EDUCATION
‘Borrowed classes’ common
Almost all high school students have had teachers cancel some classes and replace them with others, a survey released on Monday by a local rights group found. The practice of “borrowing” classes, in which teachers often substitute academic classes for subjects they consider less important, such as art or physical education, has long been prevalent because of the pressure on students to excel academically. The poll, conducted by the Taiwan Alliance for Advancement of Youth Rights and Welfare, found the practice was widespread, with 97 percent of respondents saying their teachers had done it. Although the Ministry of Education has been promoting balanced and holistic education, 64 percent of students have one to five of their classes a month “borrowed” for other purposes, and one out of 10 students have 10 classes a month changed, the alliance said. The poll, conducted from July 26 to Saturday last week, collected 2,236 valid samples.
TRAVEL
Guangdong alert issued
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have issued a Level-2 travel advisory for China’s Guangdong Province after a case of H7N9 avian flu infection was confirmed there. The patient was a 51-year-old woman working in the poultry slaughtering industry, the agency said, adding that she has been hospitalized in serious condition. The agency said it issued the alert over the weekend after it received confirmation from China’s disease prevention and control center of the infection. The was the first confirmed H7N9 case in China since early last month. Under the CDC’s three-level travel advisory system, a Level-2 alert calls for would-be travelers to maintain a high degree of caution and take protective measures, especially when they visiting high-risk places. Meanwhile, the Council of Agriculture said it will strengthen poultry and wild bird monitoring and prevent poultry slaughtering at traditional marketplaces.
SOCIETY
Buzzfeed lists attractions
Night markets, tasty food and a convenient lifestyle rank among the top reasons to love Taipei, according to media Web site BuzzFeed. BuzzFeed staffer Kevin Tang has listed 28 reasons why Taipei is so great, with its 7-Eleven outlets topping the list because customers can pay their utility bills, buy concert tickets, send express mail or buy food and alcohol around the clock. Other items on the list include the city’s election culture, its cafes, Eslite’s 24-hour bookstore and natural attractions such as Yangmingshan and Beitou’s hot springs. Other attractions are its night markets, preponderance of beef noodle soup shops and “weird” theme restaurants.
ENTERTAINMENT
Star search launched
A Chinese online video community and a Taiwan-based entertainment company on Monday said they will launch a platform to find aspiring stars in Taiwan. Net Stars Asia Entertainment Co, which trains aspiring performers, and guagua.cn announced their alliance in Taipei. It is part of the Chinese Web site’s plan to invest 200 million yuan (US$32.65 million) to search for and train stars in China and Taiwan this year. The Web site, established in 2008, allows members to upload videos showcasing their talents or watch videos submitted by others. It has more than 75 million registered members, according to On My Own, a Taiwanese marketing firm that is working with the two companies.
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
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
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