Portnoy at Global Voices has assembled an awesome collection of links and translations of blog posts on the government's program to push the petrochemical industry. It reads like something out of the US atomic energy commission's propaganda from the 1950s.... If you read one thing today, read this post: Taiwan Without a Petrochemical Industry.
Read the whole thing....On September 6 and September 7, 8 half-page advertisements were published in the four major newspapers in Taiwan, telling the readers that “Without petrochemical industry, we won’t have new toothbrushes, new bicycle tires, new umbrellas, and new ink to print newspapers.” The IDB is the mastermind of the advertisements, and also plans to publish thousands of handbooks for demonstrating the value and benefits petrochemical industry has brought to Taiwan. This series of propaganda aims at persuading Taiwanese to support the government's decision to build the new Kuokuang petrochemical plant on the biggest wetland of Changhua County[en].
So far, IDB has spent TWD 3 million (about USD 100,000) of taxpayer’s money on the ads to defend private corporations' interests. Environmental groups[zht] and media and press watch organizations[zht] reacted to such an abuse of public expenses by making open statements, while bloggers and online activists adopted a different approach.
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10 comments:
They've got spunk, but their leadership is not serious: they are going to get stomped sooner or later and you know it Turton.
I can already see it, and what makes me flinch in all this is not that idiot and his pink dolphins, but the deep sense of political cynicism this coming defeat may inflict among all those young Taiwanese journalists and activists.
Environmental protection and preservation is the most neglected issue in Taiwan . Both the KMT and DPP county leaders are allergic to discuss such issues in public.
If one passes the SYS highway between Rende, Tainan all the way to Kao Hsiung then you can see the dark smokes from gigantic smokestacks and smell the horrendous stingy irritaing chemical odor intermixed with the scent of chicken dung!
Nobody cares. Note that these areas are all governed by the DPP but their silence really is a mystery.
Jeff
Yes, the DPP sellout on the environment is very sad. Hopefully the Kuokuang issue will turn some heads and change some minds.
I do support the anti-petro movement; however, these ads haven't really addressed on the critical concern, which is clouding up the objective minds - the economy issue. Taiwanese are infamous for the greed for money (or just greed as a whole). Whatever movement that is tagged with "losing money" is bound to fail. I wonder how people could convince others if the government is putting that kind of tag on the propaganda again.
"If one passes the SYS highway between Rende, Tainan all the way to Kao Hsiung then you can see the dark smokes from gigantic smokestacks and smell the horrendous stingy irritaing chemical odor intermixed with the scent of chicken dung!"
I make that drive quite a lot; great isn't it? Natural resources brought to bear with intelligence, skill and dedication in the production of values to be exchanged on the market for the purpose of human survival and improvement. Sublime.
Love that chicken shit smell too, reminds me of my friends on the left.
" Natural resources brought to bear with intelligence, skill and dedication in the production of values to be exchanged on the market for the purpose of human survival and improvement. Sublime."
Fortunate that we're just passing but how about those residing in the periphery ?
The local DPP government even approved the establishment of a big university in the area where the students cough and wheeze and sneeze every time the wind blows in their direction!
"Love that chicken shit smell too, reminds me of my friends on the left."
No, I won't advise Michael Turton to bike in that area! Not even with a N-95 mask!
Jeff
" Natural resources brought to bear with intelligence, skill and dedication in the production of values to be exchanged on the market for the purpose of human survival and improvement. Sublime."
...
No, I won't advise Michael Turton to bike in that area! Not even with a N-95 mask!
Indeed, the petroleum industry allows us to make N-95 masks, which we only need because of the petroleum industry.
[admitted exaggeration]
The issue really isn't the petrochemical industry so much as the way it is run.....
"The issue really isn't the petrochemical industry so much as the way it is run..."
I quite agree; they should be left alone to compete in the market without State granted favors either to themselves or their competitors and under a legal architecture in which they could be held to account for externalities.
Beautiful bird!
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