FOREIGN AFFAIRS
German office picks partner
The German Institute Taipei on Friday named Taiwanese professor Tseng Tse-fong (曾梓峰) as honorary Kaohsiung director to help promote economic and cultural ties between the two nations. Tseng, a professor at the National University of Kaohsiung’s Graduate Institute of Urban Development and Architecture, has been named honorary director effective immediately, the institute said on Facebook. Institute Director-General Martin Eberts on Friday presented a certificate of appointment to Tseng. The honorary director’s main job is to assist in promoting economic and cultural cooperation between the two nations, and does not involve consular affairs, the institute said. Tseng said he hopes to strengthen cultural, academic and economic exchanges between Taiwan and Germany.
ENTERTAINMENT
Cellist’s surgery a success
Cellist Chang Chen-chieh (張正傑), who broke his left wrist while cycling in Vienna earlier this week, yesterday said that his surgery had been successful and he is now wearing a cast. On Facebook, Chang said that doctors had told him to wear the cast for four weeks. “But after the cast is removed, I will be able to play cello again,” he said. The 57-year-old broke his wrist when he was riding a bike along the Danube River and hit a pothole. He was sent to a hospital in Vienna for the operation. Chang said he was grateful for the blessings he had received from Taiwan. Chang has worked with artists beyond the boundaries of classical music. Last month, he played with Peking opera singer Chu Lu-hao (朱陸豪) at a charity event held at a penitentiary for women in Kaohsiung.
SOCIETY
Average rent 27% of pay
Salaried workers who live in rented accommodation in Taiwan spend about 27 percent of their income on average on rent, a 1111 Job Bank poll found. Respondents had an average monthly salary of NT$34,386. Those from Taipei and spent an average of NT$10,392 per month on their accommodation, the most among the six special municipalities. Of the six municipalities, Tainan had the cheapest rent, with respondents spending an average of NT$6,000 per month, the poll showed. The average size of rented apartments for salaried workers was about 42.4m2, the poll found. About 38 percent of respondents said they rented because they could not afford to buy. The survey was conducted among 1,180 salaried workers older than 18 who were registered members of 1111 Job Bank. It ran from July 2 until Thursday.
DIPLOMACY
Housing project launched
A groundbreaking ceremony was on Friday held for a project to build 400 temporary housing units for victims of the Marawi conflict, a five-month armed battle that ended late last year in the Philippines. It took place at a construction site in Rorogagus East, Marawi City, and was attended by representative to the Philippines Michael Hsu (徐佩勇), as well as local city officials. The project is a collaborative effort between the Taiwanese government and the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation, Hsu said. The housing project is part of efforts to help Marawi City recover from the conflict, which left about 350,000 people displaced, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees data released in February showed. In January, Taiwan launched a relief effort that included sending 10,780 tonnes of rice to those affected.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,