■ Society
Aboriginal volunteers leave
Seven Aboriginal college and graduate students will head to Thailand today to engage
in volunteer service in tribal villages and refugee camps
in the Thai-Myanmar border area, the Chinese Association for Human Rights (CAHR) said yesterday. It is the first time that the organization has arranged such a trip. CAHR president Hsu Wen-pin (許文彬) said the dispatch of the volunteers is part of the group's efforts to encourage young Aborigines to take part in international humanitarian relief work and expand their international perspective. During the 11-day visit, Hsu said, the group will hold seminars with Aboriginal inhabitants in the Thailand-Myanmar border region on subjects related to indigenous peoples and minority ethnic groups. The group will also visit remote tribal towns, Hsu said, adding that it will share the nation's experience in promoting indigenous culture.
■ Education
Youth camp opens
The King Car Education Foundation and the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission announced the beginning of its "2004 Overseas Chinese Youth -- ABC Schwietzer English Teaching Camp" yesterday in Taipei. The camp, which seeks to bring American-born Taiwanese to remote areas of the country to teach English, will run from Monday through Aug. 14 in two schools in Chiayi and Hualien. Organizers stressed that they hoped the camp would facilitate a culture and language exchange between the students and volunteer teachers, while giving
student teachers a chance
to give back to their mother
culture. The teachers were
mostly recruited from
the commission's recent "Overseas Compatriot Youth Summer Formosa Study Tour to Taiwan." While over 100 students applied to teach in the camps, said foundation general director Morgan Sun (孫慶國), there were only room for 24. He said it was planning a one-year teaching program for overseas Taiwanese next January.
■ Diplomacy
Village opened in Paraguay
The Luque Village, a Taiwanese-funded residential complex for low-income families in Paraguay, was inaugurated on Thursday in Asuncion, with Paraguayan President Nicanor Duarte presiding over the ceremony. Ambassador Yen Pin-fan (顏秉璠) and other members of the diplomatic corps attended the inauguration ceremony. Duarte said he has delivered on his campaign promise of using Taiwan-donated funds to built housing units for low-income families. He said he will continue to build housing units with Taiwanese funds during his tenure to benefit impoverished people. Yen said the inauguration of
the village epitomizes
the transparency in the Paraguayan government's
use of Taiwanese donations
and the solidity of relations between the two countries. Yen said Taiwan will continue to help Paraguay improve the living conditions of its people.
■ Diplomacy
Yu to visit Latin America
Premier Yu Shyi-kun will be President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) special envoy at the inauguration ceremony of Dominican President-elect Leonel Fernandez Reyna, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. Yu will depart on Aug. 12. The premier will transit in Los Angeles and arrive in the Dominican Republic on Aug. 14. Yu
will also visit Honduras
and Nicaragua, two of
the nation's other allies in
Latin America. He will stop
over in New York on his
way back to Taipei. His delegation is scheduled to return here on Aug. 25. A number of top government officials will accompany Yu in the delegation.
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
CHANGES: After-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during vacations or after-school study periods must not be used to teach new material, the ministry said The Ministry of Education yesterday announced new rules that would ban giving tests to most elementary and junior-high school students during morning study and afternoon rest periods. The amendments to regulations governing public education at elementary schools and junior high schools are to be implemented on Aug. 1. The revised rules stipulate that schools are forbidden to use after-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during summer or winter vacation or after-school study periods to teach new course material. In addition, schools would be prohibited from giving tests or exams to students in grades one to eight during morning study and afternoon break periods, the
Advocates of the rights of motorcycle and scooter riders yesterday protested in front of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in Taipei, making three demands. They were joined by 30 passenger vehicles, which surrounded the ministry to make three demands related to traffic regulations — that motorcycles and scooters above 250cc be allowed on highways, that all motorcycles and scooters be allowed on inside lanes, and that driver and rider training programs be reformed. The ministry said that it has no plans to allow motorcycles on national highways for the time being, and said that motorcycles would be allowed on the inner
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition