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A day out with Dae-hoon
Farncis Dae-hoon Lee promised me in the beginning of the spring to take me to mountain hiking. After eight months of stay in Seoul he had time on 2 November. It was late autumn, a bit chilly, but sunny. The blue sky had hardly any layer of white cloud. A perfect day for outing. MAINS student from Sri Lanka, Nilani, also joined.
Our destination was Yu-myongsan (san means mountain); two hours drive from central Seoul. We boarded on Dae-hoon’s small car at around 9 in the morning. After about an hour’s drive, we reached Da-san museum to see the house of Jeong Yakyong (1762-1836). He was a descendent of a famous poet named Yun Seondo and was born and buried here in Mahyeon (Majae). He wrote more than five hundred books, addressing various subjects ranging from administrative reform to medicine, from judicial procedure to literature. His academic focus is summed up as Confucian philosophy, “cultivating one’s body and mind so that one might be of service to better the people’s lives”. He invented scientific instruments like Geogunggi. He is acknowledged by many as Korea’s “greatest social scientist” with his portrait hanging at the entrance of the College of Social Science of Seoul National University. Many compare him with personalities like Leonardo da Vinci, John Locke or Benjamin Franklin.
 After about an hour’s drive from the museum, we reached the foothill of Yu-myongsan. Though rather small with its highest peak being 587m from the sea-level, this mountain is as beautiful as other big Korean mountains. This mountain was named after a female “society member”, Jin Yu-myong. The walkway is 2 km long with mostly gentle slope. When we reached a height of 400m, we rested and I thought that was the end of it. Francis brought hot water in a flask. He prepared tea for us and we had light snack. This worked as stimulant. We started climbing again. After two more breaks, we finally reached a peak and decided to stop. We spend two hours to reach that height. I took a deep breath and felt as if I had reached the Mount Everest. I had never climbed to such a height before. Francis sat quietly and started meditation. Sunbeam was flickering through the pine forest. A higher mountain peak at a distance on the other side was shimmering in the afternoon light.  This has been my second experience of mountain hiking in a real sense and reminds of my first experience of mountain hiking in South Kalimantan. It was December 1986 and at that time I was in a group of over forty people. I still remember few names. Amongst them were Yayuri Matsui (correspondent of Asahi Shimbun), Sundarlal Bahuguna (activist leader of the Chipko movement), Indonesian environmentalist singer Uli Sigar and SKEPHI activists Musfihin Dalhin, Emi Haffild and Hira Jamthani. We crossed three mountains, a couple of rivers and then reached a Manglikin village inhabited by the Diak people.  We sat there for about twenty minutes and then started walking back. Climbing up was thrilling and strenuous; but coming down was difficult and risky. We had to be very careful. Once I lost the balance and fell down. Fortunately there was no injury.
We returned to Seoul just before the dusk and went to a downtown public bath with hot spring and sauna at Jong-no. This was my first experience of Korean style public bath. We had to be in our birthday costume. I told Francis not to look at my body. He guided me well.
Jiyoung told me that Lawrence and Francis was a “couple” and Francis was Lawrence’s “wife”, and now he has become Mohi’s wife. Jiyoung may have a better explanation of this mysterious statement. While Francis and I were rubbing each other’s back at the hot spring, one might guess that we were a gay couple tenderly taking care of each other. We had a great time for about ninety minutes. It was very pleasant and relaxing. I had a good sleep.
A morning with critical sociologists
Korean Industrial Sociologists Association has been renamed as Korean Critical Sociologists Association. Prof. Cho Hee-Yeon is its leader. About a month ago he informed me that the association will have a one-day conference and he wanted me to make a presentation. He also wanted few MAINS students to participate. Accordingly we decided that three students, Nilani Mantrinayake, Nay Tun Naing and Badrul Hisham will participate and will prepare presentations on ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka, democracy movement in Burma and religious and ethnic conflict in Malaysia respectively. I prepared a presentation on Asian Democracy: Myths and Reality.
 The conference was held on 3 November at Yonsei University. It was mainly attended by association members who teach in different universities and are attached to various research organizations. The morning session was exclusively for four of us from the MAINS. Prof. Cho Hye-Je of the NGO Graduate School of SKHU moderated. Anyway, our participation has made the conference an “international” one. Outdoor class
When Prof. Yi Ki Ho told me that once he took his students to the top of Nanjido (Sky Park), I thought I could not make it. Then I planned my scheduled class with MAINS students on 6 November to the Nanjido. This is a 90m high hill made of garbage piled up over years. Nanjido was a former 6.6 million-square-meter garbage dump from 1978 to 1993 in western part of Seoul. During the period of rapid economic growth and industrialization, Nanjido was an ecologically dead zone, in which no living creatures were able to survive due to methane gas and toxic water seeping from the buried trash. Stopping dumping the garbage, the Seoul Metropolitan Government created an ecological park there in order to encourage environmental revitalization and provide recreational space for the public. Nanjido means “an island where orchids and mushrooms bloom”, and used to be a small tranquil island before the large-scale development of Seoul. But after being chosen as a landfill site in the 1970s, it was ruined by two gigantic mounds filled with various kinds of garbage measuring up to 92 million m 3. But as the amount of garbage approached saturation level polluting the island's environment almost to an irreversible degree, Seoul authorities started laying soil on top of the dump with no additional input of garbage from 1993, which led to a project to change the area into a big park from 2002-2003. Opening with the new name “World Cup Park” in May 2002, Nanjido is now a place for Seoul residents to walk around and relax. When we climbed 291 stairs to reach the top, we were greeted by gentle breeze and a scenic view that include the World Cup stadium, the Han River and the greenery surrounding the hill. It is almost impossible to imagine that this is an artificial “mountain”. It was a bright sunny day with perfect autumn temperature. We reached a spot with few wooden stools and a platform which looked perfect for an open-air school. But at the same time, more than hundred schoolchildren suddenly invaded. It was difficult for us to listen to our conversations and the children were shouting to the top of their voice and sometimes running through “our school”. It was the day of Na Hyo Woo (Korea) and Pinpaka Ngamsom (Thailand). The topic of the day was “sustainable development”. Despite the noise of the little devils, we had a good session. We then took a walk around and returned to SKHU in the afternoon. 
Religions and rituals
Whenever I introduce myself as a faculty of SKHU, many Koreans perceive me as a Christian priest. That is a common feeling many people have in Korea about this university. SKHU is managed by a board comprising priests. SungKongHoe means “sacred public association”, which is an Anglican church-based institution. It also has a church and many times I thought I would attend the services. So far I didn’t have time or I didn’t seriously thought about it. On Sunday, 4 November, I entered the Dae-shin church near Onsu subway station with a friend. It is big and has a beautiful layout. As we entered, we found that the services had already started.
What I am fond of Church rituals are mainly its audience and the way passion for the God is expressed. It’s a congregation of women and men of all ages and music plays an important role in the worship. These make the rituals more humane, lively, participatory and absorbing. Nobody raises eye brew to a “non-Christian”. Everybody is welcome. I had few experiences of attending Sunday services before. I studied in a Catholic primary school in Bangladesh for a very brief period and that was my first exposure to Christian environment. There were some European and local missionaries and we called them father, brother and sister. The Headmaster of the school was a “brother”. During my brief stay in Japan in 2006 attending the Asia Leadership Fellow Program (ALFP), I had an opportunity to socialize with Albert Alejo, a Jesuit priest and a Professor at Ateneo de Davao University in the Philippines. I asked him, why so many factions among the Christians? His answer was very simple and convincing. “There may be many routes to reach the same destination. The question is to reach there. Which route you take is of secondary importance”.
At Dae-shin church, the priest was speaking in Korean and I didn’t understand it. A few times, my friend interpreted. However, I enjoyed being there. I had a sense of peace in my mind. At the end, all “newcomers” were asked to stand up. There were about a dozen who joined for the first time. Then a group of children below ten years of age came to all the new joiners, offered each of us a rosary of candy with a flower in the middle and a gift pack. After the services, we had lunch in the church.
On the following Sunday, I attended services at the Myong-dong Catholic Cathedral. I was late for the service in English and attended the Korean one. It is the oldest and the biggest Catholic church in Korea and was built in traditional gothic architecture. There is a stone wall outside the church building with some plants and flowers with a white statue of Mary in the middle that looks divine. There is an art gallery in an adjoining building inside the campus. I visited the gallery and saw some beautiful paintings hanging on the wall.
 Finally I had time to attend the Sunday services at the Anglican church of SungKongHoe University on 25 November. It is located in the library building, small and I can see its front door from my office through the window. At the end, the priest and his assistant held two golden goblets and distributed pieces of coin-shaped thin white bread to the worshippers. I have seen it in many churches. This is for the first time I approached the priest, got a piece, soaked it in red wine and ate it.
Korea is considered as the most actively Christian society in East Asia. Korean churches are rich. In recent years, “Christian fundamentalism” has been on the rise. The latest manifestation of it was the visit of a group of young missionaries in Afghanistan and two members of the group were killed by a Muslim group; whether for religion or for ransom have not been properly revealed yet.
Korean history entrenched with myths is interesting. Samguk yusa (Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms) recorded that Tan-gun founded the nation of Korea. According to the legend, his father, Hwanung, was a heavenly deity. He decided to settle on earth in response to the desire of earthlings. A bear was transformed into a woman whom Hwanung married. Tan-gun was born of their union and started ruling in 2333 B.C.
Buddhism reportedly first arrived in Korea in 372 A.D. though a Chinese monk who brought Chinese texts. It was an elementary form of Buddhism that he taught, consisting of the teaching of Karma and the search for happiness which seemed to blend well with indigenous Shamanism. So Buddhism was quickly assimilated in the Korean society.
In 384, the King of Paekje was converted to Buddhism and decreed that his subjects should follow suit. It was not until 527 that Buddhism became established in Shilla where it flourished. In 668 A.D. Shilla conquered other kingdoms and Korea was unified. The Koryo Dynasty which gave its name to present day Korea assumed power in the 10th century. During this period, the Korean Tripitaka was written. It was the most complete collection of the Buddhist scriptures carved by hand in Chinese characters on over 80,000 wooden blocks. With the assumption to the throne of the Chosun or Yi Dynasty in the 14th century and its adoption of Neo-Confucianism, Buddhism started loosing its influence. They destroyed all Buddhist temples in the main cities and banished the monks to the mountains where, even today, the main temples are to be found. With the Japanese occupation from 1910 to 1945, Buddhism was revived, but the monks were forced to take wives.
Korea is a multi-religious society. Confucian ethics still dominates the daily life of most Koreans. In every part of the country, Confucian educational institutions named hyanggyo are seen. Buddhism is also quite old as at every scenic spot, there is a Buddhist monastery, which is considered as cultural assets. Yet if one looks around in the evening, one will see the skyline filled with numerous “red cross” in red neon light.
At present, the religious composition in South Korea is: Buddhists are 25 percent, Protestants are 20 percent and Catholics are 7 percent. There are about 25 thousand Muslims. An Imam (Muslim priest) attached to the Turkish army with the UN forces which participated in the Korean War introduced Islam in Korea.
Besides, there are numerous shamanism devotees, new religions and, in particular, Confucianists, who are not represented in religious surveys. However, there are many people who do not practice any “religion” and can freely express their view about not following any religion.
In Asia, “Christianity” is a “minority’ religion, only about two percent of the population being loyal to the bible in some form or other. Catholicism was introduced in Korea in 1784, and the Protestant missionaries arrived first in 1884. At present, about one third of South Korea's 45 million people are Christian. Among them, the Protestants are the majority (eleven million) and there are three million Roman Catholics.
The growth of Christianity has been spectacular in Korea. In the early 1960s, their number had hardly been one million. The number increased, particularly that of the Protestants, following a geometric progression, doubling in every decade. During the 1980s democracy movement, many churches served as the representative of the conscience of Korean society.
Most multi-religious societies in live in conflicts. Korea seems to be unique as its diverse religious communities have managed to coexist since ancient times. Often dynastic changes took place in the history of Korea under the name of religion, but religion has never divided the people. Even among Koreans today, there is nobody who wants to divide the Korean people on religious grounds. In that sense, Korean society is much more homogenous compared to many other nations in Asia and beyond.
I wonder what my religion is. I like to echo what Tagore said: My life is my religion – it is growing with my growth – it has never been grafted on me from outside. I had denied God when I was younger just as the flower in its pride of blossoming youth completely ignores the fruit which is its perfection. But now that the fruit is here with the mystery of the immortal life hidden in the core of its seed I accept it simply as I accept reality of my own person though I have no logic to explain its existence.
One thing that strikes me is that people build temples, churches and mosques spending huge amount of money. Precious stones and marbles are used and the priests wear very formal uniforms. But I learned that great educators like Buddha, Jesus and Mohammad lived a very simple life and embraced a lifestyle that we call “poor”. Why our places of worship sparkle with so much splendor and grandeur, while there are millions of homeless people? Why do we need to waste so many resources to communicate with the God/Goddess? And I like to quote Tagore again. Temples and mosques obstruct thy path,
and I fail to hear thy call or to move,
when the teachers and priests angrily crowd round me.
Love is the magic stone that transmutes by its touch
greed into sacrifice
For the sake of this love heaven longs to become earth
and gods to become man.
I see a positive correlation between number of worship places and the extent of hatred, militarization and war. Most people are ritualistic in religion and their hearts are far from being humane. Here I like to cite another poem of Tagore titled To Christ, Son of Man he composed on the Christmas Day in 1939. He hinted at the war-mongers of Europe. Those who struck Him once
in the name of their rulers,
are born again in this present age.
They gather in their prayer-halls
in a pious grab,
they call their soldiers,
‘Kill, Kill’, they shout;
in their roaring mingles the music of
their hymns,
while the Son of Man in His agony
prays, ‘O God,
fling, fling far away this cup filled with
the bitterest poison.’
Culture and prejudice
In the afternoon of 6 November, we had a guest in SungKongHoe University. He was Prof. Rob Stones of the department of sociology at the University of Essex. He authored Sociological Reasoning (1996) and Structuration Theory (2005). He made an interesting presentation at a specially arranged seminar mostly attended by MAINS students and few faculty members. He tried to explain the notion of human rights and liberty citing three case studies, respectively on homosexual’s in UK (right to sexual behavior), sati in India (right to die for someone loved) and migrant sex workers in Thailand (right to work). The cornerstone of the discussion was the right to choose lifestyle and the pertinent question was: should this be embedded in the doctrine of universal human rights? Prof. Stones also talked about how “majority value” often dictates terms and how it moulds social psychology and moral behavior. We had a lively discussion afterwards. I became familiar with the acronym LGBT only recently. LGBT refers to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, and their movements include the gay and lesbian rights movement, gay liberation, lesbian feminism, the queer movement and transgender activism. A commonly stated goal is social equality for LGBT people; some have also focused on building LGBT communities, or worked towards liberation for the broader society from sexual oppression. LGBT movements organized today are made up of a wide range of political activism and cultural activity, such as lobbying and street marches; social groups, support groups and community events; magazines, films and literature; academic research and writing; and even business activity. LGBT movements have often adopted a kind of identity politics that sees lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and/or transgender people as a fixed class of people, a minority group. Those using this approach aspire to have liberal political goals of freedom and equal opportunity, and aim to join the political mainstream on the same level as other groups in the society. In 1896 Sigmund Freud published his ideas on psychoanalysis. Freud believed that all humans were innately bisexual and that whether a particular person manifests heterosexuality or homosexuality could result from environmental factors interacting with biological sexual drives. Freud expressed serious doubts about the potential for therapeutic conversion. In a letter to a mother who had asked Freud to treat her son, he wrote: By asking me if I can help (your son), you mean, I suppose, if I can abolish homosexuality and make normal heterosexuality take its place. The answer is, in a general way, we cannot promise to achieve it. In a certain number of cases we succeed in developing the blighted germs of heterosexual tendencies which are present in every homosexual, in the majority of cases it is no more possible. It is a question of the quality and the age of the individual. The result of treatment cannot be predicted.
In that letter, he also stated that “homosexuality is assuredly no advantage but it is nothing to be ashamed of, no vice, no degradation, it cannot be classified as an illness....
In one evening in September 2006, I was walking at Shinjuku area. Prof. Masaaki Ohashi was the guide and enlightened me about the night life in Tokyo. I saw a narrow street with bars exclusively meant for lesbians, another street for gays and so forth. I heard of similar streets in Seoul also but have not the opportunity to visit yet.
In our last AGM of the South Asian Alliance for Poverty Eradication (SAAPE) held in Kathmandu in July 2007, I attended a workshop of the “gender” group and I tried to raise the issue of “sexual minorities” in the backdrop of the discussion on “gender”. All participants in the session except two (Arjun Karki and I) were “women” and they bypassed my question. I tried to raise the issue second time, but without any success. It seems South Asian women are still prejudiced against this issue, though many of them have exposure to international forums and liberal ideas.
While responding to Prof. Stones, I pondered to say that the dichotomy between “social” and “moral” is artificial, as “moral” domain is also a “social construction”. In our society, we tend to accept or reject ideas and behaviors in the name of “culture”, though in many cases, these do not correspond to “culture” but “taboo” or “prejudice” in case we want to use a milder term. And it takes ages to get rid of taboo. “Majoritarianism” is rampant and explicit in our collective behavior. It is omnipresent in politics (majority chauvinism) and in our system of governance (dictatorship of the party claiming majority votes in the election). Minorities are politically marginalized (inner colony), economically deprived (fewer opportunities), socially outcast (caste apartheid) and sexually discriminated (legal bar). In the “culture” where I come from, homosexuality is considered a “sin”, both morally and legally. I still recollect one incidence in my hostel at the University of Dhaka, where I, together with some friends, had beaten a senior student leader who committed the “crime” to a canteen boy. However, I justify the punishment as the boy complained about “rape”.
One argument of Prof. Stones was how we address the issue of those who are involved as sex worker by choice. They are also victim of social persecution. My student from Thailand mentioned that there are many who are abducted and forced to have sex, but also there are many who engage as free laborer to earn money. Here I think we are in conflict with the “majoritarian puritan value”.
In Europe, rights of sexual minorities are increasingly being embedded in conceptualizing human rights. While the state and the society are becoming more tolerant to sexual minorities, why religious minorities are being harassed? I particularly raised the issue of dress code for girls in schools and Prof. Stones agreed to my logic referring to what happened in France in recent years.
When states become people-excluding machines and resort to 'homogenization', religion is politicized and other views are branded as separatist and terrorist. This has happened in Thailand, France, Philippines, Russia and China and almost all over South Asia. Nepal seems to have overcome this standoff.
In most societies, human rights are defined in terms of right to franchise, right to be ruled by civilians, right to shout in the streets and right of the editors of the mass media to express their clan interest. Rights of the sexual minorities are often branded as “western” notion, though homosexuality has been a very old practice in almost all parts of the world. We seldom discuss it in public in Asia. It is quite common among all sections of the population including the politicians, security forces and the religious leaders, who are perceived as defenders of “morality”. I have been pondering how I would respond to this issue if I would have been a gay. I like to put it in the form of the following phrases. I like to put it as a “gender analysis” from a homosexual’s point of view.
Woman and man together
Makes a pair that breeds
They live under one roof
Unlike dog and bitch in streets
We have broken the wall
We are gender sensitive
We are no more homosexual
Our approach is positive
We call ourselves gay
And there’s no more fight
Others name them lesbian
That works perfectly right
No to FTA
Activists frequently stage demonstration at central Seoul. They are from different backgrounds: student, teacher, church and factory worker. They are of all ages, women and men. Since the beginning of 2007, FTA has been a hot issue for the activists. Korea has already signed FTA with the ASEAN in May 2006, with the US in April 2007 and is having negotiations to have a separate FTA with the EU. The current volume of US-Korea bilateral trade amounts to $75 billion and pro-FTA lobby anticipates another $20 billion increase with FTA. China is also requesting Korea to sign FTA, though Korea seems reluctant as it is scared of competition with cheap Chinese merchandise. Bilateral trade between China and Korea is likely to reach a figure of $200 billion by 2012.
Korean activists are mounting pressure on the government against FTA with the US. Anti-FTA demonstrations are also accompanied with agitations against Korea’s involvement in Iraq war, rights of casual workers and so on. I heard slogans that sounds in English like, no no – FTA, don’t persecute the Muslims, Koreans soldiers – come out of Iraq, we don’t want American beef and so on. In August 2007, a group of activists invaded some supermarkets that were selling US beef and spread cow-dung on it. Since then US beef disappeared from the Seoul market. 
On 11 November, streets around the City Hall were almost paralyzed by thousands of policemen as they put fences around the demonstrators, so that they cannot proceed to the sensitive part of the city where the US embassy is located. When I arrived at the City Hall subway station at around 10 in the morning, I found several hundred policemen taking position even inside the station. Actual demonstrations began in the afternoon. In front of the Chongno Tower, I saw a young man with symbolic US outfit displaying a piece of beef on a tray.
The main thoroughfare was filled up with several thousand demonstrators waiving flags and banners. Policemen were also running and shouting slogans. It would have been difficult to differentiate between the demonstrators and the police unless the police had uniform and shield. Unlike our countries, demonstrations here are more “peaceful”. There is no brick-batting, no stone-throwing, no beating by the police. However, on that day, the police were a bit more aggressive as they used water cannon. I also saw a helicopter flying low over our heads, probably carrying a camera or a machine-gun or both. Demonstrations continued even after the dusk.
Behind the bar
Prof. Cho Hyo-je and Prof. Jin Young Jong arranged a visit for us to the “Yeongdeungpo Correctional Institution” at Guro on 13 November. We reached the prison site at 1 P.M. Prof. Jin introduced me to the Warden Mr. Go Jong-Seok. In our part of the world, we call a person like him the “Jailor” or the “Superintendent”.
At the outset, one officer gave a briefing and showed a short video documentary. This prison is quite old. It was first opened in 1959 and then shifted to the present site in 1979. This is considered to be equipped with facilities that are “below average” in Korean standard. Then we walked around the campus. There are about 1,100 inmates, all men. Each cell has a TV and an attached toilet and accommodates five persons. Their age ranges from 26 to 73. It offers vocational training. There are courses for six months, one year and two years. This helps many inmates to get rehabilitated in the society after their release. We visited several training-cum-work sheds where inmates with blue uniform had been working as vehicle mechanic, making machine tools, bakery, design and printing. We didn’t talk to any inmate. They were either working or playing in the field. We were surrounded by a heavy contingent of guards in black uniform. But they were very polite. We were told not to carry camera.
This reminds me of the prisons in our part of the world, which can be compared with “hell”. Ours are over-crowded, almost five to ten times; inmates hardly get enough food, sanitation, health care and recreation. The prison environment often transforms an innocent person into a criminal. Most of the men in charge of these prisons are themselves criminals, involved in all sorts of crimes having linkages with mafia groups and some mafia groups operate from inside the prisons with the help of the guards.
The Korean “correctional centers” look good. However, it is very difficult to give any firm judgment based on a one hour’s tour around only one prison and not being able to talk to any inmate.
SungKonHoe University has a special relationship with this institution. Its officers receive training on human rights from our university.
Noh Hoe-chan of the Democratic Labor Party hinted at discriminatory policy of the Korean government about prisoners (The Hankyoreh, 25 November 2006). According to him, all prisons must follow U.N. regulations in terms of providing sufficient and nutritional food, a room for sleeping and at least one hour of outdoor exercise for prisoners. But domestic and foreign criminals other than U.S. soldiers are merely provided with a room shared with too many others, and a half hour of outdoor exercise daily. He cited three examples of South Korean prison facilities.
1. A prison for U.S. military criminals: Housed within the compound of Cheonan Juvenile Prison, convicted of crimes committed in South Korea based on the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between South Korea and the U.S. At a 2.27-pyeong cell (1 pyeong is equivalent to 3.3 square meters) with a single bed, a U.S. criminal can watch television anytime. They can use a joint kitchen with refrigerators filled with meat, eggs, and vegetables along with microwaves to cook with. They can meet visitors without having to be behind a glass window, and they can exercise at a health club.
2. An ordinary prison. At a 5.7-pyeong cell, nine prisoners live in each room. The meals they eat are worth only 841 won (US$0.90). Although it is meant to hold 2,150 prisoners, 3,045 are now housed there. It is not easy for a prisoner to get a one-person cell, sized about 3 square meters.
3. A prison under the Justice Ministry's correction facilities for foreigners. The ministry requires prisons for foreigners to provide an individual cell with a single bed. However, at the facility, which mainly houses foreign prisoners, such as Chinese and Mongolians, there are no such cells. These prisoners are housed in no better conditions than are domestic criminals, but their meals consist of toast, milk, and potatoes unlike the food of Korean prisoners.
Here I like to quote the prison diary of an English teacher, an “illegal migrant”, titled “The Cells”.
The floor is covered by giant 1x1 meter foam rubber jigsaw puzzle tiles. We eat mostly here. I guess it is kind of a day room. The central part is where we sleep. The floor has a heating system installed underneath (ondol). The rear part is the bathroom. It has two sinks, two showers, and a smaller room with a door as the toilet. The three sections are separated by walls that have one door with a window each and two large windows on both sides.
The two windows between the day room and the sleeping room have sliding window frames. We can get a nice breeze from the east side of the building to the west if all the doors and windows on the bathroom wall and the outside corridor are open.
All in all there is a great sense of open spaciousness. Despite the fact that we are “behind bars.” When you are in the sleeping room or bathroom, if you don't see the bars you wouldn't know you were in a prison.
However, we are not allowed to go outside. I am told it's because there isn't enough staff, but that in May they will let people go out for exercise, fresh air and sunshine. There is a yard outside on the west side of the building.
The detention center is four stories tall. I am on the 3rd floor. In this part of the building there are two atriums with skylights on the roof. The second, third and fourth floors have an office in the middle that sits between the two atriums encased in glass windows so as to have a clear view of the six or seven cells on the east and west side.
The south side of the building has the smaller solitary confinement rooms. The north side has the administrative offices and visiting rooms. The first floor has midsize rooms. So far only the third and fourth floors seem to be used to keep us in.
On the east side you can see the sunrise from the bathroom window. There is a hill at the right side of the building. It has a number of traditional gray cottages on the top. Below the hill, next to the building is a parking lot and driveway. Farmland -- rice fields, I guess -- can be seen to the left. Railroad tracks run towards the east along a large road which I think runs past this building.
Inside the cell atrium area, people can talk to each other across the two atrium spaces (which is surrounded by vertical stainless steel bars). Women and men are kept apart, but they can talk to each other. Everyone can (Ohm News, 17 May 2005).
Saemangum
Prof. Lee Seejae of the Catholic University of Korea has been my “guide” since we met in Tokyo in autumn 2006. He was a guest lecturer in my class on 13 November and addressed the issue of environmental pollution in China. He also cited a case study on an environmental regeneration project by KFEM, an environmental NGO federation of Korea. He is one of the key persons in KFEM.
Seejae arranged a field trip to Saemangum (land reclamation) for his students and invited MAINS students to join. On 17 November, 29 from his university and seven of us from MAINS boarded on a bus that he brought from his university. It was four hours drive from Seoul to Buan in Chombul province. We passed through mountainous region for about two hours and entered a flat area, which is known as the rice bowl of Korea. Most of Korea’s rice is produced in this region. Korea is almost self-sufficient in rice, though it has to import because of the WTO conditionality. Korean rice is costly. South Korea imports rice from Thailand and then donates it to North Korea.
On the way we passed by villages. The houses have roofs made of tiles or c.i. sheet. I saw wild galdae plants on both sides of the highway. These are similar to kash in Bangladesh that grows in the autumn, mainly in the floodplain and along the rivers. However, kash is whiter and looks magnificent when its thin stem dances as the wind blows. I also saw a few kachi, a small black bird with white wings and chest. This is like shalikh in Bangladesh, but a bit bigger in size. According to Korean belief, one may expect a guest if the kachi cries.
Soon after we reached the site, we had lunch in a community house. Mr. Ju Yung-Ki, a local community organizer, made a presentation on the environmental effect of the project and the plight of the local community because of the project. The government built a bangjoje (see wall) at the confluence of two rivers to reclaim land and to make a freshwater reservoir. This is somewhat similar to the delta works in the Netherlands. The bangjoje is 29 km long and is considered to be the second largest in the world. This gave me an impression of land reclamation technology in Bangladesh where two cross-dams were built in 1957 and 1964 in Noakhali district to connect offshore islands with the mainland. As a result, 90,000 ha of land accreted, became available for cultivation and dwelling, but aggravated drainage problems, which have not yet been solved.
The bangjoje connected Kyehwa-do (do means island) with the mainland. This helped in accretion of large landmass. But the water reservoir is filled with polluted water due to absence of natural circulation of water. There are two gates, which are not big enough to maintain the natural balance. This has caused destruction of many species of flora and fauna. Fishers have been displaced from their tradition job of catching fish and shell. They became poor and many of them had to migrate to other areas for livelihoods. Although many environmental groups from Korea and abroad protested against the project, this has been portrayed by the government as a monument of development. Go Un-Sik is a local fisher. He narrated his tale of misery. “I received some money as compensation. My wife used to catch shell from the mud-flood. After construction of the bangjoje, she had to go to the sea and one day she was drowned and died. Now I feel myself responsible for what happened.”
We walked around the “reclaimed” area. This is a huge landmass and a layer of white salt is visible in some parts. At one corner, farmers tried cultivation of sweet potato without much success. Vast areas are under some thin natural vegetation. There are conflicting demands for use of the land, between agriculture and industry. Most Koreans other than the affected local people do not worry much about the loss of bio-diversity and water pollution. The bangjoje has been standing there as a painful symbol of human encroachment to nature. Sometimes, some groups come from outside Korea to see it, study it and express concern about environmental degradation caused by the project. We saw a sculpture made of a wooden plank with a Maori terracotta tile that was brought and implanted by a group from New Zealand to express solidarity with the local people.
The sun already leaned to the west. Seejae stood in front of the sculpture and took a deep breath, as if he was mourning for the loss of bio-diversity. I tried to recollect the memory of the women in my imagination, collecting seashells and thought of the Korean poet Byung-Hwa Cho who wrote the “Memory”. One, two, three… days
I strolled the seashore
to forget those days.
Summer, fall, winter
and by this wintry sea
where sea-women no longer
dive for seashells.
One, two, three… days
I strolled the seashore
to forget those days.
Social Asia
While traveling in the bus with Prof. Lee Seejae, I had an interesting discussion with him. We discussed about culture, politics and society. Seejae is a sociologist and interprets natural and social environments through sociological eyes. He talked about the Chinese philosopher Laozi (pronounced as Lao-tzu in Chinese), who propagated the theory of small power or small state. This is also widely known as Taoism. In contrast, K’ong-fu-tzu (551-479 B.C.), another contemporary Chinese philosopher widely known as Confucius, spoke about strong nation-building, which is more top-down. The small power theory boils down to small country with little people and is tantamount to community control or commune. Seejae and I agreed that while envisioning Asia, we may think about Cultural Asia (Asia as a geographic-cultural entity) and at the same time Social Asia in political terms with numerous small community states.
Lao Tsu’s theory is close to what Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakunin (1814-76) preached in the 19th century that anarchy would be the main form of collective social governance. Anarchy doesn’t necessarily mean a reign of terror or “indiscipline”, but is a society of free women and men not subjected to the tyranny of super institutions like the state. Bakunin talked about federalism in his book on Revolutionary Catechism (1866) as the organization of society “from the base to the summit—from the circumference to the center—according to the principles of free association and federation.” Consequently, society would be organized “on the basis of the absolute freedom of individuals, of the productive associations, and of the communes,” with “every individual, every association, every commune, every region, every nation” having the absolute right to self-determination, to associate or not to associate, to ally themselves with whomever they wish.
I tend to believe that states should be voluntary associations of the people. Free people create states to deliver certain services. Most countries which passed through a long period of overt and covert colonization are now “free”, as political authority has been transferred in most cases from the alien rulers to the native ones. But the character of the states has remained the same that collects revenue, coerce people in the name of national security and protects and promotes the elite class. States are symbolized through some totems like a flag, a national anthem and an emblem and we take pride in citizenship.
I am a fluid character
Who is my master I wonder
Constitution made by the thugs
Or manifesto written by the bugs
We have invented some totem
Flag, anthem and an emblem
Divine decrees still rule us
We love deity without fuss
Children cry as nothing to dine
We place marble in the shrine
Women and men doesn’t matter
All are voters in our charter
Leader in the rostrum tightens grip
We pronounce pride in citizenship
People may continue to argue about what is right and what is wrong; what is feasible and what is practical. But let’s not forget that ideologies are visions for future that great thinkers contemplate years ahead. Small people with narrow vision are preoccupied with only immediate and cotemporary mundane issues and cannot look forward, beyond decades, beyond centuries.
MAINS
The planning process for 2008 academic year is on. We received 26 applications from 13 countries outside Korea. They are from Bangladesh (2), Burma (3), Cambodia (2), China (2), India (4), Indonesia (1), Malaysia (1), Mongolia (1), Nepal (2), Philippines (4), Sri Lanka (1), Thailand (2) and Vietnam (1). Among them are ten females and sixteen males. It’s a pity that there is only one female applicant from South Asia sub-region and I am personally feeling disturbed by this phenomenon.
I expected more applications as I circulated the information through list serves of several networks that I am linked with. Only one ARENA Fellow recommended one candidate. I have been trying to get in touch with Fellows to know more about those who have applied from respective countries and many of them responded positively. Among Fellows who have interviewed candidates and sent report to me are Cynthia (China), Arjun Karki (Nepal), Andrew Aeria (Malaysia) and Mostak Sharif (Bangladesh). They volunteered despite their busy schedule and I like to express my gratitude to them.
ARENA also requested Fellows for “expression of interest” to come as a visiting faculty for 2008. We got a few responses with CV and soon we shall be able to take a decision in consultation with members of the ARENA executive board.
Autumn
I have spent two consecutive autumns outside my home country. Last year in Japan and this year in Korea. Autumn in northeast Asia in September-November is characterized by a phenomenon that is rare in our part of the world. Here the autumn is very colorful. Many trees change the color of their leaves and then fall on the ground from the branches. Leaves turn to yellow or red before falling. This is termed as Nok-yup. Eunhaeng namoo (ginko) becomes yellow, while danpang namoo (maple) and nutin namoo look red. However, most mountains are planted with so namoo (pine), which is evergreen. Namoo means tree in Korean language. The SungKongHoe campus looks amazing as there are trees around. At the backyard is a hill with evergreen pine forest. Often I go there and take a walk, sometimes alone sometimes with some from ARENA. I found two pine trees growing together, as if from the same root. I named it a couple tree.
 Once in an autumn afternoon, a friend guided me to take a walk around the Gyeongbok Palace. King Taejo, founder of the Chosun Dynasty, built it in 1395 in the fourth year of his reign. It was destroyed during the Japanese invasion of 1592 and left in ruins for over 250 years. It was rebuilt to its original shape starting from 1865. When Korea was occupied by Japan in 1910, most of the 200 buildings in the palace were destroyed by the Japanese, leaving only a dozen structures.
There is a large open space in front of the main gate from where I could see the peak of the mount Bugaksan at the backdrop. It was late afternoon and there was not much time to enter and look inside. Birds were flying back to their nests. Trees around were still colorful and the peak of the mountain with its blue slope looked magnificent. At one corner of the open space, one old woman was making rice cakes, frying it on a pan and looking for customers to sell. She looked very poor, abandoned and vulnerable. It appeared to me as a sharp contrast to the Gyeongbok that means “shining happiness”.
Autumn is what I have been passing through, literally and metaphorically. And I contemplated to write: Autumn is the later half of life
You are not fresh nor too old or cold
Leaves change color from green to red
Still you can stay burly and bold
You may yearn for sweet days
I see a man roams like a butterfly
And rest his lips on your naked neck
While I take a leap to the sky
From third week of November, the weather suddenly twisted and became very chilly. On 18th, Sunday, I went out alone to Dobongsan. Outside the subway station, I saw many people walking to the Dobong Mountain. I followed them. The entire area is included in Bukhansan national park that was set up in 1983. According to the Guinness Book of Records, it is the busiest national park in the world with five million visitors every year. Because of the advent of the winter, most trees lost their leaves. This is a rocky mountain and the walkway is not as beautiful as I saw in Yu-myongsan. At the top, there is a peak devoid of any greenery. I climbed for one hour and then returned. While making an about turn, I saw a little boy of about three years climbing with a man, maybe his father. His eyes were glittering with inquisitiveness and challenge, while I seemed to be a conformist worried about my knees. My journey ends where his life begins.
The tempest
Hurricane Sidr hit the Bangladesh coast on November 16. Thousands died because of the storm and tidal surge. It is not true that Bangladesh is particularly targeted by the nature to inflict its curse. In fact many more storms with even more severity regularly visit the coast of Japan, the Philippines, the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. The striking difference between Bangladesh and these regions is that too many people in Bangladesh live in vulnerable areas, not by choice, but out of compulsion. There are too many people and there is little land to dwell. Mostly the poor die as they live in the makeshift shanties in the coastal chars to harvest rice in November-December. Most of them are tenant farmers, farm laborers or fishing laborers. They are the first victims. Estimates of human death toll range from four to ten thousands. This will never be known as deaths are confirmed when dead bodies are found. The missing remains uncounted.
While staying in Seoul, my mind has been ravaged. I had been involved in series of public consultation meetings in the far-flung coastal areas from 2002 to 2006 working with a team that produced the Coastal Zone Policy 2005 and the Coastal Development Strategy 2006 for the government of Bangladesh. I might have lost many people who enlightened me with information and experience in areas like Patharghata, Barguna, Sharankhola, Char Kukri Mukri and so forth. I mourn for them.
An evening with women
The month of November ended with a special evening. Prof. Lee Jung Ok phoned me after a long break. She had been traveling in Africa and returned with mosquito bite. I met her at Korea Democracy Foundation on 30th afternoon. After a quick dinner at the press club, she guided me to an “artists’ village” outside Seoul near the North Korean border. It was more than an hour’s drive from the city center and her journalist friend was driving. On the way, I commented that “the car is beautiful”; and she heard “the girl is beautiful”. However, that is also true.
There were twenty women in the venue and the number rose to twenty-five later. It was a farewell party of the Segi Yeosgeong Forum (21st Century Women's Forum). They were all opinion leaders of the Korean society. Among them were academics, journalists, musicians, politicians, physicians, lawyers and social workers; all accomplished persons, mostly in their fifties (my guess). Two of them played saxophone.
They played well. I was the only “man”. Jung Ok introduced me as an “organic woman”. I think my male identity is an “accidental” one, like my “nationality” for which I am not responsible.
There was plenty of food. But I was already full. We drank; very good wine indeed.
The host was late. She came at the end with two more “men”.
When we left, it was almost eleven. I joined Dae Ok Pyang, a graduate student of SKHU, in her car together with Jung Ok. She lives near SKHU and dropped me beside my apartment. On the way, police stopped the car once and checked whether she was drunk or not. She passed.
The world of poetry
We have so far been shuttling from one domain to another. We have been engaging at different frontiers, from human rights to gender, from north-south gap to environment, from global finance to debt. The cornerstone of all these endeavors are an unending urge to live with dignity and right to food is central to it.
Much of our attention is now focused on Bali meeting on climate change. I am planning to attend some Jubilee South events. I have been trying to organize my inner feelings how poor people are struggling to have square meal. And how climate change would affect our lives? Here it is. I cannot fish dream anymore
My net has been mortgaged
As I had no food in the spring
And I borrowed some rice
Though autumn leaves are red
Feral birds sing in the wood
The creek shines in the light
I cannot fish dream anymore
I weaved my net bit by bit
With tender hands in moonlight
My river has been silted up
You dammed it to light your home
My nest is in deep dark
Rice is so pure and dazzling
For it so many lives forfeited
My brother has drank hemlock
In a far-off village in India
All he wanted was rice
And the woman for whom
Once I climbed a mountain
I crossed an ocean
I ran across a desert
She is now selling her flesh
In a luminous lane in Bangkok
To buy rice and to stay alive
O Condoleezza Rice
Your lips are fresh as new leaf
Your contour is like a stem of lily
Your eyes are sharp blades
That chops my innocuous heart
A poet never hides his mind
Once I was in love with you
But you're in love with gun
Don't you see what's rice to me
Or you want me to fight for rice
On 24 November, I went to bed with peace of mind hearing that the foes of the earth had been defeated by the friends of the earth in the parliamentary elections of Australia. After winning, Labor Party leader promised to comply with the Kyoto Protocol, withdraw combat troops from Iraq and apologize to indigenous people. These are all optimistic signs of an animated society. Perhaps this will usher a new episode in Australian history.
Tagore (1861-1941) in his article on Music and Poetry said that when we read a poem we don't regard it as a mere collection of words. Rather, we judge the relationship between the words and the mood(s) it evokes. The chief objective of poetry is to evoke moods. The words in a poem seek to give shape to certain poetic moods.
It is one thing to convince someone logically and quite another thing to evoke something in him/her. The language of logic appeals to the intellect, while the evocative language appeals to the heart. That's why these two branches of language are distinct from one another. It is much easier to explain or express logical statements than it is to express statements/ moods that defy logic.
In other words, poetic language can't be at the beck and call of the arrogantly bespectacled “why” of prosaic language. The great truths that don't serve the arrogant “why” of the rational thought process abide peacefully in the realm of poetry. Our heart-felt truths don't care much for the tyrannical “why.”
The language of logic follows a certain grammar but the language that is indicative of our aesthetic tastes has no fixed grammar even to this day! The aesthetic world is, therefore, a fearless land where a state of emergency in the form of “why” can't issue unsolicited warrants. If poetic language could be contrasted with prosaic language, its inherent grammar would be unraveled.
Poetic language picks up where prosaic language leaves off in sheer frustration. No wonder then that the two modes of self-expression have branched out in two distinct directions. Often it so happens that we believe something to be true simply because it is backed up with innumerable logical proofs and theories and yet our heart remains aloof and unconvinced.
Tagore had no academic accomplishments. He didn’t have a high school certificate. Several hundred “scholars” did Ph D on Tagore’s life and works.
In the first leg of my stay in Seoul, I had little chance to socialize with people in the literary world. Only once I had an opportunity to attend an evening that was organized by the “Citizen Action for Reading Culture” on 29 June. I was surprised and moved by the proceedings as it centered round me. There we discussed about poetry. We spoke about the language of hearts
Since I had arrived Seoul, I have been looking for opportunities to get in touch with Korean literature in the field of poetry, and now I have so far been able to sip a bit of it. At present I am reading an anthology translated by Chang-soo Ko. Although Chang-soo has a diplomatic job in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he is a poet too. He has taught at Kyungpuk National University. I liked very much one poem of Dong-Myung Kim which he translated into English. Dong-Myung (1901-1968) addressed patriotic, religious and philosophical themes in many poems. He won the Free Literature Award in 1954. While I was reading his poem on My Mind, I was deeply touched and was indeed wondering how romantic one could be. Though the translation has become a bit “non-poetic” at the end and the poem might have been lost there because of the translation, still it evokes a warm feeling. It incites me to yearn for someone to knock the door of my heart. Here it is.
My mind is a lake.
Please come in your boat.
Clasping your white shadow,
I’ll shatter like jade
Against the blow.
My mind is a candle-light.
Please close that door.
I’ll quietly burn to the last drop,
Flickering by your silken dress.
My mind is a wanderer.
Please play on that flute.
Listening in the moonlight,
I’ll be awake all the night-tide.
My mind is a dead leaf.
Please let me stay briefly in your garden.
When the wind rises again,
I’ll leave you, lonely as a wanderer.
 Most Koreans are portrayed as Confucians by tradition, which is patriarchal. But Korea has a wonderful treasure of creative literature in the poetry form for centuries that speaks of love and passion, the relation and longing between woman and man, the eternal Eve and Adam. In Korea people perceive ‘love’ in three forms. These are agape (love of God), pellow (love between friends) and eros (love between woman and man). But eros seems to be a dominant expression of love in poems. Some Korean poets are very romantic and this tradition is there for centuries. Here I like to cite another poem composed by Kim Minsun in the late nineteenth century. This has been translated by Kim Jaihiun, another poet of fame. He studied English literature at the University of Massachusetts, taught at Fort Valley State College, USA and returned to Korea in 1971. Is it right for me to die and forget
Or for you to survive and miss me?
Yet it is hard to die and forget
And it grieves me more to be separated for life.
I’d rather choose to die before you
And make you miss me all your life.
How a Korean poet defines ‘love’? Han Yong’un (1879-1944), a reformist monk and a signatory to the 1919 Declaration of Independence, expressed his emotion in the following manner. This was translated by Kevin O’ Rourke, an Irish priest, who has been lived in Korea since 1964 teaching English in Kyunghee University.
Deeper than spring waters,
higher than autumn mountains,
brighter than the moon,
harder than a stone.
That’s my answer
When asked about love.
The winter has already spread its paw over Seoul. Evenings are getting chillier. Last week it snowed in one evening. While lying on the bed in my apartment, I was thinking of Hanu, a geisha poet of the old days during the reign of King Seonju. She wrote (translated by Jaihiun Kim; but I slightly rephrased it):
Why should you freeze in bed?
Why should you sleep that way?
With the duck-embroidered pillow
and jade-green quilt,
there is no reason to freeze tonight.
Since you have met me today
you’ll melt in the bed tonight.
photo
Courtesy: Pinpaka Ngamsom, Francis Lee, Lim Soyoun |
