Blogs

In today’s Social Enterprise Conference in Taipei, Mr. Erwin Wong (Huang) from Hong Kong gave great insights to the concepts of social entrepreneurship. Some of his comments made me think about the differences between social entrepreneurs and scholars, as well as the traits necessary to become a successful social entrepreneur.

Having been to many metropolitan cities and rode on their subways/MRTs, I feel the obligation to share with my friends the system maps of MRTs/Subways around the world. An extensive subway system can provide tremendous benefits to citizens and the environment. I hope to ride on even more subways in the future! (I personally knew London has a good subway system. However, it’s not included in my post since I haven’t been using it myself.)

1) Tokyo Subway

1. Traveling Pencil – Altima discovered that stationaries are usually wasted by students. For example, pencils that were only used by a quarter were thrown away by many middle class kids. She built a network to collect stationaries and donate them to children who need them. Below is the link to her TED talk.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJddtmOA9N4<

2. Scope Group – Scope Group offers specialized consulting and training services to many public and private entities engaging in healthcare.
http://www.scopegroupasia.com/index.php/scolar/scope-join-us/scope-biz-d...<

Singapore is an interesting place. It's a city state on the tip of the Malay Peninsula. It's a modern hub with a fully diverse culture. Almost 40% of the city's residents are foreigners. 

Today, Melinda and I went to the Singapore zoo. It was the best zoo I have been so far in my life! The open concept design made the visitors feel they are walking in an integrated space with the animals. There was no artificial bars that segregates us from the monkeys, birds, lemurs or even the tigers in the zoo. Although the Singapore Zoo might not have the most number of animals, due to the amazing decoration and arrangement, I felt I enjoyed it a lot more than other zoos I've been to.

I was very excited heading to Net Impact's speakers' series today. One of the featured social entrepreneur today is Johnny Wang, a U of T alum graduated with a civil engineering degree. U of T rocks!

Since my iPad just synched and I lost all of my notes, I will simply type down major learning points from the seminar. Website link for this social enterprise - iHealth - is provided below.

http://www.ihealth.com.tw/<

Our delegation’s first two days in Taiwan have been very fast-paced, exciting and informative. We’ve met with representatives from the KMT headquarters, DPP headquarters, western and Taiwanese academics, and students who have provided many colorful comments and interesting insights about the dynamics of democratic deepening, identity issues, and cross-strait relations.

As a University of Toronto student, trying to cover the January 2012 election in Taiwan, I can't help but be frustrated by the lack of coverage in Canadian media, as well as News outlets like the Guardian who have little to no coverage of the events of the 2012 election.

For months I’ve been studying the idea of a “global Taiwan” and early this morning I arrived in Taipei to cover its upcoming presidential election. Despite my preparations, I was still surprised by what I arrived to. It took me one hour and fifteen minutes to get from my immaculate, on time EVA flight to our downtown hostel. Even in the dark of morning (5:30 am) I saw election signs throughout my ride into the city, which was without complication despite my total lack of language skills. Just hours later, I arrived at KMT campaign headquarters (the incumbent party), where volunteers prepared election mementos and supporters came to pick up a T-shirt, poster, mug, scarf, or magnet of President Ma.