[quote=“headhonchoII”]Don’t know how people can be so blind to stuff staring them in the face everyday, guess it will always be a mystery to me. I mean you just drive on the highway or take a train and you see the pylons or over development everywhere, the dirty rivers with little water and concrete construction.
But I have to believe it is new news to a lot of people.[/quote]
The problem is the education and “fear” system. People are not told to make the connection between pylons and all the stuff they see every day and the impact it has on their lives. Their memorization based education does not include facts such as pollution = death, so they either cannot make the connection themselves or if they do, they are discouraged to share this finding with others, less the status quo be upset. Nail that stands out and all that jazz.
So part of the allure of the movie is discovery and part “OMG, someone dare to say it out loud”… in a simple, visual way that can be shared and understood by all and is unequivocally undeniable.
I’ve noticed and hated the pylon thing before the movie.
I simply don’t understand why there are grids of pylons in certain hilly areas… wouldn’t 1 or 2 sets of pylons be enough? Sometimes they would have two sets of working pylons running side by side to and from the same direction, what’s the point? Unless Taipower can wrap in zealots using those pylons otherwise there’s simply no logic behind building so many pylons. Oh, wait, I’ve been told the logic is money…
There was a little boy sitting next to me this time around, he was pretty excited pointing out various things he found pretty or interesting to his dad, but when the movie progressed into the heavy topics, he fell dead silent, and he started fidgeting when it got to the trash part…
hopefully people walked out the movie feeling there’s something we can do to change all this, instead of the usual “it’s sad, there’s nothing we can do about it, it’s just the way things are” attitude.
You can add to the Taipower list of achievement the notorious act of setting up of a nuclear waste storage site on Orchid Island with no consultation with, or consent from, local Tao people. Apparently the Taipower officials said it was to be a military harbour, and then a cannery! Yes this was in another era (1982) but this action speaks volumes about its moral credibility, especially as it continues to target other aboriginal communities in Taidong as potential future storage sites.
Usually, this forum looks down on requests to do illegal things.
The film came out in Nov. and as far as I know is still in theaters, so a DVD would still be a way’s off.
I believe there is some sort of B-roll footage DVD available, sort of a making-of thing which includes some shots that didn’t make the film, but I don’t know any more than that.
I watched it on the plane ride back to Canada. It was a tremendously moving film, the best and worst of Taiwan from a distance. Everyone should see it.
If anyone is still interested in buying the DVD or Blu-ray, Eslite Bookstore is drawing pre sales lists you can sign up for until the end of the month. The film itself will be on sale October 1st. About 1000nts for the DVD.
If you are familiar with XBMC / Kobi, via a video add-on. I found a stream of this film and watched it in 1080p.
Amazing film - was so surprised thought I was going to see some sights I never seen before from a unique perspective. But then this film turns quickly how much negative environmental issues exist here in Taiwan besides air pollution… the over produced fish farms, and the export cement factories, and the destruction of so many shorelines, etc… just terrible.
This movie is a must see for all citizens of Taiwan, it should be played at all schools.
All this stuff is obvious to anybody who travels around the island. Well it was to me , but I get the feeling many here don’t really travel around it or don’t want to really look.
Or they grew up with it and became desensitized.
Even now there is an appalling mix of farmland and factories ringing all the cities, but nothing is done about it.
I find it quite amazing how little some of the people in Taiwan have seen of their own very tiny island. I meet people all the time who have seen almost nothing of the island. People that have never been to Taroko or Hehuan Mountain or have never seen Jade Mountain. Heck, I’ve even met people in Taipei who have never been to Taichung or Kaohsiung. When my son was studying at a public school in Taipei, he had classmates in 5th grade that had never even left the city of Taipei/Xinbei…That’s crazy to me.
I had a 17- or 18-year-old student in Chiayi who had never left Chiayi. She’d never even been Tainan! I guess when your parents are working away every day there’s not really any time to get out and look around your homeland.
I’ve been fortunate I guess in that I’ve got to see huge areas of Taiwan having lived in the North and Central region However, one only has to go the local river, farmland or coast to see the
destruction. Im guessing desensitization and the idea that the environment should be sacrificed for’progress’ were the main factors as to why things got so bad.
My wife often tells me how beautiful the local countryside was in Miaoli where she grew up, the river was concreted practically overnight, where she spent her days collecting shrimp and playing with fish and crabs is now a concrete flood and irrigation ditch. almost all the adults locally thought this was a great idea and I have never heard anyone express negative thoughts to the concrete monstrosity that runs through the village (it should be picture postcard…but it’s NOT). They were also happy to sell off large traces of farmland for a mega road building scheme, and in laws were disappointed when a mountain they own was blocked from sand mining by the EPA. The lack of social welfare for farmers and poor people doesn’t help matters.
My wife barely travelled around Taiwna when she was a kid, especially after starting junior high, but she wrote an essay decrying the river flood control scheme, so I think people just choose to ignore what they want to ignore.
Good observations, hh. I’d add that there is a closed-minded “frog-in-a-well” mentality to it, too.
“Sure, pave over our stream. There are lots of other streams in Taiwan for us to go see!” What they don’t realize is that everyone who lives near a stream is saying the exact same thing…
