Although social welfare groups in recent weeks have seen an increase in the number of small donations they receive because of the “Chen Shu-chu effect” generated by vegetable vendor Chen Shu-chu (陳樹菊), who was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine for her charitable donations, environmental protection groups said they were still operating on tight budgets because the total amount of donations they receive has not increased.
The Taiwan Environmental Information Association (TEIA) has built one of the largest Mandarin-language environmental information Web sites, which boasts more than 10,000 hits per day and about 80,000 reports and articles. However, despite receiving awards almost every year, it still lacks money to pay employees’ salaries this month, association secretary-general Chen Juei-ping (陳瑞賓) said.
Chen said that although he had recently received a NT$20,000 donation from a friend who had saved the money for his wedding fund, he was still borrowing money.
Chen said he used to borrow money from the association’s directors, supervisors and his teachers. However, he has already spent almost all the NT$2 million (US$63,000) he borrowed to run the association and had no idea who to turn to next.
Green parties from more than 20 countries recently gathered in Taipei for the Second Congress of the Asia-Pacific Greens Network, an international event for the world’s environmental protection groups. However, Green Party Taiwan (GPT), one of the event’s organizers, said it suffered a financial loss of NT$700,000 to NT$800,000 by hosting the event because of a lack of donations.
GPT secretary-general Leo Chang (張宏林) said the party was allocating funds from other departments to make up for the financial loss. He said that half of the party’s annual budget of NT$4 million depended on small donations from long-term contributors, and that the amount of small donations had not increased in recent years.
Meanwhile, the long-established Taiwan Environmental Protection Union operates on an annual budget of approximately NT$3.6 million.
A group of academics and professors make regular donations to the union, and when the environmental protection movement was more active in the early years, the union bought an old apartment as its office. Therefore, it has been able to save money that would otherwise have been used for rent.
Secretary-general Chou-han (李卓翰) said the union usually receives NT$25,000 per month in small donations, but added that the amount had not increased recently. To expand its income sources, it is participating in projects led by the Cabinet’s National Youth Commission to make money while promoting environmental education, he said.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
Taiwan Railways Corp (TRC) today announced that Shin Kong Mitsukoshi has been selected as the preferred bidder to operate the Taipei Railway Station shopping mall, replacing the current operator, Breeze Development Co Ltd. Among eight qualified firms that delivered presentations and were evaluated by a review committee, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi was ranked first, while Breeze was named the runner-up, the rail company said in a statement. Contract negotiations are to proceed in accordance with regulations, it said, adding that if negotiations with the top bidder fail, it could invite the second-ranked applicant to enter talks. Breeze in a statement today expressed doubts over
RSS