한 해에 전직 대통령 두 명을 잃다니, 그것도 두 사람 모두 민주화를 위해 투쟁했던 상징적인 인물인데…
한국에 있었다면 친구들과 만나 고인을 기리며 건배를 했을 것 같다. 험난했던 인생, 이제는 접고 편안히 가시라고. 그리고 이런 이야기를 나누겠지. 1994년 김일성이 사망했을 때, 200년 김대중 전 대통령이 방북하여 김정일을 만났을 때, 각각 어디서 뭘 하고 있었는지. 첫 번째 사건 때, 나는 친구들과 생일을 맞은 한 친구네 집에서 밥을 먹은 후 노래방으로 가기 직전이었다. 두 번째 사건 때에는 당시 남자 친구와 학교 앞 고기 뷔페에서 고기를 굽고 있었다. 그 때 그 친구가 TV 보면서 눈물이 날 것 같다고 한 것이 기억난다.
이제 한국의 진보계는 정말로 새로운 지도자를 찾아야 할 것이다. 그리고 그 사람으로 인해 집결될 힘을 모아야 한다. 그렇지 않으면 대한민국은 언젠가는 곧 폭발하리라 생각한다. 그리고 그 피해는 고스란히 서민들에게 갈 것이고.
How extraordinary it is to lose two former presidents in a row in one year. Even both of them were symbolic figures who strove for democracy…
If I were in Korea, I would meet my friends and drink a toast to the memories of the previous president. To his life full of ordeals, of which he can now finish the last page and take a long rest in peace. And we would talk about what were doing respectively in 1994 when Kim Il-seong died and in 2000, when this former president Kim visited North Korea to meet Kim Jeong-il. For the first case, I was with a group of friends at a friend’s house to celebrate her birthday. We just had lunch prepared by her mother and were about to go out for noraebang (‘karaoke’ in Korean). When the second event took place, I was grilling some meat with my then-boyfriend at a ‘meat buffet’ near from the campus. I remember him having said that he felt like crying watching TV.
Now Korea’s progressive society really does need to have a leader. And they have to gather support through his or her leadership. Otherwise, I think Korea will explode someday soon. And it is going to be ordinary people who will be harmed by these damages.
구미인들의 티베트 사랑은 유별나다고 할 수 있는데 오늘 사내 메일을 통해 아래와 같은 메일을 받았다.
It is said that a lot of Western people love Tibet with such a passion, and today I was forwarded an internal email as below.
Subject: Dalai Lama at the EP – European Fasting
Thursday the 4th of December Dalai Lama will speak at the European Parliament. Tenzin Gyatso’s visit coincides with a decisive moment for the Tibetan’s future. Dalai Lama strategy – non-violence and dialogue with China in order to obtain an effective autonomy, and not independence – risks to be definitively defeated by Chinese authorities’ unavailability to accept any step forward. If this occurs, it will not be only a tragedy for the Tibetan people. If the non-violent solution and federal autonomy will not be take into consideration, a hard beat will be stroke against the right for democracy for 1,5 billion Chinese and against peace hope of all humanity.
To greet and sustain the Dalai Lama in his non-violent struggle, we propose to everybody – European civil servants, MEP, assistants and visitors – to observe a day of fasting, from midnight of the 3rd to midnight of the 4th and to wear the traditional white scarf.
We ask to all of those that intend to participate at the fasting (are allowed water and sugared beverages during the 24 hours) to preannounce it, in order to publicise the list of the participants. The list will be given to the Dalai Lama during the morning of the 3rd.
Kind regards,
Marco Cappato (MEP, Italian radicals)
Thomas Mann (MEP, Chair of the Tibet intergroup)
Marco Pannella (MEP, Chair of the Non-Violent Radical Party, Transnational and transparty)
요약하자면, 12월 4일 달라이 라마가 유럽의회에서 연설을 하는 것에 맞춰, 달라이 라마를 환영함과 동시에 그의 비폭력 노선을 지지하는 뜻에서 유럽의 공무원과 유럽의회 의원, 수행원, 방문객들에게 3일 자정부터 4일 자정까지 금식을 하고 흰색 스카프를 두르자고 제안하는 것이다. (본문은 영어 외에도 불어, 이탈리아어로 작성되었다. ‘traditional white scarf’에서 ‘traditional’이 무엇의 전통을 말하는 것인지는 모르겠다.)
This email was written in French, Italian as well as English. And I’m not sure that, in ‘traditional white scarf’, what ‘traditional’ refers to.
영적 지도자이자 정치가이기도 한 달라이 라마는 작년 10월 미국 의회로부터 황금 메달을 받음으로써 (관련기사), 티베트의 자치권 획득을 위해 미국의 지지를 효과적으로 이용하겠다는 뜻을 밝힌 것이라 하겠다. 비록 많은 티베트 지지자와 달라이 라마의 추종자들이 그가 부시로부터 메달을 수여받는 모습을 보고 대단히 실망을 하였지만 말이다. 그가 이제는 유럽연합 시민들의 대표들이 모여있는 유럽의회에서 연설을 하게 되는데, 단식과 같은 열성적 성원에 힘입어 그가 유럽연합으로부터는 어떠한 정치적 효과를 얻고자 하는지 눈여겨 볼 일이다.
Dalai Lama, a politician as well as a spiritual leader, received the US Congressional Gold Medal in October 2007 (related article) and this showed his will to effectively use the US’ support for him and Tibet in order to achieve Tibet’s autonomy. Though lots of Tibet supporters and his followers were disappointed at the scene where he was received the medal from President Bush. Now Dalai Lama will give a speech at the European Parliament where the representatives from the EU citizens are located. With passionate support such as fasting, it will be worth paying attention to what kind of political influence he will try to draw from the EU.
On Thursday the Stage Committee sent an additional notice to their daily news for the ‘US Election Party’ organised by American Chamber of Commerce in Brussels. They got the 20 tickets but later announced more than 80 stagiaires applied for.
Last night at one of the bars I went to with my friends, there was a leaflet of ‘OBAMA NIGHT’. ‘Belgium for Obama’ hosts this event and I guess they’d decided to make it Obama Night whatever the real outcome would be that night.
I also found a music video for Obama, featuring a lot of American entertainers including my favourite male singer John Legend. (He also sang on the stage for Obama campaign.) Thank you, Elisabeth!
The reason why I think some of the outside the US support Obama is their expectation that the relationship with the US could be changed from a phase of confrontation to cooperation. Of course, because of each state’s own interests, it won’t be possible to make one voice over the issues at stake all the time. If the government’s mind-set is already based on sharing, however, wouldn’t it be a little easier to go towards cooperation?
