An 80-year-old man, Liu Po-yan (劉柏煙), who sustained second and third degree burns over more than 80 percent of his body on Tuesday after setting himself on fire in a protest at Liberty Square was still in critical condition in National Taiwan University Hospital’s intensive care unit yesterday, hospital officials said.
“Liu has gone through a series of debridement surgeries, one of which occurred [yesterday],” the hospital told the Taipei Times.
The hospital said that there was no word on when Liu’s life would be out of danger, adding that skin transplant surgery would be scheduled soon.
Liu on Tuesday staged the demonstration by pouring gasoline and burning himself in protest at the government’s affront to national dignity during the visit last week by Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林).
In a suicide note, Liu claimed that he had been a member of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for some 30 years and expressed dismay toward the government’s handling of Chen’s visit.
“I saw pedestrians walking on the street holding the national flag and getting arrested by the police, who even broke the flag pole. I saw many police officers beating people without consequences. I hear that sixteen ordinary people have been arrested and will be indicted. If so, are the thousands of police who hit people going to be given citations of merit?” the note said.
“When Chen [Yunlin] met the president, he pointed at the president and said, ‘you, you, you.’ I see that the president smiled and was very happy … If China sends an even higher ranking official, would the president kneel to receive him?” the note 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,”
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