A group of environmentalists and writers yesterday launched an “environmental priorities coalition” to promote sustainable development, calling on voters to support the Green Party-Social Democratic Party Alliance and to vote against the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), which they said has depleted natural resources for development.
Headed by poet Wu Sheng (吳晟), the coalition includes dozens of environmental groups and prominent writers and academics, who urged voters to support the alliance in sending environmentally conscious candidates into the legislature ahead of the Jan. 16 presidential and legislative elections.
Wu said that the KMT is responsible for the exhaustion of natural resources for economic growth, which has been the mainstay of Taiwan’s development over the years, while the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has assimilated that development mindset, resulting in increasingly serious pollution problems.
“The KMT must be crushed in this election so that it can reflect on its mistakes. We should also supervise the DPP’s government [if it wins the elections], because it has been influenced by the KMT’s development mindset. We will cast legislator-at-large ballots for the alliance so there is supervision in the legislature,” Wu said.
Taiwan Environmental Protection Union Pingtung office director Hung Hui-hsiang (洪輝祥) said electricity in Taiwan ranks among the cheapest in the world, because the government has subsidized power for industries, thereby encouraging energy and pollution-intensive businesses at the expense of the environment, a policy that will lead to intergenerational injustice, as it leaves pollution to later generations.
Homemaker United Foundation secretary-general Lai Hsiao-feng (賴曉芬) said that the foundation had rarely endorsed a particular party in the past, but Taiwan’s environment has deteriorated at an alarming rate, resulting in a recent series of food scares, so it decided to step forward and support the alliance and its environmentally conscious candidates.
While the foundation’s former president, Chen Man-li (陳曼麗), is a legislator-at-large candidate under the DPP banner, she is one of the few environmentalists to be recruited by either major party, so her candidacy might simply be an attempt to boost the DPP’s image rather than the formation of a new force in the legislature, Lai said.
Changhua County Environmental Protection Union secretary-general Shih Yueh-ying (施月英) said she has witnessed the perseverance of alliance legislative candidates Lee Ken-cheng (李根政) and Thomas Chan (詹順貴) on environmental protection since 2006, when the two were members of an Environmental Protection Administration committee that was reviewing the much-maligned Kuokuang Petrochemical Technology Co refinery project in Changhua.
Taiwan needs a better political system, National Chengchi University professor Hsu Shih-jung (徐世榮) said, adding that Lee and Chan, as well as the alliance’s other candidates, could be trusted to bring about political reform, as they would never be bought by corporations.
Eight restaurants in Taiwan yesterday secured a one-star rating from the Michelin Guide Taiwan for the first time, while three one-star restaurants from last year’s edition were promoted to two stars. Forty-three restaurants were awarded one star this year, including 34 in Taipei, five in Taichung and four in Kaohsiung. Hosu (好嶼), Chuan Ya (川雅), Sushi Kajin (鮨嘉仁), aMaze (心宴), La Vie by Thomas Buhner, Yuan Yi (元一) and Frassi in Taipei and Front House (方蒔) in Kaohsiung received a one-star rating for the first time. Hosu is known for innovative Taiwanese dishes, while Chuan Ya serves Sichuan cuisine and aMaze specializes
Taitung County is to launch charter flights to Malaysia at the end of this year, after setting up flights to Vietnam and Thailand, the Taitung County Government said yesterday. The new charter flight services, provided by low-cost carrier Batik Air Malaysia, would be part of five-day tour packages for visits to Taitung County or Malaysia. The Batik Air charter flight, with about 200 seats, would take Malaysian tourists to Taitung on Dec. 30 and then at 12:35pm return to Kuala Lumpur with Taiwanese tourists. Another charter flight would bring the Taiwanese home on Jan. 3 next year, arriving at 5:30pm, before taking the
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. (THSRC) plans to ease strained capacity during peak hours by introducing new fare rules restricting passengers traveling without reserved seats in 2026, company Chairman Shih Che (史哲) said Wednesday. THSRC needs to tackle its capacity issue because there have been several occasions where passengers holding tickets with reserved seats did not make it onto their train in stations packed with individuals traveling without a reserved seat, Shih told reporters in a joint interview in Taipei. Non-reserved seats allow travelers maximum flexibility, but it has led to issues relating to quality of service and safety concerns, especially during
An exhibition celebrating Taiwan and Japan’s comic culture opened on Saturday in Taichung, featuring a section that explores Taiwanese reproductions of Japanese comics from when martial law limited Japanese representation. “A Century of Manga Culture: An Encounter of Taiwan and Japan’s Youth” held its Taiwan opening ceremony at Taichung’s National Taiwan Museum of Comics after an initial one-month run in Japan’s Kyoto International Manga Museum between May 24 and June 24. Much like the Kyoto exhibition, the show mainly celebrates the comic connection between Taiwan and Japan through late Taiwanese comic book
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