The earthquake that hit Taiwan last week caused some pretty horrific damage to a few buildings in the city of Tainan, where Stacy’s parents live.
We went for a walk, and could see a collapsed building off in the distance.
Pile of dirt was dumped in front of the building to stablize it, and to allow a crane to work on it.
Good thing the building fell at the angle that it did. If it had fallen to the other side, it could have hit the gas station and caused a fire.
One way to discover the strength of a society is to see how its people act when things go wrong.
The day before the new year holiday, we traveled down to the city of Tainan. Because of the big earthquake, the high-speed train was not running. Everyone who had tickets on the high-speed train (us) had the option of standing on the regular train. It was crowded and hot, and standing on the train was tiring. Nevertheless, all of the passengers behaved like civilized people. Passengers with seats gave them to women carrying babies.
We couldn’t believe how quiet everyone was. I shot a short video clip of inside the train car to show how civilized people behave under inconvenient circumstances. Turn up your speakers, because it’s hard to hear anything at all.
Now imagine what it would sound like in a similar train if this were shot on a train in a different country.