Urban characters-2 male, in his 30s

Urban characters-2
Male, early 30s

Wednesday, 28 September 2011, at around 6:25 this evening at Suyu station southbound platform, the standby subway passengers were alarmed at a scream from a man who must have been suffering of mental disturbamce. He screamed as if he saw a disturbing object. Interestingly he would scream loudly upon seeing young attractive women.

The young wonen were frightened upon hearing the scream, looked at where the scream was coming from only to see a tall, well built young man turning his back on them and slowly walked away, muttering some words audible to people near him. He screamed again when he saw a young woman approaching him just a minute before the next train arrived. I'm not sure whether he got on the train or stayed on the platform and scared more people. I just hope the subway station personnel would have noticed him and helped him stay away from the platform.

Modern day life is stressful to so many people and stressed out people are susceptible to breakdown of mental and physical health.

PARK YONG-KIL the mother of reunification

The Road to the Spring of Reunification
28 September 2011

She is named the "mother of reunification", Park Yong-Il, one of the rare women church elders in the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea  and the protestant churches in Korea. She lived to be 92 years old by October 24 this year. 
She passed away last Saturday and the funeral service was held this morning at the chapel of Hanshin University Graduate School of Theology. She and her husband Moon Ik-Hwan served as inspiration to church people and society, both of the North and South.

The funeral service highlighted her as a road to Springtime, ushering in new ways of relating between the separate states, yet remains one people or nation. Poems by Ko Eun were beautifully read and musical tributes were excellently offered by the women's choir of Seoul Presbytery, a cello musical rendition by Oh Mi-Sun and a soprano Arirang song was sang by Jeong Myeong-Hwa. 

Spoken tributes were given by church leaders, but all ears caught attention when Moon Dong-Hwan spoke. He is a retired minister and brother-in-law of the deceased. Although there are many outstanding characteristics Park Yong-Kil have as a woman, a church  leader, mother and wife, most of the spoken tributes mentioned her in relation to her husband Moon Ik-Hwan. The former South Korean Prime Minister, Han Myeong-Sook also gave a tribute.

A video clip on the latest interview with Park Yong-Il was shown and a slide presentation of their visit to North Korea and the meetings of two former SK presidents with NK's leader Kim Jong-il. A letter of condolences from NK leader was read during the service.

The main hall of chapel was filled with not less than 200 persons. An
outstanding  woman of faith has passed away. The future of peace and reunification of the Korean people is the hands of the present generation.

UCCP Magna Carta for Church Workers

Seoul Urban Character-1

Urban characters

Middle age male. 

On the subway train enroute Dongdaemun to Hongik University station. He was wearing a dark pin stripe suit. Reading a book on top of a black office bag which looks full packed with books and files. No eyeglasses he reads the book and he underlines some sentences on the page he's reading. The moment he raises his chin up his red eyes in stark contrast to his pale and emaciated face and sporting a short haircut. Black cord of earphones hangs around his neck. He looks exhausted, pale and famished. Out of exhaustion he would bow his head and nap for a minute or two. Towards Chungjeongno station he took out his smart phone, not making a call nor playing a game just checking for messages. Nothing recent! He returned the cellphone in his pocket. He got off at Hongik Univ station. I saw he walked away with the heavy loaded bag on his right shoulder. A working day has not ended yet for him. 

Jeju's Kangjeong Villagers ask International Support for Protection of their Community and Livelihood

Official Statement of Appeal

We appeal to peace advocates worldwide to give Gangjeong residents and its peace activists international support and solidarity to stop the Jeju naval base construction. Please spread the news of these problems related to the Jeju naval base construction with your networks and show us your support and solidarity.

The Joongduk coast of Gangjeong Village in Jeju Island is now suffering. In 2006, Jeju Island was designated as an Island of Peace for the purpose of consoling the deep sorrow of the April 3rd Massacre. And the Joongduk coast was appointed as a Biosphere Reserve, World Heritage Site, and Global Geological Park by UNESCO. It is an Absolute Preservation Area, which is now being threatened by the naval base construction.


Insisting that the naval base is vital for national security, the Korean government and the navy are enforcing the construction. However, the Ocean Navy expansion plan--upon which the base construction was justified--has been discarded in revisions to the national defense bill regarding strategies to counteract recent security threats. This leaves no justification for this new base. In addition, the original argument from the government when the National Assembly budget bill was passed was to construct a Joint Civil Military site to be used for tourism as well as military purposes. However, that plan has disappeared and now only the military base is being constructed.

By maintaining military alliances with Japan, Australia, South Korea, and India, and through joint military exercises with the Philippines, Vietnam, and Taiwan, the U.S. is attempting to build up its defense line against China. If the Jeju naval base is constructed, the U.S., which possesses the right to station there according to the ROK-U.S. Mutual Defense Agreement, will surely use this base to stand up against China. In that case, Jeju Island, an Island of Peace, will become a center of military conflict between the U.S. and China, jeopardizing South Korea’s national security.

 
Government and military authorities, however, are turning a blind eye to the voices of Gangjeong residents and civil peace activists, as well as to the demands to suspend the construction coming from the opposition parties and the investigation committee of the National Assembly. The navy has even used violence against a protesting civilian. On July 11, the national government recommended that the city government barricade a farm road on the Joongduk coast, which is the last remaining piece of state-owned land under the jurisdiction of Seogwipo city within the site of the naval base construction. This action was a response to the demand from the Ministry of National Defense to discourage any attempts to stage a protest against the naval base construction. However, such efforts by the government to enforce the construction only bring about stronger resistance and conflicts from Gangjeong residents and peace activists. The construction must be stopped before any unfortunate accidents take place.

We appeal to the government and military authorities

The argument for the base construction by the government and the navy is no longer valid. Moreover, the means and procedures used to promote the construction have been so violent and deceptive that they are only causing more resistance and resentment. Unilaterally pushing ahead with the construction, in the name of the national project, is obviously not a wise way. We call upon the government and military authorities to withdraw their plan to close the farm road and to completely reexamine the Jeju naval base construction project.

We appeal to Woo Keun-Min, Jeju governor

Governor Woo, you were aware of the negative consequences that could result from the naval base construction and you were right. We urge you to give up the futile illusion about the development profit and to listen to the desperate voices of the residents. We further request you to use your authority to cancel the removal of the “absolute preservation area” designation of Joongduk coast. If you do so, history would remember you as a person who protects the peace of Jeju and the Korean peninsula.

We appeal to the national assembly

As an entity representing citizens, the national assembly has a duty to listen to and respond to citizens’ voices. We appeal to the opposition parties to be more active in nullifying the Jeju naval base construction project. The Grand National Party, as the current ruling party, should seriously examine whether the base is really needed and whether national budget should be spent on inflating military forces and feeding construction capital.

We appeal to citizens

Gangjeong citizens have been fighting alone for over four long years. In the meantime, the village community has been torn apart, leaving indelible scars. Citizens are also engulfed with fears due to various lawsuits from the government and construction companies, as well as fines up to tens of millions of won. They are suffering from the fact that the Goorungbi boulder, which represents their dreams and memories, might be covered with cement block.

Please express your solidarity and give them your consolation. And if you can, please visit Gangjeong Village. Then you might be able to understand more clearly why the construction must be stopped. In addition, please use your wisdom and energy to do whatever you can in your position to prevent the Jeju naval base construction.

We appeal to peace advocates worldwide

International support, advocacy, and solidarity to stop the Jeju naval base construction give Gangjeong residents and peace activists strength and courage. Please spread the news of these problems related to the Jeju naval base construction with your networks and show us your support and solidarity.

We will try our best to prevent the Jeju naval base construction, which endangers the Korean peninsula and Northeast Asia, and which is destroying the lives of Gangjeong residents and the natural environment, a gift from heaven. We firmly believe that this struggle is our responsibility to Jeju Island, where the sorrow of the April 3rd massacre is deeply embedded, that this is an expression of our conscience regarding the suffering Gangjeong residents, and that it is the demand of the times to protect and ensure peace for our children. We sincerely appeal to everybody who stands alongside us to protect Gangjeong Village and Jeju Island.

Ms. Gang, Young-sil
The Gangjeong Village Association
Email: buenoyoung@hanmail.net
Telephone number   +82-11-9826-5022
Website:  http://savejejuisland.org/Save_Jeju_Island/Welcome.html
 

The United Church of Christ in the Philippines Solidarity Statement to Hanjin's Retrenched Workers in Korea and the Subic Bay, the Philippines

United Church of Christ in the Philippines
 
A Solidarity Message
to the
Retrenched Workers of Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction
and the Presbyterian Church of the Republic of Korea
 
“Genuine peace comes when justice is served...
...for as long as labourers do not receive just wages...
There will be no peace.”
UCCP Statement on Peacemaking
 
The United Church of Christ in the Philippines(UCCP) joins the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea(PROK) in supporting the workers of Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction(HHIC) in their struggle for their workers’ rights as a result of illegal termination and unjust labor practices.  We salute the Korean people for their willingness to join in a peaceful protest that included more than 10,000 citizens on 195 buses to call for a resolution of the HHIC laid-off workers situation, on July 9, 2011.  Hearing that in the early hours of July 10, 2011, armed police fired tear gas and water cannons at civilian protestors, as they sought to visit Labor Leader Kim Jin-Sook who was protesting by occupying Yeongdo Shipyard Crane #85, reinforces the need for Church people around the world to join in solidarity with the struggle of the workers.  With the PROK, we strongly condemn the violent dispersal of the peaceful march to protest the termination of workers at HHIC on July 10, 2011 in Busan City, South Korea and call for the reinstatement of illegally retrenched HHIC workers. 

Globalization has allowed large Trans-National Corporations, such as the Chaebol conglomerate corporations where HHIC belongs, to move easily from country to country around the world, even when in the process they violate workers’ rights and welfare.  The lay-off of workers in Busan, South Korea likely precipitates from the opening of Hanjin’s new shipyard in the Subic Bay Freeport, Philippines. In 2005, Hanjin signed a 50-year lease and has since then invested US$721 million into this new shipyard.  With a ten-year tax holiday and a cheaper workforce of only PhP 306 (approx US$7.25) for nine hours labor in the Philipines, the HHIC likely intends increased profits by relocating their work to Subic Bay, Philippines. 

According to our investigation, the situation of Hanjin workers in Subic Bay Freeport is also fraught with violations of workers’ rights:
·         Although Subic government officials report that 21,000 workers and employed at Hanjin, the reality is that only approximately 17,000 are employed by Hanjin, while the others retained using 42 sub-contractors to circumvent the giving the benefits and rights of regular employees, including the right to join a union.
·         Not only do workers have a nine hour shift, they are also required to arrive to the company bus station 30 minutes before their shift begins.  Workers are often expected to work a double shift and have been known to work for as many as three days non-stop.
·         There are reports of wide-spread drug use for workers to cope with back-to-back shifts.
·         Since Subic Bay Freeport Hanjin opened, 30 cases of work-related deaths and more than 5000 accidents have been recorded.  Workers have been crushed by metal, impaled by slabs as well as cut, maimed and bruised to alarming degrees.  Families of death victims have been unable to collect death benefits.

The UCCP denounces the low wages, injury/death and violation of basic rights experienced by Filipino workers at the Subic Bay Freeport Hanjin shipyard AND the termination and violation of basic rights of Korean workers at HHIC Busan City, South Korea, most likely precipitating from the relocation of work to the Philippines. 

In response to the liberalization of trade and labor as is dictated by global capitalism, workers of different countries and those who stand in solidarity with them must increase their cooperation to expose and resist the violation of worker’s rights.  The efforts of Trans-National “Mega” Corporations to concentrate global power and wealth to themselves through the subjugation of the world workforce can be thwarted by a similarly global approach by broad social movements, including the Church, to struggle for fundamental changes that bring about a just, participatory and sustainable social order.

We commit ourselves to uphold the welfare of the world’s workers as a response to the call of faith, hope and mutual mission.  Our concern and support for the retrenched workers at the HHIC Yeongdo Shipyard of Busan is a solidarity expression not only of our partnership with the PROK, but also of our concern for workers everywhere.  We stand with those calling for the management of Hanjin Heavy Industries to be investigated, for the police committing violent dispersal against peaceful protestors to be held accountable, for the reinstatement of illegally retrenched workers, and for the respect of workers’ just wages and human rights.

 
 Signed By:

 
 
 
Bishop  Elorde M. Sambat                   Bishop Arturo R. Asi
North Luzon Jurisdictional Area            South Luzon Jurisdictional Area                


 
 
Bishop Jaime M. Morilles                    Bishop Dulce Pia-Rose                
Middle Luzon Jurisdictional Area            East Visayas Jurisdictional Area
 
 

 
 
Bishop Melzar D. Labuntog                    Bishop Modesto D. Villasanta
Northwest Mindanao Jurisdictional Area       Southeast Mindanao Jurisdictional Area
 
 

 
 
Bishop Reuel Norman O. Marigza
General Secretary
 

Migrant Workers in Korea are still enslave in spite of EPS

The Employment Permit System (EPS) is an Instrument of Enslavement of the Neo-liberal Capitalist Globalization
 
The Employment Permit System (EPS) of the South Korean government set in place in 2004 and has reached its seventh year of implementation has been an instrument of enslavement of the neo-liberal capitalist globalization benefiting the economies of both the source and destination countries of migrant workers. The Philippine government in 2010 reaped 18.8 billion dollars from remittances of over nine million Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) worldwide. The amount is 8.2 percent higher than the previous year. It is however an irony that even with the wealth the government has amassed from the hard labor of migrant workers, social services to migrant workers still found wanting.
 
As an instrument of neo-liberal capitalist globalization the EPS has been the source of cheap labor as there has been a lack of local human resource for small and medium scale industries, thus the recourse to recruitment of migrant workers from overseas. The large scale production in the South Korean economy has undeniably benefitted from the supply of cheap labor from source countries. Access to cheap labor has been legalized through bilateral labor agreements such as the MOU on deployment of migrant workers.
 
Local capitalists and conglomerates are highly motivated to gain super profits and that requires subcontracted production from SMEs to realize their target profits, but would not give a dent on the suffering and inhumane working conditions of migrant workers. As in the case of many Filipino migrant workers in South Korea under the EPS they are classified as unskilled workers despite their educational and skills qualification.  Educational attainment in this sense is no longer significant in the profit making schemes of capitalists and factory owners.


The EPS is full of flaws especially in the employment term. The 3 years original employment term plus another 2 years extension has been legally prescribed and migrant workers are forced to leave the country without the possibility of further term extension nor changing visa status for long term employment or for acquiring residency status. The outcry of most EPS workers is for them to extend their employment term for they have already become skillful in their respective jobs and grant them the possibility to gain residency status to pay-off their deployment expenses and alleviate their families’ economic situation.

Also, the EPS workers in most cases have to work on extended hours up to 12 hours beyond the eight-hour labor law, without getting overtime pay. This is no different from what the undocumented workers are experiencing. Although there is a clear provision in the EPS law that that the Korean Labor Standards Act applies to all migrant workers, but the Korean government is just making a lip service to the plight of migrant workers. Specifically, the change of work places limited to 3 times during the first 3 years or the equivalent of one work place each year has resulted in abuse of workers’ rights and enslavement to inhumane working conditions.

Moreover, fresh recruits to EPS working in construction, agriculture and fishery firms are deceived in signing work contracts that are totally different from the actual work conditions, subjecting them dangerous and life threatening work situations. Compensation for industrial accidents experienced by migrant workers is difficult to process and access and more so with their pension and separation pays. Employers practice deceit by not contributing to the social benefits of migrant workers and they are prosecuted and penalized for such violations.
 
Furthermore, the Korean government failed miserably to address the situation of undocumented migrant workers aside from offering them voluntary departure or forced deportation. There is no doubt that EPS workers whose term of employment will soon expire but wanted to continue working in the country will become undocumented too. The government should devise new ways of legalizing undocumented workers because just like the EPS and the local workers, they contribute to the wealth of the South Korean economy.
 
Therefore, KASAMMAKO urges both the Philippine and South Korean governments to exhaustively evaluate and assess the EPS law to improve the working conditions of migrant workers and for them to be free from the enslavement of profiteering employers,  companies and capitalist that live luxuriously while their workers are suffering and could hardly survive with their low income incomes.
 
We urge the South Korean government to synchronize labor and immigration laws that will better the working conditions of migrant workers, giving them more democratic rights and allowing them to exercise their rights to unionize and pursue their employment goals.
 
POL PAR
Chairperson
KASAMMAKO
17 August 2011