Minister of Transportation and Communications Yeh Kuang-shih’s (葉匡時) remarks about cheap food products sparked criticism from netizens, with some saying the minister is trying to blame other people.
When asked on Thursday if he was concerned that the food safety crisis caused by the use of recycled waste oil in processed food might affect the nation’s tourism industry, Yeh said that tourists from China, Hong Kong and Macao might be discouraged from visiting Taiwan.
Yeh said the root of the food safety problem was that people prefer to buy cheap food. He said he wanted to write a letter to the writer Liu Ka-shiang (劉克襄), who has wriiten to the Chinese-language Apple Daily opinion page declaring he was against Taiwanese restaurant chain Formosa Chang’s decision to raise the price of its food.
“I want to tell him [Liu] that I identify with his ideal of living a simple life. However, if you put too much emphasis on food being cheap, it causes restaurants to cut costs and disrupts the supply chain,” Yeh said, adding the nation promotes night markets too much. In response, Liu said the problem is not cheap food, but the conscience of corporations producing food and the government’s management.
Liu said that many food manufacturers implicated in this crisis were reputable companies, whose products are not necessarily cheap. Liu also said that in his opinion night markets should not only attract visitors by selling cheap food.
However, Liu said he does not think there is a correlation between food being cheap and the use of recycled waste oil.
The disagreement over the root cause of the food safety crisis between Liu and Yeh also stirred up heated online discussions.
“Do the poor deserve to be poisoned by the food they eat? ” one netizen asked.
Others said that Yeh should mind his own business, particularly over problems with the freeway’s electronic toll collection system.
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
MULTIPRONGED APPROACH: China has sought to pressure Palau across a number of fronts, but the island nation has staunchly resisted overtures to ditch Taiwan Palau has been firm in backing Taiwan despite Chinese pressure that uses tourism economics, cyberattacks and criminal infiltration as tools to threaten the Pacific ally into renouncing its recognition of Taiwan as a sovereign state. The Presidential Office yesterday announced that Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) would visit Palau from Saturday to Wednesday next week at the invitation of Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr. Whipps in April said in an interview that China had outspokenly asked Palau to “denounce Taiwan.” “And we have said: ‘We have no enemies, but nobody tells us who our friends are,’” he said. Whipps has told reporters multiple times
RSS