Taichung BBQ Ban?

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
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[quote]TAICHUNG, Taiwan – Taichung City Mayor Jason Hu announced that barbecuing during Moon Festival is unnecessary, causes pollution and harms peoples’ health.

He said prohibitions on barbecuing in parks or any public places will be enforced during the festival. Violators will receive fines of at least NT 1,200.

Hu cited the significant cost of charcoal, the pollution caused by barbecuing, and the possible harm to peoples’ health as major reasons for the prohibition.

He further noted the tradition of barbecuing on Moon Festival is not part of Chinese history, so the government deems it unnecessary to allow barbecuing in open spaces.

He believes its the city government’s responsibility improve the rules each year for the good of the public.

Last year barbecuing was prohibited on pedestrian walks. This year the prohibition takes the next level to include parks and government departments.

Hu warned that violators will receive fines ranging between NT$1,200 and NT$ 6,000.[/quote]

Is this true? Is Jason Hu the Grinch That Stole the Moon Festival? Do they really have Grilled Meat Gestapo driving around? Does the population live on raw carrots and water to atone for their environmental sins the other 364 days?

What’s next? A ban on Johnny Walker during Chinese New Year’s on the grounds our Venerated Ancestors didn’t drink Scotch?

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This ban hasn’t had much affect on the streets around the house. I see barbecues held in front of every other house. I can smell barbecues from my apartment on the 11th floor.

3

Yup… streetside barbecues abound in my neighborhood of Taichung.

4

This is seriously cause for a revolution!

5

They better start banning burning ghost money …oh, wait, no can do … never mind the living, asthma patient etc … earth would be flooded with ghosts waiting for their pocket money … :ponder: it would be a living hell …

6

my thoughts exactly.

no BBQ!

but it is ok to fill a 50 gallon wire container with bits of printed paper and burn it streetside while all the ash blows through traffic. no pollution there, all the CO2 goes straight into the great grandparents coffers.

7

Jesus christ, they are trying to eliminate a source of pollution. Should we support this or bitch that they aren’t removing all?

As for ghost paper burning it has been curtailed to a great degree in recent years with many temples offering central burnings. My village chief posted notices before ghost month asking people not to burn. If they wanted to he would collect it and take to a central location. Worked. Very little burning.

Moves like this are to be applauded in my opinion. They encourage environmental thinking. In any case improvements in a free society, especially those that go against tradition, are always incremental. Hu said that bbqs are not traditional so the city does not have to tolerate them. Ghost paper burning is traditional. Hard to ban but step by step it can be reduced. And that is happening.

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Yeah, as if notices do any good … they put them up here a while ago because we complained about all the smoke entering our eatery … well, yesterday they did it again, burning paper money under the covered walkway here … it’s so hard to get it into people’s heads, they are so selfish …
Do I go and burn on people’s balcony? No. So why do they think it’s Ok when they do it downstairs? :fume:

9

Notices did well in my neighborhood, so maybe the lesson here is that if you aren’t living in MY Taiwan, you should move. :laughing:

I get the complaints about ghost paper but not about Hu banning bbqs. This is and was a positive move. I recal an article about the first volunteer street cleaners in Taipei. They could hardly find anyone to help as everyone thought the situation was hopeless. But they persisted and as people say that change could come they got involved. This was only 12 years ago. Now Taipei is as clean as Vancouver.

Hope, as Lu Xun said, is like a path through a field. At first it is indistinct but after enough people have crossed the way is obvious.

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[quote=“Mucha Man”] This is and was a positive move. I recal an article about the first volunteer street cleaners in Taipei. They could hardly find anyone to help as everyone thought the situation was hopeless. But they persisted and as people say that change could come they got involved. This was only 12 years ago. Now Taipei is as clean as Vancouver.

[/quote]

is there some new and wacky sarcasm that I am not privy to?

11

It’s not like they’re barbecuing every day. If they were, then yes, I’d consider it a problem. But this is only once a year. In the US, it’s traditional to barbecue on July 4.

The ghost money burning is a much more serious environmental problem.

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[quote=“Chris”]It’s not like they’re barbecuing every day. If they were, then yes, I’d consider it a problem. But this is only once a year. In the US, it’s traditional to barbecue on July 4.

The ghost money burning is a much more serious environmental problem.[/quote]
Agreed. To deprive people of an annual barbeque is a bit much.

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[quote=“jimipresley”][quote=“Chris”]It’s not like they’re barbecuing every day. If they were, then yes, I’d consider it a problem. But this is only once a year. In the US, it’s traditional to barbecue on July 4.

The ghost money burning is a much more serious environmental problem.[/quote]
Agreed. To deprive people of an annual barbeque is a bit much.[/quote]

Actually I agree with both of you too. My point was more written in astonishment at people who complain when the gov here bans sources of pollution and complains when they don’t ban sources of pollution.

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Hu was looking for a job when he ran for mayor and will soon be looking again. Maybe he can sell char door-to-door.
EDIT: Wonder if the ban will be enforced if the phoon hits and knocks the power out. Since there is a ban everybody can use the BBQ inside with all the windows and doors shut tight.

15

Imagine banning the braai in South Africa…

16

Hu had balls to make such a restriction.

While I don’t like having to walk in the street due to local sidewalks occupied with people, tables, etc. I can’t help but feel a little sorry for folks who do not own any space large enough for 6 people to bbq outside. Hmmm…that includes me. Well, at least until I move to my land in Hwalien.

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[quote=“MikeN”][quote]Taichung, Taiwan – Taichung City Mayor Jason Hu announced that barbecuing during Moon Festival is unnecessary, causes pollution and harms peoples’ health.

He said prohibitions on barbecuing in parks or any public places will be enforced during the festival. Violators will receive fines of at least NT 1,200.

Hu cited the significant cost of charcoal, the pollution caused by barbecuing, and the possible harm to peoples’ health as major reasons for the prohibition.

He further noted the tradition of barbecuing on Moon Festival is not part of Chinese history, so the government deems it unnecessary to allow barbecuing in open spaces.

He believes its the city government’s responsibility improve the rules each year for the good of the public.

Last year barbecuing was prohibited on pedestrian walks. This year the prohibition takes the next level to include parks and government departments.

Hu warned that violators will receive fines ranging between NT$1,200 and NT$ 6,000.[/quote]

Is this true? Is Jason Hu the Grinch That Stole the Moon Festival? Do they really have Grilled Meat Gestapo driving around? Does the population live on raw carrots and water to atone for their environmental sins the other 364 days?

What’s next? A ban on Johnny Walker during Chinese New Year’s on the grounds our Venerated Ancestors didn’t drink Scotch?[/quote]

Nail, head!

That was the first thing that hit me in that paragraph. Just because it wasn’t traditional before, doesn’t mean it isn’t now. I have known BBQs to be the tradition here for over ten years. It was all started from an apparently brilliant BBQ sauce commercial years ago, before I got here.

BBQ-ing should be less polluting overall and kinder to the environment than using gas or electric, so I don’t know what they are talking about there, as long as the trees which supply the charcoal are replanted. Perhaps they are referring to low level pollution, but I’d rather they stopped burning money to be honest. Chinese didn’t burn money several thousand years ago, so it isn’t really a tradition anyway. :unamused: Anyway, most people don’t know what they are talking about when it comes to pollution and so many seem misguided or brainwashed with no common sense of their own when it comes to these things.
MacDonalds is a world tradition however and I think Taiwanese high school students should start a national Big Mac Day.

18

Actually the problem is the charcoal here is really low grade and so causes an excess of CO2, SO2, and PM10 and PM2.5. A few years ago in Taipei the pm10 and pm2.5 rating was higher than during sandstorms. Tons of asthma attacks according to local hospitals. Of course that also goes for the big ghost burning days during ghost month.

19

It’s a bit like the TV commercial I just saw here, showing a Penguin plugin off an unused recharger for a cell phone, saying 40000 tones of CO2 could be saved that way or something…

Never mind the amount which could be saved if you don’t let your car run while going in 7-11, by actually not turning the A/C to 15 degrees when it is just 23 degrees outside anyway, by actually insulating buildings, don’t use your vehicles to drive everywhere as 200m are way to far to walk, double and triple park roads and block them as you leave your vehicle where it drops off your ass because 15m are already to far, etc.

But than as MM said, you have to start somewhere… :slight_smile:

Oh, and I am perfectly fine with a BBQ ban on one day in the year, as I am not really with all the lemings, I rather do my BBQ through out the year and have my peace while shopping for it and enjoying it somewhere up in Pinglin near a stream or something… :smiley:

20

[quote=“mingshah”]It’s a bit like the TV commercial I just saw here, showing a Penguin plugin off an unused recharger for a cell phone, saying 40000 tones of CO2 could be saved that way or something…

Never mind the amount which could be saved if you don’t let your car run while going in 7-11, by actually not turning the A/C to 15 degrees when it is just 23 degrees outside anyway, by actually insulating buildings, don’t use your vehicles to drive everywhere as 200m are way to far to walk, double and triple park roads and block them as you leave your vehicle where it drops off your ass because 15m are already to far, etc.

But than as MM said, you have to start somewhere… :slight_smile:

Oh, and I am perfectly fine with a BBQ ban on one day in the year, as I am not really with all the lemings, I rather do my BBQ through out the year and have my peace while shopping for it and enjoying it somewhere up in Pinglin near a stream or something… :smiley:[/quote]

I think that all human kind should be banned from doing everything, every day of the year. Years should be banned too as a measure of time as measuring time is destructive in numerous ways. By banning everything we do there is no chance of ever changing anything in the world and animals would then be able to peacefully go extinct by themselves .
Cause and effect would no longer be an issue without humans of course. :unamused: I think people are the most stupid animals on the planet personally. Most other animals understand their own nature and just get on with it. I do include myself in that summary by the way. I have also learned that large groups of sensitive people can accept criticism only if one counts themselves into the critique. I am smart these days you see! :wink: