88 Flood in Southern Taiwan

When Heaven is about to place a great responsibility on a great man, it always first frustrates his spirit and will, exhausts his muscles and bones, exposes him to starvation and poverty, harasses him by troubles and setbacks so as to stimulate his spirit, toughen his nature and enhance his abilities. ~~Mencius

It's Father's Day in Taiwan, August 8th. Who would have known that Typhoon Morakot should bring torrential rain, seriously hit southern Taiwan, leave thousands of people (mainly aboriginal) homeless on Father's Day?

Just one day ago, we looked forward to Morako's coming to quench the thirst of water at the major Taiwanese reservoirs. But Morakot turned to be an ugly guest in-deed, buried a whole village in the mudslide, washed off bridges and building in the river, made Taiwan headline news internationally.

I paid attention to television to see if I could find any search-and-rescue (SAR) dogs and their trainers (Caroline Hebard and colleagues) to the search and rescue of the unprecedented natural disaster—88 Flood in Southern Taiwan, but I failed to find them to assist in the location of lost persons and disaster victims. Maybe we don't have SAR in Taiwan. But, what about foreign SARs? Where are they?

Taiwan was seriously wounded by 88 Flood in the south in 2009 financially, politically, geographically. Less than a decade ago, Taiwan was seriously wounded by 921 earthquake in the center in 1999 financially, politically, geographically. Who knows, maybe in less than a decade in the future, Taiwan will be seriously wounded by whatever disaster in the north in 2019 financially, politically, geographically if not sooner. It is time we took action to get prepared!

While everybody is busy donating money to help reconstruct the devastated southern Taiwan, it is more urgent we plan for the future. Prevention is the Cure. In case of earthquake, in case of flood, in case of endemic H1N1 avian flu, what should be aware of to avoid detrimental and harmful consequences?

Taiwan may be wounded by natural diasters one after another. But Taiwanese won't be discouraged by a little bad luck from time to time. On the contrary, we cherish every new challenge in front of us, so that we can grow stronger and wiser.