Week 7-Taiwan’s ‘Gutter Oil’ Scandal

Taiwan’s ‘Gutter Oil’ Scandal

Since Sept. 4, the Taiwanese authorities have been struggling to control a food scare caused by 645 tons of adulterated cooking oil produced by the Chang Guann Company and distributed to more than 1,200 restaurants, schools and food processors. As of Monday, health authorities had identified a wide array of more than 1,300 food products tainted by the oil, including instant noodles, snacks, cakes, dumplings, bread, canned pork, meat paste and glutinous rice. Taiwan obviously needs a stronger food-safety policy with meaningful penalties.

Chang Guann has been buying what’s known as “gutter oil” — recycled oil from restaurant waste and animal byproducts — from an illegal factory and mixing it with lard to make its Chuan Tung cooking oil. Though the illegal factory had been in business for more than a decade, the authorities had failed to detect what it was up to. Chang Guann had also managed to delude inspectors. Recycled gutter oil can contain carcinogens. No case of illness has been reported so far. Chang Guann was fined a trifling $1.67 million for its illegal sales.

The investigation also revealed that Chang Guann had been importing lard from Hong Kong that was intended for industrial purposes but falsely listed by the Hong Kong company as fit for human consumption.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare is now working to set up a system to monitor about 100 oil manufacturers and 500 importers in Taiwan, requiring them to register information about their products. Submitting fraudulent information could lead to a maximum fine of $100,000 and suspension of business for one year.

The scare follows a series of other food scandals last year; in one case, a factory owner was sentenced to 16 years in prison for adding a banned coloring agent, copper chlorophyllin, to olive oil. The Taiwanese authorities need to be doing more than reacting to food-safety problems on an ad hoc basis to ensure that what people eat is safe.

Structure of the Lead：

   WHO-Chang Guann Company

   WHEN-Sept. 4

   WHAT-gutter oil

   WHY-not given

   WHERE-Taiwan

Keywords：

1.adulterate:攙雜，攙假

2.processor:加工者

3.taint:使感染，使腐壞

4.glutinous:黏稠的

5.byproduct副產品

6.inspector:檢查員

7.delude:欺騙

8.fraudulent:欺詐的

Week 6-Taiwan actor Ko Chen-tung cut from blockbuster after drug arrest with Jaycee Chan

Taiwan actor Ko Chen-tung cut from blockbuster after drug arrest with Jaycee Chan

The fourth instalment of the Chinese blockbuster franchise Tiny Times will not feature Taiwanese actor Ko Chen-tung, after he was arrested for drug use in Beijing in July, state media reported.

The 23-year-old actor, also known as Kai Ko, served 14 days in detention in Beijing for drug offences after he was detained along with Jaycee Fong Cho-ming, son of Hong Kong action star Jackie Chan.

China’s media watchdog has warned mainland production companies not to use stars involved in prostitution, gambling or drug abuse. China Radio International reports that Ko’s scenes in Tiny Times 4, due for release in February, are being reshot.

The Tiny Times franchise, which has been called China’s ‘Gossip Girl’, has been hugely successful. On its release in July, the third film knocked Transformers 4 off the top of the Chinese box office, taking more than 306 million yuan in its first four days and setting a record for a 2D film.

Writer-director Guo Jinming said earlier this year he might have to cut Ko from the fourth film, though he later denied he was in talks with an actor to replace him.

“The movie has to be submitted for censorship and it’s beyond my ability,” Guo told the Beijing News in September.

Ko, who made a tearful confession of drug use on state TV in August, has already lost a number of high-profile endorsement deals, including with Canon, KFC, and Quaker Oats.

The actor will also reportedly be cut from ‘Monster Hunt’, the live-action debut of Chinese director Raman Hui, who previously co-directed ‘Shrek the Third’.

Jaycee Chan was formally arrested in September on suspicion of “accommodating drug users” and potentially faces as much as three years in prison.Jackie Chan, who was named a Chinese anti-drug ambassador in 2009, has publicly apologized for his son’s behavior and blamed his failings as a parent.

“I am always a father. I used to be an unqualified father. Now, after this event, I want to be a qualified father,” Chan told reporters last month.

Ko and Chan were detained as part of an ongoing anti-drug campaign. This week Chinese police announced that more than 100,000 drug users had been "investigated" and 12 tonnes of narcotics seized in the past 50 days alone. 

Structure of the Lead：

   WHO-Ko Chen-tung and Jaycee Chan

   WHEN-in July

   WHAT-drug offences 

   WHY-not given

   WHERE-Beijing 

  

Keywords：

   1.detention:滯留；延遲

   2.censorship:審查（制度）

   3. apologize:道歉

   4. confession:聲明；供狀

   5. accommodate:向……提供

   6. suspicion:嫌疑

   7.ongoing:進行的；不間斷的

   8.narcotics :麻醉劑，致幻毒品

Week 5-Kaohsiung gas explosion

Taiwan gas blasts in Kaohsiung kill at least 25

A series of gas explosions in the southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung has killed 25 people and injured 267 others, officials say.

The blasts rocked the city's Cianjhen district, scattering cars and blowing deep trenches in roads.

The exact cause of the gas leaks is not clear, but reports say the blasts were caused by ruptured pipelines.

Images of the scene showed major fires, upturned vehicles, bodies covered in debris and streets split in two.

The explosions happened late on Thursday night, with witnesses reporting huge fireballs soaring into the air. Taiwan's premier said there were at least five blasts.

"The local fire department received calls of gas leaks late Thursday and then there was a series of blasts around midnight affecting an area of two to three sq km [one sq mile]," the National Fire Agency said in a statement.

"I saw lots of cars and motorcycles with engines all over on the road, and doctors checking if bodies were dead or alive," eyewitness Chen Guan-yuan, who was at the scene shortly after the blast, told the BBC.

"Because the explosion range is so far so it's really difficult to handle this situation immediately," Mr Chen said, adding that the blasts "caused a long-range hole, like a huge cave".

The blasts ripped through the southern city of Kaohsiung late on Thursday

Four firefighters who were investigating reports of a gas leak were said to be among the dead.

People in the area were evacuated to schools as teams battled the blazes. By Friday morning most fires were reported to have been extinguished.

Firefighters were still trying to see if people were trapped under the rubble, the BBC's Cindy Sui in Taipei reported.

The exact cause of the blasts had not yet been identified but several petrochemical companies had pipelines running along the sewage system in the district, our correspondent added.

"The cause of the gas leak is still not clear at this moment. We suspect the leaked gas could be propylene," said Economic Affairs Minister Chang Chia-chu.

Cindy Sui, BBC News, Kaohsiung

The area where the explosions happened is just a short distance from the Kaohsiung City Hall, the popular Guanghua Night Market, the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Department Store and at least one major hotel.

Eyewitnesses and local residents reported smelling a strong gas odour about three hours before the explosions occurred. Many of them were worried and went outside.

One person wrote online that he called Kaohsiung City's hotline for residents but was told that firefighters had arrived on the scene and to go back home.

As he expressed anger to the hotline operator, he saw a large explosion. Manhole covers were blown three stories high. Many people lay injured on the street.

Another resident who lived nearby said that he thought it was an earthquake at first and then he heard something like a bomb. The electricity was cut off. He immediately woke up his wife and children and they quickly left their home.

Scores of people were wounded in the blasts that shot debris into the air

Br Friday most fires were out as residents began to assess the devastation

One witness told AFP news agency he saw "fire soaring up to possibly 20 storeys high after a blast".

Another told Taiwan's Central News Agency that the "explosions were like thunder and the road in front of my shop ripped open".

"It felt like an earthquake," the witness said.

People had been ordered to stay home from school and work in Kaohsiung's Cianjhen and Lingya districts on Friday, local media reported.

Kaohsiung mayor Chen Chu wrote on her Facebook page (in Chinese): "Rescue efforts are still underway."

She urged everyone to "follow the instructions of rescue teams at the scene, and avoid standing around and watching".

"The local government has already requested [gas suppliers] CPC and Hsin Kao Gas cut off the gas supply," she added, urging residents to stay calm.

The local government has set up an emergency response centre.

 Structure of the Lead：

   WHO-Taiwanese

   WHEN-Thursday night

   WHAT-gas blast

   WHY-not given

   WHERE-Kaohsiung

   HOW-not given

Keywords：

          1.blast:爆炸

          2.trench:溝，溝渠

          3.leak:裂縫

          4.witness:目擊者

          5.blaze:火災

          6.debris:殘骸

          7. odour:臭氣

          8. rip:撕，扯

          9.centre:中間﹐中心

         10.supply:供給