President Chen Shui-bian (
In a speech at a ceremony to introduce the Arbor Month campaign, Chen said his administration's infrastructure construction and reform programs in various fields are like "planting saplings to sustain Taiwan's development."
"We hope construction and reform will continue and bring prosperity and good fortune to our people, just as saplings grow strong and blossom," Chen said.
PHOTO: CNA
Noting that trees can symbolize the continuity of hope and the spirit of perseverance, Chen said his administration has spared no effort to boost afforestation and ecological conservation.
"We have been determined to raise the amount of land in Taiwan covered by forest to 60 percent of the island's total land area by 2008," Chen said.
To realize the goal, Chen said, the government last year designated the period from Feb. 4 to March 12 as Taiwan's Arbor Month. This year's campaign plans to establish more than 1.3 million plants and seedlings on some 600 hectares of community parkland and school campuses around the nation.
Many senior officials, including Presidential Office Deputy Secretary-General Chen Che-nan (
They planted saplings at the Hsinta Fishing Port, which has been transformed from a sleepy deep-sea fishing base into one of the largest recreational fishing ports in Southeast Asia. The tree-planting activity also attracted thousands of residents of southern Taiwan to participate.
Tai said that the Council of Agriculture and the nation's eight forest administration bureaus will jointly organize 27 large-scale tree-planting activities in various parts of the island over the course of Arbor Month.
The government designated the day of national founding father Dr Sun Yat-sen's passing as Arbor Day four years after his death in 1925. Today, trees are planted each March 12 in remembrance of Sun's encouragement of afforestation and his contribution to the nation.
‘OBNOXIOUS MAN’: The KMT’s Chen Ching-hui moved into Chung Chia-pin’s path atop the podium and reached for him before he grabbed at her legs with both hands Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chung Chia-pin (鍾佳濱) yesterday said he slipped and lost his balance, and did not know who was around him, after jumping onto the speaker’s podium at the legislature in Taipei. He apologized after a collision with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chen Ching-hui (陳菁徽), who moved to intercept him as he mounted the podium. There was pushing and shoving when the session started in the morning as KMT lawmakers attempted to block access to the podium to shield Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) so he could preside over the session. Video footage showed Chung step on a chair and
Hungarian Member of Parliament Tompos Marton said he considers Taiwan to be a better alternative to China as a strategic partner. Marton, who is the vice president of the opposition Momentum Party, made the remarks in an interview with the Central News Agency on Sunday. He draped a Republic of China flag across his shoulders to protest Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) visit to the capital city, Budapest, on Thursday last week, and openly voiced support for Taiwan on social media. He said in the interview that he wanted to remind the world that there were alternatives to China, and that “Taiwan has
A female physician at New Taipei City’s Shuang Ho Hospital was bullied and made to work for 32 consecutive hours by a senior colleague while pregnant before later having a miscarriage, an internal investigation found, the hospital said on Monday. The perpetrator has been removed from his post, the hospital said. The attending physician in the hospital’s Medical Imaging Department, identified by the pseudonym Y, earlier on Monday told reporters that she had been bullied by a male senior colleague who arranged shifts in her department. In January, shortly after she became pregnant, Y asked the department director if she could avoid overnight
Television presenter Mickey Huang (黃子佼) yesterday was indicted for allegedly possessing sexually explicit videos involving minors. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office indicted Huang after the High Prosecutors’ Office found deficiencies in its initial probe and on April 19 returned the case for further investigation. Earlier last month, Huang had been given two years of deferred prosecution. Prosecutors said that they found in their latest investigation that Huang had been a member of the online forum “Chuangyi Sifang” (創意私房) since Feb. 12, 2014. He purchased sexually explicit videos involving minors, and had downloaded images and videos that featured the breasts and sexual organs of young