President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) on Friday described the result of a poll ranking Taiwan 72nd among 153 countries for charitable behavior as “unfair,” saying the country has transformed itself from an importer of love into an exporter of love.
Ma wondered if the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) — a British-based charitable financial-services organization — missed something in compiling its World Giving Index 2010 as he referred to Taiwan’s sponsorship of children living in poverty around the world.
He said that people in Taiwan sponsor 230,000 poor children around the world through programs run by two Taipei-based charity groups — World Vision Taiwan and the Taiwan Fund for Children and Families.
“We have a population of 23 million people, and the 230,000 people sponsored accounts for 1 percent of the population. The percentage is high,” Ma said.
He said the US, with a population of 300 million people, would have to sponsor 3 million poor foreign children to reach the same level of charitable behavior as Taiwan.
The US shared fifth place with Switzerland in the World Giving Index ranking published on Sept. 8, with Australia and New Zealand topping the list.
The methodology may have affected Taiwan’s ranking — it was based on data collected by Gallup’s WorldView World Poll in March.
The poll asked people in each of the target countries whether they had donated money to an organization, volunteered time to an organization or helped a stranger in the past month.
Giving money or time to an organization could include political parties or organizations as well as registered charities, community organizations and places of worship, the foundation said.
Each country’s score was based on the average of their scores on “giving money,” “giving time” and helping a stranger.
Australia and New Zealand each had an average of 57 percent of their people engaging in the three charitable acts, while Taiwan had an average of 31 percent.
About 37 percent of people surveyed in Taiwan had given money in the previous month, 15 percent had given their time and 41 percent had helped a stranger, the poll found.
Taiwan ranked third in East Asia, behind Hong Kong (18th) and Mongolia (67th), but ahead of South Korea (81st), Japan (119th) and China (147th).
Five countries in Southeast Asia — Laos (11th), Myanmar (22nd), Thailand (25th), and Indonesia and the Philippines (tied for 50th) — finished ahead of Taiwan.
Taiwan would benefit from more integrated military strategies and deployments if the US and its allies treat the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea as a “single theater of operations,” a Taiwanese military expert said yesterday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said he made the assessment after two Japanese military experts warned of emerging threats from China based on a drill conducted this month by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theater Command. Japan Institute for National Fundamentals researcher Maki Nakagawa said the drill differed from the
‘WORSE THAN COMMUNISTS’: President William Lai has cracked down on his political enemies and has attempted to exterminate all opposition forces, the chairman said The legislature would motion for a presidential recall after May 20, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday at a protest themed “against green communists and dictatorship” in Taipei. Taiwan is supposed to be a peaceful homeland where people are united, but President William Lai (賴清德) has been polarizing and tearing apart society since his inauguration, Chu said. Lai must show his commitment to his job, otherwise a referendum could be initiated to recall him, he said. Democracy means the rule of the people, not the rule of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), but Lai has failed to fulfill his
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
A rally held by opposition parties yesterday demonstrates that Taiwan is a democratic country, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that if opposition parties really want to fight dictatorship, they should fight it on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) held a protest with the theme “against green communists and dictatorship,” and was joined by the Taiwan People’s Party. Lai said the opposition parties are against what they called the “green communists,” but do not fight against the “Chinese communists,” adding that if they really want to fight dictatorship, they should go to the right place and face
RSS