Given the comprehensive media coverage of the calamitous earthquake in China’s Sichuan Province, psychiatrists yesterday recommended that victims of the 921 earthquake in Taiwan avoid watching the scenes of devastation repeatedly played out on TV to avoid suffering post-trauma syndrome.
After the earthquake hit Sichuan on Monday, reports have emerged of victims and rescuers in the Sept. 21, 1999, earthquake in Taiwan — which killed more than 2,000 people — crying and saying they experience great pain whenever they watch or read about news on the fatal quake in China.
trauma
Lin Ben-tang (林本堂), a psychiatrist at Taichung Veterans General Hospital, said some quake victims and rescuers who suffered trauma during the quake have not yet fully recovered.
If they watch or read the news of the quake in China, it may even trigger post-trauma syndrome, Lin said.
George Chen (陳喬琪), former president of the Taiwanese Society of Psychiatry, said local media outlets should stop running non-stop reports on the quake in China to minimize the impact on Taiwanese quake victims and rescuers.
memories
Samuel Yang (楊紹民), a psychiatrist in Taichung City, echoed Chen’s view, saying that memories of a disaster are often buried deep in a victim’s mind, and that such news coverage could awaken old memories.
He suggested that quake victims and rescuers who are uncomfortable with such news to seek professional help immediately.
“This is the best time to cure their trauma syndrome once and for all,” Yang said.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday condemned Chinese and Russian authorities for escalating regional tensions, citing Chinese warplanes crossing the Taiwan Strait’s median line and joint China-Russia military activities breaching South Korea’s air defense identification zone (KADIZ) over the past two days. A total of 30 Chinese warplanes crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait on Thursday and Friday, entering Taiwan’s northern and southwestern airspace in coordination with 15 naval vessels and three high-altitude balloons, the MAC said in a statement. The Chinese military also carried out another “joint combat readiness patrol” targeting Taiwan on Thursday evening, the MAC said. On
Singapore is to allow imports of Taiwanese raw pork for the first time in 15 years, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday. The Singapore Food Agency has approved imports of fresh pork produced by New Taipei City-based Cha I Shan Foods, which had obtained a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) certification from the ministry to export to Singapore, it said. The ministry said it had hoped Singapore would permit Taiwanese fresh pork imports in addition to processed pork products. Singapore agreed to accept Taiwanese fresh pork after completing a document review and a virtual tour of Cha I Shan Foods’ packing
‘FACT-BASED’: There is no ban, and 2 million Taiwanese have traveled to China this year, which is more than the 285,000 Chinese who visited Taiwan, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday accused China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) of shifting the blame for Beijing’s tourism ban on Taiwan, continuing a war of words that started in the past week. The council’s remark came hours after its Chinese counterpart on Friday accused the government of creating barriers to the resumption of reciprocal group tours across the Taiwan Strait. The TAO accused the MAC of releasing untruthful information and dragging its feet on the tourism sector’s call to establishing ferries linking Pingtung County to China’s Pingtan Island. The MAC failed to respond to overtures to restore direct flights and raised the
Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) yesterday said the city “does not tolerate violence” after the Taipei City Council reported death threats over a planned screening today of a documentary on alleged forced organ harvesting in China. The council’s report follows a flurry of similar threats targeting theaters and institutions screening the documentary, titled State Organs, which accuses Chinese officials of harvesting organs from incarcerated dissidents and Falun Gong members. Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) city councilors who planned to screen the film told a news conference earlier yesterday that the organizers of the screening had received a threat of a knife attack signed
RSS