Another peace walk is underway. This one is on Jeju Island in South Korea as the Life and Peace Fellowship (led by a Buddhist monk Dobub) began walking today in a pilgrimage for 100 days. Amongst their peaceful demands is an end to the construction of the Navy base on Jeju.
The U.S. and South Korean governments are presently running more war games aimed at North Korea which always helps to create a dark climate as the people in the north must remain in a constant state of vigilance and hyper-sensitivity.
Last Sunday a full-page advertisement ran in the New York Times called "Visit Korea" and the ad particularly promoted Jeju Island as "one of the finalists for the on-going New7Wonders of nature poll. Jejudo has become a 'must' place to visit".
Jeju Island is indeed a natural wonder as you will see in the video just below. But sadly the U.S. and South Korean governments have chosen one of the most environmentally sensitive spots on the island to build this Navy base. This base will serve as a provocative outpost against China and will be a spark to ignite even more military tensions in an already dangerous region. The environmental consequences of the base will be catastrophic.
Our heartfelt best wishes go out to the peace walkers and the Gangjeong villagers as they do all they can to resist this crazy Navy base construction.
UPDATE: Sung-Hee Choi reports the following wonderful news: "One grateful thing to the organization to the Life and Peace Fellowship is that they decided to stay 1oo days in the Gangjeong village instead 100 days’ peace pilgrim throughout Korea. Meeting with the villagers on March 1, they realized how urgent the villagers needed people to help them and how important of the struggle in Gangjeong village therefore they changed their plan to stay in the village. The plan for peace walk in the Jeju Island in the first week will not be changed. But each evening, they will come back to the village, breathing with the villagers and sharing the villagers’ suffering with them."
Videos on the prayer March 2, 2011
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