There's been a slew of political stories I hope to comment on tomorrow, but tonight the most heartwarming has to be The Piggy Banks of Underage Evil. I'll let the China Post carry the ball on this one:The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) started sending plastic piggy banks to Tsai's campaign offices around the island, asking supporters to buy them, get them filled with donations, and send them back.The piggy banks actually came out of an incident in which three children, guided by their mother and grandfather, donated their piggy banks to the Tsai campaign (TT report). Horrified by this blatant violation of the campaign laws which say that donations can only be accepted from adults, the Control Yuan swung into action and apparently threatened the DPP's accounting department with an investigation. Which the Control Yuan says was just a simple reminder (and someone on the platform when the kids were there should have said something). The DPP retorted that the Control Yuan was turning a blind eye to what it said were far more serious violations of government neutrality by KMT officials. The DPP returned the donations, with apologies, and then exploiting the incident's publicity, had 100,000 piggy banks manufactured and are now sending them out to supporters around the island nation to collect small donations for the party. Brilliant.
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The fundraising idea was inspired by a recent incident in which three children donated their piggy banks to fund Tsai's campaign.
But after the government watchdog expressed concern that underage people are not allowed to make political donations, the DPP returned the donations to the children.
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6 comments:
A very heartwarming idea.
I would think that if the parent made the donations without the children holding them, it should be legal. It should not matter whether the children wanted to donate or not if it's the parent that makes the decision and performs the action.
George
Yes, it does sound great. However, I hope the piggy banks were made in Taiwan.
The piggy banks are made in Taiwan, in fact, the DPP spokesperson said the manufacturer were really surprised by the order & said they just got more order in a five-days-span then they did in 3 years!
Also, the grandfather was so enraged by the incident he decided to donate $30,000. Far exceeding the piggy's amount. Nice job control yuen.
Reminds me of a fund-raising idea I've had for years -- liberate the NT$10 coins taped to every calculator in Taiwan (replace them with some sort of temple-blessed non-monetary lucky coin). Wonder how much could be raised for charity if every NT$10 coin attached to calculators on the island where liberated! :-)
I suppose that buyers of piggybanks are soon to be audited for tax evasion or other criminal activity. :p
Good job on the part of DPP campaign strategists!
No comments on the picture yet Michael....shhhh!
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