Nature has not been kind to Taiwan and Japan this month. Japan has suffered calamitous flooding and the BBC asked how 200 people could have died in a country with such a great reputation for disaster prevention, despite prior warnings.
Meanwhile, as Typhoon Maria swept past northern Taiwan, politicians and government departments were mainly concerned about how their response would play out in the Nov. 24 local elections, which was followed by public bickering, the likes of which we have seen so often before.
Let us remember what happened when Typhoon Nari battered Taiwan in September 2001, turning the Taipei MRT tunnels into sewers and nearly overflowing the flood barriers along the Tamsui River and its tributaries that are supposed to be effective for at least 100 years. Some buses could not run because of bridge closures.
In the 17 years that have passed since then, Taiwan has seen governments come and go. Tens of billions of New Taiwan dollars have been spent on flood control projects, but with much less heavy rain than Japan has experienced lately, they all turn to mush.
It only takes a short burst of heavy rain for water to build up on road surfaces, making them difficult to drive on. The basic drainage systems do not work properly even on ordinary weather days, but all officials can do is to keep parroting banalities like how extreme weather has become the normal state of affairs.
This time around, swarms of people started their typhoon holidays an hour early, causing traffic snarl-ups in Taipei and New Taipei City and making commuters look more like refugees.
You have to wonder what would happen in the event of a nuclear accident. Could people really be evacuated as they are in scripted drills?
A friend from Osaka, Japan, who often does volunteer work in Taiwan told me that the idea of “typhoon holidays” seems very odd from a Japanese perspective.
He said that when something like a typhoon happens in Japan, civil servants all have to go to work and perform their duty of safeguarding people’s lives and property. At the very least, they have to inspect their workplaces, fix any damage and clean up any mess.
However, administrative reform has become a stale joke in Taiwan. When a natural disaster happens, how often does the administrative system operate at least normally enough for people to be able to contact the authorities?
There is also the factor of national attitudes about self-discipline and keeping order. When floods like those caused by Typhoon Morakot in 2009 happen again, or if there is another typhoon as powerful as Nari, will the government be able to keep the damage to a minimum?
Politicians only know how to use typhoon holidays to bash their opponents and grab votes, and a large percentage of the public think they have won a prize when they get a typhoon holiday.
Then there are the vegetable profiteers and resellers who make a fast buck out of bad weather, and civil servants who take the chance to sneak away from their post.
As for the media, instead of pondering whether Taiwan can effectively protect against natural disasters and climate change, they always get hung up on the silly question of who got the issue of typhoon holidays right or wrong.
When the next natural disaster comes around, they are likely to argue about it again. It is a national pastime that people never tire of, but it is not a healthy one.
Chang Hsun-ching is a writer.
Translated by Julian Clegg
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
In an article published on this page on Tuesday, Kaohsiung-based journalist Julien Oeuillet wrote that “legions of people worldwide would care if a disaster occurred in South Korea or Japan, but the same people would not bat an eyelid if Taiwan disappeared.” That is quite a statement. We are constantly reading about the importance of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), hailed in Taiwan as the nation’s “silicon shield” protecting it from hostile foreign forces such as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and so crucial to the global supply chain for semiconductors that its loss would cost the global economy US$1
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
Sasha B. Chhabra’s column (“Michelle Yeoh should no longer be welcome,” March 26, page 8) lamented an Instagram post by renowned actress Michelle Yeoh (楊紫瓊) about her recent visit to “Taipei, China.” It is Chhabra’s opinion that, in response to parroting Beijing’s propaganda about the status of Taiwan, Yeoh should be banned from entering this nation and her films cut off from funding by government-backed agencies, as well as disqualified from competing in the Golden Horse Awards. She and other celebrities, he wrote, must be made to understand “that there are consequences for their actions if they become political pawns of
RSS