■ Society
Tu red-faced after boo-boo
Education Minister Tu Cheng-sheng (杜正勝) has become a laughing stock by accidentally sending a wrongly-worded funeral scroll to the family of a late professor. In the Chinese-style funeral scroll, instead of yin rong wan zai (音容宛在) or "his voice and appearance seem to be still with us," the script reads yin rong yuan zai (音容苑在) or "his voice and appearance are garden," cable news network TVBS said. The Chinese words wan (宛) and yuan (苑) look similar with "yuan" having two crosses on top of the character "wan." An embarrassed Tu apologized to the family, saying the scroll was not written by him, but by a security guard working for the education ministry. More embarrassing is the fact that the guard already wrote 100 copies of such scrolls and a number of them have already been sent out, TVBS said.
■ Crime
Taiwanese man in drug bust
A 26-year-old Taiwanese man has been arrested for attempting to smuggle more than 33,000 ecstasy pills into Indonesia, a customs official said yesterday. Customs officials at Jakarta's Sukarno-Hatta international airport arrested a man surnamed Pao on Friday after finding the drugs disguised as gift boxes in his luggage upon arriving from Taiwan, customs official Siswo Murwono told reporters. Police estimated the drugs to be worth one billion rupiah (US$108,000) and said Pao had admitted working as a courier for a Taiwan-based international drug syndicate. Under Indonesia's tough narcotics law, Pao could be sentenced to death if found guilty in court. Indonesia has increasingly become a transit route and market for drug traffickers despite the threat of the death penalty.
■ Society
Black history marked in film
A mini-film festival will be held today and next Sunday by the Descendants of African People (DAP) to celebrate Black History Month. In the US, the month of February is observed as Black History Month, which celebrates the accomplishments of blacks in history. The festival will include showings of the hit comedy series In Living Color and the films Ray and Ali. The films will run from 6pm-10pm at BLISS at 148 Xinyi Road, Section 4. The entry fee is NT$200, which includes refreshments. The DAP is a social organization for the black community. It holds monthly activities to educate the Taiwanese community about black culture and provide a sense of community for those of African descent living in Taiwan.
■ Arts
Museum recruits volunteers
The National Taiwan Museum in Taipei City has decided to recruit volunteers for its cultural affairs, museum officials said yesterday. People who want to volunteer should be at least 18 years old and should be able to offer service for at least eight hours per month for one year. People skilled in providing online services, offering first aid or videotaping are preferred, they said. The duties of the museum volunteers will include screening films, answering visitors' questions and watching over the museum's exhibits. A ceremony at the museum will take place every year for outstanding volunteers, who will then be recommended to the Cabinet-level Council for Cultural Affairs for selection as national outstanding volunteers, they said. Those interested in volunteering can send their resume to the National Taiwan Museum before March 10 or visit the museum's Web site at www.ntm.gov.tw for more information.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan