The Fulbright Program, the US government's flagship program for international exchange, has created a lasting impression on more than 2,000 academics from Taiwan and the US, American Institute in Taiwan Director Stephen Young said last night at a gala dinner celebrating five decades of the program in Taiwan.
For 50 years, Taiwan's Fulbright program has been a pioneer in responding to professional needs emerging from Taiwan's rapid economic and democratic development, Young said, adding that many of Taiwan's leaders, including Cabinet members, university presidents, professors and artists, are Fulbright alumni.
Minister of Education Tu Cheng-sheng (
The prestigious scholarship program was proposed to the US Congress in 1945 by Senator J. William Fulbright. In the aftermath of World War II, he argued the program would be a much-needed mechanism to create mutual understanding between the US and the international community. The program was approved by Congress and signed into law by US president Harry Truman the next year.
In Taiwan, the Fulbright program is administered by the Foundation for Scholarly Exchange. The foundation has sent over 1,000 Taiwan researchers to the US and more than 700 US academics to Taiwan.
For the 2007 to 2008 academic year, the program is supporting 53 Taiwan grantees and 35 US grantees. The topics that will be studied by US Fulbright scholars in Taiwan include womens studies, physics and astronomy, business administration, anthropolgy, journalism and linguistics.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai
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