Jun 25, 2005 by Naomi.

The air is still and visibility reaches to the tall buildings beyond
the Ewha University campus in Seoul, Korea. Ewha claims to be the largest
women’s university in the world and I have no reason to dispute it. I’ve
walked the streets photographing the founders and other important people
in its history. The founding woman was a christian, intending to educate
Koreans. History shows that christian teachers were to teach heathens
the way of the lord. Teaching facts is a wonderful goal in anyone’s life.
Christianity is a fact in that it existed for two thousand years. Its
actual origin is disputed. The wisdom it claims as its own is traceable
to more ancient civilizations. Basing papers and ideas on past knowledge
is not a crime. But is it defendable when used to create strife and unrest
all over the world? Is it progress when cultures of indigenous human beings
are destroyed?

Human brains and thought processes must ask “Is it true?” and make their own conclusions.

The earth outside my dormitory window is part of the earth where christ supposedly
walked. It is a benign earth moving as we finally learned from scientific
understanding by the mathematics, chemistry and physics that are natural
laws beyond human control. The earth encompasses habitats populated with
plants and animals beyond imagination, at least beyond my comprehension.
But they are facts and I can find information on those that are known.
Unfortunately not all species are known. Some were extinct before we discovered
they had been on earth before us.

The excitement of science will not be stomped out as the attempt to destroy knowledge in the library of Alexandria hoped to achieve thousands of years past. Discoveries we can make with our own human curiosity are forthcoming. Look how far we came since the flat world became round. Imagine how far we can go when we study and search for our real place in the world in which we are privileged to live.

Posted in Social Commentary | No Comments »

Jun 25, 2005 by Naomi.

Food in a Korean dormitory is an adventure - not that most cafeterias
are that much different - but when it’s catered for college kids, Korean
college kids, it’s a world away from the food served in the basement cafeteria
of the Supreme Court building in Washington D.C. It was served in plastic
compartmentalized trays like my picnic plates at home. Seaweed with raw
onions and razor thin slices of lemon looked inky black, celery ends were
suspiciously hot red, meat had more bread than protein but delicious sweet
and sour sauce, watery soup boasted chunky tofu and thin strips of fish
and green onions, and the rice was sticky with lumps like I cook at home.
I put rice in the soup with a grand spoon and stirred the black, red,
and sweet stuff into lumps of rice with a crooked fork and I enjoyed every
bite.

I had just settled into a chair at an empty table when I was greeted
by two bubbly Korean students. Everyone was always friendly so I smiled
and nodded yes around a mouthful of seaweed when they asked if I was alone.
I always travel alone, I said. They exchanged knowing smiles. Then they
saw my name - Naomi. Ah a bible name they exclaimed. Oops, now I understood
why they were happy to have me alone - the better to proselytize It works
better with two on one. The name Naomi, I explained, appears in the bible
but I was named after my aunt, my mother’s sister. They were puzzled.
The name is in the bible, they reiterated. I knew that. It’s there in
my sister Ruth’s book but there I am her mother in law and follow her
around for Christ’s sake.

It was very difficult to make them understand that I had no use for the bible and wouldn’t accept Christ either. One woman was studying psychology and the other was studying chemistry. The chemist had a little better command of English and reverted to Korean to explain my words to the psychologist. It was a fun interlude as dinner conversations go but I would have been happier if they could have grasped my meaning. I tapped my forefinger to my skull when I told them to think for themselves. I left my card with them. I expect some women will think for themselves.

Posted in Social Commentary | No Comments »

Jun 25, 2005 by Naomi.

Returning from the 9th International Interdisciplinary Congress on Women in Seoul, Korea, requires another look at time - the human devised method of keeping time. I left Hanwoori Hall, the dormitory at Ewha University, before seven on Friday, June 24, 2005. I arrived at the Portland, Oregon, airport at seven thirty on Friday, June 24, 2005. Nearly ten thousand miles. Magic?

Is that time travel or what? Those hours were very real so it wasn’t
an instant ‘beam me up, Scotty’ experience. I rode the airport shuttle
through the streets of Seoul and along the fabulous “new” Airport highway,
walked through the delightfully designed Incheon Airport in Seoul, slept
cramped in an Airbus seat, walked through the somber gray Narita Airport
in Tokyo, dropped crumbs from many snacks and meals, slept in a cramped
Airbus seat, spilled juice in the seat pocket, woke with a dry mouth to
a hot towel before breakfast cramped in an Airbus seat, and finally walked
through Homeland security in the colorfully carpeted Portland Airport.
All that in at space of twenty minutes? Not exactly. Did I live a day
longer? Can I hide the day I aged? Or did I lose the day altogether?

There was still an hour’s flight to the Pasco Airport but I was in my house at noon. What a trip! I think I had enough sleep so I won’t lose a day but I must make up for the exercise lost. The way we accommodate the change in days is clever, I suppose. It has to be done somehow but on the face it seems pretty weird, don’t you think?

Posted in Social Commentary | No Comments »

Jun 21, 2005 by Naomi.

Each day I face a challenge of choosing sessions to attend. The program of the 9th International Interdisciplinary Congress on Women in Seoul, Korea, includes many choices ranging from “Politics, Representation, and Translation” to “Alternate Therapy” with catch words like activism, gender, empowerment,and transformation. The possibilities cover 15 pages just for today. Because there is one session before lunch break and two sessions before dinner, I can only attend three sessions. Imagine my frustration. Oh what a dilemma!

In my final choices I learn beyond the content of the paper. I see into the presenter’s personality and dedication and most of all - passion. Passion is blatant with no apologies. This passion is inspiring and later activated in each listener’s home area, city or farm, and change is eminent.

But that is not surprising. The same burst of passion - energy - comes after every conference. Every meeting of women who want change, women who seek change, inspires women to create change. This is a fact and does not only apply to international conferences. It applies every time like-minded women gather where ever they get together.

What a good thing to unleash upon the earth!

Posted in Social Commentary | No Comments »

Jun 21, 2005 by Naomi.

Seoul, capitol city of the Republic of Korea, in the shadow of a horrible diplomatic foopah, holds a meeting that will change world policies. Meetings revealing human issues have changed world politics drastically in just the past fifty years. To know the sacrifice and ridicule people suffered for those actions is critical to finding the courage to continue the progress.

Here and now, in June of 2005, thousands of women from 90 countries are pouring out their hearts and research with the expectation that to know every person’s struggle will inspire a deeper search for solutions. Is it necessary to know the violence and horror experienced by women in every nook and cranny of our earth? Yes. It opens the opportunity for bonding and then action. So much is unbelievable but we need to hear how powers in the world keep women in fear, bondage, and submission using the same simple techniques.

Only if women and the men they love understand that the tragedy of humans exists everywhere and no individual needs to stand alone, can they go forward with determination to create necessary actions. Women now know they can think bigger, achieve higher, and influence wider. Women have no greater capacity than men to create a safer world. But women do have language skills and managing abilities to implement change. Gertrude Mongella, in the keynote address, told of her rise in influence as she knew she could do the greater tasks she pushed for herself. She didn’t believe she could do the jobs - she knew she could. And it is that kind of knowing - the basic thinking - this conference inspires.

Corporate greed changed the world scene and it helps women. The demand for better technology gave us tools for instant communication and easier travel. And this meeting of intelligent minds urges digestion of reality so action can be defined. Women are embracing the earth. Some do not know exactly what they promise to embrace. Some think that embracing the earth means embracing people, but people are the problem so solutions from other aspects of human life must be put into expectations. Only by striving toward great expectations can change occur.

Change is happening. And the opposition knows it is losing. We see greater violence as proof of their impending loss. We will keep pushing and we will win.

Posted in Social Commentary | No Comments »

Jun 21, 2005 by Naomi.

My poster presentation is over. Visitors admired my posters and shook heads in agreement with the concept of women making their identity through their brain with thoughts and experiences. My audience came because I had spoken up at a previous presentation by professors who debated the need for religion classes in a women’s studies curriculum. The poster presentations were in a hall far removed from other meeting rooms on the campus and beyond the free shuttle route so the traffic by the one hundred posters was unusually light. The afternoon was humid and I decided to take another “ten minute” walk up the campus mountain to Hanwoori Hall, my dormitory. I was sweaty as I ever had been in Minnesota on a sultry August day shocking grain in the field - a goofy trip down memory lane if there ever was one! Imagine being nostalgic about sweat.

One charming elderly Korean lady asked me where I was going and insisted it was too far and too steep to walk and advised me to take the bus. Well I wouldn’t have refused the bus but I calculated the distance to the bus stop was greater than the uphill distance to the dormitory so I plodded along in my best alpine climbing mode. It worked in Nepal for 50 kilometers, too, so a thousand yards would be piece of cake. A young lady worried also about my climb. I let her help me off with my jacket and plugged on my way.

I was rewarded by the sounds of birds - at first there was a magpie - not my choice of a songbird, but it has feathers and the gift of flight. I hesitated and stood still until it passed, remembering January, 2001, in Canberra, Australia, when one pesky magpie dive bombed me under a tree, coming close to retrieving my eyebrow for its nestlings. The other songbirds I heard were too high in the trees to be identified but definitely birdsong, much to my delight after the lack of such animals the day before.

There were hollyhocks and coreopsis and roses and topiary to admire along the curving roadway. Three gardners were snipping at the growth of pines near the dormitory. They had been at work when I left early this morning so I’m not surprised at the appearance of many such trimmings beside the streets and buildings. Every shrub so lovingly tended deserves an audience too.

Posted in Social Commentary | No Comments »

Jun 20, 2005 by Naomi.

Embracing the earth, theme of the 9th International Interdisciplinary Congress on Women, is shown on the program cover as a stylized person with wings stretching diagonally up and across the page. The concept became stunning action on stage behind a gauzy curtain at the opening ceremony as a white gowned figure stretched and beckoned to the rhythym and words of the theme song. How wonderfully our imaginations take to the concept of flight!

After the keynote speaker, Gertrude Mongella, received a final ovation for her hopeful and helpful outlook on women embracing the world, I looked down the many steep steps mindful of Chichzen Itza in the Yucatan in 1989 - not so steep, but a serious decline nevertheless. I headed toward Management Hall to place my poster but my thoughts and imagination flitted elsewhere. Farther down and across the distance I saw buildings pressed together with shorter ones seeming to stretch forward as if Ewha University could offer learned understanding and hope.

In the air there were no gulls darting about to admonish the pedistrians for not trashing a leftover sandwich. At my feet there were no sparrows twittering at the seeds and insects in the sand. In the bushes there were no starlings swooping up the live and dead organic material to maintain their excessive body heat.

And my heart sank.

Is this what over population comes to? Do we give up part of the natural world so we can exist? The trees and bushes supply oxygen to the planet but what of animal species filling niches among and beyond that? When Chris and I walked from the Senate building in Washington D.C. to the Museum of the American Indian in February, 2005, we counted ten species of birds - ten species, not just ten individuals - in the air, trees, shrubs, and water. True there was open land but when population demands, how long will it take to cover every foot of soil with concrete, or whatever, for housing and offices?

If we do not prevent this from happening our species will disappear, become extinct. I don’t want that to happen. I am just egotistical enough to believe we can, with this marvelous brain matter folded so haphazardly inside our skull, find solutions to let us soar among the developed plant and animal life as if we were butterflies emerging from a self imposed chryalis. To hunt for solutions as if our very sustainence depended upon it is the reason I came to Seoul in the Republic of Korea, June 2005.

Posted in Social Commentary | No Comments »

Jun 20, 2005 by Naomi.

My elegant poster is up among hundreds of others - at least there is the possibility of hundreds. I was told that only a small percentage of the promised posters actually materialize. Those that are already up for viewing are crammed with information, one has fifty 3 x 5 cards filled with typing which I briefly scanned. The panels are indeed 2.5 meters high which may allow the top parts to be read over the heads of others. I will have to see just how easy it is to get up to the panel and view in a crowd. My location is in a corner that allows me space to stand for questions without obstructing another poster. My laminated pieces are very attractive and will bring the viewers into it for further reading. If mine is photographed the words will be readible and used for further thought.

The panels are white painted wood so my velcro idea could not work. Double sticky back foam tape was furnished, however, and the panels went up easily. The top section which was supposed to have been furnished by the Secretariat with title and source was not forthcoming so I made a handwritten not matching the wonderful graphic pieces I brought. I did arrange my separate panels more closely together than planned because otherwise the bottom panel would require a squat for a proper reading.

A short walk around was pleasant for a look at the landscaping which seemed to be spontaneous growth rather than meticulous plantings, nothing exotic but much noxious weeds by Mid-Columbia standards. Many leaves reminded me of familiar bushes and trees but not quite accurately enough for positive identification.

The plants hid the terrain which were really steep inclines 45 degrees where retaining walls were not in place. Not that the hills were in a neat ripples for orderly development. The streets wound around in tight loops where oncoming drivers backed up to accommodate the shuttle bus in the narrow spaces allowed. I have not yet made the 10 minute walk from the dormitory to the main hall as claimed in the information I received a month ago. The sightseeing shuttle bus route took more than half hour so I may not ever make the walk - time and feet considered. Still I think my choice of the Ewah Hanwoori dormitory over an offsite location was a good one.

Posted in Social Commentary | No Comments »

Jun 19, 2005 by Naomi.

Breakfast is cafeteria style. Sandwich on white bread with crusts removed, artfully cut in triangles, filled with tuna salad and raw sweet onions; cabbage salad with crab and very tasty dressing, hard fried egg with broken yolk; frosted corn flakes with slivered almonds, milk, several fresh orange chunks. I could have had tea or coffee as well. All in all, well rounded. No napkins, or serviets or whatever.

An impressive innovation I found in the toilets. Imagine! The toilet seats are wrapped in a tissue much like US toilet seat covers, except that I press a button and the tissue is spun around in a hidden disposal. Most sanitary. And the tap water is very hot, enough for my instant oatmeal.

Outdoors, which I have yet to go, it is sunny and the day will undoubtly become very warm and humid, I suspect, from what I saw of the fog last night. This is a hilly campus and trees and shrubs fill every space between buildings and streets, which I plan to explore later. I will have the first few daylight hours to do stuff, I guess, because there are not too many folks up and around, at least that I can see.

I’m not the only white head present but the majority at breakfast were young and vibrant which will make for some interesting and valuable exchange.

Posted in Social Commentary | No Comments »

Jun 19, 2005 by Naomi.

Here I am in Seoul, Korea, amazed at the reality of being transferred many thousands of miles via machines weighing hundreds of tons at altitudes of thousands of feet. My father, born in 1888, had difficulty envisioning himself in an airplane let alone on a trip going halfway around the world. Yet five miles above the earth on a well-calculated trajectory in tons of well designed and cleverly engineered alloys, aluminum, plastic, and I don’t know what else, I was diligently propelled at 550 miles per hour toward my destination. And in bright sunshine all the while.

It had been 0530 Pacific Daylight Time, June 18, 2005, when I woke in Richland, state of Washington, USA, to make last minute preparations for the flight. That was : breakfast, dish washing, disposal of garbage, retrieve Email, upload a document to
http://www.nwr.mcnary.wa.us because the reptiles for July second Saturday event shouldn’t have to wait an eminent announcement until I returned.

I received a wonderful welcome at the ww05 reception desk in the Seoul airport where I was hustled to a taxi driven by a native Korean, speaking no English but had explicit instructions as to my destination. However, the campus of Ewha University was daunting to the driver with uphill curves and wrong turns. He valiantly persevered by asking directions from several campus policemen who weren’t certain where Hanwoori dormitory was either. Even in the foggy dark during those roundabout moments I could tell it was a beautiful campus.

I settled into my dorm room after that hour long, 50,000-Won ($49.61 USD) taxi ride at 2100 hours in the Korean time zone on June 19, 2005.

Time and my reality flies when I’m having fun!

Posted in Social Commentary | No Comments »