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Letter from Overseas HyeRan and David Kim-Cragg write from Korea Letter #7 March 2006 Report for March
Writing this report gives us a break from doing our taxes, one way we can still feel connected with our Canadian home. It is also a chance to reflect on the kind of country Canada is and the things we have been able to build together. Korea as one of the world’s top ten economies as yet does not have a tax system that allows them to benefit ordinary people with a better health care, social welfare programmes and other things that Canadian take for granted.
Spring has arrived here. Spring means the start of a new semester at schools and universities around the country. Noah has started at a new kindergarten and classes and activities have resumed at HanShin. With the new schedule, Hannah is spending two days a week with friends in neighboring apartments. Both children are using Korean now as much as English. HyeRan is teaching a course, Gospel and Culture to undergrads. David is working to get a mission trip to Canada off the ground for June.
Spring also means new life in our natural surroundings. Birds are returning and their songs mingle with the voices of Korean children playing outside which we hear through our freshly open windows. But it is not the garden of Eden yet. With the sounds of birds and children the thundering screams of fighter jets are once again reverberating through our rooms. The planes fly so low as they come in for a landing at their Suwon base that we can see their Korean crests very clearly. Their shadows scoot across the playground. This airbase is jointly run by US and Korean air forces. It is a 10minute flight to the DMZ in a fighter. A reminder of how close war could be. With North Korea developing new missiles, the US in an aggressive stance, Japan on the verge of re-writing its pacifist constitution and China’s growing military, South Korea has to decide whether the way to peace with be to join the race to militarize or pursue peace and security by other means. It is no easy choice but it is promising that with the consideration of Mr. Ban, a South Korean, for the position of General Secretary of the UN Korea is being recognized for its skilled diplomacy.
Another unhappy reality filtering through our windows is the yearly phenomena known as HwangSa or “Yellow Dust”. This is a product of industrializing China. Koreans’ air can be pretty bad at the best of times but when the wind blows from the west the even worse Chinese air causes Koreans to frown. East Asia is a promised land, beautiful and rich. The soil is generous to the people and supports an abundance of life. How generous can it be? Is the only way to achieve what we consider prosperity one that so severely pollutes and reduces the natural environment?
But these are heavy questions and Koreans are too busy celebrating the successes of their athletes at the Olympics, in international figure skating, in Baseball and in the coming World Cup to feel depressed. Well, what the heck, it is spring. And perhaps spring is a more powerful force than we give it or its creator credit for.
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