Quake starts virtuous cycle
At 7.58am on April 3, Taiwan was struck by an earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale, the strongest quake to hit Taiwan since the 921 Earthquake of September 1999.
This month’s quake caused serious damage in many places, with Hualien County being the hardest hit.
Search and rescue teams from home and abroad, and emergency personnel threw themselves into their tasks so that people trapped by the earthquake could reach safety, and communications and people’s lives could return to normal as soon as possible. Many tales of heroism were reported, but there were no major disasters and most people’s lives were hardly affected.
Japanese observers were amazed by the cubicle tents that the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation set up for disaster victims in reception centers, providing privacy and shelter. Some Japanese Internet users lamented that Japan had been outdone by the thoughtfulness of Taiwanese, but actually Japan has also done very well in the field of disaster response.
Taiwan and Japan are both island nations in earthquake regions. If a country is prone to disasters, it can prompt the state to establish comprehensive building regulations, while the public learns lessons, gains experience and grows wiser.
An American reporter remarked that it was hard to imagine how many people would be killed and injured if a magnitude 7.2 earthquake hit the US and how long it would take to get back to normal.
Social resilience depends on experience. Since the 921 Earthquake, Taiwan has comprehensively improved its architectural safety standards, This helped to mitigate this latest disaster.
The same is true of Taiwan’s production of electronic chips, which is of great concern to the world. Although some production lines in the factories of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co had to be shut down immediately following the quake, more than 70 percent of them were back in operation after 10 hours and 80 percent were up and running by the following day.
Every disaster is a test of the government and public. At the time of the 921 Earthquake, the international community was worried that there would be a shortage of silicon wafers, but supply returned to normal after just a month. The recovery following this month’s earthquake has been even faster, partly because there was hardly any interruption to water and electricity supplies.
Since the recent earthquake, Taiwan’s ruling and opposition parties have formed a firmer consensus on replacing aging buildings. Especially when it comes to home owners who were previously unwilling to undergo urban renewal, this earthquake has reminded them that danger is ever present.
This might explain why Taiwan’s benchmark stock index climbed nearly 400 points on April 9, and why stocks that rose were not only those of high-end chip and other technologies, but also those of construction companies.
Events following the Hualien earthquake have also revealed a virtuous cycle in international exchanges and interactions. Following Japan’s Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 and the one that struck Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture on Jan. 1, many Japanese were moved by the generous assistance offered by Taiwan’s government and opposition parties.
Looking back 25 years to the 921 Earthquake, the first foreign rescue team to arrive in Taiwan came from Turkey. In February last year, Taiwan sent a search and rescue team to help Turkey after it was hit by a devastating earthquake, and Turkish media reported the team’s work widely and gratefully before it returned to Taiwan.
Such examples of mutual aid and cooperation have repeatedly shown the humanitarian spirit and friendship that exists in the international community.
Lee Shang
Taipei
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