The Internet community in Taiwan rallied yesterday to help people affected by the devastating flooding brought by Typhoon Morakot.
“I can’t do much, but I’ve ordered 10 cases [of bottled water] and sent them to disaster-hit areas in the south,” a Plurker identified as Philip0721 wrote on the Plurk Web platform late on Saturday night. “Each one of us, let’s all order 10 cases of bottled water for the south.”
Amanda, another Plurker, acted on that recommendation, while Shan Wen (善文), whose family runs a bottled water factory, said he would send a truckload of water to disaster zones.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
“Let’s help each other, put all our donated items together, or call our friends,” Plurker Skstone wrote early yesterday morning. “It’s clear that the central government won’t do much.”
Internet user Xdite created a Web page for other fellow surfers to report emergencies and provided a map on the front page to show the location of the emergency calls.
“Four people have been trapped on the second floor at No.1-11 Silian, Silian Village, Siaying Township [下營], Tainan County, without any food since last [Saturday] night — we can’t get through to the county government or the media help hotline, please send some food, thanks!” a help seeker wrote in a message posted on the Web page.
“My 90-year-old grandmother and aunt have been missing since last night, I don’t know if they’ve been rescued,” another help seeker from Pingtung County said.
Using the online Google Maps service and with the help of several friends, Wanfang Hospital psychiatrist Billy Pan (潘建志) created a map marking disaster locations around the country.
Viewers can obtain detailed information about disaster areas by clicking on the map.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by