EVENTS
TES plans Summer Fair
The annual Taipei European School (TES) Summer Fair will open on May 30, the school said. The event will feature a flea market, a second-hand book sale, food and drinks and game booths for children, it said. The fair will be held at the TES Swire Campus in Shilin District (士林), Taipei City, from 11am to 3pm. Those interested in booking a table to sell second-hand goods can contact Rebecca Earnshaw at 0972-105-984 or send an e-mail to tbspta@gmail.com.
EVENTS
Community Choir to perform
The International Community Choir will present its Cabaret Concert 2009 on May 17 at Mother of God Church in Tianmu, Taipei City. The choir will perform selected pieces from Cabaret and Camelot. The repertoire will also include a special guest performance from students of the Taipei American School (TAS). The ticket price is NT$300 and all proceeds will go to St Anne’s Home for children with special needs, the event’s organizer said. Seating is limited and tickets will be available for sale beginning today at both TAS and the Taipei European School. For more information, contact Siew Kang at (02) 2533-4247 or internationalchoir@gmail.com.
CRIME
Warning for foreign spouses
Wang Shih-chih (王世智) of Tainan County’s Mude Care Association, which has long helped foreign spouses, said the naturalization of foreign spouses and obtaining an ID card are complex processes and warned applicants not to believe anyone who promises to speed up the paperwork, cut costs or bypass regulations. Wang gave the warning after a recent case in which a Vietnamese immigrant surnamed Ruan, who is married to a Taiwanese man in Tainan County’s Dongshan Township (東山), tried to obtain a Taiwanese ID card without her husband’s knowledge with the help of a third party. Ruan was told that proof of studying in Taiwan was not required to complete the procedure. After Ruan gave the middleman her passport and NT$20,000, the person disappeared. Wang said that although many applicants use an intermediary to handle applications, some believe that handing over a “red envelope” (紅包) can shorten the process, and this puts them at the mercy of unscrupulous people. For more information, call the Mude Care Association at (06) 698-9789.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
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