Locally-based musician with financial need!

by Mark Forman on April 17, 2009

pbyrne I found out from Craig Ferguson today that Patrick Byrne a Taichung based musician and music promoter has a large financial debt due to the birth of his prematurely born son. The baby Fionn Byrne accumulated medical expenses of over US$ 30,000. There will be benefits here to help allay the expenses. If you would like to contribute to the Byrne family's expense fund or buy tribute CD please contact Patrick here directly e-mail to Patrick. Related article is here. Here's a good opportunity to demonstrate love and charity where it can do something big!

Tagged as: benefit, charity, medical expense need

http://twitter.com/bbluesman bbluesman

Feel like showing some

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http://twitter.com/bbluesman bbluesman

New blog post of min Locally-based musician with financial need!: I found out from Craig Fer.. http://tinyurl.com/c5hbdj

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http://twitter.com/michaeldcarney michaeldcarney

@aplusk Feel like showing some

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Anonymous

The KMT’s actions demonstrate many of their powerful members simultaneous feelings of guilt over their past deeds and a wish to absolve themselves of that guilt by destroying the physical reminders of the decades of state terror committed against the people of Taiwan.

They may feel that if the reminders are destroyed people can forget the violence of the ROC’s arrival of Taiwan. This may be with an eye on solidifying support for an ROC national identity as the citizen’s obligation to forget the violence of the nation’s birth is essential for the replacement of old national identities with the new one.

Unfortunately for the KMT, the violence and suppression of citizens on Taiwan has become a predominant narrative in the realization of Taiwan’s democratic regime change in the 1990’s. This current era should be viewed as the latest era in-line with Dutch, Cheng, Qing, Japanese, KMT/ROC and now Democratic ROC, as the radical changes vastly altered the relationship between the citizen and the state.

Destroying these symbols becomes an assault on the nation and on the ideals shared by all peoples of Taiwan who support democracy on the island. The KMT would be wise to leave them and recognize them.

This comment was originally posted on http://michaelturton.blogspot.com/)">The View from Taiwan
Carlos

I’m with Anon.

I think the KMT has been successful in separating itself from its past in voter’s minds. The truth is certainly up for debate, but what matters is that most Taiwanese think of the Martial Law era KMT and the current KMT as being separate entities.

Messing with history weakens that perceived separation, and is risky. Unfortunately, Taiwan has a strong "don’t cause trouble by bringing up the past" culture, so the KMT can probably get away with it.

This comment was originally posted on http://michaelturton.blogspot.com/)">The View from Taiwan
Anonymous

Carlos said: I think the KMT has been successful in separating itself from its past in voter’s minds.

I think not — consider it an active demonstration of democracy. Since people tend to vote their pocketbook, political conservatives in Taiwan are giving KMT a chance to reform themselves and maintain the economy. If they fail, we’ll likely see a return of the other party.

This comment was originally posted on http://michaelturton.blogspot.com/)">The View from Taiwan
Anonymous

This would be laughable if it weren’t so sad.

Since when has the Taiwan government ever significantly subsidized art and artists?

Most of Taiwan’s greatest art institutions have to go begging for money.

It’s perhaps apt they’re thinking of putting artists up in prison.

This comment was originally posted on http://michaelturton.blogspot.com/)">The View from Taiwan
Adam

Maybe I am wrong (and it could be so because I live in very pan-blue Taipei and I married into a family of pan-bluists), but it certainly seems that the KMT has been successful in seperating itself from its past.

This comment was originally posted on http://michaelturton.blogspot.com/)">The View from Taiwan
Anonymous

Adam:

I should commend you for realizing where your bias is coming from, but the KMT openly does not dissociate itself from its past.

They vote in steel blocks for the descendants of the operators of this deadly authoritarian machine (Jiang’s, Hao’s, and so many sons and daughters of old generals, whose military police/intelligence apparatus operated WITHIN the borders of Taiwan).

I would think it would be too obvious to bring up Ma’s worship of Chiang Ching-Kuo too.

If the KMT were serious about being open with their past, they have a lot of historical archives that they could open up to the public, and their money warchest – whether or not they think it’s legitimate gains – could be negated by campaign spending limits and allow for fair elections. But they won’t do either of these, in the former case because they feel guilty and what’s in those archives will shock even the Blues and in the second because they want above all, to win and enjoy their power.

This comment was originally posted on http://michaelturton.blogspot.com/)">The View from Taiwan