Chinese Poison Powder-Milk Processed and Sold in Taiwan's Market

Taiwanese are panic. The powdered-milk manufactured by the San-Lu Company (三鹿公司) in China had been confirmed to cause death to one child and more than 400 children become ill in China; the milk had been tested and had been found to be contaminated with melamine (三棸氰胺) which is made from amino-cyanide or H2N-CN. Chinese authority knew about the contaminated milk powder to cause health problems in China as early as June of 2008. Chinese authority notified Taiwan on September 11, 2008. During this three months, about 60% of 25-tons of Chinese powdered milk has already been processed and sold and probably consumed by Taiwanese.

How did the melamine get into the milk powdered? Melamine is a cheap materials for the nitrogen sources in wood adhesives [melamine-formaldehyde], in flame-retardants [after reacting with acid]. I would imagine some Chinese food processor thought melamine might be a cheap amino acid sources for baby milk formula. What a brutal ignorance !!

Two additional issues regarding this incidence: 1) China knew the problem as early as June, 2008. Why China waits until now to notify Taiwan when so many Taiwanese had already consumed the contaminated product? 2) Why Taiwan authority did not detect the health problem when the product entered Taiwanese Port? How diligent Taiwanese officials are in testing the safety of the imported product?

Photos the chemical formula of melamine, and newspaper story about where did the contaminated milk powded product go?

What is so special at the Sun-Moon Lake?

On September 11, our friend at Pu-Li, Mr. and Mrs. Tsai took us to the Sun-Moon Lake for a tour. Coming from Wisconsin which has lakes everywhere, lake itself is not a special curiosity to me. Yet, after Mr. Tsai's guidance, I have learnt two things about which the Sun-Moon Lake is different from those of the Wisconsin lakes . Those two things are the tea shrubs and the betel nuts. Both tea and the betel nuts are important agricultural products of Taiwan.

Photos from the Top: the Sun-Moon Lake; the betel nut trees, and the tea trees.

Chiang Kai-Sheik's ghost is still looming over Taiwan

One thing I have noticed in Taiwan since I arrived in Taiwan last month is that you can see Chiang Kai-Sheik's statue in almost every school from elementary schools to universities.

Why this is a surprise to me?

Chiang Kai-Sheik was a notorious dictator whose brutality against Taiwanese was well documented. None of the dictators other than Chiang was eventually treated well. The Russians whipped Stalin's body. The Iraqis toppled down Saddam Hussein's statue. Yet, Chiang Kai-Sheik's statues still stand in every school's campus; they even stand in the national parks like the Sun-Moon Lake.

Why is that? I have to bite my tongue to admit that Chinese colonialism is taking deep roots in Taiwan's society. After 65 years of Chinese occupation, Taiwanese is brain-washed to regard Chiang Kai-Sheik as a hero. How sad it is.

Helicopter and Formose

There are two new Taiwanese words that I did not know it before I came to Taiwan. These two words are 'helicoptering' and 'Formose'

'Helicoptering' is a word describing a parent's behavior over their children. An 'protecting parent' can be called 'helicoptering' if their supervision interfere with their children's life. I believe I have heard this expression in the US. I believe that Taiwanese has borrowed this word from the American except the Taiwanese uses Mandarin character to express the meaning of 'helicoptering'. 直升机 父母.

"Formose' is a word describing a woman's behavior over her husband, lover, or boyfriend. An 'over-controlling' woman who 'directs' every details of her boyfriend, lover or husband's daily life is called a 'Formose-type' 佛亇磨斯-type woman. The word 'Formose' (Note, it is not 'Formosa') had puzzled me a long time until I had a chance to read over a very popular detective story written by a British writer, Mr. Doyle. The title of the book is 'The Investigation of the Pink'. The name of the detective character in the book is 'Formose'. After reading few chapters of the book, it is not surprising to understand the meaning of 'Formose'.

Taiwanese Wal-Mart: 7-11

Few weeks ago, I had reported that Buddhist's temples decorates Taiwanese city landscape just like churches in Tennessee decorates Tennessee's streets. Well, if you walk more on Taiwanese streets, you will also not to miss the 7-11 stores which usually strategically locates at street corners for Taiwanese to shop: anything from TV dinners to newspapers. In fact, the 7-11 stores are all well-managed; the stores are very clean. I believe the foods sold there are also relatively clean compared to other food shops.

Photo above showing the 7-11 stores near Taichung High School of Agricultural Technology.

Egg here, Egg there

If you are buying a 15NT sandwich, or a 60NT lunch box (便當), chances are very high that there are eggs in your food. Eggs are very cheap here. Why is that?

This is my theory, which may be true or may not be true. Although Taiwan is not in the 'epidemic' of 'bird-flue', Taiwan's neighbor, China is. Now, Taiwan has opened both arms to welcome Chinese tourists; Taiwan residents are afraid of Chinese tourists would carry 'bird-flue-virus' with them to enter Taiwan, like the case of SARS few years ago. Although the government authority has reassured the population that eggs and chickens are safe to eat, most Taiwanese stay away from food products related to bird food products. Farmers who produce chickens and eggs have to sell them very cheap to get rid of their products.

That is my explanation. What is yours?

In the classroom, Taiwan Information Technology Support is at least 10 years behind US

For a teacher like me who got sufficient IT support in the US universities gets really frustrated to teach in the universities of Taiwan. Of course, Taiwan has e-mail system; yet I have no way to e-mail to any colleague in the same university without exchanging the business cards to learn about the individual's e-mail address. The university does not support 'global address book'. No classrooms in the chemical engineering department has direct Internet support, Ethernet, or wireless. I have to make a special request; the department chair finally agreed to make an Ethernet connection in the classroom I will teach in next few weeks.

Photo above shows Ms. Ku (on the right) trying to set up an Internet connection for my notebook computer and was not successful. She called a student supposed to be a 'computer genus' to help (photo on the left). It was still not successful.