More Venue Closures in Taichung City

Taichung's 'Best Music Scene in Taiwan' has become 'No Music Scene' Thanks authoritarian regime! Almost every place with live entertainment has been closed now after the Ala pub caught fire killing 9 people. The Taipei Times has an article with some of the facts.

It appears that the problem is that the government hasn't been doing their job in terms of inspections. A couple of local officials lost their jobs, and the rest of the enforcement team is shutting down anything and everything they can. I'm beginning to wonder if they aren't using the fire as an excuse to shut down places that don't have the right connections, because it's an obvious over-reaction to the problem. They aren't giving business owners any options, or are telling people they owe millions of dollars in back taxes. Not to mention that the liquor license laws are completely ambiguous. It's impossible to obey the letter of the law when the government is making it up as they go along!

All my Taiwanese friends point out that the government and organized crime leaders hang out in the same places, so it's not much of a leap to assume that they are working together to eliminate the competition... Of course that's just me thinking out loud...