Taiwan Church News

3321 Edition

October 19 - 25, 2015

Church Ministry

Who On Earth Caused The Poverty And Social Injustice In Taiwan?

Reportd by Lin Yi-yin

According to an estimation by Academia Sinica in 2008, there was a high peak of 850 thousand people who werenot able to pay back their credit-card debt to banks, though the government said that number was 520 thousand at most. In addition, when most of young men today can not afford to buy an appartment unit for living in urban area, the government claims that 85% of Taiwanese own their house and boasts that Taiwan ranked number two in terms of income and wealth in a global happiness index. Facing these social problems of credit-card debt and housing shortage among the youth, no wonder people would ask: who on earth caused the poverty and injustice in Taiwan?

In the evening on 16 October at Cafe Philo, Taiwan Health Right Initiative(TAHRI) held a lecture, entitled as " Whoon earth caused the poverty and injustice in Taiwan?", explaining to the public the real causes and workable solutions toward these social problems. Dr Wu Tsong-sen, an Associate Professor of Social Graduate Study at Fujen Catholic University, and Mr Hwang Yi-chong, a teacher of citizen education of Ta-che High School, were invited by TAHRI to deliver their findings and comments at this lecture.

Prof Wu pointed out that, within the period from 2006 to 2007, 173 cases of suicide were related to credit-card debtas the bank, court or even mafia all pressing harsh against these victims to pay back their debt. Describing to the audience a tragic homicide: a woman with late cancer buying mafia to kill her in public just to get the insurance to release her family's credit card debt, Prof Wu shared how he was shocked and ashamed as being a sociology professor but could not offer any help.

If a bankrupted company could file bankruptcy in court to be born again, why common people having credit debt could not be fairly treated by a bankruptcy mechanism, mused Prof Wu. This question also prompted him to join the social movement of credit-card debt self-help, helping people to negotiate with banks in court to find a new life free of old debt bondage.

On the problem of insufficient housing for the youth, Mr Hwang Yi-chong strongly criticized the government'smanipulation of statistics and data to cover up the truth. Only people could be united to challenge the government, using undeniable facts and numbers, could the oppressive housing policy and related legal codes be corrected, stressed Hwang.

Translated by Peter Wolfe