29 Oct 2010
The China Syndrome Part Two: Naresh Giangrande visits Taiwan
Naresh signing autographs in Taiwan (just kidding... this is from the workshop in Kaoshiang)...
Typhoon Megi spilled 1000mm of water in 48 hours (about twice the yearly UK average) on the Philippines and headed our way on Thursday. It brushed the eastern side of the Taiwan, caused major flooding, picked up wind speed in the South China Sea as it headed for landfall just north of Hong Kong. Megi was the second mega storm to hit Taiwan this year. It is clear that with warming seas the trend of bigger and more powerful typhoons is increasing. The last Typhoon about a month ago hit Kaohsiung in Southern Taiwan causing lots of damage. However many felt that if it had hit Taipei it would have been a disaster because of the many low lying districts and greater population. After all, with a property development model that is only interested in building and selling on as fast as possible flood plain land is cheap land.
The question I couldn’t quite hear finally screamed out on the journey back to the rail station in Kaohsiung. Travelling to the station through a throbbing vibrant brash Asian city after an amazing fish dinner hosted by Mr Tsai, a local property developer and supporter of the nascent Transition Initiative in Kaohsiung, it reverberated in me. Would what I had to say be heard? I was coming from the UK, a country played out, at the end of the road to Taiwan, one of the Asian tigers. What could I possibly say that might catch the attention and help create Transition Initiatives in this brashest and busiest and most successful of Asian counties? 
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