David on Formosa

I have just spent ten days accompanying John Seed on a trip around Taiwan. John is an environmentalist from Australia well known for his efforts protecting rainforests around the world and also as a philosopher of Deep Ecology. I met John at the Taoyuan Airport on the morning of 28 March. We then took the high speed [...]

Yesterday I visited the Alishan area to look at an area of land that is proposed for a village relocation. The relocation plan is being put forward by members of the Laiji (來吉) community following the impacts of Typhoon Morakot. Some academics and people from the local government met with community members and were taken [...]

Over the weekend I visited some of the areas affected by Typhoon Morakot in Kaohsiung County with a group of law students from Providence University. It is now more than eight months since the typhoon hit Taiwan. While there has been so much reported about the event in the media visiting these places provides a [...]

Indigenous people affected by the Typhoon Morakot disaster and supporters held a protest in Taipei today. They protested against the government’s reconstruction plan and fear they may be forcefully relocated from their lands as a result of the disaster. While marching from 228 Park to Ketagalan Boulevard they shouted, “We want to go home!” Meaning [...]

Following on from my post yesterday here is some more information about the damage caused by flooding from Typhoon Morakot (颱風莫拉克). The Taiwan HSR website says trains are operating every half hour between Taipei and Zuoying today. Taiwan Railways website says there are no trains operating between Xinying and Shanhua in Tainan County. A transfer [...]

Typhoon Morakot (颱風莫拉克) hit Taiwan on Friday and Saturday bringing torrential rains that caused serious flooding in the south of Taiwan. It rained throughout most of the day in Taipei on Friday and there were some strong gusts of wind, but no serious damage in the north. Media outlets in Taiwan have been reporting the [...]