Amis Aborigines from the Kanjin (崁津) and Saowac communities in Taoyuan County that are facing demolition rallied outside the Executive Yuan yesterday, calling on the central government to intervene.
The two communities are located on the banks of the Dahan River (大漢溪) in Dasi Township (大溪), Taoyuan County. The Kanjin Community got its name from the nearby Kanjin Bridge (崁津大橋), while Saowac is the Amis word for “riverside,” said Chang Chin-tsai (張進財), a preacher at the Saowac Church.
“Saowac has been there for 28 years,” Chang said. “The residents are Amis from Hualien and Taitung counties who migrated to Taipei and Taoyuan to find work, but could not afford housing.”
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
He said that the community has about 40 residents.
The 80 residents at the Kanjin Community share a similar background.
“I came here more than 20 years ago from Chengkung Township [成?Taitung County, because I could not find a job in my hometown,” said Azun Balis, a Kanjin resident. “After I got here, I found a construction job.”
In her sixties now, Azun still works part-time jobs on construction sites.
“With this recession, jobs are hard to find and if they tear down my house, I really don’t know how I can carry on living,” she said.
The demolition notices, issued by the Taoyuan County Government, came in May for Kanjin and December for Saowac, to make way for a riverside park and bike path. The county government said in the notice that the plan would also protect the Aborigines from the threat of flooding.
But Kanjin and Saowac residents resisted the eviction order, saying that in the decades they have lived there the areas have never flooded.
“No to forced eviction! We want to stay where we are!” nearly 100 residents from the two Taoyuan communities and their supporters shouted as they demonstrated.
Fifty of the demonstrators shaved their heads.
“They shaved their heads to show their determination to save their homes because they don’t want to see bloodshed, but if the government doesn’t respond to them, we Aborigines will certainly take more extreme action,” said Panay Luni, an Amis who came from Taitung to support her people.
“Most of these people are in their fifties and sixties. They have nowhere else to go. Why can’t they just be left alone?” Panay said.
Council of Indigenous Peoples Vice Minister Wang Chin-fa (王進發), who came out to meet the demonstrators, only promised he would help negotiate with the Taoyuan County Government.
“It would be a little hard to allow you to stay where you are since it’s illegal to live in a flood zone and all public servants must abide by the law. I’ll talk with the county government to see if we can come up with a better resolution,” Wang said, before being booed and interrupted by upset demonstrators, after which he hurriedly left.
“Our muddle-headed government only cares about achievements that people can see, they don’t care about people’s lives,” said Lin Chih-chiang (林志強), a Dasi Township councilor of Amis origin. “Politicians always say that they care about Aborigines and stand with us, but when they’re elected and we’re in trouble, they are nowhere to be found.”
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