About 100 academics yesterday staged a silent march from Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office Building to Gikong Presbyterian Church, where former Democratic Progressive Party chairman Lin I-hsiung (林義雄) has been on a hunger strike since Tuesday, to urge the government to give up nuclear energy.
“Nuclear power is the most negative product of capitalism and imperialism, it’s a disaster for the disadvantaged,” said Cheng Fei-wen (鄭斐文), an associate professor of sociology at Tung Hai University.
“When nuclear disaster occurs, it is the poor, the aged and children who will suffer the most. Even today, the Tao people on Orchid Island still suffer from nuclear waste storage,” he added.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
National Chung Cheng University professor Chen Ruey-lin (陳瑞麟) said Taiwan was located in the so-called “Ring of Fire,” where frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur in the basin of the Pacific Ocean.
“I don’t think Taiwan is qualified to use nuclear energy,” he added.
Nuclear disasters have occurred in many countries with advanced nuclear technology, such as the former Soviet Union, the US and Japan, Chen said.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
“It’s difficult for the government to convince us that we can do better than those countries,” the professor added.
“Nuclear disasters take different forms each time they happen. We cannot foresee them coming and there’s no way we can implement a preventive measure that would be 100 percent safe,” Chen said. “This is why I think we shouldn’t take the risk at all.”
Taiwan Association of University Professors president Lu Chung-chin (呂忠津), who teaches electrical engineering at National Tsing Hua University, said the government should not continue to threaten the public by saying that there may be a power shortage without the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant.
“It would be better if the government could use this critical time to develop a green energy system for our future,” he said.
The group marched in silence to the church after tying yellow ribbons with the slogan: “Stop the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant; return the power to the people” on police barricades that barred them from getting close to the Presidential Office Building.
Separately yesterday, another group of antinuclear activists urged the government to respond positively to Lin’s demands, otherwise, Taiwan Society North chairman Chang Yeh-shen (張葉森) said, “the moment that Lin collapses will be the moment the revolution starts.”
Meanwhile, in an effort to force legislators to take a stance, Alliance of Referendum for Taiwan convener Tsay Ting-kuei (蔡丁貴) yesterday afternoon called on supporters to blockade every exit of the Legislative Yuan in a bid to prevent legislators and governmental vehicles from leaving the premises.
The action caused clashes between security and the protesters.
In the midst of the scuffles, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Alex Tsai (蔡正元) was filmed ordering his chauffeur to drive off the premises, while two protesters were clinging to the hood of his car.
Video footage was uploaded by an individual who was severely critical of Tsai, labeling his order to drive away to be as heinous as an act of hit and run.
Tsai responded on Facebook by branding the gathered groups “rioters” who used clubs to crack car windshields.
The “rioters” climbed on to the hood of his car and initiated violence by hammering the vehicle, he added.
Additional reporting by Tseng Wei-chen
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it is fully aware of the situation following reports that the son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has arrived in Taiwan and is to marry a Taiwanese. Local media reported that Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), son of the former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is to marry the granddaughter of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital founder Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政). The pair met when studying abroad and arranged to get married this year, with the wedding breakfast to be held at The One holiday resort in Hsinchu
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
‘SIGN OF DANGER’: Beijing has never directly named Taiwanese leaders before, so China is saying that its actions are aimed at the DPP, a foundation official said National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) yesterday accused Beijing of spreading propaganda, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had singled out President William Lai (賴清德) in his meeting with US President Joe Biden when talking about those whose “true nature” seek Taiwanese independence. The Biden-Xi meeting took place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru on Saturday. “If the US cares about maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial that it sees clearly the true nature of Lai and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in seeking Taiwanese independence, handles the Taiwan question with extra
A road safety advocacy group yesterday called for reforms to the driver licensing and retraining system after a pedestrian was killed and 15 other people were injured in a two-bus collision in Taipei. “Taiwan’s driver’s licenses are among the easiest to obtain in the world, and there is no mandatory retraining system for drivers,” Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance, a group pushing to reduce pedestrian fatalities, said in a news release. Under the regulations, people who have held a standard car driver’s license for two years and have completed a driver training course are eligible to take a test
RSS