Konsume

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot Review

-

January 29, 2020

While being one of the most iconic anime of all time, Dragon Ball Z’s story has been told tons of times in video games. The series has had games being made since back in 1986 with little in the way of diverting from the groundwork laid by the manga and anime. Enter Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, the latest telling of Goku and his friends set up with an open-world and RPG mechanics.

When compared to other anime video games, it’s a great time and a must-play for Dragon Ball Z fans. When taken in as a video game released in 2020, there is a noticeable amount of lacking features and performances of the game.

Next time on Dragon Ball Z… Again

As stated above, Dragon Ball Z has no shortage of games covering it. Like most other games in the series, everything between Raditz arriving in the Saiyan Saga to the fight against Majin Buu is covered. While these are classic stories, it would be great to get a game going over events in the original Dragon Ball or the newer series Dragon Ball Super.

Dragon Ball seems to be a forgotten series, although there are plenty of references to it in Kakarot. Dragon Ball Super, on the other hand, is the reviving of the Dragon Ball series, and it is surprising not to see this game pursue that storyline at all.

That brings me to one of my biggest complaints about this game. For a game called Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot (Goku’s Saiyan name), you spend way too much time playing the other characters in the show. The character you probably play the most is Gohan. It’s not necessarily the developer’s fault on this. DBZ was trying to go away from Goku being the main character and only bringing him in for the big final battles most of the time. It’s still disappointing to me because Goku is my favorite character. While I appreciate seeing the character development the Vegeta and Piccolo, in a game named specifically after Goku, I would rather play solely as Goku.

Through the main story, which took me about 25-28 hours to complete (there are a LOT of cut scenes) I probably played as Goku about 4-5 hours. He is always either dead, on a spaceship, or recovering from a heart virus. You very well could go about five hours or so before you take control of the character the game is named after. There is no gameplay in the other world, no training sequence on his way to Namek, and they couldn’t even put in a dream sequence while he’s sleeping in the Android Saga.

On the storytelling side, Kakarot excels telling a story any DBZ fan has burned into their memory. A large majority of the original English cast returns to reprise their roles and all nail their performance. Some of the newer voices sound off, but they get the job done overall. Vegeta fans will be happy to know their prideful Saiyan is exactly how you remember him, Piccolo’s transition from King Piccolo to Gohan’s babysitter is also indicated like in the show, and Gohan goes from stuttering annoying little kid to stuttering, strong guy in a ridiculous hero suit. Yep, everything is here.

There are also some surprise returns for characters we haven’t seen in a long time. Launch was a regular character in the original Dragon Ball series who creator Akira Toriyama forgot about (there is also a great reference to that fact in the game). She and other characters that Goku encountered when he was a kid are a nice presence in the game. If only the side quests had more to them than usually being fetch quests, it would be more noticeable.

Every side quest has basic writing behind it. I wish they could have spent more time on the quests away from the main story for something new and exciting. As it is in the game, every encounter feels like a simple reference to the past and doesn’t build much on some great characters that have been long forgotten.

An Unneeded Open World

When announced, one of DBZ: Kakarot’s biggest selling points was for the open world. Most Dragon Ball games focus on the fighting aspects of the series and not much about the world around them. Kakarot aims to change that, but in many ways, it fails. At no point is the open world ever empty, there is always something to do, but that doesn’t mean any of it is worthwhile.

The world is covered in Z orbs that you collect to unlock each playable character’s skill tree, but this becomes pointless once you begin collecting the dragon balls and complete more fights in the story. Aside from orbs, you run around grabbing food, car making items, medals to learn other moves, and any fetch quest items the mission you are on requires. The open world is only used for these fetch quests and nothing creative or fulfilling. Even the fishing and hunting are pointless wastes of time until you need to get specific items for a quest.

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot didn’t need to be an open world game. Seeing the locations from the show and flying everywhere is fun for the first hour or so. Also scattered throughout the world are enemies to fill it out more. These battles become more of a nuisance than anything where they will hunt you down and start a conflict while you are trying to pick up items.

These enemies hardly ever give enough experience or orbs to justify continually pursuing them. The random enemies also never really change as you progress through the story. You still fight Saibamen in the Buu saga, and any of the Frieza Force you run into is essentially the same enemy type with a different skin. I hate having to say this, but there are no redeeming qualities to the open world.

Strong (Limited) Gameplay

Where DBZ: Kakarot’s open world is disappointing, the fighting is up to par. If you have played either of the Dragon Ball Xenoverse games, it’s similar behind-the-back fighting. You have your dedicated melee, energy charging, blocking, and standard energy blast buttons. Holding down the left shoulder button lets you choose one of your special attacks, and the right shoulder button gives you the chance to command your support characters’ special attacks. Holding both trigger buttons brings your transformations up.

It’s a simple fighting control scheme that is easy to get into, but there isn’t much room for complicated moves. Most combo moves involve punching the opponent until you send them flying and then shooting a special move at them. Rinse and repeat (with some blocking thrown in) and every fight feels the same more or less.

In the open world, you fly or run around to each objective or item. The game also offers vehicles or the nimbus cloud to travel on, but much like Saints Row 4, you can fly faster, so what is the point of having vehicles? The nimbus cloud is slow-moving and the hovercar doesn’t provide much in the way of enjoyable gameplay.

One of the more interesting features of DBZ: Kakarot is the community system. As you progress through the story, you earn tokens with a character on them. Each character can be put in an area that will give you slight bonuses. Z Warriors focus on battling, cooking, of course, affects the meals you make, and the list goes on. Each community can be upgraded by giving your characters gifts that you get for doing pretty much anything in the game.

The community system doesn’t make a huge impact on the game, but I found myself strategizing where each character should go a lot. Some will provide better bonuses if put with other characters and the sets can be changed to your preferences. To some, it may be a waste of time, but for how basic the communities are, I enjoyed at least looking through them.

Beautiful Focused Areas, Lacking Everywhere else

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot’s best moments happen during the iconic fights of the series. Goku vs. Vegeta (both times), Goku vs. Frieza, Gohan vs. Cell, Majin Vegeta vs. Buu, and Goku vs. Kid Buu stand apart from every other fight in the game because of the beautiful cut scenes that lead into them. You can tell the development team put a lot of emphasis on nailing the emotions and high intensity of these specific moments.

Unfortunately, everywhere else in the game takes a big step back in the form of production. Even in the main story, most scenes are played out with stationary models or still images. It’s a very noticeable difference that immediately takes you.out of the experience.

I think DBZ: Kakarot could have greatly benefitted from a delay. At the very least, making sure every story-related section of the game has a cut scene instead of the still image would have been a good start. Performance-wise, I dealt with a lot of stuttering especially when a fight first began, but also during times where a lot of energy blasts were being fired in battle. Other than that, the performance was fine aside from tiny bugs. I had characters running in place, flying in place, and one moment where I found an extra character model of Goku in the world, but nothing game-breaking. Now and then, characters wouldn’t move their mouth when talking in cut scenes and the save icon wouldn’t leave my screen until I rebooted the game.

Like I said, nothing terrible, but a short delay to put more time in could have gone a long way to making this a better game overall.

Conclusion

In conclusion, if you consider yourself a big Dragon Ball Z fan, you will enjoy DBZ: Kakarot. Everything you love about the show is covered, but not much has been added that is worthwhile. A disappointing open world with basic RPG mechanics does not make this a great selection for someone outside of the fandom. As an anime game, it’s good, if that says anything. Judged as a video game coming out in 2020, it is flawed and boring at times.

I am worried about how the game will age. Xenoverse tried to change things a little at least, and Fighterz delivered a good feeling fighting game. Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is not a great open world RPG. There is nothing that makes this game stand out or makes it memorable. It may be completely forgotten about by this time next year.

Final Score: 6/10

Hong Kong Instability Continues Without Realistic Objective

Corey Novoa

-

January 29, 2020

0

Hong Kong Instability Continues Without Realistic Objective

The confrontation in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HK SAR) between pro and anti-government forces is still raging with no clear end in sight. Protestors’ immediate demand that the extradition bill that ignited protests on 9 June be withdrawn from the legislative process was met on 23 October 2019, yet those anti-government forces in the HK SAR refuse to cease their protest activities or even agree to return to peaceful protest. Hong Kong has been in a state of civil and financial turmoil for seven months and the results have been detrimental to the city’s growth and future.

Those rioting in the streets and their superiors equally know that there is no chance for them to present a serious opposition to Beijing and it seems that their only real objective now is to spread chaos and fear. What many considered a democratic uprising with pure intentions at the outset has devolved into a nonsensical and futile exercise in flaunting authority.

“One Country, Two Systems” and the Basic Law in Hong Kong were always meant to be and outright stated to be temporary provisions that would come to an end in the year 2047 (50 years after the 1997 British handover). While it may be argued that the Communist Party on the mainland has not fully lived up to its promises and assurances, there was never the possibility of independence for the enclave.

To believe in this possibility is unrealistic and to attempt to persuade others is foolhardy and dangerous as seen in recent months.

Whether or not you stand with the central government or the protestors, there can be no denying that the situation has spiraled out of control and that the protestors have gone too far. It should be noted that I lived in mainland China for 2 years and traveled to Hong Kong at least every 60 days. In addition, I visited the HK SAR during the widespread escalation of belligerence seen in November 2019.

For three days and two nights, i watched the much admired and celebrated protestors tear apart the city. Stones from sidewalks and walkaways were torn up and placed in the road in incessant attempts to fortify makeshift roadblocks or to hurl at police forces. Fires were set and shops vandalized. All of this in the name of democracy and freedom. Continually viewed through tear gas irritated eyes and considered the worst behavior throughout the entire experience, was the harassment of those just trying to live their lives and go about their daily business.

These people (including elderly men and women, and children) would try their best to dismantle the roadblocks and clear the trash from the streets and in doing so, attract the ire of the ones who dumped it there. Physical assaults and verbal threats were extremely commonplace.

Fast-forward to January and the insanity has only increased. Anti-government forces have taken yet another shot at the local economy by splitting businesses and their products and services into “blue” and “yellow” camps. Blue represents the government and their supporters. Not content with outright destruction, now they seek to alienate and intimidate merchants who do not share their views. Statements about democracy from anti-government forces cannot be taken seriously anymore as they have shown their brand of democracy: you’re either with us or against us.

Mortars Hit U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Not Missiles as Originally Thought

Jason Collins

-

January 28, 2020

0

Mortars Hit U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Not Missiles as Originally Thought

On Sunday night the US Embassy in Baghdad was struck by what was originally thought to be 3 missiles. No one was killed, with one US National sustaining minor injuries, and the compound suffering some structural damage. Now, two days later, the weapons were confirmed to have been mortars shot by Iraqi protesters.

The Iraqi government condemned the attack on the US compound saying “Iraq affirms that such actions will not affect the level of strategic relations between Baghdad and Washington.” This mortar attack incited a new wave of tension between Iraqi military and the anti-government protesters that led to riots over the next days.

Read part of Iraq’s official statement here

The original conclusion of missile fire was disclosed by anonymous sources

A Russian Newspaper blew the attack out of proportion and you can read their account here

Iraq blames “unruly militia” for attacks and unrest

Iraqi police fire tear gas and live rounds into crowd of protesters

What Challenges Await New Mets Manager Luis Rojas?

Paul Lebowitz

-

January 27, 2020

0

What Challenges Await New Mets Manager Luis Rojas?

Luis Rojas’ rise to become a major-league manager was somewhat conventional…until he actually got the job.

He started at the lowest rung, did odd jobs and made incremental steps throughout his career until he first made it to a big-league dugout as the quality control coach on former manager Mickey Callaway’s staff with the New York Mets in 2019. After Callaway’s ouster, Rojas initially interviewed for the job to replace him, but was passed over for Carlos Beltran. He was set to remain on Beltran’s staff. With the Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal making its way to New York and engulfing Beltran as one of the player-ringleaders in the scheme, his parting with the club reopened the job. This time, the 38-year-old Rojas got the nod.

His introductory press conference was mundane with platitudes that the Mets and all organizations teach players and staff to use when speaking to the media. This was to be expected. Personality and star power is the last thing the Mets needed right now after the sudden end to Beltran’s reign, counted in days instead of years.

Still, Rojas will face challenges. How he handles them will dictate the success or failure of his tenure.

Garnering respect from the veterans

Many of the Mets young players already played for or worked with Rojas and expressed their happiness with the move. It’s the veteran players who need to be onboard. Would they have viewed Beltran any differently than Rojas because Beltran was a superstar player? Perhaps at first. However, if Beltran was making egregious strategic mistakes and was clumsy in manager-player relations, how fast would they turn on him?

Will there be instances where Rojas needs to discipline the players? There always are. It helps him that the Mets are generally populated by good guys. This is a byproduct from the reign of former GM Sandy Alderson. One of Alderson’s first orders of business when he took charge was to weed out problem players from the bottom of the organization to the top. Since Rojas was a key minor-league staff member, he was a necessary part of that process.

It will help him that the star, veteran players who are impossible to truly discipline – Jacob deGrom, Marcus Stroman, Michael Conforto – are not the type to give him grief. Noah Syndergaard might get on his nerves, but it won’t be to the Matt Harvey degree, the barometer for the Mets in how much they’re going to tolerate.

Yoenis Cespedes and Robinson Cano will run to first base at their own pace and hustle when they feel like it, but that would have been a problem with Beltran and any manager the Mets hired. Showalter or Dusty Baker would not have been able to do any more than Rojas to stop that. It helps that Rojas is Dominican and is on the same wavelength as Cano and Cespedes. Every manager they’ve had shrugged it off out of necessity. The discipline will be closer to “Don’t make me look bad to the other players” and not “YOU’RE BENCHED!!!”

The days of the Ralph Houk/Billy Martin-type closing the door to the manager’s office and challenging players to a fight ended 35 years ago and it doesn’t matter who the manager is.

Steve Cohen’s pending majority ownership and how it impacts the club

Rojas signed a two-year contract with options. It sounds short-term, but Beltran’s contract was for three years. Most managers hired today sign short-term deals. Even the “name” managers who were hired this offseason – Joe Girardi and Joe Maddon with the Philadelphia Phillies and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim respectively – signed three-year contracts. Obviously, Rojas’ deal is for less money and with far less say-so than those decorated MLB managers have, but the duration is not significantly different.

According to the New York Post, the Mets current front office led by Brodie Van Wagenen is concerned about its future if and when Steve Cohen takes control of the club. This will have a direct impact on Rojas. Of course, it’s possible that Cohen will come in with a wrecking ball and clean house to bring in his own people. Barring a World Series win in 2020, there is little that can be done to change that. It’s likely in the back of their minds, but as a main objective in ingratiating themselves with the incoming majority owner, it’s relatively pointless.

Cohen has the cash to go in whatever direction he wants.

If he wants to buy a championship fast, Dave Dombrowski specializes in that style of operation and is out there waiting for his next opportunity.

If he wants to go the data-centric route, he would have no compunction in hiring the currently suspended Jeff Luhnow to run the team.

Either way, Van Wagenen’s status is tenuous. Rojas? Judging by the history of the two extremes mentioned – Dombrowski and Luhnow – he’s exactly the type of manager they would hire. Dombrowski thought outside the box when hiring Brad Ausmus when he was running the Detroit Tigers and Alex Cora when he was running the Boston Red Sox. Luhnow likes younger managers with the skill set Rojas brings to the table.

You never know until you know

Had Twitter been in existence in 2000, the hot takes and savage assessments of the New England Patriots hiring Bill Belichick would still be rehashed, retweeted and mocked for the past two decades and forevermore. And after his five years in Cleveland as head coach of the Browns – pockmarked with the team moving to Baltimore and Belichick’s miserable personality alienating a significant portion of the organization, the media and its fan base – those assessments would not have been wrong.

Many of the best managers and coaches in sports came from nowhere and elicited confusion and outright anger. On the other hand, name managers and coaches have taken jobs with great fanfare and enthusiasm only to see their tenures end in disaster.

Trey Hillman had a sterling resume when he was hired to manage the Kansas City Royals after the 2007 season. In fact, he was on the short list to replace Joe Torre as manager of the New York Yankees and might have gotten the job given his relationship with general manager Brian Cashman and how respected he was within the organization. It was only when he was managing the Royals that his flaws were clear. He was inconsistent with his strategies, could not handle the media (in Kansas City – imagine him in New York!), and accrued a 152-207 record in two-plus seasons before being fired.

Torre himself was ridiculed as a mediocre journeyman manager when he replaced Buck Showalter as Yankees manager in 1996. Showalter is now categorized as the old-school manager many teams avoid so the front office can maintain control. At the time the Yankees hired him in 1993, he was using statistics, arcane numbers and his own analysis to decide how to deploy his players. Showalter’s minor-league managing bona fides are eerily similar to Rojas’.

Terry Francona had spent four years managing a bad Philadelphia Phillies team with the results to prove it. After he was fired, he spent three years in a variety of jobs in front offices and on other managers’ staffs before being a surprise – and questionable – hire for the Red Sox to replace the reviled Grady Little. Look at him now.

In a link to Rojas, his father Felipe Alou was passed over for the Montreal Expos managing job in favor of a new, hot name in Tom Runnels. The veteran Expos players shook their head at the 36-year-old Runnels. He didn’t help his cause by arriving at a spring training game in military fatigues and saying, “We have to win today.” Remember, it was spring training.

That he later said it was a joke – and it probably was – is irrelevant. When he was fired, he was replaced by Alou who was an organizational lifer, had been intensely loyal to the Expos, had respect throughout the organization and in baseball in general, and whose deftness at handling the clubhouse in making strategic decisions was welcomed. Alou epitomized being in the right place at the right time to get the opportunity previous denied him, the same as his son.

How these men got the job means nothing. The opportunity supersedes credentials.

If the resumes of Beltran and Rojas were placed side by side in a blind taste test, who would have been the better choice? The former star player who had never managed a game in his life or the young baseball lifer from a decorated family in the sport who worked his way up from the bottom? Beltran’s star power might have gotten him the job, but Rojas’ resume may have earned it.

Rojas is well-equipped to do the job effectively. His future depends on his results on and off the field. It could be argued that he should have gotten the job in the first place. Like all managers, the only way to determine whether it was the right hire will be in retrospect.

St. Thomas Residents Say Epstein’s “Pedophile Island” Was “Open Secret”

Crime

Jason Collins

-

January 27, 2020

0

St. Thomas Residents Say Epstein’s “Pedophile Island” Was “Open Secret”

Jeffrey Epstein made his home on the island of St. James, just two miles off the coast of the St. Thomas Islands. Reporters went there to see what the locals knew about the situation and discovered that what was going on there was a kind of “open secret.”

He gave generously to the government and school there but, per Attorney General Denise George, “I do not think he was regarded as an upstanding member of the community…It was public knowledge that he was a registered sex offender.” Other members of the local community, including charter boat captains and helicopter pilots, also made statements that they were concerned about the goings on.

Read more about the web of companies Epstein used on St Thomas here.

Accused Quadruple Murderer claims he tried to save Epstein in jail

Epstein’s first attempted suicide may have its own court hearing

Accused madam of Epstein’s organization’s personal emails were hacked

Ghislaine Maxwell was hacked due to unredacted federal information

Remembering the Holocaust 75 Years after Liberation of Auschwitz

Jason Collins

-

January 27, 2020

0

Remembering the Holocaust 75 Years after Liberation of Auschwitz

Today, January 27th, 2020, marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of one of the most horrific and infamous places on earth, Auschwitz. In memorium of those who were killed, Polish President Andrzej Duda walked through the gates with some of the survivors, all wearing striped scarves as a symbol of the uniforms they wore. Hundreds attended, coming from all over the world to pay their respects.

The common highlight of all of the interviews done that day, other than an outpouring of love and loss, was the need to remember the atrocities that occurred. A tearful plea from one of the survivors, Jeanette Spiegel, “Young people should understand that nothing is for sure, that some terrible things can happen and they have to be very careful. And that, God forbid, what happened to the Jewish people then should never be repeated.”

Political clash after Putin stated that Poland triggered WWII

Two US soldiers who were present discuss the liberation

A discussion on the events of the Holocaust and the relevance to today

Coronavirus Found in USA

Jason Collins

-

January 26, 2020

0

The deadly coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, China has been spreading to other Asian countries and, now, to the United States. The first case was of a man in his 30’s in Washington state who had just recently visited Wuhan. The new case is a woman in her mid 60’s who flew back to Chicago from Wuhan this weekend. The patient was not showing symptoms while on the flight, so the heath authorities have reported that they are not concerned with spread of the virus on the flight Both patients are in stable condition and are expected to fully recover.

More on how the CDC is handling the potential outbreak

How is the virus affecting China?

New hospital built in Wuhan area to handle influx of patients

Shanghai Disneyland closes “indefinitely” until virus outbreak is contained

Chinese officials close historic landmarks to tourism

Oculus Hand Tracking on the Quest, Potentially Coming to the Rift S

Evan Federowicz

-

January 25, 2020

0

Oculus Hand Tracking on the Quest, Potentially Coming to the Rift S

Oculus has introduced hand tracking to the Oculus Quest system earlier this year but is currently waiting to add the hand tracking feature to Oculus Rift S. The Oculus Quest being able to offer hand tracking makes this already affordable entry-device into the world of VR that much easier to both uses (being that your hands are now the controllers) and more comfortable to hide away, having to hide away just the headset itself rather than the controllers as well.

“We started [hand-tracking] with the Quest platform first, and we’re going to listen to the feedback from Quest as we roll out this feature, and will evaluate the technical challenges of bringing it to other devices [like Rift S],” an Oculus spokesperson tells Road to VR. This quote from an Oculus spokesperson shows how Oculus is seeing how the hand tracking feature is doing on the Oculus Quest.

Oculus adding full hand-tracking to its Quest line of VR headsets is a big deal for mainly two reasons. The first reason is that it was merely a software update, meaning no extra hardware was needed to enable this feature, this means that potentially all current-generation headsets produced by Oculus could offer this feature. The second main reason that this is a big deal is that the Valve Index was the only headset to offer full native hand-tracking, which costs double what the Oculus Quest costs.

This could potentially upset the monopoly that Valve has had on the VR market, being the only headset to offer hand-tracking. One advantage that the Oculus Quest has over the Valve Index is its wireless capabilities of both installing games natively to the headset itself or streaming games from your PC through WiFi or the newer Oculus Link.

Hand-tracking will drastically change the immersion that virtual reality offers, as shown by the Valve Index. The Valve Index was the first VR headset to provide true hand-tracking capabilities, and this was done by the unique design of the controllers included with the headset. This fantastic feature did come at an expensive cost, making the Valve Index (with the controllers) costing $999 while other VR headsets like the Oculus Quest comes in at half the price for the 128 GB model.

The way that the Oculus Quest offers hand-tracking is different from how the Valve Index handles it; instead of the Oculus Quest controllers being able to track each finger independently, the Quest’s camera follows each finger instead. The cost is a considerable deduction from the typical cost, as the Valve Index was the only VR headset to offer full hand-tracking. The cheapest version of the Oculus Quest All-in-one VR gaming headset (being the 64 GB version) costs $399 on Amazon. This is substantially cheaper than the Valve Index.

This is a fantastic advancement for virtual reality technology as a whole, as Oculus has stated that they are waiting on feedback from the community on whether or not to bring this feature to the Oculus Rift S. This feature just being released to see the overall impact on the games being produced will take a fair amount of time, but with some games already offering full hand-tracking means that the VR industry should slowly start to see a change to most current headsets providing this feature.

Pixel Street Podcast 88: PS5/Xbox Series X Wishlist, Dying Light 2 Delayed, and More

John Hansen

-

January 24, 2020

0

Pixel Street Podcast 88: PS5/Xbox Series X Wishlist, Dying Light 2 Delayed, and More

This week on the Pixel Street Podcast:

John and Connor are joined by Chad and Holden from Respawn Aim Fire to give PS5/Xbox Series X wishlists and predictions, talk about all the games being delayed, and more!

Be sure to follow @pixelstreetpod on Twitter and let us know what you think of the show!

Wuhan Virus Offers Opportunity for Decades-Old Adversaries

Corey Novoa

-

January 23, 2020

0

Wuhan Virus Offers Opportunity for Decades-Old Adversaries

With the emergence of a new strain of the coronavirus, (named 2019-nCoV) in mid-December 2019, scientists, government officials, and common citizens alike hold their breath in anticipation. Though initially detected in Wuhan, Hubei province in the People’s Republic of China, the virus has quickly spread to neighboring areas (Japan, Thailand, South Korea, and Taiwan) as well as further afield (the United States.)

It is still unclear whether 2019-nCoV will mutate and present the same type of threat as the 2002-03 SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) pandemic, but what is clear are the mounting deaths and infections. As of this moment, 17 lives have been claimed with 95 reported in critical condition. Worldwide, over 600 have been confirmed infected. It was revealed that the virus can be spread through human contact, rather than solely through animals. Currently, there is no vaccine available to fight against the virus.

Globally, governments and the WHO (World Health Organization) are appraising the situation and deciding on the appropriate measures to take. For example, the city of Wuhan itself has become a quarantined zone along with the two neighboring cities Ezhou and Chibi. Public transport in and out of these cities has been stopped completely. People are being allowed to leave, but only after enduring a screening process that involves the taking of the subject’s temperature.

However, in the East Asia region of the world, a unique opportunity presents itself to two long-standing adversaries: the overwhelmingly recognized People’s Republic of China and the Republic of China (who lost 2 diplomatic allies and official recognition thereof) this past year. Outbreaks such as 2019-nCoV greatly challenge humanity, but also provide us with the condition(s) to enhance cooperation and understanding.

Since the January reelection of incumbent, Tsai Ing-wen, relations between the two have only become frostier. Beijing is weary of Tsai’s independence-minded stance on the “One China Principle”, which was supported by the opposition political party years ago in 1992. Both sides are reluctant to engage in any sort of behavior that they believe would cede their authority as a sovereign state. However, there have been limited improvements in Cross-Strait relations, notably trade and investment, air travel, and supplies of humanitarian aid during trying circumstances. These are all positive steps, but further measures are an absolute necessity.

The next logical move is for the inclusion of the Republic of China into the WHO. Pressure from Beijing has impeded this thus far, but now is no time for petty politics to play any role.

Taiwan is an island with a population hovering around 24 million souls and it has already recorded its first infection from the virus. Health and safety must take precedence here. Citizens of the ROC live and work in the PRC and travel back and forth, especially during the Lunar New Year (which is now upon us) and they must be represented and their government allowed to participate in any policy discussion.

Regardless of which side of the debate one is on (if any at all), the position in Beijing can be understood, but it is now time for a relaxation of the public relations war. There is no longer a need to jockey for influence in such matters; the PRC does not risk losing recognition from the 179 United Nations members it maintains. Authorities on the mainland risk losing prestige if they continue to bar Taiwan from such vital organizations, especially during a time where human well-being is threatened.

Any such reversal of tension would benefit the global community and bring the two sides closer in another aspect of international relations. ROC ascension to the WHO is a win-win for both and a demonstration that normal relations can be achieved.