Workers, teachers and students in Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan on Wednesday got a typhoon day for a typhoon that was, well, not very typhoonish.
It appears that residents in the region earned an extra day off for no good reason at all. Unfortunately, as we all know, there is no such thing as a free lunch. They would have to work extra hard to catch up if they do not want to fall behind schedule.
Employers could not help but facepalm and swallow their tears as they faced another typhoon day that featured little wind and rain. Now they would have to pay employees to work overtime since the typhoon day delayed work.
The stock market and the banking industry also had to cease operation, because of the typhoon day. If we have a few extra typhoon days every year, would it not have an immense impact on tax revenue and GDP?
Nature is unpredictable. Typhoon Krathon, as of 5pm on Wednesday, was only affecting Kaohsiung and Tainan in southern Taiwan, data provided by the Central Weather Administration showed.
Miaoli and Hsinchu counties were barely affected, not to mention Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan in northern Taiwan.
The reason residents in the region got a typhoon day on Wednesday was said to be because Keelung Mayor George Hsieh (謝國樑), a member of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) who is facing a recall election this month, wanted to keep voters happy.
The Keelung City Government had previously pushed for free electric scooters for the youth. Hsieh later apologized, admitting that the government did not have money for such a plan.
One cannot help but wonder if he was trying to buy votes with a typhoon day after failing to do so with free electric scooters.
Hsieh was the first to declare a typhoon day among the other three mayors who later also joined the party to cancel work and classes. If this was really the case, it seems that these mayors are not taking municipal services seriously enough.
Typhoons are a natural phenomenon in Taiwan. It is just a matter of frequency. Rainfall brought by the typhoon is timely when local reservoirs are experiencing water shortages. Is it not something the people have been eagerly waiting for?
Heads of local governments declared a typhoon day, saying they did so, because they wanted to safeguard people’s lives and safety, even when the forecast wind speed and the amount of rainfall did not meet the standards of declaring a typhoon day. They did so only to please voters.
If this happened in Japan, residents would have not only typhoon days, but also snowstorm days. There would hardly be any days left for work and school.
Here is my advice to Keelung citizens: As Hsieh loves holidays so much, please vote “yes” in the recall election on Oct. 13. This way, Hsieh could enjoy his holiday every day.
Chang Kuo-tsai is a retired National Hsinchu University of Education associate professor.
Translated by Fion Khan
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