ONCE BITTEN BADLY, twice shy. Learning from the past has paid rich dividends for Taiwan in its war on Covid-19. Taiwan is only 130km from China and more than 80,000 people travel between the two countries every month. It was no surprise that Johns Hopkins University predicted that Taiwan would have the world’s second most Covid-19 cases.
But Taiwan has emerged one of the most efficient countries in terms of Covid-19 treatment, with just 425 cases and six deaths among a population of 23.7 million. On April 14, Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) announced that for the first time in 36 days there was no new case to report. A few cases have cropped up since then, but still within control.
Taiwan had warned the World Health Organization in late December about Covid-19. But it says the warning was ignored. The WHO does not recognise Taiwan because of objections from China, which says the island is a breakaway province. Taiwan’s already fraught ties with the WHO worsened further with the Covid-19 crisis. WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus complained recently that Taiwan’s foreign ministry was linked to a hate campaign against him, which included racist attacks and death threats. Tedros, a former Ethiopian health and foreign minister who was elected to the top post with strong support from China, has strongly endorsed the Chinese position on the pandemic. It has led to a geopolitical tussle, with US President Donald Trump repeatedly blaming China for the pandemic. Trump has suspended US funding to WHO and has blamed the world body for ignoring Taiwan’s early warning about Covid-19.
Denne historien er fra May 03, 2020-utgaven av THE WEEK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra May 03, 2020-utgaven av THE WEEK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Chase For The Mace
The next three years throw up a gamut of challenges for Indian cricket; winning the World Test Championship is the most important
Two-horse race
Can the NC-Congress alliance reshape the future of Jammu and Kashmir?
Man-eaters don't spare women
Critics say Narendra Modi’s decade-long rule has been one of jobless growth. Factories produced more, companies earned more, owners profited more, the government earned more; but fewer hands were hired, or those who were hired got work for fewer days. Putting the last two together, economists said the Indian economy generated fewer ‘man-days’.
Decolonising the mindset
The vision of a Viksit Bharat hinges on India T breaking from the shackles of a colonial mindset and embodying the freedom of being unapologetically Indian. The laws of any nation are the cornerstone of its growth. The legal system offers the stability and adaptability essential for a country to thrive. The laws must be simple to understand and specific in their consequence.
The making of India's Mr Difficult Words
When my publishers at Aleph invited me to put together a book on words and language, I hesitated for a brief moment.
Couture's creepy corridors
If one is spending a summer in New York, any summer in New York, an absolute must-do is to spend an afternoon at the city’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, on the edge of Central Park, just gawking in gobsmacked awe at the annual fashion exhibition the museum’s Costume Institute puts together.
Stree 2 has given us hope
The unprecedented success of Stree 2 is the best news we have had in the recent times and with an unabashedly feminist agenda, has comprehensively out-performed Sandeep Reddy Vanga's toxic masculine star-studded Animal at the box office is (to me, at least) kind of the cinematic equivalent of Awadhesh Prasad winning Ayodhya-it redeems my faith in the inherent decency of Indians.
BRANDS BEYOND RAMPS
Whether through carpets, fragrances or home interiors, Indian couturiers are defying their own limits
RESERVOIR OF WORRIES
India has a robust dam management systém on paper, but inadequate maintenance and climate change pose serious threats
INTER-STATE ISSUES HAVE NO EFFECT ON DAM SAFETY
INTERVIEW: KUSHVINDER VOHRA INTERVIEW Chairman, Central Water Commission