Sun, Jan 25, 2009 page3

• Taiwan News Quick Take

  • STAFF WRITER, WITH CNA
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  ■SOCIETY

  Scooter and owner reunited

  A motorcycle exhibition at the National Science and Technology Museum in Kaohsiung City was recently the setting for a reunion between an old Suzuki Landie 50 scooter and its former owner. Huang Shih (黃寔), 69, is a voluntary worker at the museum. The moment she saw the moped she had owned for dozens of years before being forced to auction it online over two years ago because of financial problems, Huang shed tears of joy. Huang was despondent when she handed more than the scooter to Chen Yen-shan (鄭燕山), a 30-year-old antique motorbike collector from Kaohsiung County, and pleaded with Huang not to tear the bike apart. The exhibition, which runs through May 10, displays motorcycles that have run on Taiwan’s roads and streets over the past half-century. Chen said the three-gear Landie 50, which was produced in the 1970s, has been his treasure since he first bought it and that he had spent NT$50,000 on the restoration.

  ■SOCIETY

  Ma buys food with vouchers

  President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) purchased food yesterday at a Taipei traditional market using cash and consumer vouchers as part of his effort to promote plans to help boost the country’s sluggish economy. Ma made the purchases while accompanying his mother, Chin Hou-hsiu (秦厚修), on a trip to buy Lunar New Year treats at Xinglong Market in the Wenshan district. The NT$3,600 consumer vouchers were distributed on Jan. 18 by the government in an attempt to stimulate consumption.

  ■DIPLOMACY

  Taiwan donates to disabled

  Representative to the Philippines Liu Shan-shan (劉姍姍) donated equipment for the disabled to the Philippines on Friday following the signing of a memorandum of understanding on the issue with the Philippines’ Department of Social Welfare. Liu, on behalf of the Taiwan-based Eden Social Welfare Foundation, donated the equipment, which included 65 wheelchairs, 150 crutches and 10 walking sticks for the blind, during a ceremony in Manila. Department of Social Welfare Secretary Esperanza Cabral signed the memorandum of understanding on behalf of the Philippines and expressed gratitude to the Eden Social Welfare Foundation for the donation, part of which will be given to the Philippines chapter of the Women’s Federation for World Peace. Taiwan donated relief supplies and humanitarian aid to the Philippines in 2005 and again last year after areas of the country were devastated by typhoons.

  ■SOCIETY

  Hakka culture park planned

  Construction of a Hakka culture park in Miaoli County began on Friday and is scheduled to be completed in 2011. Addressing the park’s groundbreaking ceremony, Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) said the park would be a landmark in Miaoli, but also a “spiritual fortress” for the nation’s Hakka population. Located in the southern section of the Tongluo Science Park, the Hakka cultural center will be the only one in Taiwan to comprise both cultural and industrial structures. Siew said he hoped that high-tech companies in the Tongluo park would support cultural development and the new Hakka park would inspire and enrich Taiwan’s scientific and technological development. Council of Hakka Affairs Minister Huang Yu-chen (黃玉振) said the new culture park was expected to work in concert with the existing Liuduei Hakka Culture Park in Pingtung County to preserve and spark a rennaissance of Hakka culture.
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