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Chinese must stand up

On Feb. 7, the original whistleblower of the COVID-19 outbreak, Chinese ophthalmologist Li Wenliang (李文亮), succumbed to the virus. Li’s death sparked an unprecedented backlash against Chinese authorities’ handling of the epidemic.

Xu Zhangrun (許章潤), a professor at Beijing’s Tsinghua University, and many other liberal-minded Chinese academics, have signed a petition and penned an open letter to demand that the day of Li’s passing be designated a “national day of free speech” and that “the right to free speech starts from today.”

Ever since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) established its People’s Republic of China dictatorship in 1949, Chinese have been denied freedom of speech to a degree not experienced for 1,700 years.

China’s only emperor to have risen to the imperial throne from the bonds of slavery, Shi Le (石勒, 274 to 333), wanted to build a new palace, but was repeatedly advised against doing so by one if his ministers.

Exploding in anger, Shi asked what sort of an emperor he would be if he did not chop the minister’s head off.

Another minister replied by asking whether Shi, instead of listening to the advice of loyal ministers, intended to rule like one of the despotic kings of the Shang Dynasty, and said that the minister’s advice was good and that there was no need to remove anyone’s head for speaking frankly to their emperor.

Shi let out a sigh and said a benevolent emperor should not tyrannize his subjects in this way and that he appreciated loyalty.

Tyrannical emperors ruled as despots because they were not prepared to accept any criticism from their ministers.

Although a far cry from the barbarism of the 4th century, in today’s China, Li was punished for following his professional instinct and sounding the alarm over the new virus.

Today’s leader rejects advice that runs contrary to what he wants to hear.

The Chinese idiom “cover one’s ears and steal the bell” springs to mind. While the virus tore through the population of Wuhan, the CCP buried its head in the sand, wasting vital time that could have been used to contain the spread of the virus.

German broadcaster Deutsche Welle said Li’s death has caused many Chinese to draw a direct causal link between the lack of freedom of speech and the dangerous epidemic, and that the spread of the epidemic was a result of the CCP using its power to silence the doctor.

US magazine Foreign Policy dubbed Li “Wuhan’s first martyr” and said that the news and analysis of Li’s death on the Internet, including the statement he was forced to sign, were quickly removed.

This shows the difficult choice facing the CCP: Should it embrace Li, a victim of decisions made by party officials, or continue to erase his name and photographs whenever they appear online and try to obliterate the memory of another potential martyr?

It is time that Chinese wake up. In the past, the CCP has stoked populist and nationalist sentiment and bullied and terrorized users of the WeChat messaging app. The COVID-19 outbreak has unmasked the calamitous nature of the CCP’s dictatorship for all to see.

The party has inadvertently spawned an actual “yellow peril” as the virus spreads uncontrollably throughout the world, yet the biggest sufferers are Chinese.

If they do not fight for their right to live healthy, secure lives, it matters not a jot how rich and powerful the country becomes, it will only be to the benefit of the privileged few within the party, while 1.4 billion Chinese will be no better off.

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title: [ LETTER ]


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Aussie court says police raid legal, raising secrecy fears

‘THE AFGHAN FILES’:The federal court dismissed ABC’s lawsuit challenging a police raid last year after it reported alleged unlawful killings by Australian special forces
The Australian Federal Court yesterday ruled that a police raid last year on the national broadcaster was legal, prompting fears of increasing secrecy in the nation’s institutions.

The Australian Federal Police raided the Australian Broadcasting Corp’s (ABC) Sydney headquarters in June last year over the leaking of classified documents.

Dubbed “The Afghan Files,” ABC in 2017 had reported allegations of unlawful killings and misconduct by Australian special forces in Afghanistan.

The raids sparked public outrage and were condemned as media intimidation.

ABC launched a challenge to the validity of the warrant, saying it was “legally unreasonable,” but the case was dismissed by Federal Court Justice Wendy Abraham, who ordered ABC to pay the costs of the other parties.

The decision allows the federal police to keep all the material seized during the raid.

In a written submission, ABC lawyers said the search warrant was a “very significant intrusion of privacy.”

Abraham said that the police tried not to be too intrusive in the execution of the warrant, as evidenced by ABC’s lawyers being present throughout the search.

Under Australia’s increasingly stringent national security laws, it is illegal for Commonwealth officers to leak documents or publish the information.

The whistle-blower, former military lawyer David William McBride, has previously admitted leaking documents that formed part of the basis for ABC’s reports.

He has been charged with a raft of criminal offenses and is out on bail until his next court appearance on Monday next week.

ABC managing director David Anderson said the warrant was an attempt to “intimidate journalists.”

“This ruling highlights the serious problem with Australia’s secrecy laws,” he said. “Australia has by far the most onerous secrecy laws of any comparable Western democracy — the UK, US, Canada, New Zealand.”

“This is at odds with our expectation that we live in an open and transparent society,” he said.

ABC news director Gaven Morris called for reform to protect whistle-blowers.

“The way public interest journalism is able to be undertaken in this country is a mess,” he said. “It’s time to recognize that we have a right to know what goes on inside our democracy, and it’s time we go on and fix it.”

Morris said ABC would consider appealing the decision.

The Canberra home of a reporter from News Corp, owned by media baron Rupert Murdoch, was also raided in June last year in the search for unrelated classified documents.

News Corp is challenging the validity of that warrant in separate court proceedings.

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Cryptocurrency mining machines are pictured yesterday at a home in Taipei following a police raid.Photo: Yao Yueh-hung, Taipei Times
The Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) yesterday arrested a 57-year-old man and his two sons on charges of larceny and fraud after they allegedly tampered with Taiwan Power Co’s (Taipower) meters to avoid paying an estimated NT$85 million (US$2.83 million) of charges.

Investigators found that the suspect, surnamed Yang (楊) — who had previously been arrested for contravening the Waste Disposal Act (廢棄物清理法) — had been “mining” cryptocurrencies with his sons.

As the machines they used consumed a lot of electricity, the three allegedly decided to tamper with the Taipower’s meters so that they would not be able to accurately calculate how much electricity they had used, the bureau said.

Discrepancies in the meter readings were detected by Taipower, which then reported the case to the police, the bureau said.

The bureau said that it formed a special task force, which spent nearly six months collecting evidence, adding that it then secured warrants to search the suspects’ properties between Tuesday and Thursday last week.

Police found that Yang and his sons were engaged in cryptocurrency mining at 12 different locations in New Taipei City and Taoyuan, the bureau said, adding that they have found 1,090 cryptocurrency mining machines, 12 computers and a number of smartphones.

The amount of electricity that the Yangs are alleged to have obtained illegally is estimated to have cost NT$85 million, the bureau said.

Using a lot of electrical equipment simultaneously could cause machines to overheat, which could damage the electrical wires and even result in a fire, police officers said, adding that they welcome any tips or information from the public about people accessing electricity illegally.

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title: CIB arrests father, sons for illegal electricity use


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Virus outbreak: Singapore lowers growth forecast amid outbreak

‘INTEGRATED’:A slowdown in China might have far-reaching implications for small, trade-oriented economies, such as Singapore, a CIMB Private Banking economist said
Singapore yesterday cut its economic growth forecast for this year as the COVID-19 outbreak batters tourist arrivals and trade.

The city-state is one of the worst affected places outside China, with 75 cases of the disease so far. China has more than 70,000 infections.

Singapore downgraded its growth estimate to a range of minus-0.5 percent to 1.5 percent.

That compares with its previous forecast in November last year of 0.5 percent to 2.5 percent.

“The outbreak of the coronavirus ... has affected China, Singapore and many countries around the world,” the Singaporean Ministry of Trade and Industry said in a statement. “In Asia, the outbreak is likely to dampen the growth prospects of China and other affected countries this year.”

Tourism arrivals have already started to decline, exports are expected to take a hit, and domestic consumption is likely to fall as people cut back on shopping and dining out, it added.

China is Singapore’s largest source of tourists and a major export destination.

The city-state was at risk of sliding into a technical recession, CIMB Private Banking economist Song Seng Wun (宋城煥) said.

“There is a real possibility of two quarters of contraction or even two quarters of year-on-year decline,” he said. “Mathematically it’s possible because of the integrated nature of the global supply chain and the impact of the slowdown in China that could have far-reaching implications on small, trade-oriented economies like Singapore.”

Separately yesterday, Thailand lowered its growth outlook for this year as its tourism-reliant economy takes a knock from the outbreak.

Growth is seen in a range of 1.5 to 2.5 percent this year, down from a previous projection of 2.7 to 3.7 percent, the Thai National Economic and Social Development Council said.

GDP grew 2.4 percent last year, the slowest pace in five years.

The economy was already under strain before the disease began spreading early this year, with growth weighed down by budget delays, drought and a relatively strong currency.

GDP rose 1.6 percent annually in the fourth quarter of last year, lower than the 1.9 percent median estimate in a Bloomberg survey and down from a revised 2.6 percent in the third quarter.

First-quarter economic growth should be significantly affected by the outbreak and improve in the second quarter, Council Secretary-General Thosaporn Sirisumphand said in a briefing in Bangkok.

Additional reporting by Bloomberg

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title: Changhua borough is looking for helpful foreigner

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A borough warden in Changhua is searching for a community-spirited foreign resident who helped with a garbage pick-up project on Sunday.

Chen Wen-chia (陳雯嘉) posted a picture on the local cleaning team’s Facebook page looking for a man, believed to come from the UK, who helped with the Tapu Drainage Ditch (大浦截水溝) cleanup.

She said a local resident had told her on Sunday that a foreigner was helping out.

“When I rushed there, the man had finished working and already placed the rubbish in a few large black plastic bags,” she said. “I attempted to communicate with him, but all I learned, due to my poor English, was that he might come from the UK.”

Although she was trying to learn more about the man and thank him, he left when she was dealing with other matters, Chen said.

“As I have no idea where he lives, I asked the city’s cleaning team to help find the man and post his photograph on its Facebook fan page,” she said.

The Tapu ditch is an important flood-prevention structure in Changhua, and the roads on either side of it serve as shortcuts to city center, Chen said.

However, people often dump garbage, mostly household waste or large items such as vehicle tires, in the ditch, she said.

Changhua garbage cleanup team captain Lin Chun-fu (林群富) said that it was embarrassing that a foreigner had helped clean the environment ruined by locals.

“We want to find him and thank him in person,” Lin told reporters.

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Virus outbreak: People should remain watchful: health experts

RATIONAL APPROACH:An expert from NTU advised against emotion-based judgements in response to the spread of COVID-19 and urged calm, scientific decisions
Chan Chang-chuan, center, dean of National Taiwan University’s (NTU) College of Public Health, NTU professor Chen Pau-chung, left, and college vice dean Tony Chen attend a news conference in Taipei yesterday.Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
People should be on high alert as COVID-19 cases continue to be reported worldwide, health experts at National Taiwan University (NTU) said yesterday.

A lack of transparent and real-time data from China have caused “great difficulty” in providing estimates and the coronavirus presents a “greater threat” to Taiwan due to the nation’s close ties to China, said College of Public Health dean Chan Chang-chuan (詹長權).

COVID-19 “is already a global epidemic,” college vice dean Tony Chen (陳秀熙) said.

Although much of the focus has been on the outbreak in China, the disease is bound to reach beyond Asia at significant levels if travel-related prevention measures are not bolstered, Chen said.

As cases have been reported in North America, Europe and Africa, “everyone in the world is indeed ... under a lot of pressure,” he said.

Variations in the fatality rate of COVID-19 in different parts of China indicate differences in healthcare supply and demand, and people’s attitudes toward seeking treatment, he said.

He urged people with symptoms to seek medical attention as quickly as possible.

Once the “golden period” for treatment passes, the virus could be fatal, especially for people with chronic conditions, Chen said.

Although the number of cases in China has begun to drop as a result of lockdown and quarantine measures, the fatality rate and transmission rates in China’s Hubei Province remain high, he said.

Epidemiologists are “most afraid of infectious diseases on cruises,” Chen said.

No one among those on the Diamond Princess docked in Yokohama, Japan, could have avoided exposure to the virus, he said.

The chance of infection on the ship is “relatively high,” Chen said.

The situation on the ship offers a “very important opportunity” to study COVID-19, he said.

Chan advised against “emotional” judgements as efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19 continue.

Decisions should be “scientific,” “rational” and “calm,” he said. “Do what should be done.”

Separately, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), who is a surgeon, said that local transmission of COVID-19 are bound to happen, but the goal should be to keep the cases sporadic and controlled.

He wears a mask out of politeness when he takes the bus and is in enclosed spaces with other people, but he does not wear one in his office, Ko said.

People should wear a mask depending on their evaluation of the risk of infection, he said.

Asked if he would consider imposing a lockdown in Taipei if there were a local outbreak, Ko said that if there are a cluster of cases, he would suggest moving people out of the community rather than locking the area down.

However, Taiwan has great healthcare capacity, so an out-of-control situation, such as in Wuhan — the Chinese city where the disease originated — is unlikely, he said.

Additional reporting by Lee I-chia

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A man sits in a deserted plaza in a commercial district in Beijing yesterday.Photo: AP
Home prices in China last month rose at the slowest pace in almost two years as sales plunged late in the month, when the COVID-19 outbreak worsened dramatically.

New-home prices, excluding state-subsidized housing, rose 0.27 percent from December last year in 70 major cities, Chinese National Bureau of Statistics data showed yesterday.

That is the smallest gain since February 2018.

Home sales “fell off a cliff” as efforts to combat the virus ramped up, China Real Estate Information Corp (中國房產信息集團) analyst Yang Kewei (楊科偉) said.

Entire cities, including Wuhan, where the virus originated, were locked down, and people restricted from returning home from Lunar New Year holiday travels.

The slowdown has probably worsened this month as the holiday was extended, developers closed showrooms and more cities went into lockdown.

New apartment sales plunged 90 percent in the first week of this month, preliminary data showed.

Developers might start reducing prices to boost sales and maintain cash flow, China Index Holdings (中指控股) research director Huang Yu (黃瑜) said.

Bigger declines might occur in the secondary home market, which is free of government intervention, she said.

China Evergrande Group (恒大集團), the third-largest developer by sales in the country, on Sunday that it would offer 25 percent discount for all properties on sale from today to Saturday next week.

Evergrande said it would also offer 22 percent discount for all properties on sale, including office and commercial properties, next month.

The company said at a news conference on Sunday that nearly 50,000 properties had been sold since it started online sales three days ago.

“The virus’ impact on property is potentially the biggest risk for the rest of 2020,” said Larry Hu (胡偉俊), head of China economics at Macquarie Securities Ltd in Hong Kong. “A fall in prices may lead to a self-strengthening downcycle.”

Additional reporting by Reuters

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title: Virus outbreak: China home price growth slows as virus hits sector


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Pegatron Corp (和碩) plans to invest US$150 million to set up a Vietnamese unit this year to make electronics, it said in a regulatory filing yesterday.

The contract electronics manufacturer is one of Apple Inc’s iPhone assemblers.

The announcement ended months-long media speculation about the location of the company’s second manufacturing site in Southeast Asia.

The move was part of “production allocation efforts by Pegatron to cope with customers’ concern over the US-China [trade] spat,” a Pegatron official speaking on condition of anonymity said by telephone.

The investment plan is still in an early stage, and Pegatron has yet to decide what kind of products it would make at the facility and for whom, the official said, dismissing media speculation that it might make smart speakers for Google.

The company could set up a new manufacturing plant, rather than lease an existing one as reported by local Chinese-language media, the official said.

Pegatron hopes to launch the project this year, as it has been lagging behind its local peers in building manufacturing capacity in the country.

The company is holding discussions with local governments in Vietnam and seeking comments from its customers to finalize the location of the facility, as well as other details, the official said.

Pegatron built its first Southeast Asian manufacturing site in Batam, Indonesia, last year, which makes networking and communications products, the official said.

The products contributed 61 percent to Pegatron’s revenue, which totaled NT$355 billion (US$11.81 billion) in the third quarter of last year.

“We are continually scouting for new sites in Southeast Asia in a bid to diversify production bases,” the official said.

India could host the company’s third manufacturing site in South and Southeast Asia, as Pegatron chief executive officer S.J. Liao (廖賜政) in November last year said that it was evaluating the feasibility of relocating production from China to Vietnam and India.

Two other iPhone assemblers — Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海) and Wistron Corp (緯創) — last year set up iPhone assembly lines in India.

Pegatron last month posted revenue of NT$95.65 billion, the weakest in seven months and down 22 percent annually from NT$122.64 billion. On a monthly basis, revenue fell 25.68 percent from NT$128.7 billion.

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title: Pegatron to set up plant in Vietnam this year

companies: Apple Google


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US Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell on Sunday said that US President Donald Trump had threatened to cut off intelligence sharing with countries that deal with Huawei Technologies Co (華為).

The US has been pressing allies to ban Huawei, one of the world’s largest tech firms, from 5G mobile data networks, saying that it is a security risk.

Grenell said that Trump “instructed me to make clear that any nation who chooses to use an untrustworthy 5G vendor will jeopardize our ability to share intelligence and information at the highest level.”

Trump had called him earlier in the day from Air Force One to convey the message, Grenell said.

Key US allies in Europe, notably the UK and France, have said that they would not ban Huawei from building 5G networks, but would impose restrictions.

Publicly, the US has been restrained in its response, but Trump was reportedly furious with London.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the Munich Security Conference on Saturday that Huawei was a “Trojan horse for Chinese intelligence.”

A US indictment on Friday laid more criminal charges against Huawei related to theft of intellectual property, adding to earlier allegations that the company stole trade secrets from US carrier T-Mobile US Inc.

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title: Trump threatens intelligence block over Huawei 5G


title: Virus outbreak: Coronavirus could damage global growth: IMF

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IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva, left, speaks to moderator John Defterios of CNN at the Global Women’s Forum in Dubai on Sunday.Photo: AFP
The COVID-19 outbreak could damage global economic growth this year, IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva said on Sunday, but added that a sharp and rapid economic rebound could follow.

“There may be a cut that we are still hoping would be in the 0.1-0.2 percentage space,” Georgieva told the Global Women’s Forum in Dubai.

She said the full impact of the spreading disease that has killed more than 1,770 people would depend on how quickly it was contained.

“I advise everybody not to jump to premature conclusions. There is still a great deal of uncertainty. We operate with scenarios, not yet with projections, ask me in 10 days,” Georgieva said.

In its update last month to the World Economic Outlook, the IMF lowered global economic growth forecast for this year by 0.1 percentage points to 3.3 percent, following a 2.9 percent growth the previous year, the lowest in a decade.

Georgieva said it was “too early” to assess the full impact of the outbreak, but acknowledged that it had already affected sectors such as tourism and transportation.

“It is too early to say, because we don’t yet quite know what is the nature of this virus. We don’t know how quickly China will be able to contain it. We don’t know whether it will spread to the rest of the world,” she said.

If the disease is “contained rapidly, there can be a sharp drop and a very rapid rebound,” in what is known as the V-shaped impact, she said.

Compared with the effects of the SARS outbreak in 2002 and 2003, she said China’s economy at the time made up just 8 percent of global economy. Now, that figure is 19 percent.

She welcomed the trade agreement signed last month by the US and China, the world’s first and second-largest economies.

“About China, it has been slowing down naturally, transiting from what we can call high-speed to high-quality growth,” she said. “And as a result of the reduction of trade tensions [after the agreement] ... we actually have been predicting some improvement for 2020 in the projections for China.”

Regarding the outbreak, “they’re working very hard to contain the epidemic, they have brought US$115 billion equivalent liquidity so they can perk up the economy,” she said.

However, the world should be concerned “about sluggish growth” affected by uncertainty, Georgieva said.

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Virus outbreak: Canadian lawmakers challenge ICAO’s Taiwan stance

By Lu Yi-hsuan and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writer
A person walks past the International Civil Aviation Organization headquarters in Montreal, Canada, in this file photo.Photo: Reuters
Canadian Conservative Party lawmakers on Sunday challenged the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) over its exclusion of Taiwan.

Canadian Member of Parliament Michael Cooper reiterated in a Tweet that Taiwan is a sovereign state and challenged the ICAO’s characterization of the nation as a “province of China.”

“#ICAO this characterization is wrong. #Taiwan is NOT a province of China. TAIWAN is TAIWAN. Democratic & sovereign,” Cooper wrote.

In a session of parliament on Jan. 29, Cooper called on Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to explicitly state the government’s position on Taiwan’s inclusion in international discussions about preventing the spread of COVID-19.

Trudeau responded by saying: “We support Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international multilateral forums. Especially when its presence provides important contributions to the global public good.”

Canadian Member of Parliament James Bezan tweeted: “Has the International Civil Aviation Organization been taken over by the Communist Party of China [CCP]? Hey @icao — get your facts straight! Taiwan is a thriving independent democracy.”

The ICAO, whose secretary-general is Liu Fang (柳芳) of China, has been blocking the Twitter accounts of anyone who expresses support for Taiwan and on Thursday referred to Taiwan as “[China’s] Taiwan Province” when tweeting about the spread of COVID-19.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has called the ICAO an “accomplice” of China’s pressure campaign against Taiwan and asked it to correct its references to the nation.

It has also called on nations friendly to Taiwan to help it communicate with the ICAO, which has its headquarters in Montreal.

Canadian politicians began ramping up challenges to the ICAO’s stance on Taiwan after the organization continued to misrepresent the nation, despite Trudeau’s confirmation of his government’s support.

Canadian Member of Parliament Peter Kent in a tweet responded to Bezan’s question on whether China was influencing the ICAO.

“Short answer is yes. CCP has implanted officials who block legit Taiwan engagement in international aviation safety ... in the same way they have in other international fora,” Kent wrote.

Writing in French, Canadian Member of Parliament Steven Blaney tweeted: “The ICAO should recognize Canada for what it is, an autonomous entity, and not a province of China!”

Canadian Member of Parliament Pierre Paul-Hus tweeted: “Taiwan is Taiwan. Taipei FIR [flight information region] is controlled by Taiwan, which is a full-fledged democratic and sovereign country. Simple and clear.”

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title:
Commission issues report on the 1980
Lin family murders

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The nation’s intelligence/security agencies were likely involved in the 1980 murders of democracy advocate Lin I-hsiung’s (林義雄) mother and six-year-old twin daughters, but the destruction of key evidence has made it hard to draw firm conclusions, the Transitional Justice Commission said yesterday, as it released a report of its investigation into the murders.

Friday next week marks the 40th anniversary of the murders, an attack that left Lin’s then-nine-year-old daughter severely wounded.

At a news conference at the National Human Rights Museum, the commission said that National Security Bureau (NSB) files showed that a suspect in the murders made a call from a telephone inside the Lin home to a restaurant at the time of the attack.

A team investigating the murders had hoped to analyze surveillance data from the time, but a bureau document dated March 10, 1980, said that telephone surveillance recordings from Feb. 28 had been “flushed,” the commission said in its report.

Although the Criminal Investigation Bureau had requested to meet with those involved in the surveillance of Lin’s house, the NSB said such a meeting would be limited to the investigative team’s chief and deputy chief for reasons of confidentiality, the report said.

The report said there were references to the telephone call in meeting records from Feb. 29 and March 8, 1980.

When asked at the time why the recordings had been erased, the NSB said the telephone conversation had been a fragment and it did not know that the murders had occurred.

An investigation into the murders had been “severely obstructed,” and the possibility of the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government’s involvement could not be ruled out, the report said.

Commission member Greg Yo (尤伯祥) said there were three possibilities why the recording had been destroyed.

One was that intelligence agencies had directed the attack or knew it would happen beforehand and allowed it to happen, then erased the evidence; the second was that the intelligence agencies did not know about the attack until after afterwards, but destroyed the tapes due to their ties to the murderer or because the tapes contained information that would have a negative impact on them or the government; and the third was that the tapes were destroyed by accident, he said.

The NSB’s claim that it did not know about the murders was unbelievable, because the director learned about the attack the day it happened, he added.

Surveillance personnel also would have found out about the incident when a Lin family friend, Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇), arrived at the house and called for help, Yo said.

A thorough investigation by the government into surveillance files related to Lin is needed and the files need to be released, as the commission’s investigation, which had limited resources and time, should not be the end of the investigation, he said.

The commission had sought to interview Lin and his family members, but they declined, saying they did not want to bring up the past, commission member Yeh Hung-ling (葉虹靈) said.

The files the commission collected show previous governments not only did not do a good job investigating the case, but might have caused the Lin family additional harm, Yo said.

The commission respects the Lin family’s unwillingness to trust another government investigation or to be involved with one, he said.

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content_text:
Japan suffers worst slump in five years

EXPORTS AT RISK:Consumer sentiment was affected by a tax increase, despite measures to ease the burden, as well as natural disasters, a top economist said
Japan has suffered its worst quarterly GDP contraction in more than five years, with a tax hike and a deadly typhoon taking a toll on the world’s third-largest economy.

GDP in the three months to December last year shrank 1.6 percent from the previous quarter, even before the COVID-19 outbreak in China hit Japan, official data showed yesterday.

The quarter was marked by a rise in consumption tax from 8 percent to 10 percent, as well as Typhoon Hagibis, which killed more than 100 people and caused widespread flooding.

Economists were braced for a contraction of about 1 percent, but had not expected such a poor figure, with Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute, saying that it was “quite an undershooting.”

“There was a hit from natural disasters, but consumer sentiment was particularly weak after the tax hike, despite government measures to ease the impact,” he told reporters.

The data snapped four quarters of growth and was the biggest contraction since the second quarter of 2014, when the economy shrank 1.9 percent.

That quarter followed a hike in the sales tax from 5 percent to 8 percent and the latest slump also appears to have been affected by a rise in consumption tax to 10 percent that came into effect on Oct. 1 last year.

Private consumption was hard hit, dropping by 2.9 percent — the first fall in five quarters.

Expenditure on factories and equipment decreased 3.7 percent, despite investment getting a boost from cashless-payment systems that allow consumers to alleviate the consumption tax hike.

Economists are carefully watching to see what effect the outbreak will have on the economy, as it hits Japanese companies’ manufacturing activities and tourism.

Japan has only a “bleak” prospect of returning to growth in the first quarter of this year, Minami said.

Private consumption would likely pick up from the October-to-December quarter, but how much it will recover in the coming months would depend on the spread of the virus, he said.

“Also, exports might struggle, as delays of parts shipments from China could disrupt supply chains,” Minami said.

It was “possible” that the economy would shrink for a second consecutive quarter, the technical definition of a recession, he added.

Japanese Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare Katsunobu Kato on Sunday urged the public to avoid crowds and “non-essential gatherings,” including commuter trains, to prevent the virus spreading.

The government is to allocate ￥15.3 billion (US$139 million) to fight the economic effects of the virus, including measures to enhance airport inspections and testing capacity.

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title: Japan suffers worst slump in five years


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Virus outbreak: Ministry data show drop in unpaid leave numbers

The number of employees taking unpaid leave dropped slightly over the past month, data released yesterday by the Ministry of Labor showed.

As of Saturday, 869 workers from 22 companies had reached agreements with their employers to take leave without pay, the figures showed, a slight decrease from Jan. 15, when 941 workers from 25 companies had agreed to take unpaid leave.

While many have speculated on the impact COVID-19 might have on Taiwan’s tourism and hospitality industries, Department of Labor Standards and Equal Employment director Lee Yi-hsuan (李怡萱) said that the ministry is monitoring the situation in cooperation with local labor affairs authorities.

The data are yet to show any effect from the coronavirus, Lee said.

Most companies with employees on unpaid leave were in the metal materials or electrical

machinery sectors, she added.

The companies also tended to have a workforce of fewer than 50 people and their unpaid-leave programs lasted for less than three months with the consent of their employees, who agreed to take up to four days of unpaid leave each month, the ministry said.

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Virus outbreak: Mascots embraced for virus prevention campaign

DOG’S ADVICE:Zongchai, a health ministry cartoon shiba inu, said that washing of hands and staying sober was advised on dates, while single people could ‘stay home’
The Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Facebook page yesterday shows a cartoon “spokesdog” with virus-prevention messages.Photo: Screen grab from Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Facebook page
Taiwan has embraced cuddly mascots and humor to ease public anxiety and educate on best practices amid concern over COVID-19.

Images of cute animals have featured in daily social media updates from government agencies to tackle disinformation and prevent the spread of infections.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare has deployed a cartoon “spokesdog” — a shiba inu called Zongchai (總柴) — that has proved a hit, with hashtags of his name going viral and posts shared hundreds of thousands of times.

Recent contributions have included advice on hygiene and quarantine regulations, as well as reminding people to use masks judiciously given the ongoing shortages since the virus emerged in China.

“Leave face masks for the people who need them, frequently wash your hands with soap, reduce touching your eyes, nose and mouth with your hands,” read one update.

In a Valentine’s Day message, Zongchai offered practical advice for dating during an outbreak, from regular hand washing to staying sober and safe sex.

The post ended with a question: “What if I am single?” to which the pup quipped: “Stay home then.”

The ministry has rolled out a pigeon in a facemask to announce entry restrictions on foreigners with recent travel history to China, adopting the slogan “Virus out, safety in.”

The Ministry of Economic Affairs plumped for a goose when it announced that rumors of disposable paper meal boxes running out were “so quacking exaggerated.”

The message deployed a homophone where the word for the noise a goose makes sounds similar to the first character for the word “exaggerated” in Mandarin.

The government has been deft at deploying memes to win public support.

For instance, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) took to his social media accounts in cartoon form to warn against panic-buying toilet paper.

“We only have one butt, don’t hoard, don’t trust rumors,” the post read.

Once again, a clever homophone was deployed. In Mandarin, the first characters for “hoard” and “butt” are pronounced the same.

The approach contrasts with China, where authorities have tapped their well-oiled propaganda powers to wage a “people’s war” against a virus, which has killed nearly 1,800 people.

State media has heralded the importance of patriotism to tackle the outbreak in a campaign reminiscent of Mao Zedong’s (毛澤東) cries to mobilize the masses.

“To visit each other is to kill each other,” read one slogan in a quarantined district in Hubei Province, the epicenter of the outbreak. “To get together is to commit suicide.”

Taiwan moved swiftly against the outbreak, quickly restricting and then banning arrivals from China.

The nation on Sunday recorded its first death. It has kept confirmed infections to just 22 as of yesterday.

There was brief panic buying of masks before authorities limited each person to just two every seven days using National Health Insurance cards.

Taiwan has also restricted the number of masks a person can take abroad to 250.

Last week, the coast guard stopped a fishing boat that was allegedly attempting to smuggle out 71,000 masks.

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Vocational high-schools report dive in numbers

MONEY MATTERS:Fees for private, occupation-oriented universities are often twice that of public universities, which could be a reason parents are avoiding the schools
By Rachel Lin, Wu Po-hsuan and Dennis Xie / Staff reporters, with staff writer
The Ministry of Education building is pictured in Taipei on March 13 last year.Photo: Rachel Lin, Taipei Times
The number of vocational high-school students in the nation last year plunged by more than 100,000 compared with 2009, and is forecast to be exceeded by that of high-school students for the first time this summer semester, the Union of Private School Educators said on Sunday.

Over the period, the number of high-school and vocational high-school students combined has decreased from about 800,000 to 660,000, with the former dropping from 360,000 to 325,000, and the latter dropping from 440,000 to 335,000, Ministry of Education data showed.

The drop in vocational high-school student numbers accounted for 75.3 percent of the total decrease in the two groups, the data showed.

Tuition fees for private universities are twice that of public universities, which receive more resources from the government, union president Yu Jung-hui (尤榮輝) said, adding that the two cannot compete on the same ground.

As a result, most parents avoid sending their children to vocational high schools, creating an atmosphere of “public over private” in society, he said.

Furthermore, the quality of faculty and occupational training in some occupation-oriented universities, mostly attended by students graduating from vocational high schools, are not as industry-related as at regular universities, Yu said.

Scandals regarding irregular student admissions and executive administration at some private universities also give parents a reason to avoid them, Yu said.

The government could introduce an apprentice system, such as Germany’s, which offers incentives for corporations to teach students first-hand knowledge and hire them after graduation, Yu added.

The ministry said it has adopted policies that help private occupation-oriented universities attract more students, such as allowing students to complete their studies in a flexible time frame and launching projects allowing students to work and study simultaneously.

Its industry-academia cooperation programs and projects that help students pursue further education after having worked in industry for a few years are also examples, the ministry said.

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Virus Outbreak: Taiwanese face entry limits in five countries

Travelers line up to fill in health declaration cards and home quarantine electronic registration forms at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday.Photo:Tony Yao, Taipei Times
While the Philippines has lifted its travel ban against Taiwanese visitors, five other countries continue to bar Taiwanese or ask them to provide medical clearance after arrival, amid the COVID-19 outbreak, International Air Transportation Association (IATA) data showed yesterday.

While Italy has banned flights by Taiwan-based airlines, it was not included in the IATA announcement, as the association looked at only passport and visa requirements.

Mauritius, Bangladesh and Mongolia, along with two of the nation’s former diplomatic allies, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, have imposed a variety of bans or time restrictions on travelers.

As of Feb. 6, Mauritius has barred entry to passengers who reside or have been in Taiwan, China, Hong Kong or Macau in the 14 days prior to their scheduled arrival.

As of Monday last week, Mongolia is not allowing travelers who live in or have been to those four places since Jan. 1 to enter the country or to transit, although the policy does not apply to people who reside in Mongolia.

Solomon Islands does not allow passengers who have visited China or transited through it in the 14 days prior to their scheduled arrival to enter the country.

While it allows entry of passengers transiting through Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Papua New Guinea or Vanuatu, it requires these passengers to present evidence that they have not been in or transited through Taiwan in the previous 14 days, along with 20 other nations where there have been confirmed cases of COVID-19.

Vanuatu on Monday last week announced that people who have been to Taiwan, China, Hong Kong or Macau in the 14 days prior to their arrival are not allowed to enter the country.

It is also requiring travelers who have been in any of the four since Dec. 31 last year, but who have spent the previous 14 days outside of them, to supply a copy of Medical Clearance Form 1, issued by a registered medical practitioner certifying that they are free from any respiratory illness.

Bangladesh is no longer issuing visas on arrival to Chinese nationals, as well as passengers with a Republic of China, Hong Kong or Macau passport, and passengers arriving from any of the four must fill in a health clearance form provided by their airline cabin crew.

Samoa requires passengers who have transited through or have been in Taiwan, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, South Korea, Malaysia, Vietnam, the United Arab Emirates or California to obtain a medical clearance issued by a registered medical practitioner three days before their arrival.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said that Taiwanese headed for Vietnam should bring a copy of an entry-and-exit permit from the National Immigration Agency that lists their travel history in the previous 14 days to prove that they have not visited China recently.

If they are to visit other nations before arriving in Vietnam, they should make sure that the immigration officials in those countries have clearly stamped their passports, the ministry said.

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content_text:
Quick-thinking South African tells of rescue

‘BRAVE FOREIGNER’:When a man accidentally drove his boss’ Bentley into a pond, it was obvious he could not swim, so Johan Koekemoer jumped in and saved him
Johan Koekemoer, a South African teacher living in Taipei, yesterday said not panicking was the key after he rescued a man who had driven a car into a pond in New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水) last week.

Koekemoer’s former students recognized him in a video circulating on social media showing a white Bentley sedan half-submerged in the water, with him towing the driver toward the bank.

“After the white car slid down into the water, the driver got out, but he was floundering and it was clear he could not swim. The foreigner was driving by, then he stopped his car, stripped down and jumped into the water,” a worker who witnessed the rescue said on Saturday.

The incident took place on Thursday morning in the Pingding (坪頂) area, and the Bentley driver was identified as a 46-year-old surnamed Wu (吳).

The witness said that, as he is not a good swimmer, he did not try to rescue Wu, adding: “That foreigner is very brave.”

Koekemoer, 47, and his wife have been living in Taiwan for 12 years.

Koekemoer said that he was taking his children to a daycare center when the incident happened.

“I saw the car slide down and as soon as he fell into the water, he probably realized it was deep, so he wasn’t able to stand there. So he tried to grab onto the car — eventually he got hold of the mirror,” Koekemoer said.

“So immediately we saw he definitely could not swim, and it was pretty deep. That’s when I jumped into the water, because I thought the immediate thing I could do was to get close to him,” Koekemoer said.

He said that he had taken water safety classes in college as part of his physical education curriculum.

“After reaching the vehicle, I just waited with him while the car was still floating. I shouted to my wife to find a rope in my car,” Koekemoer told the Taipei Times yesterday.

“In the meantime I was kind of paddling and trying to get the car closer to shore, as it would make everything easier — saving the man and getting car out later,” he said. “During this time, another guy arrived, he threw a life buoy toward us. I swam to get it, then let the guy hold on to the buoy and swam out with him.”

“When I got to the guy, I didn’t want to swim with him immediately, as he didn’t speak English and I couldn’t tell him what to do,” he said. “I thought he might panic and then it would be a very tough rescue.”

“I just had to be close to him in case something happened ... then I’ll be with him to help. If I wasn’t close to him and he goes under water, it’ll be hard to find him since the water is very dirty,” Koekemoer said.

Wu later told reporters that the Bentley belongs to his boss, who had told him to pick up a business associate.

He was smoking at the time, but had lowered his eyes to put out the cigarette, Wu said.

He did not see the road clearly and thought he had arrived at an intersection, so he pulled the steering wheel to make a right turn, but the car was next to a fish pond and slid into the water, he said.

Some people online have called Koekemoer a hero, while others have said the government should give him an award for his bravery.

Additional reporting by Grant Dexter

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Human composting could be the future of deathcare

Washington becomes first US state to legalize practice as interest in
green burials surges
A graveyard is pictured in October last year. Washington recently became the first US state to legalize human composting as other countries are seeing more requests for green burials and other more sustainable alternatives to burial and cremation.Photo: AFP
It is viewed as a fitting end for a banana skin or a handful of spent coffee grounds. But now people are being urged to consider human composting and other environmentally friendly “deathcare” options.

Speaking before a talk at the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in Seattle on Sunday, Lynne Carpenter-Boggs, a professor of soil science and sustainable agriculture at Washington State University, said: “Death certainly isn’t the biggest environmental impact we have in our life process. But we can still look for new alternatives.”

Washington recently became the first US state to legalize human composting and UK funeral directors are reporting a surge in requests for green burials and other more sustainable alternatives to burial and cremation.

Carpenter-Boggs, who also acts as scientific adviser to Recompose, a Seattle-based company that plans to open the world’s first human composting facility next year, presented data from a pilot project in which six bodies were composted to test the safety and effectiveness of the approach.

The process, known as natural organic reduction, turns a corpse into two wheelbarrows’ worth of soil in four to six weeks. The body is placed in a reusable hexagonal steel container along with wood chips, alfalfa and straw. By carefully controlling the humidity and ratio of carbon dioxide, nitrogen and oxygen, the system creates the perfect conditions for a class of heat-loving (thermophilic) microbes that dramatically accelerate the normal rate of decomposition.

“It’s a bit of a surprise that when the microbial activity starts up and there’s enough feedstock, a whole different class of organisms, called thermophilic organisms, become active,” said Carpenter-Boggs.

The pilot found that everything, including bones and teeth, is reliably transformed into compost (non-organic materials such as pacemakers and artificial hips are screened for and recycled). The soil was also found to contain low levels of coliform bacteria, an indicator of biological safety, meaning that relatives could safely scatter their loved ones’ remains like ashes, or use them to plant a rose bush or fertilise a vegetable patch.

The process reportedly uses an eighth of the energy of cremation.

According to Carpenter-Bogg, cremation in the US produces as much CO2 as burning 800,000 barrels of oil — for an individual, that is equivalent to taking a flight from London to Rome.

Burial can also be problematic: embalming fluids can leech into groundwater and coffins use up natural resources such as wood and metal.

Deborah Smith, of the UK’s National Association of Funeral Directors, said: “To date, human composting has not been undertaken in the UK, but there are ongoing attempts to introduce another alternative form of disposal, alkaline hydrolysis, referred to as water cremation, which is already permitted in some US states. For those seeking a burial in the UK that is as natural as possible, there are increasing numbers of privately owned burial grounds at which it is possible to be buried in a woodland setting, in a biodegradable shroud, with a tree or simple plaque marking the location.”

Sandy Sullivan, the founder of the Leeds-based company Resomation, which sells its liquid cremation machines to the US and is hoping to begin sales in the UK, said: “It’s low running cost, much more environmentally friendly.”


title: Lazio battle past Inter, eye ‘scudetto’

content_text:
Lazio battle past Inter, eye ‘scudetto’

‘HUMBLE AND FOCUSED’:SS Lazio extended their unbeaten run to 19 games and are now just a point behind leaders Juventus, who defeated Brescia 2-0
Inter goalkeeper Daniele Padelli, right, makes a save against SS Lazio’s Ciro Immobile in their Italian Serie A match at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome on Sunday.Photo: Reuters
SS Lazio coach Simone Inzaghi on Sunday gave warning that his side are ready to fight for their first Serie A title since 1999-2000 after moving into second place in Serie A, just one point off leaders Juventus, after a come-from-behind 2-1 win over Inter.

Juventus reclaimed pole position thanks to Paulo Dybala and Juan Cuadrado’s goals as the Turin giants rediscovered their winning form 2-0 at home to Brescia.

Inter dropped from top spot to third — three points behind the eight-time reigning champions — after falling to just their second defeat of the season.

“We need to stay humble and focused, but I’m sure we will succeed. We have nothing to lose,” Inzaghi said. “We know that Juventus and Inter are two great teams, and we will do everything to fight to the end, knowing that it will be very difficult.”

In a fiery clash at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, Ashley Young broke through just before halftime with his first Serie A goal for Inter after his move from Manchester United.

The 34-year-old got his foot to a rebound after Thomas Straskosha had cleared a shot by former Lazio player Antonio Candreva.

A Stefan de Vrij foul on Ciro Immobile allowed the Serie A top scorer to slot in his 26th goal in 24 games this season five minutes after the break.

Sergej Milinkovic-Savic snatched the winner after 69 minutes amid confusion in front of goal.

“We gifted Lazio two goals,” Inter coach Antonio Conte said as his side fell to their second defeat after losing to Juventus in October last year.

Lazio extended their unbeaten run to 19 games as they target their second scudetto.

In Turin, Dybala curled in a perfect free-kick six minutes before halftime, shortly after Brescia’s Florian Aye was sent off for two yellow cards in quick succession.

Cuadrado tapped in the second from close range after a Blaise Matuidi cross with 15 minutes to go as Juve got back winning after two away defeats.

“We did what we had to do,” Juve coach Maurizio Sarri said.

Cristiano Ronaldo was rested, but veteran defender Giorgio Chiellini returned after an injury layoff.

“Cristiano had to rest, he cannot play 75 games a year between the national team and club, we decided to let him recuperate,” Sarri said.

In Sardinia, SSC Napoli got back to winning ways with Dries Mertens’ 65th-minute goal sealing a 1-0 success over Cagliari.

It was the 32-year-old’s 120th goal for Napoli, one short of Marek Hamsik’s all-time record, and five ahead of club legend Diego Maradona.

“Dries is a phenomenon, a champion who makes difficult things seem simple,” Napoli coach Gennaro Gattuso said.

Hellas Verona missed the chance to close in on fifth-placed AS Roma with a goalless draw at Udinese, ACF Fiorentina won 5-1 away at UC Sampdoria and US Sassuolo fell to a 1-0 defeat at home to Parma.

Additional reporting by staff writer

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Deposits in Chinese yuan held by local banks last month dropped to a six-year low of 255.92 billion yuan (US$36.66 billion) as the week-long Lunar New Year holiday weakened business activity, while other investment options gained popularity, the central bank said.

The latest balance suggested a 1.96 percent, or 5.12 billion yuan, decline from one month earlier and represented the lowest level since February 2014.

“The retreat came as little surprise given that interest rates on yuan deposits tapered off in recent years, making yuan deposits a less attractive investment tool,” the bank said.

Yuan deposits at domestic banking units fell 1.93 percent to 224.58 billion yuan, while deposits at offshore banking units shed 2.15 percent to 31.3 billion yuan, the bank said.

The larger decline in offshore banking units, which is limited to corporate clients, was caused by local insurers shifting funds to investment instruments overseas to pursue better yields, the bank said.

Local firms also needed money to settle trade payments, while the issuance of new funds lured some capital away from yuan deposits, it said.

The Bank of Panhsin (板信銀行) offers the highest interest rate for one-month yuan time deposits at 2.2 percent, Mega International Commercial Bank (兆豐商銀) offers the highest rate for three-month time deposits at 2.4 percent and Sunny Bank (陽信銀行) offers the highest rate for one-year time deposits at 2.65 percent, central bank data showed.

Yuan deposits might shrink further this month, as business disruptions persist in China amid the COVID-19 outbreak there, the central bank said.

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title: Yuan deposits at local banks drops to six-year low


people: 陳建仁 陳時中

content_text:
Virus Outbreak: CECC reports two new confirmed cases

‘SPORADIC CASE’:The two new cases are family members of a taxi driver who died on Saturday after testing positive for COVID-19 infection
The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) has reported two more confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection, raising the total number of cases in the nation to 22.

The two new cases are family members who lived with the 19th confirmed patient, who became the first in the nation to die from the infection on Saturday, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, told a news conference last night.

The center on Sunday night said the 19th confirmed patient did not travel abroad and had not been exposed to infected cases, but added that the risk of “community spread” was low.

The 19th case was a 61-year-old man in central Taiwan, who was hospitalized on Feb. 3 for suspected serious flu complications with pneumonia. He died on Saturday, shortly after he tested positive for COVID-19.

Asked if the case could be deemed a case of community-

acquired infection, Chen said “it can be considered so,” but later added, “a sporadic case.”

He later added that “community spread” means people have a risk of getting infected by just walking around in communities.

The minister listed four signs of a community infection: inability to find the source of infection, a higher number of locally infected cases than imported cases, a continuous chain of infections and widespread clusters of cases.

So far, only the death case partially matches the first sign and the center is still tracking the source of infection, Chen said.

As public concern over local transmission increased, the center late on Sunday night provided a video clip of Chen elaborating on the case.

“Local transmission is defined by continuous person-to-person spread within communities, but the case we announced is only a sporadic case,” he said. “People do not have to be too worried, because so far the risk of continuous person-to-person spread within communities is very, very low.”

Chen said the man who died was an independent taxi driver, who had as passengers a large number of Taiwanese based in China who came back during the Lunar New Year holiday.

Three of those passengers have been ordered to monitor their health conditions for 14 days after returning to Taiwan, and are now being tested for COVID-2019, he said, adding that all medical professionals who treated the man tested negative.

Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁), who was the head of the Department of Health during the SARS outbreak in 2003, yesterday wrote on Facebook that the 19th case could be considered “local infected/transmitted,” and the source of infection is being investigated.

Citing the minister’s remark about the definition and signs of “community spread,” he said that the current situation in the nation does not match the other three signs, so Taiwan is not in a state of “community spread,” and the nation’s disease prevention level does not need to be raised.

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Virus outbreak: Outbreak sapping demand for jobs in China: poll

The COVID-19 outbreak in China is dampening Taiwanese’s interest in jobs there, while many who work there intend to return home, online recruitment agency 104 Job Bank said yesterday.

It is common for Taiwanese employees to change jobs after the Lunar New Year holiday, the nation’s largest job bank said.

The outbreak is causing jobseekers to look for positions in Taiwan instead of China, which they usually do to take advantage of its fast-growing economy, the company said.

The trend became especially evident after China on Jan. 23 locked down Hubei Province, whose capital, Wuhan, is the origin of the disease, it said

About 63 percent of Taiwanese who work in China said they would not return to their jobs, up from 50 percent before the lockdown, the job bank said, citing a survey, adding that 37 percent said they would still accept positions in the country.

The failure of many Chinese firms to resume normal operations has also weighed on the decisions, 104 Job Bank senior vice president Jason Chin (晉麗明) said.

More than 30 Chinese cities have implemented travel restrictions and quarantines in a bid to contain the outbreak, making it unpractical and undesirable for people to work there, Chin said.

Many Chinese firms have pushed back recruitment schedules, allowing applicants more time and flexibility to arrange interviews or start work amid health concerns and difficulty traveling, Chin added.

Operational disruptions hit technology clusters in Shanghai, Beijing, Zhengzhou, Suzhou, Hangzhou and Shenzhen, where Taiwanese electronics firms are prominent, the job bank said.

Against the backdrop, legal, accounting, consultancy, research and development positions saw the biggest decline at 19 percentage points by number of applicants, followed by 16 percentage points for wholesale and retail businesses, and 13 percentage points for manufacturers, it said.

The number of applicants for software development and semiconductor-related positions fell by 11 percentage points, it added.

Asked about their next move, 95 percent of respondents said they plan to seek jobs in Taiwan, while 9 percent said they would work in Southeast Asia, the job bank said.

Companies might become conservative about adding staff as the outbreak intensifies, Chin said.

“We will pay close attention to compensation adjustments in companies in Taiwan and abroad, as China’s GDP growth is bound to slow down and affect the global economy,” he said.

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content_text:
Virus outbreak: Medigen to work on COVID-19 vaccine

EXPEDITED:While animal testing for vaccine development normally takes four to six months, the firm plans to finish the tests before the end of June, a spokesman said
Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp vice chairman Charles Chen poses at a news conference in Taipei yesterday after announcing the firm is to cooperate with the US National Institutes of Health on working on a vaccine for COVID-19.Photo: Kao Shih-ching, Taipei Times
Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp (高端疫苗) would cooperate with the US National Institutes of Health to develop a vaccine against COVID-19, the company said yesterday, adding that it plans to begin animal testing in the second quarter of this year.

The Hsinchu-based company on Sunday signed an agreement with the US agency, which is to provide a vaccine candidate and the viral spike protein to Medigen for testing and development, spokesman Leo Lee (李思賢) told a news conference in Taipei.

Medigen would use recombinant spike protein technology to develop the vaccine, Lee said.

The agency last month partnered with US-based Moderna Inc to develop a vaccine utilizing messenger RNA technology.

Medigen would inject the spike protein-based vaccine candidate into rats to observe their immunogenicity and examine whether the vaccine prototype is safe, Lee said.

While animal testing for vaccine development normally takes four to six months, the firm plans to finish the tests before the end of June to speed up the process, he added.

It then plans to apply to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to run a double-blind clinical test in the second half of this year, concentrating on the vaccines’ efficacy and safety, he added.

Medigen would not conduct human trials on infected people, but on healthy volunteers, vice chairman Charles Chen (陳燦堅) said.

“It will not be accurate to run preliminary tests on infected people. As patients’ immune systems would create antibodies, we would not know whether their recovery is attributable to their own antibodies or the vaccine’s,” Chen said.

The number of volunteers and the duration of the tests would be determined by FDA regulations, he said.

“The government might allow us to speed up the process and recruit fewer volunteers, but we expect to at least complete phase one tests or combine phase one and two tests to save time,” Chen said.

If the vaccine is proven effective, Medigen expects to manufacture and sell it in Taiwan and neighboring countries, Chen added.

Chen, who discussed the cooperation with the US agency before the Lunar New Year holiday, said the two sides have been producing dengue vaccines since 2016.

Compared with the regular development of vaccines, the research and development costs for a vaccine against COVID-19 would be much lower due to the US agency’s resources, Medigen financial director Jade Yang (楊郁萍) said.

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content_text:
South Sudan ignores reports on oil pollution, birth defects

Oil-rich areas in a city in Upper Nile State are dotted with exposed pools of toxic water, while chemical storage sites are strewn with overflowing containers of black sludge that seep into the ground
The oil industry in South Sudan has left a landscape pocked with hundreds of open waste pits, the water and soil contaminated with toxic chemicals and heavy metals, including mercury, manganese and arsenic, according to four environmental reports obtained by The Associated Press.

The reports also contain accounts of “alarming” birth defects, miscarriages and other health problems among residents of the region, and soldiers who have been stationed there. Residents also describe women unable to get pregnant.

Abui Mou Kueth’s infant son, Ping, was born with six fingers on both hands, one stunted leg, a deformed foot and kidney swelling.

“I was shocked the first time I saw the baby,” she said, cradling him in her arms.

She said he was not able to breastfeed and needed special formula.

“I am worried about his future,” she said.

The AP obtained the reports and supporting documents from people with close knowledge of the oil operations, one of whom works in the industry. The reports have never been released publicly.

The reports, which date as far back as 2013, were presented to the oil companies and the South Sudanese Ministry of Petroleum, and Mining, but subsequently buried, according to four people with close knowledge of the oil operations and the documents.

All spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of their safety.

“South Sudan is running one of the dirtiest and poorest-managed oil operations on the planet,” said Egbert Wesselink, a former head of a European coalition of more than 50 nonprofit organizations focused on the effects of the country’s oil sector.

Wesselink worked on the oil fields in South Sudan before the country gained independence in 2011 and now works with PAX, a Dutch-based human rights organization.

“I don’t think there’s a single major industrial operation on Earth that’s getting away with this,” he said.

There has been no clear link established between the pollution and the health problems.

However, community leaders and lawmakers in the oil-rich areas in Upper Nile and Unity states — in the northeast and north of the country bordering Ethiopia and Sudan — accuse South Sudan’s government and the two main oil consortiums, the Chinese-led Dar Petroleum Operating Co and the Greater Pioneer Operating Co, of neglecting the issue and trying to silence those who have tried to expose the problem.

An AP reporter looking into the pollution and health issues was detained and questioned by government officials and government security forces working on behalf of the oil companies.

Neither company responded to multiple requests for comment on the reports, and did not answer detailed questions sent by e-mail and text message from the AP.

The reports show that the government and the oil companies have been aware for years that contamination from drilling could be causing severe health problems in the local population, but little has been done to clean up the mess, local residents said.

Promises by the government and the oil companies to tackle the pollution have repeatedly been broken, they said.

“People are dying of unknown diseases,” said Simon Ngor, a pastor with a church in Melut, a small village in the oil-rich area of Upper Nile State. “The oil company says they’re working on it, but I don’t think they actually are.”

The environmental and health problems are particularly damaging in South Sudan, a country that was only established nine years ago, and shortly after was torn apart by civil war and famine.

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content_text:
More than 1,000 former US Department of Justice officials on Sunday called for US Attorney General William Barr to resign over his handling of the trial of a longtime adviser of US President Donald Trump.

The former officials, who served under Republican and Democratic administrations, criticized Barr, the nation’s top law enforcement officer, for overruling his own prosecutors in a case that has prompted accusations that the Trump administration is weakening the rule of law.

ROGER STONE

On Tuesday last week, the department abandoned prosecutors’ initial recommendation to give veteran Republican operative Roger Stone seven to nine years in prison after he was found guilty in November last year of seven counts of lying to the US Congress, obstruction and witness tampering, prompting all four prosecutors to quit the case.

“It is unheard of for the Department’s top leaders to overrule line prosecutors, who are following established policies, in order to give preferential treatment to a close associate of the President, as Attorney General Barr did in the Stone case,” read the letter, published on the Web site Medium.

“Those actions, and the damage they have done to the Department of Justice’s reputation for integrity and the rule of law, require Mr. Barr to resign,” it said.

The justice department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

INTERFERENCE

Trump had heavily criticized the original sentencing request for Stone and the department subsequently abandoned it, instead deciding to make no formal sentencing recommendation.

Democrats blasted the department’s shift in the high-profile case involving Stone, whose friendship with Trump dates back decades.

Stone’s trial arose from former US special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation that detailed extensive Russian interference in the 2016 election to benefit Trump’s candidacy.

Barr on Thursday said in an interview with broadcaster ABC that Trump’s criticism of those involved in the Stone case “make it impossible for me to do my job.”

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title: Former Department of Justice officials urge Barr to resign


title: Empty  pews

content_text:
A devotee attends a ceremony on Saturday to prevent the spread of COVID-19 at the Taoist Longde temple in Taoyuan.Photo: AFP
In a popular Catholic church in the Philippines, nearly half of the pews were empty for Sunday Mass. The few hundred worshippers who showed up were asked to refrain from shaking others’ hands or holding them during prayers to prevent the spread of the virus that started in China.

In Hong Kong, Cardinal John Hon Tong, wearing a mask, announced the suspension of public Masses for two weeks and urged churchgoers to instead watch them online.

Buddhist temples, Christian churches and Muslim mosques have been ordered closed since Jan. 29 in China, where the new coronavirus strain was first detected in the central city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak. Mosques have canceled weekly Friday prayers since last month under an order to avoid “collective religious activities.”

Religious leaders should encourage Muslims to “trust the party” and avoid crowds, the Communist Party-controlled body that oversees China’s officially authorized mosques said in a statement.

VIRUS SCARE

The restrictions and dwindling crowds in religiously diverse places of worship underscore the extent of the scare over the outbreak that has permeated many aspects of life in the hard-hit Asian region. The virus has killed more than 1,500 people and infected more than 67,000 others, mostly in China, where several cities that are home to more than 60 million people have been placed under lockdown in an unprecedented effort to contain the disease.

All but three of the deaths have been in China. Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong and the Philippines have reported one fatality each.

In Japan, where Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines are tourist destinations, a sharp decline in the number of foreign visitors has been a palpable setback. At normally popular Suzumushi, or Crickets, temple, a sign read, “Due to the impact of the COVID-19, no waiting expected,” using the name given to the disease by the WHO.

“We assimilate with parishioners and many other people. We know that the talk of the town is really this virus and it’s obvious that many are scared,” said the Reverend Siegfred Arellano, a priest at the Binondo church in the Philippine capital’s Chinatown.

Attendance at Masses, Arellano said, “has really dropped.”

After consulting health experts, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines announced steps late last month to fight the virus. Churchgoers were advised to avoid hand contact and receive the Eucharistic host, the consecrated bread that Catholics believe to be the body of Jesus Christ, in the hand instead of the mouth.

They said holy water should be replaced more often in church stoups and a protective cloth installed on the grills separating priests and worshippers in confessional boxes.

In Hong Kong, Tong initially approved precautions that included a choice for churchgoers to watch Sunday Mass online. Those who opted to go to churches were asked to wear masks and told that “singing is suspended,” except for short hymns like Allelulia. The new virus is spread through respiratory droplets, according to health officials.

Tong later announced the two-week suspension of Masses, saying the move was crucial to suppressing the outbreak, and asked Hong Kong’s 400,000-strong Catholic community not to panic.

Masses in Singapore’s Catholic churches have also been suspended indefinitely starting Saturday to contain the spread of the virus. The city-state has reported that 67 people have been infected, including a senior pastor and several members of the Grace Assembly of God church, which has shut down two premises and quarantined all staff.

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title:
Five ways to strengthen your relationship
別想改變對方：鞏固感情五秘訣

content_text:
A jar of love candies.
有愛心圖案的糖果。Photo: Pixabay
照片：Pixabay

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■ Be appreciative, daily

Sarah Calvert, a relationship therapist in London, says: “Starting from a place of appreciation is always of benefit, and can help solve more difficult conversations. It’s easy to focus on what is lacking, so I invite people to think about what they appreciate about the other person on a daily basis. Find one thing each day and tell them.” This could be anything from something they do, or a quality that they have to the way they are looking. “Actively seeking out things to appreciate helps them feel valued,” says Calvert, and when your partner better understands what you appreciate about them, they’ll probably start doing those things a bit more.

■ Don’t try to change your partner

“This is the person you have chosen, and they are who they are. You can’t change somebody else,” says Dee Holmes, a senior practice consultant for Relate. This can even come down to not sweating the small stuff. “We all do things that irritate our partners,” says Holmes. “Does this really need addressing or should you accept that’s just what they do?” Respect and celebrate each other’s individuality. While couple time is important, says Holmes, “you’ve got to allow someone that space to still see their friends and do their own things.” After all, if you stopped them from pursuing their interests and doing all those things that makes them them, she warns, “they’re not going to be the person you got together with.”

■ Avoid assumptions

“It can be quite easy to not say the obvious things, because you assume the other person knows,” says Holmes. It can be just as easy to erroneously assume you understand them. If your partner says they don’t want to go out tonight after all, says Holmes, you might feel cheated by their backtracking, without considering what caused their change of heart. Perhaps something is troubling them. Try some active listening, suggests Calvert. “Make an effort to be fully present, and really learn what is going on for that person, rather than just hearing the words.”

1. appreciative adj.

表示讚賞；感謝的 (biao3 shi4 zan4 shang3; gan3 xie4 de5)

2. relationship n.

人際關係；感情 (ren2 ji4 guan1 xi4; gan3 qing2)

3. irritate v.

使惱怒 (shi2 nao3 nu4)

4. individuality n.

個體性 (ge4 ti3 xing4)

5. emotional intimacy phr.

情感親密 (qing2 gan3 qin1 mi4)

6. fulfillment n.

成就感 (cheng2 jiu4 gan3)

7. defensively adv.

防衛地 (fang2 wei4 de5)

8. quality time phr.

精心時刻 (jing1 xin1 shi2 ke4)

■ Brush up on your communication skills

This starts with being in touch with your own feelings, says Calvert. “Otherwise, you won’t be able to say what you need and what you want. Good communication fosters emotional intimacy, which can lead to greater feelings of fulfillment, understanding, trust and safety.” She suggests being more mindful of the language and the tone you use. “Often people say things [to their partner] that sound really harsh, not in a way in which they would address anyone else,” she says. When responding defensively, they often don’t even say what they really mean. She suggests asking yourself: “If you were listening to this conversation, how would it make you feel?”

■ Discover what makes your partner feel loved

“Some people feel loved through their partner’s actions, anything from bringing a cup of tea for them in bed to upgrading their technology,” says Calvert. Some need affirming words, to be told that they’re loved. For others, physical contact is more significant: intimacy, sex, holding hands. Maybe it’s quality time, with your full attention, or perhaps gifts hold greater meaning for your partner.

(The Guardian)

■ 每天存著欣賞與感謝的心

在倫敦執業的人際關係治療師莎拉‧考芙特說：「用欣賞的角度來看待事物總是有好處的，這也可以讓棘手的事比較好溝通。我們比較容易去注意所缺乏的東西，因此我鼓勵大家每天都想想自己欣賞伴侶的地方。每天找到一個優點來告訴對方」，例如對方所做的某件事、其某種特質，或看起來的樣子。考芙特說：「積極尋找值得欣賞的事物可以使伴侶覺得受到重視」，況且若伴侶知道怎麼做會讓你讚賞，說不定就會比較常這樣做。


title: Russian held in Paris election scandal

content_text:
Russian held in Paris election scandal

SEX VIDEOS:After the ruling party’s disgraced candidate bowed out , health chief Agnes Buzyn threw her hat into the ring, a decision hailed by the French president
French police on Sunday held a Russian activist and his girlfriend for questioning over sex videos released online that brought down French President Emmanuel Macron’s favored candidate for Paris mayor.

Pyotr Pavlensky has said he leaked the video that forced the centrist ruling party’s Benjamin Griveaux to bow out of the running for mayor in next month’s election.

The artist, who received asylum in France in 2017 after several radical protests in Russia, was arrested on Saturday in connection with a fight at a New Year’s party.

However, on Sunday, police turned their attention to the footage posted online this week showing a man masturbating, coupled with racy text messages sent to a woman.

The videos prompted Griveaux, a married father of three, to abruptly call off his mayoral campaign, a first in France, where politicians have in the past attempted to brush off sex scandals as private matters.

Pavlensky’s French girlfriend, Alexandra de Taddeo, believed to have been the recipient of the videos sent in 2018, has also been arrested on charges of invasion of privacy and publishing images of a sexual nature without consent.

Pavlensky, 35, and De Taddeo, 29, were both being questioned on Sunday at the headquarters of the criminal police in Paris.

On Friday, Pavlensky told reporters that he had posted the footage online to expose the “hypocrisy” of 42-year-old Griveaux and planned to post more material on a newly created “political porn platform.”

Griveaux “is someone who constantly brings up family values, who says he wants to be the mayor of families, and always cites his wife and children as an example, but he is doing the opposite,” Pavlensky told France’s Liberation newspaper.

Griveaux’s lawyer, Richard Malka, hit back on Sunday, accusing “pseudo artists” of giving “morality lessons.”

French media and politicians from across the spectrum have portrayed Griveaux, a former government spokesman, as the victim of a hatchet job.

“Everyone has the right to their secret garden,” French National Assembly Speaker Richard Ferrand told the Journal du Dimanche weekly, echoing a sentiment still widely held nine years after politicians’ morals came under scrutiny in the Dominique Strauss-Kahn affair.

Griveaux’s fall left Macron’s Republic on the Move (LREM) party scrambling to find a replacement candidate for Paris mayor a month before the vote.

French Minister of Health Agnes Buzyn on Sunday said she would run in Griveaux’s place.

“I’m going for it with the aim of winning,” said Buzyn, who has been leading France’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Macron hailed Buzyn’s “courageous decision” to throw her hat in the ring for the Paris job, his office said.

The president swiftly chose Olivier Veran, a lawmaker and doctor, to replace Buzyn at the health ministry.

Griveaux’s campaign had already been in trouble before the sex tape emerged, dragged down by a rebel candidacy from fellow Macron supporter and star mathematician Cedric Villani.

Recent surveys had placed the official LREM candidate third, behind Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo of the Socialist Party and conservative candidate Rachida Dati.

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title: EU, Balkan nations talk about membership

content_text:
European Council President Charles Michel, right front, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, front left, walk with leaders of the western Balkans prior to a group photograph at an EU-Western Balkans meeting at the Europa building in Brussels on Sunday.Photo: AP
European Council President Charles Michel on Sunday met with leaders of the six western Balkan nations seeking to join the EU, for “frank” talks ahead of a key summit in Zagreb in May.

The EU is struggling to maintain credibility in the Balkans after it broke promises to start membership talks with Albania and North Macedonia in October last year, leading to another postponement despite major reforms on their part.

“I look forward to a frank, intense and open discussion,” Michel said before the meeting began.

While most member states were ready to open the negotiations, France has led a small group that vetoed the move, while Germany has led efforts to get the accession process back on track.

“We are going to work today and tomorrow for the next European Council [summit] to open the door to the European perspective of the Balkan countries,” High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said.

He attended the informal talks, as did European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, whose nation currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency.

Next month, the European Commission is due to publish an individual report for each of the six Western Balkan candidate countries — Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, Northern Macedonia and Serbia.

“It’s about engaging in a political dialogue at the highest level” with the Balkan nations “and to understand their expectations, before the summit in Zagreb” on May 17, a European official said.

What is set to emerge is a more rigorous route to membership, as sought by France.

The European Commission has already submitted a plan along those lines, but it must still receive unanimous support from the 27 EU member states.

“We have revised our methodology and the methodology in its revised form should create and regain trust in all sides in this process because it’s accelerating the structural reforms,” Von der Leyen said.

“On the other hand it’s creating a credible perspective for the western Balkans to join, over time, the EU. We want also to pave the way for Albania and North Macedonia to start the accession talks with EU if possible for before the Zagreb summit,” she added.

Under the new proposals, the EU accession process would focus on “fundamental reforms” first and create an option for membership talks to be “put on hold in certain areas ... or suspended overall.”

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, attending the Brussels meeting, said he was “very interested to see and discuss the new methodology, see if it can come out as a platform of common understanding with the member states.”

Stormy conditions on Sunday made it difficult for planes flying in and out of Belgium and other European nations.

“We landed with some difficulties, so it’s a kind of signal that the landing for us will not be easy,” Rama said.

He was not the only Balkans leader making the connection.

“We had a landing on our fourth attempt ... and I made a comparison to our attempt to start the accession talks,” North Macedonian Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikola Dimitrov said.

Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia are already official EU candidate nations, along with Turkey.

Bosnia and Herzegovina, along with Kosovo, are officially categorized as “potential candidates.”

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content_text:
Real Madrid’s Dani Carvajal, top, jumps over RC Celta de Vigo’s Lucas Olaza in their Spanish La Liga match at the Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid on Sunday.Photo: AFP
Real Madrid’s winning streak ended on Sunday when they conceded a late goal to draw 2-2 at home to RC Celta de Vigo and finish the weekend with their lead over Barcelona down to one point.

Real manager Zinedine Zidane was philosophical.

“There’s nothing to explain, it’s just the way things are, it’s football,” Zidane said. “I’m not worried about it, but I’m disappointed, as always when you drop two points at home.”

Barcelona on Saturday beat third-placed Getafe to open a 10-point gap on the chasing pack.

Sevilla on Sunday could have climbed to third, but were held 2-2 at home by bottom side RCD Espanyol.

Real had won five straight in La Liga to accelerate past Barcelona and they welcomed back Eden Hazard, who had been out since November last year.

Zidane also recalled Gareth Bale to complete an all-star attack with Karim Benzema, but Celta took the lead after seven minute when a pass from Iago Aspas sent Fedor Smolov galloping clear up the middle and he shot low past Thibaut Courtois.

“There were mistakes, especially for the first goal,” Zidane said. “We were not well positioned, it happens, and it’ll happen to us again.”

Celta had only climbed out of the relegation places the weekend before, and looked anxious and overawed on the ball as Real dominated the rest of the first half and the start of the second.

In the 52nd minute, Marcelo found space on the left and his cross deflected to Toni Kroos, who drilled in the equalizer.

It was the sixth straight season Kroos had scored against Celta.

In the 65th minute, Celta goalkeeper Ruben Blanco pulled down Hazard and Sergio Ramos slammed the penalty into the bottom corner of the net.

“We’re glad he’s back,” Zidane said of Hazard, who was substituted in the 73rd minute. “We know what he can do for us. He didn’t go further than we planned after three months out. He was involved in a lot of attacking action.”

Celta responded by rediscovering their attacking nerve.

With four minutes left, a sharp pass from Denis Suarez, who had come on in the 71st minute, caught the Real defense flat-footed. Santi Mina, who had been on for two minutes, drilled the ball past Courtois.

“An extraordinary pass,” Zidane said.

Elsewhere, CA Osasuna won 1-0 away at Athletic Bilbao and CD Leganes were held to a goalless draw by Real Betis Balompie.

Additional reporting by staff writer

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title: Celta strike late to put brakes on Real


title: Filipina patrols join police to keep drug killings at bay

content_text:
Members of a volunteer group of women patrol with police officers on the streets of Pateros, Metro Manila, on Dec. 18 last year.Photo: Reuters
Late each night, a dozen women chat and share a meal before hitting the narrow streets of a Manila suburb where a death squad once roamed.

They are the “women’s patrol,” a group of 18 mothers and grandmothers whose nightly walks through the dimly lit alleys of Pateros have been helping to deter shadowy gunmen behind murders of residents linked to illegal drugs.

Not long after Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declared a war on drugs in 2016 and promised thousands would die, Pateros was being terrorized by attackers in hoods and ski masks, known locally as the “bonnet gang.”

With the town of 63,000 paralyzed by fear, the women decided to arm themselves with flashlights and patrol their community, keeping up a nightly presence to disrupt the bonnet gang.

“When we started patrols, the enthusiasm came back to our community and the fear disappeared. Back then, people were afraid to go out,” said Jenny Helo, 39, who leads the women through the labyrinth of shops, shacks and informal dwellings. “But when they saw how effective we are, because of how we really go around the community, people regained confidence.”

The killers have not been caught.

In the deadliest periods of the crackdown, there were as many as four murders linked to drugs each day in the Philippines, many by gunmen riding pillion on motorcycles.

The total number of drug-related killings since Duterte unleashed his drugs war is unknown.

Police say they killed 5,400 suspects in self-defense during their anti-drugs operations, denying allegations by activists that elements of the force are involved in the mystery killings that plagued Pateros and other parts of Manila.

In a written response to Reuters, Duterte’s spokesman, Salvador Panelo, called those “inevitable results” when a government was serious about suppressing illegal drugs.

He attributed the deaths to botched drug deals, turf wars between drug syndicates, or informants being silenced.

Pateros is now safer and the gunmen have gone, those who live there say.

The women never found out who the bonnet gang were, Helo said, but believe they thwarted them.

“We disrupted them in what they do,” she said. “They know we are here to fight what they’re doing.”

Pateros police chief Colonel Simnar Gran praised the patrollers and said local police had worked closely with them and the mayor to tighten the town’s security.

A few officers accompany the women each night, enforcing curfews and smoking bans, and warning people against drugs.

“This can be replicated by other communities,” Gran said. “They’re doing this voluntarily without compensation. They’re just civic-minded people.”

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