The Economist UK - 28.03.2020

14 The EconomistMarch 28th 2020

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Letters

Taiwan’s response to covid-

Countries are indeed strug-

gling to cope with covid-

(“The politics of pandemics”,

March 14th). But China’s

approach is not the only way to

suppress its spread. Taiwan

has relatively few cases of the

disease. Learning harsh

lessons from the sarscrisis in

2003, the government of

Taiwan acted swiftly and

established a central command

centre in order to respond to

the outbreak. Taiwan’s health

minister held press confer-

ences almost every day to

provide updates and infor-

mation. Tests on travellers

from Wuhan, the Chinese city

where the outbreak started,

began in December, one month

ahead of China. Technology

using big-data analysis was

applied for intensive health

monitoring.

Despite being excluded

from participating in the

World Health Organisation

because of pressure from

China, Taiwan sent an early

warning to the international

health body about the risk of

transmission of the corona-

virus between humans at the

end of December. However, the

warning was not shared with

other countries by the who

because of its relationship

with China. That error ulti-

mately delayed the global

response to the pandemic. The

politics of pandemics, which

exists inside the whoas well as

between states, should be

unacceptable to any country

that cares about public health.

The Chinese propaganda

machine is trying to convince

the world that its draconian

response to the coronavirus is

the only way to combat its

spread; other countries are

following its lead. Taiwan

proves that democracies can

successfully fight the virus

without an authoritarian

response. Given the nature of

China’s autocratic system,

Taiwan should serve as a better

democratic model for manag-

ing pandemics.

david lin

Taipei Representative Office in

the United Kingdom

London

Politics in Myanmar

You provided good context for

the recent failure by civilian

lawmakers to limit the gener-

als’ power in Myanmar

(“Making war and law”, March

14th). Since 1962 the armed

forces have determined to

control power in perpetuity,

which they have accomplished

through rule by decree

(1962-74, 1988-2011), a single-

party socialist system con-

trolled by the army (1974-88),

and, since the manipulated

elections in 2010, through a

constitution which the gener-

als dictate and cannot be

altered without their approval.

Yet this continuous military

control was not only based on

command of all forces of coer-

cion, but, until recently, all

avenues of social mobility (a

contrast with all other armies

in Asia with no such pervasive

power). That has now gradually

broken down through politi-

cal, economic, educational and

civil advances. Military control

will probably ebb, though

slowly and in relation to assur-

ances of the unity of the state

and the army’s autonomy from

civilian political restraints. But

the local elections of 2020 will

not change that trajectory.

david steinberg

Professor emeritus of Asian

studies at Georgetown

University

Bethesda, Maryland

The primary problem

Lexington was right to point

out that our primary system

poorly reflects the public

interest (February 29th). The

column referred to a paper by

the Brookings Institution,

which says that “party organi-

sations need to find ways to

reassert more control over

their candidate selection

processes before candidates

reach the primary ballot.”

The error is in the way we

vote. When only a single vote is

allowed, moderates split their

votes and radicals win. There

are several better options, such

as “approval voting”, which

was recently implemented in

Fargo, North Dakota, and will

soon be on the ballot in St

Louis. It favours consensus

and increases the quality of

candidates by not being vul-

nerable to vote splitting. Amer-

icans should try several differ-

ent local methods, so that we

can ultimately replace the

current silly national system.

felix sargent

Chair

Board of directors

Centre for Election Science

Oakland, California

Getting elephants to bee-have

Conflict between humans and

elephants remains a problem

in many parts of the world,

including Sri Lanka (Banyan,

February 29th). There is a very

simple and cost-effective

natural solution: beehive

fences. Elephants are terrified

of bees and will flee at even the

sound of them. Beehive fences

involve wires strung between

hives; if elephants walk

through the wires they irritate

the bees, which swarm out and

chase them away. Lucy King

developed the concept and it is

now used widely in east Africa

(see her recenttedtalk). Not

only is it an effective deterrent,

farmers can also make money

from selling honey.

richard milburn

King’s College London

Vital writing on viruses

In this particular moment of

crisis, Freeman Dyson’s ideas

on the origin of life are of

particular interest (Obituary,

March 14th). In a humble “not

scientific theory”, Dyson

proposed that rna, the infor-

mation engine of viruses, was

at the origin of cells’ dna. With

time, the rnaand the cells

learned how to collaborate and

“grew gradually into a harmo-

nious unity”. Dyson was a

supporter of the idea that

symbiosis, or collaboration, is

among the driving forces

behind evolution in cells as

much as in societies. He an-

swered an unsolicited email I

sent him last January with kind

words: “At age 96, I am lucky to

be still smart enough to know

that I am not as smart as I used

to be.” Kindness and humble-

ness often go together. He was

still one of the smartest people

on the planet when he wrote

those words.

mario alemi

Milan

The meaning of congenital

Your piece on curing rare

genetic diseases with targeted

therapies showed what can be

done with analysis of our dna

(“Broken”, March 14th).

Unfortunately its subheading

was “Congenital disease”.

Congenital means originating

from the time of birth and

covers genetic and non-genetic

defects, like my own con-

genital anosmia. I don’t intend

to have my gene analysed in

order to be able to smell.

peter tompkins

London

Living in Arcadia

I was amused to read your

piece on British house names

(“Dun Namin’”, March 14th).

Some of us did not have a

choice. When we moved to our

house 16 years ago there were

numbers on the opposite side

of the road but not ours, so we

had to choose a name. Hasle-

mere incidentally is a post-

man’s hell for two reasons: a

very high number of named

houses and many steep hills.

jock gardner

Haslemere, Surrey

There is a sixth category of

house names: the professions.

My uncle, a pharmacist, called

his house Nux Vomica.

keith hunter

London

When I dealt with retired per-

sonnel in the Royal Air Force

an inordinate number of them

named their home Llamedos.

Eventually, I realised the con-

nection to Dylan Thomas’s

Llareggub, “bugger all”.

clive rainbow

Speen, Berkshire