BOWING TO PROTECT NATURE

• Save Jeju Now reports, " For cutting the naval base 2013 budget, the villagers and people had press conference in front of the National Assembly in Seoul on December 24, and also since December 24th, people have been doing peace bows continuously in front of the National Assembly as a peaceful protesting to cut the budget. December 29th is the last day for the budget talk on the Jeju naval base in the National Assembly. Thus, people in front of the Naval base in Gangjeong and in front of the National Assembly in Seoul at the same time had the peaceful 1,000 bows to request the budget cut of 2013!"  See more here

• Shell photo and caption by Jang Hyun-Woo:

“A villager brought me these shells this morning. He said a worker in a dredging barge had taken these shells during his dredging work on a barge. Not only sands.. but shells are taken during the dredging. Are these shells empty? The villager says creatures in the Gangjeong Sea are dying…”

For more photos go here

• Carolyn from Maine has gone to Jeju Island.  She sends the following message:
  
  

  The Gates

  I.

  Police pull back activists’ fingers, breaking them,

  sometimes along the joint, just below the fingernail.

  
  

  Since Park Geun-hye was elected president, 

  police repression of the nonviolent protest has ramped up. 

  With people dispirited, 

  And their bodies scratched, bruised, and broken,

  there’s no direct action this week.

  Just picketing now, a 19-year-old tells me.

  All last night he was in front of one of the gates.

  
  

  II.

  7 a.m.

  Cement trucks line up.

  Police move into place. 

  And security guards move the chairs and other objects blocking the entrance. 

  One guard throws a yellow No Jeju Base flag to the ground. 

  I wonder if he’ll leave it there to be run over, 

  but another guard picks it up 

  and leans it against the chairs placed on the side of the road. 

  
  

  After the vehicles pass, we move the chairs, a barrel stove, and a few placards back in front of the gate, along with a vase of lilies. 

  
  

  Just three of us are there early this morning as the rain comes down.

  We move from one gate to the other and back again 

  as cement trucks roll in and out,

  each activity logged in a thick activist notebook.

  
  

  III.

  Night falls.

  Workers continue to arrive for their shifts.

  We are sitting around a barrel stove,

  activists’ names painted on top of each wooden stool.

  Three candles flicker in the middle of our circle.

  We talk about the next day’s plans,

  about informants

  and Hawaiian history. 

  Then someone exclaims, Time to dance! 

  And in a new circle in front of the gate,

  we dance

  as workers in twos and threes pass by.

           The Hotel
  
  

  I have just stepped out of the shower and hear a rapping on the door. 

  Just a minute, I call out.

  Nae. (Yes)

  A pause. Then the rapping resumes.

  Just a minute, I call out again.

  I’m dressing as quickly as I can.

  The knocking happens two more times.

  I’m sorry, I say, as I open the door. I’ve made the hotel owner wait.

  She hands me a bag full of chocolate treats, bows to me, and walks away.

  So that was the urgent task.

  Each chocolate wrapper says Love in Jeju.