Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) Director-General Chou Yung-hui (周永暉) will start his new job as head of the Tourism Bureau after the Mid-Autumn Festival next month, instead of on Monday as planned, because of the threat of a train drivers’ strike during the long holiday weekend, Minister of Transportation and Communications Hochen Tan (賀陳旦) said yesterday.
The TRA has been asked to organize a backup plan in case the drivers follow through with the strike threat, he said.
“The train drivers’ plan to strike during the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday could disrupt the ministry’s plan to provide transport for homebound passengers,” Hochen said. “He [Chou] volunteered to stay behind and lead the TRA staff through the crisis.”
Hochen said he had high expectations for TRA acting director-
general Lu Chieh-shen (鹿潔身), adding that the railway agency could use this opportunity to prove to the public that it can find ways to reform.
The ministry would consider promoting Lu to director-general if he proves he is able to handle the job, Hochen said.
Hochen announced a reshuffle of top jobs at ministry agencies earlier this month, which was criticized by industry experts because some officials were given posts outside their area of expertise.
Tourism Bureau Director-General David Hsieh (謝謂君) is being transferred to head the Marine Port Bureau; ministry Chief Secretary Lin Kuo-hsieh (林國顯), whose expertise is railway and highway transport, is to become head of the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA).
They are to take up their new posts on Monday.
Hochen said Chou has largely earned praise for his marketing of the TRA and its services, not necessarily his expertise in railway engineering, so Chou would be able use his marketing talents with the Tourism Bureau.
“The Marine Port Bureau acts as an overseer of the Taiwan International Port Corp, which is in charge of operating the international seaports and attracting investment. It should focus on transforming some of the smaller domestic ports into ports for leisure or tourism purposes,” the minister said, adding that Hsieh could be counted on to work with local governments to make this a reality.
Lin’s transfer was not an eccentric move, because “he is one of the rare officials who look at things from a broader perspective,” Hochen said. “The CAA needs someone who not only knows how to manage airport terminals and oversee their daily operation, but also to promote interaction with the airlines.”
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
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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