CHARITY
Khieng T-shirt to help kids
Internationally renowned fashion designer Khieng Puong, now living and working in Taiwan, has designed a T-shirt for a charity drive for Aboriginal children, the non-profit Canlove Social Service Association, which organized the drive, said yesterday. Khieng, owner of the Taipei-based haute couture company Khieng Atelier, has designed a T-shirt especially for the charity that is seeking to provide better social services in Aboriginal communities, it said, adding that the proceeds from the sale of the T-shirt, 1,000 of which will be produced, would go toward programs for Aboriginal children. Khieng, who was born in Cambodia and married Wang Jui-jung (王瑞容), the daughter of late tycoon Wang Yung-ching (王永慶), said the T-shirt design integrates fashion elements and the unique totemic images of Taiwan’s Aborigines. The T-shirts will be sold online on the association’s Web site and on Yam Taiwan.
DIPLOMACY
Aid arrives in Thailand
The first batch of relief supplies donated by Taiwan to help flood victims in Thailand has arrived in the country, an official said yesterday. The supplies, which weigh 5,000kg, include surgical masks, food, sanitizers and first-aid kits. Thailand has been hit by its worst flooding in 50 years, said James Tien (田中光), director-general of the Department of East Asian and Pacific Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The flooding in the world’s top exporter of rice broke out in late July and it has affected half of the nation’s population. On Oct. 18, the government donated US$100,000 to the Thai government. As the flooding in the country continued to worsen, Taiwan offered another US$100,000.
ENVIRONMENT
‘Green’ forums to be held
The German Institute in Taipei and a local environmental non-governmental organization are set to co-host forums on environmental issues throughout Taiwan starting from Monday, in an effort to promote a sustainable low-carbon environment, organizers said yesterday. The first forum is to be held in Yilan, followed by Greater Taichung and New Taipei City (新北市), before concluding in Greater Tainan, said Eugene Chien (簡又新), president of the Taiwan Institute for Sustainable Energy. Attending the forums will be two German experts — Christian Maass, former state secretary for environment and urban planning in Hamburg, will share his experiences about making his city this year’s European Green Capital, while Rudiger Schweer, director of the Ministry of the Environment in Hessen, will focus on business structure and opportunity.
CULTURE
Eight to receive awards
Eight people, including a crosstalk performer and two Aborigine nose-flute players, will receive the human national treasure award this year, according to the Council of Cultural Affairs. Lai Pie-hsia (賴碧霞), who is also known as the “Queen of Hakka folk songs,” has been awarded for her achievements in preserving Hakka mountain music. Wu Chao-nan (吳兆南), 80, a renowned crosstalk performer, and Paiwan nose-flute players Hsu Kun-chung (許坤仲) and Hsieh Shui-neng (謝水能) are among those honored. The others are master tinsmith Chen Wan-neng (陳萬能), Buddhist sculptor Shih Chih-hui (施至輝), traditional wood sculptor Shih Chen-yang (施鎮洋) and traditional glove puppet artist Huang Chun-hsiung (黃俊雄). This year’s award ceremony is scheduled to be held tomorrow at the Taichung Cultural Creative Industrial Park.
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
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
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,