미지센터의 청소년 국제교류이야기

Fashion answers cultures

        We all derive to look good, but we all have different ways to look good.

           People from all over the world have different eye and skin colors. Even though we all look different on the outside, people all derive the same purpose-good-looks. In order to look good, the first thing that most people concentrate on is fashion. With the start of the windy weather in October, fashion across the world is changing in a fast speed. In Korea, from October 22~28^th, Seoul Fashion Week, a global fashion business event held by Seoul City to show the fashion of the upcoming season. Also the New York Fashion Week was held last month. People all want to look good. However, each culture has their unique way of looking good.

           Out of the many people in the world, who are the most interested and sensitive to fashion? As a person who just has passed one’s own teenager years, one has no doubt that the answer is teenagers. Teenagers are very sensitive and aware of what kind of clothing their friends wear. As there are Fashion Weeks in each country of the United States and South Korea, the clothing style also differs. Therefore, the styles of teenagers are different in these two countries.

Let’s take a look at the daily fashion differences of the teenagers from the United States and South Korea.

Show the World through the Eyes of Lenses-13^th JeonJu International Film Festival

Goal: A Beautiful Change of the World through Cinema

 

                      

   

     Recently, the power of seeing with the eyes is growing bigger than ever. In Korea, the book ‘Silenced’ by Cong Jee Young was made as a film in 2011. People paid attention to the issue mentioned in this book even more when it was made as a film. Films have the power not only as a media, but also as something to see with our own eyes. The massive power and strength of films have been influencing many people not only in Korea, but also in the world. Due to such kind of power of films, people are paying more attention to the impacts of films. Therefore, film festivals are continuing on their history to spread more films throughout the world. One of the top film festivals in Korea is the JeonJu International Film Festival (JIFF).

 

     The 13th JeonJu International Film Festival was held in April 26 to May 4, 2012. Under the slogan, 'Freedom, Independence and Communication' the festival's goal is to show alternative and independent films to the world., To know about the leading effects of the film festival, an interview has been done with YoungHee Park, the manager of publicity department of JIFF.

 

YoungHee Park, manager of publicity department (JIFF)

 

Q. What are the differences of JeonJu International Film Festival (JIFF) compared to other film festivals?

 

A. Normally, people call JeonJu International Film Festival, BuSan International Film Festival, and PuChon International Fantastic Film Festival are the 3 film festivals in South Korea. JeonJu International Film Festival is the Mecca of the whole world’s independence films. At this film festival, you can approach films from in and outside the country that you can’t approach anywhere else. These films include the 3rd world countries’ films or films of great masters in the experimental film industries. Also, there are many big and small performances and events to enjoy. These kinds of characteristics set our film festival to be young and an energetic film festival.

 

   In JeonJu, there is a specialized street called ‘Street Film’, and the happy smiles of the JeonJu citizens and the ‘JIFF volunteers’. JIFF is trying to take it up to the next level by fitting in with the century by changing the way of communication. For example, JIFF has given mass information about JIFF to all over the world by using SNS. Through these efforts, JIFF is trying to be a film festival through communicating with the audience, citizens and movie-makers and movie-lovers. Also, JIFF is the only film festival to have the system to make films and distribute it. Through this system, they are leading the distribution of different kinds of movies and working hard to provide different kinds of movies in Korea.

 

Q. Why is there the word ‘International’ inside the title, JeonJu International Film Festival?

 

A. There was 184 films by 42 different countries screened at the 13^th JeonJu International Film Festival this year. Also, there are about 300 international guests and foreign audiences that head to JeonJu. Therefore, JIFF is specialized as an international film festival rather than just a film festival. It will be visible why this festival is an international event if you visit JeonJu during the film festival season!

 

Q. Why is JIFF held in JeonJu? Is there a special reason that this festival is held in this city?

 

A. It is true that JeonJu has only been recognized as a traditional city to many people for a long time. However, Jeonju pursues fast-moving generation cultures as much as any other cities. Also, this city does not hesitate to invest for the films and movie cultures. This kind of direction of the city’s growth and the interest in investment for films has made this city, the city of JIFF.

 

Q. What is the meaning of JIFF in the 21^st global century? Also what are the true goals of JIFF in the global world?

 

A. We live in a world where the development of science and civilization makes it easy for us to easily share each other’s cultures in the global century. However, the cultures shared, especially films and movies can only be limited. The films that has been appreciated and favored publicly in foreign countries are hard for Korean audiences to encounter them at the theaters. This is the starting reason for the film festivals. Therefore, JeonJu International Film Festival not only brings the new films of the masters of films, but also the films that are hidden to publicly. By bringing out all kinds of films, JIFF wants to take a part in sharing such films to these hidden but shining films and work of art. Eventually, the goal of JIFF is to stand as an incomparable, creative, and experimental film festival in the whole world.

 

    

 

 Films are now showing more impact in the world. More than just the films that are easily available at theaters, there are also many independent and alternative films. Through Jeonju International Film Festival, it is more visible to many people about the importance of such films.

 

 

 

There are various factors and hypothesis that claim what changes our climate. The most certain and influential factor is the pollution by human activities. Thus, emitted greenhouse gases (GHGs), especially carbon dioxide (CO2) make the planet to become warmer. Global warming increases the sea level and melted icebergs not only change the salinity of seawater but also make currents unpredictable. Extreme climates make our lives more unstable, more frequently. Among MDGs (Millennium Development Goals), the seventh goal focuses on hygiene and living condition of the poor society, but it is now losing its direction towards systematic reformation in the means of industrial system. With only four years left before the deadline, 2015, talks between nations about sustainable development is receiving lots of attention while not making much progress.

In front of the United Nations

 

Maldives and Tuvalu gave up their sovereignty, and rising sea level presses the people to be submerged in the middle of an endless ocean. While time is ticking off, no government has been able to come up with a practical, measurable solution. MUNCCC (Model United Nations Climate Change Conference) seeks bright youths to solve it for the adults who are confined to economic benefits and worried about its losses.

 

Before the debate, each delegate wrote their Position Paper, a short essay stating their nations’ goals to achieve throughout the meeting. Here is a part of mine:

“Germany would like to achieve two things in this climate change conference: 1. Setting framework policy that reinforces both economic growth and conservation of nature capital. 2. Coming up with measures to provide incentives to use natural resources efficiently and making pollution more expensive. Both idea stress that environment should no longer be free. Germany finds the most basic reason why nations have been free to abuse nature capital without hesitance in that it is nobody’s responsibility to restore what one has taken. However, while number one requires international and long term compromises, the latter calls for the measures for the time being, before the green economic structure completely stabilizes in societies.” (Tip: In all sessions, in writing or during the debate, everyone including yourselves must be recognized as a third person pronouns.)

 

Every participant represents a nation in a committee as a delegate. Each committee has its own agendas, and mine was ‘OECD and Green Growth’. Only OECD member nations were open to the debate, so there should be a different focus compared to a session in the General Assembly. It is important to grasp which countries with certain economic and social capacity is participating in the debate. Whereas OECD members can more easily afford money costing projects, not all members in GA are capable. Also, there are always main countries in the center leading the debate, ones highly involved in the agenda. It is important and inevitable to form power structures around those delegates. Also, always take notes, because almost all the speeches made during the conference are impromptu; delegates take notes while they listen to the others, and at the same time how to refer to it. But above all, do not get too emotional, or you might personally hurt the other delegate.

 

In the debate session, delegates from US, ROK, Spain have expressed their recent concerns over their fiscal difficulty compared to Switzerland, Germany or UK. But a decision paper written by Switzerland and UK merely suggested already comparably eco-friendly nations to take part in green technology share without the mention of IPR (Intellectual Property Rights). In vice versa, there were no incentives for the technology/ fiscal aid donor nations. The entire decision paper was appeasing to environmentally developed nations for their benevolence. Since decision papers are not mandatory or legally binding, the paper was merely a justification to deny their window dressing. In the mean while, highly developing nations (ROK, Mexico and Brazil) were helplessly waiting for developed nations’ aid. This was not going to work. The paper did not encourage any of the developing nations to voluntarily strive harder to achieve the knowledge of green management, nor for developed nations, pass on to other nations to make this world greener.

 

With Spain, ROK, US and Ireland, we introduced BAMP(Bilateral Appropriate Mitigation Program / 양국간적절완화프로그램). This is a practical form of NAMA (Nationally Appropriate Mitigaton Action), which the president of ROK has brought attention to in 2009 COP (Conference of Parities) in Copenhagen. Developing nations would have to pay small payment to developed nations in exchange for the green technological support, thereby establishing a world sized immense partnership. If the developing nations have failed to achieve the CO2 emission percentage, they had to pay interest to the developed nations; the rate was left to be determined according to their fiscal situation. World Bank will be participating as a mediator. This idea gained the support from the majority and refined the paper in a more practical manner.

Members and student officers of Committee 8, 'OECD and Green Growth'

           MUNCCC 2011 was held by YTN in Korea University with cooperation of British Embassy. Prize winners were later invited to a reception in the British Embassy in Seoul, and had a luncheon. Smaller number of people among them will be lucky enough to participate in COP 17, South Africa as observers. For those of you students wishing to be a diplomat one day, this experience is indispensible and priceless. Become a face of one country for a few days! This experience has motivated many youth including me to find their passion, career, dream and potential. Do you want to feel the goose bumps? Dive in one of the Model United Nations and voice your opinion.

Lithunian college women dress in Korean traditional dresses and spread the Hallyu

            In Kaunas, Lithuania, you can see Lithuanian college women dresses in Korean traditional dresses and singing Korean songs or talking about Korean movies. Through the teachings of Professor Seo Jinseok at Magnus College of Korea and Korean culture since 2008, a group of women interested in the Korean culture were formed. Seo JinSeok is a professor at the Magnus College and teaches Korean regional sciences to students. With the help of his knowledge of Korea as a Korean himself, they meet regularly and watch Korean movies, listen to Korean pop, eat Korean food and etc. These women are helping the Korean culture, hallyu, grow with their deep interest. Korea was always thought to be a “single race”. However, these foreigners are helping Korea grow out of this single race and spread the cultures and spirits of Korea to their country. Now Korea’s range of race is widening to a multicultural race across the globe.

 2011년 8월 27일부터 28일까지 Langley, BC Canada에서 ‘Langley International Festival’이 개최되었다. 축제가 열리는 랭리는 밴쿠버에서 약 1시간 30분 정도 떨어진 곳이며 캐나다의 대부분의 도시와 마찬가지로 다민족이 모여 살고 있다. 한국인, 중국인, 필리핀인, 베트남인, 캐나다인 등 다양한 민족이 함께 서로를 동등하게 대우하고 같이 어울려 지내고 있다. ‘Langley International Festival’은 이러한 ‘꽃다발’사회, 즉 피부색, 언어, 문화에 관계없이 모두가 동등하고 다양성을 자연스럽게 받아들이는 랭리의 다문화 사회를 기념하기 위해 매년 개최되고 있다. 이번 해는 여느 해보다도 큰 규모와 다양한 행사들로 사람들의 발길을 끌었다. 행사장 입구에 들어서자마자 랭리 지역 주민들을 비롯해 써리 등의 주변 지역민들로 가득 찬 모습을 발견할 수 있었다.

 ‘Langley International Festival’이 열린 장소는 Main Stage, Market Place, Theater, Children's Place, International Pavilion, 와 같이 크게 다섯 가지 파트로 나뉘어 갖가지의 볼거리를 선사했다. 먼저, Main stage에서는 International Show가 계속해서 펼쳐졌다. 각 국가를 대표하는 독특한 전통의상, 춤, 음악들이 사람들의 시선을 사로잡았다. 다양한 국가 사람들이 자신의 국가뿐만 아니라 타 국가 음악들에 흥겨워하고, 아이들 또한 음악에 맞춰 덩실덩실 춤을 추며 축제를 즐기고 있었다. 

Main stage 주변에서는 각 국가를 대표하는 음식을 판매하고 있었다. 우리나라의 야시장과 같은 분위기였으며 앙골라, 타이완 등 평소에 먹어보기 어려운 세계 각국의 음식들이 한 곳에 모여 있었다. 공연을 보며 친구, 가족들과 함께 세계 각지의 음식을 먹어보는 재미도 축제의 묘미 중 하나였다. 

Market Place에서도 역시 자신의 국가를 대표하는 물건들을 부스 별로 팔고 있었다. 꼭 물건을 사지 않더라도 상인과 관광객이 여러 국가에 관심을 갖고 물건에 대해 이야기를 나누는 모습을 쉽게 찾아볼 수 있었다. 이러한 소통들이 다양한 민족이 서로에 대해 한발 짝 더 깊게 이해하고 인정할 수 있게 만드는 계기가 되었다고 생각한다.  

야외 극장(Theater)에서는 여느 해와 같이 셰익스피어의 연극을 하고 있었다. 이번에는 셰익스피어의 희극 ‘뜻대로 하세요(As you like it)’으로 사람들에게 무료 야외 연극을 선사했다. 매우 더운 날씨인데도 불구하고 많은 사람들이 돗자리, 간이 의자 등을 가져와 잔디밭에서 연극을 감상했다. 

'Langley International Festival'에는 친구들과 함께 온 관광객도 많았지만 무엇보다도 어린 아이가 있는 가족 단위의 관광객이 많았다. 따라서 아이들을 위한 간이 놀이공원과 같은 놀이시설 역시 준비되어 있었다. 캐나다의 많은 축제는 자원봉사자들에 의해 이끌어진다고 해도 과언이 아니다. 행사의 성격에 따라 자원봉사자의 모집 요강이 다른데 'Langley International Festival'에서는 청소년들도 자원봉사자로 많이 활동을 하는 모습을 볼 수 있었다. 청소년 자원봉사자들은 이곳 놀이시설에 많이 배정이 되어있었고, 아이들이 안전하고 재밌게 놀 수 있도록 성실하게 돕는 모습이 매우 인상적이었다. 

마지막으로, 각각의 부스에서 자신의 나라의 특색에 맞게 홍보를 하는 International Pavilion이 있었다. 평소에 한국에서 쉽게 접해보지 못한 바베이도스와 같은 다소 생소하게 느껴지는 나라들도 이번 행사에 참여했다. 다양한 나라 사람들이 부스에서 홍보물, 아이들을 위한 장난감 등을 나누어주며 자신의 나라를 관광객들에게 알리는 좋은 기회를 가졌다. 

이틀간의 축제 기간 동안 국가별 축구대회, 자동차 쇼 등 다채로운 행사가 개최되어 다양한 국가의 사람들이 누구나 즐길 수 있었다. 캐나다에서 여러 국가의 사람들과 문화를 한 곳에서 경험하고 싶다면 매년 열리는 ‘Langley International Festival’에 참가해보길 권장한다. 서로 다른 민족이 모여 소통하고 그들의 문화에 동화되어 즐길 수 있는 소중한 경험이 될 수 있을 것이다.

 

 

 

On July 24th, Seoul Youth Center for Cultural Exchange, Mizy Center in short, welcomed the second guest speaker
for the MDG workshop provided for the Mizy Reporters, Kim Kyung Soo. Mr. Kim’s main field of activity is PKO:
Peacekeeping Operations. Starting with the interning at the UN, he has developed his career through working in the
Asia Pacific Council, the Korea Military Academy, the United Nations Military Observer group in India and Pakistan, and the United Nations Mission in Sudan. From his experiences, he realized that the MDGs goals were all parts of a big
cycle linked by two words, sustainable development. He explains the each goals based on his experiences and what
the future peacekeepers can do.

 

Picture from crcna.org-MDG hands

Goal1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger

Goal2: Achieve Universal Primary Education

According to the 2011 MDG Report, the Sudanese children’s school enrollment rate has been increasing recently.
However, when he was in Sudan, the children could barely attend school due to several reasons. Weather affected the most. 8 months of the year, it was too wet for the small children to walk the several kilometers to school, whilst 2 were too dry and hot. Even in normal weathers, parents feel it is too dangerous to send their kids on such a long walk, where
boys are frequently kidnapped by the army, and the girls, raped. Merely building schools in the nations and
recommending parents to enroll their children have not solved the problem of education, where such indigenous issues
are not taken into account. 
 

Goal3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women

The number of women with paid jobs is considerably lower than the number of men with paid jobs in Sudan. Most
women in Sudan do not realize that they are receiving unjust and unequal treatment. For them to know this, they need to be educated, but of unfortunately, everything has a price tag, even education.

Goal4: Reduce Child Mortality

In year 2007, during 3 months of time, 821 Sudanese children died of measle. That corresponds to two small elementary
schools in Seoul. Likewise, malaria is one of the diseases that wipes out children now and then. However, having
caught them twice, Mr. Kim says that they were somewhat like normal colds, gone in 3 days with medication. The 
diseases are not what raises child mortality rate, but it’s their extremely weak bodies and immunity, along with the
unyielding poverty that seems to beholding the Sudaneses’ ankles on all parts of their lives.

Goal5: Improve Maternal Health

The ratio of baby getting born under proper professional medical care was only 48% in year 2008. If the mothers’ health is deteriorating, the child mortality will rise. If the mother has AIDS, the number of new AIDS infectants will rise. If the mother receives low quality education, or no education, the child is less likely to have proper education, and so on. This
generation’s females’ problems are literally “inherited” by the next generation if they are not solved.  

 

Goal6: Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and other Diseases

Because of the high illiteracy, instead documents with definition and descriptions of AIDS, he and the team plastered a
large poster with the word “AIDS” on it, color print. The next day, the poster was found stuck in a home’s wall as
decoration. Due to lack of education and knowledge, the could not understand his explanations on why AIDS is
dangerous, what happens to kids born with AIDS, and where they can get the pills.

 

Goal7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability

Mr. Kim realized the seriousness of the water issues not only when he saw people using drinking water for washing, but also the vice versa. To help these Sudanese, an industry kindly sent high-technology generators that could pump out
water from the underground that ran on electricity. Unsurprisingly, the generators ended up in the children’s hands
because they did not have enough energy to operate such machines and did not know how such technology worked.
Similarly, he found out that the land is actually fertile enough to operate an agricultural system, but because they lacked
agricultural technology and knowledge, they fall into idleness.

Goal8: Global Partnership for Development.
 

From all these experiences, he realized that what he and other people working in international bodies and partnerships
that support the developing nations need to do is ‘research.’ To gather correct information and database so that they
actually “know” the realities of each nation, rather than planning on surmises and speculations. The UN might seem as if they are doing nothing, but it is they who do the research with which the NGOs and other international organizations
raise funds.

Sudan is an impoverished nation, but at the same time, the most supported by the UN. But why are they showing second to no progression when countries like India and China, which were once in the same line receiving same or less help
than them, are prospering? Mr. Kim says that he has never heard a ‘thank you’ in Sudan. Their history filled with betrayal and embezzlement, the Sudanese neglects to depend on other nations for development, making the effects of the UN and other international organizations’ help temporal. However, Mr. Kim explains that this is not their fault, but our ignorance of their unique culture and history. “Like humans have different characteristics, so does the nations. We need to understand these characteristics: the history, culture, the environment, the weather, and so on. You think that you know, but when
you look at the real scenes, you’ll realize that reality is very different.” To promote sustainable development, the main goal of MDGs, we need to firstly research and understand them.

 

※ Tip for those who are interested in joining Mr. Kim:

Mr. Kim says that many students ask him what major they should choose and how high their TOEFL, TOEIC, and other
English scores have to be to work in the UN or NGOs. He says that his answers are always the same: follow your bliss and dream. In the book Succeed as the citizen of the world, not of Korea(한국인이 아닌 세계인으로 성공하라), he recalls when he and his team members of the OCHA, Office of Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs, gathered after a long day of work. All eight members were from different countries and all had different majors, ranging from social welfare to computer programmers. He quotes “Don’t accommodate yourself to the international organizations but apply your own merits to their needs.” Doing what you can do best and with joy is the quickest way to helping others be happy.

 

     ‘Behind these professional, well organized UN charts are stories of humanity.’

     Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight international development goals that all United Nations member states and some international organizations have agreed to achieve by 2015. The goals encompass from eradicating poverty to forming global partnership for development. Promised due date is only four years away. 
On July 31st 2011, Ju Hun Kim (김주헌) former UNEP consultant and an author of 'Cross the World'(하루에 국경을 두번 넘는 사람들) reminded us the importance of MDGs. He lectured on “MDG Goal 7 and TEEB” at MIZY Center. He divided his lecture into two and emphasized the importance of ecosystem, MDGs, and TEEB. Overall, he tried to encourage our participation by keep asking questions. It was easy to understand, even though the content was quite challenging.

Part 1. MDGs and Environment
     

                             
      Ju Hun Kim especially discussed the 7th goal of MDGs. The 7th one is on environment. He began the lecture with his worries on the earth – despite people’s increasing interest on environment, people still lack understanding on global environmental issues. He stressed environmental issues are essential; they affect people, countries, and the earth.
      He explained different sectors of environment – forests, ozone layer, natural resources, and water – with statistics. The statistics revealed “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer” reality.
      “2011 is International Year of Forests …” Forests alone absorb one sixth of world’s CO2 emission. In other words one sixth of CO2 emission is lingering in the atmosphere, left unabsorbed by no longer existing forest. Developed countries in Europe and Asia know this and try to form forests in their nations. And Asia and Europe are getting greener. However countries in Latin America and Africa which used to have rich forests are losing trees. It is because they need to export natural resources to sustain their lives. In short developing countries are more suffering from decreasing and lack of forests.
      Similar situation occurs with water. “The UN proposed that world is likely to surpass drinking water target by 2015 though more than one tenth of people would still be without access to clean water,” said Ju Hun Kim. Ironically the poor need to pay more to get drinkable water since clean water is rare. It is shown in statistics that poorer people are less opportunity there is to be accessible to clean, sanitized water: people in the city had more access to clean water while 32% of people in rural areas still used contaminated water.
      But there is also success story; it is about ozone layer. Montreal Protocol helped restore the ozone layer. It legally prohibited consumption of ozone depleting substances (ODSs) to 2%. This was possible because the protocol was legally binding.

Part 2. Ecology and Biodiversity
     

                             After a short break, the resumed lecture began with the introduction of the second phase: Ecology and Biodiversity. Two ecological terms were introduced: “ecological footprint” and “ecological capacity.” Ecological footprint shows how much environment is destroyed due to economic development. Ecological capacity is self explanatory – how big an ecosystem can stay balanced in a nation. When the footprint overwhelms the capacity, the nation is in a seriously environment deprived situation.
      Governments are used to abusing the environment for their convenience. Why are they not so hesitant to do so? Is it because environment is just everywhere and does not requires monetary exchanges. “Just because it is economically invisible, it does not mean that it is not economically valuable.” He suggested that environment must be valued to our currency. It should be visibly monetarily numerable so that they will be cautious of letting their money spill out.
      Nation’s economic strength has been measured by simple economic compass like GDP. However, for ‘sustainable’ development, natural capital must be taken into account when deciding national competence.
 “We may dismiss ecosystem service as only 10-20% of GDP, but they are actually 50-90% of the GDP of the POOR.” – Pavan Sukhdev, Head of the UNEP Green Economy Initiative TEEB.
      Poor class of the society is more dependent on environment for their economic activity since many work in primary industry. When climate change gets out of our hands, the first ones to be affected will be nations in archipelagos and poor, rural class. I was moved by this explanation. People seeing gray skies everyday in enormous headquarters will never learn the reality by heart, even though they may know all the statistics. Statistics may even be foamy and the reality could be quite different from the graph.
      RIO+20 2012 is coming up. There should be a 3 month experience of Maldives for high governmental executives and law makers without any help of the civil culture. Then, the world should be in much better shape.

                          

/ MIZY Youth Reporters Yeong-ran Ahn & Chorok Lee