2006 Taipei City Mayor Election?

With the capital city having the mayor election this comming december I was wondering what were some people’s thoughts about it?I guess the 5 main candidates are:

KMT-Hao Lung-Bing
Peoples First Party-James Soong
DPP-Frank Hsih
TSU-Cho Ii-Ko
???-Lee Ao

With a well groomed politician James Soong do you think with him running will hurt KMT’s chances of winning again? or with the 2 Pan-Blue candidates running against each other it will go for DPP’s chance of winning this election? I know the TSU candidate has pretty much no chance of winning, and Lee ao? well i’ve heard from locals hes just pulling some political stunts? anyways i just interested in what peoples thoughts were?

Our thoughts will allways be with you…

Frankly speaking, this is another “A la Taiwanese” political campaign - which can be resumed to where Hau lives (number 315 or 317?) or the fact that Hau is living on the expenses of his father (FOR GOD SAKE, HE IS HIS SON!!!).

Ya i didn’t quite understand the issue with the address? Can someone explain? I was trying to get someone to explain it to me but I had no clue what he was saying so

It seems that Mr. Hau lives with his parents and, because of that, doesn’t have to pay utilities, as they are lavishly paid by the government. Call it whatever you like, but it is still an abuse of power…

“Hau’s wife had said the day before that her family lived at 317 Fulin Road – next to her father-in-law Hau Pei-tsun’s (郝柏村) residence at 315 Fulin Road. But DPP lawmakers said yesterday that Hau’s wife had told the school at which she works that she lives at No. 315. The lawmakers added that the water bill for No. 317 averages NT$200, while that for No. 315 was often about 10 times higher, proving that Hau Lung-bin’s family had been living at No. 315.” from the taipeitimes…

Now, we have to realise here that Mr. Hau is an environmentalist who can put his family just using NT$200 of water, but at the same time, his Father must learn with him, because a couple of old folks can use 10X more water than their sons. Or maybe they are starting to become senile and forget to close the water.

I wonder a few things about this campaign. The biggest curiosity for me is why Hsieh hasn’t attacked Hau over the plastic bags rules that he implemented while working as environment minister for CSB. Maybe it wasn’t all Hau’s doing, but I can’t figure out why people aren’t mad at him over having to pay money for bags that are 20 times thicker than the old free ones. It was supposed to be a measure to reduce plastic use, but it seems to me the opposite effect was realized.

Apparently, the new bags are biodegradable (not sure about that), but nearly all trash here is incinerated. And the new bags are supposed to release fewer toxins when incinerated, but I think this is definitely a red herring, since plastic bags wouldn’t really be a significant source of toxins in incinerator smoke anyway, not compared to the batteries, electronic items and such that surely remain in the waste stream. Plastic is just another form of petroleum hydrocarbon, and modern incinerators tend to burn hydrocarbons to something like 99.999 percent completeness.

The whole bag thing seemed like Hau took an environmental measure that was expected to hurt the plastics industry and turned it into a gift to them, and others too, as all those one and two kuai charges surely add up to a lot of money that goes somewhere. Isn’t this serious perversion of environmentalism? Shouldn’t Hau be held to task over it?

Well, just look at Taiwan and tell me what qualifies him as a good Environment Minister? It makes me laugh…

The garbage bags may be biodegradable, but are they bioagreeable? Don’t think so.

What does Ma have to say, he and his “internacional level city” that Taipei is - everytime I see Ma defending the quality of the city on the TV, it makes me want to puke. For sure Taipei has quality, if you care to have 100M to spend in a house and have a “chauffeur” to drive you everywhere.

Did Ma every sit is but in a bus in Taipei?
Here is how I feel in a bus:

Cho Ii-ko went to the Hsieh rally today to make a speech and campaign I geuss? I still don’t understand why she doesnt drop out of the race like she knows shes going to loose and I think it’ll look better to drop out ovbiously im not her, but I mean I think it makes the TSU look bad, I think the only person that can make her drop out is Lee Tung-Hwe he gave her the green light to run and I think hes the only one that can make her drop out.

She’s another nutter-slash-former talk-show host. (or close to it anyway - she’s a media whore to be sure) What do you expect? I can’t figure why they let her in the TSU. She’ll probably jump to another party and rail against her former comrades once something comes up to blemish her.

Someone help me understand the plastic bags please!!!

My money’s on an illegal sauna. They always get done for their use of water.

HG

[quote=“dearpeter”]I wonder a few things about this campaign. The biggest curiosity for me is why Hsieh hasn’t attacked Hau over the plastic bags rules that he implemented while working as environment minister for CSB. Maybe it wasn’t all Hau’s doing, but I can’t figure out why people aren’t mad at him over having to pay money for bags that are 20 times thicker than the old free ones. It was supposed to be a measure to reduce plastic use, but it seems to me the opposite effect was realized.

Apparently, the new bags are biodegradable (not sure about that), but nearly all trash here is incinerated. And the new bags are supposed to release fewer toxins when incinerated, but I think this is definitely a red herring, since plastic bags wouldn’t really be a significant source of toxins in incinerator smoke anyway, not compared to the batteries, electronic items and such that surely remain in the waste stream. Plastic is just another form of petroleum hydrocarbon, and modern incinerators tend to burn hydrocarbons to something like 99.999 percent completeness.

The whole bag thing seemed like Hau took an environmental measure that was expected to hurt the plastics industry and turned it into a gift to them, and others too, as all those one and two kuai charges surely add up to a lot of money that goes somewhere. Isn’t this serious perversion of environmentalism? Shouldn’t Hau be held to task over it?[/quote]

The plastic bag ban was a good one with flaws. You saw far fewer bags on the streets and in the parks after the ban came into effect. Part of what these policies do is train people to think abotu the environment more and their impact on it. That it caused mroe plastic to be produced is bad, but that it got people used to recycling bags, and not expecting that everything has to be wrapped and then wrapped again was good.

People are far less likely to throw away one thicker bag on the street than those little flimsy ones. In fact, just look around. How often do you see a thick bag on the street? Rarely. Thin ones? Often. Even if more plastic is used the fact that the streets are cleaner helps in the push for environmental consciousness.

The Broken Windows Effect also comes into play here. If the streets are cleaner people are less likely to litter them. So, which is better? Producing a million thick bags that are reused, or 10,000,000 thinners ones that, while they use less plastic, are tossed freely about the streets, thus encouraging even more littering?

It was the right policy to make at the time but it needs to be improved. Why criticize someone for that?

Good point!

Actually, three. Even though Lee Ao is running as an independent, he’s very much a blue. James Soong is not running on the PFP ticket, but as an independent as well. But all three are part of the same ilk.

She goes by the English name, Clara Chou.

Yeah, the thicker plastic bags which you must pay for encourage reuse in several ways. First, they are stronger and last longer, so they’re inherently more reusable, and second, since you have to pay for them, they acquire a value in your mind, so you’ll be less likely to just toss them.

Saw it on the news(TVBS) but couldnt find it anywhere on the net and it seems Jimmy Soong is now playing for sympathy. Said he would drop out if his wife whos undergoing surgery does not recover soon.

Seeing that his candidacy is a non starter to begin with, and he probably knows it and merely using it as a leverage to extort something from Chairman Ma, this pledge now could prepare an exit for him if circumstances calls for.