Tone deaf

I've checked out the KMT website to see what they're doing for damage control since the typhoon. Besides information on how to volunteer with the KMT, they have a montage at the top of the page, and the pictures mostly carry slogans like "Heartless typhoon, loving compatriots" to express sympathy for the victims and emphasize the work people are doing to help out. They look something like this, showing both politicians and volunteers at work to help victims:


(The DPP for its part has a similar montage but the only recognizable politician is Tsai Ing-wen).

But one picture struck me as particularly tone deaf: it reads, "Sending Northern love South, bringing comfort to the disaster zones."

Now I say this is tone deaf because, as so often happens, it is being written from the perspective of Taipei. Trust me, nobody is complaining about the vast number of volunteers from the North (thank you all!), or the KMT Youth Corps, who are coming to disaster zones across the country to help out.

But there are plenty of Central/Southern/Eastern residents who are going in any number of directions to help out people in other disaster areas. The simple-minded idea that the North is helping/saving the poor, helpless South is ... well, patronizing and annoying.