a full auditorium of residents in the southern city of Kaohsiung. "There is a danger to get misunderstandings, so I always tell you, be careful Dalai Lama's broken English."

His mischievous chuckle and self-depricating humour sent waves of laughter through the audience.

A day earlier, when aides accidentally broke a table in front of the kneeling religious figure, he surprised a somber crowd of about 10,000 local Buddhists with the same laugh, generating applause. During a Tibetan-langauge prayer for the same audience, he suddenly put on a purple sun visor, breaking into English to say the overhead light was too strong. That time the crowd laughed.

Quips and outbursts of laughter characterise the world-renowned Tibetan spiritual leader's speeches as he uses humour, part of his core personality, to bring him closer to his listeners, people close to him say.

But his visit to Taiwan is hardly a joke. During his Aug. 30-Sept. 4 visit, he has prayed for hundreds who died when a typhoon hit the island last month. On his first full day in Taiwan, the Dalai Lama knelt above a massive landslide that buried a village, praying for the countless villagers who were killed as relatives of the dead stood by.

The Dalai Lama's visit has also whipped up a new political storm between Taiwan and its long-time political rival China, which claims sovereighty over the self-ruled island and deems the India-based Dalai Lama a separatist who is seeking to split Tibet from its territory. China has cancelled or postponed a few Taiwan-related events in apparent retaliation, chilling relations with the island after a thaw that began in the middle of last year.

The Dalai Lama's humour, does admittedly shock some new audiences, said Khedroob Thondup, a Taipei-based member of the Tibetan parliament-in-exile, but they learn fast to relax.

"He's got a good sense of humour, which is his personal style," Thondup said. "Normally audiences are surprised because these are serious occasions. But he always tries to make people feel not too strongly about it."

Taiwan audiences have understood the humour as a way to unify people on the island, which hosts many different religions and ideas, said Chang Chia-hsing, a spokesman for the city of Kaohsiung, which organised many of the Dalai Lama's events. "What he jokes about doesn't count as serious," Chang said. "It's a way to bring people together."

Slow-moving Morakot stormed into Taiwan's typhoon hall of infamy this past week, rescue teams complained, largely because clouds hovered in the hardest hit areas even after the killer storm had passed.

The clouds blocked any aerial views of mountain villages in southern Taiwan where hundreds of people are presumed dead from landslides.

Disaster officials on this western Pacific island, a veteran of raging late summer typhoons, couldn't even confirm the biggest landslide, which buried a village that was home to more than 1,000 people, until a day after it had happened.

But Taiwan's National Space Organization aims to change that in five to six years by designing a radiometer that could be launched into space on one of its heavier satellites, Formosat-2 or Formosat-5. Positioned around 800 km (500 miles) above earth, the radiometer would check water levels, potentially showing whether a river had suddenly changed course, said Nick Yen, a space organisation programme director.

The same radiometer could also detect changes in the sea level, hinting at tsunamis after an earthquake, for which Taiwan is also known.

"The National Space Organisation isn't able to do this yet, but we are working on that," Yen said in an interview. "It's quite a useful tool for rescue operations."

Taiwan will seek help from academia and possibly from the United States, which has already developed the technology, Yen said. He did not specify a budget but said developing the radiometer would cost more in labour than in materials. Taiwan, the world's No. 37 space power, would share radiometer data internationally but keep the technology to itself, he said.

(Pictures - Top: Family members of flood victims look at the site of a major landslide that destroyed the mountain village of Hsiao Lin in Kaohsiung County, southern Taiwan, August 15, 2009. REUTERS/Stringer. Centre right: A destroyed home lies partially submerged in a river in Gaushu township after Typhoon Morakot swept through Pingtung county, southern Taiwan, August 14, 2009. REUTERS/Stringer. Bottom left: Taiwan's first satellite is launched into orbit atop a U.S. Lockheed Martin Athena 1 rocket from Florida, in January 1999. REUTERS/Stringer.)