`Birds of a feather' rule the roost when dealing with peers

The Taoyuan county government found recently that birds of a feather -- people from the same social background -- have better ways of dealing with their peers than its own officials, after it hired two street people to help out with street-people affairs.

In May this year, "Little Chen," a homeless former convict, was hired by the county government's social affairs department to supervise temperature-taking among street people at the height of the SARS outbreak.

Little Chen, who ran away from home at the age of 15 and has lived in a park for the past 20 years, was found to do a much better job than department officials or civilian volunteers in terms of dealing with the homeless and street people.

With SARS now just a memory, Little Chen has been hired at a monthly salary of NT$15,000 and authorized to maintain order among the street people. He must at the same time keep a daily record of their movements, to allow the county government to keep abreast of the situation on the streets.

He now dresses in a white shirt and black trousers just like any other government employee.

Little Chen says he is sometimes cursed by the street people as a bad guy, but argues that the streets need him.

"Without me, how will they be able to eat decently with everybody fighting for their boxed lunches," he said.

The county's social affairs department recently also hired another unemployed man, surnamed Kung, to help out with unemployment affairs.

In just two weeks, Kung helped four Taoyuan street people find jobs, with one earning a monthly wage of NT$35,000 as a worker at a duty-free warehouse, department officials said.