Food for Thought

I had planned on doing a video this week where I try apple pie again.  However, with it being "Remembrance Day" on Sunday, I felt it would be inappropriate, or in bad taste to do so.  Out of respect, I am going to do something different this week.

For 3 years I lived in a country that is still technically at war with its neighbor to the north, the Republic of Korea (south).

After I left Korea I joked on FB, "Go ahead north, fire away. I'm back in Canada".

I was trying to allude to the sense of relief I had.

One thing you have to get used to while living in Korea, are all of the Air Raid sirens.  If a person has no idea what is going on, it can be very scary, and make that person instantly religious, as it did to me one fine afternoon, when I was caught off guard.

Silly me, later I thought, and we all had a good laugh about it.

There were three incidents while I was in Korea, involving the North, that stuck out.

The first was in July of 2008, when a South Korean tourist was shot and killed in North Korea, for straying too far away from a designated area.

The second was in March of 2010, (I was home in between) when a South Korean naval ship was sunk, allegedly (they could never prove it beyond a reasonable doubt, but...) by a torpedo from A North Korean submarine.  Luckily, cooler heads prevailed, and nothing much became of it.  (sadly, 46 sailors died)

The biggest incident occurred in November of 2010, when the North opened fired and began shelling the island of Yeonpyeong.  The South fired back, and pretty much everyone I knew in the country, working as an ESL teacher, got a phone call from back home, with a crying mother on the other end, begging them to leave Korea immediately and come back home.

I was a little worried at this point.  I was also really pissed off when I saw what the attack did to the value of the South Korean Won (it went down). 

Living in Korea, I was often told to check in with the Canadian Consulate.  At this time, I got lots of e-mails and phone calls from other Canadian friends on the same topic.  There was an advisory from the Canadian Consulate in Seoul for all Canadian Citizens living in the country to have their passports ready, along with a few days of supplies, such as food and water.  I think this was in case the North chose to invade.  If they did, the Consulate had all of the check stop/rendezvous spots set up, in order to get you back to the consulate safely, and then back to Canada.

After the attack, this felt like a very real possibility.  The foreigners were worried.  The Koreans were not.

I guess if this is something a person grows up with, they get used to it.  For me, it was a foreign concept that I just could not understand.

 I feel a lot safer from war and all that type of stuff, because I live in Canada, once again.

Growing up here, I've never had to face war as part of my reality and living next to America makes me feel a lot safer.  After that ship was sunk in Korea, one thing that really made me feel safe was the fact the Americans were sending an aircraft carrier.   Unfortunately in this day and age, it's still true that if you want peace, you're gonna have to prepare for war.  Just ask Neville Chamberlain.


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