Tao Aborigines from Orchid Island (蘭嶼) yesterday protested on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office in Taipei, saying radioactive material was leaking from a nuclear waste dump on the island. They demanded that the storage facility be removed.
“Survival is the only reason why we are here; we’re here for the survival of generations to come,” Tao Cultural Development Association chairman Syaman Raus told a crowd standing in the rain.
“A nuclear leak has occurred. The water, the soil, the animals and vegetation on the island have been contaminated. We live on a small island with very limited arable land and resources. How can we live?” he asked.
Photo: CNA
“Taiwan Power Co [Taipower] said there’s no problem. It’s all lies,” he said.
Although residents of Orchid Island — also known as Lanyu or Pongso no Tao, “Island of the People” in the Tao language — have long suspected that a radioactive leak has occurred, it was first officially confirmed when Academia Sinica research fellow Huh Chih-an (扈治安) detected radioactivity on the island after being commissioned by Taipower at the end of last month.
Taipower at the time argued that the amount of radioactive material detected was minimal and could not be considered a leak.
It said that only a few rust-eaten barrels storing nuclear waste had holes in them and that the company was checking the condition of all the barrels.
Orchid Island is home to the country’s only nuclear waste storage facility, which was completed in 1982 to serve the nuclear power plants on Taiwan proper.
Individual researchers detected unusual amounts of cesium-137 and cobalt-37 in soil from farmland on the island about a decade ago.
Both are elements found in nuclear waste.
Despite the rain, dozens of people from the island stood on the boulevard, wearing traditional outfits and holding banners calling for an end to nuclear waste storage on Lanyu.
“The Republic of China [ROC] government is a killer government,” said Syaman Ngarayu, a preacher at a local church.
“We Taos are such a small people and the ROC is contaminating our water and our soil, they’re killing us with nuclear waste,” he said.
Syaman Rapongan, a writer and native of Lanyu, read a protest poem that he wrote.
“Wild savages, here’s your breakfast,” he read. “Cobalt-60 is for the men, cesium-137 is for the women. As for the kids, extinction is your breakfast.”
After reading the poem, Syaman Rapongan accused the government of deceiving the Tao.
He said that since the ROC government took over Orchid Island the quality of life has been deteriorating.
“In 1980, you [the ROC government] said that you would build a manufacturing factory for canned fish for us. However, it turned out that this ‘factory’ is a nuclear storage facility,” Syaman Rapongan said.
“We’ve been searching for happiness, but since our encounter, the ROC government brings us only threats to our survival,” he said.
ALIGNED THINKING: Taiwan and Japan have a mutual interest in trade, culture and engineering, and can work together for stability, Cho Jung-tai said Taiwan and Japan are two like-minded countries willing to work together to form a “safety barrier” in the Indo-Pacific region, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday said at the opening ceremony of the 35th Taiwan-Japan Modern Engineering and Technology Symposium in Taipei. Taiwan and Japan are close geographically and closer emotionally, he added. Citing the overflowing of a barrier lake in the Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) in September, Cho said the submersible water level sensors given by Japan during the disaster helped Taiwan monitor the lake’s water levels more accurately. Japan also provided a lot of vaccines early in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic,
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) on Monday announced light shows and themed traffic lights to welcome fans of South Korean pop group Twice to the port city. The group is to play Kaohsiung on Saturday as part of its “This Is For” world tour. It would be the group’s first performance in Taiwan since its debut 10 years ago. The all-female group consists of five South Koreans, three Japanese and Tainan’s Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜), the first Taiwan-born and raised member of a South Korean girl group. To promote the group’s arrival, the city has been holding a series of events, including a pop-up
TEMPORAL/SPIRITUAL: Beijing’s claim that the next Buddhist leader must come from China is a heavy-handed political maneuver that will fall flat-faced, experts said China’s requirement that the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation to be born in China and approved by Beijing has drawn criticism, with experts at a forum in Taipei yesterday saying that if Beijing were to put forth its own Dalai Lama, the person would not be recognized by the Tibetan Buddhist community. The experts made a remarks at the two-day forum hosted by the Tibet Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama titled: “The Snow Land Forum: Finding Common Ground on Tibet.” China says it has the right to determine the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation, as it claims sovereignty over Tibet since ancient times,
Temperatures in some parts of Taiwan are expected to fall sharply to lows of 15°C later this week as seasonal northeasterly winds strengthen, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. It is to be the strongest cold wave to affect northern Taiwan this autumn, while Chiayi County in the southwest and some parts of central Taiwan are likely to also see lower temperatures due to radiational cooling, which occurs under conditions of clear skies, light winds and dry weather, the CWA said. Across Taiwan, temperatures are to fall gradually this week, dropping to 15°C to 16°C in the early hours of Wednesday
RSS