The essence of Taipei’s “garden city” project is cultural education, which should start from a young age, Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said yesterday, adding that the city government should play the role of cultural initiator or “preacher.”
Ko attended the fifth annual Social Enterprise Insights Forum in Taipei yesterday morning to share some thoughts with young social entrepreneurs.
At the forum, Ko spoke about his experience overseeing the implementation of the “garden city” project, a policy that featured in his electoral campaign platform in 2014 of making the city a green living environment where residents grow food for their own consumption by promoting rooftop gardens and leisure agriculture.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
“My basic strategy for policy implementation is ‘from the inside to the outside, from the public sector to the private sector,’” Ko said. “The ‘garden city’ project begins with elementary-school students, because I discovered that education is very important if you want to change the characteristics of a nation.”
Taking exams is a prominent aspect of young Taiwanese people’s educational experience, so sports, culture or gardening programs become harder to implement past the second grade of junior high, he said.
Ko said the traditional proverb says that “even if you have never eaten pork, you must have seen a pig walk,” but the situation for many modern people is the opposite, so allowing children to understand where food comes from by letting them grow and harvest plants, and compost food scraps at school, was a good way to implement the project.
“The ‘garden city’ project is a form of cultural education and the government should be a preacher of culture, rather than a political leader,” he said.
The project started at public schools, but would be passed on from the public sector to the private sector, which, for example, could take the lead in applying “green” architecture to public housing, Ko said.
“Making demands on oneself is better than making demands on others, and the government should be a cultural initiator,” Ko said.
Asked about Taipei Deputy Mayor Chen Chin-jun (陳景峻), who mentioned many weaknesses during a news conference about cityscape improvement held on a moving double-decker sightseeing bus on Friday, Ko said he was not worried about showing weakness and did not feel the need to rehearse such events.
The important thing is to act on any weak points as soon as possible, he added.
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