A band of elderly leprosy survivors descended upon the Legislative Yuan and Executive Yuan yesterday in a bid to prevent the planned destruction of their home and former prison of the past 50 years in Taipei County.
Waving fists and chanting slogans, over twenty wheelchair-bound seniors and their supporters camped outside the Executive Yuan early yesterday afternoon, Cheered on by supporters from over twenty social groups, the seniors called on the government to stop their home, Lo-Sheng Hospital, from being torn down next month to make way for the Taipei City Hsinchuang MRT factory while they are forcibly moved to a nearby high-rise.
PHOTO: CHRN TZE-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
The Executive Yuan told protestors that it would enter negotiations with the groups this coming Monday on the issue. But the seniors responded that the meeting was not enough and moved their protest to the Legislative Yuan, where Premier Yu Shyi-kun was being questioned.
After calling for Yu to come out, the protestors were met by Taipei County Legislator Wang Tuo (王拓), who promised to relay their message to Taipei City Ma Ying-jeou (
Protestors emphasized yesterday that Lo-sheng Hospital and its residents should be given special consideration from the government because of the important and tragic role they have played in Taiwan's medical history.
The hospital was created as the nation's sole government-supported home for leprosy victims in 1930 during Japanese rule in Taiwan, explained protest co-organizer and Youth Lo-Sheng Alliance founder Fan Yen-chiou (
Given the stigma about leprosy, residents at Lo-Sheng were essentially placed in a government-enforced quarantine for the past fifty years, said Fan, also a history professor at National Taiwan University for Science and Technology.
Medical advancements have cured the 300-odd seniors of their condition, although most still bear disfiguring marks from the disease. However, the fifty years that most residents spent at Lo-Sheng have made them consider the hospital their home, and it's unfair of the government to kick them out, Fan said yesterday.
"These seniors have been forced to sacrifice for the public good. The government should respect their wishes and make it up to the residents for their years of isolation," said Fan.
The government's decision to tear down Lo-Sheng and move the seniors to a nearby high-rise may at first glance seem humane. But the residents and their supporters say it's actually unfair to them, since many have physical handicaps as a result of leprosy and use four-wheel scooters. Besides having established their lives in the local community surrounding Lo-Sheng, the new set-up will inconvenience many of the seniors, who should be allowed to just live their lives in peace, said Taiwan Association for Human Rights (TAHR) director Wu Hau-jen (吳豪人) yesterday.
The protest, organized by university students in the Youth Lo-Sheng Alliance, the Lo-Sheng Rescue Alliance, the TAHR, and other groups, called for the government to first, guarantee the human rights of the seniors and not remove the residents from their home. Second, the government should assume responsibility and classify Lo-Sheng as a protected national historical site. Third, the government should coordinate with Taipei City's Department of Rapid Transit Systems (DORTS) to postpone construction on the MRT factory until the hospital's classification has been finalized. And fourth, the government should establish a committee to determine an alternate plan for construction that will satisfy both the DORTS and the residents.
Despite the Executive Yuan's promise that it will meet with the groups Monday, the prospects look bleak for Lo-Sheng, said Wu Jaizhen (
"We will keep protesting if the government does not stop construction," Wu said. "However, the seniors have no power at the ballot box. It is unlikely that they will be heard."
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS