■ Politics
Get a plan, Ma told
PHOTO: CHU PEI-HSIUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
A People First Party (PFP) legislator yesterday urged Taipei City Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to take steps toward a future presidential run by proposing a concrete vision for Taiwan's future -- instead of appealing for sympathy about the difficult situation in which he finds himself. "Objectively speaking, Ma is without question the only hope for the pan-blue alliance," said Liu Wen-hsiung (劉文雄), PFP legislative caucus leader. "However, he must draw up a blueprint for ruling the country," Liu said. Liu said that the media has paid a lot of attention recently to Ma's so-called "combat staff," saying that Ma appears as if he likes to spend too much time talking about how much pressure his administration is under, which only seems to demonstrate a lack of will. "There are so many things that he could do, but so few thing he has done," Liu said. "Right now, focusing on the issue of organizing a `combat staff' makes Ma look like an opportunist," Liu said. "The future of the pan-blue camp must be based on a vision, not on how many people belong to anyone's team," Liu said, adding that the public will reach its own judgements about Ma's effectiveness -- especially while Legislative Yuan Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) is passing important laws in the legislature.
■ Health
Quitter wins
Hualien County resident Chang Chien-kuo (張建國) tasted something sweeter than cigarette smoke when he won NT$600,000 (US$17,910) yesterday in an annual "quit and win" contest. Officials of the John Tung Foundation, which sponsored the contest, said that 30,096 people took part in this year's contest. Chang was chosen as the top winner in a random computer draw. Chang, 33, who had puffed up to 50 cigarettes a day, said he made up his mind to quit after learning that his wife was pregnant early this year. Health Minister Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) said more than half of Taiwan's people start smoking before age 18.
■ Public Safety
Youths join in Police Day
Kaohsiung County's police department celebrated Police Day yesterday with a series of activities that included participation by juvenile delinquents from a local reformatory school. More than 500 guests joined in the event's activities, which focused on performances by youths that included traditional dragon dancing, a street dance and a drum performance. In addition to honoring some 60 distinguished and veteran police officers, Kaohsiung County Magistrate Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興) urged the Kaohsiung County Police Department to introduce a more humane work schedule to reduce the level of stress faced by police officers.
■ Animal husbandry
Ducks chanted at
Some farmers play Buddhist chants to ducks to calm them down in the summer heat and make them lay more eggs, a television station reported yesterday. "Some duck farm owners in southern Taiwan are playing cassettes of Buddhist sutras to ducks to calm them down because ducks get agitated in hot weather," Chinese Television System (CTS) reported. "Playing Buddhist chants has also caused ducks to lay more eggs. The percentage of ducks laying eggs rises from 8 percent when no music is played to 10 percent when Buddhist music is played," CTS said." Also, the ducks lay more double-yolk eggs," the station said. Many Taiwanese farmers play music to make cows produce more milk, while some pig farmers play music to make pigs grow.
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:
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
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
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