Disillusioned by fruitless negotiations with government agencies, Taiwan's elderly lepers will take their case to the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva tomorrow, adding fresh momentum to their decade-long protest against the government's plan to force over 300 lepers into a high-rise hospital.
Two lepers and several graduate students from a grassroots organization called Taiwan Youth Union for Lepers' Rights yesterday held a placard reading "Rage against Taiwan's leprosy killer policy," and sang a satirical song titled "Taiwanese Miracle" to rail at the government in front of the Department of Health.
"While our government drums up our bid for WHO under the name of human rights in the international community, some officials are actually trampling on the rights of a disadvantaged minority here," said Yang You-ren (楊友仁), a volunteer at Taiwan Youth Union for Lepers' Rights and doctoral candidate at National Taiwan University's Graduate Institute of Building and Planning.
The dispute flared up in 2003, when Taipei County officials began demolishing the 70-year-old Lo Sheng Sanatorium (樂生療養院), built under Japanese colonial rule, to make room for the Taipei mass rapid transit (MRT) system's Sinjhuang line.
To make the traffic infrastructure project possible, the Department of Health planned to remove over 300 lepers, some wheelchair-bound, from the elegant Japanese-style houses surrounded by banyan trees to the newly-built, modern, eight-floor Huilung Hospital (迴龍醫院) nearby.
After the advocate groups negotiated with the health authority last week, the deadline to relocate all lepers still remained set for July 15.
The health officials' indifference further fueled the lepers' anger.
"No one ever asked us whether we wanted to move when the Department of Health ceded the hospital land to Taipei City's rapid transit department ten years ago," said the 69-year-old leper Chen San-lang (陳三郎).
According to the Taiwan Lepers' Self-Help Organization, the government agencies never secured the consent of about 300 leper patients who had been forced into segregation by the Japanese colonial regime since 1930.
"And no official is really paying attention to our wish -- to stay at Happy Life Sanatorium," said the 52-year-old leper Yiu Wen-chi (尤文智).
"It [Living in the new hospital] will be a second imprisonment. I bet that many will die in there," Yiu wailed.
Accompanied by two student volunteers, Chen and Yiu will fly to Switzerland this afternoon and stage a mini-drama outside of the WHO's headquarters on Monday in Geneva. As Taiwanese officials launch their ninth WHO bid, a group of patients and Taiwan Youth Union for Lepers' Rights will also kick off a publicity campaign, including issuing news releases, visiting the Conference of NGOs in consultative relationship with the UN, and bringing their petition to the Minister of the Department of Health, Hou Sheng-mou (侯勝茂) at a dinner ball held by Taiwanese officials on Monday.
"We've also contacted various influential non-governmental groups in Geneva, such as International Service for Human Rights, Equity International, Global Forum for Health Research, Doctors Without Borders, International Labor Office and others," said Tsai Tsung-fung (蔡宗芳), a student from National Yang Ming University who will accompany the two lepers during their Geneva trip.
"We will seek their support and ask them to write to our president," said Tsai.
"When a government forces lepers to be jailed in a hospital while crying for recognition at the WHO, it is nothing more but official hypocrisy," Tsai said.
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
Taiwanese and US defense groups are collaborating to introduce deployable, semi-autonomous manufacturing systems for drones and components in a boost to the nation’s supply chain resilience. Taiwan’s G-Tech Optroelectronics Corp subsidiary GTOC and the US’ Aerkomm Inc on Friday announced an agreement with fellow US-based Firestorm Lab to adopt the latter’s xCell, a technology featuring 3D printers fitted in 6.1m container units. The systems enable aerial platforms and parts to be produced in high volumes from dispersed nodes capable of rapid redeployment, to minimize the risk of enemy strikes and to meet field requirements, they said. Firestorm chief technology officer Ian Muceus said
MORE FALL: An investigation into one of Xi’s key cronies, part of a broader ‘anti-corruption’ drive, indicates that he might have a deep distrust in the military, an expert said China’s latest military purge underscores systemic risks in its shift from collective leadership to sole rule under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), and could disrupt its chain of command and military capabilities, a national security official said yesterday. If decisionmaking within the Chinese Communist Party has become “irrational” under one-man rule, the Taiwan Strait and the regional situation must be approached with extreme caution, given unforeseen risks, they added. The anonymous official made the remarks as China’s Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia (張又俠) and Joint Staff Department Chief of Staff Liu Zhenli (劉振立) were reportedly being investigated for suspected “serious
Nipah virus infection is to be officially listed as a category 5 notifiable infectious disease in Taiwan in March, while clinical treatment guidelines are being formulated, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. With Nipah infections being reported in other countries and considering its relatively high fatality rate, the centers on Jan. 16 announced that it would be listed as a notifiable infectious disease to bolster the nation’s systematic early warning system and increase public awareness, the CDC said. Bangladesh reported four fatal cases last year in separate districts, with three linked to raw date palm sap consumption, CDC Epidemic Intelligence
RSS