A solution to hotline staffing
Your report on the problems affecting Taipei's suicide hotlines should give great cause for concern ("Suicide counselors plead for help," July 22, page 2).
The staffing problem could be alleviated by recruiting volunteer social workers from college students who may be awarded with credits toward their coursework upon the successful completion of their volunteer work. This would create a win-win situation for both the hotlines and the students involved.
Saving lives is a very urgent matter. The hotlines must solve these problems as soon as
possible.
Ching H. Li
Jersey City, New Jersey
Capitalists don't give easily
Cao Chang-ching (
protesters fighting for?" July 27, page 12.) Two protests argue against this assertion.
There were over 4,000 protesters in Chiang Mai, Thailand in May 2000 demonstrating against the policies of the Asian Development Bank. The majority of the protesters, according to eyewitness accounts, were overwhelmingly poor farmers whose livelihoods were being adversely affected by the bank's policies.
More recently there were protests against the IMF in Papua New Guinea. Again, working class people of that nation were represented in large numbers. Two of the protesters were killed.
Cao also fails to recognize that poor people do not have the opportunity to travel to Genoa, Quebec, or Honolulu to protest. Cao might also mention daily demonstrations by workers in South Korea, China and Mexico.
Cao writes, "The history of capitalism ... has proven that working conditions and
workers' welfare are greatly improved as capitalists accumulate wealth." This statement ignores the great sacrifice made by working people in their struggle for a better life. Make no mistake -- capitalists have never given away anything without pressure from below.
There would be no Occupational Safety and Health Admin-istration or child labor laws in the US without the protests of workers. There would be no labor representatives on the boards of German corporations without the struggle of workers. A cursory look at the history of labor by Cao would inform him that organized protests, not the accumulation of capital, have led to the relatively decent, but threatened, situation of workers in the West.
Protest has become increasingly difficult. I worked with a group of lawyers in Honolulu, Hawaii, in an effort to obtain permits to protest against the 2001 Asian Development Bank meeting. The Honolulu city and Hawaii state governments spent over US$7 million on weapons and training for police and national guards on the policing of demonstrations while educators in the state were on strike and the state claimed to have no money for them.
Many protesters were scared by the arms buildup and stayed away when -- after a great struggle in the land of the free -- protests were allowed to proceed at the last minute.
Cao also forgets to mention that recent property damage by protesters has occurred in places where they were effectively isolated from the meetings -- Genoa and Quebec. Denied peaceful methods of communication, they resort to less peaceful means. Although this is perhaps regrettable, it is to be expected and even understood. I would encourage everyone to take a closer look at the Seattle protests. Teargas was fired before black-hooded folks ever broke a Starbucks window.
Nathan D. Miller
Tsaotun, Nantou
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