Aboriginal rights campaigner Panai Kusui and other advocates yesterday relocated dozens of potted lilies from their protest site at the 228 Peace Memorial Park to an art museum as the Taipei City Government prepares to demolish their camp next week.
After the government announced the Guidelines for Demarcating Aboriginal Land or Tribal Areas (原住民族土地或部落範圍土地劃設辦法) in February 2017, Panai and other advocates camped on Ketagalan Boulevard, in front of the Presidential Office Building, in protest and were later forced to move to the nearby park.
The guidelines restrict Aboriginal domains to government-owned plots and exclude areas owned by private landowners, enabling businesses to launch controversial development projects on Aboriginal land, such as the Miramar Resort Hotel (美麗灣渡假村) project, advocate Liao Hsing-yu (廖幸渝) said yesterday.
Photo: Chen Yi-kuan, Taipei Times
Under the slogan “No one is an outsider,” the campaigners yesterday had camped in the area for 696 days, Liao said.
However, the municipality has said that it would remove their belongings on Tuesday, she said.
The government might have timed the removal to take advantage of the absence of other key campaigners, such as filmmaker Mayaw Biho and singer Nabu Husungan Istanda, who have left for other events, she added.
RELOCATION
The activists yesterday invited members of the public to help them relocate some of the nearly 300 pots of Taiwanese indigenous lily sprouts to the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, where they have an exhibition area at the Taipei Biennial, which this year is titled Post-Nature — A Museum as an Ecosystem and ends on March 10.
Lilies are a sacred symbol for the Rukai people and campaigners from different Aboriginal communities have expressed the hope that they could return home by the time the plants blossom.
VITALITY
Taiwanese indigenous lilies are full of vitality and people who care for them should not rush to weed their pots, Panai said, before transporting some of the lilies by MRT along with nearly 20 participants.
The Democratic Progressive Party government has defended Taiwanese dignity in the face of Chinese pressure, yet it is insensitive toward the pain of Aborigines, who were deprived of their ancestral lands, languages and cultures, she said in a previous TV interview.
She added that she would continue to fight for Aborigines’ rights and raise public awareness about their predicament.
Three Taiwanese airlines have prohibited passengers from packing Bluetooth earbuds and their charger cases in checked luggage. EVA Air and Uni Air said that Bluetooth earbuds and charger cases are categorized as portable electronic devices, which should be switched off if they are placed in checked luggage based on international aviation safety regulations. They must not be in standby or sleep mode. However, as charging would continue when earbuds are placed in the charger cases, which would contravene international aviation regulations, their cases must be carried as hand luggage, they said. Tigerair Taiwan said that earbud charger cases are equipped
Foreign travelers entering Taiwan on a short layover via Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport are receiving NT$600 gift vouchers from yesterday, the Tourism Administration said, adding that it hopes the incentive would boost tourism consumption at the airport. The program, which allows travelers holding non-Taiwan passports who enter the country during a layover of up to 24 hours to claim a voucher, aims to promote attractions at the airport, the agency said in a statement on Friday. To participate, travelers must sign up on the campaign Web site, the agency said. They can then present their passport and boarding pass for their connecting international
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
WEATHER Typhoon forming: CWA A tropical depression is expected to form into a typhoon as early as today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, adding that the storm’s path remains uncertain. Before the weekend, it would move toward the Philippines, the agency said. Some time around Monday next week, it might reach a turning point, either veering north toward waters east of Taiwan or continuing westward across the Philippines, the CWA said. Meanwhile, the eye of Typhoon Kalmaegi was 1,310km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, as of 2am yesterday, it said. The storm is forecast to move through central
RSS