It's Worry Time in Taiwan!!

Friday September 17, by Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

Typhoon Fanapi is bearing down on the island; fortunately thus far for this year, there have been few dangerous typhoons that hit the island. The problem on this one is that President Ma Ying-jeou has instructed the government agencies to "treat every typhoon as if it were Typhoon Morakot." Whoa, are we ready for this??? Anyone with any memory will recall how the Ma government was asleep at the wheel when Morakot hit, how it responded so slowly, and how its solutions exacerbated the problem more than solved it.

So I repeat, are we ready for that? Taiwanese do have short memories, but do we really want the Ma government to treat every typhoon as it did Morakot?? It also seems strange that Ma would issue such a statement just before the typhoon hits the shore. Ah well, let us hope that the Ma government has learned something in the last two years. I will admit I am not counting on it. The only thing they seem to learn in general is to make up excuses.