One fine day, Tim Joel, a local Dulan artist, took his young son down to Jamudz Wan, an intimate cat paw bay that’s naturally protected from the waves and currents and perfect for family outings.
Except it wasn’t.
This ancient portal to nature was covered in garbage. Stuff from 7-11, Taiwan Beer, Pao-li-ta, as well as broken glass and fish-hooks. As a father, this was not the beautiful Taidong environment that he loved and called home and wanted to introduce his son to…
He went home, angry, and decided to do something about it and started an FB Page: ONLY SOULTIONS
He recounted his experience in colourful language and finished with these words: “Let’s find a solution and get rid of this problem”. His message immediately resonated with many local residents - a mesh of small business people, artists, and surfers, as well as travellers - and a clean-up was organized and an impromptu meeting was held. It was determined at this first meeting that we are not just here to function as free garbage collectors – we wanted to find a permanent solution. It was subsequently agreed that that solution involved opening two main fronts – education, and applying pressure on the Taidong Council to get them to do their job and install rubbish bins and service them.
Along with going into the local schools to give presentations, the Jun 11 Clean-Up forms part of the education process, which in turn, opens people’s minds to the question of how this problem can be solved. It’s also a way to harness the up-welling of good-will and energy in the local community to take immediate action and produce positive results.
However, getting the local council to recognize the value of making beautiful, natural beaches a feature tourist attraction for the region is still an ongoing challenge that we are up for.
We are cleaning up Jamudz Wan every Sunday at 4pm, all welcome of course, but this event is for DULAN BEACH, which we are also cleaning, and which is a more well known scenic attraction, and If you are into Solutions, and not just stop-gap meausres, then come along, and let’s do something, and talk about how to solve this problem. Even if you don’t give a shit, it’s still worth it just from a scam persepective, coz an overwhelming number of local small businesses are offering generous discounts for all partipants, including free surf lessons on site. This first public event is Jun 11, due to Dragon Boat Festival, but thereafter it will be held every FIRST SATURDAY of the month
We want this to be a place where parents, like Tim, won’t have to describe to their kids what it used to be like. But rather a place that they can take the same barefoot steps, hand-in hand across the stones, the sand, to the clear water, and share this simple, ancient continuum of nature with the next generation.
