A nice government building?

Sundays are normally stay in days as I don't like going out when it's crowded. However, sometimes it's nice to make a change especially if I get to go to new places.

It's not difficult to believe this is the local city government building. Where do you think tax payer money normally goes 😉? Judging by the people around, you can probably tell this is a very big building. The panel on the left is a massive TV screen. This is just one side of the building, there's another side on the left of the screen which is equally large.

There's a large public space in front of the building. Back in June, one of the presidential candidate held a supporters gathering here and claimed that 20k people attended. Depending on how much you believe in a politician's word, that gives you an idea on how big this space is.

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Anyway, I'm not here today to slag off the authorities. The reason I came to the city government building on a Sunday is to watch a couple of documentaries organised by the Public Television Service. The PTS is like a state run TV station but not the type that brain wash you with rubbish and propaganda. They produce rather dull, informative, diversify, non entertaining programs that the commercial stations don't broadcast. Today's screening (free, I have to add) is a series of documentaries which is part of the 2019 Best of INPUT.

The viewing was held in the auditorium and the today's topic was called Tech Savvy Civil Resistance. This is about the role of technology, specifically mobile phones in civil movements. The first documentary is called The People on the Steps. It's about the force and abuse the Spanish National Police exerted on some Catalonia citizens when they tried to vote in the referendum for independence in 2017. The second is called On the Spot : Smart World Tech Monks. It's about Tibetian monks in exile in India, and how they use mobile phone to stay in touch with their families back home.

Neither films were ones that I would normally choose to watch. However, both proved very interesting, and sometimes it's good to go beyond your normal genre and explore new things. In particular, I found the first documentary very resonating.

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After the viewing finished, the big event poster outside the auditorium had been put to one side. They were already setting up tomorrow's event - Invest in Taichung City. I thought it was a bit of an irony. Today's public service event had hardly finished yet, and the local government couldn't wait for their next event to go grab some money. (I know, I know, I said I wouldn't slag them off)

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I took the stairs down from the fourth floor. Got to the atruim to admire the art lamp posts, and the massive open space. Nice building...