I recently read this paragraph on a website (https://taiwancanhelp.us), but I'm a bit confused about if the grammar is correct in these two sentences:
- "Taiwan, having been isolated from the World Health Organization, knows."
The author used 'having been' in this sentence, even though this status is still true now (being isolated from the WHO).
I thought 'having been' is used to describe something that happened in the past, but no longer in the present?
In this case, shouldn't the sentence be "Taiwan, who has always been isolated from the WHO, knows."?
Or can 'having been' be used in this context, even though what it's describing is still a fact in the present time?
- "That is why we are contributing to international efforts by sharing how we have contained the outbreak, kept our schools and businesses open, and ensured masks for all."
This sentence also confused me a bit. The context of this sentence is saying that Taiwan is sharing its strategy with others on how the country has contained the outbreak without shutting schools and businesses, and how the country can secure the quantity of masks for its citizens.
Instead of using a comma, would '...how we have contained the outbreak while keeping our schools and businesses open' or '...how we have contained the outbreak without shutting our schools and businesses' suit the context better? (or not making any difference?)
Also, I find 'ensured masks for all' a bit odd to read. Somehow it feels like some info is missing... I do understand that the author might want to keep the sentence as short as possible for better reading experience, but somehow it sounds strange to me while reading.
Is this a correct usage of the term 'ensure'? If not, how can the sentence be improved?
Ps. This website is a crowd-funded campaign in Taiwan, so I've read the original Mandarin content before it was translated into English (making it hard for me to judge if the grammar will affect people's understanding of the context). I'm just very curious about if the grammar of these two sentences are correct, and if not, will this kind of minor errors affect people's understanding of the context?
Thank you in advance! Hope everyone is safe and sound. :)