Two associations advocating the rights of the unemployed called on President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration to protect the interests of the nation’s 400,000 jobless when it adjusts electricity and fuel prices.
The groups said that rising prices have put pressure on the unemployed as well as on other families, adding that the new government should scrap unfair fuel and electricity pricing measures that have unemployed people struggling to pay for utilities while select individuals and businesses benefit from preferential rates.
The Association Promoting the Rights of the Unemployed and the Alliance Promoting Re-employment of the Elderly said that Taiwan Power Co figures indicated that the state-run utility loses NT$4.4 billion (US$144 million) a year by subsidizing the preferential rates.
The group urged the government to hold a hearing with civic groups on the matter. Otherwise, it said, the crisis facing the nation’s unemployed will only intensify.
The groups said that the government should implement a package of complementary measures as it raises electricity and fuel prices. Subsidies for the unemployed should be boosted from 60 percent to 70 percent of their most recent salaries, they said, adding that the subsidy period should also be increased from half a year to one year.
They also suggested lengthening the period that jobless workers can receive health care subsidies from six months to one year.
Members of the new administration suggested before the inauguration that they would raise fuel prices soon after taking power. The Democratic Progressive Party administration had avoided raising prices since last November in response to inflationary pressures.
But with world crude prices soaring, the new government has said that fuel prices should be adjusted to reflect the rise in costs.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
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:
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
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