Friday, March 28, 2008

Hydropower in Taiwan...Ming Jian edition


One little side interest I've taken up is with the water resource infrastructure here. Ming Jian, the town I live in, is next to Taiwan's largest river. The rivers here look much different. They are short, wide, and strewn with boulders and rocks. And they are relatively empty. Most of the time. But when the typhoons come and tremendous amounts of rain are dumped on the mountains those rivers funnel that water away. Taiwan has built up an extensive hydroelectric infrastructure. East of Ming Jian is the Jiji weir. It does a few different things. It directly pipes part of the Jhoushuei river to an industrial park on the coast. It sets up a great deal of irrigation to the west. And it pulls off some water to run the Ming Jian power station. The station is separated from the weir by a few miles. That's an organization that I hadn't thought much about before I ran into it here. It has some wonderful virtues though. The channel is the perfect place for me to run with Bagels in the morning. It's long and quiet. She loves going off the leash. A bit more objectively, severing the dam/weir from the power station removes the need for a large body of stagnant water that we normally associate with large dams. When the water flows in a more natural manner traditional problems of standing water diminish. The water harbors fewer harmful species and diseases. Sedimentation is reduced which is good for the new infrastructure and the downstream farms and coast. Here, they channel the water a few miles away to a place where they can take advantage of a suitable elevation drop. They set up the station at the bottom of the hill. I'm trying to learn more about generating capacities so I can make a more accurate assessment of the virtues and vices of the different models. I'll let you know what I find out.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

I read -Into the Wild- Yesterday

I read Into the Wild yesterday. I've been starved of reading material. I bought it at an English language bookstore in Taipei called Caves. I went into Taipei early Friday to visit Chengchi University where I am applying to study philosophy. I met with the chair of their philosophy department and we hit it off well. Chengchi's philosophy dept. is the best on the island for continental philosophy, my area of interest. I spent the rest of the weekend in Taipei and I took some time to pick up some tapes for my car, a used CD (Deep Forest), and a few new books.

Into the Wild was written by Jon Krakauer, well known for Into Thin Air. You might have heard about the movie version of Into the Wild. It came out last year. Krakauer explores the life and death of Christopher McCandless. McCandless grew up in a wealthy suburban family in Virginia. He was passionate and principled. The resume of his life was impressive but not unusual. He was smart and athletic. He excelled in high school and as an undergraduate at Emory. But his personal characteristics were less common. He displayed a streak of righteousness that turned to disappointment and disillusion when the world didn't measure up. Living quietly with his dissent for some time, after graduating from college he left his old life behind. He didn't want what the mainstream world was offering. He went looking for something else.

For two years he skirted the edge of society. For a while he kept mobile with his car until he killed the battery. Abandoning it, he traveled by foot and the courtesy of strangers. At times he picked up odd jobs, a few were more long term. He made a point of never establishing a life. Few close friends, little property, little responsibility - he shunned attachments. For two years he was a nomad. On his ultimate trip he made his way into the heart of Alaska and hiked into the wilderness alone. Before the end of summer he was dead.

Krakauer researched McCandless's preparations and knowledge base. He seemed woefully unprepared. Not quite enough know-how or experience. Not nearly enough rations or equiptment. McCandless seemed to revel in that scantness. He wasn't playing a boy scout. He wanted to live with as little dependence as possible. For three months he did just that. He hunted, he gathered, he lived. When he decided to hike out he found his trail was blocked by a swollen river. Deciding to bide his time until the river became passable, Krakauer speculates that McCandless consumed the poisonous seeds of a plant previously thought to be entirely edible. The poison may have immobilized him. He starved to death.

Considering that I read the book in one day it certainly must have had merit. It's a compelling story and Krakauer skillfully links it to his own experience and to a rudimentary concept of wilderness. But others have sung his praises enough.

I refuse Krakauer's hubristic fallacy of maturity, that wisdom comes from the aged, which he drops in dribs and drabs throughout the book. It assumes a privileged righteousness for the experienced. While the experts have an advantage in technical matters, that's not what is truly at issue here. This has been the most common mistake made in analyzing McCandless's story. People know that McCandless wanted to leave the forest, but he didn't have the means. A map may have been enough to guide him back to civilization. There's any number of similar remedies that might have saved Christopher McCandless from starving to death.

But none of them would have saved his life. Some people escape from fires. Some people escape from abuse or war or poverty. But nobody escapes with their life. The end is our certainty. McCandless cared deeply about the way he lived his life. He wanted a life without maps, without extra rations, without escape ladders. That life led to his death. It would be a mistake to call it untimely. It would be a mistake to insinuate that success in life is measured in years on the clock.

I read the book in a single day because I found myself there as well. Christopher McCandless had been raised being taught of the importance of college. For so many, college has been transformed into an end itself; often the only end in sight. But when college is the end, graduation day brings a form of terror along with its joy. It's the same story as the proud employee finally reaching retirement. It's the twenty-something woman on her wedding day in 1952. The script comes to an end with triumph and jubilation. But your next line isn't written and you don't have any experience doing the writing. That script was handed to you and your read it marvelously. What more could they possibly want from you? There's another script sitting on the table. You'd do a great job with it, no doubt. But do you want to pick it up? I peaked at a few pages. Looks like there's a nice car in it for you. Your kids are smart too - no big drug problems or that crap. Do you want to pick it up?

Christopher McCandless was disappointed with society's sins and misdirection. He tried something else. He tried new. He tried daring. He tried wild.

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

...in which he tries a 10 minute post.

That's the base of foot bridge high in the mountains in the hot-spring town of Tung-pu. I think it's supposed to represent the strength and importance of the local indigenous communities. Tung-pu was a beautiful place, but I was only there for a couple of minutes. I took a scooter ride there late last fall. From afar it looked like a town clinging to an alpine mountainside. This past weekend on our long drive we passed through an area called CingJing farms. It was quite a surprise because many of the buildings had been built in a distinctly European style. It freaked me out a bit. We didn't stop there. A few updates: I'm organizing to apply to a university in Taipei. I want to study for my masters in philosophy. I've been reading more Heidegger and I've realized just how important it is to me. Chengchi University is the best place in Taiwan to study continental philosophy, Heidegger included. I'll try and keep up with these short posts, they only take about ten minutes.

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

...in which he takes a trip to Hehuan Mountain

Hi Everyone,

It's been a while. I thought I could share some photos from my trip to Hehuan mountain. The peak is over 3400 meters, so it's among the highest in Taiwan and this corner of Asia. The trip there was amazing. My town, MingJian, is next to a large river that flows directly west to the sea. We aren't high up at all. We were able to drive most of the way. It was really amazing to drive up and up; it seemed endless. The roads were respectable most of the way there. Eventually I had to contend with small two-lane mountain roads. They were great unless I was stuck behind someone more cautious. There were sections steep enough to really challenge my car. At one point as was stuck behind one of the omnipresent little blue work trucks. I was trying to pass it, but we hit an uphill grade and my engine didn't have anything left. The transmission was heating up. We took a break near the top because I'm not sure how hot is too hot. I don't have too much more to add, so I'll let some of my photos do the talking. One photo is of me at the peak. The other peak photo is Yu-chi. Then there are a couple photos of the ice. It actually grows into the direction of the wind. It was cold, but an amazing sight.