Brains can clean Taiwan
Your editorial ("Taiwan must protect its environment," April 23, page 8) covers a wide spectrum of environmental sciences and economic fields. However, you neglected to discuss energy, which has a major impact on the environment and economy alike. In fact, energy, the environment and the economy are linked like the three sides of a triangle.
Nuclear energy does not generate greenhouse gas emissions but produces nuclear waste that is understandably rejected by people living on Orchid Island. It has a high cost because of safety considerations and waste disposal requirements.
Fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) all emit air pollutants (sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide) and greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide and methane). Coal is a cheap fuel but requires air
pollution-control devices to prevent acid rain caused by the sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides it produces.
Natural gas is a much cleaner fuel than coal and oil. Taiwan should import more liquefied natural gas and should improve kelp cultivation and trash-incineration as energy sources.
Taiwan is surrounded by ocean waters that can be utilized as energy farms. Incineration would also solve Taiwan's serious garbage problem.
Charles Hong
Columbus, Ohio
Put yourself in our boots
"You never really know what it's like to be someone 'til you put on their shoes and walk around in them for a while," says a character in Harper Lee's novel, To Kill A Mocking Bird. The statements made by Bo Tedards (Letters, April 20, page 8) and Jeff Geer (Letters, April 19, page 12) are preposterous and mind-boggling.
When Tedards accused the entire Taiwanese population of "belittling the achievements of the entire non-Western portion of humanity," he was referring to a "gross misstatement" by Chen Ching-Chih, which obviously does not represent the opinion of all Taiwanese.
On the other hand, the term "Western" is politically incorrect because the earth is round. In the US, the politically correct term for "Oriental" (or "Easterner") is "Asian."
Here in Hualien, the countless volunteers at the Tzu-Chi and Mennonite hospitals would be quite offended to read Geer's assertion that "community service is pitifully lacking in Chinese society."
To keep everything in perspective, 25 percent of physicians in the US are FMG's (foreign medical graduates), filling the vacancies at county or inner-city hospitals, treating the indigent, the homeless, intravenous drug abusers and AIDS patients, which US graduates would shun. As they move up the system, many are then accused of "stealing" jobs from Americans.
In the US, holders of green cards are required to register for selective service. Similarly, as many of our American friends demand permanent-resident status in Taiwan, I propose that they be required to undertake military service. After all, anyone who enjoys the benefits of being a permanent resident in Taiwan should also carry out the obligations of the Taiwanese.
Instead of sitting in their ivory towers and spitting down at us, I think Tedards and Geer would give us more constructive feedback if they were to put on the shoes (and the military uniform) of Taiwanese men and "walk around in them for a while."
Kenny Liu
Hualien
China using Taiwan's media
Your editorial ("Is Beijing trying for media control?", April 19, page 12) has done a great service to the people of Taiwan by exposing the schemes for media manipulation on the part of some China-backed foreign-
investment groups.
Taiwan is a free and open society, a true democracy in which all Taiwan-loving people can take pride.
The downside of this is that it leaves a wide-open political field in which anyone can play a part, including those who harbor evil intent toward Taiwan and try to destroy Taiwan's democracy by taking advantage of that very
democracy.
Ching H. Li
Jersey City, New Jersey
Let's see history articles
There has been much written about how different people feel about ethnic issues on Taiwan, but I have yet to see an article in the Taipei Times that talks about the historical background of Taiwanese and how they came to exist.
One writer has stated, "They are not ethnic Taiwanese but ethnic Minnan, with their roots in China" (Letters, April 24, page 8). Although there is no doubt that 400 years ago "ethnic Min-nan" started to settle in Taiwan, what seems to be forgotten is that these were fisherman, traders and soldiers. How many were women?
Obviously, to reproduce, they needed women. Of course, these male immigrants married Aborigines, but how often do we read about that?
Recent studies using DNA evidence showed that over 82 percent of the current residents of Taiwan have Aboriginal blood. Has that been widely discussed? What effect would this have on people's thinking if only they knew about it? The people of Taiwan may have more in common with one another than they think.
David Cozart
Seoul, Korea
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