I completely agree that the government has acted the same way any other “first world” government would (and have in similar situations), they are too late to realize the magnitude of the crisis, they have no rescue plans on file for a situation like this (or they are buried so deep that no one can find them), they don’t send enough resources, and when they do they send the wrong resources, and what is almost worst is that before the body bags are done being carried out of the disaster zone they are already bickering about who’s fault it was… :fume:
Of course you have one or two jackasses that take this as an opportunity to be seen in the media by going to the disaster zone and “borrowing” the resources that could be used for rescue to “observe the damages”. :fume: :fume:
Now to the issue at hand, what should they have done? The answer is that I have no idea, I’m have no idea what would have worked. However, it seems to me that using locals to check out the mountains and soldiers to help in the flooded areas seems like a good idea.
As for the complaints about accepting foreign aid, NO president wants to be the one that says yes thank you to that, it would be political suicide to tell the voters that “we are not able to take care of ourselves” no matter how poorly this situation is handled it will never be as bad as if he would have accepted help.
What are you talking about? Countries accept foreign rescue teams all the time. Taiwan did it during 921. It is about to do so again if you read the news.
As for the fact that the response is as inept as anywhere else, well, just imagine if this was in your country. You would never have that thought. Some of us consider this place their home and are having appropriate levels of anger, frustration and bewilderment.
In any case, nothing will ever remove the ugly images of a president who couldn’t show as much compassion for his people as the dictators across the Strait for theirs.
Yeah. YEAH! Photo-ops! Get Ma in some nice PHOTO-OPS! Good lord, MM. I thought you were made of sterner stuff than THAT! 
Does anyone have a link to Ma’s English interview where he seemed to say that the residents of the areas refused to be evacuated? I saw it on the local news but they spoke Chinese over the English part.
Some residents DID refuse. Had to be dragged away kicking and screaming.
Well, I thought you were less of a grumpy old cycnic than that.
And they are trying to smooth this PR disaster over with some nice shots of holding babies and of course having his wife go out and sing along with the wretched. 
WHAAAT? I’m holding back, seeing as its you. Can’t you tell?
Your blinkers are showing MM…
MOFA has apologized for turning down international aid, calling it negligence rather than a mistake.
Yeah, baby! POINT dat fingah! Apportion that blame! Yeah! THIS is where we Taiwanese can REALLY excel!
Oh this is great. MOFA claims it negligently failed to add the words “currently at this stage” (暫時現階段) to a letter refusing foreign aid in the form of supplies (but accepting cash donations). Bet its some unfortunate foreign editor who will be blamed…
One thing on which we agree. Very good at pointing the finger rather than saying “the buck stops here.” Are they still blaming the CWB or are Ma and Hau finding other targets for their finger pointing?
Of course it will because the almighty KMT never makes mistakes… :blah:
Not from that cut and paste it isn’t. 
I’m sure “Who will point fingers at the finger pointers?” would sound better in Latin.
No, he and his administration are in for heavy criticism for things like:
*Initially refusing foreign aid, saying Taiwan can handle it by itself.
*For the Chinese earthquake helping get dozens of telephone donation lines open. As for this disaster in Taiwan, saying people should just donate through their respective local government.
*Helping squeeze the local governments’ budgets to put pressure on DPP politicians prior to this event. How many lives and businesses could have been saved if there’d been more money for flood prevention methods and the KMT hadn’t been playing politics with local funding?
*After someone saying they’d voted for him and hadn’t been able to see him, saying “You’re seeing me now, aren’t you?” - What a prick!
*Man says his father is missing (implication is he’s dead), Ma says he lost his too. - Yeah, in his sleep - how awful for you, Ma!
*Mobilising a few thousands troops out of an army of about 200,000 and over a million reservists? - What, is Taiwan about to be invaded by China? I thought relations had never been better thanks to Ma!
That’s just some of the criticism.
How would it have been dealt with, if all things apart from the weather had gone well? Is it doomed to happen again in a few years? What should happen here?
It’s easy enough to say ‘Make them move from the mountains’ or ‘evacuate everyone’ or ‘declare a state of emergency’. Much harder to implement them, once the threat has become unambiguous enough.
I understand the anger, and if Ma has acted improperly (not simply ‘failed to display sorrow on TV’) then absolutely it should cost him his government.
The sad thing is, I think he means well, he’s just a very weak leader and crisis manager. He strikes me as a man always afraid of making mistakes and saying the wrong things and that leads to exactly what he wants to avoid.
Who would you rather have as President in this situation?
Su Zhen-chang? Annette Lu? Lian Zhan? You Xi-kun? James Soong?
HAHAHAHAHA! COUGH! OH SHIT! All over the keyboard and everything. What a mess! :roflmao: As IF! Why, I bet he’s ALREADY been to the temple and has cast his little red crescent thingys. He’s safe. Home free. PLUS, let’s not forget he has Lien Chan pulling his wee strings.
‘should’ as in ‘ought to’, not ‘will probably’