Kaohsiung Social Forum 2010 (Taiwan)
5 to 6 November 2010

About Kaohsiung Social Forum
Export-oriented policies in Taiwan have created a highly commercialized society after a few decades of pursuing pretty GDP figures. As a result, Taiwan now has many problems in social, economical, cultural, and political aspects, such as unbalanced social resource distribution, damaged environment, and poor public sanitary system.
We suggest that GPI replace GDP because there are not enough opportunities for the disadvantaged minority in free market economy, such as peasants, unemployed labors, and women. They are not incapable but often not provided with opportunities. Therefore, a new social functioning system created by appropriate policies is needed.
The merging of Kaohsiung County and Kaohsiung City will start a totally new era for citizens of Greater Kaohsiung. Therefore, the civic society of Kaohsiung needs to form a strong public opinion before the Greater Kaohsiung mayor election in the end of this year in order to provide something other than free-market action plans. The people of the South deserve a brand new future with a further vision.
A more developed contemporary democracy emphasizes highly on civil participation in the policy-making process to strengthen the legitimacy of the policy and to make it meet people’s needs. However, so far what we can see and hear about county-municipality merging is more about power scrambling than debating over plans with a new vision.
The Kaohsiung Social Forum aims to assemble opinions and strengths from the civil society to establish a platform for dialogues on public issues about Kaohsiung regional development, in order to stop political power scrambling from decelerating the regional merging. Kaohsiung Social Forum provides a possibility for the political and social sectors to converse and develop consensus to build a future full of life and creativity for both the people and the government of Greater Kaohsiung.
Three Core Values
■     Developing direct democracy and participatory democracy that are centered     on the citizens of Greater Kaohsiung.
■     Improving social economy, take GPI (Genuine Progress Indicator) instead of GDP.
■     Deepening the equality of different races, genders and classes, establishing a city of peace.

Contact :
LIN Shenjing : linshenjing@gmail.com