Host on 6/5

Dear all,

According to our Host schedule, I will be the host for 6/5 discussion session. However, I have already made outing plans for 3-day dragon boat festival holiday. So I will be unable to attend 6/5 discussion session. Is there anyone who will attend 6/5 session and would like to change the order of being the host with me?

Tina

Shilin nightmarket renovation

Taipei city government decided to move Shilin ngihtmarket,its

location right now is at a site across the street from the

MRT’s Jiantan Station, to a renovated building with three

underground floors and a ground floor. According to the

office’s plan, about 100 of the 538 food stalls will be

moved to the basement and that has upset some vendors.

Furthermore, many netizens also voiced their opposition

to the plan on Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin’s Facebook page.

This is the original article for you to get more infomation.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2011/05/20/2003503707


Hence, it comes several questions which are valuable to discuss!


1.What is a famous nightmarket supposed to be and have in Taiwan

since it is an important place for foreigners to visit?


2.Do you think this plan will make Shilin nughtmarket become another

Jiancheng Circle? why?

3.Many people said Hau Lung-bin doesn't have the pressure to renew

his term of Mayor. Consequently, he ignored the voices and

arranged the relocation according to the original schedule.

Is it ture? what do you think?


4.Many politicans use facebook as a way to communicate with people.

Do you think this is a good way? Why? will it win more votes for

politicans?

Casino in Taiwan

Taiwan to allow up to 2 casinos resorts

http://www.ccw.org.tw/?p=1252

Singapore casino entry levy

http://www.marinabaysands.com/Singapore-Casino/Casino-Entry-Levy/

1. Do you like to gamble? What kinds of games do you usually play? Where do you play?

2. Have you ever been to a casino or to attend a gambling activity at a friend's place? If no, do you want to go?

3. What kind of gambler do you think you are? Do you prefer take high-risk game? What about in investment?

4. If you were a Singaporean, are you willing to pay NT$2000 to gamble for only 24 hours? Do you think this regulation solved Singaporean's doubt in casino in their country?

5. What do you think to have a casino in Taiwan?

5/8 Gap year and working holiday

Gap year travel: A golden opportunity after A-levels
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/activityandadventure/7953767/Gap-year-travel-A-golden-opportunity-after-A-levels.html

Working holiday: Why the worst jobs are really the best

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-advisor/working-holiday-why-the-worst-jobs-are-really-the-best/story-fn6ry5me-1226010472085#ixzz1JmzlGvHz

http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-advisor/working-holiday-why-the-worst-jobs-are-really-the-best/story-fn6ry5me-1226010472085


Working holiday has now become a trend among the youth in Taiwan. After graduating from University or working for 1-2 years, they start to consider taking a long vocation and getting away from what they used to be. However, the job they are doing is usually something with a lot of labors, such as farming, grazing, collecting strawberries-- what they will never want to do in Taiwan.

Questions

1. What do you think about "gap year" and "working holiday"? Is it just for fun or can it actually mean a lot for some one's life?

2. If your friend, under 30, runs into some difficulties in his life or career, considering taking working holiday, what is your suggestion?

3. Do you think students passing the entrance exam of University are adequate to have a gap year to seek "the meaning of life"?


4. If you are newly graduate from University or high school, would you want to have a gap year or experience working holiday? Why and why not? What age will be the best time for you to do so?

Environment & Economy

Read links below to know more about Kuokuang projects and a blogger's views on trading off between environment and economy.

1:http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2009/03/30/090330taco_talk_owen
2:http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2011/04/21/2003501308
3:http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2011/04/26/2003501685

A few weeks ago, the project of KuoKuang petrochemical plant has been officially cancelled by the President Ma. In Taiwan, the dispute over the balance between environmental protection and economy development seems neverending. From the proponents' viewpoints, Kuokuang petrochemical plant will bring us tremendous income and offer a huge amount of job opportunities for our citizens. It also contributes the majority of GDP, fosters local prosperity
and attracts relevant industry to set up their headquarters or branches in Taiwan. Nevertheless, there is no free lunch. Heavy industries such as petrochemical industry, steel industry, auto industry and so forth are extremely high energy consumption. In consequence, the carbon dioxide emission of the manufacturers no doubt worsens the greenhouse effect which is believed to cause the globlal climate anomaly. The price paid for growing those heavy industries is higher than that. It also consumes gargantuan water resource, occupies residence of local species and affects the health of villagers.

Q:
1. As a citizen of Taiwan, what is your opinion about the project of KuoKuang petrochemical plant in Changhua? Do you agree or disagree with that big development project? Explain your standpoints.

2. The first class of economy taught us human wants are unlimited while resources are limited. How to make a good tradeoff between multiple choices and payments does really matter. Do you have good solutions to balance between economy and environment protection?

3. Do you think the environmental justice is realized in Taiwan now? Share you viewpoints.

4. In this event and many others, we can see that our nation's policy is changing rapidly. Do you think that is a good phenomenon? Is party alternation really beneficial to Taiwan? How can we resolve the political confrontation to align our strength to make our country competitive and become a better place to live?

New Schedule

Dears,

I got all the votes, and I have to change my vote to Option B due to personal issue.

To sum up, we will have our meeting at 9:30 p.m. on Sunday.

See you guys then!!

4/7 topic:bullying

Bullying has highly increased in nowadays society wherever you are at. We may meet it in workplace or school. Furthermore, most people may have some experiences about it like mates were being bullied or ourselves were being bullied. It often makes people feel suffering a lot but they choose not to speak it out and finally it becomes the buried secrets. Thus, this week let's talk about these untold stories. By the way, here are two articles for dudes to refer and have a better understanding about bullying:

http://www.livescience.com/11163-bullies-bullying.html

http://ezinearticles.com/?Types-of-Bullying&id=2532016

1.how do you think of bullying? is right or wrong? or this is jsut a normal phenomenon so that we can't even judge it?

2.have you had the experiences of being bullied or bullying the others?

3.there are ways of bullying,which kind have your friends/you met? has it had influences on your friends/you? how and what?

4.how would you deal with bullying as if you were bullied? Give us some examples. Would you like to fight back? would fight back make everything worse? why? why not?

5.do you think bullying can be wholy vanished if people adopt some ways to prevent it? if so, how?

6.do you think the world is better without bullying?

7.if your kids meet bullying, what are you going to do?