Promote Mass Transit, Not Rice Rockets
Dear Editor: It saddens me to notice that AsianWeek is promoting the racing trend in “Rice Rockets” (June 21). Promoting the racing trend is also promoting the highway lobby, automotive interests, OPEC and Grand “Oil” Party. When people get carried away by the racing trend, they add more cars to traffic, more smog in the air, and more gasoline is wasted.
It seems like the majority of people in the Asian American community oppose good mass transit or any other non-automobile form of transportation. There needs to be a way to make mass transit and alternative forms of transportation — which would reduce the traffic gridlock — a trend in the Asian American community. To help promote mass transit or any other alternative non-automobile form of transportation, BART should consider having those racing models pose next to its trains as passengers. Or perhaps those racing models should pose next to a manually powered bicycle. Maybe fixing up the manual bike should become another new trend.
Unfortunately in mainstream society, automobiles are subsidized and favoured for funding over mass transit. Yes the automobile is subsidized — through roads, freeways, traffic lights, traffic police, parking enforcement, and land required for parking lots. The land required for parking lots comes out of property taxes, at the expense of property owners. That land could be better used in mixed development, smart build, or transit-oriented development.
Even though we have gas tax, automobile registration and bridge tolls, that money only covers 60 percent of automobile subsidies. The rest of the money has to be pilfered from sales tax and property taxes, through which the poor and transit-dependents — who don’t use the roads — end up paying for the roads.
To make sure automobile subsidies aren’t collected from the non-automobile-owning people, tolls, gas taxes, and automobile registration would need to be increased.
David Yamaguchi
via e-mail
Piecing Together History
Dear Editor: I thoroughly enjoyed reading your latest issue, particularly the article on “Stitches in Time” (June 21) by Sam Chu Lin. I liked it so much I posted a copy for members of my church to read. The United Japanese Christian Church celebrates Japanese American history and culture and I thought that church members would also enjoy the article.
Gordon Yamanaka,
Clovis, Calif.
Sex and Politics in Taiwan
Dear Editor: I just read kevinjamesgardner’s review “Sex, Love and Money Every Other Year”(May 31), which gave a good overall sense of the festival. I’m bummed that I missed it. I wonder why I didn’t hear about the festival this year. I went two years ago, had a great time, and saw some really mind-bending stuff.
I have a couple of minor quibbles with the writer’s description of events in Taiwan. I don’t think it is really correct to say that Taiwan has a more conservative sexual culture than Japan. It is certainly different, and in many areas, no doubt, more conservative; but Taiwanese women (not sex workers, in particular) in my experience are in many ways more sexually liberated than their Japanese counterparts. Taiwan, for example, has a much more active gigilo scene than Japan.
Also, Chen Shuei-bien, as president, has not repealed a law allowing prostitution. Prostitution has always been illegal except for a very small number of brothels licensed either by the Japanese government under colonial occupation (the infamous “comfort women”) or to serve the U.S. air force during the Vietnam war. Chen banned the last few of these brothels in the city of Taipei when he was mayor back in 1997, and his successor ignored the ban.
As president, Chen has simply been cracking down — using existing laws, including his own ban from four years ago — to overturn informal understandings between local authorities and the business community that allow prostitution to flourish in certain areas. It is important to note that Chen has not tried to extend his earlier ban to include licensed brothels in other parts of Taiwan. Chen was the first opposition party candidate ever to get elected president, and this crackdown is really part of a larger effort to weed out the corruption of the old KMT regime.
This campaign, although in my opinion a poor use of public resources needed elsewhere, is best understood as an anti-corruption measure, rather than a representation of society-wide conservative sexual values.
Carl Thelin
San Francisco
Please, No Epithets
Dear Editor: I find your use of the disgusting “Q” word throughout your newspaper irresponsible. Outside the narrow confines of the San Francisco gay ghetto, the word is still ugly and hurtful. Do you now plan to use the “N” word in reference to blacks the way some black students currently do in their own ghetto, or the “G” word in reference to Asian Americans?
Armand Boulay
Berkeley, Calif.
Correction
Dear Editor: This is to inform you that Amir Sheibany, quoted in your article “Mixed Votes for Khatami” (June 22), is not a journalist for The Iranian online magazine (iranian.com).
Sheibany has written for iranian.com. But he, like all others who have contributed articles to this site, is an independent writer who submits material voluntarily. All views are their own and not necessarily that of The Iranian.
Jahanshah Javid
iranian.com
via e-mail
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