Following the return of 72-year-old Taiwan-born urologist Jong Chen (陳榮良) from the US on Wednesday last week for a 12-day stay to pay respects to his ancestors, Chen’s former schools — Chiayi Senior High School and Kaohsiung Medical University — invited him to address their students.
Chen, who immigrated to the US in 1970 and began practicing medicine in Sacramento, California, in 1977, came to the media’s attention earlier this year after helping Mike Williams, a medical technology inventor, get back on his feet after Williams fell on hard times and was living on the streets.
Chen’s reputation in the US for helping the disadvantaged led to the fateful encounter with Williams.
Photo: Yang Ching-ching, Taipei Times
Despite holding 20 patents, including one for the first intra-oral camera and another for a wire catheter camera for heart surgery, Williams hit rock bottom after his home went into foreclosure in 2009 and he lost a large part of his savings in a scam.
Forced to live on the streets, Williams was assaulted in Sacramento Park and was referred to Chen’s clinic for treatment by the Salvation Army.
Seeing that Williams was well-educated, Chen told him that he could recover from his bad luck and be of service to society.
The words profoundly affected Williams who had not heard such kind words since his downward spiral began in 2009.
Chen learned Williams’ history and encouraged him to start inventing again.
One day, Chen contacted Williams at a Salvation Army shelter and treated him to breakfast.
During the meeting, Williams hit upon his latest idea: self-contained survival pods that could provide a secure space for homeless people to rest. The pods are made from fiberglass and include a single bed and a chemical toilet, Williams said.
Water would be produced inside the pods from renewable sources and the pods also contain battery-powered fans and heaters, Williams said, adding there would also a charging dock for computers and mobile phones.
The estimated cost per unit is about US$3,000, Williams added.
Out of his own pocket, Chen leased an apartment for half a year that Williams could use as a work place.
According to Chen, 95 homeless people have already signed up for the pods, adding that as a devout Christian, he plans to raise US$2 million from a local church to raise funds for the project.
The pods could benefit more than 600 homeless people, Chen said, adding that once the first batch was produced in the US in the middle of next month, he would relocate production to Taiwan.
All the materials and manufacturing would be handled in Taiwan, Chen said, adding that he hoped it could boost Taiwan’s economy.
Chen’s altruism has earned him high praise from the US government, with the White House chief of staff saying he was a model for the US.
The California governor even asked both Williams and Chen to stand witness when he signed a petition for a piece of legislature on homeless laws.
Chen said his altruistic tendencies had been greatly influenced by his youth.
Chen said that despite the pressures of raising 10 children, his mother never turned a beggar away from the door.
“It left an indelible mark in my mind,” Chen said.
Chen said his mother often told him that “people were never certain what life had in store and you should be kind to everyone because people that give were happier than those who received.”
“You should take care of others when you can, or else when one day you need help, you will not find a helping hand among 100 people,” he recalled his mother saying.
“As one of the first students to study in the US after World War II, I hoped that everything I did would let Americans realize that Asians weren’t the only ones in need of aid,” Chen said, adding: “I wanted them to know that Taiwanese [immigrants] also knew how to contribute to the betterment of American society.”
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,