Korean Vignettes
I am writing from Seoul, Korea, where I have been for one week. I am filled with many emotions and am making many connections of present-past -future. I am here to facilitate and speak in the UN Public Service Global Forum on Sustainable Development with over 1,000 delegates from around the world. One of them is a new colleague from the University of Aruba whom I met in March when I was teaching in her innovative program on collaborative leadership.
***
On this visit I have been able to see dear friends and colleagues from the time my family lived here from 1972 to 1978. At that time I was with an NGO, the Institute of Cultural Affairs, doing comprehensive community development in poor villages on Jeju Island and near the DMZ. Our purpose was to help create models for other communities to emulate and was related to the Korean government’s Sae Maul Undong (New Community Movement.) This week I visited the village near the DMZ, Kuh Du I Ri ("Sleeping Dragon Village 2.") Well, the sleeping dragon awoke and the village has transformed into a highly prosperous community. My family of four lived in one room in the back of a store in the village's community center. Those were great days!
***
I returned to Korea as a UNDP policy advisor in 1994 and again in 2005 and each time I was shocked by the rapid developments of Korean society economically, politically and culturally.
***
Yesterday was the 64th anniversary of the beginning of the Korean War. After that devastating war, Korea was one of the world's poorest countries. Today South Korea is a major world economic power; the Secretary-General of the UN is Korean; and people around the world are dancing Gangnam-style!
***
In 1917, my great uncle after whom both my father and I are named was a medical missionary in Korea, one of my many mysterious connections with Korea. And of special importance, both my sons were born here and one is Korean. What a gift to be related to this beautiful people and land!
***
Just had dinner with another wise Korean colleague who said that the emerging global civilization is about one thing: love. How to realize and embody that in the midst of so much confusion and suffering?
***
Korea is now providing financial and technical assistance to poor countries around the world through its international development agency, KOICA. The Korean heart is wide and deep. Koreans have a lot of empathy and concern for those in need. This is my heartfelt experience, not a theory.
..............................
Photo above is of a sculpture of a Korean dragon in Seoul.