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Taiwan Remembers September 21 Earthquake
As the one year anniversary of the "9.21" Taiwan earthquake approaches, there have recently been a series of activities in Taiwan to commemorate those who died from the earthquake and encourage people to move on with their lives.
Sunday evening, a concert held in Taipei was attended by nearly 10,000 people and a requiem was held to remember the dead. Monday morning, more than 8,500 went swimming in Sun Moon Lake in Nantou county. At the same time, there was an agricultural product trade fair in the same area. The organizers of the fair say that they want to use this opportunity to stimulate tourism to Nantou county and show everyone the results of the rebuilding process after the earthquake last year.
On September 21 at 1:47 in the morning, people will hold a vigil at the Nantou train station. They not only want to comfort those who were injured in the earthquake but encourage people to get over the tragedy and move on with their lives.
There was one summer camp for children hurt by the earthquake that carved a huge "9.21 earthquake" ice sculpture and asked the children to break it to symbolize that they've conquered their fears from the earthquake.
Some organizations have arranged for students to take trips to visit areas which have been transformed by the earthquake and listen to geologists explain the geological structure and landscape before and after an earthquake. Also on September 20, Nantou county will hold an earthquake safety drill.
Wine producers in Nantou and Puli, which rebuilt their factories after the earthquake, introduced 5,000 boxes of "September 21 Commemorative Wine" to the market on September 7. The first book about the experience of displaced families this past year will also be published soon.
Aside from the commemorative activities, some activities have been criticizing how slowly the rebuilding process has been. The "September 21 Earthquake Victim Alliance" recently held a press conference to criticize how slow the disaster areas has been rebuilding. On September 6, they held a campout at Chongxing village, spending the nights in tents to express that "the rebuilding has slowed so that the victims must go back to living in tents." They called for Taiwan politicians to follow up on their promises made while they were campaigning for office.
The local media has also done its part to commemorate the anniversary. Many television stations in Taiwan are producing specials on the earthquake. News agencies, newspapers and websites are also opening special sections to remember the earthquake.
Aside from the emotional aspect of the commemorative activities, people are starting to do some soul searching. Recently, several organizations have held a series of symposiums to study and analyze the problems arising from the earthquake. One television station held a panel discussion to talk about the public responsibility of the media reporting disasters.
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