EDUCATION
Curriculum draws criticism
The Ministry of Education yesterday defended changes it made to school curriculum guidelines in 2019 that have resulted in some well-known authors being excluded from English textbooks in favor of more domestic content. In a recent article that was widely shared online, a person identifying themselves as a high-school English teacher said that classic texts by Ernest Hemingway, Martin Luther King Jr and William Shakespeare were removed from student textbooks under the updated guidelines. Publishers replaced them with lessons on Taiwan-related topics such as “roadside banquets,” Matsu pilgrimages, flying fish season on Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and 7-Eleven, the teacher said. The ministry yesterday said that the changes emphasized the practical use of foreign languages, as well as their “immediacy” and relevance to daily life. The ministry said its guidelines had asked publishers to select content that “proceeds from issues related to daily life,” and gradually expands to focus on broader social issues.
SOCIETY
Ship runs aground
A Cameroon-registered freighter that began drifting after losing power near Jibei Islet (吉貝) in Penghu County has run aground in waters north of Baisha Township (白沙), but all nine sailors aboard the vessel are accounted for, Taiwanese authorities said yesterday. The Maritime and Port Bureau said it received a report early yesterday that the 499-tonne Hai Shou freighter was drifting in waters off Jibei, the biggest island north of Penghu’s main island, after losing power due to a mechanical failure. The vessel had originally set sail from Taichung without cargo on board and was heading for Kaohsiung, but it lost power soon after leaving the central Taiwan port, the agency said. In an update later, the port agency said that despite dropping anchor, the vessel had continued drifting, buffeted by strong winds and had run aground in waters 0.4 nautical miles (741m) north of Penghu’s Baisha Township. The vessel’s nine crew members, all nationals of Myanmar, were rescued by a National Airborne Service Corps helicopter yesterday afternoon after the captain gave the order to abandon the ship. They are all in good condition and being put up at the Sheng Kuo Hotel in Magong City, the agency said.
POLITICS
MOFA conveys condolences
The government yesterday expressed its condolences over the death of Kuwaiti monarch, Emir Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Jaber Al Sabah, who passed away on Saturday aged 86. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that it has instructed representative to Kuwait Tan Kou-ting (譚國定) to convey condolences from the government and Taiwanese to the Kuwaiti authorities over the monarch’s passing. Although Taiwan does not have official diplomatic relations with the Middle Eastern country, it has operated the Taipei Commercial Representative Office in Jabriah, in the Kuwaiti province of Hawally, since 1986. Kuwait University has provided annual scholarships to an undisclosed number of Taiwanese students from National Taiwan University and Nation Chengchi University to study Arabic. Currently, nine Taiwanese students are studying Arabic at Kuwait University. Meanwhile, one Kuwaiti student has been studying for a master’s degree at Ming Chuan University under a Ministry of Education scholarship since 2019.
Passengers aboard Korean Airlines Flight KE189 arrived in Taichung safely yesterday after a scare the previous day encountering uncontrolled decompression, which injured 13 passengers. Flight KE189 departed from Incheon at 4:45pm on Saturday bound for Taichung with 125 passengers on board. The flight was above Jeju Island when a fault in the pressurization system occurred 50 minutes after takeoff. Online flight tracker Flightradar24’s data show that the plane dropped more than 8,000 meters within 15 minutes, before it returned and landed back at Incheon Airport at 19:38pm. Thirteen passengers on board had a headache or earache due to the incident and were hospitalized. A different
China might seek to isolate Taiwan and weaken its economy through a “quarantine,” which would make it difficult for the US to respond and force Taipei to negotiate on unification, CNN reported on Saturday. Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) “increasingly bellicose actions” toward Taiwan have heightened concerns that Beijing would use its military against Taiwan, it said, citing a report by think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). However, China might choose to initiate a quarantine, rather than a military invasion of Taiwan, to avoid US involvement, it said. “A quarantine [is] a law enforcement-led operation to control
A new message broadcast on the Taipei MRT’s Wenhu (Brown) Line urging passengers to yield their seats to those in need, not necessarily elderly people, would be extended to other MRT lines and public transportation in the capital, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday. Chiang was responding to reporters’ questions on the sidelines of a news conference at Taipei City Hall promoting healthy walking. Several disputes over priority seats on public transportation have recently been reported, sparking debate about who qualifies to sit in them, as most of the cases involved elderly people asking young people to give up their
President William Lai (賴清德) should backpedal from his new “two-state theory” and return to the “one China” principle in line with the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution, to foster and rebuild mutual trust across the Taiwan Strait, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday. Hsiao made the remark after the Chinese government on Friday revealed guidelines saying that its courts, prosecutors, and public and state security bodies should “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession crimes by the law, and resolutely defend national sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity.” The Democratic Progressive Party’s “kneejerk” reaction every