Taiwan In Peril

International news headlines Taiwan’s debacle with very deadly Typhoon Morakot. For this, Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou is currently being demonized by his own people for perceived inaction and calls for his resignation is mounting steadily that he have to make clear on a TV appearance that he is ‘still’ the president of Taiwan and that he is still in control.

Typhoon Morakot was terribly vicious not because of its wind speed but of the heavy amount of rain it carries. It is a fact that a storm lashes so much harsher when it is packed with rain and water.

In a seaside area in Taiwan, on the aftermath of the deadly storm, where over 500 people died and thousands left homeless, hundreds of skinned-white logs filled the beach that one could not already see the sand. That tells the extent of damage and of ferociousness of the storm.

Women cry for their lost ones, buildings stumbling on the force of flood water, and horrendous mud burying homes and entire villages—- Typhoon Morakot becomes the harshest storm to ever hit Taiwan in 50 years.

And this somehow makes me realize that not even the most resourceful of country like Taiwan, one of the most developed economies in the world, could ever prepare for a tragedy like this, its government seemingly caught unprepared and ill-equipped for this sort of happenstance.

Could the wrath of nature be tamed? This remains a question.