President Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) approval rating stood at 46.8 percent in the latest opinion poll released by the Cabinet's Research, Development and Evaluation Commission over the weekend. \nThe results of the telephone poll released on Sunday showed that 43.8 percent of respondents were dissatisfied with his performance since he took office in May 2008. \nThe poll also found that respondents were satisfied with the Ma administration's efforts to improve relations across the Taiwan Strait, giving him an approval rating of 68.3 percent for his efforts in that regard. \nThe poll showed that 55.3 percent of respondents still supported Ma, while 32.1 percent said they did not support him. \nMeanwhile, 50.2 percent said they were satisfied with Premier Wu Den-yih's (吳敦義) performance, while 31.7 percent gave him the thumbs-down. \nThe poll, conducted on Tuesday and Wednesday last week, also found that 47.9 percent of respondents were satisfied with the Cabinet’s performance, compared with 37.4 percent who said they were not satisfied. \nOn specific aspects of government, the Ma administration's respect for democracy and rule of law gained an approval rating of 55.1 percent; its efforts to boost the economy, 54.3 percent; and its political integrity, 51 percent. \nThe government's performance in environmental protection and ecological conservation was given a 46.2 percent approval rating; its fiscal management, 45.4 percent; and its work in educational and cultural development, 45 percent. \nThe respondents were divided over the question of whether the administrative team is efficient, with 42.7 percent giving a thumbs-down, while 41.3 percent gave a positive rating. \nOverall, 49.9 percent said they were confident that the government would perform better in the coming year, while 40.1 percent said they did not believe there would be any improvement. \nThe opinion poll had a confidence level of 95 percent and a margin of error of 2.98 percent.
A Keelung high school on Saturday night apologized for using a picture containing a Chinese flag on the cover of the senior yearbook, adding that it has recalled the books and pledged to provide students new ones before graduation on Thursday. Of 309 Affiliated Keelung Maritime Senior High School of National Taiwan Ocean University graduates, 248 had purchased the yearbook. Some students said that the printer committed an outrageous error in including the picture, while others said that nobody would notice such a small flag on the cover. Other students said that they cared more about the photographs of classmates and what was
GOING INTERNATIONAL: Rakuten Girls squad leader Ula Shen said she was surprised that baseball fans outside of Taiwan not only knew of them, but also knew their names Major League Baseball’s (MLB) Oakland Athletics on Saturday hosted its first Taiwanese Heritage Day event at the Oakland Coliseum with a performance by Taiwanese cheerleading squad the Rakuten Girls and a video message from Vice President William Lai (賴清德). The Rakuten Girls, who are the cheerleaders for the CPBL’s Rakuten Monkeys, performed in front of a crowd of more than 2,000 people, followed by a prerecorded address by Lai about Taiwan’s baseball culture and democratic spirit. Taiwanese pitcher Sha Tzu-chen (沙子宸), who was signed by the Athletics earlier this year, was also present. Mizuki Lin (林襄), considered a “baseball cheerleading goddess” by Taiwanese
A 14-legged giant isopod is the highlight of a new dish at a ramen restaurant in Taipei and it has people lining up — both for pictures and for a bite from this bowl of noodles. Since “The Ramen Boy” launched the limited-edition noodle bowl on Monday last week, declaring in a social media post that it had “finally got this dream ingredient,” more than 100 people have joined a waiting list to dine at the restaurant. “It is so attractive because of its appearance — it looks very cute,” said the 37-year-old owner of the restaurant, who wanted to be
EVA Airways was ranked the eighth-best airline in the world for this year, the only Taiwanese carrier to make it into the top 25 Airline Excellence Awards this year, aviation reviews Web site AirlineRatings.com said on Wednesday. AirlineRatings.com has a seven-star rating system to evaluate more than 360 airlines around the world every year, EVA Airways said in a statement on Thursday. “We are delighted that efforts by the entire EVA staff have been recognized by Airline Ratings,” EVA Airways president Clay Sun (孫嘉明) said in the release. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the company identified and adopted services and procedures that enhance and
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