Worried about melamine contamination and dissatisfied with the Department of Health, a group of social activist bloggers calling themselves “Happy Mobs” are pushing for more corporate and government transparency.
“It’s been weeks since the melamine scare first broke and the government has changed the tolerable limit for melamine quite a few times. But they never explained to us why the changes were made, why we decided to follow the EU standard or the Hong Kong standards and how everything was decided,” Cheng Kuo-wei (鄭國威), initiator of the campaign, told the Taipei Times in a telephone interview.
“We want safe food and we want to know how the government makes decisions,” he said.
PHOTO: WU HSING-HUA, TAIPEI TIMES
“Although there’s a Government Information Disclosure Act [政府資訊公開法], it’s poorly executed,” he said. “I think the melamine scare is a good opportunity to push for more transparency.”
In a statement released by Happy Mobs, it asked the government to release “complete and clear records of all expert meetings — where the numbers came from and why some numbers were chosen but not others.”
“We would like to urge the government to come up with a set of standard food testing procedures, not an ambiguous ‘non-detectable’ standard,” it said. “We would also like to ask the government to allow concerned civic groups to participate in meetings and the policy-making process.”
Meanwhile, Tseng Chao-ming (曾昭明), founder of Corporate Social Responsibility Taiwan, called on food companies to fulfill their responsibilities by making public detailed information about their products, including where all the raw materials come from.
However, unlike more conventional civic groups, members of Happy Mobs do not meet face-to-face to discuss issues — many of them do not even know who their peers are.
Instead, they use a forum-like online platform to plan actions or compose common statements.
Each member posts the statements on their own blogs or forwards them to friends via e-mail.
So far, 657 blogs are participating in the campaign against melamine, which is just the latest issue Happy Mobs has taken on.
“We are a group of bloggers who are concerned about public issues. We’ve actually initiated other campaigns for the preservation of Losheng Sanatorium and environmental issues, and advocated support for the Green Party Taiwan [in the legislative elections],” said Daphne Hu (胡慕情), one of the bloggers.
“The advantage of an online campaign is that it is not limited by place or time and is a good way for those who may not have other channels to express their thoughts,” Hu said.
“I don’t expect the government to respond to us right now, but we want to accumulate enough sway to show the government what the public is thinking,” she said. “And if the government doesn’t want to listen to us, we may just have to solve that with a change of government.”
Happy Mobs discussions are open to the public and accessible by joining groups.google.com.tw/group/happymobs.
SHIPS, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES: The ministry has announced changes to varied transportation industries taking effect soon, with a number of effects for passengers Beginning next month, the post office is canceling signature upon delivery and written inquiry services for international registered small packets in accordance with the new policy of the Universal Postal Union, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday. The new policy does not apply to packets that are to be delivered to China, the ministry said. Senders of international registered small packets would receive a NT$10 rebate on postage if the packets are sent from Jan. 1 to March 31, it added. The ministry said that three other policies are also scheduled to take effect next month. International cruise ship operators
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
The Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency yesterday launched a gift box to market honey “certified by a Formosan black bear” in appreciation of a beekeeper’s amicable interaction with a honey-thieving bear. Beekeeper Chih Ming-chen (池明鎮) in January inspected his bee farm in Hualien County’s Jhuosi Township (卓溪) and found that more than 20 beehives had been destroyed and many hives were eaten, with bear droppings and paw prints near the destroyed hives, the agency said. Chih returned to the farm to move the remaining beehives away that evening when he encountered a Formosan black bear only 20m away, the agency said. The bear
HORROR STORIES: One victim recounted not realizing they had been stabbed and seeing people bleeding, while another recalled breaking down in tears after fleeing A man on Friday died after he tried to fight the knife-wielding suspect who went on a stabbing spree near two of Taipei’s busiest metro stations, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said. The 57-year-old man, identified by his family name, Yu (余), encountered the suspect at Exit M7 of Taipei Main Station and immediately tried to stop him, but was fatally wounded and later died, Chiang said, calling the incident “heartbreaking.” Yu’s family would receive at least NT$5 million (US$158,584) in compensation through the Taipei Rapid Transit Corp’s (TRTC) insurance coverage, he said after convening an emergency security response meeting yesterday morning. National
RSS