Water monsters

 「Water monsters」

It is that time again when going to work, we found a floating corpse in Taitung Flowing Lake. In the last four years that I have been teaching sailing in this venue, it happens at least once a year something similar to this.  Two years ago it was a self-declared suicide. Last year, someone drunk that fell over the edge. This time looks like a swimmer that for some unknown reason drowned and sank to the bottom.

It is not my favorite sight to start the day with a dead body right in front my teaching space, nor for any of the instructors, neither the kids and  parents that year after year bring the kids to the sailing school. Police and rescue squad buzzing around making measurements and after that, a swarm of journalists coming to take pictures.  Soon after that, we will hear some government official making some sort of bland and ambiguous statement about how hard they are working into managing the place and then a epiphany of news about who and when and how it happened, with a summary of all the accumulated accidents in this place. In a few days, social media will be a boom of posts and reposts of people criticizing the bad management of the government and their  full of ideas of how it ought to be done better.  Water liberation army and similar associations that advocate for protest and claims to open up Taiwan’s water sports policies. 

What surprises me most, however, is the counteract response of the local population. Many people claim that this lake is full of ghosts, due to amount of accumulated accidents through all these years, and you’d better stay away from the venue. Death by drowning cases happen more often that many of us would want, and for people that live in Taitung, after hearing in the news year after year, death after death, it has created some sort of stigma around the area Many local people refuse to come and swim, and in most extreme cases, some people advocate for closing down the entire area.  For your own safety you’d better now swim here or you will be pulled down by the water ghosts. 

The current management situation of this piece of water is widely know by many.  Administrated by the Agricultural & Forestry Department of the provincial government, it is forbidden to swim from 9.00 AM to 5.00 PM, where two gentlemen stationed in the left corner of the main entry will ensure that no-one goes into the water. Off-hours, then you can do whatever you want, under your own responsibility. Considering that daylight hours in the tropic are mostly stable throughout the year, you have an average of one hour and half before and after to swim as you please. 

Of course everyone is well aware of the conundrum that this modality represents. In most people’s logic, if any, should be the other way round. To safely swim within the opening hours were there are people on duty for your own safety.  As a matter of fact, it was like these a few years ago when “A Grain of Wheat Foundation” was managing the place. They had designated a rectangular area the size of a swimming pool with floating markers, and you were allowed to swim within the boundaries. When the concession expired, and the government took over, throwing the responsibility from one branch to another as a hot potato, they defaulted into this ridiculous form of management.  Actually, the two gentlemen stationed in the corner of the lake remained the same.  It is not that suddenly they lost their lifeguarding abilities. People remained the same, and obviously their lifeguard capabilities still remain valid, but their job description changed from “allowing people to swim under their supervision” to “not allowing people to swim under their supervision”. The government was smart enough to change their job title from “lifeguards” to “controllers”. I have to say bravo for their cheeky strategist so to cover their backs,   just in case someone comes to poke them with tricky questions. 

Last year when there was that incident about the former ministry of culture that was shamed and yelled upon,  for swimming off-hours (or on-hours, depending on how you interpret the paradoxical management), there was quite a fuss on the news about it. Me, being one of the frequent users of the lake, I wrote an article called “The Forbidden Lake” where I explained how this government has reached to this sort of management. I do have many frustrations accumulated regarding this venue, and I spent a great deal of my time teaching or applying for permits in order to teach in it.  It is annoying and sometimes infuriating,  but I understand the policy and the reasons behind it. I know deep inside that it is the wrong policy, but there is so much that one person can do against the great bureaucracy machine. 

Actually, if you come to think about it, government politicians have a high risk high stakes job.  Their job stability only spans for only 4 years and after that is up to the population to chose them again. Many people would dread being constantly evaluated after 4 years.  And being dependent on public opinion can be quite daunting. We all now that public opinion can be a bitch. During this short amount of time, politicians  need to do their job, and at the same time convince the people that they are doing so, well enough for everyone’s taste . 

On the last years, since the the lake management fell into the education department for 6 months and then was eager to pass the hot potato to the next one, being the current manager that is the agricultural department, there has been virtually no  advancements or improvements in the policy. That doesn’t mean they haven’t been busy. There have been plenty of meetings, involving many departments, experts and education moguls like Stanley Yan and other advisors. I have attended to many of them. Promises have been made and nods on agreements in order to move the issue forward, but year after year nothing really happens. Different companies have been summoned to submit ideas and proposals but none of them came to fruition. The public offering that was made put through by  the government has also some unfeasible criteria that would deter any private enterprise to dare to assume management of such place. If I didn’t know better, considering that there were provincial elections last December, I would say that the government has been stalling for the last few years.  No-one wanted to do controversial decisions on their watch, and again, is understandable. Hopefully with the same government being re-elected for a second and last term, they have a free-card to do bolder policies, and one would hope that Taitung Flowing Lake would be one of those. 

However, the impediments on water sports development don’t stop here.  For the last few years there has been no lack of funding by the central government dedicated to enhance water sports and ocean awareness in the region.  I have been witness to how these  programs are executed by local schools. At the beginning I was really excited to be part of those programs, but soon enough I realized that we were working into very different directions. Myself (and my team) strive to do the best that we can with the limited funding that is given, to provide and design a step-by-step long-term plan, so some kids can learn from beginner to athletic level. On the other side, principals in many schools are more concerned on how to cause a good impression and get the matter quickly off the table. They chose the easiest and safest way to execute the project and spend the money, so there is again funding for next year. A few one-off day experiences for everyone being the top choice.  I understand that when it comes to dressing up the numbers and success stories, it is much more beautiful to say we got 200 kids to experience kayak, than saying that we have consistently been training 10 kids for an entire semester and they know more than what they knew last one.  It doesn’t matter that those 200 kids where no more than a couple hours in the water splashing around and didn’t learn anything, nor they will get a comprehensive education on ocean awareness and water safety. 

But this is also understandable. In many cases principals do not get to chose the school where they work, let alone to cherry pick the activity policies thrown at them by the central education department. Many principals, and teachers as well, are as scared of water and unaware on how to handle these kind of sports than any other parent, but suddenly they have the responsibility to lead a school into this dangerous area. As expected, they would choose the minimum risk option.  Every time that I have commented on taking the kids to the open ocean after a few yers of training, they look at me with nervous smiles.  So that is one of the reasons that I strongly admire schools like Ci-xin and Yue-ming in Yilan province, for developing such strong and long-lasting sailing programs, for going the extra mile into doing something long-term and effective and putting the necessary effort into making it happen.  I bet it wasn’t easy. I only hope that Taitung’s schools would look up to their programs. 

But this is an endemic problem of Taiwan. For anyone that has worked in schools, government and public associations, it is well known that is not as much of what you do, but how you dress it up. When doing activities like these, it is more important to know how to write the right words, than actually running the activity in itself.  Teachers being good at applying to special funds to buy sports materials and being paid for it, year after year, despite not doing much with the materials themselves. Taitung University is a good example of that. Even the students are aware of it.  New boats that are stored behind glass and only go out to take a picture for next’s year recruiting new students leaflet.  It is a waste of everyone’s resources and there is no supervision.  Not much that can be done about it. 

Chinese New Year’s holidays and school’s winter vacation are quickly coming to an end, and soon enough the weather is going to start getting better. 2023 sailing season is on the brink to a fresh start and I have tons of ideas of many things to do.  Despite a lot of wishful thinking, many of the frustrations still pervade. I do wish that this year will be the year that finally things will change, but I find myself again banging my head agains a brick wall.  I have come to realize, that despite being a fight worth fighting, unless there is a major change on Taiwan policy regarding this kind of activities, we will be stuck into these sort of management for a long long time.

So when local people say don’t come to the lake because is full of ghosts, they are not entirely wrong. Taitung is full of water monsters, but they are not lurking beneath the surface of the water, they are sitting on desks, teaching in classrooms, with positions of power and decision-making. The ones that never get wet. The ones that they hinder the development of water sports and education.  The ones that hide behind paper and procedure. So when you come to Taitung, be careful, beware of the water monsters.

End note:

On the other side, the silver lining, Taitung is full of people with good will, being professional or just kind-hearted, that put their mind and effort to make the dream of a Taiwan with open oceans and a healthy water sports environment.  I want to mention a bunch of people that I know, and surely i will forget some, and surely there are many that I still haven’t met. So here there are some.

• Jovi and the team of Taiwan Challenge,  for working on a badass proposal for the lake that was turn down by the government and given to a company that has never set foot in Taitung.  Jovi comes year after year to organize triathlons, one of the busier if not the busiest events in the province, and still he doesn’t get help from the government. 

• My team of secretaries, Fengting and Huiru, that week after week, submit applications to the different departments of the government. Who would have thought that my best investment to open a sailing school was a printer with lots of ink to print over and over government permits. 

• Joshua Yu, the former provincial secretary of International Development and Tourism, for being so far the only person in the government that has been fully supportive on what I do and offering help many times when needed. 

• To all the surfing schools in Dulan and Donghe, Hana & Xiaohao, BayBay, Jun, etc. You guys started the fight many many years ago before, and have made the path much easier for me and many other people that came after. 

• To some teachers in schools around the province that they are really pushing to teach kids more and bring them to the ocean, but are being held up by their school principals. I won’t say the name of the teachers in order not to get anyone in trouble. 

• I said it already, but to all the people behind Ci-xin and Yue-ming schools in Yilan. What you guys made is worth of admiration. To whoever started these programs 15 years ago must have been completely out of his/her mind. 

[with some time, I will translate it to chinese]