The Social Housing Promotion Alliance used a skit about sky-high housing prices, performed outside one of Taipei’s luxury apartment complexes yesterday, to announce it would join with labor groups in the annual May Day parade.
On the sidewalk in front of The Palace (帝寶), several alliance members pushed a wooden model of a snail with a placard advertising real estate priced at more than NT$10 million (US$345,000) toward The Palace, only to be stopped by a big net festooned with signs reading “no social housing,” “unfair taxing scheme” and “no housing law.”
The snail represented people who cannot afford to buy their own homes, since they are nicknamed “snails without a shell,” while the ad on the back of the snail symbolized the burden the “snails” have to carry to have a place of their own, the event organizers said.
Photo: Huang Hsuan-pi, Taipei Times
The net, they said, represented the social system — or the lack of social mechanism — that blocks many people from owning their own home.
“We will join workers in their May Day parade this year, because we support their call for the government to end poverty in this country,” alliance spokesman Lu Ping-yi (呂秉怡) said. “We will also demand the government create a fair and just housing environment.”
Lu said the alliance has nothing against people who can afford to purchase an apartment in The Palace — at an average price of about NT$2 million per ping (坪, approximately 3.3m2) — but the complex is so symbolic of Taipei’s high real estate prices that it provided the perfect backdrop for its skit.
“The existence of luxury housing complexes such as The Palace compared when so many people cannot afford to own even a small place shows that this is a very serious issue,” Lu said. “The government should help to bridge the gap through fairer tax reforms, social housing projects and reallocating social resources.”
Taiwan Labor Front executive director Yang Shu-wei (楊書瑋) welcomed the alliance’s participation in the parade.
“We would like to invite everyone to take part in the parade. We want to remind government officials that the people are their bosses — not just big corporations and the wealthy,” Yang said.
The May 1 parade will depart at 1:30pm from Exit No. 5 of Taipei’s San Yat-sen Memorial Hall MRT station.
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
An SOS message in a bottle has been found in Ireland that is believed to have come from the Taiwanese captain of fishing vessel Yong Yu Sing No. 18 (永裕興18號), who has been missing without a trace for over four years, along with nine Indonesian crew members. The vessel, registered to Suao (蘇澳), went missing near Hawaii on Dec. 30, 2020. The ship has since been recovered, but the 10 crew members have never been found. The captain, surnamed Lee (李), is believed to have signed the note with his name. A post appeared on Reddit on Tuesday after a man
Instead of threatening tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, the US should try to reinforce cooperation with Taiwan on semiconductor development to take on challenges from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), a Taiwanese think tank said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose across-the-board import duties of 32 percent on Taiwan-made goods and levy a separate tariff on semiconductors, which Taiwan is hoping to avoid. The Research Institute for Democracy, Society, and Emerging Technology (DSET), a National Science and Technology Council think tank, said that US efforts should focus on containing China’s semiconductor rise rather than impairing Taiwan. “Without