Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday started a radio show on Smile Taiwan with Smile founder Shih Chuan (石川) as his first guest.
Speaking to reporters before the program began, Chen said it was his first time hosting a show, and although he was unfamiliar with radio, he was not embarrassed to learn something new.
The program would not focus on politics, but rather life and inspiring stories, he said.
Photo: Wang Jung-hsiang, Taipei Times
His guests would be people from various professions with inspiring stories, he said, adding that among those he planned to interview was the composer of Mother’s Tears (阿母的目屎), the lyrics to which Chen wrote while in prison.
Chen was sentenced to 20 years in prison for money laundering and bribery, but was released on medical parole on Jan. 6, 2015, due to his deteriorating health.
As part of his parole, he may not appear on stage, give speeches or interviews, or discuss politics, and must abide by medical parole regulations, the prison said.
Taichung Prison deputy warden Wu Chao-ming (吳照明) has said it would collect data as part of an evaluation of Chen’s program.
Responding to reports that the prison did not approve of his radio show, Chen said that prison authorities had visited him on Wednesday, and that they had communicated about it in advance.
The show is scheduled to air every Sunday from 10am to 11am on the Kaohsiung-based station.
During yesterday’s show, Chen and Shih discussed growing up in poor families and their personal journeys.
Chen said he is grateful that his parents helped him pursue an education even if that meant borrowing money for tuition, and they respected his choice of the path he wanted to take, including changing his course of study from business to law.
He said that young people should work hard, adding that hard work can make up for a person’s shortcomings.
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
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