Crying doesn’t mean he cares or doesn’t care. And crying is unlikely to be an authentic response for the President of any country. It is important politically that he hams it up for the cameras, it matters not a jot to the actual process of recovery and reconstruction. Presidents are CEOs, not spiritual leaders.
It’s fairly irrelevant whether he publically sympathises with individuals. It’s important what he does to alleviate their suffering in a concrete way. I don’t really respect the man at all and if I’d had the vote, I’d certainly not have been craven enough to vote for him, but to criticise him for not weeping on TV is odd.[/quote]
My God! I certainly was not criticising him for not weeping on TV. It does seem to be a common response for bureaucrats and politicians here when caught with their trousers down/hands in the till - regretting only that they’ve been caught. That was my point. I’ll use an emoticon next time. Maybe different reactions are expected of a President - maintaining dignity or aloofness. Or maybe crying only comes once resignation is inevitable.
Presidents are chief execs, but they are more than mere technocrats. They are leaders of people. Churchill, Roosevelt and Hitler weren’t successful because of their technical or bureaucratic skills. They were successful because of their political and leadership skills, allowing them to make others get things done.
[quote=“fruitloop”]
My God! I certainly was not criticising him for not weeping on TV. It does seem to be a common response for bureaucrats and politicians here when caught with their trousers down/hands in the till - regretting only that they’ve been caught. That was my point. I’ll use an emoticon next time. Maybe different reactions are expected of a President - maintaining dignity or aloofness. Or maybe crying only comes once resignation is inevitable.
Presidents are chief execs, but they are more than mere technocrats. They are leaders of people. Churchill, Roosevelt and Hitler weren’t successful because of their technical or bureaucratic skills. They were successful because of their political and leadership skills, allowing them to make others get things done.[/quote]
I understand. Smilies not required; I’m far more likely to misinterpret those. I do better with words. Writing’s a bit different from speaking.
Absolutely, I agree with you but I think it’s a shame. Can’t we move on from the twentieth century personality cult thing? I don’t know anything about American politicians, but Churchill and Hitler were extreme examples of what can go wrong with this over-focus on the person. Dunno if I’m right; just an impression.
Taiwan has disturbing poverty mainly hidden in rural areas of central and southern Taiwan. Spend some time in indigenous villages like the ones hit by the recent flooding and you’ll meet plenty of people who are living on less than NT$10,000 a month. You try living in Taiwan like that and see if you think you are living in poverty or not. And there are many other people working seasonal jobs, trying to raise kids etc. who are trying not to fall into that class.
If middle class means that you live off your monthly income, poverty means that your monthly income doesn’t reliably cover all your basic needs.
[quote]
Secondly where did this insane “governments/presidents should be just like the common man” mindset come from anyway, Sarah Palin?.. Chen ‘the 30M dollar man’ Shui Bian?.. I don’t want ‘the common man’ piloting my 747, I don’t want ‘the common man’ performing my heart surgery and I sure as hell don’t want ‘the common man’ at the reigns of political power, I want the best educated, most intelligent, most experienced, most qualified (not that Ma is any of these things) person available… When it comes to presidents bring on the elitism, not the ‘common man’…[/quote]
Nobody said President Ma should be like the common man. They are just asking that he show some understanding and sympathy. Some timely help and a sense of responsibility would be nice too.
Wow! My name is here as the ultimate stopper: if Michael Turton says it, it must be wrong. That poster is a man my wife would love.
Anyway, I’ve just put up a very long post on the Tsengwen Diversion Project that people in the area are claiming was a cause of the Xiaolin Village disaster. The core of it is a PPT prepared by a coalition of environmental groups, etc.
Me and my taiwanese friends, we have been helping the donation center at afternoons and we have met lots of mainland chinese helping here, so far we have not seen any big guns from DPP, the Kaohsiung mayor disappeared from the map, not even shadow of Ah-Bian’s family members, nothing. Only lots of mainland chinese are here giving a big hand. And also people from HK, imagine, all of them coming here from across the pond to help. Those famous taiwanese artists are all there in Taipei pumping money down here but also getting some self promotion for their persona, but you don’t see any of them here. And I am here thinking about some of these southern peoples who tried to beat the last envoy guy from China into a pulp. Or those taiwanese people who told me not to go visit Alishan because many "wai’shen’ren"were there visiting.
Nobody tried to beat anyone to a pulp, daisyhotkiss, so don’t go putting words into places they don’t belong.
And ‘all those Chinese artists’ helping out are doing so to sell more records, because their label told them to. Some of the mainland individuals, perhaps more so, because their local ‘organisation’ leaders told them to.
Don’t forget that there were also many Taiwanese faces helping out in earthquakes in China recently. While there are doubtlessly some people involved for altruistic reasons, and a shame that not as many people from DPP seem to be helping, there are of course many people for whom the political spin is always a great incentive. Another thing to consider is just who you have been talking to: are they also playing partisan politics at all?
Plus Taiwanese -artists and common folk- are busy sweeping and taking out teh garbage out of their families and friends homes. Did you see the guys from Power Station? Their mother was missing for like two days, then they were reunited, a couple of days ago they were at the shelter she’s at. Yep, they are “selfishly” taking care of their own folk.
You mean Ma deflects questions from international reporters. Half the time not answering them and responding to imaginary questions instead. It’s pretty nasty what he does to Radio Free Asia by pretending that he asked a totally different question instead of that really tough one.
Ma Ying Jeou Yesterday: I will take full responsibility! Ma Ying Jeou Today: I will blame cabinet members, officials, local chiefs, and even the residents. Those that accuse me of not accepting aid was because I didn’t even know about it, just like I don’t know anything else that is supposedly wrong (e.g. own bank account with illicit funds).
I just read this on the wikipedia page on Ma Ying Jeou http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma_ying_jeou. I couldn’t say whether it was written by a disinterested party or not, but there does appear to be a pattern.
I think the only thing that we can count on is that the people who need to be blamed probably won’t be, and that in the rush to make sure someone hangs for this, nothing substantial will be done to actually improve the situation. People will go back to their lives in possibly dangerous circumstances, pooh-pooh the idea that such disasters could happen there, until it happens again. It’s probably the best recycling job you’ll see here.
I don’t think so. Both parties are finally talking about a proper land use bill (first proposed in 2004). This should pass. It may even be what the country needs if it is done soon. There is also talk of putting all mountain townships into a special administrative zone under the executive. This would have a huge impact on the way these areas are run.
No one is moving back to these areas for a long time. There’s nowhere to build at the moment, and nothing for people to do to make a living.
There is going to be an intense amount of negotiation and debate and bill passing in the coming years. Aboriginal groups are not goign to move away from their homeland yet they cannot immediately return. Temporary residence must be found for at least a couple years. Mountainous areas will have to be surveyed, studied, and zoned before building can begin. In the meantime the problem of aboriginal employment will have to be studied both for the short term and long. As Feiren noted, many people in these areas are very poor and rely on home grown foods and money from sales of produce, fruit as well as tourism. It doesn’t seem likely that fruit and veggie growing is going to be allowed, and tourism will take years to return. So what are these people to do?
Meanwhile the Ma government is facing a crisis that cannot be solved by buck passing. If Ma is not going to be a lame duck in his first year he is going to have to produce results. This is not at all like 921. LTH was almost finished his term and the disaster did not challenge his government. Taiwan is also a very different country now. Aboriginal groups have a stronger voice, there is a greater environmental awareness among the public, and the government itself, even before this crisis, was pledged to regenerating villages.
If anyone chooses to follow the rule of law that is, which wouldn’t account for at least some of the damage and casualties sustained during this recent flooding.
What Taiwan needs more than more rules is people that follow common sense. They should pass a common sense bill before they move on to other more pressing things judging by the way that many people built properties in and around the devastated areas.
Finally the prefab houses from China arrived, hope this can cheer up the people here a little. We’ve been baking a lot lately, mostly breads and cupcakes and to entertain the kids, they have no school, are bothering a lot and their grandmas and grandpas and relatives are still mourning the lost relatives and the children add to the chaos, everybody cramped in the school gym. So we have been keeping the kids busy and fed, so the adults can deal with their grieve and try to get themselves up enough to see what to do from now on. One of my friends even called one of those celebrity “awareness” programs on TV to ask for some real hands-on help instead of them there in the AC room, all made-up and having pictures and poses taken while here down in the south, the peoples are trying to deal with the problems with the help from soldiers and college students and the mainlanders who live around.
True, unfortunately, what you say has a high probability of happening.
That said, I’d still would like to know what the heck happened. Yesterday on the news they were interviewing the chiefs of the villages affected, and those chiefs were explaining, for instance, that they received a very brief cellphone message saying that there was “red alert” in 413 areas, and that for more info they had to log on a certain website. This was two hours before the Xiaolin landslide.
Sincerely, if it was so urgent, and the powers that be knew that there was a dangerous situation brewing, then they should have just called and said: evacuate all red alert areas. But no.
If you get a link to a website, in the mountains, what are the chances they would have stil Internet access, which is already limited, at that time? Where is the system of checks to account -at least- that all the towns are still there? I mean, just so that not having a certain place report in by a certain time, to be alert that there is something going on. Up to this day, there are many towns with no food and water, where no one from the army has been there to try to open a road or at leat throw a life line.
Then the blame is shifting around, with certain officials saying teh chiefs should have performed drills and evacuation procedures. However, no one saw teh danger coming, there was little warning, and I do see a big communication gap. The one sin teh north did not knwo what was going down south, and the ones in the south were completely broke off comunication with the outside world when the tragedy struck.
So daisy, when you mentioned mainlanders before you were talking about the spouses of local men? Not so terribly impressive then. Lots of westerners are helping too.
So daisy, when you mentioned mainlanders before you were talking about the spouses of local men? Not so terribly impressive then. Lots of westerners are helping too.[/quote]
MM, why do you care if they are really mainlanders from China landing freshly here or if they have been lkiving here for all their lives? Why is that so important anyway ? At least they are doing more than a lot DPP, KMT or other politicians and celebrities around who appear on TV just to criticize and pass the blame.
I didn’t really pry so much on their background, I know they are mainlanders because some taiwanese were pointing this out, if they have been living here for long or just arrived, this is something I don’t know but I appreciate that they are doing quite a lot here and helping without getting anyback back from that. They really have my deepest respects, mainlanders or not so mainlanders.
That’s the whole point of putting the townships directly under the executive and away from county control. The difference this will make is seen in the distinction between the (relative) orderliness of taipei and the conditions in rural nantou county. Or the cleanliness and order of Yushan National Park with all the land on its borders.
If the land is under the exectutive, then is is easier to pass and enforce laws restricting development. Again, compare a national park to the land outside. Hunt in the former and you will likely go to jail. Hunt in the latter and the local police will smile as they turn their backs.
Think of Sheiba National Park which has gotten rid of all high altitude farming (exept a few show acres) to protect the land and downstream water cachements with Lishan, just up the road, an environmental disaster.
Look also at what happened under the Chen government with Lishan. It was slated to be closed under land use provisions that the executive could enforce. Two years ago residents were consigned to leaving until they got hope that once Ma was in power they could go back to farming. Yep, soon as Ma got in power it was business as usual.
So there is lots already that the executive can do to enforce better environmental standards. It takes will. the last government had some of it. The present almost none, though perhaps they will improve out of necessity. At the very least they can set up the conditions for future improvement.