Dear All,

In Taiwan, February 28th is a memorial day for the incident that happened in 1947 and led to the death of thousands of civilians. By coming to terms with its memories, a society is able to build up consent and harmony among its members. However it is never easy to achieve a balance between “justice” and “reconciliation”. This is the issue we are exploring this month.

In this line, Bob Ronald distinguishes between a Merciful Justice and a Judicious Mercy. And previously on eRenlai, Brian Mc Coy had explored the topic as experienced by Australian Aboriginal community: A government who can’t say ‘sorry’. Also, watch a photo variation by Liang Zhun on “giving a hand to a friend”.
Among our editorials, Benoit celebrates the coming of his Chinese zodiacal year: The Year of the Rat. Also, have a different look at some of the objects in our everyday life: plastic bags and scooters. Roy Berman draws the map of a floating continent of garbage while I ponder whether or not to buy a scooter…

Bob is also a master in the art of rewriting classic tales: discover his own personal version of the Emperor’s new suit.


Also, Joel Ciceron has contributed to our database on China and Taiwan’s environmental issues: go to http://csr.erenlai.tv/
(please allow some time for downloading).

We wish you a Happy Chinese New Year. May the year of the Rat be propitious!