Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) thanked Indonesian workers for their contributions to Taiwan and wished them a happy new year during the Id al-Fitr celebrations at the Taipei Grand Mosque yesterday.
The event marked the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan as well as the start of the new year in Indonesia.
More than 50,000 Muslims celebrated the end of the month-long Ramadan in mosques in Taipei, Chungli, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung.
PHOTO: CHU PEI-HSIUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Indonesian workers made up the majority of the hundreds of Muslims gathering at the Taipei Grand Mosque to celebrate the new year.
The popular mayor, though not a Muslim himself, donned a jannah cap to greet Indonesian workers and spoke a bit of Indonesian -- drawing cheers from the crowd.
Ma pointed out that there are 36,000 foreign workers in Taipei and among them, 20,000 are Indonesian workers who contribute much to the construction and household assistance of Taipei City.
He also said that if all of them took the same day off, one-quarter of Taipei City would be paralyzed.
Ma also said that foreign workers as well as their local counterparts will benefit from a NT$300 million (US$8.69 million) labor foundation established by the Taipei City Government.
If foreign workers are improperly treated by their employers, Ma said they will be able to hire attorneys through assistance from the foundation.
Ma added that foreign workers should receive the same treatment as local workers.
The Taipei MRT is open all night tonight following New Year’s Eve festivities, and is offering free rides from nearby Green Line stations. Taipei’s 2025 New Year’s Eve celebrations kick off at Taipei City Hall Square tonight, with performances from the boy band Energy, the South Korean girl group Apink, and singers Gigi Leung (梁詠琪) and Faith Yang (楊乃文). Taipei 101’s annual New Year’s firework display follows at midnight, themed around Taiwan’s Premier12 baseball championship. Estimates say there will be about 200,000 people in attendance, which is more than usual as this year’s celebrations overlap with A-mei’s (張惠妹) concert at Taipei Dome. There are
LOOKING FOR WHEELS: The military is seeking 8x8 single-chassis vehicles to test the new missile and potentially replace the nation’s existing launch vehicles, the source said Taiwan is developing a hypersonic missile based on the Ching Tien (擎天) supersonic cruise missile, and a Czech-made truck has been tentatively selected as its launch vehicle, a source said yesterday. The Ching Tien, formerly known as Yun Feng (雲峰, “Cloud Peak”), is a domestically developed missile with a range of 1,200km to 2,000km being deployed in casemate-type positions as of last month, an official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. The hypersonic missile to be derived from the Ching Tien would feature improved range and a mobile launch platform, while the latter would most likely be a 12x12 single chassis
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Parts of the nation, including in the south, could experience temperatures as low as 7°C early tomorrow morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. A strong continental cold air mass coupled with the effect of radiative cooling would bring cold weather to several northern cities and counties, and could even affect areas as far south as Tainan early tomorrow, the CWA said. Keelung, Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan, and Hsinchu, Miaoli and Yilan counties would experience temperatures below 10°C until this evening, according to cold surge advisories issued by the weather agency. The weather across the nation is forecast to remain
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