Taiwan News  
Date: 2017/11/25
By: Taiwan Today,Agencies

Taiwan’s public and private sectors are earning global recognition for promoting

sustainable development and raising awareness of the value of adopting economically inclusive and environmentally friendly business models, according to Vice President Chen Chien-jen Nov. 23.

As a responsible member of the global village, and in keeping with international practices such as the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, Taiwan has established core objectives and detailed implementation plans for the next four years to address its most pressing issues in this regard, Chen said.

Sustainable development builds a better world and is a shared responsibility for future generations, the vice president said. As such, it is expected Taiwan’s businesses will continue to meet their obligations as responsible corporate citizens and serve as benchmarks in their respective sectors, he added.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/11/24
By: Y.J. Wang and Flor Wang

Taipei, Nov. 24 (CNA) “This is not goodbye, rather it is a move to attract more young artists to Cloud Gate,” Lin Hwai-min (林懷民), artistic director and founder of the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre said Thursday, speaking of his plan to retire.

“Don’t make it sound as if I’m leaving now,” he joked to reporters at a press conference. “I still have two years before I retire.”

Lin, 70, is planning to retire at the end of 2019, after Cloud Gate presented his most recent work Formosa (關於島嶼), which premiered at the National Theatre in Taipei on Thursday.

“I just want to hand it over to someone younger before I become an old mad man,” said Lin, a dancer, writer and choreographer.    [FULL  STORY]

Loop News
Date: 23 November 2017

The City of Castries will be having its annual Festival of Lights come December 12, thanks in part to the Republic of China (Taiwan).

Taiwan’s Ambassador to St. Lucia Douglas Shen today handed Castries Mayor Peterson Francis a cheque for EC$310,000 to go towards the event.

The event, held every December 12, officially marks the start of the Christmas season for St. Lucians who attend in their thousands.

The festival, like in years past, will include fireworks, cultural dances, songs and thousands of lights. The festival is held in honour of St. Lucy, the patron saint of light and symbolizes the defeat of light over darkness and the renewal of hope.   [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-11-23

President Tsai Ing-wen said she hopes retired military personnel will have faith in the

government’s pension reform plans.

The push for pension reform for public servants has been the subject of heavy protest since day one. The defense ministry recently published their pension reform draft for veterans and will be collecting feedback over the next month.

Tsai gave a speech on Thursday in an educational TV program produced by the defense ministry. She said the government has taken into consideration the special nature of military service and has come up with a separate pension structure. The goal, she stressed, is to help retired personnel maintain their quality of life.

Tsai said she hopes veterans will have faith in the government’s efforts.   [FULL  STORY]

Lin immediately knelt down and said to her foster parents, “Thank you for taking care of me, without you, there is no me.”  

Taiwan News 
Date: 2017/11/23
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)—Twenty-nine-year-old Lin Ching-mei (林靜玫) walked into the

Pingtung office of Taiwan Fund for Children and Families (TFCF) in early November and told social work supervisor Huang Shu-ling (黃淑玲) that she wished to find her foster parents, who took care of her 20 years ago. The supervisor lifted through a pile of forms that had turned yellow through age and found that her foster father Chang Hung-chi (張鴻祺) and foster mother Kuo Ching-ching (郭巾錦) are still providing foster care. On November 8, Lin finally met them for the first time in 20 years. She was on her knees with tearful eyes while she thanked them.

On the day Lin walked into the TFCF’s Pingtung office, she told Huang that she had come to Pingtung from Taichung three times in the past in a bid to find her foster parents, but as her memories of 20 years ago were so sketchy that she had no luck of finding the home of her foster parents no matter how hard she tried, so she went back to Taichung with tears in her eyes every time. As she was so young when she was placed with the foster parents, she couldn’t remember through which agency the placement was arranged until when she heard her colleagues talking about the TFCF it struck her “I am a TFCF foster child.” Therefore, she made another trip to Pingtung again, hoping to find her foster parents through TFCF’s Pingtung office.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/11/23
By: Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, Nov. 23 (CNA) There is no evidence to indicate that the number of strong

earthquakes across the world will increase significantly next year, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said Thursday, countering a prediction by seismic experts in the United States.

“There has not been any concrete pattern so far to which we can refer to predict the number of earthquakes in the future,” said Lin Tzu-wei (林祖慰), a section chief at the bureau’s Seismology Center.

Roger Bilham, professor emeritus at the University of Colorado in Boulder, told the British media earlier this month that there will be a significant surge in the number of severe earthquakes next year.

“So far we have only had about six severe earthquakes,” Bilham was quoted as saying. “We could easily have 20 a year starting 2018.”    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 24, 2017
By: Jason Pan  /  Staff reporter

Several Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators yesterday said that they support

legal recognition of the Siraya Aborigines (西拉雅族) and the need to protect their right to political representation, urging other lawmakers to approve a draft amendment to the Status Act for Indigenous Peoples (原住民身分法).

Siraya elders and activist were joined by pastors and officials of the Presbyterian Church of Taiwan (PCT) from southern Taiwan at a news conference convened by DPP Legislator Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) yesterday morning, where they urged all political parties to pass the proposed amendment.

The Siraya from Tainan, alongside other groups of Pingpu, or lowland Aborigines, have fought for legal recognition as indigenous people for several decades, but this had not been achieved, as the political process has not yet been completed.    [FULL  STORY]