SOCIETY
Francophone festival begins
A week-long festival of free activities starts in both Taipei and Greater Kaohsiung today to celebrate the annual Francophone festival, the Alliance Francaise de Taiwan, the organizer of the event, said yesterday. The series of 13 events includes a short film contest, a singing competition, a French spelling bee, book fairs and various workshops, cultural seminars and live concerts, the organizer said. The alliance expects about 2,000 participants and encouraged the public to take the opportunity to learn more about French culture. International Francophonie Day falls on March 20 each year and is aimed at promoting the French language and its values, including cultural diversity, democracy and human rights, Bureau Francais de Taipei Director Olivier Richard said.
FOOD
Tainted tea rejected
Ginseng teabags and powder from Canada that were recently found to be tainted with pesticides have not entered the local market, one of the largest tea companies in Taiwan said yesterday. A Ten Ren Tea spokesman said customs officials found a shipment of ginseng teabags and another shipment of ginseng powder imported from Canada contained excessive amounts of pesticide residues. The company rejected the shipments, which meant that the products did not reach the local market, the spokesman said, adding that the company also removed similar products from its shelves nationwide last month.
ENVIRONMENT
Water supplies abundant
Above-average precipitation since the beginning of the year means current water supplies should see the nation through until the end of May, a Water Resources Agency (WRA) official said yesterday. The water supply is expected to be sufficient to meet household and industrial demand in the coming two months, because reservoirs in northern and central areas are filled almost to capacity and those in the south are 50 to 60 percent full, WRA Deputy Director-General Wu Yueh-hsi (吳約西) said. Although water levels in reservoirs in the south were lower than those in other parts of the country, they were higher than they have been at the same time in the past, Wu said, adding that the water levels of most of the nation’s rivers were also higher than usual because of the relatively high precipitation so far this year. Though water supplies appear to be sufficient into the near future, Wu said the agency would continue to promote water conservation efforts, especially in the agricultural sector where water consumption is particularly high.
ENVIRONMENT
Greenpeace ship to visit
The Greenpeace ship Esperanza will arrive in Taiwan on Friday to spread the message of ocean conservation, the campaign’s organizers said yesterday. Greenpeace Taipei said the ship’s visit is aimed at raising environmental awareness ahead of a meeting of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, where Taiwan will be discussing fishery development and marine conservation with member countries. The organization said that since Taiwan has one of the world’s largest and least regulated fishing fleets, it should take the lead in pushing for sustainable fishing at the March 25 to March 30 meeting in Guam. The Esperanza, visiting Taiwan for the first time, will be open for public visits when it docks in Kaohsiung Harbor and Keelung Harbor, the group said, adding it will be in Taiwan until April 8.
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:
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
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
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