Print

Mail

wiki links

Taiwan Quick Take

■ Culture
Corpse show too expensive
An arts promoter said yes-terday he may cancel a controversial art exhibit showing corpses and body parts because the German doctor putting on the show has doubled his fee. "In January he said he would charge us about US$3 million for staging the show for half a year, now he is charging about US$6 million," said Hsu Poh-yun, director of the New Aspects Arts Promo-tion. "That is only for the right to hold the show in Taiwan, not including trans-portation and insurance fees. The burden is too heavy for us," Hsu said. "But I am still interested in bringing the German corpse show to Taiwan because I saw it in January in South Korea and I liked it very much," Hsu said.

■ Penghu
First water shipment arrives
A ship carrying 3,300 tonnes of water arrived in Penghu yesterday to help relieve the serious water shortage on the island. Penghu has not had any rainfall for nearly five months and its reser-voirs are at dangerously low levels. The government is using money from its off-shore construction fund to ship water to the island. Water will be delivered every two days until June 15 next year. Officials estimated that with maintenance of the wharfs and other facilities and personnel expenses, the total expenditure may come to NT$110.8 million, or about NT$160 per tonne of water.

■ Utilities
Old pipes to be replaced
Taiwan Water Works will budget NT$5 billion (US$147 million) each year for installing new water pipes in urban areas around the country to replace the old ones and prevent water leakage, a company official said yesterday. Yang Ching-ho (楊清和), manager of the water supply department, said the project will begin next year. He said that approximately 25 percent of the water supplied by the company in urban areas is lost to leakage from old pipes.

■ Health
SARS hotline to reopen
A hotline set up to provide counseling to the public on fighting SARS during the peak of the outbreaks earlier this year will be reopened Saturday as part of efforts to brace for a possible resur-facing of the disease, a health official said yesterday. Chou Chih-hao (周志浩), deputy director of the Center for Disease Control, traveled to Ilan County yesterday to drum up public vigilance against SARS. Chou said health authorities are better-prepared to combat the disease, should it break out again.

■ Health
Push to join aid agency
The Foundation of Medical Professionals Alliance in Taiwan yesterday announced plans to lobby for a local branch of the international aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres. Foundation president Wu Shu-min (吳樹民) said that as part of efforts to join the World Health Organization, it was important that medical aid organizations cooperate to increase the nation's impact and visibility.

■ Education
Scholarships offered
Thai youths of Chinese or Taiwanese descent are welcomed to take advantage of the many scholarships offered by the Ministry of Education, said Kao Tsung-yun (高崇雲), chairman of the ministry's Committee on Overseas Chinese Education yesterday in Bangkok. The ministry has allocated NT$145 million (US$4.28 million) in scholarships this year for overseas Chinese students, Kao said.

This story has been viewed 1760 times.