August 8th,2009: A Sorry Father’s Day in Taiwan
August 8th, shortened as 8-8, rhymes with Pa-Pa (Ba-Ba), is Father’s Day in Taiwan. Many restaurants all over were booked full weeks ago before the date, but were not able to entertain their guests’ fathers because of a typhoon named Morakot is pounding, flooding, and devastating Taiwan, much like the one named Ellen did on August 7th 50 years ago that destroyed vast areas of the Southern region. In fact Morakot is still hovering in the air. Although it’s center(eye) has left the island nation, it still down poring heavy rain all over. The southwest wind current is heavily laden with moist and no doubt it will rain hard for 2 or 3 more days.
It was fortunate that the cyclone did not come while the International World Games were taking place in the southern port city of Kaohsiung. Scarcely a week after the World Games, Typhoon Morakot arose in the Southeast Pacific and moves very slowly northwest ward, heading straight for Taiwan. It behaves like a fat bull, moves slowly and stubbornly close to Taiwan. After it’s landfall on day before yesterday till today, it poured some 1000 mm water on the north and more than 2000 mm cumulative rain on the south. At the middle distance from Tainan to Taichung in the Chiayi mountain area, so far it has over 2500 mm rain today and it is estimated to reach over 2900 mm. It seems that more than a half of Taiwan is flooded and under water right now. Bridges down, roads damaged and landslides, power is lost and people flee their homes.
In the time of former administaration of Chen Shui-ben, a thorough plan for flood-controll was submitted to the Legislator Yuen, aimed at prevention of a replay of the 8-7 Flood many years ago. But it was blocked by KMT (The Nationalist Party) members who were the great majority. Now, history has reenacted worse than before. The present KMT government is busy trying, but at lost what to do with the situation. After KMT’s Republic of China fled to Taiwan in 1949, its atitude has been called by some, “a toothbrush-ism”, meaning “can move away any time”, without thought of laying fundamental building-ups for Taiwan. Everything they did and still do is “political” in the worst sense of the word. They take, but would not give back much, meanwhile people suffer continually.