CHARITY
More donations needed
The non-profit United Way of Taiwan called on the public to contribute to an annual fundraising campaign launched in support of social welfare work, which is still 70 percent short of its target. The organization launched its 19th annual fundraising drive in cooperation with Citibank on Nov. 1, with the goal of collecting NT$100 million (US$3.38 million) by the end of February next year. However, due to an economic downturn and a “crowding out” effect created by fundraisers for overseas disaster relief efforts, only about NT$30 million has been received so far. Hundreds of local social welfare groups have applied for subsidies totaling NT$580 million next year, but United Way said it will only be able to provide NT$350 million, if it succeeds in raising NT$100 million via the current campaign. The money collected will go to 500 local social welfare groups, and failure to meet the target will affect their programs.
COMMUNITY
Help protect Taichung bears
The Greater Taichung Government is calling on members of the public to help protect the figurines in this year’s Teddy Bear Taichung LOHAS Carnival after more than 10 bears across the city were found to have suffered damage. The carnival opened on Nov. 28 and will run till Jan. 5 next year and features over 100 figurines, each as tall as a person. Greater Taichung Deputy Mayor Tsai Ping-kun (蔡炳坤) said the city government does not want to send any figurines back to the manufacturer for repairs, but if the damage is too great, it might have to. He reminded people not to touch or climb the figurines, adding that he hoped people would pass this message on to anyone they find doing so.
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