Taipei, sometimes things are different

Sometimes the sea is different
Originally uploaded by orange tuesday

An osscillating siren purred like an overbearing cat, increasing in pitch, then falling, fading away, only to increase in pitch again. This noise signal the start of a military drill in Taipei and six other cities in North Taiwan.

The siren osscillated several times and on the last osscillation, the pitch fall into a long, slow eerie death. At the death, people are suppose to be off the streets. To check this I needed to go outside on to my balcony.

Indeed the street seems quiet and I look down to the intersection. No traffic, thought there were still people on the streets and some motorcycles on the side roads. Two policeman had taken up position on the intersection. One stopped an old lady crossing the road, whilst the other forced a motorcyclist to get off his bike.

What made this sight more bizarre was that traffic lights were still changing colour. Turning green, to amber, to red and back again.

It's easy to forget that Taiwan and China are at odds. Everyday life, evades this fact. Everyday, the world turns, there's day and then there's night. People get up, eat breakfast, work, eat lunch, work, go home, eat dinner, watch TV, have sex, sleep. Just another extraordinary day to some and to others, just another ordinary day.

There's no mass fear in Taiwan about China, at least not that I can detect. People are too busy, making money, living, studying to worry about things like this. But it's times like this, when everything stops that makes you think 'What if'. What if China thinks it hard enough? What would it do? Taiwan is so small and densely populated that an enraged China could do an immense about of damage. But then would it be worth it for China? Who knows? I don't have answers to such questions.

Perhaps, every city should have those drills. Once a year, for 30 minutes, people must get off the streets, stop what they're doing and think or talk or do something different. It could have a theme '30 minutes changing the world time' or '30 minutes of love'.

It's three o'clock again. The siren sounds again, this time a one long wail and a short falling pitch to mark its death.

I rush outside to see what's happening. Already, there are cars on the street. People get onto motorcycles. Life starts again. The exercise is over and for another year, I'll probably forget about the situation between Taiwan and China.