SOCIETY
Ex-midwife commended
Kuo Chiu-chu (郭秋菊), a former midwife in Pingtung County’s Wandan Township (萬丹), who delivered nearly 7,000 babies in her 36-year career, was on Monday selected as an exemplary figure by Kaohsiung’s Fooyin University, formerly the Senior Vocational High School of Midwifery. Kuo entered the profession after graduating from the then-Senior Vocational High School of Midwifery in 1962. Upon receiving word that someone was about to give birth, she would ride her scooter to the destination. Rain or shine, she was on duty. Often, she would have to wait for several nights for the arrival of a baby. She did not stop working even when she was pregnant and just after giving birth. Once, she delivered five babies within three hours. Of the nearly 7,000 babies she delivered over the years, the eldest is now 53 years old. After retirement, Kuo became a volunteer and a matchmaker. Over the past 10 years, she has matched 200 couples and is proud of her “zero divorce rate.”
SOCIETY
Man wins NT$490m
A man was driving in New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水) after finishing work one day when, due to heavy traffic, he decided to take a detour, the China Times reported yesterday. After changing his route home, he saw a lottery shop and stopped to make a spur-of-the-moment purchase of 10 tickets for NT$500. The man then won Taiwan’s Big Lotto jackpot of NT$490 million. Unable to believe his luck, he could only say: “The god of fortune must have led my way.” He donated NT$10 million to the New Taipei City Government and set up a toy bank to give underprivileged children or children living in remote areas access to toys.
TRAVEL
Nations add visa waivers
Taiwanese passport holders can now obtain visa waivers, landing visas or e-visas to 158 countries and territories after five more countries granted the nation such privileges, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. Ethiopia, Mauritania and Lebanon granted landing visa treatment, while Zambia and the United Arab Emirates included Taiwan in their e-visa systems, the ministry said in a statement. The 158 countries and territories that have given Taiwanese passport holders visa privileges include the US, Japan and all 28 EU member states. It covers most of the areas frequented by Taiwanese travelers, according to the ministry. Separately, the nation has signed agreements on driver’s license reciprocity with 85 countries and areas, allowing Taiwanese license-holders to apply for licenses in other nations without having to take local tests, the ministry said. These include the most popular destinations for travelers, such as Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Italy and France, and parts of Australia, Canada and the US, the ministry said.
HEALTH
Dengue deaths hit 184
The number of deaths from dengue fever has risen to 184 since May, including 10 newly confirmed fatalities, the Central Epidemic Command Center, which was set up in response to the dengue outbreak, said yesterday. All 10 of the new fatalities were among people in Kaohsiung who were aged between 56 and 82, it said. Most of the deceased had chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension, the center said. On Monday, 266 new cases of dengue fever were recorded across the nation, bringing the total number of infections since the start of May to 39,350.
SOCIETY
Ex-midwife commended
Kuo Chiu-chu (郭秋菊), a former midwife in Pingtung County’s Wandan Township (萬丹), who delivered nearly 7,000 babies in her 36-year career, was on Monday selected as an exemplary figure by Kaohsiung’s Fooyin University, formerly the Senior Vocational High School of Midwifery. Kuo entered the profession after graduating from the then-Senior Vocational High School of Midwifery in 1962. Upon receiving word that someone was about to give birth, she would ride her scooter to the destination. Rain or shine, she was on duty. Often, she would have to wait for several nights for the arrival of a baby. She did not stop working even when she was pregnant and just after giving birth. Once, she delivered five babies within three hours. Of the nearly 7,000 babies she delivered over the years, the eldest is now 53 years old. After retirement, Kuo became a volunteer and a matchmaker. Over the past 10 years, she has matched 200 couples and is proud of her “zero divorce rate.”
SOCIETY
Man wins NT$490m
A man was driving in New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水) after finishing work one day when, due to heavy traffic, he decided to take a detour, the China Times reported yesterday. After changing his route home, he saw a lottery shop and stopped to make a spur-of-the-moment purchase of 10 tickets for NT$500. The man then won Taiwan’s Big Lotto jackpot of NT$490 million. Unable to believe his luck, he could only say: “The god of fortune must have led my way.” He donated NT$10 million to the New Taipei City Government and set up a toy bank to give underprivileged children or children living in remote areas access to toys.
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