SOCIETY
Japanese to hold memorial
A group of Japanese living in Taiwan are to hold a memorial on the third anniversary of a devastating earthquake that struck off Tohoku in northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011. The event is scheduled for March 11 in Taipei in commemoration of those who died in the massive quake and ensuing tsunami, and to extend thanks to Taiwan for its post-disaster assistance, said Japan’s Interchange Association, which is helping to organize the memorial. A moment of silence will be observed in memory of those who passed away in the disaster, and there will also be singing and dancing, according to the organizers. The magnitude 9 earthquake and subsequent tsunami killed nearly 20,000 people, mainly in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures in northeastern Japan. In the wake of the disaster, Taiwan donated about ¥20 billion (US$195 million) in aid, more than any other single country.
CHARITY
Visually impaired join run
About 36,000 runners, 200 of them visually impaired, participated yesterday in a charity marathon in Taipei, sponsored for the first time in Taiwan by Standard Chartered Bank. This year’s Taipei Standard Chartered Charity Marathon started at the Presidential Office Plaza and finished at the Dajia Riverside Park. Kenyan runners Moses Kiptoo Kurgat and Mercy Jelimo Too won the men and women’s marathons, clocking 2 hours, 16 minutes and 21 seconds and 2 hours, 34 minutes and 54 seconds respectively. They each received NT$200,000. The event also included a half-marathon, a 8.5km race, a 3km fun run and a 1km children’s dash. Standard Chartered said it would donate NT$15 million to helping visually impaired people find jobs and assisting with a worldwide program for preventable blindness.
TRAVEL
‘Gap Year’ contest to start
Young Taiwanese with a love for traveling are being enticed to compete for an all-expenses paid one-year stay in Queensland, Australia. Aiming to duplicate the nation’s successful “Best Job in the World” campaign, Queensland’s Department of State Development, Trade and Innovation has launched the “Ultimate Gap Year” contest to promote the state’s education, tourism and working environment. The winner gets a package worth AU$25,000 (US$22,400), which includes a working holiday visa, round-trip plane tickets, domestic airplane tickets, a 16-week education program, 48 weeks accommodation, year-long insurance and a half-year internship at local businesses. Taiwan is among five countries where the contest will be held. A winner will be chosen from each country, the organizers said, adding that interested applicants between 18 and 30 should upload a 60-second film in English of themselves promoting Queensland. Applications will be accepted from March 7.
HEALTH
Dengue fever warning issued
Travelers should take proper precautions to prevent mosquito bites while traveling in Southeast Asia, where dengue fever cases have spiked, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. This year, dengue fever outbreaks in Southeast Asia have been worse than last year, especially in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, CDC Deputy Director-General Chou Jih-haw (周志浩) said. Taiwan has recorded 21 imported cases of dengue fever since the start of this year, with nine from Indonesia, six from Malaysia, three from the Philippines, two from Singapore and one from Cambodia.
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