By Romy Kerwin.
This is an answer to an article published in the Middle East Tribune by a
friend, a writer named Mohammad Moussalli. This newspaper is sold in
Lebanon but read throughout the Middle East.
There are many similarities with Korea, especially after the Sewol tragedy
and I hope that it will give you food for thought.
Dear Mohammad,
You have touched to a subject, which is dear to my heart. It is the role of
morality in politics and diplomacy. We all know that many dictators are
psychopaths without a conscience. Their entire lives are dedicated to
bringing pain to the people they rule or by frightening the world with
nuclear arsenals, such as Iran and North Korea.
The subject of morality in my work began after the Julian Assange
revelations and of course, with Edward Snowden. I asked myself many times
where to draw the line between security and honesty. Spying under all its
forms is dishonest and unacceptable when the spying includes your friends,
allies and neighbours.
For us who write about the many crises in the world, there is a feeling of
powerlessness and overburden.
We are also acutely aware of why it is important to put honesty first. As
Chip says moral decay mirrors political decay.
Senator Bernie Sanders (I_Vt) said it quite powerfully “.. a nation built on
greed will not survive morally, economically or politically”.
Moral decay exists first and many decisions are based on it. How can we
forget the scandals of Enron, the Lehman brothers in the US and many other
events that affected the entire world by ricochet but the most shocking fact
was the ease with which they lied to us and stole pensioners’ money.
We are also seeing so many cases of suicide, especially in East Asia. By no
means, do I imply that suicide is a sign of moral decay, suicide reflects a
society that has stopped caring. A society , which does not recognize those
of us who are fragile and in need of help. We are too greedy, dishonest and
uncaring to see the cries of those who prefer to kill themselves rather to
live in a rotten , where the rich always get richer and the poor poorer.
In my work, I have often asked myself if I was completely honest and with a
pure heart. I do work for a country, intent to bring transparency to the
social and political system. I have seen very little of it since the last
presidential elections. Now it is not easy to root out corruption totally
but with corruption at every level, we live in a nebulous cloud of
dissatisfaction.
I know so many diplomats who are asking themselves the same question. How
can we serve our country and maintain our self-esteem ? When I see the
world we live in, ravaged by war, cruelty and genocides, called ” ethnic
cleansing ” and anything that you want to add to the list, our quest for
truth, self-respect and humanity is easily dismissed and yet all the Korean
diplomats I know are good, loyal, generous people, with a great sense of
personal responsibility.. The aforementioned qualities, is what will save
us someday.
A working society has to be built on trust.
I am not a Christian but I have read a book calling Christ a political
agitator and that is exactly what he was because, like us, he lived in an
immoral system. During the wedding in Cana’an, he transformed water into
wine but in the sacred baths of the owner to show his form of piety had no
importance to Christ. It is never really explained to us. He chased
unscrupulous money makers and vendors from the Temple. Christ , in his
times, was already fighting for a moral society. That is what killed him.
We need more men and women to lead us to a better world, working for a
better nation.
In the US, hypocrisy and deception in politics abound. People have lost
faith in the truth regarding all the many mysteries that we are
encountering. This gave rise to the unfortunate wave of conspiracy theories
as though, no one could believe the truth anymore and the truth has been
twisted so many times that nobody is ready to believe anything. Conspiracy
theories are everywhere covering everything. Sadly, they are often true.
Nothing is to be taken for granted in Washington, DC anymore, if it was ever
believed in the first case.
It would seem that, the world needs to be destroyed and re-built with a set
of parameters or yardsticks that we will never find in our old world. It is
very sick and , Withholding a total holocaust, it cannot get worse.
How to start afresh ? What to do when refugees are turned away because the
host country does not have the resources to welcome them. In Lebanon for
example, there are about four million inhabitants of Lebanese origin but
there are one million refugees for Iraq, Syria, Palestine and other MENA
countries.
I learned the power of honesty from one set of grandparents who often said
to me :” In this house, we do not keep secrets. Things are what they seem
to be “. It became my moral compass because I want to live a live without
secrets. I want to keep it blameless, especially because I have influence.
I probably have endorsed more than 700 people on Linkedin, all around the
world and I am well liked and respected.
My grandparents lived in a small town and everybody adhered to the same
values. This was France. Life was peaceful and kind. We never locked our
doors. When a funeral passed by with a cortege of mourners ,following the
hearse, men would respectfully remove their hats and women would cross
themselves, whether or not we knew the dead person. Life stood still until
the mourners had passed.
For me, this is Milton’s Paradise Lost.
Life was based on respect.
Thank you, Mohammad, for reminding us of our own humanity and for writing
another article, which is at the heart of our distress and is relevant to
all. It is the search for a moral compass in a world gone mad.
These comments generated many positive responses and even though I have
changed it a little to reflect South Korean realities, the text is
basically the same.
I have sent notes to the NIS and want to share with you what I said. The
owner of the Sewol, a Mr. Yoo was murdered, shot by professional assassins
and left to rot in a deserted place. We will never find his murderers.
As far as the sinkholes are concerned, it is probably not due to the Lotte
Hotel or subway line Number 9. These sinkholes have appeared everywhere in
the world even in rural areas in Siberia or the US.
There are many subway lines in the world, you would think that Tokyo would
be full of sinkholes but it is not the case.
We had none in Toronto even so we have a subway running underneath another
subway. It is very deep and we have another city underneath Toronto streets
called the Path. Some people never leave it except to go home.
Temperatures are constant, very warm with palm trees and real birds.
There has been an erosion of the soil in some places and bad structural
engineering may be the cause, again corruption. These structural defects
fill up with methane gas, strong enough to cause an explosion that leaves a
hole in the ground. Even mines that go very deep into the earth do not
produce sinkholes, generally, they just collapse.
I am sorry for what is happening in Irbil after you did such great work
there. Hopefully, some day, there will be an independent Kurdistan.
As far as North Korea is concerned, it is still working on nuclear
armaments, which, some day, will be obsolete.
It is relatively calm as Kim Jong-un is not liked by the Chinese
administration. The visit of President Xi to South Korea first has had
quite an impact in Pyongyang.
The domestic agenda of President Park is not working and a Sewol bill should
be passed by lawmakers. President Park should dissolve her Cabinet and give
it a fresh start. Not much has been accomplished ,either in Foreign Affairs
or at home.
I was elated when I read in the newspapers about Tomiichi Murayama. This is
a decent man. He may have an influence on Shinzo Abe to reconsider
historical lies but there should be an olive branch for Seoul. Nobody likes
to start something from a position of shame and disgust.
I remain,
Yours Very Respectfully,
Romy Kerwin
