Yu-cheng Carwash (
"I feel good working here," said Lee, a 20-year-old mentally handicapped worker at the site, which is operated by the Yu-cheng Welfare Foundation for the Handicapped.
Lee and his colleagues, who number over 40 in total, say the first anniversary of the car wash center yesterday gave them a sense of accomplishment as they were able to learn skills there to survive on their own. All are either mentally or physically challenged.
"I am very happy that the center is one year old now. It has created a workplace for the disabled," said section chief Huang Yu-hsueh (黃玉雪), who suffered third degree burns during a car explosion in 1997.
"It's like a big family here. The kids [referring to younger workers at the site] respect me, and I treat them as members of my family," said Huang, who was unable to leave her home for over three years after the accident, fearing what people might think of her appearance.
Ke Pang-sing (
While nobody says handicapped workers are the fastest car-washers around, Kenneth Chu (朱欽浩), the owner of the vehicle Lee and his colleagues were cleaning, cited "efficiency" as the reason why he prefers to use the services of the Yu-cheng site whenever he wants to have the interior of his car cleaned.
"They [workers at the Yu-cheng carwash] do a better job here, as more workers clean the car simultaneously, and [the interior of] my car is far cleaner after the service," Chu said.
However, financial worries cast a shadow over the center's future. It has lost between NT$100,000 and NT$300,000 per month since operations began last October, said Chen Chieh-ju (陳節如), chairwoman of the foundation.
Attributing the losses to rental fees in excess of NT$120,000 per month, as well as a less-than-ideal driveway design, Chen has turned to city officials for help.
Taipei City Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
The current rental subsidy for the site, which is located under the Chienkuo overpass, is 70 percent, said Jeng Tsuen-chui (
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
SECURITY: The purpose for giving Hong Kong and Macau residents more lenient paths to permanent residency no longer applies due to China’s policies, a source said The government is considering removing an optional path to citizenship for residents from Hong Kong and Macau, and lengthening the terms for permanent residence eligibility, a source said yesterday. In a bid to prevent the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from infiltrating Taiwan through immigration from Hong Kong and Macau, the government could amend immigration laws for residents of the territories who currently receive preferential treatment, an official familiar with the matter speaking on condition of anonymity said. The move was part of “national security-related legislative reform,” they added. Under the amendments, arrivals from the Chinese territories would have to reside in Taiwan for
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