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| Add Taiwan to the Statue's Middle Finger |
I am a New York ESL teacher but, after living in Taiwan for fourteen years, stating in 1979, including the last seven, being fluent in Mandarin, and having been married to two Taiwanese women totaling thirty-eight years, I understand the Taiwanese people better than most foreigners do, indeed, sometimes more than the Taiwanese themselves. Despite what the Taiwan government tells the world media, I know the real reason why only 429 people are infected and only 6 have died from COVID-19 in four months since becoming alerted to it in January 2020. Here are the 10 reasons why our precautionary measures have limited the ill-effect the virus has had on us in Taiwan :
Reason #1
Number one is that the vice president in Taiwan is
the man who led the fight against SARS in Taiwan in 2003. At that time, China covered up the epidemic not knowing what it was. Taipei City suffered the first outbreak of 137 infections and 26 deaths. This alarmed the ruling class affected directly more than others outside the capital. In all, there were 664 cases reported. With memories of the virus that caused the death of so many, vice-president, Chen Chien-jen, who was formerly an epidemiologist and VP of Academia Sinica, Taiwan's top research institution, went into action again. Because he knew what to do to safeguard the public, and because he brought his distrust of China to the COVID-19 epidemic, Taiwan's response was successful. Partial to the west through his Christian background and anti-China unification, his motivation was sealed.
Reason #2
Secondly, Taiwanese people are highly distrustful
of each other. It is thought that the other person will do you harm and
there is significant subliminal distancing that occurs between people here and much inconsideration for others. Rarely will drivers yield to others or let pedestrians cross the street. In the same way, having a stranger babysit or dog sit, even someone who they may know from school or the neighborhood, is almost unheard of in Taiwan because people
are afraid this stranger will steal something in the house. As a result, people took the threat from others seriously and followed directives. People wash their hands and wear surgical masks, not to prevent their
disease from being caught by others, but because they are sure others are giving
the disease to them.
Reason #3
Number three the Chinese custom of saving face - not embarrassing others in public - is a
major reason why Taiwan did not suffer. The saving face occurred when Taiwan government was made aware of a campaign in China to limits the number of
cases, the tracing of people and places. Not to be outdone and lose face, these methods of containment was also used in
Taiwan, without crediting China for the heads-up. The thought that more people would suffer in Taiwan then in China was unthinkable. It would have meant the loss of face of Taiwan to the
world. For this reason, the WHO support of China’s handling the outbreak was condemned as China-friendly by Taiwan and gave the signal for Trump to blame the WHO to de-fund it. When Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus revealed racist
threats made to him on the internet, Taiwan government lost face and attacked the WHO more, telling people it couldn't be relied upon to help them. They doubled their effort.
Reason #4
The fourth reason is Taiwan’s location. Even
though Taiwan is only 129 miles from the Chinese coast, and 600 miles
from Wuhan, it may as well be on the other side of the earth. Taiwan is an isolated island in Asia. Extreme scrutiny was exercised of international flights between Taiwan, Hong Kong,
and China. Other nations, thinking Taiwan part of China, distanced themselves for us. It enabled the campaign to work containing the epidemic by having every
visitor from China and Asia examined for fever and tested for presence of the virus. There were a limited number of visitors, especially from China, coming to Taiwan in
the months after the realization of the epidemic danger. Exchange students were
stopped. Tour groups were not permitted to enter or leave. Groups and cruise ships that had
entered before the danger were quarantined and tested. As an
island, Taiwan benefited from total isolation of the Strait between it and
China and control of its borders both air and sea. Even fisherman had to
report any contacts that they had with sailors from China. Tour group were given close scrutiny and the outbreak was contained, until visitors infected in Europe and the USA were let in and precautions were tightened to the west, too.
Reason #5
The fifth reason that Taiwan did not suffer
from the epidemic is because it came on the cusp of the anti-China
demonstrations in Hong Kong. Taiwan fear-mongering that intensified anti-China
sentiment disguised as ‘pro-democracy’ was utilized to inflate every stereotype
and misconception about China to the people of Taiwan through the island-wide media and CNN, ICRT, the only English language radio station, and MSN internet and social
media. In this way. any contradictory facts about the corona-virus favorable to
China were down-played and the illusion of Taiwan unilateral attack of
the virus was promoted. The distrust perpetuated by President Tsai Ying-Wen of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was a major factor in controlling information about the virus including the spreading of rumors
(For example, claiming 60,000 fatalities in China) and distrusting Chinese research Added to the Hong Kong distrust of Chinese promoted for presidential election, the COVID-19 attack was a way of extending the distrust created between Taiwan and China.
Reason #6
Number 6 is that the Taiwanese, like their Chinese cohort, are, as the famous saying goes, controlled by three material factors in life: saving face,
wealth, and the fear of dying, though the revolution has made China less
susceptible to private corruption and more capable of standing up to business interests. This fear of dying enabled the coordinated ubiquitous control of
the epidemic at the earliest stage possible. Taiwan didn't have thirty-eight years of world-record martial law for nothing. The sacred cow, free universal healthcare, enabled everybody who needed and wanted to be checked for the virus to do so free of charge, without losing any money.
The tents set up outside hospitals immediately gave free testing to anybody who
suspected they were infected. There was no price gouging and the hoarders selling on the internet them were caught and punished. The face was saved by blaming China and the United Nations World Health Organization and not making a big deal about the United States blaming the same scapegoats; that would make Tsai Ying-Wen's government lose face if people knew she was on the same side as Donald Trump as well as conservatives in both US parties. Not many are dying here from the virus because no hospital wants the stigma; I must be tested for fever every time I go in for a check-up and I must have on a mask. The navy commanders that didn't report an ship with infected sailors had to bend over and apologize profusely, get demoted, but not face trial, certainly not be fired like the whistle-blowing US commander was,
Reason #7
The seventh reason is the common use of
surgical masks in Taiwan society. Everybody in Taiwan is used to wearing facial
masks. The habit stems from the SARS epidemic of 2003. In addition to the
precaution of wearing masks against disease, people wear masks regularly
because of the high pollution level in the air. Taiwanese have been wearing
masks in a society where half the people get around on motorcycles and
scooters. Many motorcycle and scooter riders have been wearing for many years.
There are a number of mask producing factories in Taiwan. In addition, there is
outsourcing of mass production from mainland Chinese entrepreneurs that fill
Taiwan with enough masks of every shape and size for everyone who wants to wear
one, and they are inexpensive. Every drugstore, every convenience store, every
supermarket has a shelf with a number of masks that one can select. It has been
part of Taiwan culture to wear masks long before the COVID-19 virus made it
necessary to avoid contact from spittle of infected carriers. We also have swabs, testers, and everything else needed for doctors and nurses to control the virus.
Reason #8
The eighth reason is decidedly racist. Taiwanese, even those with family in China, think their Chinese brethren eat dirty unhealthy food and the USA white people eat clean food (Oy-vay, how they love Jews who are kosher. Taiwanese think we are brilliant and rich; there are dozens of books here about how great we are.) Taiwanese people, are mostly immigrants and descendants of Chinese. (The indigenous people mostly vote for re-unification KMT candidates but that's another story.) Though a majority of people emigrated from China at some point, people thought the virus was theirs since it had not affect people outside
of Asia the first few months; certainly the media repeated Wuhan a million times a day. It must be a disease that Chinese are susceptible to it
while white people are not. The irony is that though there were only six deaths + 100 cases from
China the first few months, hundreds of cases of COVID-19 were allowed into Taiwan on flights from
Europe and America because the authorities left the back door open thinking
that's there would not be any epidemic in those parts of the world. Now it's closed, too. There is an inferiority complex that exists in Taiwan after seventy years of Western influence by the United States, most Taiwanese believe that white people are healthier than the strange foods
admired Chinese cohorts. Well, not any more with most deaths and infections not from Asia.
Reason #9
The ninth reason is that the team investigating and coordinating the virus reaction is non-partisan. Politics has not
gotten in the way of science in Taiwan. There has been an occasional demagogue
that disregards the national edict and tells their local people the wrong
information, as politicians in France and England and Italy and the United
States have done. But in Taiwan it is confronted with the truth immediately and
the island-wide media is able to contradict any illogical politically motivated
subterfuge.
Reason #10
The tenth reason is the homogeneous
society in Taiwan. There is no racial mistrust, separate treatments for rich
and poor, or other divisive factors such as one's religious beliefs or
superstitions; only a sexist attitude towards women, thanks to Confucian influence. Most people here are of the same cultural cohort and there is little division because of the color of one's
skin. Religion is not a factor in discrimination as it is in the US where many Judaeo-Christians think G-d will prevent them from getting sick and masks are unnecessary. It has jeopardized the safety measures there but not in Taiwan. Where white supremacy and prejudice prevail, where rich get treatment and poor don't, it has torpedoed the united front necessary to confront the pandemic; not in Taiwan.
In
short, Taiwan, with a history of mistrust of China, from both political parties, and socialist based system heralded by thirty-eight years of martial law dictatorship, has the unified cultural and spiritual
togetherness that makes it easy for a top-down society to implement precautionary measures without distrust on the basis of sex, religion, age, culture, or racial
background. In conclusion, we can thank the People's Republic of China, directly and indirectly, for our excellent response and containment of the pandemic in Taiwan.
Copyright © 2020 by David Barry Temple. All rights reserved
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