■ Society
Little green man' in dispute
An engineer has been arguing with Taipei City government about the origins of a little green man who has been spotted all over the city. When pedestrians cross streets in Taipei, traffic lights flash the image of a small, green human figure that speeds up his steps -- encouraging people to walk faster -- in the seconds before the light turns red. Engineer Chang Ming-shun (張銘順) wants the city government to recognize him as the green figure's inventor. "As a father, I must establish my credibility with my little child, so I decided to stand up and speak out," he said yesterday. But Taipei's Transportation Department said the design didn't belong to any one person. After considering Chang's original design, a team of experts had come up with a better version, said an official surnamed Lin from the department. "I felt his drawing of a person was not ideal, so we changed it," the official said.
■ Tourism
More visitors raise revenues
Helped by a larger number of inbound foreign visitors, the nation posted a smaller deficit in terms of international tourist spending in the first half of this year, with the figure down by US$189 million from last year's level, according to statistics released by the government yesterday. Taiwan earned US$2.4 billion in tourist dollars and spent US$4.27 billion in overseas travel in the first six months of this year, up by 29.7 percent and 9.2 percent year on year, respectively, for a deficit of US$1.87 billion, tallies compiled by the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics show. Foreign visitor arrivals totaled 1.64 million in the six-month period, marking an annual increase of 18.1 percent.
■ Labor affairs
No more workers needed
The heads of the Kaohsiung City department of Rapid Transit System (DRTS) and the city's Bureau of Labor Affairs agreed yesterday that no more Thai laborers will be imported to construct the city's mass rapid transit (MRT) system after their employment contracts expire. DRTS Director Lee Cheng-pin (李正彬) and labor bureau director Fang Lai-ching (方來進) made the promise in an interpellation session of the city council after six councilors out of the 44-seat body asked that overseas workers on the Kaohsiung MRT system be replaced by local laborers. The six councilors from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party made the appeal after the outbreak of a riot by Thai workers Aug. 21 on the MRT projects to protest against maltreatment by their managers. Subsequent allegations have been made of corruption by local officials.
■ Environment
EPA promotes reuse of PCs
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is urging companies and individuals not to throw away any unwanted old computers, but instead donate them to its "PC rebirth program." An EPA official said yesterday that the agency plans to spend NT$11 million (US$332,800) to renovate 1,600 unwanted computers with 586mhz chips or better and will install new software in the old units, and then give them to low-income people living in remote areas. The official said the EPA is still about 5,000 computers short of its target. The campaign will end Oct. 31, and those who want to support the plan can look for the collection point nearest them by checking online at: www.istec.iii.org.tw. They may also call toll-free on 0800-000-156.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the