The Yilan Green Expo has been taking place for over a decade and has become one of the most recognized environmental awareness activities in the country. This year, the event is back at the Wulaokeng Scenic Area (武荖坑風景區) where it will play host to a huge range of family activities for a total of 51 days. The expo, which opens tomorrow, combines tourism, food, entertainment and education in a single massive event that has greatly raised awareness of Yilan’s efforts to establish itself as a new Eden, an escape back to nature for residents of Taiwan’s overdeveloped west coast.
The 2013 Green Expo has adopted the theme of Return to the Forest, and promises visitors to Wulaokeng Scenic Area not just the beautiful scenery and warm welcome for which Yilan is already famous, but also a chance to reflect on issues such as bringing back a balance between the drive for production and the need to establish a quality of life. Finding a sustainable solution to preserving our modern lifestyles and conserving Taiwan’s increasingly threatened natural habitat tops the agenda, though you probably wouldn’t guess it from the host of fun activities, lucky draws, performances and DIY workshops to be found there.
Yilan County commissioner Lin Tsung-hsien (林聰賢) said that “natural agriculture, tourism, LOHAS lifestyle and healthy living, and experience and learning about nature” would be the keystones of this year’s event. Natural agriculture is an issue of growing importance given that Taiwan, according to a recent report based on the World Economic Forum’s Environmental Sustainability Index published by the Kuanshu Educational Foundation (觀樹教育基金會), is reported as being the heaviest user of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in the world. LOHAS is an acronym for Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability, a buzzword that has caught on in Taiwan through its linking of environmental issues with personal health. While it will take much more than Yilan’s Green Expo to change Taiwan’s agricultural habits, which for the large part continue to favor the use of chemicals to boost yields, Lin said that this year’s event, with the creation of an “organic lifestyle area,” would be an important milestone in pushing forward the policy of the “organic new Yilan.”
Photo Courtesy of the Lanyang Agricultural Development Foundation
Photo Courtesy of the Lanyang Agricultural Development Foundation
Photo Courtesy of the Lanyang Agricultural Development Foundation
Last week saw the appearance of another odious screed full of lies from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian (肖千), in the Financial Review, a major Australian paper. Xiao’s piece was presented without challenge or caveat. His “Seven truths on why Taiwan always will be China’s” presented a “greatest hits” of the litany of PRC falsehoods. This includes: Taiwan’s indigenous peoples were descended from the people of China 30,000 years ago; a “Chinese” imperial government administrated Taiwan in the 14th century; Koxinga, also known as Cheng Cheng-kung (鄭成功), “recovered” Taiwan for China; the Qing owned
In Taiwan’s politics the party chair is an extremely influential position. Typically this person is the presumed presidential candidate or serving president. In the last presidential election, two of the three candidates were also leaders of their party. Only one party chair race had been planned for this year, but with the Jan. 1 resignation by the currently indicted Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) two parties are now in play. If a challenger to acting Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) appears we will examine that race in more depth. Currently their election is set for Feb. 15. EXTREMELY
Jan. 20 to Jan. 26 Taipei was in a jubilant, patriotic mood on the morning of Jan. 25, 1954. Flags hung outside shops and residences, people chanted anti-communist slogans and rousing music blared from loudspeakers. The occasion was the arrival of about 14,000 Chinese prisoners from the Korean War, who had elected to head to Taiwan instead of being repatriated to China. The majority landed in Keelung over three days and were paraded through the capital to great fanfare. Air Force planes dropped colorful flyers, one of which read, “You’re back, you’re finally back. You finally overcame the evil communist bandits and
They increasingly own everything from access to space to how we get news on Earth and now outgoing President Joe Biden warns America’s new breed of Donald Trump-allied oligarchs could gobble up US democracy itself. Biden used his farewell speech to the nation to deliver a shockingly dark message: that a nation which has always revered its entrepreneurs may now be at their mercy. “An oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms,” Biden said. He named no names, but his targets were clear: men like Elon Musk
RSS