Mentors

The icons who inspired my generation are slowly slipping away.  Nelson Mandela, Pete Seeger....  Others, like John Lennon, left us long ago.  Our world is changing.  The U.S. Congress is gridlocked, fighting for the next election instead of for the needs of their constituents.  Wars rage throughout the world.  Sexual assault and gun violence are so common that they don't even make the evening news. Apathy is rampant.

Meanwhile, consumerism has become the new god of many throughout the world.  CocaCola sales are higher than ever in Mexico.  Even during the recession of the past few years sales of luxury items never dropped.  In South Korea the streets of Insa-Dong are packed with young shoppers.  Churches are more concerned with their coffers than with the hungry.  Clergy sex abuse scandals are at the top of the news.  Young people are apathetic to world affairs.

But are the times really changing all that much?  In the midst of the hustle and bustle of the consumer world are enclaves of alternative thought.  The new Pope is a breath of fresh air in an institutionalized and often corrupt religious organization.  The people of Cangjeong village fight the military machine by symbolic protests that continue daily year after year.  As part of their protest they crochet sweaters for their trees and set up free libraries on street corners.  Their tactics are not much different from those of Pete Seeger who hoped to use his music to counter violence.

Recently I spent 3 days in a Buddhist Temple.  The Sunims (nuns) want to change the world.  Their weapons are their smiles and their sincerity.  They believe that through midfullness and meditation they can reach a state of enlightenment or perfect peace.  They choose a simple life.  Their shaven heads and make-up free faces shine with unadorned beauty that comes from peace within and compassion for their surroundings.  My time with the Sunims gave me hope for the world.  I saw that it is possible for young women to find peace and happiness without a Coach purse, that the values of our mentors are not dead. 

I saw the same thing in the young women who accompanied me on this journey to Korea.  They went to fulfill a college requirement, but got a lot more out of it than a grade.  They were able to experience solidarity with the demonstrators, with their Korean peers, and with the Sunims.  In the process they began to appreciate their personal responsibility and their place in the world.  Perhaps one of them will be the future equivalent of Mother Theresa or Indira Ghandi, or maybe a neighborhood leader who stands up for justice.  There is hope.  New mentors will emerge!

The First Step

Imagine a young girl, 17 years old, walking alone through the snow and the cold day after day until her feet are frozen.  She stumbles across the frozen river in the dead of night.  She has escaped North Korea into China but her journey is only beginning.  Her feet need immediate medical attention.  Kind strangers, part of a little known Underground Railroad, take her to a sympathetic doctor.  The prognosis is grim.  She is likely to loose both feet.  But it is too dangerous for her to stay where she is.  There is heightened security inside North Korea and the Chinese border patrol is searching everywhere.  She has to be moved deeper into China where another doctor takes over her care.  With time and patience her feet begin to heal and only two toes need to be amputated. But time is short.  If she is discovered she will be sent back to North Korea where she will be imprisoned or executed.  If she stays in China she is likely to be trafficked or sold to a Chinese husband.  The Underground Railroad moves her on until, feet still swaddled in bandages, she reaches a safe haven in a third country.  In her letter of thanks she tells those that helped her that she will study hard because she wants to be a doctor to help others who are poor and hurting just as she was.

This is just one of many stories of the refugees who arrive in Northern China.  This young lady left China with five other girls, each with her own story of survival.  The majority of the refugees escaping from North Korea are female.  This surprised me so I asked why.  I got two answers.  First, the women can hide themselves easier in China because they can more easily find work in restaurants or can be sold or trafficked.  The second is that men have to report for work or military service.  Men have ten years of mandatory military service.  Women have only two years of military service and do not have to report to work.  Their disappearance might not be noticed as quickly as that of a man.

Often when we hear about North Korea the emphasis is on military threats and nuclear proliferation.  Aid efforts often fail to help the most needy causing frustration among donors and others wanting to help.  Here in Korea I hear over and over again that the young are apathetic to social issues in their own country and see North Korea and the possibility of reunification as a needless financial strain on the South Korean economy.  I am told that they no longer teach Korean history in Korean schools.  Many young people do not know and do not care.  Beauty and money are the gods of their generation.

Where does that leave our young lady with the frozen feet?  Without the activists of the Underground Railroad she would have been left to die my the river or captured and sent back to North Korea.  She knows that she owes her life to their faith and their bravery.

The activists are seeing some signs of change.  They are seeing pockets of young people beginning to care.  There is a strange coalition forming between Christian youth and liberals led by activists from earlier decades.  Their interest, along with that of other groups throughout the world, can ignite awareness and build energy towards change.  Governments have not been able to find solutions.  It is only through the individual acts of bravery and compassion that we can chip away at the forces that cause suffering in North Korea, in the Congo, and in every other corner where humanity suffers.  We must each find what touches our own heart and take action, no matter how small, to alleviate a little bit of suffering or feat.

Connections

I am back in Korea weaving a little more color into the tapestry of my life.  This time I am co-leading a course for 18 students from St. Catherine University in St. Paul, Minnesota.  The course is titled "Global Search for Justice Korea: Voices of Dissent and Women".  Although I am revisiting many of the places I went to last summer while preparing the course, I am seeing them through new eyes - my vision changed by the perspectives of the young women taking the course.

Our group has an interesting combination of individuals and cultures.  We have 11 Hmong American students whose families came to the U.S. as refugees after the war in Southeast Asia.  Two of the students are Hispanic/Chicana with close ties to Mexico and El Salvador.  One is Tibetan.  The other 4 are Caucasian but interestingly 3 of their grandfathers fought in the Korean War.

When learning about the evolution of the role of women in Korea many of the Hmong students saw parallels to their own culture and discussed the process of changing social norms and gaining equal status from a very personal perspective.

One of the favorite things about this course has been the interaction with Korea college students and Korean Buddhist nuns who were all about the same age as our students.  We spent 3 days living in a Buddhist Temple where bonds were formed and new Facebook friends emerged.  Our students began the Temple Stay with some trepidation.  It all seemed so foreign and scary.  By the time we left there were hugs and tears of parting.  For me one of the highlights of the Temple stay was the interfaith dialog that took place both formally and informally.  On the informal side there was the devout Catholic student making the sigh go the cross before each prostration and the many chats over coffee between the head Buddhist Sunim, a Catholic nun, a Catholic theologian, and myself (the daughter of Protestant missionaries).  During the 4:15 chants each morning there was a Christian prayer offered.  Our last evening at the temple the Buddhist and Catholic nuns led a discussion of faith.  We were then divided into groups of 3 with one Sunim in each group.

In Gwangju the students learned about the massacre of May 18, 1980.  They shared the experience with Korean college students who had close family ties to that event.  The Korean and U.S. Students shared rooms in the retreat center, shared beer and chicken parties, and worked together on a family history project geared towards helping them find connections with each other and with the history of Korea.  The connections and the learning were amazing.  The Korean students were surprised to learn of the 3 grandfathers who fought in the Korean War.  Many of them also had relatives who had fought in Southeast Asia and related to the Hmong students' stories of war, refugee camps, and forced immigration.  More Facebook friends and tearful goodbyes.

Other highlights included a trip to Peace Life Valley in the Gong-wondo region of the DMZ which included not only a beautiful trip into the mountains and some fun Korean folk tales, but the opportunity to warm up and bond in a Korean style sauna.

Our last stop before returning to Seoul was in Congjeong village in Jeju.  Jeju showed a different Korean women's history as well as connections to U.S. Policy in modern Korean history.  It combined beauty with sadness and brought many things together for the students.

From the "comfort women" and the plight of North Korean refugee women sold to Chinese men, we heard about historical and present oppression of women.  But we also learned about the leadership of Korean women from the Jeju Heonyo to the students and graduates of Ewha.

These young women will return home with new perspectives and new self-awareness.  But first they have a few more days in Seoul to shop, play, and reconnect with Korean friends they have met along their journey.

For me it has been a time to learn, grow, and reconnect with friends here in Korea as well as the opportunity to meet new friends and to get to know 18 amazing young women who came along for thus journey.