Among diverse municipal concerns, the encouragement of better utilization of public transportation systems and promotion of physical exercise were two top priorities addressed yesterday, as 47 mayors and city representatives from around the world shared experiences and sought solutions to these issues.
On the second day of the International Healthy Cities Conference, participating city leaders met at the City Leaders Roundtable in Taipei to continue discussions of healthy-city issues. Prior to the roundtable, mayors and city representatives signed the "2005 Taipei Healthy City Declaration" as a strong commitment to improve the physical, socio-economic and environmental health of citizens.
As the host of the roundtable, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
Many participating cities, including Scotland's capital Edinburgh, Copenhagen (Denmark) and Lilongwe (Malawi), addressed the importance of the establishment of public transportation and ways to encourage citizens to take good advantage of it.
Deputy Mayor of Edinburgh Steve Cardowni said the city has been trying to "get people out of their cars" and use public transport. One thing the city is planning is a "congestion-charge policy," which would require vehicles crossing the central area of the city to pay a ?2 (US$3.55) fee per day.
The policy, which is already in effect in London, was however turned down by voters in a referendum earlier this year. Cardowni said it may take years before citizens understand the benefits of the policy, but efforts to carry out the plan, as well as other measures such as park-and-ride schemes, will continue.
Morris Hanna, mayor of Marrickville in Australia, said the city has introduced "walk to work" and "walk to school" programs, encouraging people to adopt "pollution-free" and "healthy" alternatives to the sedentary lifestyle.
The "walk to school" program has also been introduced in Taipei along with the annual "Care Free Month" event. Other cities like Lilongwe have adopted similar alternative concepts.
Besides the transportation concern, Deputy Mayor of Turku (Finland), Kaija Hartiala, raised the physical-exercise issue. Taking her city as an example, Hartiala said that politicians have been promoting the exercise energetically. Good cooperation between the city government, community members and universities has successfully persuaded those who declined to do exercise out of "laziness" to start doing it for fun and get more healthy at the same time.
Ma agreed that "the laziness of people" is the most difficult part to overcome when promoting physical exercise in any city. He said that is why it is important for a city to make exercise facilities accessible and affordable to attract more people to enjoy exercising in a more convenient way.
"So the Taipei City Government has remodeled many community swimming pools and built jogging paths and bikeways around the city, so that there won't be any excuses for citizens not to exercise," he said.
The Healthy Cities Conference ends today.
TENSIONS: The Chinese aircraft and vessels were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a joint air and sea military exercise, the Ministry of National Defense said A relatively large number of Chinese military aircraft and vessels were detected in Taiwan’s vicinity yesterday morning, apparently en route to a Chinese military exercise in the western Pacific, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. In a statement, the ministry said 36 Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft, including J-16 fighters and nuclear-capable H-6 bombers, crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or an extension of it, and were detected in the southern and southeastern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) from 5:20am to 9:30am yesterday. They were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a
Honor guards are to stop performing changing of the guard ceremonies around a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to avoid “worshiping authoritarianism,” the Ministry of Culture said yesterday. The fate of the bronze statue has long been the subject of fierce and polarizing debate in Taiwan, which has transformed from an autocracy under Chiang into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies. The changing of the guard each hour at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei is a major tourist attraction, but starting from 9am on Monday, the ceremony is to be moved outdoors to Democracy Boulevard, outside the eponymous blue-and-white memorial
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supports peaceful unification with China, and President William Lai (賴清德) is “a bit naive” for being a “practical worker for Taiwanese independence,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday. Asked about whether the KMT is on the same page as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the issue of Taiwanese independence or unification with China, Ma told the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily that they are not. While the KMT supports peaceful unification and is against unification by force, the DPP opposes unification as such and
CASES SLOWING: Although weekly COVID-19 cases are rising, the growth rate has been falling, from 90 percent to 30 percent, 14 percent and 6 percent, the CDC said COVID-19 hospitalizations last week rose 6 percent to 987, while deaths soared 55 percent to 99, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, adding that the recent wave of infections would likely peak this week. People aged 65 or older accounted for 79 percent of the hospitalizations and 90 percent of the deaths, the majority of whom have or had underlying health conditions, CDC data showed. The youngest hospitalized case last week was a six-month-old, who was born preterm and was unvaccinated, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. The infant had a fever, coughing and a runny nose early this month, but