In search of public justice
Reportedly, there is not much the law in Taiwan can do to punish food and drug producers that have apparently been adding plasticizers to their products for many years. Even more shocking, the government has hinted that the major violators could qualify for a tax readjustment or refund. It appears as though no government agency or law firm in Taiwan has chosen to speak up for victims of this corporate malfeasance.
This is disheartening and troublesome in a democracy. In Japan, the chief executives of the implicated companies would have lined up in public, repeated their apologies or even committed harakiri. In the US, the attorney general would have shut down production lines, removed all tainted products from store shelves and imposed huge fines on those found to have violated regulations, while lawyers would have been busy suing the violators’ pants off.
In Taiwan, not much appears to have been done to protect the general public from tainted food, never mind any suggestion of compensation.
When faced with its own food scare involving melamine-tainted dairy products a couple of years ago, China responded with far more urgency and even executed a hapless scapegoat.
It is clear that plasticizers are every bit as big a health hazard as cigarettes. In the US, cigarette companies were hit with huge fines, which were then used to fund studies into the damage caused by smoking, educate people about the dangers of smoking and care for those victims able to establish a connection between the deterioration of their health and smoking cigarettes. The same principle was also applied to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Taiwan should follow suit by establishing a fund to study the effects of plasticizers and utilize its resource to look after any victims. Scientific studies could be undertaken to determine the correlation, if any, between plasticizers in food and drugs, the concentration of plasticizers in average Taiwanese and the frequency of certain types of illness.
It is only right that the producers and other perpetrators should pay a steep price for breaking the law and for violating the public trust.
At the same time, the government and its officials must also pay for their dereliction of duty in protecting the public from predatory corporations, because only then can justice be served and food safety, a basic right, finally be guaranteed. Without such measures, as with the 228 Massacre and the case of airman Chiang Kuo-ching (江國慶), there can be no justice.
YANG JI-CHARNG
Columbus, Ohio
What kind of person are you?
I once read an article in a Japanese magazine about a bowl of expensive shark fin soup, made from shark fins, chicken broth, ham, dry scallops and red dates.
As three people sat down to drink their soup, a fly fell into each of their bowls. The first person threw away the soup and cooked himself a new bowl. The second person picked the fly out of the soup and drank it anyway. The third person picked up the fly, squeezed out the soup, discarded the fly and finished the bowl of soup.
After reading the article, I asked myself which of these three people I was most like. I hope that I would behave like the first person. By the same token, I feel compelled to ask my fellow Taiwanese what kind of person they want to be.
Although we are reluctant to throw away our shark fin soup, surely that would be preferable to possibly getting sick later.
Taiwan was once a beautiful island, but it now faces many problems, like flies or even cockroaches in a bowl of shark fin soup.
We have a sense of crisis, but are still willing to unite and work hard to overcome the challenges ahead. Personally, I find the government’s sloganeering very impractical. Despite the cost of the soup, it is better to pour it away and start again than to suffer the risk of contamination.
I hope every Taiwanese has the wisdom and courage to make the right choice. We must use strategy instead of courage without wisdom, and throw away the contaminated broth at the appropriate time. We Taiwanese need to step away from this harmful, evil regime and work to re--establish peace and justice in our country.
YANG LIU HSIU-HWA
Taipei
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