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Taiwan Quick Take

■ Society
Hotline for parents created
A foundation created in the memory of Liu Hsia (劉俠), a presidential advisor who died earlier this year, has set up a phone service to help people with family problems. Friends of Hsing Lin Tzu, which was named after Liu's other name, said it would help parents to find suitable organizations to resolve problems such as disagreements between a couple or discipline issues with children. The founda-tion said it would only serve as a medium between the parents and the organiza-tions that offer counseling and solutions. It said it would also hold activities and seminars at the Taipei Youth Activity Center, providing parents and children opportunities to learn more about each other. Liu, who had serious physical disabilities, died after being beaten by her caregiver. The number for the new phone service, called Parents Supporting Parents, is (02) 2351-5313.

■ Society
Masseurs urge job security
The Taipei Blind Masseur Association yesterday said it hoped the government would help preserve the exclusive rights of visually impaired people to work as masseurs. The association said that only visually impaired people could obtain legal certificates to work as masseurs, but there were different kinds mas-sages offered by other people, such as those with beauty-salon certificates who do massage at spas. "Normal people are com-peting with the visually impaired for the jobs and it is making our lives difficult. But the visually impaired people are the only ones with certificates and they are professionally trained and offer excellent services," said Min Chang-chien (明章建), an association board member. The association has a hotline number (02-2562-7733) for people who want to locate certified blind masseurs in their neighborhood. The association said there are about 180 qualified blind masseurs in Taipei City.

■ Diplomacy
Envoy heads to Bratislava
The nation's first represen-tative to the Slovak Republic will leave Berlin tomorrow for the Slovakian capital of Bratislava to assume office. Chen Cheng-chih (陳正治) was the deputy represen-tative to Germany and the overseas Chinese commu-nity in Berlin hosted a farewell party for him on Sunday evening. Chen said he will forge extensive ties with all Slovakia's govern-ment agencies and major private groups once he assumes office. Noting that Slovakia will be admitted to the EU next May, Chen said the opening of the new representative office, which will be designated as the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Slovakia, will facilitate Taiwan's development of cooperative ties with other European countries. At present, Slovakia has only one Taiwanese-funded company and Chen said it is his hope that major trade and industry associations can organize delegations to survey the trade and investment opportunities in Slovakia, which has a population of 5.4 million.

■ Foreign aid
Ethiopians to get rice
Taiwan will donate 5,000 tonnes of rice to Ethiopia through international charity organizations, an official of the Council of Agriculture announced yesterday. The official said the rice will be shipped later this month. He noted that approximately 14 million Ethiopians are cur-rently suffering from food shortages due to a long drought, according to a UN report.

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