A Tunisian cyberdissident and a Russian blogger may not appear to have much in common, but they were brought together at Yale University in a program drawing elites from around the globe.
Established 10 years ago, Yale’s “World Fellows” initiative has lured a diverse group of mid-career professionals deemed to be “emerging leaders” to the prestigious Ivy League school northeast of New York.
Each year, 14 to 18 people earn the right to spend a semester on the leafy campus in New Haven, Connecticut. Fellows — whose fees and living expenses are fully funded by the university — take classes, but also offer guest lectures to undergraduates and meet with students to share their experiences.
PHOTO: AFP
Program veterans include prominent Chinese AIDS activist Wan Yanhai (萬延海), who is now living in the US because of fears for his safety; Lebanese gallery owner Saleh Barakat and -Venezuelan -opposition lawmaker Maria Corina Machado.
“We receive 3,800 applications from the six regions of the world,” said program director Michael Cappello, an expert on infectious diseases.
“Selection is a four-month process. The criteria are flexible — the most important criterion is our belief that in the next five to 10 years, the candidate will have a national impact as a leader in some field,” he said.
Russian blogger Alexei Navalny, an anti-corruption whistleblower, took classes on corporate law, but also gave lectures about his homeland.
Tunisian cyber-activist Fares Mabrouk said he came to Yale to learn how to launch a “democracy think tank” in his country, but also took a music appreciation course.
“People who will be leaders need to better understand the world globally,” Cappello said.
Valerie Rose Belanger, the program’s director of partnerships, added: “These are brilliant people in various fields, and the most -important thing is they would never have met.”
She said the fellows become “role models” for the regular students, who are eager to meet people “who take risks and are practitioners ... not academicians as we are here.”
Mabrouk lived at Yale late last year, returning to Tunisia in December — just before the eruption of the popular revolution that would topple Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and spark uprisings across the Arab world.
“I made friends from India, Indonesia, from all over — they wrote to me during the revolution, and we’re still in contact,” said Mabrouk, who is now working with a group of bloggers ahead of October polls to elect a constituent assembly.
For some fellows like Wan, the US becomes their adopted homeland; for others like Mabrouk, a stay at Yale marks a professional turning point.
In 2007, after his time as a World Fellow, Barakat — who had owned a gallery since 1991 — organized Lebanon’s first-ever pavilion at the prestigious Venice Biennale contemporary art festival.
He has also worked with the Tate Modern in London and opened a second gallery.
Turkey’s Hakan Altinay launched a project on global -civics instruction — what started as a news article became a book translated into several languages. A documentary is in the works.
And Machado, elected to Venezuela’s national assembly last year, has been tipped as a potential candidate to battle Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for the presidency next year.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese