Muhammad Yunus, the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner, attended the unveiling of a “Nobel Chair” in his honor, accompanied by various government officials, at National Central University (CNU) in Taoyuan County yesterday.
The ceremony dedicated to the Bangladeshi famous for his book Banker to the Poor was presided over by university president Jou Jing-yang (周景揚).
Taoyuan County Commissioner John Wu (吳志揚) hailed Yunus’ “micro-loan” concept and the positive impact it has had on underprivileged and disadvantaged minorities.
“Many countries — including Taiwan — have similar measures in place, but lack effective policies for their implementation,” Wu said.
He added that starting this year, Taoyuan would attempt to follow the example set in Yunus’ book and begin providing residents with microinsurance.
Underprivileged families has to pay only NT$180 a year to receive potential coverage of up to NT$300,000, he said.
Although it is not much, the amount would still go a long way toward assisting needy families at critical times, he said.
Wu said several Taiwanese temples have long upheld traditions of providing small loans to those in need, mirroring the idea of Yunus’ “bank for the poor.”
Meanwhile, the university and the Bangladesh-based Yunus Centre announced the establishment of the Yunus Social Business Center at the university, which will work jointly with the Yunus Centre Taiwan to conduct research on social businesses, defined as companies that are established for the benefit of society, rather than for private profit.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching