Our New Mazda Karma

      This is the story of a major case of culture shock that involved a garage. Just how did a brand new car get its roof crushed after being driven home from the dealer? This is how it happened, from happiness to devastation and back to happiness, in real time.

     It began one day after lunch. We rode to a Mazda car dealer on the Westside of Taichung to see the Mazda2. We spent over an hour there and made an appointment for a test drive 

that Thursday; they’d come to our condo to pick us up. The chances were small that I would pull the trigger and buy the car. I didn’t need a car, but my wife gets excited every time a car comes up in the conversation. I told her again I would not drive in Taichung; only into the mountains on vacation.

     I was warming up to the idea of buying a new car in Taiwan. Perhaps we could take more trips. I guessed it was good to have a car just in case we needed it. We could afford it, and it would be fun adding "automobile" to our conversation topics. 

     The Mazda dealer on the Westside brought the Mazda2 to our house for me to take a test drive. We asked him to show us we could fit the car onto our elevator parking space in the basement garage. It is an unusual hydraulic elevator that has space below ground level so the vehicle dips at a 35^o angle and one of the two levels can be loaded while the back remains fixed.

Mazda dealer who knew less about
  parking on a lift than he would admit

     When the phone rang, I put my sneakers on as my wife went downstairs to the lobby and escorted the young salesman to the car in the basement garage. My wife told me how he maneuvered the car onto the elevator car space, closed the door and got out, ducking his head as he did in the five foot headroom. She pressed the button to drop the car but something went terribly wrong. The inexperienced salesman had neglected to put the car into ‘park’ or apply the emergency brake so when the car dipped backward, it rolled and crashed into the concrete wall. My wife pressed the 'stop' button but it was too late. There was a six inch dent in the middle of the red hatchback door and scrapes along the fender. 

     The young salesman was upset. His boss would admonish him and he could even have to pay for the damage and lose his job. We felt badly and offered to pay for half the damage; she translated what we discussed to him. If we bought a car from him, it would be payment enough.   

  The Mazda2 engine is 1500 cc and the mountains in Taiwan are steep and require more power. We decided to test drive a 2000cc Mazda3 on Saturday, but not from his dealership

My wife had called her brother who offered to bring us to the Mazda dealer in Feng-yuan; he said he had a friend who worked there. When we arrived, I test drove a red 2015 Mazda3 five-door. up the mountain road near the golf course and liked what I felt. The car had enough power and finesse to take the Taiwan mountain roads. There was one more concern; our garage parking space. He agreed to let me drive the car home and try the space for size. It did.

The dealer backed it in to the top berth to demonstrate. I’d try the bottom later since it was a tight fit and an ordeal to get out of. Since we have the lower berth, I would have to squeeze alongside the car and duck down so my head wouldn’t hit the upper platform, then open the door, turn backward, sit sideways, lower my head, and ease in. He reminded me to back the car in to the corrugated aluminum

      We would probably go with the Feng-yuan dealer because he seemed more knowledgeable. He was also a veteran salesman and knew what to say I thought we might sign the papers that week. He even called asking if we were ready to make a deal. I suggested we go to the car dealer the next day to make the deal.

     That next morning, my wife’s brother, drove us to the Mazda dealer in Feng-yuan to sign our name to a red 2015 Mazda3 five-door. We may as well fill the basement garage space we inherited when we bought the condo. 

The first dealer had finally called back after a week, but my wife and I felt comfortable with the second, more seasoned car dealer; he had told her all the facts about financing and discounts; she had had to drag it out of the first dealer after he said no discounts or six free options. Anyway, the service center in Feng-yuan is more convenient than the one on the Westside. 

   I wasn’t going to take a bike ride that morning because the Mazda dealer from Feng-yuan was picking us up to inspect the car we would be buying. When we signed the purchase agreement on Monday, he said the car would be delivered, from Japan next month, but dealers in Taiwan keep a car stashed away for preferred customers, government officials, VIP's, and people like us who pay in cash. Our car was ready; all we need was to approve it and await license plates, probably by Monday. 

     Leona's brother checked the Lunar Calendar and saw that Saturday was a 'good day' to pick up our new car. He had gotten involved, with my blessing, to drive us to the dealer, and I agreed to let his wife handle our insurance,

     I drove our Mazda3 home Monday morning. I had jokingly told Leona to ask the car dealer for a ribbon around the car, as I'd seen in TV commercials in the States, and he came through with a little red ribbon attached to the front. It was a morning of final instructions, a once over the car, hands-on for my wife who sat at the wheel and listened to what each of the buttons on the dashboard does in Chinese. A Chinese manual, as thick as Moby Dick, with few pages in English, was in a black zippered case along with insurance card, title, and receipt. We said our final goodbyes and I drove away listening to an FM radio station.

This is all you see on the bottom
       berth when the lift is not down.

    I had asked my wife if she wanted to stop for lunch but she just wanted to go home, so I drove, made the turn at the tire shop, and up the alley to the driveway down to our underground garage. It was the first time I had driven in and maneuvered the car down the tight passage in front of the lower berth. My wife got out to raise the berth to ground level. I positioned the car and backed in as I was told, put the car in 'park' with hand-brake on, and pulled the rear-view mirrors in. Getting out, I made sure not to soil my clothes or bump my head.

Safely out, Leona pressed the button to drop the car at the 35^o subterranean tilt. Slowly, the hydraulic arms showed their silvery gleam and the car dipped. That’s when I heard the crunch, a slight, clear, metallic crunch.

"Stop the car lift!" I shouted, but it was too late. The two inch bump of antenna casing on the car’s rear top had been torn off, lying sideways, in the indentations the top berth had made on our car roof!

   My wife and I climbed upstairs to get better reception on her cell phone to immediately call the car dealer and tell him what happened and ask what to do. The dealer told her to have me take the car out and park it on the street; they would send someone the following day to put the antenna back. I told my wife to tell him the car roof was also dented; we wanted to return it to the dealership.

The top berth speed bumps visible were
 the ones the dealer instructed me to
drive up to, but those bumps are not on the
bottom berth where our car is parked

     We got back into the car, drove up and out turning left back to the Mazda dealership. I wanted a new car or none at all, if money back was possible. It was the car dealers fault; he showed the car would fit in the top berth, but not in the bottom when the elevator was lowered and headroom height was a factor.

  What went wrong with the Mazda3? The car was in 'park,' hand brake up, facing forward on the lift.

     In Taiwan, where the consumer has virtually no protection, and laws favor the management, we had no chance of getting culpability placed in the dealer’s offence of guaranteeing, in writing or not, that the Mazda3 would fit in the berth. Even if we sued the company for a new car, we would lose in the end. I stopped hard-balling the car dealer as we negotiated in the showroom. Instead, the insurance company would be contacted, and the service center would repair our car. .

     I joked that it was actually her brother’s fault because he had clearly checked the Lunar Calendar and found Saturday morning to be the best time to pick the car up.

     The repair to the car would be done as quickly as possible. The dealer apologized a few times and felt terrible about what had happened but he was taking no responsibility.

     Leona's brother called his friend in the dealership; it is the kind of networking that gets things done much faster in Taiwan. What he got was an apology, an acceptance of partial responsibility, and a free $200 alarm system. 

     I cannot blame anyone for not researching how to park the car correctly on the bottom berth; I didn’t investigate how to do it, either. The car dealer is not responsible for the damage to the car but we should not have relied on him for information about our own garage. This is what actually happened:

Cathay insurance adjuster came back to
 make a report
after we were not satisfied with their
initial determination

     The bottom berth of the car lift has two metal slats that extend as the platform dips protruding through into position going down. The car dealer had only shown us the upper berth speed bumps; if the car was up to those bumps, the car was backed up enough. He didn't explain the two metal slats on the bottom surface that gradually protrude; didn’t know about them, either. The slats are designed to prevent the car from rolling forward when it dips. I parked the car right on the slats which then raised the rear wheels, crushing the roof. 

     The dealer wanted to cosmetically repair the dents. My wife said the insurance may not want to pay for the full cost of repairing the damage. We didn’t know when we would get the car back. I did know that I would remove the happy red ribbon from the hood.

     We could have taken measures to make this transition work better. We could have asked around the building or secured an upper berth in advance before bringing the car home. We could have gotten thorough instruction about how the lift operated though it is a common device used in Taiwan, one I never saw in the U.S. 

Our building didn’t carry insurance for car damage in the basement. So my wife called Mazda headquarters in Taipei and registered a long complaint about the car dealer and the dealership that wouldn’t accept any responsibility for misguiding us on how to park the car on the lift in our basement. Her call did some good. They contacted Mazda in Feng-yuan. The manager from Feng-yuan called Leona in the afternoon, apologized and assured her that they would do everything possible to make her feel better about buying a Mazda from them; that they would repair the damage to the car roof as soon as possible. While Mazda customer service was putting pressure on the Feng-yuan branch to put an end to this episode, the manager hadn’t offered us anything tangible. We wanted an admission of shared responsibility from the dealer who neglected to show us how to park the car correctly and compensation for the damage to the cracked roof.
     Our insurance company, Cathay, was only offering 15,000 NT-$454 US but the roof change would cost over 60,000 NT - $1818 US. My wife’s sister-in-law leaned on her investigation colleagues to come to our place and write another report to get us more money.
     There was no news about our car in the Feng-Yuan shop. We were waiting for Cathay insurance to make a final offer of coverage and put pressure on the dealership to share responsibility for their salesman’s erroneous parking instructions. Meanwhile, we signed permission for the mechanic to begin removing the dented car roof. He would report back on the severity of the damage, then, a new roof would be shipped from Japan, if necessary, and installed at any cost.

At our meeting with the mechanic, manager, and car salesman, the manager wasn’t even aware of the type of car lift we had, and the salesman had no idea why the accident happened. I showed them a video I made of the lift device; the “safety feature” to prevent a car from falling off the slab. My wife translated my point that the salesman shouldn’t have assured us parking there would be safe if he wasn’t sure,

  Cathay Insurance came back again to the basement to investigate. Two young agents rode down on scooters and thoroughly checked the scene. They rode down on the lift with me and observed how the slats rose. They agreed it was awkward and dangerous. They took many photos. Even the warning sign on the garage wall was suspect, small, eight feet from the ground above the lift switch, dirty and covered over with a sticker. There was no warning about the parking procedures. 

     In the meantime, my wife contracted a woman in our building for her upper berth parking space. It would cost us $35 us a months to rent it but it would be safe and convenient
     A few weeks later, the Mazda mechanical foreman called to say the car roof could  be fixed without having to replace it, furthermore, Cathay said they would cover all costs. The car would be returned by the end of January.

       I believe our insisting that Mazda take some responsibility for the mishap led to this happy conclusion. They were going to change the roof and stick us with the cost if we didn’t put up a stink. My wife leaned on her sister-in-law to send agents three times to our basement to investigate, and she contacted the Mazda manager regularly to work it out. Yes, my wife solved the problem her way, the Taiwanese way.

Taitung's Bohemian Survival Plan

https://www.facebook.com/david.b.temple/videos/10208137489734442/

     Sitting on the tip of a half-buried "zhong-zih" terrapod on the beach of Taitung, Taiwan, by the side of the Pacific Ocean, at dawn. The breath I caught in coming to the clean east coast of Taiwan has just been taken away. After a half hour walk along the the dyke path of the Taiping River from the  B&B near the Kai-Feng Street Bridge, I needed this restful view. 

     Smokey Cat is equally inconvenient to everything in Taitung, which means my wife and I had some good exercise walking, but when we found our stride, we were on to Taitung's Bohemian survival plan. 

     

Taitung City, on the south-east coast of Taiwan, was not only one of the last places on Taiwan colonized by Han Chinese; it had remained a backwater deep into the 21st Century. I have already written about the breathtaking views and return of aboriginal culture in the mountains around Lu-Ye.(http://forgottenpeopleoftaiwan.blogspot.tw/2014/02/return-of-ami-native.html) 

    Taitung City  took center stage on our recent visit.

     Arriving at lunch time Saturday after a four hour train ride from Taichung (one hour HSR and three hours diesel from Zuo-Ying, Kaohsiung) we went via Ping-Dong up the east coast. The ocean vista along the way are amazing. Get a seat on the right side, buy a train "biendang" lunch box and you are set.         The new Taitung train station is quite far from downtown in the coastal city. It was chosen to be so distant by local politicians that saw a chance to speculate in land sales by enticing investors to buy the land near the station. After they sold the land, at a premium, the value dropped; after all, there is nothing between the new station and Taitung.  Only taxi drivers benefit from the distance between the station and Taitung; don't pay more than 200. 

     Since my wife and I visited a few years ago, Taitung has made a remarkable change for itself, with a bohemian attitude no less, though urbanization has brought a movie theater, shopping mall, an Eslite Bookstore, and many western food franchises. Its abandoned sugar processing plant and railroad line have become the core of a new bohemian lifestyle that has already attracted many progressive Taiwanese and ex-pats.                                                

      Taitung has done what other famous cities have famously done: taken an abandoned urban rail line and changed it into a pedestrian mall. High Line Park in Manhattan and Promenade Plantee in Paris are the two main models. Taitung, too, has an area of abandoned rail link that they have added boardwalk to, landscaped, and encouraged businesses to open up their back doors and build entrances .  

      Starting from the downtown end of the line, at the old railway station, there is the new Taitung Railway Art Village. Several buildings were converted for exhibition space and grassy park where the stockyard once was for families to enjoy. On most evenings and weekends, the local indigenous merchants set up stalls to display their crafts and food stuff.      

      As you walk along the right-of-way, the bohemian air starts to peculate as you see new community centers, cafes and bistros popping up. One place that got our attention was Cheela Cafe (http://www.cheelapension.com) The back entrance was so tropically enticing with aged planks leading up, with a modern cafe at the front. My wife and I had the best homemade cinnamon buns we've ever had in Taiwan along with a large variety of fresh brewed coffee and tea. There was real New York style cheesecake! 

      Back outside on the old rail pedestrian mall, we were witness to a tree massacre. In an attempt to landscape the path, tree pruning was outsourced to someone who had no aesthetics about tree trimming. It made us think that although Taitung had intentions of luring tourists with the new bohemian folk life style, they haven't gotten all the kinks out yet.                                                        

        Walking further on, we came across a bright red building, just around the corner from Obama Bakery. Occupying the second floor is the Taitung Theater. This organization shows Eastern European Films sent to them from their Taipei foundation. The films are subtitled in Chinese but most of them are not in English; ex-pats beware. It seems the students who get public service credit benefit most from the film showings. The screenings are poorly attended but since it is publicly funded, the management isn't concerned. In New York City, these films would bring in $20 a ticket and be sold out weeks in advance. I wished this theater was at least in Taichung where I could enjoy some showings. In Taitung, it lends itself to the bohemian survival plan but void of local relevance. 

          On Sunday, our first full day of visiting Taitung, I snuck out before dawn while my wife slept and  walked a block away to the dyke road along the Taiping River to the Pacific shoreline. It would have been better if the B&B had offered bicycles for such a trek but I couldn't resist it knowing an ocean wasn't  far away.          

     I was taken aback by the beauty of the river side as I spotted some grazing water buffalo. Their owners let them graze freely until they are needed to till their fields; quite a perk for a beast of burden.  The clouds tried to reach over the enormous mountains to the west; the palm trees hugged the dykes.

 When I crossed the last bridge over the river, fearing that the sky was starting to lose its bluish hue and I would miss the dawn, I hurried. Then, I spied the end of the river. Though I had to cross a footbridge over a putrid sewer runoff to get there, I left my cares and woes drain along with it and rushed to the shoreline. This Brooklyn boy needed to witness the crashing of sea waves, to feel the earth tremble and smell the salty air of the Pacific Ocean, anyway. I ignored the filth.

https://www.facebook.com/david.b.temple/videos/10208137489734442/

     Breakfast at the Smokey Cat would be served soon. I had a date with my wife I didn't want to miss, so I bid farewell to the Pacific and headed back. We had one more day ahead of us before we were to train back to Taichung Monday. 

        Sunday, we walked down Kai-Feng Street and back to the Old Train Line. On the way, we spotted an interesting restaurant on a corner with a large clay pot. The sign said "homemade chicken soup." It was just what the doctor ordered in the damp chill of a tropical ocean side town in winter. The proprietor placed a thick glove on her hand and reached into the steaming pot to pull out a smaller pot, one of dozens lining the shelves inside.

     We got our soup to go and went on our way to find our next adventure. Turned left at the Old Rail Promenade when we reached Obama's Bakery, and went to find the perfect bench to enjoy our soup. We found one looking out over a pretty wash near a cultivated field along the path, now divided for bikes, too. The Jewish penicillin penetrated our weary Taichung-polluted noses as our glasses steamed up with every sip.  The bones disintegrated in my mouth. 

     The Taitung City Bikeway is a 32 km. loop around the city following the old tracks out to near the new train station before heading back through the Forest and Seashore Parks. We were headed to the old Sintung Sugar Factory Arts Center in Dulan Village near the old Ma-Lan Station. Taitung couldn't get more bohemian than this.  

     

     The Sintung Sugar Factory, abandoned since the late 90's, was taken over by artists that transformed the deserted plant into studios and showrooms. There, exhibitions from craftsmen are held for art aficionados. Handicraft shops display the work from indigenous artists. Groups from Thailand, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Japan are also present. With concerts, a coffee house, and even a B&B, the Sugar Factory is the matching bookend to the other side of the Old Taitung Rail Promenade.

     After an afternoon perusing the handicrafts, we got back on the tracks and headed to the old part of town for a very special farewell dinner. We couldn't leave Taitung without enjoying the seafood specialties at Taitung's oldest 

and most famous restaurant, Wan-Ba-Tsu. Their best dish has got to be the turnip coated fried fish. I suggest you call in advance as they are often swamped with banquets and dinner parties.

      After dinner, we took a long walk back to Smokey Cat through old Taitung, a city preserving its past cultures while investing in a future of tourism with surfing contests, bike paths, a gateway to Green Island, badminton tournaments, and most importantly, a bohemian shot of fresh air that should get a lot of progressive west-coasters and ex-pats moving to the clean side of Taiwan. Up the mountains, near Lu-Ye, there is even more fresh reason to visit Taitung. But whatever you do, don't miss seeing the Pacific Ocean and walking the Old Rail Line. 

Taichung bylaw restricts coal use

NOT NEEDED?The EPA said that the city could have restricted the use of bituminous coal by tightening licensing rules, which would have eliminated the need for a bylaw

By Chen Wei-han  /  Staff reporter

Taichung on Wednesday passed a bylaw on the burning of petroleum coke and coal, which requires large industries in the city to reduce their use of coal by 40 percent in four years.

“Taichung has made a historic move. The decision we made today will go down in history. Constraining the use of coal is the public consensus,” Taichung Mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said after the bylaw passed the third reading in the city council.

The bylaw bans petroleum coke and regulates the use of bituminous coal — considered the second-highest grade coal, after anthracite coal — and other types of coal that are of poorer quality, because those fuels are responsible for particulate matter in the city’s air, the city government said.

The bylaw applies to facilities that emit more than 5 million tonnes of greenhouse gases per year, including the Taichung Power Plant and Dragon Steel Corp’s plants, which have to shift to using coals with greater burning efficiency within six months of the bylaw taking effect, while they should reduce their use of bituminous coal by 40 percent within four years, the city government said.

Lin said the city government plans to have the Taichung Power Plant replace four of its 10 coal-fired generators with natural-gas-powered generators within four years, while Dragon Steel has promised to carry out a restoration program to reduce air pollution.

The city used 22.51 million tonnes of bituminous coal last year, with the bylaw projected to see a 32.7 percent reduction in that figure, the city government said.

The bylaw made the city the second municipality to implement coal-burning restrictions after Yunlin County in June passed a bylaw banning the use of petroleum coke and bituminous coal.

The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) rejected the Yunlin bylaw in September, saying it involves national energy management and was beyond the county’s jurisdiction.

The Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau said the Taichung bylaw does not prohibit the use of bituminous coal, but rather requests facilities to gradually reduce use of the fuel, which does not contradict national laws.

The EPA said that it has yet to study the Taichung bylaw to assess its legality, adding that the city government could restrict the use of bituminous coal by tightening licensing rules, eliminating the need for a bylaw.

The Happy Hobo's Refuge in Taichung

12-13-15 

      I went to The Refuge for the first time yesterday. It is right up Dong-Shan Road to the right of the little traffic circle on Buzi Road, but I got lost anyway; ended up doing a loop up and down the Da-keng mountain slope and back to the 7-11 on the corner of Buzi Road. After I got straight, the place was remote but easy to find. Around sixty guests paid 300 NT each to get in to the "4th Hobo Happiness."

The Refuge is in what must have been a beautiful, western-style, two story cement tiled home on a cul-de-sac, with walled entrance and a large patio and private backyard. It is not beautiful anymore. If it were made of wood and not cement, it would be rotting apart. They may have gotten it cheaply after the 1999 earthquake affected the zone which it is in. The grounds are in shambles. Things are makeshift in the public area. 

Jack Conqueroo https://youtu.be/NjEHzR9fGc0
performs at the 4th Hobo Happiness

The reason for my visit was to attend a Facebook advertised “4^th Hobo Happiness,” with musical guest Jack Conqueroo, a Robert Johnson-styled electric blues guitarist, harp player, and singer from Canada. He was rather good, though his set was too short. The  act before him, of two drunken male guitarists singing Dylanesque songs, went on too long. Mojo and Sons, who came on after Conqueroo, was a country folk trio of banjo, guitar, kazoo, clarinet, and great harmonies. I didn’t catch the name of the pedestrian folk singer who came on after the bluegrass trio and talked too much about himself; I left mid-set.

Before I left, I made sure to thank Paul Davies in person for publishing my radical articles on the Refuge Facebook page. Most of the time, Paul was marching around doing things to make the mostly thirty-five-year-old guests happy. At first, I had mistaken Paul for a man named Mitch, a dried up slender oldster with a patch on his left ear sitting with a younger Asian woman. He told Paul I was looking for him early on and I left it at that. The only person I recognized there was the guitar accompanist of a local blues singer that holds open-mic at PJ's. I met and spoke with other nice people who had come from all over Taiwan to this event.

Mojo and Sons https://youtu.be/UORTH2Xtwuk
perform at 4th Hobo Happiness

The “Food by Rita’s Kitchen" was simple and no pizza did I see from Rocky’s Pizza from 4pm when I arrived until 7:30 pm when I left. Rita’s kitchen was vegetarian chili and burrito. Despite the "healthy" meatless cuisine, there was plenty of cigarette smoke and vape, beer and alcoholic drinks of which I had three whiskey-ginger ales for 100 NT each.  I thought perhaps someone would bring out the hamburgers and sausages when the bon fire was lit, but there was nary a marshmallow roasted over it. I left early, hungry. On the way out, the street was clogged with motorcycles and cars of party-goers. Mine was the only bicycle I saw parked outside.

      Paul Davies is an interesting person, friendly and vivacious. He calls his blog "The Militant Hippi." He is more the latter than the former. The only militarism I could find in his blog history was a stint in the voluntary U.S. army in the early 90's, though he fancies himself at risk to the KMT police that took his picture when he played music at a "Wild Strawberry Movement" rally. In his blog writings, he celebrates his twentieth "Taiwanniversary" and reviews how he ended up living in Taichung, Taiwan. He says he had a good job back in Boston but doesn't mention what he did, only that he considered becoming a police officer in Chinatown. He rants in articles against Gxd and religion and in favor of vegetarianism.

Guests enjoy the Tiki-bar atmosphere  at The Refuge 

     Paul Davies mentions getting his "degrees" at UMass but doesn't mention what his "degrees" were in. He is affiliated with Donghai University here in Taichung, originally as a student, and met a number of intellectual ex-pat friends there. For his Bruce Lee fetish and martial arts  interest (he opened a school once in Boston) and Mandarin study, it is clear that Paul Davies loves Chinese culture and Taiwan. 
     Paul Davies doesn't mention his family background growing up in Boston in the blog, which he says has gotten fifty thousand visits. He is no working class stiff and not a union man. The house that he has since 2008 in Da-keng, and the 30,000 ping space he rented at the old Dongshan Paradise theme park (that had been destroyed in the 1999 earthquake) must have been paid for by someone, perhaps by the volunteers and friends who come and go and float with him. "It's financially self-sufficient," Paul said in an interview in 2011.

Paul Davies (right) makes music in The Refuge sound studio 

      LUVstock was a three-day musical party, held at Dongshan Paradise yearly, until he left his lease in 2013 and moved it back to his property. Though his musical aspirations never left him, he managed to settle down enough to marry and even raise a child. There is certainly a lot of sharing what he has with others and a new age spirit glow; donations accepted. 
     Whatever one wants to think about Paul Davies, the “4^th Hobo Happiness,” "LUVstock," and other events he has organized are not about him, per se, but about getting Taiwan's English-speaking ex-pats together as a community and for fun. Music and art predominate in his home and a volunteer spirit permeates the grounds. 

Not Seeing The Trees For The Forest: Protests target Taichung science park and TSMC

     My wife and I have been followers of this "Tree Hugger" group's Facebook page for a while with increased frustration. The moderator and poster of the Facebook page posts rejects suggestions for better targets that create pollution in Taichung area. They act more like a cult than an environmental group.

     After all, Mayor Lin, who is blamed in the article below for the science park pollution, has been in office for less than a year and is not responsible for creating the science park or the eight chimney power plant on the Taichung coast that will create pollution with cheap coal to power the microchip producing science park. 

     The "Tree Hugger" group won't take our or other commentators' suggestions to protest against the central government that created the power plant west of Taichung with wind blowing eastward carpeting our city. Former thirteen year term Mayor Hu is responsible for providing the land on the low Dadu Mountain range west of the new science park. 

     The "Tree Hugger" group, is not connected with Global 350 environmentalist movement, nor are they targeting deforestation in Indonesia, currently destroying the air quality of millions of people in Asia. Their "seeing the trees for the forest," blaming Mayor Lin for a much larger problem created before he took office and out of his control, seems politically motivated. They blame him for pushing for the extension of the park when he was a congressman.

    Despite their claim to be nonpartisan, the "Tree Hugger" group and, according to the article, "41 other environmental groups" seem intent on blaming the DPP mayor and not the KMT Central Government that created the mess in the first place and should be the target of any demonstration against industrial pollution in Taiwan.

Protests target Taichung science park and TSMC

SHAM SORRY:Environmentalist Yeh Guang-peng gave a mock apology on behalf of Taichung Mayor Lin Chia-lung, saying that Lin had not fulfilled a clean-air vow

By Chen Wei-han  /  Staff reporter

People hold up an image of a tree at a protest in Taichung yesterday.

Photo: Tsai Shu-yuan, Taipei Times

Protesters yesterday staged a demonstration at the Central Taiwan Science Park in Taichung, demanding the immediate suspension of an expansion project for the park, which they said would aggravate air pollution and pose greater health risks.

Protesters and 41 environmental groups called for the suspension of the project and an overhaul of national development policies, saying that more than 20 percent of the nation’s science parks and industrial zones are underutilized, with the government not making good use of idle plots while rezoning a forest for the Taichung science park expansion.

The expansion was mainly based on a Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) project to build an 18-inch wafer plant on Dadu Mountain in Situn (西屯) and Daya (大雅) districts, with the plan passing an environmental impact assessment in February.

Taichung-based environmentalist Tsai Chih-hao (蔡智豪) said the TSMC plan did not assess health risks in association with many carcinogenic pollutants, calling for an end to construction until proper assessments are completed.

Tsai demanded an apology from Taichung Mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) for Lin’s part in soliciting TSMC investment, which Tsai said put city residents at risk of pollution-related illness, adding that the number of adenocarcinomas of the lung — a major type of lung cancer — in the area has risen to become the highest rate in the nation due to the city’s deteriorating air quality.

Impersonating the mayor, Taiwan Healthy Air Action Alliance founder Yeh Guang-peng (葉光芃) delivered a mock apology, saying that Lin in 2012 pledged to remove highly polluting and energy-intensive industries from the city to reduce air pollution and bring back blue skies.

Instead of blue sky, PM2.5 — airborne pollutants measuring 25 micrometers or less in diameter — is Lin’s legacy, Yeh said.

Taichung Veterans General Hospital respiratory physician Hsu Cheng-yuan (許正園) said each 10 microgram per cubic meter rise in PM2.5 is associated with an 8 percent increased risk of lung cancer morbidity, which, in terms of the population of Taichung, could lead to 220,000 residents being affected by the disease.

In a letter to TSMC chairman Morris Chang (張忠謀), who on Thursday said that power shortages and protests from environmentalists were the two major uncertainties for future investment in Taiwan, protesters said government-subsidized electricity for industrial development has cost the nation its environment and health, while residents and even TSMC employees, in addition to environmentalists, were among the protesters.

TSMC contributes to the condition of the sky and poisonous air in central Taiwan, the letter said.

Clean rooms in the company’s factories might be the only place where people could breathe clean air, it said, calling on the company to fulfill its corporate responsibility.

Protesters said they would be collecting signatures to launch a referendum on whether the expansion project should be discontinued.

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