[Formosa] On June 5, Golden Year 5 (2008), Formosa’s (Taiwan) President Ma Ying-jeou led the staff of the Presidential Office in signing the Carbon Dioxide Reduction Declaration, proclaiming that the Ten No-Regret Measures to Reduce Carbon will be implemented. On the same day, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) passed the Nationwide Action Plan of No-Regret Measures to Reduce Carbon, appealing to the people to pay greater attention to the issues of global warming and the greenhouse effect. On September 15, the EPA further promoted the action plan by officially notifying other government departments to implement it. Leading local government officials in Formosa signed the declaration and officially urged their subordinate departments, schools, civic organizations and local communities to take comprehensive steps to implement the action plan. Many businesses and organizations launched the “One Vegetarian Day Per Week — One Vegetarian Meal Per Day” campaign to realize the new lifestyle of reducing carbon, saving energy and saving the Earth. The government and the people of Formosa have shown a firm determination to fulfill their obligation in being kind stewards of our beautiful Earth.

The First Lady Teaches Students to Be Veg to Stop Global Warming

Reply letter from the Formosa’s (Taiwan) First Lady Chow Mei-ching

On October 24, the Formosa’s (Taiwan) First Lady Madam Chow Mei-ching, was invited by the Mandarin Daily News to read an article on eating more vegetarian food and less meat to fight global warmingwith elementary school children. She and the children discussed ideas about going veg to stop climate change, as well as ingenious ways to save energy and reduce carbon. Deeply impressed by the First Lady’s noble action and wise vision, Supreme Master Ching Hai sent her a letter of appreciation, together with books and DVDs, including The Noble Wilds. In response, the Special Affairs Department of the Presidential Office conveyed the First Lady’s deepest gratitude to Master and emphasized that “loving and protecting nature and saving the Earth from global warming is an important task for humankind and an obligation of every Formosa’s (Taiwanese) citizen. It is our sincere hope that all of us can strive together to create a beautiful homeland.”

Supreme Master Television On Demand

Supreme Master Television can be accessed via satellite and the Internet, as well as on Fu Bang, Lian He and other cable networks. This positive programming channel can be viewed throughout Formosa in: Zhongzheng and Wanhua Districts in Taipei City, Xizhi in Taipei County, parts of Kaoshiung County, as well as the eastern counties of Yilan and Hualien, and the offshore islands of Penghu and Kinmen. Furthermore, starting on December 22, Supreme Master TV became available 24 hours a day on Chunghwa Telecom’s MOD Channel 35, broadcasting simultaneously with 14 satellite platforms around the world. The interactive MOD (multimedia on demand) platform offers digitized television and movie content via set-top boxes and broadband. Chunghwa Telecom currently has over 600,000 subscribers.

Local Governments Promoting Vegetarianism Vegetarian Day
and Carbon Reduction Day

Ms. Zhang Wang-zhen, EPB Director of Tainan City

The Environmental Protection Bureau (EPB) of Tainan City has proclaimed Monday as Vegetarian Day and Friday as Carbon Reduction Day. Though not enforced by law, most EPB employees have followed the schedule with good results. EPB Director Zhang Huang-zhen sets a great example by eating vegetarian meals whenever she is in her office. In addition, the city government discourages people from leaving their car engine running and is the first Asian city to impose fines on automobiles left idling for more than three minutes.

Five-Day Vegetarian Taoist Ritual

All the inhabitants in Jiaoxi eat only vegetarian food during the prayer ritual for peace.

During the five-day prayer ritual, only vegetarian food is sold in Puli.

Once every 12 years in Formosa (Taiwan),  a Taoist ritual to pray for peace is held in Puli of Nantou County and Jiaoxi in Yilan County. During this five-day period, all inhabitants observe a vegetarian diet to support the green lifestyle. This year, Puli Magistrate Ma Wen-jun encouraged the 80,000 people in her township to abstain from meat and wine during the festival from December 1 to 5. She asked all schools, convenient stores and non-veg restaurants to join in the effort by selling only vegetarian food, while slaughterhouses were asked to close down or sell vegetarian food instead. Magistrate Ma further encouraged the people to follow the vegetarian diet even after the festival. In Jiaoxi, not only did all the inhabitants observe a vegetarian diet for five days, but hot spring spa operators served sumptuous vegetarian meals to their customers, many of them foreigners, to show their sincerity in thoroughly implementing the vegetarian observance.

- The Taipei Center participated in a fair held in Banciao and Zhonghe to disseminate the message of Be Veg and Reduce Carbon to Fight Global Warming.

- The Chiayi Center presented lectures on global warming at the Rotary Club and Yusen Technologies.

- The Tainan Center held a Fight Global Warming tea party at Loving Hut Jinhua Outlet and a seminar in cooperation with the city’s South District Office. Jointly with the Shulin City Government in Taipei County, the Taoyuan Center organized a seminar on saving the planet, and held nine seminars in total at the Shude Borough Office.

- The Keelung Center participated in the city’s First Vegetarian Promotion Fair and distributed Supreme Master TV and SOS flyers to about ten thousand citizens at a city event.

- The Changhua Center participated in the Business Environmental Protection and Be Veg to Fight Global Warming Campaign sponsored by Taichung’s Huiman Enterprise; and also promoted the vegetarian lifestyle at the Sixth Changhua City Local Food Festival.

-  Nantou Center held vegetarian cooking classes at their Loving Hut.

- Penghu Center initiates discussed going veg as a solution to global warming on Penghu Fengsheng Radio.

Campus Activities

- The Taipei Center held eight workshops on global warming at Shilin Community University, Zhongshan and Chengzheng Junior High Schools, and Tongrong and Dongyuan Elementary Schools.

- The Chiayi Center organized lectures on global warming at the Yunlin County Teachers Training Center and Chiayi Tongren Elementary School.

- The Tainan Center held six lectures on “Climate is Changing, Save the Planet” at Fenghe and Yanshui Junior High School in Tainan County, and Huate Vocational High School in Kaohsiung County.

- At the anniversary celebration of Yilan Zhongshan Elementary School, the Yilan Center provided free vegetarian tasting and distributed SOS flyers.

- Loving Hut in Kaoshiung participated in the Green Christmas Fair held by the American School to let people know more about the vegetarian diet.

- Cooperating with the Light and Sound Club of National Tsing Hua University, the Hsinchu Center held activities to stop global warming and advocate the vegetarian diet.

- The Penghu Center held 11 seminars on curbing global warming at elementary schools in Huxi, Shiquan, Zhongzheng, Wenao and Magong, as well as National Penghu Marine and Fishery Vocational High School, National Penghu University and five other colleges.

Efforts Acknowledged

The Changhua Center presented a letter of appreciation to Mayor Wen Kuo-ming of Changhua City for his love and wisdom in leading the citizens in the effort to go veg to fight global warming and save our precious Earth. A letter of appreciation was also presented to Mr. Liu Ming-yuan, head of Yuanlin Railway Station, for his approval and friendly assistance in setting up television sets to broadcast Supreme Master Television at the station.

Mayor Wen Kuo-ming of Changhua City (third from left)	Mr. Liu Ming-yuan, Station Master of Yuanlin Railway Station

Affordable Meal Boxes

To encourage more people to go vegetarian, about a dozen Kaohsiung initiates devoted much time to preparing delicious vegetarian meal boxes for sale at an affordable price of NT$40 (US$1.25). Within just a few months, daily orders rose to 200 to 300, half of which came from non-veg customers. Their undertaking of this urgent mission in response to Master’s call to promote the vegetarian diet to save the Earth is a perfect example of starting from smaller deeds to achieve a greater end.

 

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