Taiwan Quick Take

■ Transportation
Tamsui request rejected
Tamsui yesterday asked the Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) to levy a NT$1 per passenger sur-charge to cover the town-ships' cost of picking up and disposing of trash left by weekend visitors. Township Director Kou Che-tao (郭哲道) said garbage-disposal fees have become a burden for the township since weekend visitors leave five times the amount of trash generated in Tamsui on weekdays. Kou said the township spends about NT$7 million a year on garbage disposal. TRTC general-director Tsay Huei-sheng (蔡輝昇) rejected the demand, saying it was impossible for the company to raise ticket prices just because of the refuse disposal problem.

■ Education
Lesson plan controversial
A teacher at Taipei Municipal First Girls' Senior High School caused an uproar recently when she asked her students to draw sketches of their genitals, the Chinese-language media reported yesterday. The teacher, identified only by her sur-name Wang, teaches nursing. The school's administration met with teachers and parents and decided that the assignment was conducive to improving health knowl-edge. But they decided that the assignment must be submitted in sealed envelopes, and that those who do not wish to do the assignment should be given the option of writing an essay about the subject. The teacher must also present a teaching plan to prevent misunderstanding among the parents.

■ National Defense
AIDC running job ads
The state-run Aerospace Industrial Development Corp (AIDC), which has been without a chairman for three months, is now running ads for the job. Ads ran between Nov. 11 and Nov. 25, but only 17 people responded. A second round of ads will be run from Friday to Dec. 26. Retired generals or civilians who have held a job as vice president or higher in a state-run enterprise are eligible to apply. Further details are available on the company's Web site. Sources said two retired air force lieutenant generals had applied for the job last month but didn't succeed. Previous AIDC chairmen have all been retired air force generals.

■ Employment
Jobless rate to drop: Chen
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) claimed yesterday that the jobless rate will drop to 4 percent by 2005. Chen made the remarks when he spoke to more than 300 representatives of Chinese and herbal medicine manu-facturers in the Yungkang Industrial Zone, Tainan County. He also stressed the importance of his "Challenge 2008" six-year national development plan and the five-year, NT$500 billion "10 new public construction projects" plan. Chen said the government had originally envisioned that the budget for research and develop-ment should account for 3 percent of the gross national product by 2008, but that it is now hoping to achieve the goal by 2006 to strengthen the nation's competitive edge. Chen said a science expo will be held in 2008.

■ Politics
Open letter appeal to Wen
Twenty-nine Taiwanese communities in the US sent at joint letter to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) Sunday to urge Beijing to respect the basic human rights of the people of Taiwan to pursue democracy and freedom. The open letter, carried in all Chinese-language newspapers in the US, called for the Chinese authorities to immediately stop bullying Taiwan.