Taiwanese celebrities and public figures braced themselves to have buckets of ice water dumped on their heads yesterday as they joined an Internet sensation to raise awareness about a paralyzing disease.
Business tycoon Terry Gou (郭台銘) took the Ice Bucket Challenge in New Taipei City alongside people fighting amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s disease, and volunteers from the Taiwan Motor Neuron Disease Association, which helps people with ALS.
Standing under a bucket controlled by a robotic arm, the chairman of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, also known as Foxconn in China, was soaked after his wife and an ALS patient in a wheelchair pulled a rope tied to the device.
Photo: CNA
Gou participated after being nominated by Xiaomi Corp CEO Lei Jun (雷軍) for the task, in which participants can either douse themselves in ice water or donate US$100 to an ALS charity, or both.
However, Gou did not stop at US$100, but pledged US$200,000 to the Taiwanese association and announcing a further cash donation of US$100,000 to a former employee who was diagnosed with the disease.
Gou also nominated others to take on the challenge, including Taiwanese supermodel and actress Lin Chi-ling (林志玲), who has agreed to take part, he said.
After Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei mayoral candidate Sean Lien (連勝文) and his main rival in the Taipei race, independent candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), took the plunge a day earlier, local politicians continued with the challenge yesterday.
KMT Yilan County commissioner candidate Chiou Shu-ti (邱淑媞), after having a bucket of ice water poured on her, challenged President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
The Presidential Office said Ma opted to make a donation rather than take the icy bath.
However, Taipei City councilor Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) of the Democratic Progressive Party deplored the “celebrity showboating” aspect of the phenomenon.
In a post on Facebook yesterday, Wu said the name-dropping in the Ice Bucket Challenge has become a celebrity marketing activity, “to show off how well-connected a person is and to flaunt one’s wealth and power networking... The focus now seems to be on the ice bucket rather than ALS sufferers.”
“When a charity campaign becomes a celebrity PR activity, those who benefit from it are not society’s disadvantaged,” she added.
Citing examples, Wu said National Development Council Minister Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔), after dumping ice water over himself, challenged newly sworn-in Minister of Economic Affairs Woody Duh (杜紫軍) to do it, and from there, Duh named some business tycoons to follow up.
Wu added that after Lien drenched himself, he challenged New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫), who in return nominated Wowprime Group chairman Dai Sheng-yi (戴勝益).
“Doesn’t this manifest the intricate links of business money and political power in Taiwan? Through the Ice Bucket Challenge, this link between politics and money is shown in its naked openness to the public, and these people have no qualms about it,” Wu said.
“After Lien was doused with the ice water, he said: ‘It felt great!’ That left me speechless. As it becomes about showing off, concern for ALS sufferers fades into the background,” Wu said. “Most of the time, government officials try to evade responsibility when things go wrong. Miraculously, officials are now serving easy balls for each other to hit. The Ice Bucket Challenge has become ‘showboat’ time for these figures.”
DETERRENCE: With 1,000 indigenous Hsiung Feng II and III missiles and 400 Harpoon missiles, the nation would boast the highest anti-ship missile density in the world With Taiwan wrapping up mass production of Hsiung Feng II and III missiles by December and an influx of Harpoon missiles from the US, Taiwan would have the highest density of anti-ship missiles in the world, a source said yesterday. Taiwan is to wrap up mass production of the indigenous anti-ship missiles by the end of year, as the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has been meeting production targets ahead of schedule, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said. Combined with the 400 Harpoon anti-ship missiles Taiwan expects to receive from the US by 2028, the nation would have
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
‘UNWAVERING FRIENDSHIP’: A representative of a Japanese group that co-organized a memorial, said he hopes Japanese never forget Taiwan’s kindness President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday marked the 15th anniversary of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, urging continued cooperation between Taiwan and Japan on disaster prevention and humanitarian assistance. Lai wrote on social media that Taiwan and Japan have always helped each other in the aftermath of major disasters. The magnitude 9 earthquake struck northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011, triggering a massive tsunami that claimed more than 19,000 lives, according to data from Japanese authorities. Following the disaster, Taiwan donated more than US$240 million in aid, making it one of the largest contributors of financial assistance to Japan. In addition to cash donations and
RSS