Thursday, January 14, 2010

Haiti Quake Hurts Taiwan Ambassador

Straits Times says that Taiwan's ambassador to Haiti was hurt in the quake. Haiti is one of the 23 countries that recognize the ROC.
TAIWAN'S ambassador to Haiti has been injured in the powerful earthquake in the impoverished Caribbean nation where hundreds of people are feared dead, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday.

'The initial information we obtained showed that ambassador Hsu Mien-sheng was injured in the earthquake,' a ministry official told AFP. 'He suffered a fracture and has been treated in hospital.'

The official gave no further details, but added that other embassy staff had escaped unhurt when the embassy building was damaged in the capital Port-au-Prince after Tuesday's earthquake.

Taiwan pledged US$200,000 (S$277,539) in humanitarian aid and President Ma Ying-jeou sent condolences to his Haitian counterpart, the foreign ministry said in a statement. 'The government may provide further assistance to Haiti depending on its needs,' it added.
The Rumpus has a collection of links for giving to Haiti.
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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

$200,000 is rather mean given the circumstances, sure China would have given a lot more. Dollar diplomacy is dead?

Marc said...

$200K plus a rescue team, sniffer dogs and equipment is generous considering how badly the Haiti government has been treating Taiwan lately.

les said...

What? Taiwan give one of it's tiny handful of allies a lousy 200 grand after giving China millions for their earthquake? Haiti should point some missiles over here, it would pay better.

Marc said...

Nix what I said before. Aid is now up to US$5 million. Now that IS truly generous, but another article I just read informed us that China decided it may not be a good idea to politicize this, and let Taiwan go ahead with donating the dollars.

Hmmm... let's see if Ma will be able to deliver it in person...