Japan’s android pets are easing virus isolation

Nami Hamaura said she feels less lonely working from home thanks to her singing companion Charlie, one of a new generation of cute and clever Japanese robots whose sales are booming in the COVID-19 pandemic. Smart home assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa have found success worldwide, but tech firms in Japan are reporting huge demand for more humanlike alternatives, as people seek solace during COVID-19 isolation. “I felt my circle became very small,” said 23-year-old Hamaura, a recent graduate who has worked almost entirely remotely since April last year. With socializing limited, life in her first job at a Tokyo trading company was nothing like she had imagined. So she adopted Charlie, a mug-sized robot with a round head, red nose and flashing bow tie, who converses with its owner in song. Yamaha Corp, which makes Charlie, describes it as “more chatty than a pet, but less work than a lover.” “He is there for me to chat with as someone other than family, or friends on social networks or a boss I needed to produce a report for,” Hamaura said. She is a prelaunch test customer for Charlie, which Yamaha plans to release later this year. “Charlie, tell me something interesting,” she asked while typing at her dining table. “Well, well ... balloons burst when you spray lemon juice,” he said, cheerfully tilting his head to each side. Sharp Corp said that sales of its small humanoid Robohon were up 30 percent in the three months to September last year from a year earlier. “Not only families with children, but also seniors in their 60s and 70s” are snapping up Robohon, which talks, dances and is also a working phone, a Sharp spokesman said. However, the adorable android — first released in 2016 and only available in Japan — does not come cheap, with regular models priced between US$820 and US$2,250. Charlie

Fight for adaptive fashion is about basic human rights

From constrictive corsetry to blistering 15cm heels, the oft-quoted line “You have to suffer for fashion” has afflicted humanity for centuries, however much it seems alien to our current wardrobe of Zoom-friendly sweatpants. Yet what happens when even a simple garment is disabling? Or when suffering for fashion is not a stylistic choice, but an everyday reality that can affect someone’s quality of life? For many disabled people, off-the-peg clothes are inaccessible and cause discomfort, from fiddly buttons to seams that chafe in a wheelchair. “Clothing plays an important part in living well,” said Monika Dugar, the designer of Reset, an adaptivewear brand that launched at a virtual event during London fashion week. “Due to restricted mobility, clothing choices can impact whether people with disabilities can operate functionally,” she said. Inspired by Dugar’s father, who has Parkinson’s disease, the first Reset collection fuses optical art prints with solution-based design; think jackets with Velcro closures and a polo neck with easy-entry shoulder fastenings. “Every garment has to make a statement; a statement where design and functionality merge,” Dugar said. “We go through multiple stages of prototypes, testing and feedback.” Thinking about fashion in this way requires designers to become engineers, utilizing problem-solving, innovation and empathy. Although she studied at the London College of Fashion and completed internships at Paul Smith Ltd and Mary Katrantzou, Dugar’s foray into adaptivewear is self-taught. “An important part of the process is failing — and recognizing this — to bring the best solution,” she said. “Designing for people with disabilities isn’t a trend, it’s a necessity.” The launch of Reset reflects a growing demand for disability-friendly fashion. With the adaptive clothing market forecast to be worth nearly ￡280 billion by 2026, it is unsurprising that a handful of brands have their sights on this overlooked consumer group. This month, Nike Inc

Colombian avo buzz is killing bees: apiarists

For the second time in two years, Gildardo Urrego is scooping up piles of dead bees after an invisible evil invaded his hives in northwest Colombia, wreaking havoc among his swarms. Urrego has no proof, but he suspects the culprit is pesticides that have been fueling a commercial avocado and citrus boom in the country. Hundreds of hives have been killed off in Colombia in the past few years, and some investigations have pointed to fipronil, an insecticide banned for use on crops in Europe and restricted in the US and China. It is used to control all manner of insects and has been blamed for several bee massacres worldwide. Urrego’s apiary in Colombia’s Antioquia Department produces honey flavored with pollen from nearby passion fruit orchards. In 2019, he lost 10 of his 19 hives. This time, he said, one-third of his 12 hives were wiped out — a loss of about 160,000 of the industrious little pollinators. “There is a theory that, yes, this is due to poisoning, there are some crops around here that perhaps have not managed their agrochemicals well, and so this area was affected,” he said. In the past few years, bees in North America, Europe, Russia, South America and elsewhere have started dying off from “colony collapse disorder,” a mysterious scourge blamed partly on pesticides along with mites, viruses and fungi. The UN said that nearly half of insect pollinators, particularly bees and butterflies, risk global extinction. About 1.4 billion jobs and three-quarters of all crops around the world depend on pollinators, mainly bees, which provide free fertilization services worth billions of dollars, a 2016 study said. About 300km south of Antioquia, in the Quindio Department, Abdon Salazar has no qualms pointing the finger at fipronil as he counts his losses. “Over the last two years, we have calculated more than 80 million dead bees,”

EDITORIAL: Pineapple problem may be first shot

While China’s abrupt ban on imports of pineapples from Taiwan is malicious, it is a problem that the government can manage. However, the ban’s real aim might be to test Taiwan’s status in the eyes of US President Joe Biden’s administration. Beijing cited biosecurity as the reason for its ban, which is to start tomorrow, an untenable assertion, as 99.79 percent of Taiwan’s pineapples exported to China since last year passed customs tests. The timing is intriguing. The ban was announced just before harvesting is to begin; after Biden ordered a review of supply chains of chips and other strategic materials; and after the administration in the US called for the resumption of dialogue between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. By imposing a ban without a definite end, China is telling President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) that Taiwan’s economy can never be decoupled from China’s. By punishing pineapple growers, Beijing is saying that it can harm the nation’s weakest areas at will. The response from Taipei was restrained. Presidential Office spokesman Xavier Chang (張惇涵) only described China’s action as “unfriendly.” Tsai condemned China — not for its ulterior motive, but for the short notice it gave, which is not normal trade practice. Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said that the move was about biosecurity, not politics. Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) on Twitter called on Beijing to reverse the decision and global friends to rally behind “freedom pineapples,” as they did for “freedom wine” from Australia. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) was joking when he said that there was a silver lining — China had informed Taiwan of its attempt as per a cross-strait agricultural quarantine agreement signed during a KMT administration. Chiang said Tsai should use the agreement to promote cross-strait communication. While the ban is spiteful, it is not devastating. Among Taiwan’s annual production

The Liberty Times Editorial: ‘Wuhan’ anger exposes the KMT

During a Lunar New Year’s Day visit to Xingtian Temple in Taipei on Feb. 12, former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) told reporters that, in his opinion, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) should no longer refer to COVID-19 as the “Wuhan pneumonia” (“武漢肺炎”). He also opined: “If China offers [Taiwan] a [COVID-19] vaccine, the government should not decline the offer out of hand.” Members of Taiwan’s pan-green camp immediately gave Ma a verbal dressing down for his double standards and apparent tone deafness, given the hostile and intemperate language Chinese officials regularly employ toward Taiwan. Indulging an enemy is asking for trouble, they said. In stark contrast, the pan-blue camp doubled down on Ma’s statements, including arch-Sinophile and pro-unification fanatic Broadcasting Corp of China chairman Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), who accused Tsai of using “discriminatory language.” The KMT has clearly decided to push the narrative that the phrase “Wuhan pneumonia” should be shoved down the memory hole. “Wuhan pneumonia” first began to be used as early as last year when a mysterious new coronavirus — which causes contagious diseases like SARS — began to spread from the central Chinese city. Almost immediately, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propaganda machine sprang into action to eliminate use of the term. In February last year, the WHO’s leadership group — which has close ties to Beijing — named it “Coronavirus disease 2019,” or COVID-19 for short. It is important to remember that in China and in international media at the time, the terms “Wuhan pneumonia” and “Wuhan disease” were in common use. Several days before the WHO officially designated the disease COVID-19, Chinese officials and state media appeared to anticipate the move, and started to refer to the disease using the term. In Chinese this actually translates as: “new coronavirus pneumonia” (“新型冠狀病毒肺炎”). Following the discovery of coronaviruses last century,

Program to administer vaccines key component

Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) has said that Taiwan has secured almost 20 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, with the possibility of obtaining as many as 45 million. Even though this news comes several months after other nations have obtained vaccines, it is nevertheless light at the end of the tunnel. However, to administer the vaccines would mean four to nine times more injections than for the 5 million flu vaccinations every year, and this is as hospitals and clinics administering flu vaccines are frequently inundated. The situation would be many times more fraught when administering a COVID-19 vaccine, which is exacerbated by the two-dose regime, with the second given a month after the first. These factors mean that the vaccination program requires meticulous planning. Even if Taiwan has the supply, it will take time to vaccinate a significant portion of the population, which is sure to have a major effect on the economy, society and health. With the exception of those in rural areas, the majority of Taiwanese enjoy ready access to medical resources — they can easily get vaccinated at a hospital or clinic. Until now, pharmacists at local drugstores have provided the general public with most of their needs, but have not been required, nor should they have been, to administer vaccines. In addition, drugstore pharmacists are prohibited from diagnosing or treating people, while hospital pharmacists are only responsible for procuring and managing vaccines, and reporting any adverse reactions. Recently, Federation of Taiwan Pharmacists’ Associations president Huang Chin-shun (黃金舜) proposed that pharmacists could offer assistance in the vaccination effort, with three considerations: First, do authorities have access to sufficient labor and resources, especially when some vaccines require special storage facilities, which not all hospitals or clinics have? Second, the International Pharmaceutical Federation has said that pharmacists in more than 30 countries have been

S Korea allows pulling extra from vials

EVERY DROP COUNTS: Skilled workers might be able to squeeze an extra dose or two from each vial with a low dead-volume syringe to reduce waste, an official said Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency yesterday allowed health workers to squeeze extra doses from vials of COVID-19 vaccines developed by AstraZeneca and Pfizer. The decision came after some health workers who were administering the AstraZeneca shots reported to authorities that they still saw additional doses left in the bottles that had each been used for 10 injections. Agency official Jeong Gyeong-shil said that skilled workers might be able to squeeze one or two extra doses from each vial if they use low dead-volume syringes designed to reduce wasted medications and vaccines. However, she said the agency is not allowing health workers to combine vaccines left in different bottles to create more doses. The agency had previously authorized 10 injections for each AstraZeneca vial and six for each Pfizer vial. South Korea, which launched its public vaccination campaign on Friday, is administering the AstraZeneca shots to residents and workers at long-term care facilities and the Pfizer ones to frontline medical workers. South Korea yesterday reported another 405 coronavirus cases. In other developments around the Asia-Pacific region, more than 500,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine arrived in Hong Kong yesterday following a two-day delay due to export procedures, offering a second inoculation option for the territory. The Pfizer-BioNTech jabs would be offered to about 2.4 million eligible residents from priority groups such as those aged 60 and older and healthcare workers. About 70,000 residents who have registered for the vaccination program, which started on Friday, would receive shots developed by Chinese biopharmaceutical firm Sinovac. The Sinovac vaccines were the first to arrive last week. Registration details for those wishing to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech shots have not yet been announced. Hong Kong has struck deals for a total of 22.5 million doses, with 7.5 million each from Sinovac, AstraZeneca and Fosun Pharma, which is delivering the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines. The government has so

Death sparks clashes in Dhaka

‘GRAVE CONCERN’: A critic of the government died immediately following his complaints of torture at the hands of security forces, a human rights group said Students on Friday clashed with police in Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, as anger mounted at the death of a writer and government critic in a high-security jail. At least 18 police and an unknown number of protesters were injured in the clashes, authorities and witnesses said, amid international demands for an independent investigation into the death of Mushtaq Ahmed. An Agence France-Presse correspondent witnessed police using batons and firing tear gas at students who staged a torchlight march calling for “justice” near the University of Dhaka. At least six students who allegedly attacked security forces with torches were detained, police said. More protests were planned for yesterday. Ahmed was arrested in May last year under the Digital Security Act (DSA) — that opponents say undermines freedom of speech — after he criticized the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. The 53-year-old, a crocodile farmer, as well as a writer known for his satirical style, was charged with spreading rumors and conducting “anti-state activities” on Facebook. Jail authorities said Ahmed fell unconscious and died on Thursday at the Kashimpur High Security Prison outside of Dhaka. He had not been suffering from a major illness, prison head Mohammad Ghiasuddin said. Cartoonist Ahmed Kabir Kishore was detained at the same time and remains in custody. Both men had several bail requests turned down, the latest this week, and their treatment has faced mounting criticism. Ahmed’s lawyer demanded an independent inquiry into the death. Thirteen ambassadors from countries including Canada, France, Germany, the UK and the US also expressed “grave concern.” “We call on the government of Bangladesh to conduct a swift, transparent, and independent inquiry into the full circumstances of Mr Mushtaq Ahmed’s death,” the ambassadors said in a statement. They said there would be follow-up approaches over “wider concerns about the provisions and implementation of the DSA, as well as questions about its compatibility

Victoria to ban single-use plastics to reduce waste

Victoria yesterday became the third Australian jurisdiction to ban single-use plastics, including polystyrene containers, straws, cutlery, plates and plastic cotton bud sticks. Victoria Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change Lily D’Ambrosio announced a phase-out and ban of specific single-use plastics by 2023, including at bars, cafes and restaurants, in a bid to reduce the amount of plastic waste that goes to landfills each year. The phase out and ban would not affect medical or scientific equipment, emergency services or other activities that require these types of plastics. “Single-use plastic items — like straws and plastic cups — make up about one-third of Victoria’s litter,” D’Ambroisio said. “We need to change this, so we’re getting rid of them.” Each Victorian sends an average of 68kg of plastic waste to landfill every year. The government would consult businesses and the community throughout the year as part of a formal regulatory impact statement process. It follows South Australia, which in September last year became the first Australian state to ban some single-use plastics including cutlery, straws and stirrers. The South Australian legislation also lists items under consideration to be added to the ban list, including single-use coffee cups and lids and single-use plastic bowls, plates, food containers, balloon sticks, balloon ties, bags and plastic-stemmed cotton buds. However, the introduction of the legislation was delayed due to COVID-19. There is concern that the COVID-19 pandemic might have stymied some progress toward lessening a reliance on plastic, with an increase in medical waste from disposable masks, gloves and gowns, disposable wipes, and liquid soap. In December last year, Queensland also introduced legislation to stem the destructive effects of plastic on marine life and waterways. The government is seeking community feedback on whether the ban should be extended to include polystyrene containers. A 2019 report by the Center for International Environmental Law said that urgent action to

Taiwan in Time: The tragic ‘half mountains’

March 01 to March 07 There was only one Taiwanese department head in Taiwan’s first post-World War II provincial government: Sung Fei-ju (宋斐如), who served as deputy director of the department of education. Sung, who lived in China for over two decades, had close ties with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and was also allowed to start his own newspaper, the People’s News-Leader (人民導報). Aside from Sung, only a handful of Taiwanese held significant positions in the government, almost all of them banshan (半山, half mountain) like him. The term refers to those who moved to China and returned to Taiwan after World War II. Sung’s standing, however, did not save his neck during the 228 Incident, an anti-government uprising on Feb. 28 1947 that was brutally suppressed. He was dragged away from his home on March 11 and never seen again. Lin Cheng-te’s (林政德) book Banshan and 228 (半山與二二八) explores the various roles these banshan took up before, during and after the incident. Despite their allegiance to the government, they tried to help their people in their own way, and in Sung’s case, paid the ultimate price for it. HOPEFUL RETURN As World War II neared its end, the KMT set up a committee led by future governor-general Chen Yi (陳儀) to make plans for the takeover and rule of Taiwan. Several founding members were banshan, and Sung joined the following year. They flew to Taipei on Oct. 5, 1945, set up headquarters and began working with local elites such as Lin Hsien-tang (林獻堂) to prepare for the Japanese governor-general’s formal surrender on Oct. 25. Sung was one of many Taiwanese who, unsatisfied with Japanese rule, turned to the “motherland” of China. He moved to Beijing in 1922 to attend university, and from 1932 to 1935

Landmarks of the 228 tragedy

“Hey, what is 228 anyway?” My ears perked up when I overheard two young people sitting next to me discussing the upcoming holiday. I was eating a late dinner after spending all afternoon at the library researching and writing about some of the more obscure victims of the 228 Incident, the infamous anti-Chinese Nationalist Party uprising in 1947 that was brutally suppressed. “I have no idea,” the other replied. They proceeded to look it up online and appeared astonished at the new information, especially over the number of alleged victims. Virtually censored and seldom discussed until the late 1980s, it seems that many younger locals still see Feb. 28 as just another day off, not a day of remembrance to the thousands who lost their lives. I only had a cursory understanding of the incident before I started writing the history column Taiwan in Time five years ago, and throughout the years I’ve stumbled my way into some of the seldom-visited, cobweb-filled corners of the tragedy. But there’s still so much to explore, and I gained an even deeper understanding yesterday at the National 228 Museum’s new exhibition Scars on the Land (土地傷痕), which is the first of a three-part series on historic sites related to the 228 Incident in northern Taiwan, starting in Taipei and Keelung. The show opened this past Sunday and runs until May 16, and generally covers events leading up to the uprising and the immediate aftermath. The second part, which opens May 20, will cover New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Hsinchu and Miaoli and deal with the attempts to negotiate with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government before troops arrived from China for the final bloodbath, which is detailed in the last chapter, set for Aug. 19. The exhibition is organized chronologically. The first few sites set the scene

Highways & Byways: A Catholic outpost in Pingtung County

Taiwan’s oldest surviving Christian house of worship stands in a village at the base of the Central Mountain Range. Upgraded to a basilica minore by Pope John Paul II in 1984, Wanjin Basilica (萬金聖母聖殿) was established in what’s now Pingtung County’s Wanluan Township (萬巒) in 1863. The church’s founder, Dominican priest Father Fernando Sainz (郭德剛), was one of the first missionaries to enter Taiwan after the signing in mid-1858 of treaties between Qing China (which ruled the island between 1684 and 1895), France, Great Britain, Russia and the US. These agreements, collectively known as the Treaty of Tianjin (天津條約), compelled the Qing Dynasty to lift all restrictions on the practice of Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox Christianity. However, it seems this clause wasn’t clearly communicated to every level of the Qing bureaucracy. After Sainz, his fellow Dominican preacher Father Angel Bofurull and four Chinese converts arrived at Takow (today’s Kaohsiung) from the Philippines on May 15, 1859, they were detained by the local magistrate for two days. Once they were freed, things didn’t get much easier. Before the end of the year, illness forced Bofurull to quit the mission, and it’s not clear if the Chinese converts stayed on. At one point Sainz was alone, homeless and having to sleep on a beach. The Spaniard persisted, and with the help of Matthew Rooney — a Takow-based Irish-American who traded in camphor and opium — he eventually found a place to stay. Sainz established a church in 1861 in what’s now downtown Kaohsiung. That chapel is long gone, and it’s for his church-planting efforts in the interior that the priest is best remembered. Ordered to search for descendants of Aboriginal people who’d become Christians in the 17th century, when the Protestant Dutch dominated south Taiwan, Sainz ventured across the lowlands where Han settlers were continuing

New data reveal salary disparity for recent graduates 大專畢求職 「錢」途差很大 金融保險薪情佳 住宿餐飲最苦

According to the latest statistics from the Ministry of Labor, starting full-time salaries for university and junior college graduates in the last five years were highest in the financial and insurance sector, averaging NT$47,361, and lowest in the hospitality sector, averaging NT$32,990. Comparing different disciplines, average salaries among technology, media and industry-focused disciplines — physics, chemistry and Earth sciences — all broke the NT$50,000 salary barrier, while graduates of catering, tourism and civic and life services experienced the lowest salaries, averaging NT$31,163. Cross-comparison of different industries and disciplines shows that students must not only read the right disciplines, but also choose the right industry to ensure that they will enjoy a good salary when they enter the workplace. The data set was compiled from doctoral, master’s, bachelor and junior college-level students who graduated between 2015 and 2019. Average salaries were calculated using withholding wages. Comparing different industries, finance and insurance provided the best wages at an average of NT$47,361 yuan, followed by software development and programming engineers, information management and maintenance technicians in the publishing, audiovisual production, mass media and communication services sectors — providing an average salary of NT$44,361. In manufacturing industries, specialists in the setting and operation of metal machine tools and semiconductor fabrication and equipment enjoyed average starting salaries of NT$44,029. The bottom three were starting salaries of NT$32,990 in the hospitality sector, NT$31,148 in agriculture, forestry, fishery and animal husbandry, and NT$32,900 in construction and engineering. (Liberty Times, translated by Edward Jones) 根據勞動部最新統計，近五年大專畢業生踏入職場後的全時工作薪資，以金融及保險業平均四萬七三六一元「薪」情最佳，住宿及餐飲業的三萬二九九元最「薪」苦；對比不同學門，出路涵蓋科技及傳產的「物理、化學及地球科學學門」均薪破五萬元最高，「餐旅及民生服務學門」三萬一一六三元最低。交叉比對不同行業與學門，讀對學門、也要選對行，初入職場薪情才會好。 該統計對象是二○一五到二○一九年畢業的博碩士、學士與專科生，以勞退提繳工資來推算平均薪資。以行業別分，金融及保險業的四萬七三六一元最佳，其次是軟體開發及程式工程師、資訊管理及維護技術員為主的出版、影音製作、傳播及資通訊服務業、約四萬四三六一元，金屬工具機設定及操作、半導體製品設備操作等的製造業、則約四萬四○二九元；倒數三名依序是住宿及餐飲業的三萬二九九元、農林漁牧業三萬一一四八元及營建工程業三萬二九○○元。 (自由時報記者李雅雯)

Photo News: Myanmar’s anti-coup movement grows as police shoot protesters 從照片看新聞︰緬甸警方射殺抗議者 反政變示威愈演愈烈

SPEAK UP ! 雙語會話

I really want to take that class! (5/5) 我好想要加選喔！（五） A: Come on, get a move on. The class selection period is almost up. Open the Web page and get ready. B: Don’t rush me! The more you rush me, the more my hands shake. A: Look, the number of people signed up for the classes keeps jumping up, you have to choose them now. Here! Here! B: Not that one! You almost made me click on the wrong one. A: Sorry. The class you want is too popular. I’m more nervous than you are. B: Ha! Success. I never expected selecting classes would be more gripping than buying limited edition products online. A: 快點快點，加退選開放時間快到了，你先把網頁打開準備好。 B: 你不要一直催，你越催我手就抖得越厲害。 A: 你看，選課人數一直往上跳，你快按。這邊，這邊！ B: 不是這堂課啦！你害我差點按錯。 A: 歹勢。你要修的那堂課太搶手了，我比你還緊張。 B: 耶！成功了。沒想到選課比上網搶購限量商品還刺激。 （Translated by Paul Cooper, Taipei Times／台北時報林俐凱） English 英文: Chinese 中文: