With tonnes of donated goods and loads of money pouring in after Typhoon Morakot hit southern Taiwan, a group of students launched an online campaign to “collect” emotional support for victims of the disaster.
Organizers of the campaign Beating Heart asked people who would like to show emotional support for the victims to send a picture of them forming a heart shape with their hands and a few lines of encouragement to one of the organizers’ e-mail accounts (twinklinglittlestar.33@gmail.com).
Participants can also choose to film a 30-second video clip of them, saying a few words to encourage the victims while forming a heart shape with their hands, the organizers said.
The organizers said they would produce a music video with the pictures and the video clips dedicated to the victims and broadcast the music video on TV and the Internet.
The chief organizer of the campaign, who went by the name Xiaopo (小波), told the Taipei Times during a telephone interview that the campaign was meant to serve as a channel for people who had been unable to make major donations or get involved in volunteer work to show how much they care about the victims.
“Typhoon Morakot is like a double-edged sword. It affected not only the victims, but also those who watched footage of the disaster on TV and felt they were unable to do much to help,” said Xiaopo, a student at the Fu Jen Catholic University.
“I’m a college student. I don’t have a lot of money to donate [to the victims] or have the power to call on [people to help with relief efforts], but I can pick up a camera [to show my concern] ... and a beating heart,” Xiaopo wrote on his Web blog.
The campaign had attracted 1,268 participants since it was launched on Wednesday. The organizers have extended the deadline of the campaign to Friday.
“We were surprised by the warmhearted support of so many people,” Xiaopo said.
Xiaopo said the organizers also hoped to put together a team to help students affected by the disaster with their schoolwork after the fall semester begins.
TRAFFIC SAFETY RULES: A positive result in a drug test would result in a two-year license suspension for the driver and vehicle, and a fine of up to NT$180,000 The Ministry of Transportation and Communications is to authorize police to conduct roadside saliva tests by the end of the year to deter people from driving while under the influence of narcotics, it said yesterday. The ministry last month unveiled a draft of amended regulations governing traffic safety rules and penalties, which included provisions empowering police to conduct mandatory saliva tests on drivers. While currently rules authorize police to use oral fluid testing kits for signs of drug use, they do not establish penalties for noncompliance or operating procedures for officers to follow, the ministry said. The proposed changes to the regulations require
The Executive Yuan yesterday announced that registration for a one-time universal NT$10,000 cash handout to help people in Taiwan survive US tariffs and inflation would start on Nov. 5, with payouts available as early as Nov. 12. Who is eligible for the handout? Registered Taiwanese nationals are eligible, including those born in Taiwan before April 30 next year with a birth certificate. Non-registered nationals with residence permits, foreign permanent residents and foreign spouses of Taiwanese citizens with residence permits also qualify for the handouts. For people who meet the eligibility requirements, but passed away between yesterday and April 30 next year, surviving family members
China Airlines Ltd (CAL) yesterday morning joined SkyTeam’s Aviation Challenge for the fourth time, operating a demonstration flight for “net zero carbon emissions” from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to Bangkok. The flight used sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) at a ratio of up to 40 percent, the highest proportion CAL has achieved to date, the nation’s largest carrier said. Since April, SAF has become available to Taiwanese international carriers at Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport), Kaohsiung International Airport and Taoyuan airport. In previous challenges, CAL operated “net zero carbon emission flights” to Singapore and Japan. At a ceremony at Taoyuan airport, China Airlines chief sustainability
‘ONE CHINA’: A statement that Berlin decides its own China policy did not seem to sit well with Beijing, which offered only one meeting with the German official German Minister for Foreign Affairs Johann Wadephul’s trip to China has been canceled, a spokesperson for his ministry said yesterday, amid rising tensions between the two nations, including over Taiwan. Wadephul had planned to address Chinese curbs on rare earths during his visit, but his comments about Berlin deciding on the “design” of its “one China” policy ahead of the trip appear to have rankled China. Asked about Wadephul’s comments, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Guo Jiakun (郭嘉昆) said the “one China principle” has “no room for any self-definition.” In the interview published on Thursday, Wadephul said he would urge China to
RSS