The era of global navigation

What experience and history teaches us is that people and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it--Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

　　Island in The Stream -- a quick case study of Taiwan's complex history, is a book I bought several years ago. The authors arranged the history of Taiwan into 4 chapters. I just finished the first chapter and read several pages of the following chapter. I feel a little sad -- why all the names about this island are given by those people not living and born on this land? But from this book, it provided some evidence to prove Taiwan is not part of the mainland. Anyway, that is not my point.
　　The attempt we read history is to avoid making the same mistake, especially those has happened in the histories. But as the quote above, we human beings never really learn the lesson the history taught. However, what I can do after reading is to record what I learned. At least, not to let those happen in my life.
　　In the chapter 1 of this book, i got some statements to think. Those statements are :

　　　　... This rapid increase of population strained the food supply. To resolve this, Cheng confiscated all of the land previously possessed by the Dutch East India Company and transferred it to his regime. ...　from the segment "Formosa, the Ming Invasion"

　　What a familiar situation in1945 when the KMT government took Taiwan, colonized by Japan for 50 years. The government did the same thing as the Cheng era did-- to confiscate all the fortune left by Japanese government, and even the civilian property. Though the following empire, the Ch'ing dynasty, did not do the same thing. But can't i say that history shows its black humor to those who didn't take lessons? Otherwise, I can't tell that what the Communist China would do if they get Taiwan. Do something as the Ch'ing court did? or have their own plans? If they want to let Taiwan remain the contemporary situation, we Taiwanese can handle it well now. If they China can't give more better future vision, why do we have to become part of them?
　　Come back to the following story in this book. Under the ruling of Cheng, the government also devloped a severe tax system, and made the people feel they were no better off than under the Dutch. If I didn't misunderstand, it means the Cheng's government treated these Han people worse than the Dutch "colonizer" did! When we read the hisotry of 'China', we always can find that Chinese government treats their men worse than foreigners. Not mention things long time ago, when it comes to the War of the Resistance Against Japan the KMT government exploded the dam of yellow river and lead to many people died. Even the Communist Part has done the same things -- black food, car, public works and so on-- to 'deal with' their people and tell the foreign countries-- what the China government exports is better than those left in their own country. Therefore, I'm sure not to become a civilian of China would have better treatment from China government and my own country can ensure I have my basic rights.
　　
　　The paragraphs above are just the records of the thoughts when i read the beginning of this book.

dyc