Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Taichung as the World Turns: Who will Take the Blame for Hu?

Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

More of the did-I-miss-something scenarios are coming out of Taichung, a city that competes for Taiwan's version of Sodom and Gommorah. First Huang Chong-dian, the chief of the Urban Development Department and two other city officials tendered their resignations because of the fire at the ALA pub that killed 9 and injured 12. The hazardous pub that had miraculously passed safety code inspections had gone up like a tinder-box; it also had been consistently mis-zoned in the city. Jason Hu said he would only accept the resignations after an investigation had been concluded. Here is where the obfuscation begins.

Activists vow action if work on fourth plant continues

Taipei Times

Environmental activists yesterday vowed to stage a large-scale protest if the government does not immediately suspend the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, as well as re-examine the nation’s three operational nuclear power plants.

Saying that Taiwan would be hopeless if the incident at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant happened here, Green Party Taiwan spokesperson Pan Han-shen (潘翰聲) said the residents of Gongliao District (貢寮), New Taipei City (新北市), where the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant is located, would hold a demonstration in front of the Executive Yuan tomorrow morning, demanding an immediate suspension to the power plant’s construction.

End using inmates for transplants

Lee Yuan-teh 李源德

I would like to state my objection to transplants using organs taken from executed death-row inmates.

First, murder is cruel and in violation of nature. It is generally an irrational act, committed by someone not in their right mind. There is nothing natural about the premature taking of a life. All of the above is true of the taking of a life through execution, except, of course, for the introduction of the element of premeditation. Both involve denying someone their life.

Japan races to avert nuclear meltdowns

Taipei Times

Japan’s nuclear crisis intensified yesterday as authorities raced to combat the threat of multiple reactor meltdowns and more than 170,000 people evacuated the quake and tsunami-savaged northeastern coast where fears spread over possible radioactive contamination.

Nuclear plant operators were frantically trying to keep temperatures down in a series of nuclear reactors — including one where officials feared a partial meltdown could be happening yesterday — to prevent the situation from deteriorating.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said yesterday that a hydrogen explosion could occur at Unit 3 of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex, the latest reactor to face a possible meltdown.

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