Wildfire Collection: Thirty Years Anniversary Edition

Chapter 10 Starting from "6" ([-])
A woman raised her voice: "Then you can't mobilize other people to help? Didn't you see how crowded it is? People's Guting District is not so bad!"

The director replied angrily: "What happened to Gu Ting has nothing to do with me!"

There were more and more people around him, and a woman with a mouth full of gold teeth said loudly: "That lady is too busy, can't you, the director, go over and help? What kind of public servant are you?"

The director pushed away the crowd, walked into the office, and closed the door with a "bang".

This is a scene that makes me happy.This director constitutes part of the so-called "government".Of course there are many government "officials" who lack efficiency, do not know how to conduct self-examination, and have no sense of service, but today's people are no longer "foolish people".I was delighted to watch the college students and the school authorities discuss the articles of association enthusiastically and raise their objections loudly.I am very relieved to see mothers of mentally handicapped children collectively go to the "Ministry of Education" to make a complaint, impassionedly point out the unfairness of the current system to their children, and demand improvement.

There are accusations and demands, even if it is "confrontation", so what's wrong with confrontation?Rights are earned.If the people believe that the government is something that needs unconditional "support", "support", and "love", then this government can really do whatever it wants.It is only when there are "opposed" people and people who supervise, that it is possible to have a good government.In the past, when education was not popular, perhaps the government monopolized knowledge, and the people had to listen to the leadership of government experts.In today's Taiwan, the "opposition" may have more knowledge than the "rule". Under such circumstances, can the government wishfully ask the people to "support" and "support" without communication?

"Government" is usually a very scary term, which means authority and rule, which is very abstract.In fact, the government is made up of individuals—from the director of the household registration office to the head of state, and as long as there are individuals, there are personal prejudices, selfish desires, limited knowledge, and lack of intelligence.Is it possible for a government organized by various flawed individuals to be "perfect"?How can the people close their eyes and "support" with confidence?

Thomas Mann wrote a political fable about a magician who, with his will and disguise, completely disintegrates the will of the audience.His political message is: this magician cannot succeed without the "acquiescence" of the audience; nor can any dictator succeed without the "acquiescence" of the masses.In other words, democracy does not fall from the sky, it must be fought for rationally, and the people who do not know how to fight for rights are subject to dictatorship, that is their own fault.

One day when I took a taxi and jumped over a big pothole in the road, the betel nut-chewing driver spat out the window and cursed, "Fuck the KMT!"

This driver is totally wrong!He can "fuck" the labor support department, he can "fuck" the city government, but if there is a pit in the road, what does it have to do with the KMT party?His swearing was totally unfair.However, there may be a possible explanation: he scolded the party because he didn't know which government department was responsible for that matter, and when there was a pothole on the road, he didn't know who to call for responsibility; in other words, when he wanted to fight for rights He does not know what avenues to follow when he is involved (such as the right to walk without pitfalls).

These are two sides of the same coin: if the government blindly asks the people to "support" and "support" blindly, without clearly telling him how to fight for various rights through various channels, the reverse will happen when the people are dissatisfied. , and his accusations turned into blind finger pointing.What we want is a government that dares to face reality, accept challenges, and be responsible. But to promote such a government, we need people who are critical, proactive, and rational.In the final analysis, it is really a cliché: the best people deserve the best government.This article can be published, it can be regarded as a small indicator, right?
anxious

Originally published in "China Times Human World" on June [-], [-]

One night, on the Tamkang campus, a student he didn't know suddenly handed over a package of things and said, "Teacher, take it back and listen." He looked very nervous, as if he was doing something dangerous.

It turned out to be Luo Dayou's song.There is also a short note, the student wrote: "Teacher, I believe that you and Luo Dayou are doing the same very important thing, you should know each other, but you have to take care. Really."

Many years later, another student told me that he was working in the Tamkang Administration Building and had accidentally seen "files about Long Yingtai".He dared not say anything.

Why keep writing about Taiwan's shortcomings?Can't you see that there's nothing nice about it?Why not talk about Taiwan?

Friends accuse me of this.

So I felt a little guilty, walked to the crowded streets of Danshui, and took another deep look.

Is there a better butcher than Ah Wah?His meat stall is the first at the market entrance.He started chopping and chopping meat at six o'clock in the morning, but the wooden table, which should be bloody, was clean; every time he cut meat, he cleaned the table.When cutting meat, concentrate on it, cut the skin, remove the fat, and then carefully put the meat you want on the scale, tell you how much, and add a little lean meat.After wrapping, if he thinks it is too heavy to carry, he will put the meat in his refrigerator first, and wait for you to pick it up when you return.If you don’t know how to clean pig’s brain, he will show you: take a toothpick, skillfully roll off the blood film on the surface, and then tell you how to do it.Ah Hua is a market peddler who sells pork. He hasn't studied for a few years, but he bends over to cut the meat with a focused expression, as if a piece of greasy pork in his hand is a precious wood carving art, and no knife can be wrong.His respect for his industry is more pious than some university professors.

It is also a pleasure to pick up letters at the post office by the river.After knowing that you are a "Tamshui person", it doesn't matter if you forget the mailbox key. The person behind the window doesn't care to walk for you and hand you the letter.It doesn't matter if you lose a few dollars to buy stamps, just bring them next time.If you have a long trip, when you come back, you will rush to visit the stacked mailboxes, and you will find that the whole stack of mail is bundled up and waiting for you to pick it up.Even better, when the queue jumpers squeeze ahead of you, the lady selling the stamps will, with a sense of justice, insist on selling you the stamps first.

After picking up the mail in the morning, I walked around to the Tamsui embankment behind the post office.At ten o'clock, it was high tide, and the water crashed against the river bank one after another. Dark-skinned fishermen squatted on the ground to mend their fishing nets.Facing Guanyin Mountain, I sat on the embankment and read letters. Occasionally, water splashed on the letter paper.If it is dusk, the gorgeous sunset will reflect the thin letter paper into transparent red.

Sit down on the ridge.The man wearing the bamboo hat rolled up his trousers, and was yelling at the cattle to drag the plow. Where the plow passed, the black soil turned up loosely and fatly.With a rake, the heavily bandaged woman carefully loosens the soil around the green leaves.

"What do you grow?"

"Cabbage."

"Isn't it really bitter?"

"There is nothing to talk about in my own land. People just love to work hard!"

The ox came forward again with heavy hooves, and the woman said:

"Brother, make the cow sleepy! Yi is panting!"

Their language, as solid as the soil of the field, was not learned by me.They don't eat beef because cows used to pant and sweat for their land.They touch the soil with their hands and feet, whether they are happy or not, this is the life contract between them and the earth, and there is no need to doubt it.

Who says I can't see the beauty of the land?
But I really can't write praises; I can't speak.

Living in the center of the campus, there are three ways to go to the outside world.Out of the front door is a short downhill road. On the left is a simple old temple with cornices pointing lightly to the sky.On the right is a verdant rice field, and a farmer with a lotus hoe stands in the middle of the field, looking like a scarecrow from a distance.Walking out of the side door is a mountain road full of frogs and crickets, leading to a hill full of acacia trees.Thousands of little creatures with vigorous life are hidden in the thatch bushes along the road and in the paddy field behind the thatch, screaming with forgetfulness on summer nights.This road can only be walked, not chatted, because the sound of insects is very presumptuous.The third road goes out from the back door. There is no light on the road, just a wild path in the dark.The scent of the grass was as strong as a bar of solid soap.On moonlit nights, the trail turns into a white band.

A year has passed, and the paddy fields beside the first road have been filled up by excavators, and the crowded reinforced concrete buildings stretch out like dirty octopuses.The road was run over by trucks and was uneven.Construction materials were dumped everywhere.In a few months, people will move in, the arcade will be full of goods, vendors will occupy the side of the road, and trucks will be caught in the road; this road will become more and more difficult to walk.

The mountain road of frogs is also over.Construction eats up paddy fields inch by inch, and crickets and frogs are crushed to death by machines.The acacia forest all over the mountains and plains on the back mountain has been cut down in whole, and the cemetery with colorful branches is scattered everywhere like ringworm.The houses that were half built and stopped working exposed the rusty iron pipes, occupying the hillside ferociously.

I no longer walk this road, because every time I walk, I find that Acacia Lin is bald again.

The last path that looked up at the moonlight in the dark was also lost.Half a year ago, people began to pile up garbage in the depths of the grass. Now, there are seven garbage mounds on a short road, and there is one at every turn. The disposable lunch boxes, soda bottles, and waste batteries that were thrown there half a year ago are still there. Next year , will be there too.On moonlit nights, the rancid smell of garbage is mixed with the fading grass fragrance.

Ah Hua's home is at the bottom of this small road.He has four children with round eyes who play outside all day; he used to play hide-and-seek in the grass, and now he plays with waste batteries in the garbage dump.

The setting sun behind the post office is still a round of bright red, which dyes the river red very lively.It's just that when the tide is low, the rubbish exposed on the riverbed is also scarlet.

The friend who accuses me of picking on Taiwan's shortcomings is a happier person than me.He can stand on the bow of the ferry, facing the wind of the river, to be moved by the setting sun to his heart's content, and to love the colorful clouds in the sky without reservation.I looked at the sparkling waves and wondered how many fish in the water already contained mercury.Looking at the sand mining houses on the river like people on the water, what I think about is how these sand mining merchants pump the sand away, so that the clam shells have no sand attached to them, and the fishermen have to operate for more than ten hours to get a little harvest; what I think is the river How the bottom sand is silted up in the mouth of the river, causing shallow sand and wind and waves, making the small boats in danger of capsizing when going out to sea.Looking at the painfully beautiful sunset, I thought, why do I have to stand in the rotten garbage to appreciate such a beautiful scenery?Sitting on the balcony surrounded by rhododendrons, what I think is that the three roads are drying up one by one, as if someone has tied a knot at the end of my blood vessel, as if some virus is spreading inch by inch along my limbs—I Thinking of:
This good land, where are you going?
Forgive me, I really can't write praise articles because I'm so anxious.

But, aren't you anxious?

Robot Middle School

Originally published in "China Times Human World" on June 26, [-]

One middle school punished [-] students at one go because their hair was too long.There was an instructor who punished students to stand on the street because they were wearing uniforms and eating watermelon on the street.There was also a junior high school principal, because the students skipped class and went out to make trouble. After heartbroken reflection, he cursed at the lack of funds and failed to surround the damaged school wall. So he made the first step and applied for funds to repair the wall.There is even a well-known Fuxing Middle School, which recorded a student as a "dark demerit" for kissing the cheek of a performer of the opposite sex on stage.

A letter from a third-year middle school student: "Our dean of students and the management team leader specialize in checking the appearance of clothing. It is hot in summer, and the cuffs of shirts cannot be rolled up, and the skirts must be below the knees. In addition to black and white, there should be no other colors for pullovers in winter. The color and trim are not allowed. The straps of the schoolbag should not be too long or too short. The zipper of the jacket must be pulled to the end. The hair must be parted on the side and must use hair clips. The length of the hair is measured with a ruler, a little extra You have to record a warning; if you have bangs or thin hair, you should record a minor demerit, and the teacher will also cut your hair so that one side is long and the other is short, and the back is shaved flat, as a kind of humiliation and a punishment.”

Who is torturing our children?teacher?The dean of students and the management team leader?Or a high-ranking education ruler?
Teachers are busy stuffing the knowledge needed for the entrance exam into the students' minds. I'm afraid they don't have time to worry about whether the students' sleeves are rolled up.The trainers hold a four-square frame in one hand and scissors in the other. When they see a student, they use the frame to cover him with a frame. The hair, skirt corners, arms, and brains that exceed the frame are cut off with a "click", and then remember a warning.The purpose of this so-called "discipline" is to make all the teenage children cultivated in Taiwan look exactly the same—same hairstyle, same clothes, same behavior, and same ideas, just like the ones spit out by the production line of a factory. Part by part of the machine.Of course not all middle school guidance officers are believers in scissors and boxes; there must be many who teach students to love as dignified individuals.But where did these believers in scissors and frames go wrong?

A management team leader can confidently say: How long the hair is and how to wear the uniform are not my rules, I just perform the task and do my duty with all my heart.If you want to scold, go scold the "Minister of Education".

He was right; he was the one who put the frame around the students, but he wasn't the one who made the frame.So is there anything wrong with this kind of mentor?Is the management team leader who punished [-] students in one go, and the instructor who punished the students standing in public, is there anything wrong?Of course there is!Only robots will "perform tasks" with tools without discrimination, hitting a nail with a hammer.The instructors of the middle school are intellectuals who bear heavy responsibilities. They directly influence and shape the next generation of the entire nation; they should not and cannot be robots without thinking and judgment.Holding a frame in his hand, he first has to ask himself: what is the purpose of this frame?"Why" can't girls' hair go over their ears?"Why" can't a pullover be green?Why not roll up your sleeves on a hot day?After figuring out the original meaning and purpose of the framework, this intellectual with the heavy responsibility of teaching has to ask: Does this framework apply to all students and all situations?Does it conflict with the principles and beliefs of the education I have learned?How should the implementation method and scale be adjusted so that the original "means" will not become a dead-end "purpose"?The person who cultivated the seedlings of the nation for us has to ask himself: How can I use this framework to achieve the goal of truly helping students grow?

A school is not an army, and a trainer is not a robot without a brain—he has to think and judge.There are only two possibilities for using "just implementing the above regulations" as an excuse: first, he may not really have the ability to think carefully; second, he may have the ability to think, but he does not have the courage to question this frame or change it.Regardless of the former or the latter, how can such a person be qualified to educate our next generation?What kind of next generation can a robot without thinking and guts teach?
In the final analysis, of course we have to ask: who made the frame and scissors.Who else but high-ranking education decision makers?But these "ministers", directors, and bureau chiefs can also confidently say: I have only been in office for a few years, and this framework is handed over by tradition, not me, but someone else.

Is this statement acceptable?Jokes, of course not.A person who plans a century-old plan should carefully examine this long-standing framework after taking office: Should it continue to exist?Does it need reform?Does it conform to his personal educational philosophy?If he doesn't do anything, Xiao Guicao follows, it is equivalent to saying that this frame is made by him, and he handed it over to every principal, dean of students, every instructor, and management team leader to put it on the students. .He bears the ultimate responsibility.

(End of this chapter)