While most Taiwanese were celebrating the arrival of the new year at home, a group of Taiwanese experts were gearing up to conduct technical assistance 8,000km from home, in the Horn of Africa.
Members of the Taiwan Technical Mission in Somaliland had a simple dinner on New Year’s Eve, said Mars Shiue (薛烜坪), who heads the mission.
“The spirit of New Year’s celebrations is hardly felt in Somaliland, as the country follows the Islamic calendar,” Shiue said, adding that New Year’s Day was a working day.
The mission formally opened its office in the capital of Hargeisa on Dec. 1 last year, a few months after a Technical Cooperation Framework Agreement was signed between Taiwan and Somaliland — a self-declared state which many governments around the world consider part of Somalia.
The agreement was part of the establishment of closer ties between the two nations, including the opening of the Taiwan Representative Office in Somaliland on Aug. 17.
The mission comprises experts on healthcare, information and communications technology, and agriculture.
Its four members arrived in Somaliland after having gathered considerable hands-on experience in international projects, and would work with local partners to improve local agricultural production, e-government services, and healthcare for pregnant women and newborns, Shiue said.
A demonstration farm would be the centerpiece of the agricultural support program, Shiue said, adding that the mission aims to introduce food crops suitable for production in the local drought-prone semi-arid climate.
The farm would also conduct training and workshops on field management techniques, he added.
Despite the members’ extensive experience abroad, the team still needs to get used to the new environment, and work to overcome cultural and technological barriers, Shiue said.
While fast, wireless Internet is available in urban centers, connectivity in rural areas is weak, he said.
Outside of their work, there is not much to do, Shiue added.
“Foreigners living in Somaliland have to adapt to a monotonous and simple lifestyle. We need to adjust our mentality,” he added.
Yet there are bright sides to living in Somaliland, a place that Shiue describes as full of surprises.
“There are many tank trucks carrying water to Hargeisa, while donkey carts with containers of water are a common sight in small alleys in the city,” Shiue said.
Most households in Hargeisa, a city of more than 1.2 million residents, are not connected to water lines, as infrastructure development has fallen behind population growth, he said.
Water costs are up to 30 times higher than in Taiwan, Shiue added.
Shiue, an agricultural expert, said that he is grateful to work abroad and see how his work can change people’s lives for the better.
Before heading the mission, Shiue held posts with Taiwan’s International Cooperation and Development Fund in Palau, Eswatini, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and the Solomon Islands.
Shiue said that challenges lie ahead for the new mission due to the region’s political instability and lack of economic development in certain areas, making comprehensive planning an utmost necessity.
“Luckily, through extensive discussions and on-site surveys with the Somaliland side, challenges have slowly turned into driving forces for the three project areas,” he said.
STAY AWAY: An official said people should avoid disturbing snakes, as most do not actively attack humans, but would react defensively if threatened Taitung County authorities yesterday urged the public to stay vigilant and avoid disturbing snakes in the wild, following five reported snakebite cases in the county so far this year. Taitung County Fire Department secretary Lin Chien-cheng (林建誠) said two of the cases were in Donghe Township (東河) and involved the Taiwan habus, one person was bit by a Chinese pit viper near the South Link Railway and the remaining two were caused by unidentified snakes. He advised residents near fields to be cautious of snakes hiding in shady indoor areas, especially when entering or leaving their homes at night. In case of a
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
RSS