Well, at least a marionette of Ma Ing Jo was present. One point of pride in Taiwan is the Formosa Plastic Company, founded in 1954 with the incidental aid of the 2nd richest person in Taiwan from a US$750,000 'aid package'. Take note that this was shortly after one of the more turbulent times in Taiwan history, this kind of investment today is equivalent to tens of millions of US dollars. In Taiwan he (Wang Yung-ching the recently deceased founder of Formosa Plastics) is frequently called a god of management. His success is, in my opinion due to a workaholic mentality, and excessive energy. I am unsure how a person being handed tens of millions of dollars, promised steady business if he can produce, not to mention his boundless energy (possibly a case of ADHD) in an impoverished area could have failed, but he did have some rough times in his early years due to concerns of his companies ability to produce. Without knocking the Taiwan idol down too many pegs in mere technicalities of the business end of his business acumen, it is not surprising to find much of his success came with purchasing related chunks in the chain of his business from other companies. Regardless if my opinions of him are accurate or inaccurate his company did provide a lot of work for Taiwan when it needed it most. And, as with most Taiwanese tinkerings change is not as easily come by as duplication, hence the companies current run in with concepts like pollution and 'ecological foul play' as our German friends so aptly named it. Well enough history, on to my joke of the day.
Excerpt from the Taipei Times
By Shelley S
hanSTAFF REPORTERThursday, May 20, 2010, Page 2
Environmentalists delivered the “Black Planet Award” to Formosa Plastics Group (FPG) yesterday.
The German-based Foundation Ethics and Economics Conference (Ethcon) gave the conglomerate the award for its “continuing sequence of social and ecological foul play throughout the world.”
The environmentalists also accused Taipei bus operators of tampering with their advertisements about the award.
However, no one from the Formosa Group showed up at the ceremony — which featured a skit portraying President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) as a toady of big corporations — to claim the award.
No comments:
Post a Comment