Taking aim at corruption
I would like to bring to your attention a case of misuse of power and corruption in Taichung.
In Taichung’s Wuchi District, there is a public archery field. This field is government property (Department of Education), but they do not want to take care of it, because they already have many other things to take care of.
They decided to let Zhonggang High School be the caretaker, and the school now has a very good program for its students.
Archery is for all, and not just Zhonggang High School students.
The high school has taken away the opportunity for everyone in Taichung to practice archery. So they have essentially stolen people’s tax money. Corruption should be stopped and those responsible should face jail time.
The reason I mention this misuse of power is because the high school does not want anyone other than their students to use the field. This is quite wrong, because the field is for everyone.
Almost nobody in Taichung knows that there is an archery field, because the school does not advertise it. At some point, someone asked the government why there was no place to practice archery.
So the government decided that the place should become better known and that people should pay if they want to use the field.
The government let the high school decide the fee.
The high school said that they researched the price of other archery fields in Taiwan and concluded that they should ask NT$200 per person, per hour.
This is very expensive, much more expensive than other places. The average prices at private archery fields are between NT$80 and NT$100 per hour, and in Kaohsiung it costs NT$500 per year for membership.
The most likely reason the high school made it so expensive is that people cannot afford it and would not go there, so the high school can keep the archery field for itself.
This is a clear misuse of power and should be stopped.
The reason I mentioned corruption is that the government does not want to listen to regular people.
The only thing people can do is convince their local leader to talk to the government, but this often leads to corruption.
The government needs to listen to reason and take back the archery field or find a different caretaker.
I will continue this “fight” until everyone in Taichung is welcome at the archery field and pays reasonable fees.
Micha van den Berg,
Taichung
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