When you Google “Taiwanese girls,” the first automatic suggestion is “Taiwanese girls are easy.” This search result has created a heated debate in Taiwan. Many Taiwanese men agree with the sentiment, saying that those Taiwanese women who like to date foreigners damage Taiwan's international image. There are even blogs and discussion pages online that are filled with criticisms and horrible comments about stories of how easy it is for foreigners to pick up local women.

Is Taiwan's gloomy economy salvageable? Or, is the Ma administration capable of salvaging it?

The government is currently targeting the wrong person in the investigation into the so-called “toxic starch” case. Instead of chasing after the “inventor” of the chemical grafted starch as food additives, they should be probing hard to uncover all manufacturers who knowingly used the banned substance to cut costs or to “improve” their products. More importantly, the government should put a comprehensive food safely measure in place to build confidence in Taiwanese food.

Chiang Kai-shek did make a mistake at the Cairo conference in 1943.

Former President Chen Shui-bian, now serving a long sentence for corruption, is asking the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the political party he withdrew from on his own volition on the eve of his conviction five years ago, that he be reinstated as a party member. What he is doing is tantamount to throwing a ticking bomb, not just a hot potato, at the DPP.

The Indonesian Economic and Trade Office to Taipei (IETO) in late March required that all direct employers of Indonesian workers in Taiwan be interviewed in person at its office in Taipei. The IETO also demanded that local employers pay the Labor Standards Act-stipulated national minimum wage of NT$19,047 to all Indonesian workers.

On Thursday, the National Immigration Agency (NIA) unveiled a device for identifying foreign laborers with the touch of a finger. The apparatus, nicknamed “One Finger Connects All” (一指通) by the NIA, is able to call up the facial features of the person in question almost immediately.

Local debate over the recent killing of a Taiwanese fisherman by Philippine coast guards has seen some interesting developments. According to a few commentators, local media have largely been ignoring the Philippine Coast Guard's (PCG) claim that the Taiwanese fishing boat had repeatedly rammed the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources vessel, which was manned by PCG personnel.

Many people may turn to chicken-soup-for-the-soul kind of books for guidance and inspiration when they feel lost. In China, many are now looking to Confucianism — which the country shunned as toxic and reactionary to its communist cause decades ago — as the “chicken soup” to remedy their “sick” society.

Two Air Force pilots from the 499th Tactical Fighter Wing based in Hsinchu, Northern Taiwan ejected to safety Monday when their Mirage jet crashed off the western coast shortly after takeoff.