A Taiwan Fable: When Life Urgently Needs Rescue, the Principal Insists on 'Following Regulations' Bureaucratic Logic

A student collapses in the classroom. The teacher immediately prepares to drive him to the hospital.

❌ Principal: No! Your car is not a qualified ambulance!

Principal: “No! Your car is not a qualified ambulance; you can’t use it!”

Teacher: “Okay, then I’ll call an ambulance.”

Principal: “Well, it’s not that you can’t! But you need to provide the ambulance’s:

  1. Application for execution duty area range;
  2. Administrator identification documents;
  3. Manager license and identification documents;
  4. Ambulance personnel certificates;
  5. Ambulance personnel identification documents;
  6. Ambulance driver professional driver's license;
  7. Other documents designated by local health authority;
  8. Compulsory vehicle liability insurance."

Teacher: “You can ask for anything, can I call the ambulance now?”

Principal: “No! The school must take the lead. This concerns the student’s life; I do everything according to regulations.”

Teacher: “Aren’t you making this difficult? This is a life-saving matter!”

Principal: “I’m not making it difficult! The school must safeguard student safety.”

🛒 Final Purpose: Purchasing School Ambulance

Teacher: “Then what exactly do you want?”

Principal: “At the end-of-semester school affairs meeting, please support the school’s proposal to purchase an ambulance for the school. Once the vehicle is purchased, we can transport that student to the hospital.”


💬 Fable Commentary

A note: According to rumor, critical comments will face fines! So now we read only fables!

Sometimes solutions that are easy, that could save a life, become evasive bureaucratic logic within the system.

What government absolutely must never do is have politicians use people’s lives and economics as gambling stakes and leverage.