20th Anniversary Commemoration of the June 1987 Uprising

The President and First Lady of Republic of Korea, together with some members of the families of the martyrs of the Korean Democracy Struggle in 1987 graced the 20th anniversary commemoration held at Sejong Cultural Center. The President of the Korean Democracy Foundation is also at this photo, (second to the left).

Images of May 1980 Commemoration

the street drama reliving the May 1980 Gwangju Uprising, notice the smoke coming from the "tear gas"

the lanters of spirit of the fallen marytrs of Gwangju

May 1980 Gwangju Uprising Commemoration

Last May, the whole MAINS students went to Gwangju to participate in the peace conference and at the same time joined the commemoration at downtown Gwangju where the uprising took place.

It gave me goose bumps while the uprising was relived by the street drama. I saw many Koreans weeping. The big participation by the youth and students was also overwhelming. The “tear gas” smoke that covered the circle and the presence of young men in fatigue uniforms also gave us the feeling of “fear" and "anger” at the same time during that period.

The opera song from the background at one point was very moving while they were releasing a hot-air-balloon- like lantern into the air with burning candles that represent the soul and spirit of the fearless Koreans at that time who sacrificed their lives against Chun Doo-hwan dictatorship.

See for yourself the images of the commemoration shortly after this posting.

A Message to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi

In behalf of the students from 11 countries of MAINS (Masters of Arts in Inter-Asia Ngo Studies) at Sungkonghoe University, I am honored and privileged to be one of the well-wishers on the occasion of your 62nd birthday celebration.

Conveying our warmest greetings to you has always been a prelude to speak about your passionate fight for democracy in Burma. Your resilience continues to keep the faith of Burmese and other ethnic nationals, both inside and outside Burma that one day freedom from junta will come. Moreover, you have also kept our spirit of solidarity from many countries in the world.

As a human rights activist myself, I would like to share with you that we have our little contribution to support your struggle; I was founding member of the Free Burma Coalition based in the Philippines and the ALTSEAN which is based in Bangkok. I had also the opportunity to visit your country to interview the vice president of National League for Democracy (NLD) in late 1999.

I would remember marching the streets of Makati City leading to the Myanmar embassy in the Philippines while chanting, "demokrasiyesiye, doe, doe"! no end. I thought that my coming to Korea to study will cut off my links to the Burmese people but on the contrary; I have met more of them and have inspired me again.

I am sure that you would be more delighted if I/we are also wishing your countrymen all the best to continue the fight for democracy and human rights and I believe in my heart that there is no greater gift that you want for your birthday but a real democracy in Burma now.

Let me end my greetings by reading a poem entitled “leading light” composed by Moe Yu May in 2005 and translated to English by Dr. Maung Maung Hla Kyaing;

How brave the star leads upon the darkness sky
Here we will wait until see the sun
Though evils are creeping and filling up with their lies
Sit, comrades: look her sky, how bright with the light of freedom

We join, we sing and we pray for her brighten days
As great as she devotes for our soil
We vow, we unite and we build up for a country of our dream
As deep as she dedicates her life for our soil

Happy Birthday Daw Aung San Suu Kyi!


[photos to follow]

student life is getting into the way of my blogging

I have not been able to post the past few days because i was very busy writing my 3 term papers and 5 essays. anyhow i managed to finish everything yesterday (whew!)after many sleepless nights!!! tomorrow will be the first day that i could hopefully enjoy the remaining 6 days of our two-week summer Quarter recess. i will post more tomorrow. for the meantime i just wanted to say that being a student can be fun and rewarding but at the same time it is too daunting a task and felt that my shoulders have frozen already because of stress.

yesterday i went to the NLD-Korea celebration of the 62nd birthday celebration of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the fighting woman leader of the League for National Democracy in Burma/Myanmar.I gave a very short message which I will post as well.

good times, bad times

The Onsu Incident

I am writing to vent out my feelings and to give everyone the full story (from my perspective) of what happened at ONSU station at 9.10 in the morning of yesterday (Wednesday, May 30, 2007).

as we (Manda, Pinpaka, nay tun) were chatting and waiting for our male classmates, something happened. nay tun and i were sitting fronting the opposite platform, Pinpaka and Manda on the other side. since a train just passed by there were only less than five people waiting on the opposite side for the next train to come, but the next one is not stopping at Onsu. i remember one man carrying a plastic bag with a checkered jacket, could not remember very much how he looks though.

then the next train from the other side comes which was moving fast, i stood up but saw from my peripheral vision that someone just jumped to the rail track and i asked nay tun what just happened but he just uttered oh, oh oh, many times and when i looked back at the train that is still moving, one pair of black shoe was flying above the train and fell down just a few yards where we were standing.

nay tun confirmed that a man indeed jumped into the train track. when the train stopped , we can see the body under the train, i saw from afar the checkered jacket protruding a little bit from one of the wheels of the train. Nay Tun, Pinpaka and Manda went nearer to see and people started to gather and saw some of them making phone calls.

i just kept walking back and forth to the platform and was throwing up but since we had no breakfast yet, nothing is coming out except the bitter and acidic taste of my own saliva. i was in tears and a little bit shaking like crazy. passengers from the train that stopped and those embarking from the other train were probably looking at my unusual reaction. but it was my first time and probably for Manda, nay tun and Pinpaka as well, but maybe my classmates have a stronger stomach than i do. i must admit am too emotional and i would even cry at a mushy movie so how much more when you witness a person commits suicide.I just wondered now how i managed to stay working in two human rights organization when i have seen worst than what I've seen yesterday.

Anyhow, help came after 10-15 minutes. Badrul called that their train is near Onsu. i called the others and informed them that we need to get to the next approaching train. I asked Pinpaka to take a photo of the shoe but she replied that she cannot do that because that is evidence. I told her that i do not need the shoe itself but just the photo of it and she laughed and i did also after she realized what i meant. that broke the ice. i came to my senses a little bit and asked nay tun to take the photo of the particular car of the train where the dead man's body was lying.

the men's train arrived and we all got in. we move from one car to the other to find Badrul, BonoNur. as we were moving inside the train, many questions crossed my mind. Who was that man? why did he jump? was he alone? does no one cares for him? does he have relatives? does he have identification cards?. questions as bizarre as, was it really a sudden death or did he feel pain? is his body intact or cut into pieces? does it take a lot of courage to do that or was it cowardliness? and many more questions that i just kept to myself.

we had a very small discussion on the train about that scene and then silence until we met the person who was waiting for us at Mongwha station.am sure that experience will continue to affect me for the few next days.

yesterday was really a baaaaad day for me, but maybe for that man, it was a good day to die.who knows?

see you in campus,
Jessi

My Activism in Korea

March 17, 2007, anti war demonstration at Seoul Station, Francis Lee, Director of ARENA to my left, Jim Choi, best friend of ARENA and Bono Hussain ( in hood) from India, one of my classmates at MAINS.

March 24, joined the hunger strikers just for a night to protest the agreement
on FTA between the US and Korean governments