Local movement for the future

It's almost 2 weeks I have been staying in Taiwan, many places I have been visit and had a lot of workshops that I have been follow. Meinong, Kaohsiung, Nanchuan, Neiwan, Hsinchu. The places are beautiful and very memorable. What can I conclude from this trip is that I see the strong local community spirit in maintaining what now exists and has been held, even if it is possible to make the current situation better.

Spirit of Meinong and Kaoshung youth movement

Many of the issues that deserve to be the basis why the local people so concerned with the conditions that exist now. Dam construction plan in Meinong and Bi Ling because of water crisis issue, the changing pattern of rural life because the demands of the economy, and culture change in rural communities that always go side by side with changes in the name of development.

It's not a minor issue to deal with, the expansion of development in all sectors seem to have to look for common ground, must find a point of balance in which development could walk without having to beat one of them. Luckily, Taiwanese communities have strong local community such as MPA and Atayal groups and other indigenous communities, who continue to work vigorously to open the eyes of the Taiwan government about the great impact that would arise if industrialization eroded the local potentials blindly, forgetting that what now exists is borrowing from future generations.

We owe to their future

It's amazing to see the strengths and efforts of local communities in protecting their assets, develop the understanding that the indigenous people of Taiwan are also entitled for what they protect and what they have so far. In a macro context, local communities movement in Meinong and other places, really is not solely to their interests, but for the sake of future generations in Taiwan.

I strongly believe that the damage that will occur in certain areas will have an impact not only to the local community, but Taiwan as a whole, because that is the law of nature. People in big cities in Taiwan, should be able to see this as a threat that can suppress the identity of Taiwan.

"Sometimes we just realized when it was too late"

Hsinchu, October, 1st, 2010.