Heroes, made by the, circumstances here, the acts of, altruism, in the recent attack of a stranger on the MRT in Taichung, off of the Front Page Sections, translated…
At around 10:50 on the morning of May 21st, I got out of the high-speed rail station, transferred to the adjacent platform for the Taichung MRT, I got on that last about-to-set-out train. I was last to get on, but it wasn’t, much to choose from, so I’d, sat down by the priority seat next to the door, unimaginably, I witnessed, the attacks of passengers on the Taichung M.R.T. trains from beginning to end.
The train was moving speedily, I closed my eyes, in meditation, thought about the lecture I was to give this afternoon, “was Taiping Island an island or is it just, a reef?”, this question is filled with the ambiguities, and the eccentricity on its own, but will the students care? This course I’m teaching is in the name of the oceanography, or is it, a power struggle of, international, politics?
In my meditation, suddenly I’d heard from the left, “knife! Knife!”, then, the screaming, escaping passengers flew past my sight. I’d turned to look back, the left side of the train, already, completely, vacant. There were, three, to five, passengers who were, brawling toward me. I’d decided, to not move an inch, took my laptop carrier from my back, placed it in front of me, to use as a shield; then, wrapped the carrying strap around my right wrist, to be used as a whiplash like a weapon to defend myself with. As everything had been set, I’d, turned on my cell phone and, started recording the brawl, and, in a split second’s time, the fight was to my immediate, left; one of the individual with blood running down his face, a sharpened gaze, glared at me (that was the one that the online called “ponytail guy” later); then, with his back turned towards me, he’d, looked straight at the perpetrator (the one in the brown shirt), kept moving backwards, defensively. Then suddenly, my sight was block by a large man who was wearing black, he’d, arched his back, moved toward the perp with the knife head on! Later, I’d learned, that he was, stepping up, fighting the attacker, to protect his own, wife who’s, seated behind him.
This man in the black shirt was, brave beyond any doubt, he’d moved forward, blocked my view, and separated me from the danger zones. The perp moved away from the guy in the ponytail, with the knife in his right hand, started swing the knife forward, and at this moment, there is, no more, extra, room in the train, everybody was cramped behind the man in the black shirt. And, none of us knew, how the man in the black dodged the sharpened blade, and how he’d, managed to get behind the perp, using his left arm, to keep the hand with the knife pinned, and wrapped his right arm around the perp so he couldn’t, move, pinned him to the door on the left side, and, the train had arrived in City Hall station then, the door on the right side slid open, and everybody rushed out to escape; but the passengers cramped on the left side of the train, squeezed tight behind the man in the black shirt, started using their fists, and started beating at the head of the subdued perp, and of them, was the foreign woman who was chased down by him (in a blue top with the white flowers, her back covered in blood, don’t know when she got the blood on her).
I’d estimated, that the whole thing took around, fifty-six seconds, the start of the incident was at around 11:16:50 in the morning give or take. In the process, the man in shorts that grabbed the knife away from the perp’s hand, the man who’d chased after the perp with his umbrella, who’d mistakenly hit the wrong person, the brave guy who fought the perp in the, ponytail, along with the man in the black shirt, who’d cornered the perp, scene after scene, the members of the public all chipped in, to dissolve what may have easily turned into, a bloodshed situation.
I was quite calm in the time being, but later on, I’d felt, shocked when nothing was, happening, that very evening, I couldn’t, fall, asleep. My friends told me to go to the temples to get exorcised, or to go to counseling. At the time, in that closed in space, if everybody did nothing, allowing the perp to attack, I can’t imagine the outcomes. This was, an unscripted cooperation by strangers without notice beforehand, the scenes came too fast one right after the next, and the next, testing your courage, your strength, as well as, your love.
Our society is ill, but, there are more people, with the love, who are healthy, and brave. The group of strangers worked together, in a short minute’s time, ended this, might have turned into bloodshed of a crisis. I’m grateful to those whom I’d shared the trains with on the day, wishing them the best. May the heavens watch over this world, this world can have a little less of the violence, the society, more at, peace.
So, this is, how the individuals in this, situation stepped up, to keep each other safe, and you only need a person, to step up first, then the rest of the crowd will, follow suit, and thankful, this incident wasn’t an embodiment of the bystander effect, the diffusion of responsibilities, otherwise, it wouldn’t have ended like it had, with only minor, injuries, and no death!
Mirroring the World 