Several activists staged a “Rather Nude than Nuke” rally on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office yesterday to coincide with the 25th -anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster today.
The protesters urged President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to implement a national energy policy and to take proactive action to prevent nuclear disasters.
The protest, led by former -Taiwan Environmental Protection Union (TEPU) secretary-general Ho Tsung-hsun (何宗勳), started with the activists singing the rally’s theme song.
It was followed by a performance by the music band Strawberry, who wore nuclear protective gear to highlight the fact that only government officials would have protective clothing to wear in case of a nuclear catastrophe.
Singer Lee Mi (李宓) represented the general public by crying for help.
Lee then stripped down to flesh-colored underwear. Soon afterwards, female police officers standing by covered Lee with a large cloth.
Taipei City’s Zhongzheng First Police District said the organizer failed to follow Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) regulations by filing an application in advance, adding that police had issued warnings twice during the rally.
Activists could be fined up to NT$30,000 and Lee may also have violated the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法), police said.
Lee said she did not break any law because she simply protested through a performance of body art.
Also yesterday, representatives from 21 university student clubs from across the nation gathered in front of the Executive Yuan to demand a non-nuclear environmental policy based on clean energy.
The students offered a short satirical performance about a possible future if the government failed to change its nuclear policy.
In the fictitious scenario, Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) promised the public that nuclear power was safe, but after several years households had to put on radiation protection suits and keep nuclear waste at home.
Radiation leakage at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Japan, damaged in a devastating earthquake and tsunami last month, has raised anxieties about the possible threat of nuclear radiation in Taiwan.
Hsieh Shuo-yuan (謝碩元), a student at National Taiwan University, said the group urged the government to reflect on its current energy policy and to consider other possibilities, such as shifting to a more power-saving industrial structure.
“We want to take generational justice into our hands,” he said, amid shouts of: “Care for the industrial structure. I want a sustainable future. Re-evaluate energy policy now. Nuclear power is not the only option.”
Young people are the future of society, said Seaman Wong (王俊朗), a student from Hong Kong studying at National Taiwan University. If they don’t care about nuclear power issues in Taiwan now, then the future civil society of Taiwan is at risk.
“When facing these problems, people in Hong Kong have no choice but to accept them, but that now that the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant is being built in Taiwan, Taiwanese should stand up and decide their own destiny,” Wong said. “Taiwanese have more freedom and power to voice their opinions on nuclear policies than people across the Taiwan Strait.”
An official from the Executive Yuan came out to accept the students’ statement and said she would hand over the statement to the departments in charge of this issue.
A series of anti-nuclear public forums will take place in several universities beginning tonight, featuring a documentary and lectures by academics and environmental protection NGOs.
The students said they also planned to take part in a nationwide anti-nuclear protest on Saturday.
Seventy percent of middle and elementary schools now conduct English classes entirely in English, the Ministry of Education said, as it encourages schools nationwide to adopt this practice Minister of Education (MOE) Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) is scheduled to present a report on the government’s bilingual education policy to the Legislative Yuan’s Education and Culture Committee today. The report would outline strategies aimed at expanding access to education, reducing regional disparities and improving talent cultivation. Implementation of bilingual education policies has varied across local governments, occasionally drawing public criticism. For example, some schools have required teachers of non-English subjects to pass English proficiency
‘FORM OF PROTEST’: The German Institute Taipei said it was ‘shocked’ to see Nazi symbolism used in connection with political aims as it condemned the incident Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 yesterday amid an outcry over a Nazi armband he wore to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case on Tuesday night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and apparently covering the book with a coat. This is a serious international scandal and Chinese
TRADE: The premier pledged safeguards on ‘Made in Taiwan’ labeling, anti-dumping measures and stricter export controls to strengthen its position in trade talks Products labeled “made in Taiwan” must be genuinely made in Taiwan, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday, vowing to enforce strict safeguards against “origin laundering” and initiate anti-dumping investigations to prevent China dumping its products in Taiwan. Cho made the remarks in a discussion session with representatives from industries in Kaohsiung. In response to the US government’s recent announcement of “reciprocal” tariffs on its trading partners, President William Lai (賴清德) and Cho last week began a series of consultations with industry leaders nationwide to gather feedback and address concerns. Taiwanese and US officials held a videoconference on Friday evening to discuss the
PERSONAL DATA: The implicated KMT members allegedly compiled their petitions by copying names from party lists without the consent of the people concerned Judicial authorities searched six locations yesterday and questioned six people, including one elderly Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) member and five KMT Youth League associates, about alleged signature forgery and fraud relating to their recall efforts against two Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators. After launching a probe into alleged signature forgery and related fraud in the KMT’s recall effort, prosecutors received a number of complaints, including about one petition that had 1,748 signatures of voters whose family members said they had already passed away, and also voters who said they did not approve the use of their name, Taipei Deputy Chief Prosecutor
RSS