National Changhua Senior High School yesterday held its first-ever Global Youth of the Year Awards, with Liao Chung-lun (廖崇倫), a leading figure in the student protests against the curriculum guideline changes, one of the five recipients.
The awards were founded to recognize young activists who have made significant contributions to promoting social justice and the rights of young people and children. They are funded by National Changhua Senior High School Library and the school’s International Youth Leadership Conference.
In addition to Lao, the other awardees are Mazoun Almellehan from Syria, Khalidi Mngulu from Tanzania, Memory Banda from Malawi and Adda Smaradottir from Iceland.
Photo: Chang Tsung-chiu, Taipei Times
Mazoun was absent at the ceremony because she lost her passport and could not get a replacement in time. A resident of a refugee camp in Jordan, Mazoun has fought to bring education to girls in Jordan’s refugee camps and has been called the “Malala of Syria” by CNN.
Liao, a student from National Taichung First Senior High School and member of the student club Apple Tree Commune, was a leading organizer of the youth protest against the Ministry of Education’s controversial changes to curriculum guidelines that critics said are China-centric and distorts history.
The protesters broke into the ministry’s compound and briefly occupied it on July 23 before they were arrested. The ministry later dropped charges against protesters aged under 18, though some again received court summons last month.
“There are many social injustices that must be fought now, or they will become impossible to fight in the future,” Liao said in his acceptance speech, adding that the award helped convince him that “holding on to my convictions was the right thing to do.”
Khalidi is a 17-year-old albino activist from Tanzania advocating the abolition of the widespread African practice of attacking albino children for their limbs, because it is believed that their body parts are fetishes that could bring good luck and wealth. Khalidi was invited by the World Health Assembly to speak in Geneva in May about his experiences.
Banda, 18, fought to end child marriage in Malawi, with the National Assembly earlier this year passing a law raising the legal age for marriage to 18.
Smaradottir is a feminist and a leader of Iceland’s Free the Nipple campaign promoting gender equality, a cause that has garnered support from several Icelandic lawmakers and international celebrities, such as Madonna.
ALIGNED THINKING: Taiwan and Japan have a mutual interest in trade, culture and engineering, and can work together for stability, Cho Jung-tai said Taiwan and Japan are two like-minded countries willing to work together to form a “safety barrier” in the Indo-Pacific region, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday said at the opening ceremony of the 35th Taiwan-Japan Modern Engineering and Technology Symposium in Taipei. Taiwan and Japan are close geographically and closer emotionally, he added. Citing the overflowing of a barrier lake in the Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) in September, Cho said the submersible water level sensors given by Japan during the disaster helped Taiwan monitor the lake’s water levels more accurately. Japan also provided a lot of vaccines early in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic,
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) on Monday announced light shows and themed traffic lights to welcome fans of South Korean pop group Twice to the port city. The group is to play Kaohsiung on Saturday as part of its “This Is For” world tour. It would be the group’s first performance in Taiwan since its debut 10 years ago. The all-female group consists of five South Koreans, three Japanese and Tainan’s Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜), the first Taiwan-born and raised member of a South Korean girl group. To promote the group’s arrival, the city has been holding a series of events, including a pop-up
TEMPORAL/SPIRITUAL: Beijing’s claim that the next Buddhist leader must come from China is a heavy-handed political maneuver that will fall flat-faced, experts said China’s requirement that the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation to be born in China and approved by Beijing has drawn criticism, with experts at a forum in Taipei yesterday saying that if Beijing were to put forth its own Dalai Lama, the person would not be recognized by the Tibetan Buddhist community. The experts made a remarks at the two-day forum hosted by the Tibet Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama titled: “The Snow Land Forum: Finding Common Ground on Tibet.” China says it has the right to determine the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation, as it claims sovereignty over Tibet since ancient times,
Temperatures in some parts of Taiwan are expected to fall sharply to lows of 15°C later this week as seasonal northeasterly winds strengthen, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. It is to be the strongest cold wave to affect northern Taiwan this autumn, while Chiayi County in the southwest and some parts of central Taiwan are likely to also see lower temperatures due to radiational cooling, which occurs under conditions of clear skies, light winds and dry weather, the CWA said. Across Taiwan, temperatures are to fall gradually this week, dropping to 15°C to 16°C in the early hours of Wednesday
RSS