On a frigid afternoon last week, an AIDS-ravaged Thai woman named A-chian (
"Gotta go to work and make as much money as you can," she said in surprisingly fluent Taiwanese. Soon her lanky figure dissolved down the street in Gongguan, Taipei City.
A-chian's words are timely, given that she doesn't know how long she will keep her modest job before the disease catches up with her, or her employers find out she is HIV-positive and fire her.
"I know no one likes me, no matter how long I live here," she said. For her, the lack of acceptance is not so much because of her nationality as because of her HIV status.
A-chian's life in Taiwan is a sad footnote to a common immigrant story. As one of the estimated 300,000 foreign brides who have married Taiwanese husbands in search of a better life on foreign soil, A-chian flew from Bangkok 19 years ago to marry a man she had never met.
A few years later, she returned to Thailand to seek shelter after she gave birth to two children and ran away from her alcoholic husband. During that homecoming, she contracted HIV from her boyfriend. After his death, she came back to Taiwan and worked to raise her 3-year-old daughter in Thailand.
Rejected by her family and bereft of support, A-chian finally took refuge in a halfway home for people living with AIDS.
A-chian's case is not uncommon.
"A-chian is not the only foreign female patient we have taken in," said Nicole Yang (
Currently, Taiwan's Center for Disease Control registered 492 HIV-infected foreigners living in Taiwan. 66 of them are foreign brides. 66 of them were deported back to their mother countries, and 66 families were thus shattered.
Helping immigrants like A-chian is a challenge facing Ivory Lin (
"The biggest problem is that while our country enshrines the value of human rights, we are actually deporting HIV positive immigrants once they are identified," Lin said.
Although health officials proposed to revise the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome Control Act (
Compared to HIV-positive foreigners who have been deported, A-chian is lucky. Her 19-year-marriage has granted her Taiwan citizenship, which entitles her to cocktail drug therapy that is fully covered by national health insurance. A-chian only has to take her health insurance card with her to the hospital's pharmacist and she gets a free drug bag every month.
"There are few counties like Taiwan who spend NT$1 billion to offer free drugs to people with HIV," said Shih Wen-yi (
But foreign spouses still have to cope with other formidable problems facing every HIV patient in Taiwan. The most pressing problem is the denial of their right to work.
Because the AIDS Control Act does not ensure the right to work and doesn't stipulate any penalty for those who refuse to hire HIV-positive people, work discrimination has become a common practice here. Some state-run enterprises and government agencies require mandatory HIV blood tests which they justify as "precautionary measures."
Ivory Lin cited as examples of discrimination a Taipei police officer discharged in 2001, a health worker laid off in 2002, and an MRT driver who gave up his job under pressure.
Cases such as those highlight the need for government action to help protect the rights of those infected with AIDS, experts said.
"The government can redress the stigma that comes with AIDS," said Arthur Chen (陳宜民), the director of AIDS prevention and research center at the National Yang Ming University. "The government could introduce an anti-discrimination law."
A-chian's modest hope is to earn enough money to support herself. She waits on customers who come to enjoy a bowl of beef noodles, helps weaker patients in the halfway home, and sometimes allows herself the luxury of buying earrings in Gongguan night market. She lives quietly in Taipei City, quietly among us.
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
SHIPS, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES: The ministry has announced changes to varied transportation industries taking effect soon, with a number of effects for passengers Beginning next month, the post office is canceling signature upon delivery and written inquiry services for international registered small packets in accordance with the new policy of the Universal Postal Union, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday. The new policy does not apply to packets that are to be delivered to China, the ministry said. Senders of international registered small packets would receive a NT$10 rebate on postage if the packets are sent from Jan. 1 to March 31, it added. The ministry said that three other policies are also scheduled to take effect next month. International cruise ship operators
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
STEERING FAILURE: The first boat of its class is experiencing teething issues as it readies for acceptance by the navy, according to a recent story about rudder failure The Hai Kun (海鯤), the nation’s first locally built submarine, allegedly suffered a total failure of stern hydraulic systems during the second round of sea acceptance trials on June 26, and sailors were forced to manually operate the X-rudder to turn the submarine and return to port, news Web site Mirror Daily reported yesterday. The report said that tugboats following the Hai Kun assisted the submarine in avoiding collisions with other ships due to the X-rudder malfunctioning. At the time of the report, the submarine had completed its trials and was scheduled to begin diving and surfacing tests in shallow areas. The X-rudder,
RSS