Mayoral statements as an art form

I’m beginning to change my view of the Taipei Mayor and his team. After watching yet another performance yesterday, I’ve come to the conclusion he and his team are reaching almost zero self awareness and that it has become performance art.

On the one hand I beg him to start doing a better job with the virus - although the central government seems to have taken that role over from him to limit further damage - as it winds-up my partner and I have to keep calming her down. 

On the other hand it’s nice to see her so happy and laughing much of the time as the kind of self-satire they indulge in on an almost daily basis is genuinely funny. The late night satire shows in the United States would not have to do much with this guy as he and his team are already such a parody of themselves as to make script writing unnecessary.

I see pictures of his young female helpers clutching his arm as if to hold him upright or guide him to a chair, and yesterday a young lad was wheeled out to show us some cards praising the Mayor for having a hospital in his city that was doing a good job. 

Yep, full credit to the Mayor for, er, for being lucky enough to have a bunch of professionals who know what they are doing on his patch. I wonder how much input he had, I would suspect none, and they were just doing their job. Nevertheless, the youth put two and two together and somehow came up with - The Mayor is brilliant. 

I felt a bit sorry for this youngster, who had stopped in on his way to school to present this little and-finally segment in praise of his Master. The morale of the Mayor’s team has to be rock-bottom as so many people are pointing at them and laughing, and this, on an almost daily basis. I just hope it doesn’t damage their future career prospects too much and people will forget how comical they are making themselves look.

Their spine-cracking contortions in trying to make the Mayor look good would disgrace any self-respecting yoga studio. Sadly their efforts are all to no avail and, as the old English saying goes - trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. 

I guess it’s a little like pointing at a circus clown and telling him he looks ridiculous because he has a big red nose, massive baggy pants and huge shoes. He is supposed to look ridiculous and the make-up, trousers and shoes a parody.

The Mayor and his team have successfully created a similar form of performance art.

《 市長團隊的表演藝術》 我開始改變我對台北市長及其團隊的看法了。 在看了昨天接著台北市記者會的一場演出後，我得出一個結論，就是這個團隊完全沒有自覺的程度，幾乎已經達到一種表演藝術的境界。 一方面我要拜託市長開始好好對付病毒，儘管中央政府似乎已經從他手中接下這個任務，並且也設下停損點。在這之前，我的妻子一提到他總是氣噗噗，我必須經常安撫她讓她冷靜下來。 另一方面，我很高興看到現在大部分時間，我的妻子總是很開心甚至放聲大笑，因為這個團隊似乎每天沉迷於演出自我諷刺劇，真的很有趣。 不要以為這是在深夜播出的美國諷刺性談話節目，並沒有關係，因為市長和他的團隊本身就是一齣戲，不需要另外寫劇本。 我看過一些新聞照片，市長的年輕女性幫手抓著他的胳膊，好像要扶著他讓他站直，或是正在引導他坐到椅子上。昨天在記者會後，我看見一個年輕小伙子被推到鏡頭前，他給我們看了一張圖卡，讚美有一家醫院好好地做了他們的工作，強調這家醫院位於市長管理的城市裡。 是的，應該完全歸功於市長，呃，因為他有幸有一群專業人士知道他們在做什麼。 我想知道市長對他們的表現有多少貢獻，我懷疑並沒有，他們只是在做他們的工作而已。儘管如此，這個年輕人把兩者放在一起，不知何故想出了台北市太棒了的暗示。 我為這個年輕人感到有點遺憾，他好像是在去上學的路上，被叫來把這張圖卡拿出來，以讚美他的師父為那個節目畫下句點。市長團隊的士氣一定很低吧，因為有這麼多人嘲笑他們的不專業，而且幾乎每天都這樣。我只希望這不會對他們未來的職業前景造成太大影響，也希望日後人們會忘記他們讓自己看起來有多滑稽。 他們竭盡所能美化市長，幾乎是脊椎彎到要斷裂的地步了，這個動作會讓任何有自尊的瑜伽工作室蒙羞。可悲的是，他們的努力似乎無濟於事，正如英國諺語所說：試圖用母豬耳朵製作一個絲質錢包。 我想這有點像指著一個馬戲團的小丑，告訴他他看起來很可笑，因為他有一個大紅鼻子，穿著過於寬鬆的褲子和大笨鞋。但是他本來就應該看起來很可笑，化妝，褲子和鞋子本來就是其中的一部分，為什麼要嘲笑他的大紅鼻子和他的裝扮？ 市長和他的團隊，似乎成功地創造了一種類似的行為藝術。