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Universal Parks & Resorts And Nintendo Will Bring The Fun Of Nintendo To Life With Expansive, Highly Themed Environments At Osaka, Orlando And Hollywood
Nov 29, 2016, 09:21 EST
KYOTO, Japan and ORLANDO, Fla., Nov. 29, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Imagine the fun of stepping into a larger-than-life Nintendo adventure. Gigantic Piranha Plants spring to life. Question blocks, power-ups and more surround you. And Mario and all his friends are there to pull you into a brand-new world.
Click Here for Official Announcement Video
You will enter an entire realm filled with iconic Nintendo excitement, gameplay, heroes and villains. And it is coming to three Universal theme parks around the globe.
The creative visionaries behind Nintendo's legendary worlds and characters are working together with the creative teams behind Universal's blockbuster theme park attractions. Their goal: to bring the characters, action and adventure of Nintendo video games to life within Universal theme parks. And to do so in new and innovative ways that capture what makes them so special. All of the adventure, fun and whimsy you experience through a screen will now be all around you – in breathtakingly authentic ways.
- Nintendo-themed areas are coming to Universal Studios Japan, Universal Orlando Resort and Universal Studios Hollywood.
- These will be expansive, immersive and interactive. They will be highly themed and authentic environments filled with multiple attractions, shops and restaurants.
- Guests will feel as if they are playing inside their favorite games – this time in real life.
- There will be something for everyone – regardless of their age or gaming experience level.
- Planning and creative work on these areas is well underway; they will open separately over the next several years.
The new themed areas come as the result of a global partnership between Universal Parks & Resorts and Nintendo – two icons of the entertainment world. Universal theme parks create incredibly popular family entertainment experiences for millions of people based on compelling characters, stories and innovative technology. Nintendo creates remarkable and imaginative games filled with captivating stories and beloved characters.
Each Universal theme park will announce details of its specific Nintendo areas. The first such announcement will come soon.
About Universal Parks & Resorts
Universal Parks & Resorts, a unit of Comcast NBCUniversal, offers guests around the globe today's most relevant and popular entertainment experiences. With three-time Academy Award winner Steven Spielberg as creative consultant, its theme parks are known for immersive experiences that feature some of the world's most thrilling and technologically advanced film- and television-based attractions.
Comcast NBCUniversal wholly owns Universal Studios Hollywood, which includes Universal CityWalk Hollywood. It also owns Universal Orlando Resort, a destination resort with two theme parks (Universal Studios Florida and Universal's Islands of Adventure), five resort hotels, and Universal CityWalk Orlando. In addition, Comcast NBCUniversal owns a 51 percent majority interest in Universal Studios Japan, in Osaka and has a license agreement with Universal Studios Singapore at Resorts World Sentosa, Singapore. The company has also announced plans for a theme park in Beijing.
About Nintendo
The worldwide pioneer in the creation of interactive entertainment, Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures and markets hardware and software for its Wii U™ and Wii™ home consoles, and Nintendo 3DS™ and Nintendo DS™ families of portable systems. Since 1983, when it launched the Nintendo Entertainment System™, Nintendo has sold more than 4.4 billion video games and more than 696 million hardware units globally, including the current-generation Wii U, Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo 3DS XL, as well as the Game Boy™, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, Nintendo DSi™ and Nintendo DSi XL™, Super NES™, Nintendo 64™, Nintendo GameCube™ and Wii systems. It has also created industry icons that have become well-known, household names such as Mario™, Donkey Kong™, Metroid™, Zelda™ and Pokémon™.
Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161129/443576
SOURCE Universal Parks & Resorts


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The Need For Speed series has been around forever and despite its age it has constantly remained at the top of the sales charts every year. Its fast-paced arcade style racing has always been addicting, but this year's installment sees a drastic change in pace from previous releases. While it's still the same in the sense that it's holding on to the street racer style introduced in Underground, the revamped physics engine and the resultant lackluster races make it hard for ProStreet to compete with other next-gen titles.
sucks no one will buy that crappy game. until hotpursuit 3 or high stakes 2 comes out.

subset: commoncrawl


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Five Prime Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq:FPRX), a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on discovering and developing innovative immuno-oncology protein therapeutics, today announced UCB has elected to exclusively license an undisclosed drug target for inflammatory diseases. Five Prime identified the target using its discovery platform.
"Our unique discovery platform is proving to be a drug target discovery engine, as evidenced by UCB's decision to license a target we found through our customized in vivo screens and jointly developed cell based screens," said Aron Knickerbocker, chief executive officer of Five Prime Therapeutics. "UCB is a leader in the research and development of biologics and brings tremendous expertise to this collaboration. We believe that our powerful platform is well suited to finding new pathways in complex diseases, and we're pleased that our efforts led to the identification of a new target to help support UCB's goal to improve the lives of people living with serious diseases."
Five Prime identified the undisclosed target under the strategic collaboration established in March 2013 with UCB for the discovery of innovative biologics targets and therapeutics. Five Prime conducted five customized cell-based and in vivo screens of its protein libraries under the collaboration. In the course of screening its protein libraries in the collaboration, Five Prime identified proteins that may be potential drug targets or drug candidates for inflammatory diseases.
Under the collaboration, Five Prime is eligible to receive potential future development, regulatory and sales-based milestones payments, as well as potential royalties on net sales.
About Five Prime
Five Prime Therapeutics, Inc. discovers and develops innovative therapeutics to improve the lives of patients with serious diseases. Five Prime's comprehensive discovery platform, which encompasses virtually every medically relevant extracellular protein, positions it to explore pathways in cancer, inflammation and their intersection in immuno-oncology, an area with significant therapeutic potential and the focus of the company's R&D activities. Five Prime has entered into strategic collaborations with leading global pharmaceutical companies and has promising product candidates in clinical and late preclinical development. For more information, please visit www.fiveprime.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.
About UCB
UCB, Brussels, Belgium (www.ucb.com) is a global biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of innovative medicines and solutions to transform the lives of people living with severe diseases in immunology and neurology. With around 7 500 people operating in 40 countries, the company generated revenue of € 4.5 billion in 2017. UCB is listed on Euronext Brussels (symbol: UCB). Follow us on Twitter: @UCB_news
Cautionary Note on Forward-looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "may," "will," "expect," "plan," "anticipate," "estimate," "intend" and similar expressions (as well as other words or expressions referencing future events, conditions or circumstances) are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on Five Prime's expectations and assumptions as of the date of this press release. Each of these forward-looking statements involves risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release include statements about Five Prime's potential receipt of milestone payments and royalties. Many factors may cause differences between current expectations and actual results, including unexpected safety or efficacy data observed during non-clinical or clinical studies, clinical site activation rates or clinical trial enrollment rates that are lower than expected and changes in expected or existing competition. Other factors that may cause actual results to differ from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements in this press release are discussed in Five Prime's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including the "Risk Factors" contained therein. Except as required by law, Five Prime assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in expectations, even as new information becomes available.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180319005393/en/Business Wire
Last updated on: 19/03/2018
PharmiWeb.com is Europe's leading industry-sponsored portal for the Pharmaceutical sector, providing the latest jobs, news, features and events listings.
The information provided on PharmiWeb.com is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between a patient/site visitor and his/her physician.


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Now that CRISPR gives scientists the ability to easily manipulate organisms on a basic genetic level, the natural evolution of biology may no longer dictate our limits. But evolution has held sway for some time, which isn't why Dolly the cloned sheep, who is 20 years old, looks the way she does. And also why her descendants will look different.
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Latest News
NES catridge cufflinks customized with your parental love subsitute of choice
Hey, check out this penny! Sadly, you can only admire the amazing craftmanship of this United States Treasury-minted marvel from afar – it is not for sale, but perhaps you could attain one of these hand-sculpted NES catridge cufflinks, available… Read More »
The Legend of Miyamato is the coolest homework assignment evah!
Newsgrounds has a cute video posted by user Awkward-Squid, also known as Luis Logam, a charming blend of of cartooning and code entitled Legend of Miyamato. The short flash animation, completed as part of a university assignment, imagines what would… Read More »
Game Over: Art of the Gamer Generation wants you to buy some art (then send it to me)
It's gonna get ugly when Princess Peach realizes she whipped out the goods and nobody gives a damn. In these difficult economic times, it would be wise to convert your money into something that won't depreciate over time – no,… Read More »


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Starting Saturday, March 10, you can enter to win a pair of tickets to Tito Puente Jr! The contest ends on Friday, March 16.
To enter, you must like our JazzFM Facebook page, and post on our page comment on our Tito posts with 'Tito Puente Jr tickets". It's that simple!
One winner will be picked at random and will win a pair of premium tickets that includes seating and a complimentary bottle of wine or sangria.
This concert is a fundraiser for the Nora Cronin Presentation Academy in Newburgh.
The concert is May 12, with pre-show starting at 6:30 pm and the main show is at 8 pm at the Ritz Theater in Newburgh. You can purchase tickets here.
This contest will also return with General Admission tickets in May for more winning with JazzFM!


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Featured10£1,400Mint gpz500sHillingdon 389 milesHi there . This is the cleanest gpz500 you will ever see All keys full service history every tax disc and mot and original bill of sale from new . Just had a full service and brakes and new mot in June the bike has been lowered from new and is so comfortable And rides like...
Featured4£2,200Motorcle, Yamaha, Virago XV 535Porth 386 milesGood Cond. runs great,yr.2002, with back rest, paniers, footboards, windscreen, clock and thermometer, love this bike, its so easy and comfortable to ride, Im only selling to buy bigger Virago ie. 750 or 1100, so would be open to straight swap, 10100 mileage, will go up...
6£4,100Kawasaki ER6F 66PLATE AS NEWDoncaster 256 miles66 plate Excellent all round condition Low miles only 3500 Fully serviced at Kawasaki Mot OCT 2019 Balance of manufacturers warranty ABS DATATAG Protected D&G crash bungs All keys and books present Very clean unabused bike Doncaster close to jct36A1M...Posted 1 day ago
National freeads (50 miles or above)
10£750Kawasaki zx6r ninjaBirmingham 322 milesSelling my Kawasaki zx6r ninja bought bike hoping to put in for my bike test but got too many other commitments , so didn't want bike sitting there for ever it's got no mot ,it's got new battery ,starts straight away off the key it was used daily before I bought it but as...Posted 1 day ago
8£2,000Zxr 600Houghton Le Spring 163 milesExtremely clean example of a zxr600r declared a cat D around 5 year ago but had all the damaged parts replaced with brand new parts photos dont do it justice!Posted 3 days ago
2£2,5952016 kawasaki z300cc abs 4850mlsWidnes 261 miles2016 kawasaki 300 z abs aprovic exhaust heated grips phone charger only 4850 miles nice bike.big saving on new price.bargainPosted 4 days ago
10£1,350Kawasaki er 5 500cc motorcycle. Beautiful condition!Birkenhead 263 milesKawasaki er 500 in stunning condition! Brand new full stainless steel carbon- effect exhaust and downpipes, plus aftermarket bellycan and screen. A fortune has been spent on the bike and it runs and rides like new.The bike has covered only 9780 miles! It has had a recent...
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10£2,500Zxr600Houghton Le Spring 163 milesVery clean and faultless bike immaculate previously a cat d with the damaged parts replaced pictures dont do it justice any more info required please message
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4£9,4991998 Kawasaki VN 1500cc Classic silver/aluminium, black motorcycle with 4k of Chrome ExtrasKings Langley 382 miles1998 KAWASAKI VN1500 D2 Classic silver/aluminium, black motorcycle 16k on the clock Excellent bodywork and condition for the age it has been very well looked after Full Service History MOT Dry stored with cover and in a garage This is a very special bike, you won't...
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We are Writers
09 May 2016
Congratulations to our Year Seven writers whose Spine Chiller short stories were included in a special anthology published last week. The students worked on story writing in English lessons and submitted their work as part of their homework. These were then sent off to the Young Writers organisation.
The Anthology contains examples of stories by students from all over the North West and Cheshire. Copies of the Anthology will be in our school Library for all to peruse.


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Important Nov. 6 Election Voting Dates
Oct. 9
Last day to register to vote. Click here to get registered.
Oct. 22
First day of early voting.
Oct. 26
Last day to apply for ballot by mail. Click here to get your vote by mail application.
Nov. 2
Last day to early vote.
Tuesday, Nov. 6
Election Day.
Let's take back our state.
Commit to vote in 2018:
Voting Resources
We don't have to accept a dark and discriminatory vision for America. We can vote for equality, justice, and a fair shot for all.


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Pugh's Flowers was started in 1976 by Bill Pugh and his partner. The flower shop currently is owned and operated by his three sons and has four retail locations in Memphis, TN as well as a landscape division named Pugh's Earthworks. Landscape operations are based in Memphis, Jackson, and Nashville, TN, as well as Little Rock, AR.
Pugh's Flowers imports the freshest cut flowers daily from around the world for our flower delivery. We receive our cut flowers on refrigerated trucks or by direct air shipment from the ports of Miami and New York, and the fields of Southern California. Our goal is to provide the freshest product daily at reasonable prices. Teleflora ranks Pugh's Flowers as one of the nations 100 largest floral order senders from over 25,000 member shops. Our full service florist has a full selection of fresh cut flowers, fruit and gourmet baskets, green houseplants and home accessories that are all available in store, via the web or by phone. Pugh's Flowers is open 7 days a week 24 hours a day by phone 888-901-6744 and via the World Wide Web. The retail locations offer delivery 7 days a week both locally (Memphis, Millington, Bartlett, Arlington, Germantown, Southaven, Olive Branch, Horn Lake, West Memphis) and nationally.
Local deliveries are made in our special no-spill boxes. A delivery confirmation is sent via email or phone call to the customer and a follow up call is made to the recipient to ensure freshness and quality. Select a proven leader in the community by choosing Pugh's Flowers and Pugh's Earthworks.
Reprinted with permission Floral Accounting Services Inc. 2003
We agree to accept and follow these principles to the best of our abilities.
Timothy L. Pugh


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TIPP CITY — This week, the Tippecanoe High School theater program debuts "Leaving Iowa," a road trip comedy about childhood and family.
Performances will be held in the Tippecanoe Center for Performing Arts located at Tippecanoe High School, 615 Kessler-Cowlesville Road. Doors will open 30 minutes before curtain times.
The show opens Nov. 16 at 7:30 p.m., with performances on Nov. 17 and Nov. 18 at the same time. A free performance for senior citizens will be held at 7 p.m. today, Nov. 15. No tickets are needed for this performance.
Director Marjorie Strader said the show is one of her favorites, with its themes of nostalgia and familial relationships. The show features outrageous characters and plenty of jokes, but it also has a "nice mix of humor and poignancy," she said.
"Leaving Iowa," written by Tim Clue and Spike Manton, is the story of Don Browning, a middle-aged writer, who decides to fulfill a promise he made to take his father's ashes to his childhood home.
But when Don discovers his grandmother's house is now a grocery store, he begins his search for a proper resting place for his father and takes a few trips down memory lane along the way. While on his journey, Don flashes back to memories of the family vacations of his childhood.
"It goes back and forth between the past and the present a lot," Strader said.
The cast features returning actors Jackson Hottle as Don, Olivia Hamilton as his sister, Alec Group as his father, and Melanie Dodson as Mom. Ria Bhagwat, Savannah Foster, Taylor Haggerty, Annie Livesay, Katie Bellas, and Dalton Smith also returned to the stage in this production. Students Brock Kobernuss and Nicole Downing are making their debut on the Tippecanoe stage. "Leaving Iowa" is stage managed by Michele Morgan, Jenna Fujimura, and Kirsten Hartke.
The show was a challenge for the cast and crew, Strader said, with many of the cast playing their characters at different ages or playing multiple parts. The show also features many technical details for the stage and sound crew.
"It's not an easy show," she said. "It's fun and the kids are doing a good job with it."
Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students. They may be purchased at the door or from cast and crew members.
Parental guidance is suggested for people under 10 due to mild language.
Reach Cecilia at email@example.com


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KOLKATA, 3 AUG.: A 13-member committee to study environmental pollution due to sponge iron unit and make recommendation to curb the menace would be formed by the state environment minister, Mr Sudarshan Ghosh Dastidar.
The decision was taken after the minister along with the chairman of the West Bengal Pollution Control Board (WBPCB), Mr Binoy Kumar Dutta, principal secretary of the environment department, Mr RPS Kahlon, the joint secretary of the commerce and industries department met 60 representatives from various sponge iron units across Asansol, Durgapur and Bankura at the Paribesh Bhavan in Salt Lake today.
The minister who had visited the sponge iron units in these regions on 18 July said that the units seldom comply with the environmental norms. Mr Dutta showed a presentation on the current situation and the finding by various inspection teams to the areas to access the damage caused by such highly polluting units.
The minister instructed the representatives from the units to abide by the rules and install effluent treatment devices.
The committee to be formed by the minister would have a local resident of the area where sponge iron units exist, an environment activist, officials of the WBPCB, representatives from sponge iron units and external experts. The panel would study the effects, extent of environmental degradation due to the units and give recommendations. The detailed report would be submitted by 30 September, said Mr Dutta.
Since coal-bed methane is found in Durgapur Asansol belt and is less polluting than coal, the minister advised the units to switch from coal based fuel to methane. He observed that coal-bed methane is used even by some auto drivers to run their vehicle in the region and could be a greener alternative to coal.
Soma Basu


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The 18-2 Enumclaw High baseball team continued to soar through the high school universe in West Central District III action at Auburn Mountainview, taking down the previously undefeated Mountain View Thunder 8-7 Thursday to secure a berth in the Class 3A state tournament.
After claiming a dramatic win over the Vancouver-based Thunder, the rain again became Enumclaw's most formidable foe. Saturday, the Hornets easily tamed Timberline 8-1 and were about to take on Camas High when a rain squall delayed play until Monday.
Against Mountain View, Enumclaw outslugged the Thunder 12 hits to six with timely hits by Kyle Baumgartner, Marcus Madden, Cody Hughes, Kyle Thomson and starting pitcher Levi Goodin.
Another solid effort on the mound by Goodin was nearly squandered as he watched an early Hornet 2-0 lead evaporate thanks to sloppy glove work by his teammates. Mountain View took advantage of an error-plagued fifth frame and took a 5-2 lead.
Enumclaw overcame its ineptitudes on defense to arrive at the dramatic final inning tied at seven.
In the bottom of that fateful inning, a predominantly senior Enumclaw outfit found a way to win.
With one out, Kyle Thomson smashed a triple. With two away, Cody Hughes laced a gaper to right field that coaxed Thomson across the plate to salt away the 8-7 triumph.
Saturday morning's district semifinal counted on the reliable pitching arm of Hughes to crush Timberline High's Blazers 8-1.
The offensive attack was furnished mostly by home runs by Michael Lucarelli and Eric Koenig. With each dinger that Koenig plasters out of the park he will make his school record harder to eclipse.
At 7 p.m. Saturday, it was time for Enumclaw to engage in the long-awaited showdown with the Camas High Papermakers. The Hornets seemed to be riveted to the fast track in their mission of returning to the state Class 3A final four in late May. Just two pitches into the battle with CHS in the first inning, the white hot bat of Thomson produced a screaming double into center field.
The ominous black clouds that had been looming over the venue could be restrained no longer. The dark skies unleashed their full fury with a relentless rain that refused to let up.
After a half hour of waiting, the umpire officially called a rainout.


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6 thoughts on "RUMBLE & STRAIGHT SETS 1 JULY 2016"
can u give lucky 3 straigth number
Lucky number plz..plz..
"I have realized some points through your blog post post. One other thing I would like to express is that there are lots of games on the market designed in particular for preschool age small children. They include things like pattern identification, colors, creatures, and forms. These generally focus on familiarization instead of memorization. This will keep little ones engaged without having the experience like they are studying. Thanks"


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HTC Desire 626 Dual SIM LTE (White Birch, 16 GB) (2 GB RAM)
For gadget freaks who have been on a lookout for a bold, practical and an innovative smartphone to satiate their hunger for technology, HTC Desire 626 will definitely be their first choice.
Apart from the obvious connectivity options, this phone offers you the chance to stream videos, listen to songs, or browse your social networking profiles at a high speed, thanks to the option of 4G LTE.
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The high-quality 13 MP camera, and 5 MP front camera make your pictures look great, while also allowing you to take pictures in low-light conditions. And with options such as countdown timer, gesture controls, and backside illumination, your selfies won't be the same anymore.
The 2000 mAh battery capacity of this dual SIM smartphone will let you enjoy long hours of talktime, and standby time.
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"I am always amazed at how the firm maintains the same pleasant culture from office to office across the country."
- Toia Cross, Regional IT Manager, Los Angeles
Getting to know Hogan Lovells
I was referred to Hogan Lovells by a current employee and sought to join the firm because of its friendly and diverse culture.
I also share the same philosophy as the firm regarding client interaction — clients come first. Because the Los Angeles office is smaller than some of the others, our responsibilities as staff members can sometimes fall outside the scope of our normal duties, but we eagerly welcome these opportunities — especially when it comes to meeting the needs of our clients.
I work in a regional office yet I never feel disconnected from my colleagues in other offices. Maintaining communication through technology such as conference calls and video conferences fosters an atmosphere where you don't look at your peers as just co-workers but as team members.
I have been involved with the firm's "Friends of Lockwood" volunteer project. I visited Lockwood Elementary School to talk to the students on Career Day about my role in the Information Technology Department at Hogan Lovells. This particular volunteer project stands out to me, because being asked to speak at Lockwood on Career Day made me realize even more that all of us, in our various capacities, are important here at Hogan Lovells.
I am fortunate to work in a department that allows me to travel to other Hogan Lovells offices. I am always amazed at how the firm maintains the same pleasant culture from office to office across the country.
The atmosphere at Hogan Lovells is unique in that everyone maintains a sense a professionalism and respect for one another, no matter how busy we all get. This characteristic is not easy to find among large firms, and I am happy to be a part of such a team. The best example of the firm's friendly atmosphere is the fact that everyone is on a first-name basis — it shows how every person gives and receives the same level of respect.
Toia was drawn to our Los Angeles office because of the firm's friendly and diverse culture. When not travelling to other offices across the United States, she values having the opportunity to stay connected with her colleagues through telephone and video conferences.


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The online registration is administered through Sportzsoft. By continuing with the online registration you will exit the Brentwood Community website and be transferred to the Sportzsoft website. When you are finished with the registration process, you will be returned to the Brentwood Community website.
If you have any problems with the online registration, please contact us:
Please ensure that you have all necessary information available. Necessary information includes: the parent's name, address, phone number(s), email address and credit card information; and the participant's name, date of birth and contact information if different from the parent's.
When you continue with the online registration, please follow the screen instructions provided. If you have not previously registered with Brentwood using the online registration system, you are considered a new member and must select the Signup as New Member option.
Soccer Refund Policy
Canskate is a learn-to-skate program for ages 4 and up. Online registration commences in July and is on-going until the program is full. The program runs late September to mid March Thursday evenings 6 pm to 7 pm.
Canskate Refund/Withdrawal Policy...
Click HERE for Canskate Registration...
Figure Skating includes: StarSkate, Junior and Intermediate levels. You need to have a coach before you register. Figure Skating registration information night is early September at the Brentwood Sportsplex; you can meet the coaches and ask questions. Online registration opens in July.
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WESTERN WI – The Third Annual Our Creative Routes studio art tour will be Saturday and Sunday, April 30 and May 1, from 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
The work of artists from the Baldwin-Woodville and Spring Valley area include Pamela Clemens, Tanya Kober, John Koch, Emily Rohde, and Jason Rohde. Other artists are from Hammond, Hudson, New Richmond, River Falls, Roberts, and the Twin Cities.
Painting, sculpture, woodturning, fiber arts, jewelry, and pottery will be featured. Sites on the tour include Color Crossing in Roberts, Clemens Barn in Baldwin, Trout Lily Studios in Spring Valley, and Rohde Pottery Farm in Woodville.
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Do better, Andrew
THE EDITOR, Sir: Allow me space
in your paper to voice a pressing concern of national importance. It
seems like it has now become customary for the leader of the opposition,
Andrew Holness, to be absent from national events. As a case in point,
he missed the Grand Gala Independence ceremony, two years in a row, and
today (Monday) he was again missing in action from the National Heroes
Day Awards Ceremony. Last week, in the midst of the chik-V epidemic, he
was also missing from the meeting called by the prime minister to
address the crisis that they (the opposition) themselves were more than
late in addressing. For all intents and purposes, it appears that Mr
Holness cannot handle the business of leader of the opposition since he
seems to have more pressing, and far more important issues to deal with.
But the truth is, this mass absence on the part of a government
official, and leader of the opposition at that, did not occur when
Jamaica was most polarised during the era of Michael Manley and Edward
Seaga. This leads us to the obvious but weighty question of his
leadership. Can Andrew Holness move Jamaica forward? Must we as a
country look forward to a future Jamaica which does not celebrate
important events in the life of our country? Again, I question his
system of victimisation for those who do not support his ideas. This
system was most reflected after the November 2013 Jamaica Labour Party
leadership race and it can surely continue into the governance of this
country if he should, God forbid, be elected prime minister.
Oneil Hall


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Beheading the Hydra: Combating Political Corruption and Organised Crime
This article analyses the policies of the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration's policies to fight corruption, organised crime and vote-buying from two different perspectives. The first looks at policy, examining formulation, implementation and the impact of the most relevant measures taken. The other is an institutionalist perspective, explaining how constraints have limited the relevant actors' scope of action, resulting in outcomes often not matching those intended.
OutlineTop of page
Full text
1Taking Robert Dahl's well-known concept of a liberal democracy as a benchmark, Taiwan can be said to have completed its democratic transition with the direct elections for the National Assembly and the Legislative Yuan in 1991 and 19921. Since then, its democratic consolidation has made remarkable progress, especially in the realm of institution building and the emergence of a vibrant civil society. It is safe to say that authoritarianism is a thing of the past and that all relevant parties, politicians and the general public are committed to Taiwan's democratic system. However, political scandals, frequent brawls in the Legislative Yuan and the inability to pass important reform bills have made clear that although Taiwan's democracy is resilient, there is still much room for improvement or "democratic deepening". A consistent feature throughout Taiwan's political transformation has been the worrying influence of local-level clientelist networks, moneyed interests and even organised crime on Taiwan's politics.
2The roots of these ills stem from the kind of democratisation Taiwan has experienced and the character of its former autocratic political system. From 1911 to 1992, the Republic of China was an authoritarian regime ruled by one party, which dominated the state and penetrated deep into economy and society. Compared to other authoritarian regimes, Taiwan's autocracy proved to be remarkably stable. This was not due to excessive coercion, but resulted from an intricate arrangement of incentives and dependencies which bound major societal forces to the leading Nationalist Party (Kuomintang, KMT).
3As Chen Tung-sheng2, Chen Ming-tong 3 and others have shown, the KMT (or at least its politically domineering factions4) held on to these structures, so democratisation did not obliterate, it merely altered them. With the KMT bereft of autocratic means to control its agents, powerful (collective) actors like local clientelistic networks and large enterprises grew in significance, and the relationship between them and the KMT turned the former patron-agent relationship into one of mutual dependence. This led to the emergence of "black gold" (heijin), the collusion between politicians on the one side and organised crime and big business on the other. Both helped the KMT to stay in power, but not without demanding something in return.
4As factions within the KMT had realised very early, these exchanges were bound to drain the reservoir of legitimacy the party had built up by steering Taiwan's "economic miracle". Since its foundation in 1986 and with increased intensity before the 1992 Legislative Yuan elections, the oppositional Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) had made the fight against political corruption and organised crime a major campaign issue and had thereby pushed the KMT further into a dilemma: it had to fight corruption, organised crime and rid itself of its reliance on localist networks, while at the same time depending on these very groups for its survival.
5The DPP's situation, of course, was quite different. The DPP had a vital interest in fundamentally changing the political rules of the game, which were tailor-made for the KMT and first barred the DPP from taking power and later from fully implementing its political agenda. Put simply, the KMT's anti-"black gold" policies were aimed at increasing its legitimacy without changing the informal rules of the political game, while the DPP strove to create a different political environment which was more conducive to its survival.
6In line with these observations, this article combines two perspectives to highlight continuity and change between each administration's fight against corruption, organised crime and vote buying. The first looks at policy, examining the formulation, implementation and impact of the most relevant measures taken by each administration. The other, an institutionalist perspective, explains how institutional constraints limited the relevant actors' scope of action, resulting in outcomes often not matching the original intentions.
7This article consists of three parts. The first briefly sketches the institutional foundations of the KMT's one-party rule and the impact of democratisation on it. The second elucidates the dilemma the KMT has faced when forced to fight the very groups it depended on for political survival. It describes the KMT's anti-"black gold" policies and offers explanations for their superficiality, selectivity and lack of impact. The third part depicts the various anti-"black gold" measures envisioned by the Chen Shui-bian administration and examines their implementation.
One-party rule and the emergence of "black gold"
8A close look at the institutional foundations of the KMT's five-decade-long one-party rule tells us much about the difficulties the opposition has faced in altering these structures. As they were all-encompassing, linking the state apparatus, society, big business and most relevant political actors to the KMT, but not to each other, the Taiwanese political scientist Hu Fu has aptly invoked the metaphor of an "umbrella-" structure of authoritarianism5. As was the case in most of the stable South-East Asian authoritarian regimes, the legitimacy of the KMT one-party state hinged on its ability to deliver monetary rents to various constituencies, to play important actors off against each other without alienating them from the regime, and to prevent splits in its leadership6.
9In retrospect, the KMT was able to accomplish two difficult feats: to rule by distributing financial favours without driving itself into bankruptcy, and to keep a potentially hostile 80%-majority of the population loyal to the "alien" regime. As for the first feat, the KMT led the economic bureaucracy in implementing a model of state-led modernisation while at the same time keeping tight control over the financial sector, landed property and Taiwan's major industrial conglomerates. Its monopoly on vital resources and its power over Taiwan's economy allowed it to channel money without squandering it. The KMT made sure that the enterprises that benefited from its patronage stayed competitive by selectively lowering trade barriers, thereby exposing them to the world market. Also, the government passed and enforced strict laws that prohibited government officials from collusion with the financial sector7.
10In addition to this "political" control of the business sector, the KMT exerted "economic" control by being a powerful economic actor itself. As there was no effective separation between party and state and especially between party property and state coffers, the KMT had a tremendous financial leverage it could use to attain its economic goals. It used its monopoly on vital inputs such as steel, petrochemicals and heavy machinery to build up "an array of satellite suppliers and subservient down-stream firms"8 that competed for contracts with public enterprises. Because they were exchangeable, they were discouraged from forming alliances that might have challenged KMT supremacy. In addition, a hierarchical system of industrial associations with compulsory membership gave the KMT further control over important business leaders. Naturally, some of the small-and-medium sized enterprises in the countryside escaped this kind of control, but their access to land and capital was severely restricted. This made sure that they did not expand unduly.
11How did the KMT produce regime legitimacy despite widespread hostility by the native people? Again, the skilful handling of monetary resources coupled with balancing mechanisms, most notably local elections, provides much of the answer.
12In the organisation of Taiwan's local policy, local factions (difang paixi) are local-level clientelistic networks. Most of Taiwan's counties (xian) and municipalities have two, some three local factions, which compete for local economic and power resources. Factions usually are held together by ties of blood, kinship and marriage, but also by interpersonal relationships9. The KMT made use of local factions basically by trading money for support via local-level elections. Getting elected at the local level was not very attractive in terms of political power, because local government was in the firm grip of the party state. Political office, however, granted access to local monopoly and oligopoly rights and "money machines" like the credit departments of the fishermen's associations (yuhui), the water conservancy associations (shuilihui), and the farmer's associations (nonghui)10. In addition, political protection of semi-legal or illegal projects such as brothels, gambling dens and karaoke bars guaranteed the local power-holders further resources.
13The organisational capacity of the KMT, a tailor-made electoral system and its clientelistic relationship to the local factions made influence on electoral outcomes highly effective during authoritarianism. All that was required was the subdivision of an electoral district into as many parts as there were candidates, and ensure that each candidate received just the right number of votes 11. This was achieved with the help of vote-brokers (zhuangjiao)12. In order to be successful in these elections, one usually had to be nominated by the KMT, who had the organisational means to coordinate votes and candidates, the financial means to co-finance the costly electoral campaigns, and the coercive means to deter non-authorised candidates from running. As a consequence, candidates of the various local factions competed for nomination by the KMT, and local alliances against the KMT were highly unlikely unless the KMT disregarded the factions by filing its own candidates. This was backed up by the rigorous enforcement of a policy that forbade factions to conclude alliances beyond the county level13.
14To summarise, the native population was mobilised by local politico-economic groups, which in turn received resources by the KMT. They were balanced against each other by means of local elections, in which they had to run as KMT-candidates. At the same time, these elections produced legitimacy for the regime, because they were reasonably competitive, and the KMT always won.
Democratisation and the increasing importance of "black gold"
15In the course of Taiwan's democratic transition, the KMT's relationship to both major economic actors and local factions underwent massive changes. Economic and political liberalisation strengthened the hand of both the local factions and the business community, as they could now expand and form alliances. This turned the clientelistic relationship between them and the KMT (most of all its Lee Teng-hui- dominated "mainstream faction", zhuliupai) into an interdependent one. Taiwan's "umbrella of authoritarianism" thus turned into a web of mutual dependencies.
16In order to secure the business community's compliance, the KMT introduced new land-based economic rents such as construction projects and real-estate development, which became quickly linked to the blossoming financial sector. Meanwhile, a host of private enterprises that were held in an economic stranglehold during the authoritarian regime began to prosper. The lack of formal rules governing business behaviour on the one hand and political candidates' need for funding on the other made for strategic relationships between actors of the business community and politicians at all levels. With increased importance of the representative organs after democratisation, the number of candidates rose, as did campaign costs. This created incentives for business groups to sponsor candidates and in return receive political influence. Often businessmen sought political office themselves.
17Local factions also became diversified both in their structure and in their sources of income. They could now form alliances. Land and real estate development became the main sources of rent-seeking. Many local factions started to become allied with the new financial groups, which had begun to mushroom since the 1980s, leading to a new typology of interest-based associations ranging from the "traditional" local faction to the nationwide financial group14. With elections for the central-level representative organs conducted, the door to central government was opened, and the Legislative Yuan became a major playing field for these associations. Their percentage among representatives increased as steadily as did corrupt practices in the representative organs15. Furthermore, political alliances with local factions were no longer limited to the KMT. The DPP's successful electoral performance in the 1997 county-level election had brought it into contact with local factions as well. This further strengthened them, because now they could play the parties and even factions within a party off against each other. However, as the DPP party centre did not have the financial means to sustain the factions in the way the KMT could, its contact with them took a different shape. DPP heavyweights supported local politicians by the promise of public construction projects or by visiting them in their home districts, thus boosting their image16.
18Of course, DPP politicians were not free of the trappings of money and power. Some of them became involved in shady deals as well, and a number of the DPP's elected local deputies have been believed to be connected to the underworld17. "Some of the DPP's strongest vote-getters belonged to local factions; being affiliated with the opposition did not stop candidates from corralling tiao-a-ka (vote brokers), distributing patronage and buying votes"18. Equally, vote-buying in the DPP's primary elections has become an embarrassment for the party19. However, corruption and vote-buying in the DPP are by no means as systematic as in the KMT, and it is safe to say that they are not condoned by the party central.
1. Legal Revision proposed as part of the Ministry of Justice's "Action Programme to Sweep Out Black Gold"
Sources: Republic of China, Ministry of Justice, Fawubu saochu heijin xingdong fang'an zhi jinxing qingxing ji xuxiao baogaobiao (Report Table of State of Implementation and Effects of the Ministry of JusticeÕs Action Programme to Sweep Out Black Gold), <http://www.moj.gov.tw/chinese/d3_5_detail.aspx? jobtype=14&jobid=1300000002>, 2000, accessed March 2004; Republic of China, Ministry of Justice, Saochu heijin xingdong fangan houxu tuidong fang'an (Follow-up Programme to the Action Programme to Sweep Out Black Gold), <http://www.moj.gov.tw/chinese/d3_5_detail.aspx?jobtype=14&jobid=1300000002>, 2002, accessed March 2004; legal drafts.
19This environment also paved the way for organised crime into the Legislative Yuan and local politics. First, the increase of crackdowns on vote-buying introduced crime groups as mediators because the high sentences for vote-buying deterred many traditional vote-brokers20. Such elements also acted as bodyguards or thugs who intimidated or blackmailed opposition candidates for payment and political protection21. Evidently, once a local faction employed gangsters to combat political opponents by illegal means, the opposition faction was forced to follow suit. Second, gangsters who had made a fortune by dabbling in construction projects or illegal ventures became particularly vulnerable to extortion from their protectors in the political realm and to crackdowns against organised crime. In order to protect themselves, many gangsters ran for political office to gain immunity. In this way, gang leaders became conveners of the Police Administration Group (jingzheng xiaozu) in the local legislatures where they supervised the local police departments22. In the Legislative Yuan, legislators implicated in legal suits often sought a seat in the Judiciary Committee. Lo Fu-chu, the alleged leader of the Tiandaomeng (Heaven and Earth Society), one of the biggest crime syndicates in Taiwan, even served as one of the committee's three conveners23. The Shangye zhoubao (Business Weekly) in 1999 reported that legislators with an organised crime background exerted considerable influence in the Legislative Yuan by means of threats and terror against individual lawmakers, some of them even accompanied by gunmen disguised as assistants24.
The clean-up efforts during the KMT era
20Although the KMT's alliance on equal terms with local factions and moneyed interests enabled it to stay in power, the party had to pay a steep price for its coalitions. The quality of the political process worsened, and the general public's increasing dissatisfaction with money politics and organised crime influence on politics was accompanied with feelings of political inefficacy25. Much blame for this was laid on the KMT26.
21Put differently, the costs for regime maintenance the KMT had to bear in the currency of legitimacy rose sharply. This probably had been foreseen in the party headquarters. Since the late 1960s, there had been efforts to prevent the KMT from too much dependence on societal forces that might later prove hard to hold in check. The failure of these policies can be explained neatly in institutionalist terms.
22Reformers in the KMT soon found out that the costs of changing the rules of the political game were likely to surpass the costs of regime maintenance, which had the consequence that the KMT shifted from cause- to symptom-oriented policies in its fight against "black gold". More concretely, the Party mainstream might have realised that a full-fledged democratisation of the political system might result in either the subversion of the process by the still powerful conservative forces, or in bringing the DPP to power. At any rate, a far-reaching political system change was difficult given the harm that sweeping constitutional reforms, not to mention the passage of a new Constitution, might have done to the relations with mainland China.
23The KMT chose regime maintenance. This, however, meant facing a dilemma: needing to limit the drain of legitimacy that resulted from its alliance with local factions and moneyed interests, while at the same time continuing to rely on this alliance. In a process of gradual learning, the KMT's policies thus shifted from attempts to free itself from local factions and moneyed interests to a mix of accommodation and selective persecution. However, the further the democratic transition progressed, the stronger the latter became as they could now expand and form alliances. Conversely, the organisational capacity of the KMT was severely weakened after the passing of its supreme leader Chiang Ching-kuo. The party was eventually torn apart by national-level factions fighting for predominance and local factions fighting for autonomy. Ultimately, no party faction could stay in power without the help of the groups the party initially sought to fight. The KMT was thus losing the fight against "black gold".
24As early as 1968, the KMT started to phase out its relationship to local factions by gradually nominating party cadres instead of factional candidates for local elections. According to Chen Ming-tong, this strategy was quite successful until it backfired in 1977: "That year, the KMT lost four mayoral seats, 21 provincial assembly seats, and suffered the 'Chung Li incident'. This was an unprecedented setback for the KMT, which started the democratisation process in Taiwan"27. As Chen Ming-tong has shown, this setback prompted the party to re-increase its reliance on local factions to deliver the vote, albeit with a different mechanism: from the early 1980s on, primary elections were held before local elections, forcing would-be candidates of local factions to seek KMT membership and compete with non-factional candidates for nomination. Again, the KMT overplayed its hand when it steeply increased the number of non-factional candidates for the 1989 primary elections: in the mayoral, provincial assembly and Legislative Yuan elections that year it faced "unprecedented setbacks"28. These setbacks marked the end of the KMT's efforts to reign in the local factions. The split that ensued in the party after Chiang Ching-kuo's death pitted Lee Teng-hui and his followers in the KMT (the so-called "mainstream faction") against various hard-line factions. This struggle strengthened the hand of local factions and Taiwanese entrepreneurs when they became Lee's partners in his quest for political dominance, providing them access to the apex of power. The "mainstream faction" became "in many respects, a collection of local factions"29. This did not change during Lee's presidency.
25As the KMT could not reduce what after democratisation had become an outright dependence on local factions, it aimed at shoring up its legitimacy among the general public without having to break with them. A measure that would allow it to combat not the factions themselves but the most delegitimating practice associated with them was to crack down on vote-buying. During the 1994 elections for county commissioner, the KMT government launched the biggest crackdown on vote-buying in its history. 257 were convicted, including about 30% of all county legislators and nearly every commissioner30. This greatly alienated the local factions, and Chen Ming-tong indicates that there is a direct relationship between this crackdown and the KMT's electoral disaster in the subsequent legislative elections. He also intimates that provincial governor and Lee's rival James Soong used this alienation to shore up his own power base by strengthening his relationship to township- and village-based local factions. Using a loophole in the budgetary law, Soong toured the island for his re-election bid for provincial governor and showered more than 300 towns and villages with promises of local construction projects worth about NT$80 billion31. Soong won the election with 56.22% of the votes. These experiences and the fact that it was virtually impossible to bring the indicted to justice32 might very well have decided the Lee government to refrain from further crackdowns.
26Another measure the KMT took was crackdowns on organised crime. Again, party central found itself in a Catch-22 situation: some local-level KMT candidates (most of them from local factions) depended on organised crime elements during their electoral campaigns and often even after they took office. On the other hand, the general public grew increasingly concerned with the worsening public security situation caused by organised crime. As Tien Hung-mao put it: "The KMT is now in a no-win situation. Failure to prosecute the guilty parties would further the KMT's image as a corrupt political machine. Successful prosecution, however, which may involve most city and county councils, could severely shake the KMT's local foundations. Without the support of local factions and their controversial vote-catching practices, the party in power may face a stunning reduction in its reliable voter base"33.
27According to Chin Ko-lin, this dilemma forced the KMT administration to adopt the double-pronged strategy of selective persecution. These half-heartened attempts to combat organised crime did not solve the mafia problem, rather it worsened it.
28The first major crackdown on organised crime was "Operation Cleansweep". In the course of this operation, more than four thousand alleged underworld figures were arrested and many of them were sent to reform camps, only to be released four years later34. As both Chao Yung-mao and Chin Ko-lin have pointed out, this crackdown had adverse consequences. Some gang leaders formed alliances when they served time together, thus broadening the scope of individual crime groups. Further, after leaving prison, they had to wrest power back from their successors who had taken over following their arrest. This led to gang wars and the decline of the code of conduct that existed between these groups, increasing the violence within organised crime35. In addition, in order to protect themselves, organised crime figures no longer relied solely on the protection of politicians, but sought political office themselves36. The success of this and other, more small-scale sweeps is questionable, as one agent of the Ministry of Justice's Investigation Bureau acknowledges: "The crackdown of Yi-ching [Cleansweep] was a failure. We had to have more operations thereafter to round criminals up. If it was a success, why was it necessary to create more massive, anticrime operations? The more sweeps, the more heidao [mafia] figures. There has to be a rethink of our policy"37. Accordingly, when Liao Cheng-hao, the major hand behind the post-Operation Cleansweep crackdowns suddenly resigned in 1998, the efforts to rein in organised crime subsided38.
29The description of the KMT's anti-"black gold" policies would be incomplete without mentioning the passage of several important laws. In 1993, the "Public Functionary Assets Disclosure Law" (gongzhi renyuan caichan shenbaofa) was passed against the will of the KMT party centre, and was seen as a major step towards public accountability of government officials. The Disclosure Law stipulates that public functionaries must report their financial assets to the Control Yuan annually39, which publishes these data40.
30However, the law has proved to be without teeth for three major reasons. First, the sanctions for transgression are a mere slap on the wrist. Refusal to be investigated is punished by NT$20,000 to NT$100,00041, and misreporting results in a fine of NT$60,000 to NT$300,00042. Next, since the Control Yuan lacks the resources to randomly review even one tenth of the reports filed, cheating on the reports involves little risk. Thus no disciplinary action is taken even in high profile cases involving billions of dollars and political heavyweights. They are merely given a fine. And seldom did the Control Yuan follow cases up to check for misreporting serving to cover up the breach of another law. Hence a further lack of efficiency and effectiveness of this particular law43.
31The Organised Crime Prevention Law was passed in 1996 to supplement the controversial Anti-Hoodlum Law, which was implemented in 1955, revised in 1981 and in parts declared unconstitutional in 199544. The law carries drastic fines for being involved in an organised crime group, and based on this law, 675 people were arrested in Operation Chih-ping, which followed Operation Cleansweep from August 1996 to June 1998. Of these 675, 162—of which 35 were local-level representatives—were sent to the Green Island correction facilities45. Despite this achievement however, sloppy implementation meant its impact on mafia involvement in politics was negligible. Of these 35 representatives, eight were from the district/ city level. According to former Minister of Justice Liao Cheng-hao, the number of representatives at this level involved in organised crime stood at 260, about one-third of the total46.
32In January 2000, the Legislative Yuan passed the Witness Protection Law (zhengren baohufa), which had been drafted and introduced into the legislative process several times by the Ministry of Justice between 1996 and 1998. As the KMT lost the presidential elections only two months later, the law did not see implementation under this administration, but served as a basis for the new administration's anti-"black gold" policies.
The DPP programme to combat "black gold"
33The DPP was the opposition that the aforementioned "umbrella structure of authoritarianism" sought to keep out of politics. Thus, making Taiwan's politics fairer and more democratic had been on its campaign agenda since its foundation in 1986. Money politics and reliance on local factions did not only reduce the polity's democratic quality, but gave the DPP a major political disadvantage because it had neither the organisational power nor the financial means to sustain such a network. I argue that for this reason it strove to change the rules of the political game by means of an ambitious programme. While the DPP did not lack the determination to realise this programme, its efforts were seriously hampered both by residues of authoritarianism in the bureaucracy inherited from the KMT era and its minority of seats in the Legislative Yuan. The latter was especially challenging, because institutional restructuring can hardly be achieved without making adjustments in the legal system.
34In July 2000, two months after taking office, the DPP administration started to implement its "Programme for Sweeping away Organised Crime and Corruption" (saochu heijin xingdong fangan). Its sphere of action was to be three major fields: the fight against organised crime (saohei), counter-corruption measures (yantan) and investigations into election-related bribery (chabai). The programme combined efforts to enact new laws, revise existing ones, build anti-corruption organisations and was flanked by personnel reshuffles and the restructuring of government organisations47.
35The last point, no doubt the precondition on which the successful implementation of the whole programme rested, proved the hardest to realise. In his efforts to establish a highly centralised "anti-corruption administration", the new Minister of Justice, Chen Ding-nan announced that he would merge the anti-corruption department of the Ministry's Investigation Bureau (MJIB) with the Government Ethics Department into an "anti-corruption task force"48. The MJIB, during the authoritarian era the backbone of the regime's internal security apparatus, still wielded enough political clout to successfully resist this plan, testifying to the ongoing entrenchment of authoritarian institutions in Taiwan's young democracy. The standoff between Chen Ding-nan and the MJIB only ended one year later when the Executive Yuan suddenly decided to replace the MJIB director49. Although this improved co-operation, legislation on the envisioned "anti-corruption agency" with powers of search, seizure and arrest did not pass the Legislative Yuan.
36The institutional overlap that complicates the fight against "black gold" is thus considerable. Responsibilities now fall on the MJIB, the Ministry of Justice Government Ethics Department and the Judicial Yuan, under whose auspices a "Black Gold Investigation Centre" (BGIC) was established. The BGIC, located in the High Court Prosecutor's office, supervises four "special investigation sections" in Taipei, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung. Combining prosecutors and investigators, and being authorised to issue orders to local district prosecutors, agents from the MJIB, military police officers and police officers, they are the cornerstone of anti-"black gold" investigation work.
37Organisation-building was merely one pillar of the anti-"black gold" programme. Institution-building was another. That Taiwan had been an authoritarian state where party directives and informal arrangements were more important than legal stipulations meant that there was only a weak legal basis on which to build democratic institutions. This resulted in the problem that although Taiwan had formally become a democracy, the underlying legal framework did not address practices incommensurate with democratic principles. Therefore, large-scale "loans" and "donations" to legislators, influence-peddling and abusing insider-information was clearly considered undemocratic, but they were not illegal50. Building democratic institutions was further complicated by the problem that the Legislative Yuan was still dominated by interests representing the "old order". Majorities for institutional reforms countering these interests were thus hard to come by. Nevertheless, the MOJ laid out an ambitious plan for legal reform.
38Two prongs of this effort can be identified: first, the revision of existing laws such as the Public Functionaries Election and Recall Law, the Civil Servant Services Act, the Public Functionary Assets Disclosure Law, the Money Laundering Control Act and the Anti-Corruption Penal Statute (see Table 1).
39The second prong is the drafting of new and important laws, such as the Political Party Law, the Statute Regarding the Disposition of Assets Improperly Obtained by Political Parties, the Lobby Law, the Political Contributions Law and the Conflict of Interest Prevention Law (Table 2).
2. Legal Revision proposed as part of the Ministry of Justice's "Action Programme to Sweep Out Black Gold"
Sources: Ibid table 1
40The third pillar in the fight against "black gold" were the actual investigations conducted by the Black Gold Investigation Centre and other agencies, cracking down on vote-buying, bribery (especially in public construction projects), judicial fraud and organised crime. It was this "third pillar" that became especially prominent in the fight against "black gold" and was widely held responsible for producing the cleanest elections ever held in Taiwan. The Legislative Yuan elections in December 2001 were accompanied by massive campaigns aimed to dissuade the Taiwanese populace to accept money for their votes and by even more massive crackdowns on vote captains and the legislators who had hired them. The MOJ saw the number of people indicted to be the main indicator of their success. For example, the number of public representatives on all levels indicted for corruption and vote-buying rose from 152 in March 2001 to 317 in August 2001 and to 1,272 in March 2004. The total number of people indicted was 11,097 at that time (out of 27,986 prosecuted). Of those put on trial, 1,641 were found "guilty", and 1,534 "not guilty"51. It should be emphasised that those convicted were by no means all connected to KMT, PFP or independent legislators or bureaucratic personnel leaning towards these parties. In line with the above observation that the "black gold" problem also began to affect the DPP, some of the ruling party's city- and county-level legislators were also among the convicted. The DPP centre's actions were by no means one-sided and, considering the close scrutiny by the public and the opposition, probably could not have been.
Impact of the anti-"black gold" programme
41Despite the fact that the frequent "sweeps" against vote-buying and organised crime were probably successful in bringing many of Taiwan's most notorious gangsters to justice and serve as a deterrent against vote-buying, these figures raise the question if these successes were traded against the protection of human rights. Indeed, individual cases show that prosecutors were over-zealous in their fight against "black gold", tapping phones without judicial supervision and conducting searches without warrants52. Also, the administration's draft amendment to the Public Functionaries Election and Recall Law, which would bar organised crime suspects from running in elections, sparked considerable controversy. One reason is that a suspect would become a "political convict," another is that this clause only applies to suspects of an "organised" criminal background. This raises definitional problems and discriminates against the former group.
42Another indicator that could be used for determining the success of Chen Shui-bian's crusade against corruption and vote-buying is the financial situation of the grassroots financial organisations which were identified as a major resource for corrupt local politicians. In July 2001, Chen Shui-bian vowed to close down, merge or have taken over by public banks the 35 most defunct of these organisations, among them 27 credit departments of farmers' associations. In addition, the government earmarked NT$140 billion as a "cleanup fund" to rid these organisations of their bad loans (which actually exceeded NT$210 billion)53. Again, the results were mixed. The overall percentage of these organisation's overdue loans decreased significantly from an all-time high of 18.19% in June 2002 to 13.39% in January 2004. Most successful was the bailing out of the 48 local credit co-operatives, the overdue loans of which were halved from 13.08% to 6.94% during this period. However, not much ground was gained in the case of the credit departments of the 314 farmers' and fishermen's associations, the most important "money machines" for local politicians. Their overdue loans decreased a mere 3.73%, from 21.44% in June 2002 to 17.71% in January 2004. As for closures, mergers or takeovers, 13 credit co-operatives, 34 credit departments of farmers' associations and two credit departments of fishermen's associations were thus disposed of54.
43Again, success was mixed. This can hardly be blamed on the DPP administration, as all the drafts outlined above were introduced and frequently reintroduced for consideration in the Legislative Yuan. Most of them, however, were voted down by an alliance of KMT, PFP and independent legislators, who would face severe losses if the new regulations had been passed. Despite this, the Public Officials Conflict of Interest Prevention Law was passed on July 1st 2000, and the Political Contributions Law on March 18th 2004, only two days before the presidential election. Scandals, public pressure and the KMT's struggle to portray itself as a clean party probably were major factors facilitating the passage of the Political Contributions Law.
44Although the passage of these laws can be regarded as milestones in Taiwan's process of democratic consolidation, Taiwan still has a long way to go. Notably, the Political Party Law and the Lobby Law still await passage. But passage alone is not enough. Another problem has been the enforcement of these laws. Some laws only carry minor fines (such as the Assets Disclosure Law), some overlap (such as the five laws regulating the legislative process with the Conflict of Interest Prevention Law and, if passed, the Lobby Law), and some are not strictly enforced (as is the case with the Conflict of Interest Law, the Assets Disclosure Law and the Money Laundering Law). Reasons for these shortcomings are organisational overlaps, understaffing of the relevant agencies and small budget allocations55. These problems can again be partly blamed on blockade politics in the legislature. Another part of the explanation rests on the fact that the new administration was not readily accepted by the subordinate bureaucratic staff, which could block important policies. Of course, the inexperience of the first-time administration was another factor leading to policy blunders56.
45However, as Shangmao Chen and Chengtian Kuo show, the influence of "black gold" on Taiwan's polity was significantly reduced simply because the new administration could not take the KMT's former position as a hub in the informal network. The large conglomerates' influence on politics was weakened as economic liberalisation subjected them to competition. One direct result was that many of these conglomerates, including those owned by the KMT, started to incur severe losses. Furthermore, the new administration replaced key personnel in state-owned enterprises and banks as well as in the bureaucracy, further weakening the old structures57. Thus, the simple fact that the opposition had been able to wrest political power away from the KMT and that it was willing to play by the rules it had created has been a major factor helping to further clean politics.
46Taiwan's authoritarian past has made the deepening of Taiwan's democracy extremely difficult. I have shown that informal arrangements incommensurate with democratic principles have not only persisted after democratisation, but have gone out of control. Although corruption and organised crime had existed before the 1990s, they became rampant when the KMT's "mainstream faction" utilised alliances with local factions, influential businesspeople and even organised criminals to defend themselves not only against the opposition without, but also that within their own party. This created a political environment where influence had to be bought and which undermined political accountability as well as economic efficiency.
47The important continuity between the two administrations is that both aimed to fight the adverse consequences of these institutional arrangements. One symbolic illustration of this is that the Chen administration used the same name for its anti-"black gold" programme as the Lee administration had used for its rather unsystematic approach a few years ago. Despite the differences in content, the title "Programme for Sweeping away Organised Crime and Corruption" is not an invention of the DPP58. A summary evaluation of this programme published in 1998, the "Sweeping Away Organised Crime and Corruption White Book" (saohei baipishu), was presented to presidential candidate Chen Shui-bian by former Minister of Justice Liao Cheng-hao in 199959. There have always been individuals and groups in the KMT who were sincere about fighting corruption60. Conversely, under the DPP administration, some of its local-level functionaries and representatives became involved in money politics as well. This shows that the difference between these two parties' anti-"black gold" policies probably stems not from differences in morality or their elites' political culture, but from the institutional setting that determines their spheres of action. The KMT had abandoned its reform efforts when it saw that the transaction costs an institutional overhaul incurred were very likely to supersede the costs of maintaining the current system, at least in the medium-term. Yet the DPP could not have taken over this system even if it had wanted to, so institutional change was the only sensible strategy to pursue.
48Therefore, the major difference between the two administrations' anti-"black gold" policies was that the DPP had nothing to lose, but much to win from revamping the administrative, legal and financial apparatus and indiscriminately persecuting vote-buyers, organised criminals and corrupt politicians alike. Indeed, failure to do so might have catapulted it back into opposition. Even so, institutional and organisational change proved difficult to achieve. Accordingly, the DPP too had to rely more on symptom-oriented than on cause-oriented policies to prove its resolve, but here it achieved more than the KMT ever had. Important "big brothers" were arrested, others have fled the country, and vote-buying has decreased significantly. The bureaucracy has become more assertive towards the Legislative Yuan, and the KMT's big business cronies' political influence has been weakened.
49These achievements, however, are not irreversible as long as the formal rules and regulations that structure Taiwan's politics remain incomplete, contradictory and partly dysfunctional. The DPP has not managed to make much headway here, partly because of its inexperience in administrative matters, but mostly because its hands were bound by a pan-blue dominated legislature. The recent presidential election has given the DPP the mandate to continue its reform policies, but the legislative election in December will decide if it is given the chance to really make a difference.
List of illustrations
|1. Legal Revision proposed as part of the Ministry of Justice's "Action Programme to Sweep Out Black Gold"
|Sources: Republic of China, Ministry of Justice, Fawubu saochu heijin xingdong fang'an zhi jinxing qingxing ji xuxiao baogaobiao (Report Table of State of Implementation and Effects of the Ministry of JusticeÕs Action Programme to Sweep Out Black Gold), <http://www.moj.gov.tw/chinese/d3_5_detail.aspx? jobtype=14&jobid=1300000002>, 2000, accessed March 2004; Republic of China, Ministry of Justice, Saochu heijin xingdong fangan houxu tuidong fang'an (Follow-up Programme to the Action Programme to Sweep Out Black Gold), <http://www.moj.gov.tw/chinese/d3_5_detail.aspx?jobtype=14&jobid=1300000002>, 2002, accessed March 2004; legal drafts.
|image/png, 38k
|2. Legal Revision proposed as part of the Ministry of Justice's "Action Programme to Sweep Out Black Gold"
|Sources: Ibid table 1
|image/png, 56k
Electronic reference
Christian Göbel, « Beheading the Hydra: Combating Political Corruption and Organised Crime », China Perspectives [Online], 56 | november - december 2004, Online since 29 December 2008, connection on 22 August 2018. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/chinaperspectives/434Top of page
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I will be weighing in on Tuesday. No weight stats for this post.
A side effect of having weight loss surgery while also having PCOS is one I have not yet discussed. As of today, this is day 67 of my period. And I am getting a little tired of it. I missed one dose of my birth control pill the night I was at the hospital from having the surgery. I started taking it again the next night. And by the next day, my period started even though I wasn't due for one for quite a while (I was on the four periods a year pill).
Without getting too graphic, this period had been rather heavy. I asked my surgeon about it on my second post-op appointment. I had read that due to the trauma of surgery, a period was not unusual. However, by the second appointment, it still had not let up. He suggested I consult my gynecologist. At this point, my period had been going for a little over 50 days. My gynecologist told me that my body was not absorbing the pill and I would need a different absorption route. They offered the patch or the Nuvaring. I chose the ring.
I started using the ring this past Friday and so far no change. Granted it has not been very long, but I am not holding my breath that this route will work. I am starting to think that my body is going to do what my body is going to do. I am a little irritated as to how much I am spending on sanitary items. But it is what it is.
I have been more tired lately and I am not sure if that is a side-effect of the side-effect. I have not been able to keep my eyes open after 9:30 at night and this weekend I was asleep more than I was awake. I have not felt quite right all week. I hope that the next week is better.


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5 Of The Most Popular Dog Breeds In The World
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