Big blue skies on that Monday morning. Yuri and I were the only pilots in the sky at 11.
After flying close to the ground for some time at Tigerhead mountain on the long slope, I decided that it would make a good take off zone. At the land office in Puli obtaining the title for the land was futile.
Back on the mountain top, the neighboring piece of land was being cultivated. I approached a man on a backhoe.
“Good afternoon, are you the landowner?”
“Yo dzema shr? ( What do you want?)“ , he parried.
I handed him my business card, “Please give this to the landowner. Maybe I can help him develop for tourism.”
A month later I received a phone call from a Mr. Hsiao who invited me to tea. I had been warned by local residents about Mr. Hsiao being a ruthless businessman. We chatted at length about the mountain, community, paragliding and life in general. He gave me the walking tour of his property,”Can you take off here? How about here?” Sadly, most of his land faced the wrong way and had already been covered with expensive trees.We got pretty drunk. Apparently satisfied with my character and conviction, he told me that he was not the owner of the land next door. But he would put me in touch with him, a Mr. Sure.
2 weeks later I was back at Mr. Hsiao's place to meet Mr. Eddie Sure. We sat and drank extensively while they told me the long history of the Heart of Taiwan. “You know the actual center point is not down there. It is here on THIS land. But because the government cannot buy the land from me, they put the marker down below.“
“The property is hard to do anything with right now because there is a running court battle about who shall pay for the cost of the road. The township wants us to pay 20 million ...”
“ not only that, more.”
“ Yes, more for the road. But we have a right to have the road built.“
“ The problem is that the previous mayor, the father of the current mayor, wanted this land. And there has been a family feud for nearly 2 decades. “
“ I see.“ I was pretty drunk, and trying to follow the convolutions and intrigue as they spilled faster than the whiskey.
I showed him a 12 page proposal for developing his property. I pulled out the land office maps of his property.” Whah! Where did you get that?”
The land office. “
“ Hahaha, pretty resourceful for a foreigner. Make a copy for me, OK?”
“Sure.”
He claimed that he only wanted to sell the property and didn't want to sink a lot of money into it.
“Well,” I declared, “developing it will make it that much more marketable, don't you think?”
“ Yes, I agree. So, what do you propose?”
“ I'm looking for a place where I can open the perfect take off zone, flight park, modeled after the European and American systems, completely operated by the local pilots. You see, there is no money in paragliding but there is money in the collateral businesses, cafe, souvenirs, food service, etc. I believe that these opportunities should go to the local pilots so that they are not exploited by the commercial sector. Let the pilots run the concession stands, food, drink, souvenirs. Also, some of the profits can go to upgrading equipment and safety. There have been far too many injuries and fatalities in the sport. One problem is the selection and management. I believe that this project can be a first step toward resolving the systemic problems in the sport. We need to change our attitudes.
“So, you propose to work with the Nantou Paragliding club?”
“I hope so, yes.”
“Well, I admire your concern for the pilot. But you must remember business is business. The local pilots and I have had a long time of conflict.”
“How is that?”
“They feel that they have a right to use my land. Once, years ago I put in a fence around the property. And that one coach came yelling at me. 'You can't do that,' and that the fence would tear their gliders. His tone was no respect. He barked at me like a mad dog. Then, they cut down my fence.”
“Later I planted trees on the property. They went up there with 4WD trucks and pushed over all the trees I had planted. This is my land. I have a right to do what I want with it. If they came to me politely and had a discussion like gentlemen, like we are, now, we can do anything.“
“I see.” I saw a can of worms opening up. So, I will have to deal with animosity from the Nantou club and from the city government, namely the mayor. Whoah, boy.
“ So, don't expect any cooperation from them.” I got the suspicion that I was being used as a front to do some probing into the local socio-political climate.
“ Well, when you do sell it, give me 3 percent of the sale price. “
“And, rent the land to me for 10 years, at a symbolic price. I will be caretaker and oversee the development. You will provide the seed money to open small business from which we will recycle the profits for the development. We will make the land available to Puli residents. Hopefully the pilots will take advantage of this. This way the pilots can benefit from the collateral sales.”
“OK. Come to my office and have my lawyer draw up the contract.”
“Where is your office?”
“Nanking Road, Taipei.”
I shook hands, smiled and turned to go .
“Hey, Ma Tai -i, remember Business is business.”
“Right”
I spent a long day in his office hammering out the contract with his lovely legal secretary. He was agreeable to all of my terms and conditions.
“Come to my house in DaKeng, Taichung tomorrow and we'll sign the contracts. “
“O.K. See you there. “
I had breakfast with Patrick on the way to Eddies House, who was kind enough to remind me,“Be careful. You now how contracts can be in Taiwan. What they hide is more interesting than what they reveal.”
“Well, as long as it covers my ass. I hate this part. You gotta bring chapstick and knee pads.”
“Just watch out when the rubber gloves and KY Jelly come out.”
I drove a scooter out to Eddie's, the highest house on the hill surrounded by smaller houses of the same project.
I met Eddie's family, signed the documents, had coffee and prepared to leave.
Eddie's parting words, “Just remember, business is business. And, I have something for you. Maybe you can use this on the work site.“
He handed me a large paper bag. Thanking him, I put it in the bike and didn't give it a thought.
When I got back to lunch with Patrick that same afternoon, I told him all about it. “ Oh, wait he gave me something. Let me see.” I pulled out the bag, opened it up and burst out laughing.
Patrick looked in and roared. Inside the bag were 2 large boxes of surgical gloves.
“What, no KY jelly?!?!”
“Business is business.”
