[quote=“Mr He”]Me wrote a letter too. Did not get abusive, but if we keep it up… Any way to generate a bit of publicity in the US?
Some of you lawyers posting here must have some connections?[/quote]
I sent her a letter and an e-mail to the TECO office with a link to the story. Perhaps send the story to the GIO and TECO offices?
mary Jane Butters is the person who designed and developed all of the dry pack type foods that people buy at REI in the states… she made a few million of the deal when she sold the formulas to REI to be produced in house. She is now producing a magazine, has a company making dehydrated foods of her own, is promoting herself off as a hippy martha…
I hope you all get a reply, I used to think highly of her… we will see if she gives any response to your letters…
Just a thought. Did anyone mention this forum?
Devil’s advocate perhaps but who knows, the journalist could have bollocksed her quote. Or too, she may have some reason for it, say, a rehab program for aboriginal child prostitutes?
HG
Alrighty mail sent, not abusive, maybe a little sarcastic but hey whatcha gonna do?
The US Dept of State says (Feb 2000):
“Violence against women, including domestic violence and rape, remains a serious problem. Wife beating is especially widespread . . . There is no equal employment rights law, and enforcement of existing sex discrimination laws remains a problem . . .Child abuse is a significant problem . . . Although no reliable statistics are available, child prostitution is a serious problem, particularly among Aborigine children . . . Most child prostitutes range from 12 through 17 years of age . . . The Labor Standards Law prohibits forced or compulsory labor, and there were no reports of these practices, apart from coerced prostitution . . .”
BUT THE GOOD NEWS: “The law prohibits forced and bonded labor by children, and the authorities generally enforce this prohibition effectively.”
law.washington.edu/clnet/fea … taiwan.htm
Basically the same in 2001:
state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2001/eap/8294.htm
My guess is she was confusing news stories about child labor in mainland China with the entity called Taiwan, for most Uhmericans this is just one country called ORIENTAL CHINA, and she didn’t meant o slur Taiwan, although in her naivete she did. Has she responded to anyone yet?
If not, I suggest that one of us, not me, I am not in Taiwan, write to the Taipei Times letters section, about this issue, name her, describe her faux pas, and when the letter is printed in the TT it will also be spidered on the Internet for the entire world to see, and THEN she will get the message. Let the Internet force her to apologize.
Who gonna write the letter to TT?
QUOTE ALSO APPEARED in LOS ANGELES TIMES: see below:
The Rise of a ‘Rural Martha Stewart’
Los Angeles Times,
… in my home," Butters said. “We’re going to resurrect those nearly extinct domestic
skills so we are not always buying things produced by a child in Taiwan.”. …
My guesss is the AP story was printed in over 800 newspapers worldwide, i even saw it inthe Korean dailies here. So let’s get her! Quick. Gently. With Love.
She replies BTW.
Seems sorry about the whole thing.
Actually, for the record, I posted this at 11:11:11 pm on November 11, 1111, Taiwan time, although it was one hour later in Korea…)
In a major victory for forumos.com posters who asked Mary Jane Butters (her real name) why she slammed Taiwan in the above AP story, she has apologized bigtime – SEE BELOW – and added the exchange of letters we sent her to her global website. She seems contrite and really sorry, but she is still confusing CHINA with TAIWAN, and Chinese children with Taiwanese children (see the Italy episode below). So she still needs some more education. Write to her again and tell her Taiwan is not China. See what she says to that? “Oh, I didn’t know that…”
But the main point is she is a good EGG, she is sorry. Congratulations everyone for bringing it on. We done her well.
Dear Formosa,
Thanks for your letter. I am going to post the following exchange on my website.
A November 8, 2003, Associated Press story about me said: Butters sees herself as a model for new economic vitality in rural areas, and a conduit between rural women who produce goods, an shoppers looking to buy those goods. “We’re going to resurrect those nearly extinct domestic skills so we are not always buying things produced by a child in Taiwan.”
LETTERS FROM TAIWAN TO MARY JANE: all from forumosa.com people!!!
11/11/03
TO Mary Jane] and AP reporter Nicholas K. Geranios
FROM: Formosa
why did you just insult the 23 million people of
Taiwan? this being reported now in the Taiwan
media and you are in deep doo doo. don’t you have
any common sense? what were you referring to,
MADE BY CHILDREN IN TAWIAN? you just lost a huge
PR battle. be more sensitive next time
SMILE
Your friend
FORMOSA MARGARINE
did that butter lady really say this? she did,
and you linked to it? Terrible. the Taiwan govt
is going after her now!!!
CHeers
FORMOSA MARGARINE
read this story from Internet and especially this
quote: “We’re going to
resurrect those nearly extinct domestic skills so
we are not always buying things produced by a
child in Taiwan.”
What is wrong with these Americans? THINGS
PRODUCED BY A CHILD IN Taiwan? WHAT ON EARTH IS
SHE TALKING ABOUT? ANybody know?
Better yet, email her and tell her off! Hehe.
PST11/11/03
TO Mary Jane]and AP reporter Nicholas K. Geranios
why did you just insult the 23 million people of
Taiwan. this being reported now in the Taiwan
media and you are in deep doo doo. don’t you have
any common sense? what were you referring to,
MADE BY CHILDREN IN TAWIAN? you just lost a huge
PR battle. be more sensitive next time
SMILE
forward to BUTTER LADy, she is in big trouble
with Taiwan now!!!
@clarksonpotter.com
did that butter lady really say this? she did,
and you linked to it? Terrible. the Taiwan govt
is going after her now!!!
CHeers
read this story from Internet and especially this
quote: “We’re going to
resurrect those nearly extinct domestic skills so
we are not always buying things produced by a
child in Taiwan.”
What is wrong with these Americans? THINGS
PRODUCED BY A CHILD IN Taiwan? WHAT ON EARTH IS
SHE TALKING ABOUT? ANybody know?
Better yet, email her and tell her off! Hehe.
POSTED BY formosa earlier this week:
11/12/03
Dear Mary Jane,
As a young professional working and living in the world’s premier high tech producing country, it was with some surprise that I saw that you recently got quoted for saying that we should not buy things produced by a child in Taiwan.
Children here aren’t working in sweatshops. They are usually attending school - 9 years and it’s compulsory. Moreover, after school they usually get to go to private cram schools to study English and maths. The English is usually taught by young Americans by the way.
I feel no desire to heap scorn on a mindless comment, which betrayed a lack of knowledge of the outside world and which offended one of the few stable democracies in the Asia pacific. Moreover, I would not go as far as to claim that it’s denigrating toward a country, which has lifted itself from third-world living standards to near the level found in western industralized countries without the extensive use of child labor.
I just hope that you in the future will try to avoid getting your foot in your mouth.
An apology on your web site might be in order too. A few hundred Americans living here are offended and they should be able to create a bit of negative publicity for you in the US - not good for you or your book deal.
Kindest regards, H
11/14/03
Dear H,
Given I have never traveled abroad, I rely on news sources that I subscribe to or friends who travel, for information about other cultures. I
Formosa, you are da man . . or that thing from some planet you sometimes refer to. Nice job, could do with a prune but that’s my work talking.
Sweet.
Hats off for those that dropped her a line.
HG
PS: What about asking if some of this can be edited into a letter to the Typex Times?
Yes, HG, my first crusade. Quite pleased with the results. We did it. Shows the power of the Internet and how things can be done in Internet time.
Prunes? Yes, I agree, I could use a few more of those things. Are they really good for me?
Our letters are not UP on her website yet. Can someone do a google check and see?
In the meantime, sure, I think anyone can use excerpts from our letters and use them in the Taipaid Times letter to editor column. She still confuses Taiwan with China, as witness her comment about Chinese children working in an Italian factory, in the so-called article she so-called read in the s0-called National Geostatic.
Here she is, with a million dollar book contract, dubbed the new Martha Stewart, and she still has not a clue where or what Taiwan is. She is most prob living still in 1950s mindset of MADE IN TAIWAN toys and machines her parents used. Dummy! Butters, get with the programme already!
Has she actually apologized? I am not clear on this, although at 1:30 am Korea time, I am ready to hit the hay, er, kimchee. Gnite yall!
yes well done everyone…and big ups to mj for fessing up her mistake…it just shows you can make a difference…may be we should start emailing that wanker in the white house…i’m sure he’d pull out of iraq if he felt the wrath of forumosa…
Well Done MJ Butters for recanting, Foromosa, good on you…
just for laughs, my wife started working in a print shop when she was 12. course that was a few years ago 
thats funny so did i…for a hungarian jew named mr svatek. got NZD1.13 per hour if i remember rightly
I figure the younger you can get kids working, the better. When I am in India and see all those ambitious youngsters hammering rocks into road gravel at age 6 I just get a warm feeling in my heart. “Those kids will grow up with a solid work ethic,” thinks I.
US Department of State March 2001:
I gather that this was mentioned to show how out of touch the Department of State is with reality on Taiwan, but I see no reason to doubt the figures.
I have only seen one suicide in 18 years here, but the fact is that more than 2,000 take their own lives each year (3,053 in 2002).
Taiwan isn’t a lawless place in my eyes, but in 2002 there were 503,389 cases against penal law.
My point is that just because you don’t see it, doesn’t mean that it is not happening somewhere.
Should we send her the standard “Everything You Should Have Known About Taiwan Before Opening Your Yapper *(But Were Too Stupid to Ask)” package complete with a chop of a Chinese name for her, an honorary membership to forumosa.com, artwork by some of the children here, a map showing Taiwan, Thailand, and China to reiterate that they are not interchangeable states, and a letter stating that none of these things were made by Taiwanese children (well, except the pictures)?
Someone: Where do you live?
Me: Taiwan.
Someone: Oh, I hear the traffic is really bad in Bangkok.
child labor problem in taiwan?
well…yes.
wasn’t the president of this fine land on the cover of the taipei times dressed like the gimp of pulp fiction fame vowing to end child prostitution here? never saw it myself, but if the prez is on the front page, then…
so…taiwan doesn’t have child labor problems, merely child prostitution problems? oh, OK.
septic yank wrote [quote]wasn’t the president of this fine land on the cover of the Taipei times dressed like the gimp of pulp fiction fame vowing to end child prostitution here?[/quote]With reporting skills like this, perhaps you should be working for the Taipei Taimes too 
disclaimer : please use emotions if using sarcasm
yeah i saw that photo…it was bizarro and made no sense to me…mind you it’s makes a change from him and his lackeys wearing those really cheap looking white zip-up jackets