The Taipei City Police Department has received the order that all public brothels in the city will be closed by 00:00 of September the 6th. At the same time, the licences of the public brothels and the operation permits for the public prostitutes will have to be returned. Although protests and petitions for a buffer period has been presented by the heads of the brothels and the 100-some public prostitutes, the municipal government unilaterally has determined that such order will be carried out as prescribed. City council members said, those that deserved to be stopped were instead the illegal sexual operations. (Liberty Times, page 11, 1997-08-28)
| Public prostitutes were originally legal. Now that the municipal government wants to abolish them overnight is basically violating their right to work. Those illegal sexual operations that have high spending standards and have the ability to perform bribery are still able to stay in business. On the other hand, the public prostitutes, who have no such support, have become sacrifices to demonstrate the "governmental power" of the municipal government. Where is the basic human rights of the public prostitutes under this kind of policy? |
Author Li Ao donated his collection of antiques acquired over decades for an audition whose profits will completely go to a fund established to support the comfort women during the World War II era who have been going through economic problems. Japan has been trying to dodge the due legal obligations with only nominal compensation since the establishment of the "Asian Women's Fundation" in 1995. Currently, there has been no Taiwanese comfort woman who has received the compensation. (United Daily News, page 5, 1997-08-24)
A liberal Swedish newspaper reported that Sweden has forced sterilization operations on 60000 women, including those who have problems such as learning disabilities, poverty, mental retardedness, and ethnic impurities. They have been forced to sign an agreement so as to keep their children from losing their social welfare. This policy was carried out approximately in the period of 1935 to 1976. (Liberty Times, page 6, 1997-08-27)
The Minister of Foreign Affairs John Chang announced that at least one female diplomat will be assigned to handle foreign affairs in the four East Caribbean countries. (Independent Evening News, page 1, 1997-08-30)
A 13-year-old British girl was raped and killed in a French town. Her parents asked the court to perform a full-scale DNA comparison on all young men in the town and the request was granted. The population of the town is 1800. Such requests has precedences in Britain but was a first-timer in France. (Liberty Times, page 6, 1997-08-16)
A man Lin Yishen used yearbooks to find young girls and raped them. There were already 12 victims when it was found out. Lin was from a nice family, but has committed the crime of rape in his junior high years and was used to be a male prostitute. (United Daily News, page 7, 1997-08-27)
The Taipei Railway Station has become a meeting place for Filipino workers. They go to Masses at nearby Catholic churches every Sunday, and afterwards go to the station for the air conditioning there. Their monthly wage is about NTD 15000, but they have to save on their spendings so they have money to send back home. The railway station thus become the best place to hang around with their landspeople. (United Daily News, page 5, 1997-08-18)