Taiwan: DPP is deaf and dumb

[Harold F. Schiffman]

Friday, Apr 20, 2007, Page 8

DPP is deaf and dumb

Even though the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) presidential primary
is an internal party affair, it is also good for all Taiwanese to
understand the goals of each candidate in the race. Good communication
using TV broadcasts and the Internet are so critical and can help spread
one's message around the world. During the debates there is a man in the
top corner of the TV screen providing sign language to help the deaf
understand.

Unfortunately, there are still many people who don't understand Taiwanese
(Hoklo), such as second-generation Mainlanders who live in the Taipei area
and Hakka people in Miaoli, like my brother, my sister-in-law, their
children and myself. It appears the DPP does not care about these people.
Subtitles should be made available at the bottom of TV screens at the very
least for the deaf and those people who don't understand Taiwanese. I
guess the sign language provided during the debates is also in Taiwanese
(Hoklo).

I know many Taiwanese who complained about the Chinese Nationalist Party's
(KMT) language policy because they couldn't understand Beijing Mandarin.
Therefore older Taiwanese may as well be deaf. Why does the DPP choose to
follow the same idiotic policies as the KMT? Someone please communicate
with the DPP about this problem and tell them that remedying it could help
it to win the presidential election.

Paul Huang

Richardson, Texas

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2007/04/20/2003357464

***********************************************************************************

N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members
and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of
the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a
message are encouraged to post a rebuttal.

***********************************************************************************