A photograph taken on Tuesday of Taoyuan City Government officials bowing to an East African baboon that was fatally shot the previous day provides an absurd snapshot to a sorry farce that led to an avoidable tragedy.
The photograph showed the officials in front of a plastic container draped in a purple cloth on which a bouquet of flowers had been placed. It was a perfect example of a death ritual performed for the benefit of the living, not the dead. The gesture was worthless for any other reason than to distract from personal blame and political guilt.
It contrasts with the scene in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, in which then-Taoyuan Department of Agriculture special committee member Lu Chi-ye (盧紀燁) emerged from the residential building in which the baboon had been trapped, carrying its corpse wrapped in a netting bag, and proceeded to pose for the media apparently without first assessing whether the animal was wounded, tranquilized or dead, and therefore unaware of the kind of treatment that it might require.
Then began the blame game, from which nobody involved is likely to emerge with their reputation unscathed. The finger was initially pointed at the man who fired the fatal shot, a hunter named Lin (林) whose presence nobody wants to take responsibility for. Lin said he had been hired by the Hsinchu County Government, which was concerned that the baboon could cross to its side of the county line. Hsinchu County Agricultural Department Deputy Director-General Fu Chi-mei (傅琦媺) said: “We are confident that we would not order Lin to act outside of Hsinchu jurisdiction.”
The Taoyuan City Government said that it had not instructed any hunters to go to the scene, adding that when Lin was first contacted, they had not discussed the use of a gun. It also said that when Lin entered the building, he was not accompanied by Taoyuan Department of Agriculture officials.
According to Lin’s account, his presence and his credentials were known. He said the baboon had become aggressive when shot at with three tranquilizer darts, all of which missed, and recalled that the order to shoot was given by somebody whom he had believed to be from the Taoyuan Department of Agriculture, but later discovered was a vet from the Leofoo Village Theme Park — a version of events that the theme park denies. Lin said he was then asked to leave by “a tall man from the department.”
The scene was a chaotic, unprofessional, uncoordinated mess, with too many people dispatched from different units. Piecing together various accounts, it seems that there was Lin, two groups of five to 10 individuals from the Taoyuan Department of Agriculture and other units, and a vet from the theme park, all in plain clothes, unclear as to other people’s identities or why they were there.
Did anyone issue the order to shoot, and if so, who? What series of orders or misunderstandings led to Lin appearing on the scene with a gun? Had he been promised a reward for shooting the animal? Did he know he was contravening the law before he fired, and did he think he had official authority to do so? Why was the order to shoot given when the baboon was already contained? What procedures were in place to ensure the animal received appropriate care after being shot, either with a tranquilizer or a lethal weapon? Presumably these official procedures would not have included gloating beside the stricken animal and posing for photographs.
Civic groups push for animal rights to be respected, but when local government officials display such disdain for these rights, they are truly fighting an uphill battle. Bowing to the slain animal’s corpse in a makeshift coffin laughably decorated with a facsimile of a ritual cloth does not cut it.
In a meeting with Haitian Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean-Victor Harvel Jean-Baptiste on Tuesday, President William Lai (賴清德) vowed to continue providing aid to Haiti. Taiwan supports Haiti with development in areas such as agriculture, healthcare and education through initiatives run by the Taiwan International Cooperation and Development Fund (ICDF). The nation it has established itself as a responsible, peaceful and innovative actor committed to global cooperation, Jean-Baptiste said. Testimonies such as this give Taiwan a voice in the global community, where it often goes unheard. Taiwan’s reception in Haiti also contrasts with how China has been perceived in countries in the region
The world has become less predictable, less rules-based, and more shaped by the impulses of strongmen and short-term dealmaking. Nowhere is this more consequential than in East Asia, where the fate of democratic Taiwan hinges on how global powers manage — or mismanage — tensions with an increasingly assertive China. The return of Donald Trump to the White House has deepened the global uncertainty, with his erratic, highly personalized foreign-policy approach unsettling allies and adversaries alike. Trump appears to treat foreign policy like a reality show. Yet, paradoxically, the global unpredictability may offer Taiwan unexpected deterrence. For China, the risk of provoking the
On April 13, I stood in Nanan (南安), a Bunun village in southern Hualien County’s Jhuosi Township (卓溪), absorbing lessons from elders who spoke of the forest not as backdrop, but as living presence — relational, sacred and full of spirit. I was there with fellow international students from National Dong Hwa University (NDHU) participating in a field trip that would become one of the most powerful educational experiences of my life. Ten days later, a news report in the Taipei Times shattered the spell: “Formosan black bear shot and euthanized in Hualien” (April 23, page 2). A tagged bear, previously released
Young supporters of former Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) were detained for posting the names and photographs of judges and prosecutors believed to be overseeing the Core Pacific City redevelopment corruption case. The supporters should be held responsible for their actions. As for Ko’s successor, TPP Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), he should reflect on whether his own comments are provocative and whether his statements might be misunderstood. Huang needs to apologize to the public and the judiciary. In the article, “Why does sorry seem to be the hardest word?” the late political commentator Nan Fang Shuo (南方朔) wrote
RSS