2009-08-14

馬與原住民

馬不懂災民心

自由時報 - ‎2009年8月12日‎
美國新總統歐巴瑪就任前寫給兩名稚女—十歲的瑪莉亞與七歲莎夏的家書—名為:「我要你們—與全美每名小孩—過得更好」,令人動容,即因其深諳民心。 其實觀察馬總統的言談,與歷任總統相比,確實「殺很大」,總統大選前,在溪洲部落的經典名言:「我把你們當人看」;辛樂克 ...

小黨員之死

自由時報 - ‎2009年8月5日‎
我把你們當人看…」、對幾次大遊行洶湧民意的無視,以及當台灣人民為高雄世運的成功同感光榮慶賀時,不惜踐踏執行單位與人民齊心的努力以諂媚中國,將之歸功於中國善意…這些行為,一再暴露其背離民意、以民為芻狗的心態,也讓我們看清馬英九傲慢的本質。 ...

http://www.google.com.tw/news/search?pz=1&ned=tw&hl=zh-TW&q=%E6%BA%AA%E6%B4%B2%E9%83%A8%E8%90%BD

原住民立委籲制訂「馬歇爾計畫」 助災區重建

中央廣播電台 - ‎10小時之前‎
莫拉克颱風重創南台灣,國民黨籍的原住民立委孔文吉14日表示,到現在為止,高雄、台東地區還有很多原住民部落失聯,他質疑國防部救災緩慢,遲遲看不到國軍挺進深山救援,因此要求國防部長陳肇敏下台。孔文吉也呼籲政府重視南部的重建工作,應該制訂類似二戰後美國援助歐洲 ...
自由時報 - 華視新聞

莫拉克倖存者員警靠雨衣力拚惡水

自由時報 - ‎7小時之前‎
〔中央社〕莫拉克颱風帶來50年來超大豪雨,目睹洪水肆虐的六龜分局民治派出所員警張輝政,靠著堅強意志、虔誠信仰,及一件不起眼的公發雨衣,劫後餘生面對退休新生活。 張輝政是那瑪夏鄉南沙魯村人,派駐當地獨立派出所,莫拉克颱風重創那瑪夏鄉時,他在派出所3樓樓頂度 ...

原住民微笑貸明受理災區順延2週

自由時報 - ‎2009年8月13日‎
〔中央社〕行政院原住民族委員會今天表示,原住民微型經濟活動貸款(微笑貸)訂明天開始受理申請,南台灣莫拉克颱風受災嚴重地區受理期間將順延2週,且保留受災地區貸款額度。 原民會表示,莫拉克颱風在南投縣、台東縣及南部地區造成嚴重損害,這些地區的原住民族若因災後 ...

上海交流屏東災區泰武國小師生落寞哀傷

自由時報 - ‎2小時之前‎
因為這些小學生家園都遭莫拉克颱風摧毀,家人被迫住進臨時收容所,今天個個神情顯得落寞哀傷。 這項上海藝術營活動是由上海市海峽交流促進會、台灣原住民多族群文化交流協會共同主辦。上海市台辦副主任趙雅君及上海台商協會會長李茂盛均出席揭幕式並致詞。 ...

原住民微型貸款 災區順延2週

自由時報 - ‎19小時之前‎
行政院原住民族委員會昨天緊急公布,原訂14日開始受理的「原住民微型經濟活動貸款」,因莫拉克颱風重創原住民鄉,導致族人因災後復建工作繁重、申請資料損毀或交通中斷,無法如期申請貸款,原民會特別將南投縣、台東縣及南部地區的受理期間,順延2週,並同時延長截止受理 ...

風災重建 經建會通過500億原民基礎建設案

聯合新聞網 - ‎2009年8月10日‎
經建會委員會議10日通過「原住民族基礎建設方案」,由於莫拉克颱風原住民部落也造成重創,因此該計畫中有關「易淹水地區水患治理」以及「振興經濟擴大公共建設」中遷建計畫,將優先執行。 原民會經濟及公共建設處長蔡正治表示,原住民基礎建設總經費為541.46億元,其願 ...
經建會通過原住民族基礎建設

社子違建解套 都原部落何時就地合法?

苦勞網 - ‎2009年7月27日‎
算算這個時間點,正好是在溪洲部落接到拆遷公文之後,以及三鶯部落被大批警力及怪手粗暴拆除之前。再看看社子大橋動工後發生的幾件事:7月初,三鶯部落再次接獲北縣水利局的拆遷公告;7月20日,新店市碧潭西岸安業街,緊鄰即將在8月啟用之「陽光運動公園」,共計29戶 ...









Terrifying Ride to Safety for Survivors in Taiwan

Terrifying Ride to Safety for Survivors in Taiwan

Associated Press
Taiwanese rescuers held children before crossing a river to evacuate the flooded village of Liugui on Thursday.

Published: August 13, 2009

SINFA, Taiwan — The road that wends through the storm-battered mountains of Kaohsiung County comes to an end at a breathtaking abyss.

Skip to next paragraph
The New York Times

The typhoon killed at least 38 of Sinfa's 2,000 residents.

On the south side of the road, Provincial Highway 27, there are hot meals, the succor of Buddhist monks and, after some careful driving across soggy roads, access to the rest of Taiwan.

For those stuck on the north side, because a bridge no longer exists, there is a 200-foot drop into a muddy torrent spawned by Typhoon Morakot.

Despite her fear of heights, Wang Ma-lee, a 52-year-old goat farmer, decided that she could no longer stay on the north side. She stepped into a rock-climbing harness, allowed a team of rescue workers to clip her to an overhead zip-line cable and then stepped into the chasm as a row of young soldiers yanked her across the river.

"That was terrifying, but I'm lucky to be alive," she said upon arriving on the other side.

Since Typhoon Morakot soaked Taiwan last weekend, killing at least 116 people, Ms. Wang and her husband have been among tens of thousands of people stranded in a necklace of picturesque hamlets extending along the Lao Nong River. The couple said they were among six people to survive in their corner of Sinfa when a wall of mud and water swept away 20 neighbors early Sunday.

Thousands of people have been airlifted out by military helicopters in recent days, but many others are awaiting help, especially in the northern wilds of the county, where hundreds are missing and presumed dead. The government, facing critics who say its efforts have been sluggish, sent 4,000 more soldiers to stricken areas on Thursday, bringing the total to 38,000. The rescue and relief efforts have also involved 380 helicopters and a thick stream of volunteers who have been heading north, their luxury sport utility vehicles packed with food and bottled water.

Also on the move are a handful of desperate people trying to enter the disaster zone in their search for loved ones. "Everyone says I'm crazy, but I can't leave my mother alone out there," said Chen Rong-chun, who was making a third attempt on Thursday to reach Baolai, a resort town famous for its hot springs that is inaccessible by road.

As five days and 80 inches of rain finally gave way to sunshine on Thursday morning, Mr. Chen led a group of other desperate people along caved-in roads and through fields of papaya and jackfruit buzzing with the hiss of cicadas. They hitched brief rides on relief trucks and, when the road disappeared, hiked through a cemetery, reverentially clasping hands in front of tombs before moving on.

Trailing behind the group was Lin Song-yuan, who was returning to Sinfa to see how his home and orchards had fared in the storm while he had been selling bananas on another part of the island. Mr. Lin, 61, was fortunate. His living room was caked with a few inches of mud, and mold was spreading up the walls, but at least the house was standing.

A few dozen paces up the road, at the foot of Sinfa Mountain, a stunning expanse of silt and rock had buried what were once lushly planted fields of squash, corn and papaya trees. Somewhere beneath the rubble was Lou Pei-yun, a 35-year-old farmer who was taken away by a landslide on Sunday. A gushing river sliced through what was once her bedroom. Her father-in-law, Pan Guo-hua, said the river did not exist until last weekend.

"I'm going out of my mind," he said, standing amid a tangle of crushed appliances, shredded clothing and several feet of mud and rock. "We don't know where her body is. She could be right here. Or over there."

The mayor of Sinfa, Lin Wen-tian, said that at least 38 of the village's 2,000 residents had died but that only two bodies had been recovered. "Everything is still wet, so there's not much we can do," he said, as he smoked and paced around the grounds of the local elementary school, which has been turned into a dormitory for some of the 80 families whose homes were destroyed.

The mayor had other worries. There was no electricity and, without a passable road, no way fuel trucks could deliver oil and gas. Then there was the mountain that loomed behind him, its face freshly scored by rock slides. "Our advice is that people should leave here," he said as it began to rain again. Some villagers heeded his advice, but many others were busy scooping out mud from shops and homes as water rushed along the main street.

At the north end of town, specially trained police officers were gingerly guiding people across the spectacular gap in Highway 27. Since Wednesday, as many as 100 stranded villagers had been pulled along the jury-rigged zip-line cable, but the pace was painstakingly slow. If rescuers needed a reminder of the urgency, they could look up to see a large hand-painted sign on the opposite side that read: "32 People Dead. S O S."

By late afternoon, only three dozen people were waiting to cross, including Ms. Wang, the goat farmer, and her husband, Lee Siu-yao. When they were reunited on the other side, Mr. Lee talked about the harrowing five days they spent trying to get help. He also expressed anger at the resort developers who had defaced the mountains above his home in recent years. "If you cut down the forest, the earth is going to slide down," he said.

Despite the bitterness, he mostly expressed appreciation, and wonder, that he had survived the worst typhoon to hit Taiwan in 50 years. He described how he and his wife had escaped a surging mud flow by scurrying up the mountain in the darkness. With daylight, Mr. Lee saw the devastation below and realized what had befallen his neighbors.

"It's a miracle we're standing before you," he said.

Kuanying Yu contributed research.

More Articles in World » A version of this article appeared in print on August 14, 2009, on page A6 of the New York edition.

Ref
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/14/world/asia/14taiwan.html?ref=asia

Deadly Typhoons in Asia

Deadly Typhoons in Asia



Deadly Typhoons in Asia



Deadly Typhoons in Asia



Deadly Typhoons in Asia



Deadly Typhoons in Asia



Deadly Typhoons in Asia



Ref
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/08/11/world/asia/20090811-typhoons_(1-9).html

Taiwan President Is Target of Anger After Typhoon

Taiwan President Is Target of Anger After Typhoon

Theodore Kaye for The New York Times
Aijo Wu, center, whose family is missing after a storm, sought help from President Ma Ying-jeou of Taiwan on Wednesday.

Published: August 12, 2009
CHISHAN, Taiwan — If President Ma Ying-jeou thought he might be treated presidentially on Wednesday as he toured a center for survivors of last weekend's typhoon, he was mistaken.

The moment he stepped onto a soccer field that had been doubling as a landing pad for rescue helicopters, Mr. Ma was besieged by angry villagers who accused his administration of moving too slowly to help those still trapped in the mountains near here. As they hurled insults at him, the skies opened and Mr. Ma quickly became drenched to the skin, all of it captured live on television.

"Save us, people are dying," the villagers yelled while holding aloft handmade banners that read "The government doesn't value human life."

Chen Tai-sheng, who trudged out from his mud-soaked village two days ago, said the president should spend less time touring the country and more time orchestrating rescue efforts. "This is a war, not a political campaign," Mr. Chen yelled.

Typhoon Morakot, one of the worst natural disasters to hit Taiwan in 50 years, is also turning into an unpleasant political experience for Mr. Ma, the former mayor of Taipei who was elected last year by a respectable margin but whose popularity has been steadily dropping.

The storm, which killed at least 67 people across Taiwan and left scores missing, has turned into the kind of test that can make or break a political career, or in the case of Mr. Ma, provide fodder to the opposition — and irresistible images to a voracious press.

On Monday, during an earlier tour of his waterlogged nation, Mr. Ma was seen promising a bulldozer to a man who was searching for the body of his father. Two days later, after failing to persuade officials to make good on the pledge, the man, Lee Yu-ying, was forced to rent his own equipment to dig out his father's mud-encased car.

"What kind of help was that?" Mr. Lee asked TVBS, a cable news channel.

As with most natural disasters, there has been plenty of blame to go around. When the extent of the storm's wrath became clear on Sunday, Mr. Ma criticized the country's water resources agency for ineptitude and accused the national weather bureau of failing to predict rainfall that soaked some parts of the country for three or more days.

On Tuesday, the president of the government's investigative arm, the Control Yuan, said he would look into whether agencies or officials had a role in the extent of devastation.

"If no corrective measures are taken we will impeach them, impeach them and impeach them until they do what we want them to do," said Wang Chien-hsuan, the agency's president.

Most everyone here has been stunned by the ferocity of the typhoon, which dumped more than 80 inches of water in some places, swelling rivers that washed away bridges and spurring landslides that buried entire villages.

A weekend of typhoons claimed two dozen lives in eastern China, Japan and the Philippines, but Morakot had its deadliest impact on the isolated hamlets that dot the mountains of southern Taiwan.

Rescue officials, cut off from dozens of communities, have been unable to estimate the number of the dead or missing. Residents who have made it out alive, however, suggest that the figures could be well into the hundreds.

Li Jing-rong, 50, a farmer from Hsiao-lin, a village of 1,300 set deep within the craggy folds of Kaohsiung County, said the most densely settled part of town was erased by a wall of rock and dirt that narrowly missed his home.

"No one could have survived that," he said.

He said that at least 600 people, including his parents, were swept away around 6 a.m. on Sunday. The survivors from his end of the village, about 40 people, scurried to an open area and then spent three days waiting in the rain before helicopters arrived on Tuesday. He said a separate group of 30, including his brother, were waiting for help in another valley.

"I wish the government would work faster because they have nothing to eat," he said after confronting the president.

Throughout the day, as sunshine alternated with soaking downpours, helicopters thundered in and out of Chishan Middle School's sports field. During the morning, the helicopters picked up supplies. By afternoon, they were returning with muddied and barefoot villagers from a town called Minzu.

They were for the most part the dark-skinned citizens of Taiwan known as aborigines, the indigenous mountain-dwellers who have sometimes had an uneasy relationship with the island's more recently arrived Han Chinese ruling class.

As the survivors scurried across the grass, rotors whirling above their heads, a crowd of people, some weeping and wailing, surged forward to meet loved ones, or to ask about those still unaccounted for. "Have you seen my mother?" one woman screamed again and again. No one responded.

The injured were bundled into ambulances; taxis and minivans took away everyone else. During the quiet between the arrival and departure of each helicopter, people worried aloud about the unrelenting rain or complained that too many boxes of instant noodles were being delivered to those huddling outdoors without access to water or stoves.

Aijo Wu, a 23-year-old law student who has had no word from her extended family in the village of Taoyuan, was the last person to talk to Mr. Ma before his security detail whisked him away. She begged him to speed up the pace of the rescue efforts, but after he left she was less timid in her comments to reporters.

"If there are 20,000 people stranded but the army is only using 30 of their helicopters, a lot of people are going to die," she said. "I'm angry that the president won't ask the outside world for help."

Kuanying Yu contributed research.

Red
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/world/asia/13taiwan.html?_r=2&ref=world