It's a familiar pattern. First there is some kind of disaster -- yesterday it was the financially hard-hitting (damage estimated at US$20 million) but otherwise innocuous Eastern Science Park fire; last October it was the tragic crash of SQ006 at CKS Airport and the flooding in Keelung after Typhoon Xangsane; last July saw the Pachang Creek (
First legislators with something to prove -- usually only that they are flatulent egotists, as TV viewers saw Taipei County Legislator Lo Ming-tsai (
Then out come the "big shots" -- we use the term ironically -- who point out that it is all the government's fault and heads must roll. Yesterday's poltroon of the day was KMT spokesman Wang Chih-kang (
In the next few days we can expect ritual denunciations from all the opposition parties and demands that some highly placed official, probably Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (
Oh, and the government will have to set up a task force. We understand one will be established this morning for "recovery" though surely that is the concern of the companies whose property has been damaged and their insurance companies.
The din of the all-style, no-content political show may drown out the real questions to be asked from the Hsichih fire, which would be a pity. One of these will be why there was no available fire truck with an extendable ladder which could reach the upper floors of the burning building. Taipei County apparently doesn't have one. Neither does anybody else. But this may be a red herring. As an architect told this newspaper's reporter, tall buildings rely on their own containment and extinguishing systems to fight fires; ladder trucks can do comparatively little. That the fire was so damaging was, apparently, a result of the failure of the building's electrical system on which its sprinkler operation depended.
So here's the really interesting question: the building was constructed only six years ago to conform to safety standards which remain largely unchanged. So how could such a disastrous system malfunction happen? Should it, could it have been foreseen? Was it bad luck -- there really is such a thing -- or bad planning? There is real need to know; let us hope that this is not forgotten amid the surrounding political cacophony.
As Taiwan’s domestic political crisis deepens, the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) have proposed gutting the country’s national spending, with steep cuts to the critical foreign and defense ministries. While the blue-white coalition alleges that it is merely responding to voters’ concerns about corruption and mismanagement, of which there certainly has been plenty under Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and KMT-led governments, the rationales for their proposed spending cuts lay bare the incoherent foreign policy of the KMT-led coalition. Introduced on the eve of US President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the KMT’s proposed budget is a terrible opening
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus in the Legislative Yuan has made an internal decision to freeze NT$1.8 billion (US$54.7 million) of the indigenous submarine project’s NT$2 billion budget. This means that up to 90 percent of the budget cannot be utilized. It would only be accessible if the legislature agrees to lift the freeze sometime in the future. However, for Taiwan to construct its own submarines, it must rely on foreign support for several key pieces of equipment and technology. These foreign supporters would also be forced to endure significant pressure, infiltration and influence from Beijing. In other words,
“I compare the Communist Party to my mother,” sings a student at a boarding school in a Tibetan region of China’s Qinghai province. “If faith has a color,” others at a different school sing, “it would surely be Chinese red.” In a major story for the New York Times this month, Chris Buckley wrote about the forced placement of hundreds of thousands of Tibetan children in boarding schools, where many suffer physical and psychological abuse. Separating these children from their families, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) aims to substitute itself for their parents and for their religion. Buckley’s reporting is
Last week, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), together holding more than half of the legislative seats, cut about NT$94 billion (US$2.85 billion) from the yearly budget. The cuts include 60 percent of the government’s advertising budget, 10 percent of administrative expenses, 3 percent of the military budget, and 60 percent of the international travel, overseas education and training allowances. In addition, the two parties have proposed freezing the budgets of many ministries and departments, including NT$1.8 billion from the Ministry of National Defense’s Indigenous Defense Submarine program — 90 percent of the program’s proposed
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