The Taipei City Government yesterday said personal safety alarms would be distributed to all elementary-school students in the city as part of efforts to make Taipei safer.
At a personal safety education event at an elementary school, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said he has been thinking about ways to enhance safety, particularly children’s personal safety.
Ko said he began thinking about the issue after he was reminded about the murder of a four-year-old girl nicknamed “Little Light Bulb” (小燈泡) in the city’s Neihu District (內湖) on March 28, 2016.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
The Taipei Department of Education said it last year began providing first and second-graders with personal safety alarms, and has allocated a budget of about NT$19.97 million (US$648,250) to expand the policy to all elementary school students, or about 115,750 children, starting this school semester.
Taipei’s 12 district heads meet monthly with officials from seven city government departments to discuss social security issues, Ko said, but added that personal safety protection was still needed.
There are three levels of personal safety: “self-help,” or the ability to help oneself; “mutual help,” or having the awareness to check a situation when people ask for help; and “public help,” which means public awareness to step in and help others in need, Ko said.
“In addition to teaching children when and how to use the alarms, as well as not to play with them, the most important part is that adults should be educated to identify the alarm’s sound and immediately realize that a child is asking for help,” Ko said. “So please look when you hear the alarm, or else it would be ineffective.”
The Taipei Fire Department is still determining the optimum frequency and volume for the alarms, but the policy is already in place, so children should be encouraged to carry the alarms every day and learn when to use them, he said.
Separately, Ko was asked about Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Co general manager Wu Yin-ning’s (吳音寧) unwillingness to report to the Taipei City Council, instead posting on Facebook her suggestions about a project to renovate the Taipei First Wholesale Fruit and Vegetable Market.
Everyone is entitled to express their opinions before the project is decided, but it should be done “within the [administrative] system,” Ko said.
Wu should report her suggestions to the board of directors or at monthly or daily administrative meetings at Taipei City Hall, not on Facebook, he said.
However, Taipei Department of Economic Development Commissioner Lin Chung-chieh (林崇傑) and Taipei Market Administration Office Director Sheu Shyuan-mou (許玄謀) later told the Taipei City Council’s Democratic Progressive Party caucus that Wu had attended some of the meetings and the company also proposed suggestions on the renovation.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
Prosecutors today declined to say who was questioned regarding alleged forgery on petitions to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, after Chinese-language media earlier reported that members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Youth League were brought in for questioning. The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau confirmed that two people had been questioned, but did not disclose any further information about the ongoing investigation. KMT Youth League members Lee Hsiao-liang (李孝亮) and Liu Szu-yin (劉思吟) — who are leading the effort to recall DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) and Legislator Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) — both posted on Facebook saying: “I
The Ministry of Economic Affairs has fined Taobao NT$1.2 million (US$36,912) for advertisements that exceed its approved business scope, requiring the Chinese e-commerce platform to make corrections in the first half of this year or its license may be revoked. Lawmakers have called for stricter enforcement of Chinese e-commerce platforms and measures to prevent China from laundering its goods through Taiwan in response to US President Donald Trump’s heavy tariffs on China. The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee met today to discuss policies to prevent China from dumping goods in Taiwan, inviting government agencies to report. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kuo Kuo-wen (郭國文) said
Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 today amid outcry over his decision to wear a Nazi armband to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case last night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and covering the book with his coat. Lee said today that this is a serious
RSS