While some men in the nation consider compulsory military service a waste of time, servicemen enlisted in the alternative service, who were honored for their conduct yesterday, said they were grateful to be able make a meaningful contribution to society.
“Many people think it’s a waste of time to serve in the military, but I don’t feel that what I’m doing is wasting my time. Rather, I am happy to have the opportunity to serve people and make a positive contribution to society,” Wu Jui-wen (巫瑞文) said at a ceremony held by the Ministry of the Interior in Taipei to honor 100 alternative servicemen for their work.
Differing from regular military service, enlisted men in the alternative service are assigned to government institutions and public establishments after basic military training.
Wu, for instance, served at the railroad station in Luodong Township (羅東), Yilan County.
However, other than the regular tasks of helping out with the daily affairs of the station, Wu also worked on his own initiative.
He would help those in need, such as the physically challenged or elderly people, to get in and out of the station or on and off the trains.
“I majored in tourism at college, and for me, serving passengers at the station was no different to serving customers at establishments frequented by tourists, so this has been a very good preparation for my future career,” he said.
“The main ideal of service is to fulfill the needs of your guests,” he added.
For Wu Kai-yi (吳凱逸), who serves at the Tainan City Fire Department, the job has been more intense.
“At the fire station, you need to do a lot of different things and everything you do might be a matter of life and death, so at first it was very hard to get used to the job,” he said.
Speaking of the most unforgettable experience during his service, Wu Kai-yi said it was the first time he saved a patient’s life by administering CPR in an ambulance.
“I was really touched and overjoyed when I saved a person’s life with my own hands for the first time, and that joy is what supports me when I am stressed by the nature of my work,” he said.
For Chen Yu-shu (陳玉樹), the challenges he faces not only come from his work, but also from his environment.
Chen serves at a public health center in Lishan (梨山), which is nearly 2,000m above sea level in the remote mountains of Heping District (和平), Taichung City.
In an area that lacks medical resources and transportation, Chen often has to travel long distances on foot to visit elderly residents in their homes.
He not only shows concern for their health, but also chats with them as a friend.
“Besides having to hike long distances in the mountains, one difficulty I have to overcome is altitude sickness,” he said.
“Despite the challenges, I feel happy with what I’m doing, I’m really glad that I can help people who need it,” Chen added.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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