■Politics
Lawmakers tout donation law
Legislators from across the political spectrum held a joint press conference yesterday to solicit support for a proposed political donation law scheduled for review in 10 days. The legislators said it is crucial that the draft bill passes its third reading before the legislature's winter recess next month. The bill is one of three "sunshine laws" the government has been pushing since the late 1990s in a bid to make the finances and activities of parties more transparent. Allegations of bribery in the recent mayoral and city council elections have given renewed impetus to the political donations proposal. The Zanadau Development Corp scandal has also focused attention on anti-corruption efforts.
■ Economy
Lee urges high-tech focus
Taiwan should go a different way from other developing countries in terms of economic development, former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) said yesterday. Speaking at a Rotary Club meeting in Taichung, Lee said current economic problems are different from those of the past and cannot be solved with the methods that helped the nation weather past recessions. Noting that developing countries have abundant workforces and can readily imitate products that do not require advanced technology, he said that the nation can hardly compete against them in terms of labor costs. Instead, he said, it should concentrate on the research and development of high-tech products. Lee warned that China's cheap labor costs will not last long because of skyrocketing inflation and predicted that Taiwanese businesspeople who have invested in China will end up coming back home.
■ Diplomacy
Aboriginal canoe given to US
Representative to the US Chen Chien-jen (程建人) donated a wooden canoe made by Aborigines to the Mariners Museum in Newport News, Virginia, on Thursday to symbolize the friendship between the two countries. Chen presented the canoe to curator John Hightower in a ceremony held at the museum, one of the world's largest and most comprehensive maritime museums. "The donation signifies the cordial relations between our two countries," Chen said. "I have brought with me not only the canoe but also the goodwill and blessing of the 23 million people of Taiwan to all Americans," he said. The canoe was made by elders of the Tao tribe that resides on Orchid Island.
■ Charity
Fund-raising walk begins
More than 300 people participated in the first stage of a 10-day charity walk that began yesterday in Oluanpi, southern Taiwan. The walk, which aims to raise NT$12 million (US$342,857) to set up an emergency hot line, was jointly sponsored by the Chinese Christian Relief Association (CCRA) and B&Q International, a home improvement center. The walk will take the participants from the Oluanpi lighthouse at the southern tip of the nation to the Fukueichiao lighthouse at the northern tip. Lighthouses were chosen as the start and finish points to signify that the hot line will "light up the people," according to an organizer. B&Q regional manager Mark Jeffrey Curtis initiated the idea of a rescue hot line. The Briton came to Taiwan three years ago and experienced the devastating earthquake on Sept. 21, 1999, as well as Typhoon Nari last year. Curtis said that he found that the victims of natural disasters not only need money, they are also in desperate need of psychological assistance.
Agencies
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not