- Korean Representatives of Peace Week
Please introduce “Peace Week” to readers.
Peace Week is an event that was designated for thinking about peace for eight days from September 14th to September 21st . Various activities were carried out on these days. Events in 2014 were held in Sofia, Bulgaria. The event was planned to share students’ opinions about humanity from around the world. In addition, it aimed to send the message of peace to children in Bulgaria through activities such as drawing pictures about peace, planting trees, and cleaning the trees. The ultimate goal for the festival was to imprint the importance of environmental conservation and peace on the younger generation. On the final day, a Peace Festival was held. We had a time to understand other countries through the booths which publicized each country’s culture.
● How did you participate in Peace Week?
We are interested in the activities of civil society organizations, realizing the values which are necessary for the prosperity of mankind, environment, and peace. Also we have worked as ‘Pureumi’ expedition teachers of elementary school. 'Pureumi' is the program which pursues the worth of preserving natural beauty of the country. Through this activity, we visited the controversial places related to the environment which have beautiful natural scenes but have been damaged. Then we got more interest in protecting the environment. Luckily, an acquaintance in ‘Purmee’ introduced Peace Week organizers to us. After hearing about the Peace week program, we wanted to take the opportunity while the time was ripe. We thought that we could do lots of things through this event. Not only could we approach our interest, but we could also inform the beauty of Korea to those all over the world. Also, we wanted to make a valuable experience before graduating from college. Thus, we sent applications and finally got permission.
● Did you have interesting incidents during Peace Week?
When we visited a local school for cleaning on the second day, suddenly one of the Bulgarian girls sang the “Gwiyomi” song. I was surprised at the situation, so I asked her whether she liked K-pop. She was a big fan of EXO, the famous boy group in Korea. Through the effect of Korean wave, I could feel the popularity of Korea.
Also there was a time to present the idea of each nation’s representatives about “humanity.” The participants prepared their presentations based on their cultural backgrounds. For example, the Japanese team insisted “humanity is apology.” On the other hand, the Bulgarian team focused on forgiveness because they forgave Turkey even though Turkey attacked Bulgaria once. All the opinions were different, but we felt that there was a common view on humanity as time went by because we felt the same emotion in the same situation.
● Do you have anything to say to CBNU students?
A lot of people feel vaguely about peace. In addition, they don’t know well what they can do for peace, and it seems that they think that keeping the peace is difficult. However, we learned that keeping the peace is not far from us. The reason is that peace is inherent in our minds. The answer is humanity. If you feel the feelings of compassion, respect, and thanks to others, we can contribute to making society sufficiently peaceful. If you hand humanity to others, they will also hand humanity to someone else. This will be diffused gradually to our family, society, nation, and the whole of the world.
As you can see, everybody can contribute to keeping the world at peace. Just get out of having a self-centered mind and consider others first. Then you will realize that the effect is really huge though it requires little effort. Keeping the peace is a piece of cake.