Holding a banner that said “President Ma, please save human rights and culture,” Losheng Sanatorium preservation activists staged a surprise sit-in demonstration outside President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) residence in Taipei early yesterday morning.
About 60 people from the Youth Alliance for Losheng and sanatorium residents appeared on the sidewalk across the street from Ma’s apartment at about 6:30am.
Hoping to talk to Ma directly, they sat down quietly on the sidewalk and along the roadside, holding banners and placards demanding the preservation of the sanatorium and its designation as a historic site.
The sanatorium complex in Sinjhuang City (新莊), Taipei County, was built during the Japanese colonial period to isolate patients with Hansen’s disease.
A decision made a few years ago to demolish the sanatorium to make way for an MRT maintenance depot has faced strong opposition from supporters who believe the place bears important witness to the history of Taiwan’s public health system. They said that forcing the residents to relocate after forcing them to live there for decades a violation of human rights.
The matter has remained unresolved as preservationists and the Public Constructions Commission have failed to reach an agreement on a new construction plan that would still see many of the buildings torn down.
“We were notified earlier this month that the Department of Rapid Transport plans to go ahead with construction on Aug. 1,” Wang Hao-chung (王顥中), a member of the youth alliance said in explaining the reason for the demonstration.
“Ma Ying-jeou has repeatedly said that he knows the problem well — but now it’s urgent, we want to know what he has to propose to resolve the issue,” Wang said.
After nearly two hours of negotiation and minor verbal disputes with local police and National Security Bureau agents in charge of the president’s personal security, Ma finally agreed to receive three representatives among the demonstrators and came out of his apartment at about 8:15am.
After a two-minute meeting, Ma jumped into a waiting car, leaving the disappointed demonstrators.
“After listening to [Losheng resident] Chen Chai-tien [陳再添], Ma’s only response was that he would ask government agencies to study our request,” an activist surnamed Hung told the crowd that was waiting across the street after the brief meeting.
“When I tried to give more details, I was told that only one person could talk and Ma told me not to interrupt Chen. Some security officers even tried to pull me away,” he said. “I don’t think he was really listening to us.”
“So when Ma went into his car, I shouted that we’ll be back in seven days if we don’t hear anything back from him,” Hung said.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
RSS