A "whimsical" press release from the Bureau of National Health Insurance (BNHI) ranking longevity according to star signs that attracted massive media coverage has resulted in the threat of a lawsuit from a man who said his wife's state of mind has been adversely affected by the report.
The bureau received a telephone call from a man complaining that his wife's depression had worsened markedly since she read in the papers that bureau figures showed people with her astrological sign, Aries, lived the shortest lives, according to the Chinese language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times' sister paper).
Saying that his wife had been threatening suicide on a daily basis since reading the reports, the man rebuked the bureau for releasing the analysis and threatened to sue, the story reported.
UNDER ATTACK
The bureau has been under attack ever since its astrological analysis of the Department of Health's 2006 death statistics hit the news stands.
The story was the Chinese-language China Times' front-page story on Wednesday and received prominent coverage in most newspapers.
With an average life span of 74.53 years old, Capricorns were said to be the star sign that live the longest, the bureau release said, followed by Aquarius and Libra. The shortest-living were Aries at 73.43 years old, while Taurus and Leo were the next shortest-lived.
Although the release stressed that the analysis was meant to be "whimsical," that did not stop members of the medical community and the public at large from criticizing the bureau over the move.
"In order to maintain the most basic appearance of the bureau's professionalism, leave the astrology to `star princes,'" ran one letter to the editor in the United Daily News on Jan. 10.
The Taiwan Medical Reform Foundation and the Alliance for the Oversight of the BNHI also weighed in publicly with their disapproval.
Bureau officials said that they'd been blindsided by the amount of bad publicity generated by the foray into fortune-telling.
"News from the bureau had been slow, so we took the opportunity to remind people to take care of themselves," said Chung Yueh-yi (鍾越漪), a deputy executive in the underwriting department of the BNHI.
"Aries tend to be workaholics, Taurus tend to be homebodies who sacrifice too much for their families while Leos tend to focus to much on appearances," Chung said, commenting on the three "shortest-living" star signs.
Chung conceded that the release was probably not scientifically sound.
"It's true, we were only working from one year's data," Chung said.
As for those who reacted negatively to the news, Chung said that she was sure that they were in the minority.
"I'm an Aries myself," Chung said "we're naturally optimistic."
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “[we] appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
ON PAROLE: The 73-year-old suspect has a criminal record of rape committed when he was serving in the military, as well as robbery and theft, police said The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday approved the detention of a 73-year-old man for allegedly murdering three women. The suspect, surnamed Chang (張), was arrested on Wednesday evening in connection with the death of a 71-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙). The Kaohsiung City Police Department yesterday also unveiled the identities of two other possible victims in the serial killing case, a 75-year-old woman surnamed Huang (黃), the suspect’s sister-in-law, and a 75-year-old woman surnamed Chang (張), who is not related to the suspect. The case came to light when Chao disappeared after taking the suspect back to his residence on Sunday. Police, upon reviewing CCTV
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, was arrested in Boston last month amid US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday. The arrest of Liou was first made public on the official Web site of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday. ICE said Liou was apprehended for overstaying her visa. The Boston Field Office’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) had arrested Liou, a “fugitive, criminal alien wanted for embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes in Taiwan,” ICE said. Liou was taken into custody