The Presidential Office yesterday invited outstanding mothers from different ethnic groups for afternoon tea, in celebration of international Mother's Day. President Chen Shui-bian (
The gathering symbolized the theme of ethnic harmony, with guests including mainlander spouses, Aboriginal women, Hakka women, single mothers, working mothers and mothers of mentally and physically handicapped children.
One of the mothers, from the Bunun Aboriginal tribe, performed a blessing of all mothers, while another mother from a community struck hard by the 921 earthquake sang a traditional Taiwanese song, The Spring Wind, asking that the government do more for mothers caring for handicapped family members at home.
PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
The president said in his speech that the government had already finished drawing up plans for a public daycare system. He encouraged more private sector companies to establish daycare centers to ease the burdens of the modern mother.
He also said that because of the increasing number of foreign brides from China and southeastern Asia, it is becoming important to accept and be supportive of these women and of Taiwan's emerging new cultural identity.
`A Son of Taiwan'
"My experience of success is a story of `a son of Taiwan' and now all women, even those foreign brides, could serve as mothers of `sons of Taiwan,'" he said.
"We should respect and cherish the diversity of Taiwan's culture and people and show them more tolerance," Chen said.
The president also promised to improve the government's welfare policies for mothers.
Chen expressed concern for certain groups of mothers, saying that, as their families' only source of financial and emotional support, it was difficult for single mothers to raise their children.
Many women who recently immigrated to Taiwan have trouble supporting themselves financially due to language and other problems, he said.
These women are often left by their husbands without income or support and even more helpless than before, Chen said, and are the newest minority group in Taiwan.
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
CPBL players, cheerleaders and officials pose at a news conference in Taipei yesterday announcing the upcoming All-Star Game. This year’s CPBL All-Star Weekend is to be held at the Taipei Dome on July 19 and 20.
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a
RSS