■ LAW
Food safety act amended
The legislature yesterday passed an amendment to the Act Governing Food Sanitation (食品衛生管理法) to double fines for media outlets that run fraudulent food advertisements. Violators will be fined between NT$60,000 (US$1,970) and NT$300,000 and fines will be doubled if they continue to run the ads. The amendment also requires travelers to declare overseas food products or food supplements that have been categorized by the government as “possible health-threatening products.” Travelers are now obliged to present official documents from the products’ place of origin as proof of food safety. The authority can confiscate products if passengers violate the regulation. The amendment also allows the government to prohibit travelers from bringing food products that are “seriously health-threatening” into Taiwan.
■ LITERATURE
Remembering James Joyce
A Taipei publisher is holding an essay writing competition in search of Taiwan’s 21st century James Joyce as Bloomsday approaches. Bloomsday is observed annually on June 16 in Dublin, Ireland, and elsewhere to celebrate the life of Irish author James Joyce and relive his most famous novel Ulysses, which recounted events hour-by-hour of protagonist Leopold Bloom’s “odyssey” through Dublin on June 16, 1904. The competition, sponsored by Bookman Book Co, is encouraging participants to write a dramatic monologue describing their activities over the course of a day in a Taiwanese city similar to what Joyce did in Ulysses. The publisher will name the winners of the competition and, at the same time, launch a new book titled Taiwan’s Scholarly Research on James Joyce’s Ulysses, at its headquarters in Taipei on June 16. Competition entries should be sent to: yichun@bookman.com.tw. The deadline is June 8.
■ FOREIGN AID
Taiwan helps Chileans
Taiwan has donated US$15,000 to Chile to help with disaster relief efforts after the South American country was devastated by the eruption of a volcano earlier this month. The donation was made by Taiwan’s representative to Chile Ker Chi-sheng (柯吉生) on behalf of the Taiwanese government and was accepted jointly by the three mayors of Chaiten, Alto Palena and Futaleufu at a ceremony on Thursday. Expressing sympathy for the victims of the volcanic eruption, Ker said that Taiwanese expatriate communities in Chile will also donate emergency relief goods in a few days time. The donation was the first financial donation received by Chile in the wake of the disaster, Ker said. The Chaiten volcano, which had been dormant for thousands of years, erupted on May 2, prompting most residents to flee the nearby town of Chaiten.
■ SOCIETY
More staying unmarried
An increasing number of people in Taipei are unmarried, figures compiled by the Department of Budget, Accounting and Statistics of the Taipei City Government show. The latest census statistics released by the department earlier this week showed that as of the end of last year, Taipei’s population stood at 2.63 million. Of those who were aged 15 and over, 35.38 percent were unmarried, representing an increase of 0.03 percent over 2006, the statistics show. Department officials noted a clear tendency among people of marriageable age to delay marriage and childbearing. The average age of women giving birth for the first time last year reached a record-high of 31.66.
■ TOURISM
Changhua to beautify road
A road in Changhua County will be transformed in July into a recreation area covered with flowers to attract both tourists and butterflies. Liu Yi-hsing (劉以興), a section chief at the county government’s Urban Development Bureau, said the road will cover several scenic spots integrating tourism resources to boost the county’s tourism industry. He said a plan was drawn up last year to grow flowers to attract purple crow butterflies, but the flowers failed to attract the species. However, the county government did not give up hope of attracting other kinds of butterflies and kept growing flowers and redesigned the road with the aim of turning it into an area attractive to both tourists and butterflies, Liu said. The flowery road, which will be prepared in three phases, will include a biking trail and take into consideration the surrounding environment, Liu said.
■ TOURISM
Pingtung to offer tours
The Pingtung County Government will hold tours of historic monuments from next month to allow the public to gain a better understanding of the county’s historic relics. The county government has designated this year as the county’s “Historic Monument Year” in line with restoration work, which is carried out once every couple of decades, said Hsu Fen-chun (徐芬春), director of the county government’s Cultural Affairs Department. Tourists will learn how to make miniatures of the Siadanshuei River Iron Railway Bridge, a grade-two relic built in 1913. It was the longest bridge in Southeast Asia when it was built. On a tour of the Hengchun City Walls — the ancient gates of Hengchun Township (恆春), established in 1875 — participants will learn how to fire bricks like those used to build the bridge, he said. They will also learn how to make Koji pottery, Hsu said.
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