A number of public figures, including a film director, performers and an Olympic bronze medalist, yesterday urged the public to participate in an anti-nuclear road run in Taipei slated for Saturday next week.
The event, dubbed “Run Away From Nuclear” (核輻大逃殺) and sponsored by the Anti-nuclear Alliance of Fathers, the Taiwan Environmental Protection Union and the Democratic Progressive Party, is a 5km road-running event that will begin at 7am from Ketagalan Boulevard. The run will simulate a mass of people escaping from radiation after a nuclear accident.
At a press conference yesterday, film director Ko I-chen (柯一正), actor Ralf Chiu (邱彥翔) and Chi Cheng (紀政), the 1968 Olympics bronze-medal winner in the women’s 80m hurdles, called for more people to sign up before registration ends tomorrow.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Also making the call was Hsu Wen-lin (許文麟), who uses a wheelchair after having broken his spine.
Recalling attending anti-nuclear events with his children more than 10 years ago, Hsu said that Taiwan cannot afford to have a nuclear disaster, because Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster has already shown the devastating consequences.
“I will attend the event in a wheelchair to protest against nuclear energy,” he said.
Chi said Germany has set a timetable for decommissioning all of its nuclear plants, while Australia has decided not to build any more nuclear facilities — and that both are good role models that Taiwan can learn from.
“Being silent is the same as approving the government’s policies,” she said, adding that she hopes more people are willing to participate in the event to promote a nuclear-free homeland, for the good of themselves and their children.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
The National Immigration Agency has banned two Chinese from returning to Taiwan, after they published social media content it described as disrespectful to national sovereignty. The agency imposed a two-month ban on a Chinese man surnamed Liang (梁) and a permanent ban on a woman surnamed Yang (楊), an influencer with 23 million followers, in October last year and last week respectively. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) yesterday said on the sidelines of a legislative meeting that Chinese visitors to Taiwan are required to comply with the rules and regulations governing their entry permits. The government has handled the ban and
RSS