This link has the ‘official’ announcement. pttcitizen1985.blogspot.tw/p/803 … ement.html
This link has the ‘official’ announcement. pttcitizen1985.blogspot.tw/p/803 … ement.html[/quote]
Big CITIZEN is Watching you
一、時間： 萬人送仲丘：102年8月3日 星期六 18:00至22:00
二、地點： 凱達格蘭大道
三、注意事項：
請大家一起穿上白上衣，以表達我們要真相大白
建議自行攜帶口罩以及飲用水
晚上燈光昏暗，請留意自身安全
晚會以和平理性為訴求，嚴肅、不嬉鬧，請避免任何激進行為（如丟雞蛋…）
現場設有真相貼紙攤位，提供未預購的民眾領取待用貼紙
請匯款購買貼紙的公民，憑「手機號碼」及「帳號末5碼」於攤位兌換，我們已經為您保留了貼紙
My translation:
- Theme and Time: 18:00 to 22:00 Saturday, 3rd August 2013. (the them is that you see the dead friend away in a funeral. I don’t know the right words to translate it.)
- Location: Ketagalan Blvd, Taipei, Taiwan
- Reminders:
- wear white cloth
- bring your own water and mask
- watch out for any theft and harassment in the evening demonstration
- allow only solemn expression for this is a quasi-funeral activity
- buy stickers to support us
Chatting with one woman involved in the protests yesterday and she said that there’s the feeling that military corruption is mostly to blame for the poor investigation and cover up attempts. She said that she and her friends / family think that the military has too much money which just invites corruption, and so should have its budget slashed until it can be cleaned up and run efficiently.
Dear me! The military is underfunded as is already!
Mostly to pay protection to the US (I mean buy overpriced and outdated weapon systems)
underfunded cause a retired general receives $120,000 monthly.
by the way, the Taoyuan DA said this about the sudden black screens for surveillance camera when Fan and Chen arrived at the solitary confinement to torment Hung:
「追黑畫面真相 桃檢：清灰塵不小心拔除」
The DA first says the black screen are due to old and faulty equipments, then they said black screens were not human caused, today they are saying the signal input cables are disconnected by accident when they are cleaning dust.
Dear me! The military is underfunded as is already![/quote]
Obviously not too underfunded for corruption to take place, at least according to the protesters.
I personally have no idea what the budget and funding if the military is like here but seeing as militaries in most countries have way too much funding often at the expense of more important areas, it doesn’t surprise me that corruption there is rampant.
Taiwan spends less than 2.1% of GDP on the military, and it has been decreasing. It’s still a lot of money and an extra 100,000NT isn’t much for a country if someone’s stealing them, but still regardless of money corruption can happen.
taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/ … 2003564688
Taiwan actually spends less and less on the military each year, American spends 1/3 of their revenue on the military by the way.
Regarding deaths in the military, according to this the number is 1392 deaths in 10 years:
appledaily.com.tw/appledaily … 1/35190970
For the past 10 years, casualty of the US military forces in Afghanistan was 2113.
Being in the peace time Taiwanese army almost as dangerous as being in war time Afghanistan…
[quote=“hansioux”]Regarding deaths in the military, according to this the number is 1392 deaths in 10 years:
appledaily.com.tw/appledaily … 1/35190970
For the past 10 years, casualty of the US military forces in Afghanistan was 2113.
Being in the peace time Taiwanese army almost as dangerous as being in war time Afghanistan…[/quote]
I remember hearing it on the news more than ten years ago.
I think it was in 1998 when local media outlets openly asked for clarifications, why so many kids didn’t make it alive through the service.
Didn’t Chen introduce independent investigations for those cases, and wasn’t that revoked later on by Ma? I might be wrong, though.
[quote=“hansioux”]Regarding deaths in the military, according to this the number is 1392 deaths in 10 years:
appledaily.com.tw/appledaily … 1/35190970
For the past 10 years, casualty of the US military forces in Afghanistan was 2113.
Being in the peace time Taiwanese army almost as dangerous as being in war time Afghanistan…[/quote]
U.S.military suicide rates are also higher than combat death in Afghanistan.
Yes, is US casualty counting suicides and accidents at peacetime vs. Taiwan military death due to warvs peacetime suicide? Has anyone done boot camp both here and in the US? Boot camp in Taiwan is a joke and it does not prepare anyone for combat.
[quote=“cfimages”]
U.S.military suicide rates are also higher than combat death in Afghanistan.[/quote]
I thought that’s after service, for vets who have trouble coping with civilian life and PTSD?
nytimes.com/2012/06/09/us/su … .html?_r=0
From this article there are on average less than 120 active duty personnels suicides per year. So 10 years would yield 1200. Since there are way more US military personnels, and most of them have seen battle in the past 10 years, it would still make Taiwanese military more dangerous than the US
most of it is due to stress of multiple deployments, being apart with family and financial issues where military families have a low employment rate, also, a lot of PTSD.
Here in Taiwan it’s the new conscripts that are “killing themselves” even though they only need to spend 1 year or less in the service.
Well you are away from your family while in the military, and it can be stressful sometimes. Back in the day it was 3 years by the way… and training is much harsher, not to mention things like abuse happen more.
Well hopefully that conscription will be abolished very soon and no longer be a problem.
or it will be lengthened because they can’t find enough people to volunteer…
If the protesters were really serious about change, future draftees would refuse to turn up for service and current conscripts would walk off base en masse and refuse to return until changes are made.
The current protests might make people feel good but they’re unlikely to result in any changes.