A dozen residents from the Paiwan Ljavek community in Kaohsiung yesterday protested outside the Control Yuan against evictions ordered by the government that they said would tear apart their Aboriginal community and undermine the preservation of their culture.
The residents, many dressed in traditional Paiwan outfits, held a banner that read: “Please help save our home” in front of the Control Yuan in Taipei, demanding that government officials stop the eviction project.
The Kaohsiung City Government on Jan. 22 informed residents that they must move out of their home in the Ljavek area on Jhonghuawu Road (中華五路) by March 20 because the buildings are illegal and threatened to cancel compensations if they refused to move, said Galaigai Balasasu, a Paiwan whose family has lived in the area for four generations.
“We live in fear every day as the government keeps sending us notices. In about 10 days, our house is to be torn down. What are we going to do then? We have more than 10 families that have lived there for generations. I want my home and I will fight to protect it,” she said.
Aboriginal residents would each receive a relocation payment of about NT$100,000, but Han residents would not receive any compensation, said Shih Dao (石道), representing the Han residents.
“We are here protesting today because the Kaohsiung City Government has said it is only following orders from the Control Yuan,” he said.
The Ljavek represent a unique part of Kaohsiung’s history and are of great value to the city, Kaohsiung City Councilor Chen Li-na (陳麗娜) said.
“Many Aboriginal people moved from their home in the mountains to the area in the 1950s for work. At the time, the government had no plans for the land,” she said.
They have built their homes and developed their own culture there despite being economically disadvantaged and it is the nation’s only Aboriginal settlement in an urban area, she said.
Instead of demolishing the community, the government should allow residents to stay and turn it into a special area for the preservation of Aboriginal culture, she added.
According to a self-help group for the Ljavek, the city government is planning to build a park commemorating Formosa Plastics Group’s late founder Wang Yung-ching (王永慶) in the Ljavek area, with demolition work scheduled to begin on March 21.
The relocation plan would break up the tribe into two locations, Association for Taiwan Indigenous People’s Policies board member Savungaz Valincinau said, adding that three families with older members who cannot climb stairs would live in an apartment complex with elevators in Siaogang District (小港) and the rest would live in a former Taiwan Power Co dormitory in Fongshan District (鳳山).
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai