The decision of whether or not work or classes are to resume during the typhoons, is left up to the individual local governments to decide, and, sometimes, the decisions may be, inaccurate, because the weather is, unpredictable, and it's not hard science, the prediction of weather, and so, the local governments are, blamed, while the central government holds that "hands-off" approach, and let the local city, county governments, to take the falls for the announcements of whether or not there should be days off due to the typhoon, and, there's just no set systems to go by in this country! On the hard decision of the local government officials' calls on whether or not to call a typhoon vacation, off of the Front Page Sections, translated…
Why is the Central Government Watching on the Sidelines?
Two days ago, the city governments of Taichung, Changwha, Nantou, Yunlin, Chiayi, and Taidong announced that schools and work is to continue on two days ago, but, deep in the nights at around eleven, the city governments made the announcements of halting work and school, and, yesterday afternoon, not even five, Changwha fired that first shot, decided that there would be no work or school today, before eight in the evening, cities south of Hsinchu also, announced there would be no work or school today. Returning to the basis of the typhoon days off, it's to reduce the risk of danger in the inclement weather conditions, and yet, the heads of local government aren't professional meteorologists, they were swayed between science and popular opinions, and it's a test for these heads of local governments, to make sound judgments that is precise, and accurate; while, the central government, responsible of the meteorology readings, should NOT sit on the sidelines on the decisions of "whether or not there would be days off work and school from the typhoons".
the various regions of the country affected differently by the inclement weather conditions...what may be happening in one part of the country...photo from online
Two days ago, many of the counties and cities, disregarded the data from the Central Meteorology Center, and the reading stated that the weather wasn't to the point of needing to halt work or classes, until the data that's reed at ten at night, other than in Nantou, Chiayi, the wind strength hadn't gotten up to the standards of halting the classes and work, the rest of the island had gotten there, so, all of the decisions had caused the policies to take that sharp turn; and because in recent years, when the typhoons came, the central strip of the island only sees mild rain, and not strong enough winds, this made the mayors more and more reliant on the meteorology reports to make the calls.
Return back to when Lai was the mayor of Tainan, in April of 2012, Typhoon Tembin came, at the time, all counties and cities south of Taichung had made the decisions to stop work and classes, only Tainan insisted on now following suit, and at five in the morn on the day of the typhoon, the city announced that the classes and work schedules will be kept, causing the members of the online community to get angry and started calling out, and on that day, the wind and rain weren't severe enough, it'd turned the reputation of Lai around.
But in September of 2016, when Typhoon Meranti came, the night before the typhoon landed, Lai decided that the work and classes of the following morning is to get held as is, and in the afternoons, there will be no classes or work, this caused the people to get angry, and mocked Lai as "half day Lai"; on the end of the same month, Typhoon Megi, in the DDP governed cities, the morning work and classes were held in session, and in the afternoons, no work or classes, and all of these rules got cussed out, and the people and the local governments all hoped that the announcements of the typhoon days off to be unified made by the central government.
Before September of last year in Taiwan, there'd been four whole years without any typhoon landing, and, during the typhoons days off, in the central and southern regions of the country, there were the crowds in the malls, in the theatres, and in the karaoke, and most don't state bluntly, that the typhoon days off are the extra small blessings to them, but the fact that it may be dangerous to be out and about should not get overlooked, otherwise, the typhoon days off would be based off of popular demands, and the guidelines for the days off would get lower and lower.
at another region of the country, at the same time...photo from online
The reports of weather by the meteorology center every two, three hours, the directions of the typhoons can change suddenly, and, relying on one report, people expect the local governments to make the decisions of whether or not there would be days off, it may be overly optimistic. And, since the central government has the meteorology information, then, it should professionally decipher, offer sound advices, and set up a communication platform with the local governments, while how to satisfy the requests of the people, it would be the wisdoms of the local governors.
And so, because we don't know the effects of the typhoons that hit the island in the various regions, because sometimes, the typhoons would bring more rain, more wind to the northern regions, the midstrips, and the southern and eastern side, and the projections of these natural disasters are completely, unpredictable, and all that these local government officials have to go by, are the meteorology reports, and sometimes, the meteorology reports might, overestimate the effects of the typhoons, which lead to the wrong decision of the local government officials, and no matter what, the people would get upset.
No comments:
Post a Comment