by Diane Wilson
Follow Diane’s day-by-day account of the latest Global Hunger Strike against Formosa Plastics. You can join her by signing up here.
Day 19 and I’m walking like an old grandma –which I guess I am. Slowly dragged all my flags out then pounded a few in the ground, and after finding my chair and positioning it out of the wind, I felt fine. Nothing going on but a skeleton crew at Formosa Plastics. I wrote another letter to the Chairman of Formosa Plastics Group (FPG). I scolded him for not responding to our letters. I tried to appeal to the human being in the Chairman and not the corporate demigod. I’m sure they try to be fierce and scowl at everyone. I remember once reading about the founder of FPG in Forbes Magazine or some Asian business magazine and it said that Y.C. Wang questioned his engineers at dinner in Taiwan so sternly that there was a disease at their hospital called “The Formosa Syndrome.” Probably a big ulcer.
I had a meeting with the original Chairman, Y.C. Wang, at their guest house in Point Comfort, Texas, around 1992 or so. He spoke very little English and Jay Su was the interpreter. I remember the Chairman’s wife and daughter were there. His wife was extremely polite, and the daughter looked like she’d like to poison my iced tea. I remember the Chairman had gray hair, gray suit gray shoes…gray, gray, gray. He never smiled and was poker-faced. Couldn’t guess what he was thinking at all. I think the objective of the meeting was to convince me not to protest at his celebration at the Bauer Center that evening. Nope, it didn’t work.
Today’s letter:
Dear Mr. Chairman,
This is day 19 for me on hunger strike at the Formosa Plastics, Texas ditch and since I haven’t heard from you, I am writing again. I don’t know what you do all day that you can’t communicate with people who are almost literally pounding on your door. And I can’t believe you just don’t care. I know you are the current Chairman, but you are also a human being. I guess that is who I am appealing to. I cannot believe you think that you can create a future for the Formosa Plastics Group by wrecking the communities where you do business. That is not a future. Eventually those practices will bring Formosa Plastics Group down. I’d be very curious who is advising you these days.
Sincerely,
Diane Wilson
San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper
International Monitor Formosa Alliance (www.4IMFA.org)
Just a note of “Godspeed” to you, Diane,
& a big “gracias” for your unyielding courage & determination…your book, “An Unreasonable Woman”, was so inspiring- I facilitated a Humanities New York – sponsored Reading & Discussion series here @ The Woodstock Library, & your book was our capstone! Keep the Faith!
Hey Martin, your words are music to my ears. I appreciate those very kind and generous words. Keep the faith, my brother!
Diane