Get your beef facts straight
Klim King’s article (“Too many unknowns about mad cow disease,” Nov. 25, page 8) adds a needed scientific gloss to the debate about US beef. Unfortunately, it ignores relevant “knowns.”
The article almost completely skips over the crucial difference between Human Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) — which affects one in 1 million humans, develops in the very old, is genetic and has nothing to do with diet — and Variant CJD (vCJD).
There are only about 200 documented cases of the latter, which is caused by the consumption of contaminated bovine brain or spinal tissue. Nearly all of those were in Britain or France, primarily between 1980 and 1996, with an average incubation period of seven years and traced directly to British beef or cattle feed. The average victim was 28 years old.
No case of vCJD has ever been traced to US beef or US cattle rearing practices.
US and Taiwanese beef are equally monitored by the same international standards, so maybe the author should advocate banning local beef, too, or just banning beef altogether.
The author ignores these salient, undisputed facts.
JOHN HANNA
Taoyuan
Beef isn’t our worst problem
The US beef protocol prompted an outcry in Taiwan. Media are focused on the potential risks of consuming US beef, while politicians are debating the wisdom of relaxing the restrictions on US beef — and who should shoulder the responsibility if anything goes wrong.
But there is more going on right now than a beef crisis.
Bruno Walther’s article (“Beef protest: Overlooking a larger risk to health,” Nov. 22, page 8), challenges why the public and media are following the beef issue almost exclusively when there are more serious food problems in Taiwan.
Examples of these are contaminated duck and rice, which are truly cause for concern. We can choose what food to eat, but we can’t be sure those foods are safe.
But toxins in our food will not be resolved without understanding where these pollutants come from. In some cases, chemical plants located near farms dump waste containing heavy metal, resulting in the contamination.
It is therefore not only the government’s responsibility but also the public’s to understand that even as we seek to expand industries, we are harming ourselves. Striking a balance between industrial development and environmental protection is the task at hand.
STEVEN CHANG
Taipei
The obsession with tests
Our high school students do not learn English at school. Most days in English class, they just study for quizzes that they are told will prepare them for periodic, multiple-choice tests that may not even include listening comprehension. These tests are usually given three times a semester, and the results comprise a big part of one’s final grade for the semester and even have repercussions for going to college.
Then as seniors, the students take English mock-up exams designed to simulate the College Entrance Exam (CEE). Seniors take these exams seriously as they are a gauge of where they may stand compared with their peers on the real CEE.
Then comes the real thing: the CEE itself.
Anything and everything that matters has to be linked to the CEE in one way or another. In this context, speaking English loses out to the very serious business of going to college.
With few exceptions, English teachers have a hard time switching from teaching speaking skills to teaching test-related material. As a compromise, they use speaking activities in the classroom once in a while. As for whether these activities are effective, it is enough to note that classes usually consist of 30 to 45 students.
In time, many teachers come to accept that their primary task is to prepare their students for tests.
As for students who want to learn to speak English, they can do so in their spare time with whatever resources they have available, the teachers suppose.
So what can we do about it? The government should fund English-speaking programs across the country, if not at all high schools, and set the maximum size of each class at a teachable number — say, 15 students. High school students should be required to take at least one speaking proficiency course. The grades they receive can be used as extra points on the CEE.
These changes would help young Taiwanese gain the confidence to reach out to English speakers across the world.
NICK TSOU
Tucheng, Taipei County
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