Taiwan Church News 3381 Edition December 12 - 18, 2016 Headline News Carnival Parade Held At Taichung On 2016 Human Rights DayReported by Simon Lin Pleading for four basic human rights: a sustainable environment, a substantial carbon reduction, an autonomy oncitizen education, and Taiwan's attendance of 2020 Tokyo Olympic in the name of "Taiwan", a Taiwanese human rights carnival joined by 50 citizen groups and over 1,200 people was headed for Taichung's Citizen Plaza on Human Rights Day - 10 December, 2016. This event was championed by Mr Ho Chia-hsiung, president of Taiwan Human Rights And Cultural Association and a member of Yu-ai Presbyterian Church of Cha-yi Presbytery. Mr Hsu Chuang-yi, representative of a carnival sub-group for "Taiwan For Tokyo Olympic" and a teacher ofTaichung First Senior High School, lamented the unfortunate fact that only Syria refugees and Taiwan could not raise their national flags to attend 2016 Rio Olympic. "Indeed, it is a bitter fact that we have no choice but to swallow!", said Hsu, adding that there were dozens of Asian countries already declared independent after WWII yet Taiwan was still trapped in dozens of unrealistic names, like the Republic of China, Chinese Taipei, Formosa of China, and etc, fighting her Don Quixote pursuit for diplomatic survival on this globe. Mr Nagayama Hideki, president of Taiwan Studies Forum in Japan, pointed out that either China's ruthlessexpulsion of Taiwan out of any international organization or Taiwan's reluctant and passive change of her country name into Chinese Taipei and etc were all due to China's violation of human rights and United States' appeasement policy for 40 years. Now, an signatory appeal, changing "Chinese Taipei" into "Taiwan", is under way in the Japanese society, expressed Nagayama, adding that this is an action of justice responded from Japan and many concerned international communities. Mr Aichi Kazuo, former Director of Defense Agency of Japan, also came to Taichung to show his support for Taiwan's namerectification. Mr Aichi sincerely wished to see Taiwan transforming into an independent country in his life time. He pledged to do his best effort to make Taiwan attending 2020 Tokyo Olympic in Taiwan's name, as this event would not only enhance Taiwan's visibility at international community but also facilitate Taiwan's independence as a country. Mr Ilham Mamut, president of Japan Uyghur Association, hoped Taiwan government could speak for those unable to fight forhuman rights because human rights is a global issue connecting everyone. Explaining how horrible a society without human rights could be, he took as example the sad story of the Uyghur people's land annexed by the Chinese communist party since 1910. For example, said Mamut, only if "East Turkestan" is sipped from the mouth of any Uyghur people, some would be put into jail for sure; no free travel is allowed, if the so-called "good citizen certificate" is in short, and etc. When some Taiwanese urged Taiwan to unite with China, Mr Mamut reminded the crowd to think twice about the oppression of the Uyghur people by the Chinese communist party and how the Taiwanese elite were heinously persecuted by KMT after WWII in last century. Mr Yu Bor-sen, manager of a company Green You & Me, also a social enterprise dedicating to provide self-sufficienthousehold solar energy, criticized Taiwan government's gigantic but inefficient annual budget, NT$ 3 trillions per annum, importing coal, natural gas, and others to produce innumerable tons of pernicious PM 2.5. Seeing the ratio of self-sufficient energy in Taiwan has been always kept under 3%, the industry of solar energy has to an absolute must for Taiwan's energy policy in future, urged Mr Yu. Mr Chien Jien-wen, executive director of Taiwan Medical Alliance for Labor Justice and Patient Safety(TMAL),criticized straight forward that many Taiwan doctors who have worked in an overloaded state without any insurance on job were still excluded from a coverage by Standard Labor Act(SLA); the nurses and the medical personnel, though covered under SLA, were still facing lots of institutional and legal injustices. In order to promote the justice of medical labor, Chien suggested the frequencies of the critical tool of labor inspection at hospitals across Taiwan should be increased and the inspection result be included for any hospital accreditation. Ms Wu Hsien, a Vietnamese immigrant nurse married to her Taiwanese husband 10 years ago and loved her familiesvery much, wished Taiwan society could pay more respect to the new immigrants, especially those newly wedding brides, as the cultures and languages of Taiwan are a brand new and complicated environment for these new inhabitants. In the meantime, Ms Wu treasured a common life experienced on this island as a true blessing, so precious that we should not abuse or discriminate any other ethnic people but love each other deeply instead! Translated by Peter Wolfe |