Former US president Bill Clinton evoked both scorn and praise with his comment, "I feel your pain."
Former Taiwanese minister of justice Liao Cheng-hao (
Now director of the Tosun Public Interest Foundation, a non-government organization (NGO) devoted to children's issues, Liao yesterday announced the results of a questionnare survey on "growing pains" -- and a lot of kids are not happy.
Calling it "the index of pain," foundation representatives claimed the survey quantified the anguish of middle and high school students nationwide.
"If [a child's] score exceeds 60 points, that indicates that the participant is in pain," said foundation representative Bill Hsu (許福生).
Each survey response in five categories -- including home, school, society, future prospects and politics -- was assigned a number score, with scores exceeding 60 points per questionnare indicating an individual's discontent with regard to most, if not all, of the categories, a foundation press release said.
Although similar to "romantic compatibility tests" in magazines for teenage girls, the foundation's index of adolescent angst was painstakingly boiled down from 2,845 questionnares, and was an accurate indicator of the overall emotional health of children, foundation representatives said.
The press conference to announce the index yesterday at the Youth Activity Center in Taipei was an uneasy mix of former and current politicians, prosecutors, judges and Buddhist monks. Among them were High Court Judge Gau Fehng-shian (高鳳仙) and People First Party (PFP) Secretary-General Chin Chin-sheng (秦金生).
They mingled and ate cookies while a polka jazz band played "umpa-umpa" jazz in between periodic, ear-splitting squeals of microphone feeback.
According to Hsu, students are generally depressed about their academic and vocational prospects, as well as society in general and "government actions," or performance, Hsu told the audience.
The average scores for these three categories among survey participants were 62.2, 60.4 and 71, respectively, he said.
Although the overall scores for the remaining two categories, home and school, were also high at 50.4 and 52.2, respectively, they didn't indicate severe emotional pain as they were both below 60, Hsu's pain threshold.
"The good news is that levels of discontent for all five categories are at their lowest ever," Hsu said, referring to how this year's "index of pain" stacked up against pain indices created by the NGO in 2004 and last year.
Liao called on the government and NGOs to pay more attention to issues involving the health and prosperity of children, saying that they were "the future of Taiwan."
POLAM KOPITIAM CASE: Of the two people still in hospital, one has undergone a liver transplant and is improving, while the other is being evaluated for a liver transplant A fourth person has died from bongkrek acid poisoning linked to the Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday, as two other people remain seriously ill in hospital. The first death was reported on March 24. The man had been 39 years old and had eaten at the restaurant on March 22. As more cases of suspected food poisoning involving people who had eaten at the restaurant were reported by hospitals on March 26, the ministry and the Taipei Department of Health launched an investigation. The Food and
The long-awaited Taichung aquarium is expected to open next year after more than a decade of development. The building in Cingshui District (清水) is to feature a large ocean aquarium on the first floor, coral display area on the second floor, a jellyfish tank and Dajia River (大甲溪) basin display on the third, a river estuary display and restaurant on the fourth, and a cafe and garden on the fifth. As it is near Wuci Fishing Port (梧棲漁港), many are expecting the opening of the aquarium to bring more tourism to the harbor. Speaking at the city council on Monday, Taichung City Councilor
A fourth person has died in a food poisoning outbreak linked to the Xinyi (信義) branch of Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in Taipei, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said on Monday. It was the second fatality in three days, after another was announced on Saturday. The 40-year-old woman experienced multiple organ failure in the early hours on Monday, and the family decided not to undergo emergency resuscitation, Wang said. She initially showed signs of improvement after seeking medical treatment for nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, but her condition worsened due to an infection, he said. Two others who
Taiwanese should be mindful when visiting China, as Beijing in July is likely to tighten the implementation of policies on national security following the introduction of two regulations, a researcher said on Saturday. China on Friday unveiled the regulations governing the law enforcement and judicial activities of national security agencies. They would help crack down on “illegal” and “criminal” activities that Beijing considers to be endangering national security, according to reports by China’s state media. The definition of what constitutes a national security threat in China is vague, Taiwan Thinktank researcher Wu Se-chih (吳瑟致) said. The two procedural regulations are to provide Chinese