President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) comments on Wednesday about the number of suicides this year sparked a war of words between Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers yesterday.
During an evening symposium with residents of Greater Taichung’s Dongshih District (東勢), Ma said that with the decline of natural disasters and man-made errors, the decline in the number of suicides between January and September of this year — 700 less than the same period last year — “surprised me very much.”
DPP caucus whips Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) and Wong Chin-chu (翁金珠) accused Ma at press conference of being cold-blooded and heartless, using the public’s pain as a political achievement.
In an attempt to draw a comparison, they said if Ma could be credited for the lack of typhoons this year, how would he explain the casualties and destruction wrought by Typhoon Morakot in 2009?
Noting that a national suicide prevention center was established on Dec. 9, 2005, under the former DPP administration, Tsai and Wong said that while there had been an increase in the number of calls to the center every year since its establishment, the number of suicides has been gradually dropping year by year.
“President Ma, please stop rubbing salt into people’s wounds by talking about natural disasters or suicides,” they said.
However, KMT Legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) said that the declining number of suicides was the resultof the appropriate and quick response of the government, such as the high standards asked of social workers, and hence the reduction was commendable.
Additional reporting by Chang Jui-chen
A free exhibition aimed at teaching the public about air-raid shelters and basic emergency personal protection skills today opened on the concourse level of the Taipei MRT's Ximen Station. The event, organized by the National Police Agency, aims to raise awareness about disaster preparedness ahead of nationwide air raid drills scheduled from July 15 to 18, which are part of broader urban resilience exercises. The exhibition outlines the recommended actions people should take depending on whether they are indoors, commuting or outdoors when air-raid sirens sound. It also teaches people how to equip air-raid shelters and pack emergency "go bags," with displays
A first shipment of five tons of Taiwan tilapia was sent from Tainan to Singapore on Wednesday, following an order valued at NT$600,000 (US$20,500) placed with a company in the city. The products, including frozen whole fish and pre- cooked fish belly, were dispatched from Jiangjun Fishing Harbor, where a new aquatic processing and logistics center is under construction. At the launch, Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) called the move a “breakthrough,” marking Taiwan’s expansion into the Singaporean tilapia market. Taiwan’s tilapia exports have traditionally focused on the United States, Canada, and the Middle East, Huang said, adding that the new foothold in
An electric bus charging facility at Taipei Metro’s Beitou Depot officially opened yesterday with 22 charging bays to serve the city’s 886 electric buses. Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) told a ceremony to mark the opening of the facility that the city aims to fully electrify its bus fleet by 2030. The number of electric buses has grown from about 650 last year to 886 this year and is expected to surpass 1,000 by the end of the year, Chiang said. Setting up the charging station in a metro depot optimizes land and energy use, as the metro uses power mainly during the
An exhibition demonstrating the rejuvenation of the indigenous Kuskus Village in Pingtung County’s Mudan Township (牡丹) opened at the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency’s conservation station in Taipei on Thursday. Agency Director-General Lin Hwa-ching (林華慶) said they have been promoting the use and development of forestry resources to local indigenous residents for eight years to drive regional revitalization. While modern conservation approaches mostly stem from western scientific research, eco-friendly knowledge and skills passed down through generations of indigenous people, who have lived in Taiwan for centuries, could be more suitable for the environment, he said. The agency’s Pingtung branch Director-General Yang Jui-fen (楊瑞芬)
RSS