The Taiwanese government's plan to curb cancer faces tough opposition: about 60,000 women who sit in roadside glass booths, often wearing little more than a bikini, selling the nation's oldest legal drug.
The so-called betel-nut beauties, who are unique to Taiwan, peddle the nation's second-largest crop to 17.5 percent of the adult male population, according to government estimates.
Chewing addictive betel nuts, the seed of the betel palm, increases the risk of mouth cancer, according to the Department of Health. Officials are encouraging farmers to plant alternatives to the US$359 million annual crop, urging about 1.6 million users to quit.
PHOTO: MAURICE TSAI, BLOOMBERG NEWS
"We aren't very optimistic," said Wu Chien-yuan (
Betel, or areca, nuts increase the heart rate and induce a mild sense of excitement, said Hahn Liang-jiunn (
As many as 400 million people from East Africa to Indonesia chew the seeds and leaves regularly, the British Medical Journal reported in April 2002.
Taiwan's beauties are even featured in tourist guides. Their betel-nut stands are a favorite among long-distance drivers.
"I use betel nuts to mark time and to keep myself alert," said Shen Ting-hui, 28, a truck driver from Taoyuan County, who has been chewing betel nuts for 10 years.
Paying a saleswoman dressed in a blue shirt, white shorts and white boots, Shen said the beauties' visual sales pitch encouraged him to buy from them.
"Of course I want to go to someone good-looking," he said.
While the government's goals are modest -- cutting the number of users by half a percentage point during the next four years -- the beauties are not.
`Government is stupid'
"Our government is stupid," said saleswoman Yu Hui-min, 38, dismissing the notion that betel nuts cause cancer. She wore a brown shirt and miniskirt and red high heels in her neon-lit booth in central Taipei.
"In my home town, betel nuts are a treat for guests," she said.
Betel-nut beauties emerged in the early 1990s as Taiwanese companies sought to cut labor costs by moving factories to China. Many of the beauties are unskilled workers who can't find better jobs because of that shift, said Robin Jai (翟本瑞), dean of social sciences at Nanhua University in Chiayi County.
Taiwan has more than 100,000 betel-nut booths, Jai said. Artist Christian Wu (
"With not much money, I can own my own business and wear beautiful clothes to work," said Lin Hsiao-wei, 35, who wore a leopard-print miniskirt as she dispensed betel nuts in the central town of Toufen (
"This is a good job," she said.
Lin, a former garment-factory worker, said she sells NT$8,000 to NT$9,000 of betel nuts a day. Her booth cost about NT$150,000 to set up and her profit margin ranges from 33 percent to 50 percent, she said.
Mouth cancer
People who chew betel nuts, drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes are 123 times more likely to get mouth cancer than those who don't, according to the Department of Health.
Mouth cancer killed about 15 of every 100,000 Taiwanese men in 2003, making it the fourth most lethal form of the disease, department figures show.
"There is sufficient scientific evidence that betel nuts can cause oral cancer," Hahn said. They also have been linked to asthma, diabetes and cancers of the esophagus and anus, he said.
A 2000 study of ethnic Indian users in London found that paan masala, a combination of spices and betel nut wrapped in a betel leaf, can be as addictive as cocaine, according to the British Medical Journal.
"Patients describe typical dependency symptoms, with difficulty in abstaining, withdrawal symptoms including headache and sweating, and need for a morning paan to relieve these symptoms," the 2002 Journal report said.
To combat the habit, the government is running anti-betel advertisements and education campaigns, including betel-nut prevention days.
Officials are also helping farmers to substitute orange and tangerine trees and Chinese herbs for betel crops.
Nut production declined 17 percent to 143,368 tonnes in 2004 from a peak of 172,574 tonnes six years earlier, according to the Council of Agriculture.
Still, the crop remains the country's second-largest, after rice, and affects the livelihood of 70,000 farming families, the council estimates.
Betel-nut sellers are coming under pressure, too. The police are stepping up inspections of betel-nut beauties for moral and safety reasons, said Patricia Huang, a spokeswoman at the Ministry of the Interior.
"Their revealing clothing may distract drivers and cause car accidents, as well as prompt male clients to harass or even sexually assault them," Huang said.
County officials are helping, closing down booths if they judge sellers' clothing to be too revealing, said Wang Yun-tsen, deputy director of economic development in Taoyuan County.
Taoyuan "is the main gate of our nation," Wang said.
The saleswomen "aren't a good subculture and we don't want people to use them to attract tourists."
Teng Chun-han, 28, a truck driver from Taoyuan, said the government should stop harassing the women, who are only trying to make ends meet.
He spends 12 hours a day on the road and uses betel nuts to stay alert, he said, paying a saleswoman wearing a short black dress and black boots.
"Eight out of 10 users will buy from betel-nut beauties," Teng said.
PATENTS: MediaTek Inc said it would not comment on ongoing legal cases, but does not expect the legal action by Huawei to affect its business operations Smartphone integrated chips designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) on Friday said that a lawsuit filed by Chinese smartphone brand Huawei Technologies Co (華為) over alleged patent infringements would have little impact on its operations. In an announcement posted on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, MediaTek said that it would not comment on an ongoing legal case. However, the company said that Huawei’s legal action would have little impact on its operations. MediaTek’s statement came after China-based PRIP Research said on Thursday that Huawei filed a lawsuit with a Chinese district court claiming that MediaTek infringed on its patents. The infringement mentioned in the lawsuit likely involved
Taipei is today suspending work, classes and its US$2.4 trillion stock market as Typhoon Gaemi approaches Taiwan with strong winds and heavy rain. The nation is not conducting securities, currency or fixed income trading, statements from its stock and currency exchanges said. Authorities had yesterday issued a warning that the storm could affect people on land and canceled some ship crossings and domestic flights. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) expects its local chipmaking fabs to maintain normal production, the company said in an e-mailed statement. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp said it has activated routine typhoon alert
GROWTH: TSMC increased its projected revenue growth for this year to more than 25 percent, citing stronger-than-expected demand for AI devices and smartphones The Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER, 台灣經濟研究院) yesterday raised its forecast for Taiwan’s GDP growth this year from 3.29 percent to 3.85 percent, as exports and private investment recovered faster than it predicted three months ago. The Taipei-based think tank also expects that Taiwan would see a 8.19 percent increase in exports this year, better than the 7.55 percent it projected in April, as US technology giants spent more money on artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and development. “There will be more AI servers going forward, but it remains to be seen if the momentum would extend to personal computers, smartphones and
Catastrophic computer outages caused by a software update from one company have once again exposed the dangers of global technological dependence on a handful of players, experts said on Friday. A flawed update sent out by the little-known security firm CrowdStrike Holdings Inc brought airlines, TV stations and myriad other aspects of daily life to a standstill. The outages affected companies or individuals that use CrowdStrike on the Microsoft Inc’s Windows platform. When they applied the update, the incompatible software crashed computers into a frozen state known as the “blue screen of death.” “Today CrowdStrike has become a household name, but not in