Ok, this past ten days has been both tragic and amusing. Tragic in that people have lost their lives from Tropical Storm Kilmaegi and Typhoon Fung-wong. However, watching the reaction to the KMT to the work of the Central Weather Bureau has been rather amusing.
First, with Kilmaegi, President Ma himself criticized the bureau for a less than accurate forecast. While it is true, the forecast was inaccurate. However, the sharp left turn the storm took to hit Ilan County was truly unpredictable. Anyone who has any knowledge of such storms knows that they are quite unpredictable and that cone you see on forecasts is a range of only 70% certainty. That means that 30% of the time, it will come outside of that cone. 30% is pretty significant. Heck, Dustin Pedroia could get a base hit 30% of the time and be considered a successful baseball player. Additionally, no one else made the prediction correctly either. The JMA, JTWC, and PAGASA all predicted that the storm would continue northward into the East China Sea and toward the Korean Peninsula. Seeing Ma and other KMT lackeys criticize the CWB was rather comical though a sad lack of leadership.
Then, the next day, the KMT Legislative Yuan had the gall to blame former President Chen for not doing enough to upgrade flood control infrastructure. Excuse me? Didn’t President Chen propose a comprehensive upgrade of this infrastructure? Didn’t the legislature then (out of their love for Taiwan I am sure) then proceed to stall the bill for more than a year before finally passing it? What hypocrisy!
Then today, with a storm that the CWB got pretty accurately, the KMT STILL criticizes the CWB. Watching Mayor Hau criticize the CWB on TV for not getting the exact time of the rainfall correct was just too much. If you can do such a good job, YOU take over the CWB. Weather is difficult to predict. Tropical cyclones are particularly tricky creatures to forecast. Add to that that the country of Taiwan has the highest mountains in East Asia, and you have a very difficult mix to predict both track and precipitation for the storm. That the CWB got the track nearly exactly right and came pretty close in many areas in terms of precipitation predictions is to their credit. They shouldn’t be forced by ignorant KMT political hacks to make needless apologies. This is an absolute abrogation of leadership.
Sad. Truly sad that Taiwan has to suffer this bunch of fools for the next 45 1/2 months.
From the reaction of the Taiwanese general populace as well as its governing elected legislative officials and highway/flood control/surface water experts typhoons, and the resulting heavy rains, are a recent occurrence here on the island.
You know though, the majority of my students were smart enough to know that tropical systems are difficult to predict with any amount of precision - and those who didn’t DID understand it after I have a 15 minute lecture on the subject.
Even some of my Blue students are very sad at the utter abrogation of leadership displayed by the Blues on these two storms.
[quote=“ludahai”][quote=“TainanCowboy”]From the reaction of the Taiwanese general populace as well as its governing elected legislative officials and highway/flood control/surface water experts typhoons, and the resulting heavy rains, are a recent occurrence here on the island.[/quote]You know though, the majority of my students were smart enough to know that tropical systems are difficult to predict with any amount of precision - and those who didn’t DID understand it after I have a 15 minute lecture on the subject.
Even some of my Blue students are very sad at the utter abrogation of leadership displayed by the Blues on these two storms.[/quote]Ludahai -
I take it that you are a paid to be a political commentator in your class room?
It also appears that you are vested in the DPP party line. Or do you also present a KMT view on topics as you teach?
Just curious. I’m American and rather neutral here as I do not vote. I do, however, have an awareness that there is plenty of room for improvement on all sides of the aisle here.
Wow! You were able to expound for 15 minutes on the niceties of a single aspect of weather prediction? With your obvious skills and specialist knowledge, what on earth are you doing teaching English?
I was also open to “points of information” also known as questions. And while I did not major in meteorology, I did take classes in it to fulfil my science requirement, and had an awesome professor who cultivated an interest in the subject (one of the few science fields I truly have interest in) to learn much more about it since leaving university.
So, you think the garbage about critizcizing the CWB and forcing them to apologize is JUSTIFIED?[/quote]
So you think the garbage about criticizing (name your poison) and forcing them to apologize is somehow confined to the KMT and isn’t just the same tired old knee-jerk reaction from crappy Taiwanese “politicians” from all sides? Dear lord!
All you are doing is following the DPP diehard line, nothing more. And I’m pretty sure your students are just as aware of this as the rest of us. Did you throw your biandang at them, by the way? You really should have, if you wanted them to take you seriously.
So, you think the garbage about critizcizing the CWB and forcing them to apologize is JUSTIFIED?[/quote]
So you think the garbage about criticizing (name your poison) and forcing them to apologize is somehow confined to the KMT and isn’t just the same tired old knee-jerk reaction from crappy Taiwanese “politicians” from all sides? Dear lord!
All you are doing is following the DPP diehard line, nothing more. And I’m pretty sure your students are just as aware of this as the rest of us. Did you throw your biandang at them, by the way? You really should have, if you wanted them to take you seriously.[/quote]
I am sure you think that the KMT have shown great leadership the past fortnight, don’t you? Blaming the CWB for something they had no control over, blaming President Chen for not ungrading the flooding infrastructure when they themselves delayed it, and now they (at least their pan-Blue rag the China Post) is blaming President Chen for not taking the US arms deal. Please get real.
They’ve shown exactly the same leadership qualities as their predecessors. Which is hardly surprising, as they’re cut from exactly the same mediocre cloth.
What IS surprising is that you seem to be able to distinguish the KMT shitebirds from the DPP shitebirds. I certainly cannot. They’re one and the same – venal, grasping, slimy, dishonest, corrupt, amoral fuckbuckets.
[quote=“sandman”]They’ve shown exactly the same leadership qualities as their predecessors. Which is hardly surprising, as they’re cut from exactly the same mediocre cloth.
What IS surprising is that you seem to be able to distinguish the KMT shitebirds from the DPP shitebirds. I certainly cannot. They’re one and the same – venal, grasping, slimy, dishonest, corrupt, amoral fuckbuckets.[/quote]
Add violent to the KMT list. The DPP are not saints, but they are a damn sight better than the KMT. At least you don’t see the DPP using Nazi/Hitler or 911/Osama imagry in their advertisements. You don’t see the DPP returning people convicted of violent election related violence to the Legislative Yuan, and you don’t see the DPP trashing the CEC office because they lost an election, do you? Cut from the same cloth - whatever.
[quote=“ludahai”][quote=“sandman”]They’ve shown exactly the same leadership qualities as their predecessors. Which is hardly surprising, as they’re cut from exactly the same mediocre cloth.
What IS surprising is that you seem to be able to distinguish the KMT shitebirds from the DPP shitebirds. I certainly cannot. They’re one and the same – venal, grasping, slimy, dishonest, corrupt, amoral fuckbuckets.[/quote]
Add violent to the KMT list. The DPP are not saints, but they are a damn sight better than the KMT. At least you don’t see the DPP using Nazi/Hitler or 911/Osama imagry in their advertisements. You don’t see the DPP returning people convicted of violent election related violence to the Legislative Yuan, and you don’t see the DPP trashing the CEC office because they lost an election, do you? Cut from the same cloth - whatever.[/quote]
Wow. All of these allegations seem very damning. Could you back them up with links? I’d love to see the imagery you write of.
[quote=“Toe Save”][quote=“ludahai”][quote=“sandman”]They’ve shown exactly the same leadership qualities as their predecessors. Which is hardly surprising, as they’re cut from exactly the same mediocre cloth.
What IS surprising is that you seem to be able to distinguish the KMT shitebirds from the DPP shitebirds. I certainly cannot. They’re one and the same – venal, grasping, slimy, dishonest, corrupt, amoral fuckbuckets.[/quote]
Add violent to the KMT list. The DPP are not saints, but they are a damn sight better than the KMT. At least you don’t see the DPP using Nazi/Hitler or 911/Osama imagry in their advertisements. You don’t see the DPP returning people convicted of violent election related violence to the Legislative Yuan, and you don’t see the DPP trashing the CEC office because they lost an election, do you? Cut from the same cloth - whatever.[/quote]
Wow. All of these allegations seem very damning. Could you back them up with links? I’d love to see the imagery you write of.[/quote]
They are not allegations, they are proven facts. They were discussed at length in these forums four years ago. I don’t know where those threads are now though.
