20140712, Article, Taichung

[Jasmine0316]

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Time：第 276會，2014年7月12日（週六）下午2:30~5:30點
Place：
viewtopic.php?t=15

Agenda
14:30~15:30 Session One
15:30~15:50 Speech Session
15:50~16:00 Change Group and then Break Time
16:00~17:15 Session Two
17:15~17:30 Happy Time

Host: Harris
Assistant Host:

Topic:
This Floating City May Be The Future of Coastal Living
Source:
http://time.com/2926425/the-floating-homes/

Please Note:
Venue:台中市南屯區大業路182號 Mos Burger
Thanks a lot for your attention.

Questions:
1. Do you think it will happen in Taiwan in the future? Will it cause any negative effects?

2. If you can choose to live on land or in water, which do you prefer? Why?

3. Because of the climate change, people are forced to change their living environment. Except for the floating house, what else can we probably live in? Try to think about it.

4. If it is going to be the reality, will you still want to buy or invest in any houses or lands?


例會須知
時間地點須知：
http://www.happyforum.org/happy/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=15
協會章程：
http://www.happyforum.org/Association_Principle.htm
各分會章程：
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協會會員會費及各分會會員會費及入場費：
http://www.happyforum.org/15.htm
參與例會，請自行列印當週的討論文章，並帶至現場
http://www.happyforum.org/happy/viewforum.php?f=33
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http://www.happyforum.org/happy/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1766
週六晚餐(Saturday Dinner)
http://www.happyforum.org/happy/viewforum.php?f=76
戶外活動(Club Outing)
http://www.happyforum.org/happy/viewforum.php?f=72
所有行程(All Schedule)
http://www.happyforum.org/happy/viewtopic.php?t=883

[Jasmine0316]

Dear Taichung Happiers,

How do you usually introduce our city, Taichung? What can be more inviting than this way the English romantic poet William Wordsworth (7 April 1770 – 23 April 1850) described the calmness and beauty of the city of London?

Upon Westminster Bridge
By William Wordsworth

Earth has not anything to show more fair;
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This city now doth like a garment wear
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare ,
ships, towers, domes, theatres and temples lie
Open unto the fields and to the sky;
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour valley, rock or hill;
Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! The very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!

City. Italian journalist and writer Italo Calvino(15 October 1923 – 19 September 1985) brilliantly associated cities with dreams. “With cities, it is as with dreams: everything imaginable can be dreamed, but even the most unexpected dream is a rebus that conceals a desire or, its reverse, a fear. Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd, their perspectives deceitful, and everything conceals something else.” And, to encourage Happiers’ imagination of every possible kind of habitable houses, our host Harris offers a topic full of intriguing possibilities: This Floating City May Be The Future of Coastal Living.

When I was a “tourist” in Venice, such a stunningly beautiful city, an air of reminiscence of hidden stories seemed floating out of the scene featuring the fairy-tale-like houses and the crowded flocks. Not until coming back to Taiwan and afterwards watching the Award-winning film The Venice Syndrome, which sheds light on the subtle grimness within the beauty of this city, did I realize that “bloody screw-up” is something to do with not only the environmental issues but also social responsibility and the matters of public morality. Ladies and gentlemen, in this globalization era, The Venice Syndrome might have affected, to a certain extent, every major city. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9obLAdWmSw

On land, in water, or in the sky, what makes the cities habitable and sustainable? Award-winning author Neal Shusterman had a fairly optimistic suggestion. “Cities are never random. No matter how chaotic they might seem, everything about them grows out of a need to solve a problem. In fact, a city is nothing more than a solution to a problem, that in turn creates more problems that need more solutions, until towers rise, roads widen, bridges are built, and millions of people are caught up in a mad race to feed the problem-solving, problem-creating frenzy.” With this frenzy, almost everyone can do everything. Now, check out why Stockholm is the first European Green Capital. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJK3q4-zl2k

City. Consciousness is always the problem and also the solution. With respect for human and nature, our appetite for fairy-tale-like houses is not shrinking—it’s growing. Don’t be afraid to lift our consciousness up; what our cities can otherwise display will be just an eloquent dance to nowhere.





Best Wishes,
Jasmine

[longbow]

20140712, Gathering, Taichung