2014年12月24日 星期三

week7_Chang Guann, gutter oil

Chang Guann ‘sorry’ for tainted lard oil

GUTTER INGREDIENTS:The Greater Kaohsiung company said it was recalling all of its Chuan Tung ‘fragrant lard oil’ that have an expiry date prior to March 1 next year

By Stacy Hsu  /  Staff reporter

Chang Guann Co (強冠企業), a food oil manufacturer in Greater Kaohsiung, yesterday apologized to the public after one of its lard products was allegedly found to be tainted with “gutter oil” illegally recycled by an unlicensed factory in Pingtung County.
Gutter oil, also known as drainage oil, is recycled oil collected from various sources such as kitchen fryers, restaurant drains and grease traps. It is mainly used in the production of soap.
“We only began purchasing lard from the Pingtung factory on Feb. 25 this year. As of last month, a total of 243 tonnes of lard had been bought from the factory, 216 tonnes of which have been used as a base oil in the manufacturing of 780 tonnes of edible lard oil,” the company based in Daliao District (大寮) said in a press release.
There was an immediate trickle-down effect after Chang Guann Co’s apology. Wei Chuan Foods Corp (味全食品工業) said it had immediately pulled 12 pork floss and meat paste products from stores.
Wei Chuan has purchased oil products that have been found to have questionable ingredients from Chang Guann Co and used them in the 12 products, so it decided to temporarily stop sales for the products and accept returns from consumers, Wei Chuan said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
The company said it had informed Taipei’s Public Health Bureau and would fully cooperate with the government regarding inspection on these products.
Wei Chuan said it will consider seeking reimbursement from Chang Guann to protect its rights and interests if the oil products purchased from Chang Guann are confirmed to have included the suspect ingredients.
Chang Guann said the 780 tonnes of processed lard oil were divided into 51,700 cartons and marketed as “fragrant lard oil” (香豬油) under its cooking oil brand, Chuan Tung (全統), and that 48,500 cartons had been sold.
“We are also a victim in this case. Although not all of our fragrant lard oil products contain the alleged gutter oil, to safeguard consumers’ interest, on Tuesday we ordered the recall of all products with an expiration date before March 1 next year,” the company said.
The statement was issued just hours after Chang Guann deputy general manager Tai Chi-chuan (戴啟川) was summoned for questioning by the Pingtung District Prosecutors’ Office, following a raid carried out by the Criminal Investigation Bureau’s southern crime combat center on the unlicensed factory in Pingtung.
The factory’s owner, Kuo Lieh-cheng, (郭烈成) and an employee surnamed Shih (施) were also questioned yesterday, along with Kuo Chun-yeh (郭春葉), the owner of animal feed manufacturer Ching Wei Co (進威) — which allegedly bought gutter oil from the same factory for use in its pig feed products — Kuo’s wife and an employee surnamed Su (蘇), Pingtung Chief District Prosecutor Yang Wan-li (楊婉莉) said.
“The office joined hands with the Food and Drug Administration [FDA] and the health departments of Pingtung and Greater Kaohsiung to investigate whether the factory sold gutter oil disguised as lard, and where and to whom such products were sold,” Yang said.
FDA Southern Center Deputy Director Liu Fang-ming (劉芳銘) said a preliminary investigation showed that Chang Guann’s fragrant lard oil products manufactured between March 1 and Aug. 29 could have been mixed with the alleged gutter oil.
“Since the potentially contaminated products were packaged in 15kg and 16kg cartons, they were likely to have been sold to small restaurants or eateries rather than consumers,” Liu said.
If Chang Guann bought the suspect lard without knowing what it really was, the company’s owners might only be subject to a fine ranging from NT$60,000 (US$2,000) to NT$50 million, as stipulated in Article 15 of the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (食品安全衛生管理法), Liu said.
“However, if the firm was aware of the lard’s real contents and still used it to manufacture cooking oil, its owners could face a maximum prison term of seven years,” he said.

Structure of the lead:

WHO-Chang Guann Co (強冠企業)
WHAT-apologized to the public
WHEN-yesterday
WHERE-not given
WHY-one of its lard products was allegedly found to be tainted with “gutter oil” illegally recycled 
HOW-by an unlicensed factory in Pingtung County.

Keywords:

  1. gutter:排水溝
  2. tainted:污染的
  3. drainage:下水道
  4. reimbursement:賠償
  5. contaminated:受到污染的
  6. stipulated:規定
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2014年12月17日 星期三

week6_Scottish, independence, referendum

UK’s democracy a high standard

By Chang Kuo-tsai 張國財

The result of the Scottish independence referendum, which has been a focus of attention around the world, is now known, with the pro-union side who voted “no” to independence emerging as the winners. Setting aside the result, there are many aspects of the process that could prove enlightening for Taiwanese.
Scotland has been part of the UK for 307 years. Confronted with the question of whether Scotland should leave the union and become independent, political leaders in London did not demand that the issue should be voted on by all British people. It was taken for granted that it was up to Scotland to decide for itself.
By the same measure, is it not equally obvious that Taiwan’s future should be decided by the 23 million Taiwanese? Who else could make the decision?
In the referendum, the minimum age for voting was 16, not 18 or 20. That is quite a contrast with Taiwan, where men aged 18 are obliged to perform military service, but do not have the right to vote. This is a clear discrepancy and imbalance between rights and duties.
The polls in Scotland were open all day on Thursday from 7am to 10pm so that people working in all professions could find time to vote, no matter whether they work in the daytime, evening or at night. This is different from Taiwan, where all elections are held between 8am and 4pm on Saturdays, thus depriving those who have to work normal hours on Saturday of the right to vote.
The Scottish independence referendum was not encumbered by restrictive thresholds, and the referendum question — “Should Scotland be an independent country?” — did not beat around the bush. The outcome of the vote — “yes” or “no” — was decided by a simple majority. Not so in Taiwan.
When will the nation break free from the bonds of its “birdcage” referendums, beset as they are with schemes and impediments?
In the run-up to the referendum, the pro-union and pro-independence sides in Scotland were free to pull out all the stops to get their respective messages across, with plenty of opinion polls available for reference.
No matter whether Scottish people voted “yes” or “no,” by their 84.6 percent turnout they announced to the world that they were determined to decide their own future.
Why would they allow anyone else to decide it for them?
When the Scottish Parliament announced that an independence referendum would be held, political leaders in London did not issue intimidating threats or call for repression by force. No nonsense about blood being thicker than water, or accusations of forgetting one’s roots were heard. Rather, their campaign involved appeals to sentiment along with discussion of the pros and cons.
The UK might not enjoy the stature it once did, but the example it has set by the conduct of this referendum shows that it is a civilized country indeed.
Chang Kuo-tsai is a retired associate professor of National Hsinchu University of Education and a former deputy secretary-general of the Taiwan Association of University Professors.
Translated by Julian Clegg

Structure of the lead:

WHO-not given
WHAT-The result of the Scottish independence referendum
WHEN-not given
WHERE-not given
WHY-not given
HOW-many aspects of the process that could prove enlightening for Taiwanese

Keywords:

  1. referendum:公民投票權
  2. discrepancy:差異
  3. encumbered:妨礙
  4. threshold:門檻
  5. impediment:阻礙



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2014年12月10日 星期三

week5_Nigerian girls, Chibox, kidnapped, Boko Haram

Boko Haram seizes kidnapped girls’ hometown, Chibok

AP, MAIDUGURI, Nigeria

Islamic extremists in Nigeria have seized Chibok, forcing thousands of people to flee the town where insurgents kidnapped nearly 300 schoolgirls in April, a local official said on Friday.
The Boko Haram insurgents entered the town on Thursday, shooting from pickup trucks and motorcycles, Chibok local government chairman Bana Lawan said.
“Nobody can tell you what is happening there today because everybody is just trying to escape with their lives,” he said.
In Washington, US Department of State spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the US is closely monitoring the situation in Chibok.
“We condemn these attacks in Chibok, a community that has already suffered too much... We remain committed to helping the government of Nigeria address the threat posed by extremist organizations, Psaki told reporters.
In a separate development, a bomb exploded on Friday night in northern Kano City, the second-largest population center in Nigeria, killing six people, including three police officers, the police said.
Resident Aliyu Yusuf Hotoro said many buildings shook from the force of the explosion from a car bomb in a gas station on a main road leading to Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State. Soldiers, police and emergency rescue operations workers cordoned off the area.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bomb, but Boko Haram extremists have detonated them in Kano in the past.
Meanwhile, attempts to call the cellphones of some of the kidnapped girls’ parents living in Chibok failed. Boko Haram extremists often destroy cellphone towers, and the military often cuts communications to areas under attack.
Dozens of the kidnapped girls escaped in the first couple of days after their capture from a boarding school just outside the town, but 219 are still missing.
Community leader Hussain Monguno said none of the escapees was in Chibok at the time of the attack. They have all been given scholarships to other schools in northern Nigeria.
Nigeria’s military commander announced on Oct. 17 that the country’s homegrown Boko Haram extremist group had agreed to an immediate ceasefire.
Government officials said the truce would lead to the girls’ speedy release.
However, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau in a video released last month said the girls were “an old story,” that they all had converted to Islam and been married off to his fighters.
At least seven of the girls’ parents have died since their abductions, from causes such as heart attacks that residents blame on the trauma, according to Monguno, head of the Borno-Yobe People’s Forum.
Since the apparent ceasefire announcement, the insurgents have taken control of several more towns and villages where they have declared an Islamic caliphate along the lines of the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.
In an area covering about 20,000km2, residents caught behind the militants’ lines say they have set up courts upholding a strict version of Shariah law, publicly amputating the hands of alleged looters and whipping people for infractions such as smoking cigarettes.

Structure of the lead:

WHO-Islamic extremists
WHAT-Islamic extremists in Nigeria have seized Chibok
WHEN-April
WHERE-Nigeria
WHY-not given
HOW-kidnapped nearly 300 schoolgirls

Keywords:

  1. Boko Haram:博科聖地
  2. flee:逃離
  3. insurgents:叛亂者
  4. cordoned off:隔離
  5. abduction:綁架
  6. militant:激進份子
  7. amputating:切斷
  8. looter:掠奪者
  9. infraction:違反

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