Well that’s gone and bloody done it.

My project in Taipei is supposed to open tomorrow and the Taiwan Govt have, this morning, announced an effective travel ban on anyone from HK. I say effective because you can go there, but you will spend 10 days at the government’s leisure, in enforced quarantine.

I guess I will have to live the job vicariously through my “eyes and ears” Mr Bun Lee.

I can’t say that I particularly blame the Taiwan Govt, but this does seem a bit drastic. Only on Friday night last week they announced that no landing visas would be issued to Hong Kongers, so why the scaling up now? Someone died last night, that’s why; Taiwan’s first reported fatality. This is an interesting reaction; after all, How does it change the situation in real terms? I would argue not a jot; the fatality (he or she, I don’t know) was sick with the virus, the incidence of infection has not changed, nor has the danger to the public by his or her death. What has changed, I suppose, is the Taiwanese public’s perception of the threat, now that one of their own has been lost to it. Either way, that’s the travel plans sorted for the week.

In other news, I misread the BBC ticker on my desktop and for a few seconds though that “Rumsfeld mounts golf tour.” These things tickle me on a Monday morn.