I really like Taiwan, and I really like my in-laws, but… there are days when the insanity it too much.
Taiwan exists in such a weird state, as a de facto country, that I think they are desperately trying to assert themselves as a progressive country just to show they can be like the “gown-up†“real†countries. (Never mind that the world’s “real†countries include such lovely places as North Korea, Haiti, Sudan, etc. ad infinitum.)
Case and point, over the last few years, they’ve been progressively banning or trying to ban just about everything that makes life easy and good: plastic bags, wooden chopsticks, nuclear power plants, etc. They’ll jump on any environmentally conscious bandwagon waived in front of them, presumably just to demonstrate they’re in the forefront and not at all like those dirty, grubby, environmentally destructive swine who live over in China.
Still, somehow, they’ve missed the point – all you have to do is look at the grossly polluted air from the factories and cars to know that the emperor has no clothes, or, to mix a metaphor, they can’t see the forest for the trees.
We got a 20 minute lecture this morning on how to sort the garbage. There are four flippin’ different garbage cans in this house.
One for garbage, proper. You know, the icky stuff, like paper you’ve blown your nose with, or greasy paper, non-recyclable plastics or (I kid you not) the paper you’ve wiped your ass with.
The second for all manner of recyclable materials, plastic bottles (washed, if you please), aluminum cans and plastic bags. (Wouldn’t it be better to keep those, since you have pay extra for them at the store?).
A third is for clean paper products. Newspaper, scrap print outs and paper milk cartons (cleaned, dried and pressed, no less.)
Finally, there’s the pig slop bucket. Yes, that’s right, food waste is sent to the farms so the pigs can eat it. Isn’t letting pigs eat food waste how those nasty diseases like BSE pass from one species to another? Presumably because of this very problem, the slop bucket is actually divided into two types. Vegetables, raw meat, potato skins and cooked meat scraps. The cooked stuff goes to the pigs, the other goes for fertilizer.
Considering how unlikely it is for anyone in Taiwan to pay attention to the rules of anything, is there any reason to believe that people really diligently sort their garbage? They don’t pay attention to any other signs, rules or laws, why should this be any different?
Not only am I not inclined to believe they’ll properly sort their meats, I’m not even convinced they’d properly sort the other garbage. From my point of view it’s just as likely the pork I’m eating was fed on the papers that wipe the collective asses of Taiwan. Not only would they be disinclined to pay attention to the rules, there’s a negative incentive for them to do so – for garbage proper, they pay by the bag to dispose of it, but the recyclables are free. Sure, the garbage man spot checks the garbage when it’s handed over, but a good and clever monkey could find a way around getting caught.
Knowing that, I’m not really inclined to eat pork here again.
Apart from Taiwan’s country-envy status, I think this sort of knee-jerk psuedo-environmentalism appeals to the Taiwanese psyche. This is, after all, a country that believes in feng shui, fortune tellers and ghosts.
Taiwan has lots of mosquitoes. It also has malaria and dengue fever, both serious mosquito-borne illnesses that mankind has spent staggering amounts of time and money in order to eradicate, and yet, while watching TV tonight they were advertising new “all-natural†OFF insect repellant. “90% of mothers prefer all-natural OFF.†Yes, frightening isn’t it? 90% of mothers would choose to protect their children from potentially fatal illnesses with insect repellants clinically proven not to work one damn bit.
They might as well strap magnets and copper bands on their wrists for all the good it will do.
It’s true! We have to surreptitiously coat our children in real insect repellant otherwise my mother-in-law freaks out. Never mind that while we were letting her use the all-natural stuff they were being eaten alive. We just let her spritz on the worthless stuff for her peace of mind and go on.
[I’m not done with this thread, but I’ll save some for later.]
