爆長的莫拉克颱風碎碎念文.....
For the first time, I was reluctant to fit a picture to one of my blog entries. The idea of cheerfully going online, searching for a nice little picture or photo of the aftermath of a storm, and carefully editing or decorating it via photoshop simply felt far too inappropriate this time... for this is, without question, extremely far from a rejoicing matter.
Just recently the attention of everyone - not only in Taiwan, but the entire world - has been drawn to the terrible disaster Typhoon Morakot has thrown behind on the island. It saddened me to remember that before the typhoon landed in Taiwan, everyone took it so lightly - just like how they had treated the countless number of typhoons in the years that have gone before. I guess I don't blame them - for typhoons are indeed a common enough occurence during this season every year. Yet the photos, the flashes of news on TV, the descriptions on the internet - all illustrating an unbelievable degree of destruction and the fact that this typhoon caused the worst flooding in Taiwan in 50 years - stung me and made me wonder aloud (surely like so many other people right now)... why? Why didn't they prepare for this better? Why were people starting to underesimate the strength and power of typhoons and how much permanent damage it is exactly capable of making? But no matter how much we regret now, time cannot be turned back and the tragedy cannot be reversed.
I did not realize the horrifying results of the typhoon until I took notice of the fact that the piece of news in the daily paper rapidly increased in length and size. I mean, from a few brief lines in the side column to a reasonably sized article at the bottom of the World page, and from that to about half of the page... it must be pretty seriously bad (Especially for the fact that Taiwan hardly ever makes it to even a brief note in the paper at all). And then watching the videos of 知本金帥大飯店 tumbling into 知本溪 (being close to home just made it so much worse), and the Taiwan High Speed Railway travelling literally on water, and the hundreds of homeless people desperate for any form of help as their homes and loved ones were submerged in water did not lessen the shock. There was one piece of headline yesterday on the internet about a woman who lost all thirty members of her family in a landslide. All thirty - in an instant. The description of her despair and complete utter devastation had an undescribable impact on me even as a reader... I can't imagine how she must be feeling now. Also how an old man and his grandson lived on spring water and a couple of biscuits for three days, and of course the three heroic crew who sacrificed during a rescue as their helicopter crashed into a cliff.... oh there were so many upsetting news which I cannot bear to describe a second time.
Seeing this disaster does make me wonder, though, about whether the conservation department had made enough effort to do their job properly. Why were there so many landslides in remote areas of the country? Were they just a coincidence? Was the typhoon "too powerful" so the floods and landslides were unavoidable? Or was there actually something the people in charge of land conservation could have done to prevent this? Yes, it does make people wonder, doesn't it..... Now somehow this reminds me of how - before their bodies were found - the village chief of one of the sacrificed pilots barged into his home and told his poor old mother straight out that her only son had died in the rescue mission. Absolutely horrifically shocking. Just how insensitive can these politicians get!? Informing his death to family members while it was still unconfirmed.... and to his mother who were intended to be kept from the truth by other members of the family (who had already realized the unlikely survival of the pilot)? Perhaps the mayor meant well, perhaps he was only preparing them for the worst.... yet there was definitely a better way to do this. It was simply too heart-breaking to read what the pilot's mother said - something along the lines of "Please do everything you can to find him, he is my only son."
On a brighter note, there was one thing that touched me to the core, and that was the willingness of so many Taiwanese to reach out a helping hand in this time of need. It made my heart warm to read that within half a day of asking for donations, thousands of boxes of noodles and water were received. It made me realize there is kindness in the world after all, and these people who are so desperately trying to improve the situation are the ones who bring a thin glimmer of hope to the victims of this tragedy who are now in the deepest end of despair.
So let us mourn for the families that have been forever separated by life and death, forever wounded by this devastating event, forever scarred by this horrific experience. Let us empathize with them for their loss of homes, safety, and having perhaps everything they have ever had in their lives mercilessly stripped off them. But at the same time we rejoice with those who have made it through safe and whole, alive and well, and have been fortunate enough to reunite with their loved ones. For there is always hope at the end of darkness, and everything - no matter how bad - will pass in the end. If this is God's will, then so be it... because as the Bible states, "God closes one door while opening another one for you." I know a simple phrase will do nothing to soothe the people involved now, but I hope it would give them a tiny bit of comfort to know someone is looking out for them, and to keep in mind that the entire world is looking on and praying for them. They were not alone and they never will be. Even though I am not in the country with them physically, I am with them spiritually and it does pain me to see so much tears and yet not being able to do anything about them because of the vast distance separating the two countries (although who am I to talk, really? Since I am one of the fortunate ones not to have known anyone involved in the catastrophes). May God bless Taiwan, may my hometown survive this cruel thrashing of Typhoon Morakot, and soon restore its beauty and peace to what it once had.
