Thousands of volunteers joined donation centers across the south yesterday to help collect and distribute items for flood victims, with some centers asking the public to hold off on making donations of goods for a few days.
More than 600 Bulletin Board System users in Kaohsiung and another 400 volunteers joined Kaohsiung City Government efforts, helping by unloading, separating and boxing up goods donated by residents of Kaohsiung and elsewhere.
The city hall lobby and front corridor were filled with thousands of boxes of goods ranging from bottled water to blankets, canned food, clothes, toiletries, flashlights and batteries.
PHOTO: CNA
Throughout the day, the volunteers stood in long lines, passing along boxes to transport them in and out of the building.
MASSIVE RESPONSE
Huang Chao-huan (黃招換), deputy director-general of Kaohsiung City Government’s Social Affairs Bureau, estimated that at least 40 busloads of goods were distributed to disaster-affected communities around the county on Monday and yesterday.
Huang said the city government was no longer accepting bottled water and hot food at the moment but was still accepting other items.
Tainan County’s donation center said it had received more than 1,600 boxes of bottled water but was in dire need of medical supplies, canned food and flashlights.
In Taitung County’s Taimali Township (太麻里), organizers asked the public to stop donating all items for now because the donation center did not have space to store it. The public can check the Internet for information on what goods the township needs and when.
TVBS on Monday held a telethon featuring a handful of celebrities and entertainers, including singer Pauline Lan (藍心湄), who auctioned one of her designer bags for NT$450,000, and musician Huang Kuo-lun (黃國倫), who donated NT$500,000.
China Television Co, the Public Television Service and Hakka TV will also hold telethons in collaboration with the Red Cross Society of the Republic of China.
Meanwhile, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) telephoned 11 local government heads in central and northern Taiwan yesterday, asking them to provide resources to the areas hit hardest by Morakot.
Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said Ma made the calls yesterday morning after talking to Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄). He talked to Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) and 10 other county commissioners and city mayors, Wang said.
Wang said Ma asked them to supply manpower, resources and machinery to the relief efforts, to which the local heads said they had begun doing so one or two days ago.
Wang said National Fire Agency Director-General Huang Chi-min (黃季敏) was coordinating the resources to ensure they are allocated effectively. Liu has designated Minister Without Portfolio Tsai Hsun-hsiung (蔡勳雄) to mediate if necessary, Wang said.
ONE DAY’S PAY
Also yesterday, the Presidential Office asked its employees to each donate one day’s pay to the relief funds.
The donations will go to government purchases of daily necessities for flood victims and to reconstruction projects, the office said. It said the amount was small but should set an example.
Meanwhile, Taipei City, spared from the devastation, set up a relief account yesterday for residents to donate money.
City employees were encouraged to donate one day of pay. In addition, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) donated NT$100,000.
Since Saturday, the city has dispatched rescue and recovery teams and equipment to disaster areas and helped rescue more than 500 people, Hau said. More personnel and equipment were sent yesterday morning.
MAILING PARCELS
Meanwhile, the Post Office is working with the Red Cross Society of the Republic of China and the Pingtung and Taitung county governments to deliver aid parcels to Red Cross centers and local government departments in the flood-stricken counties from today through Thursday next week.
Anyone can post an aid parcel for free.
The items needed most are articles for daily use such as bottled water, biscuits, dried or canned food and clean clothes. Donors should write the contents of the parcel in indelible ink, along with the words “Relief parcel, non-returnable” (救災包裏免予退回) and their signature. Donors may take the parcels to any Post Office and ask staff for assistance addressing them to Red Cross branches or the offices of Pingtung or Taitung County governments.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY LEE WEN-YI
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods