It is said that in big cities, social welfare organizations assist the poor, but it is a fact that the poor are often ignored by the law simply because they only have a small amount of money in savings.
This is precisely why people like Huang Yi-hua (黃怡華) — who goes by the nickname “Sweet Potato mama” and is a member of independent Taipei mayor-elect Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) team of advisers — came out strongly in support of Ko, saying that he is their only hope of turning their lives around.
The humiliating and tragic life of poor people in the city is the result of the government’s heartless protection of predatory businesses, something that has been highlighted recently by the plight of the laid-off freeway toll collectors.
In 1982, I heard a tragic story of poverty combined with ill health.
According to the person telling the story: “An Aboriginal child with meningitis — who lived in Jianshi Township (尖石) in Hsinchu County — and the child’s parents walked for six hours over mountains, then traveled by bus for one-and-a-half hours and arrived at the emergency room at Taoyuan General Hospital, which was the best there was at that time, in the evening.”
“That evening, when I gave the father the prescription for his child’s medicine, which cost NT$76, the father hesitated. When I asked him why, he said that he only had NT$50 on him, so I immediately gave him a NT$100 bill and told him to hurry up and get the medication,” the person said.
“During the two weeks that the child was in the hospital, I helped the child’s father with money on two other occasions. On the day the child left the hospital, I could see the happiness in their faces and the tears in their eyes,” the person said.
This year, when providing free medical consultations in the Lala mountain area in Taoyuan County and poverty relief in Hsinchu County’s Jhudong Township (竹東), I met another two poor Aboriginal families where five of nine people were seriously ill and awaiting treatment.
Once again, because they had only a small amount of savings, they were ignored by authorities, and we had to send four shipments of supplies to each of these families to relieve their situation.
We must tear down walls and not forget the poor. We must stop limiting the poor by building walls around them based on a heartless piece of legislation and instead take a more tolerant, merciful and caring approach toward such families. We must treat families suffering from poverty and ill health with love and care.
In 1927, a doctor named Chiang Wei-shui (蔣渭水) said: “Compatriots must unite, unity is power.” The term “compatriot” includes the many poor Taiwanese.
Yesterday morning, the day after the nine-in-one elections, we took four students from medical departments and rice, noodles, milk powder, diapers, clothes, shoes and other supplies to the Lala mountain area.
We provided free medical consultations for Aborigines living there and experienced the power of helping the poor and sick, of not forgetting the poor and relying on love and caring in order to tear down the walls that divide the poor from the rich.
Mayo Kuo is a Taiwan-based pediatrician.
Translated by Perry Svensson
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
In an article published on this page on Tuesday, Kaohsiung-based journalist Julien Oeuillet wrote that “legions of people worldwide would care if a disaster occurred in South Korea or Japan, but the same people would not bat an eyelid if Taiwan disappeared.” That is quite a statement. We are constantly reading about the importance of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), hailed in Taiwan as the nation’s “silicon shield” protecting it from hostile foreign forces such as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and so crucial to the global supply chain for semiconductors that its loss would cost the global economy US$1
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
Sasha B. Chhabra’s column (“Michelle Yeoh should no longer be welcome,” March 26, page 8) lamented an Instagram post by renowned actress Michelle Yeoh (楊紫瓊) about her recent visit to “Taipei, China.” It is Chhabra’s opinion that, in response to parroting Beijing’s propaganda about the status of Taiwan, Yeoh should be banned from entering this nation and her films cut off from funding by government-backed agencies, as well as disqualified from competing in the Golden Horse Awards. She and other celebrities, he wrote, must be made to understand “that there are consequences for their actions if they become political pawns of