Echoing other Women's Day rallies around the world yesterday, dozens of women's rights groups staged an anti-war protest in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday to voice their opposition to any US-led war on Iraq.
In a demonstration peppered with speeches, anti-war chants and songs, protesters -- most of them women -- ? rallied in front of the ministry to show their solidarity with Iraqi women as the US gears up for a war on Saddam Hussein's regime.
"We don't want war," said an aged Taiwanese woman who identified herself only as a former "comfort woman."
Protesters at yesterday's demonstration said history has shown that women and children are the most vulnerable victims of war.
As they marched to the Presidential Office, demonstrators displayed anti-war placards, including one English-language "No War" sign made of roses.
Demonstrators said that while President Chen Shui-bian's (
Key organizers of the rally included Awakening Foundation, Women's Rescue Foundation, The Collective of Sex Workers and Supporters, among others.
Aboriginal lawmaker May Chin (
Meanwhile, Vice President Annette Lu (
Lu made the remarks at a tea party held by Republic of China Women's Association to mark the Women's Day.
Pointing out that the looming military conflict between the US and Iraq might greatly change the international situation and provoke negative reactions from China and North Korea, the vice president claimed that the US might seek Beijing's support at the expense of Taiwan.
Against such a backdrop, a concerned Lu urged Taiwan women to play the role of "peace messengers" between the two sides whenever and wherever they visit China.
"No matter whether you go there for business, as a tourist or for family visits, you should relay the messages of peace, love and care to the Chinese people to let them know that Taiwan is not hostile toward the mainland and urge the Beijing leadership to dismantle its missiles targeting Taiwan's 23 million people," she said.
"Peace is built on concrete acts rather than slogans, and the women of Taiwan should try to play a more active role in their pursuit of peace with their wisdom, tenderness and mercy," Lu said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching