Humanitarian Efforts Exercises

ahtansh SG

Taiwan -- The military contributed 8,660 men to the Morakot flood disaster relief, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday.

Armored personnel carriers, trucks, helicopters, dinghies and bulldozers were mobilized in the relief work, an MND spokesman said.

Aside from dredging and removing debris, the service personnel delivered drinking water and 61,848 ration packs to the people trapped in their water-logged homes.

Shouldn't Singapore Starlight soldiers provide some assistance too? (StarLight" is the name of the exercise Infantry men do in Taiwan)

Acidshuriken SG

dpds on whether taiwan permits. also if saf help, might not want publicity in this case.

Pitot SG

Depends on what they need also.

Arapahoe SG

Maybe over the years the taiwanese govt had developed its civil resources to cope with disaster

Thought maybe this event need reminding.

Ops flying Eagle.

On 21 Sep 1999, an earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale hit Taiwan. This disaster brought down more than 6,071 buildings, killed over 2,100 people and injured over 7,800. About 100,000 people were displaced. The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) responded promptly by sending a medical team consisting of five doctors and 12 combat medics to Taiwan. On 26 Sep 1999, the Taiwanese government declared a six-month state of emergency.

The earthquake had affected the water and electricity supplies and access to many areas. Those who had their homes destroyed were huddled in tents and sleeping bags. There were also warnings to expect aftershocks for the next two weeks. It was under such conditions that the SAF medical team arrived in Taiwan on 23 Sep 1999. The team brought with them tents, ground sheets and medical supplies - a gift from the people of Singapore to Taiwan's earthquake victims. This SAF operation, known as Ops Flying Eagle, proved to be a mission that would not only warm the hearts of the Taiwanese people but the hearts of the SAF medical team.

Arapahoe SG

Empirical Observation Between SAF activating response time to site --- Taiwan Earth Quake vs --- Indonesia Tsunami.

I was very impressive with the SAF response time on Taiwan Earthquake maybe if i recalled correctly there was a request made by Taiwan Govt. So a rapid response was activated. In the case of Indonesia i thought our response could have been better. This is not to undermine the scale and the sucesses of the relief effort for the Indian ocean earthquake. It was impressive, But i just thought that maybe the first 48 hours was critical in saving life on ground.

During the Taiwan Earth quake which happen at night of 09-21-1999 SAF civil and medical team arrived on C130. 23 Sept that is 0 + 2 days

Indian ocean earthquake.

SAF 1st medical relief supplies to Medan on 28th Dec. 0 + 2 days

SAF medical officer depart on 30th Dec 0 + 4 days

1st LST ETA Jan 3rd 0 + 8 days

Maybe because there was a lack of infrastructure in Indonesia but again maybe it happen during the holidays and we were all watching the giant wave on TV. If SAF could perform at 0+2 for Taiwan Earthquake. I think maybe SAF could at least cut down response time to 0 + 1 for Indonesia.

alfagal SG

saw in TW news..gosh some of the roads need 2 months to reconstruct...

some of e bridges across the rivers are half gone..

thank god we're in SG

tarutaru SG

I think SAF is already helping them more or less now. But certain things you do not want to keep the high profile especially this is Taiwan.

nightzip SG

China is always sensitive with stuff from Taiwan, also SAF cannot anyhow activate Starlight forces as they have a training programme to adhere to and costs involved, also for those 2 yr soldiers who do Not have life-saving or disaster-relief experiences, if any of our SAF soldiers actually drowns or die in the event of helping, their Singaporean parents will yell like mad.

Proper procedure is they form a team of 10-20 personnel, then all have to sign a letter of appointment, get briefed on nature of work, etc and then all go meet Prime minister or Defense minister for send off. I think they have 3-5 days to decide and discuss with their families if they want to offer their service to the nation. Also, these people will be highly selected from commandos, senior medics, MOs, guards, SCDF, etc.

zaxis SG

http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=1030655&lang=eng_news&cate_img=1027.jpg&cate_rss=news_Poll_News

Taipei, Aug. 13 (CNA) Taiwan received its first batch of disaster relief supplies from abroad Thursday in the aftermath of Typhoon Morakot which wreaked havoc on the island Aug. 7-9.

The shipment of food and medical supplies, valued at US$34,652, was donated by Singapore to help people in areas devastated by Morakot.

The relief goods were flown to Taiwan on a Republic of Singapore Air Force C-130 transport aircraft, according to the Singapore Trade Office in Taipei.

Before shipping the supplies to Taiwan, the Singaporean government pledged Thursday to donate, through the Singapore Red Cross Society, US$200,000 to the relief efforts, the trade office said in a statement.

"The Singapore government extends its condolences and sympathy to the victims of Typhoon Morakot and their families, " the statement read.

The donation will be handed over by Singapore Trade Representative in Taiwan Stanley Loh to Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs at a ceremony in Taipei Friday, according to the statement.

Arapahoe SG

i think perharps SG Govt should think about establishing an independent regional humanitarin unit from civil defence. So that it could response within the first 48 hours within the region without holding back concern that ties with international relation such as ROC vs PRC. or some other political sensitive area.

Singmarine SG

We have a standy Civil Defence team round the clock standy. Is a platoon strength from DART called Operation Lionheart. They can moved to any part of the region within hours.