Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/10/06
By: Huang Tzu-chiang, Lung Pei-ning and Lee Mei-yu

Taipei, Oct. 6 (CNA) Taiwan is the best place to die in Asia, according to the 2015 Quality

of Death (QOD) Index compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), leaping from 14th to sixth place on the index comparing end-of-life care in 80 countries.

The upper echelons of the index are dominated by wealthy European, Asia-Pacific and North American countries. The United Kingdom, which has integrated palliative care into its National Health Service, is at the top of the chart.

Taiwan’s sixth place makes it the highest Asian country on the list. In a society where talk of death is usually taboo, the integration of community engagement for palliative care education and the encouragement of talking about death through the use of mainstream and social media has helped Taiwan successfully increase public awareness of palliative care, according to the EIU.

Taiwan is one of the first few countries in the world to introduce a hospice palliative care system. In 2000, it passed the Hospice and Palliative Care Act, which provides its citizens with the right to issue do-not-resuscitate instructions.     [FULL  STORY]

‘STRONG SHIELD’:Deputy Minister of National Defense Liu Chen-wu said Taiwan’s armed forces provide a bulwark to pursue cross-strait peace and regional stability

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 07, 2015
By: William Lowther  /  Staff reporter in WASHINGTON

Deputy Minister of National Defense Liu Chen-wu (劉震武) is pleading with the US to

provide more weapons for Taiwan’s defense.

“That is how we can prevent the People’s Republic of China from recklessly starting a war and further deter threats,” Liu told the 14th annual US-Taiwan Defense Industry Conference in Williamsburg, Virginia, on Monday.

Liu asked the US to continue to observe the Taiwan Relations Act and the “six assurances” and continue to provide defensive weapons and technical support for both hardware and software.

“In terms of hardware, please continue to provide major weapons and platforms for joint counter air, joint sea control and joint homeland defense operations, including advanced fighters and diesel-electric submarines,” he said.

While the conference was closed to the media, a copy of Liu’s speech was made available.

Sources said that senior Pentagon officials at the conference were sympathetic to Liu’s appeals, but said in private talks that weapon sales to Taiwan were a political issue and subject to White House decision making.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2015-10-05
By: Ko Lin, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je on Monday joined the Children Are Us Foundation for the

opening of its newly-inaugurated “Enjoy Taipei Bakery” located on the first floor of the Taipei City Hall.

In the company of children with developmental disabilities, Ko learned to prepare smoked chicken panini sandwiches after which he tasted and joked that nothing would go wasted as he was wrapping some leftovers to go.

The foundation is a non-profit private organization (NPO) which provides long-term care and job training to people with Down Syndrome, cerebral palsy, multiple dysfunction and other mental illness. It works on changing people’s general perception, hoping people can understand and respect people with intellectual disability, instead of making fun or looking down on them.

The first Children Are Us bakery opened in Kaohsiung city in 1997, and the Foundation has since expanded, opening other branches across the island. According to the city government, the management contract of the Taipei branch is renewed every three years, and for the last nine years it has gone to Victory Potential Development Center for the Disabled.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/10/05
By: S.C. Chang

Taipei, Oct. 5 (CNA) A Tang Prize Foundation executive is attending the 12th annual

meeting of the Science and Technology in Society (STS) Forum at the invitation of its founder, the Taiwan-based foundation said Monday.

Chang Herng-yuh (張恆裕), director of the foundation’s Planning and Development Department, said before leaving Taipei for the meeting in Kyoto, Japan that sustainable development is one of the four prizes awarded biennially by his foundation to encourage outstanding research in the field.

The environment and energy is one of the issues being addressed at the Kyoto meeting.

The forum, which runs from Sunday through Tuesday, is focusing on the “lights and shadows of science and technology” because rapid technological progress is like a sharp knife that cuts both ways and people need to be reminded of the challenges posed by technology, he said.     [FULL  STORY]