Looking two decades ahead...

Few hours ago, I read an article on The Kyunghyang Shinmun, one of the mainstream media in the Republic of Korea about a female student of the future, who was created in 1995 by. According to the article, her name is Eun Bee Ko. Twenty years ago, a research center in the Republic of Korea made various prediction about the future and published their works through Kyunghyang Shinmun's Magazine X, a page read by the younger generation at that time. "Eun Bee" was one of their creation and prediction. This year marks the target year that the researchers of that time picked to make their predictions. This branch of study is called futurology. Even though there were some exaggerated materials, I was able to recognize familiar objects with similar functions.

For her 20th birthday (2015), Eun Bee supposedly receives a device called PCS, which is an acronym for Personal Communication Service that has the same functions as a smartphone. Through this device, Eun Bee is able to receive personal messages and the device also comes with various application software like "personal fashion system" that gives suggestion for clothes to wear depending on the weather and her interest. Although the terms are different, I was able to see that the generation twenty years, who in the present day would mostly be adults, thought and imagined about things, which would create the culture today.

I guess every generation has a common interest on future. I do not imagine that the issue and the interest among the young generation twenty years ago would be different than the young generation today. Occasionally, I imagine the future world, when I think about my personal future and also whenever I watch films about future, which are usually about a dystopian world. Sometime, I do agree that these types of films have huge effect over our impression about future.

Some of the predictions are incorrect, but some predictions turned out to be true. Even though their imagination did not come true completely, I think if we are able to maintain a healthy culture, just like the heavenly culture, I believe that this mentality will be reflected in the later years. I would like to imagine where the spirit of the heavenly culture and the work for world peace will bring us twenty years from now on. Dr. Ian Pearson, a futurologist, says that "Anyone can predict stuff, but only a few get it right." But, also I think we also hold the key to the future, because the prediction will follow the trend of how this world flows. If these futurologists or anyone, who gains an interest to make a prediction about the future, they will look at the trend of the world and how it is reflected over culture. 

When they see continuous wars and films about the end of the war, they will probably predict something similar in that direction. But, what if they start seeing movements of peace and see films about peace winning awards and gaining the most viewers and fans, even before they make that their prediction, I think I would be more excited to see a different world, when wars would only be a fantasy in my dream, while peace will become a reality. What kind of world do you see twenty years later? What kind of world do you think is being created through the peace movement of HWPL and Chairman Man Hee Lee?

Arirang of Peace

Arirang is a traditional folk song of Korea and there are many different versions of Arirang with similar lyrics. The music played in the video clip is a mob performance at a traditional district in Seoul, Korea. The lyrics is about a separation of two lover and its lyrics is portrayed sadly through the tune and the melody of the song. At the WARP Summit, the performers showed a slightly different rendition of Arirang. In the same tune, they added a deeper lyrics to hope for a better world. It talks about a person, who searches for this world and enters the new world of peace. There are many interpretation of the word, Arirang, but I would like to say, the song in general is about rediscovering the meaning of love and peace.

Many of the participants were inspired by this performance. They commented that this truly is heaven, because it overcame all differences. One youth group leader said that he has met the advocate of peace and his dream finally came true. I was not able to find a clip to revisit my memory of the performance, but it truly brought peace and harmony in the stadium, where people with differences became one.

The Speech of Mother Teresa, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

"Let us thank God, for this beautiful occasion, where we can all together proclaim the joy of spreading peace, the joy of loving one another, and the joy acknowledging that the poorest of the poor are our brothers and sisters."

This is the opening words of Mother Teresa, a Catholic nun, who devoted her life towards helping those who are helpless. She was a Christian, who believed Jesus Christ as the saviour. However, she also was a person who lived on this earth. Her affiliation with a religion did not stop her to reach out to love people of different religion. This is why she is still respected by many people, even if they do not have the same religion or do not possess the same beliefs as she did. Her example of love shows that peace is not intended for a specific group. It is intended for all and one as a whole. All peace movements must seek to accomplish unity between everyone. The World Peace proposed by Chairman Man Hee Lee does not limit to one specific group. As Mother Teresa says we celebrate and proclaim the joy of spreading peace all together. It is something that we must work and celebrate all together. As we come close to the First Anniversary of the WARP Summit, which was an event that many different groups participated to work towards peace, we must look back on how we can work together to build a peaceful world and what can we do in our own community.

Building a New World

Heath Ledger's performance of the Joker in the film, "The Dark Knight" was breath-taking. I have never seen an antagonist as the Joker played by Heath Ledger. His death after the film was an unfortunate tragedy. I first saw Heath Ledge on film in "The Patriot" that also starred Mel Gibson. On the screen, Heath Ledger played the son of Mel Gibson, who played a colonel fighting for independence. In the film, Gabriel Martin (played by Heath Ledge) speaks about a new world.

"They call this the new world. It's not. It's the same as the old. But, we will have a chance to build a new world. A world where all men are created equal under God."

America was considered to be a new world, as everyone was given the chance to start anew. However, it was only a new world with the same mentality and culture. There were still inequality between the race and the same system existed as the previous world. This applies to our world as well. What is the purpose of looking for a new world, if our mentality and culture continue to stay the same? This is why we need a different culture. This is heavenly culture. It is different than other cultures that we have seen so far in the history because it transcends other cultures. When we build this new world, we must lose the thoughts of the old and look forward to something new, where we are able to create equality in every part of the world.

The Speech of Malala Yousafzai, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

Malala Yousafzai, the youngest Nobel Prize laureate

I think she is an example that age does not matter in peace movement. Her works astounds me, because she is impacting her community by working for what she strongly believes in. The example that she shows, along with Chairman Man Hee Lee, inspires many people in the world to join the peace movement to change the community that they live in.

Quote: Chairman Man Hee Lee

Chairman Man Hee Lee's Speech in the Opening Ceremony

"The WARP Summit since the creation is an unprecedented event, where all the spirits of heaven and the people of earth gathered. For this Summit, we invited the heaven and the earth as witness and in front of the Creator, we begin the WARP Summit for the end of war and world peace. By the will of the heaven, we are the ones with mission, who meet the new era after the end of the corrupted old era. On this world, on this earth, the youths and the students were not given any chance to blossom and were sacrificed on the forefront of war. The politics and the law were not able to compensate them for their sacrifice. So, UN and the presidents and supreme justices of each nation must establish an international law."

Many nations in the world, entrust the leadership of their nation to political leaders and politicians. At the same time, we abide the law of the nation, because we believe it is just and moral. However, in terms of peace, the law and the politicians were not able to fulfill their duty completely, because we see more conflicts in the world that occur because of various reasons. The purpose of the WARP Summit was to support both political leaders and religious leaders to be able provide their people with peace. It was to provide the leaders a place, where they can discuss for building a better world.

Article: European Peace and Unity

Many wars took place in Europe. Although its number may be similar to other continents, Europe saw two wars with the largest scale in the history. The consequences of WWII gave birth to The United Nation and the end of Cold War gave birth, even though there may be other economical reason for its creation, to European Union was founded. Yes, it is obvious that there are many other reasons for the formation of the EU (whereas at the same time it saw its negative effect recently in Greece), but it brought peace and unity among many European nations, in which differed in culture and language. It brought the nations, whose characters widely varied, together under one banner.

The article published by Vision of Humanity discusses the formation of the European Union. One of the founder, Robert Schuman, said that the world peace cannot be kept unless we make efforts. EU was one of the major steps to prevent further wars from happening in the continent. Other nations from different continents participated in the war, but the central stage of both World Wars was in Europe. However, this is limited to only countries in the EU. The central stage is the world. It is now the time to stop all conflict in the world. HWPL right now is targeting the whole world, so that it will come together under one banner. This banner transcends both nation and religion.

The article also mentions that we need to have a larger perspective on this issue of peace. Also, as generations pass, the horror of war is only learned as history or just meaningless facts and information. However, the new and young generations must be reminded of the importance of peace and reaching to an agreement through peace, rather than physical force. This is to avoid the mistakes that were made by the older generation. We must learn to resolve a problem peacefully and also unite our thoughts together and overcome the difference.

I do not think difference is wrong or evil. Everyone is different in their own ways. However, these differences must not result in a conflict. Just like what happened in the WARP Summit, we must learn to talk to each other and discuss and respect each other's opinion to reach to an agreement.

Article: The Economic Consequences of War

The article published by Vision of Humanity lists the various consequences of war. In addition to physical and emotional damage that war brings to the people including the soldiers, war has economic consequences. This is undeniable fact, because war requires funds and resources. The weapons that are created for war requires these funds and resources. However, war does not only bring negative effect to the economy. Before entering WWII, United States was suffering from the Great Depression. The participation boosted the economy by decreasing the unemployment rate. On the other hand, war also brings negative effect. There is a win-lose situation. At the end of a war, there will be those who gain from the war and those who lost from the war. Or in some cases there may be no one who gains from war. This is the consequences of war. Always, there must be a loser. The article lists the negative effects of a conflict.

-Public debt and levels of taxation increased during most conflicts

-Consumption as a percent of GDP decreased during most conflicts

-Investment as a percent of GDP decreased during most conflicts

-Inflation increased during or as a direct consequence of these conflicts

Article: How many countries are free from conflict?

An article in the Independent called "World Peace? These are the only 11 countries in the world that are actually free from conflict" was published last Thursday. If the numbers continues to show no change, world peace may become a hopeless dream.

Countless numbers of conflicts are happening in over 70% of the world. This requires a turnover. We need to start changing the numbers so that less numbers of conflict will occur in the world. If no countries are free from conflict, then the world will never see the light. The article pointed out that the world became less peaceful every year since 2007. This year we celebrate the 60th year anniversary of the end of WWII. I am not sure how much the world has changed ever since? Did we learn from our mistakes in WWII? Ironically the world shifted into a different type of war called the Cold War. right after WWII. Compared to 60 years ago, how much did we change in terms on conflict? Although the world is not involved in a global conflict or war, we still see multiple conflicts in the world.

I hope that through the HWPL activities and peace movement, the world will see more light as conflicts are resolved. I hope that more people in the world would see the works of Chairman Man Hee Lee and other peace advocates on how much they sacrifice to create a better world.

Let's have Hope!

I recently came across a picture with a quote that says,

"Hope did not exist since the beginning. It appeared from nowhere. Hope only exists in those, who have hope. Hope is something that we wish for something that we do not have."

Peace is something that does not exist in the world. We need to have hope for peace in order for it to appear to the world. Our hope for peace will move the people's heart to act. If we do not have hope for a peaceful world, then it would not come true. We must first recognize what we do not have and what we lack, and then hope for it. This will bring a change to the world. The small hope that started with Chairman Man Hee Lee spread to the people of the world, who joined the peace movement of HWPL. This is because they recognized what the world did not have. Hope does not exist from the beginning, but it must be created by us.

Essay: The Allegory behind the Restoration of Light

It is obvious that the name, Restoration of Light, carries an allegorical meaning. The world is not actually covered with physical darkness and HWPL is not a science organization, which plans to shine the world with physical light. The name, Restoration of Light, carries a separate meaning.

The physical light that we see is provided by the sun that shines every day for a certain number of hours. We call this day. The explanation for the sun's activity can be provided by scientific theories, however, this post ventures to understand the relationship between light and its allegorical position in creating World Peace. In a day, after a period of time, the light disappears as the darkness slowly cover the surface of the earth. This is a natural process that has been repeated for countless numbers of years. Then, what kind of representation does light have in terms of restoring peace in the world?

Surprisingly, the Korean Independence Day is referred as the Day of Restoration of Light. The restoration is definitely referring to darkness. Before its independence, the Koreans refer that era as a period of darkness. Similarly, when the name, Restoration of Light, is included in working towards achieving world peace, it implies that it is the period of darkness for the world. It is not limited to an individual nation, but to the whole global period, we are facing darkness. However, based on the natural order, light must come. And just as the entities of heaven move their position to provide light and darkness, Mr. Man Hee Lee is also advocating that we must now work to bring back the light.

If we are living in a period of darkness, what could darkness represent? It could represent the terrible conflicts and wars around the world. Why are these used to represent darkness? It is natural to us to identify darkness with negative connotations. There could be many reasons of darkness' representation with such evil or terrible acts. One reason that I would like to share is, the essence of darkness does not truly exist.

Darkness is the absence of light. This is how darkness is defined. It does not center around itself, but it centers around the presence of light. The light is the center and the subject. Darkness is only an object that reacts to light. It is only created when light is absent. This is why we are restoring light. The light that once existed, disappeared and now it is the time to return. Darkness cannot be restored or return, because it essentially reacts to light. I think this is why heavens provided light. Light is given by the heaven. On the other hand, darkness is not. This fact supports that war could have not existed since the beginning, if we identify war with allegorical darkness.

Then, now, what is light? What does it symbolize? I think the light can refer to many things, which are opposite of darkness. It can be the individuals, who work for peace, or it can be a world of peace. Just as the slogan, "When Light meets Light, there is victory", as we gather our strengths together, we will be able to triumph over war and conflicts in the world to start a new time period of peace. Even a small spark of light can be seen in darkness just like the stars in the sky can be seen in the deepest night. Each person's hope for peace can be seen in the world, especially in the eye of the divine creator.

Essay: Let the world be peaceful

I sometimes wondered about the influence that The Beatles had in modern pop music. What made their music extraordinary, in which their songs are loved by the people even until today? Although the group disbanded only after eight years, their songs are still remembered as a legacy through the artists of the next generations, who both received inspiration of the musical style and played a remake version. I think the key element to their success with many hits is its lyrics which stands out with their enjoyable melody.

Their lyrics carry a meaning that could inspire its listeners. For example, "Let it be" from the album "Get Back" carries a message that can be interpreted as searching for hope. The lyrics of the song shares many similarities with the peace activities of HWPL. Perhaps the theme of the song could have been wishing for a better day, a better world. In the beginning of the song, Mother Mary appears to speak the words of wisdom. I first thought that this was Mary, the Mother of Jesus. However, I also found that Mary was the mother of Paul McCartney. The mothers play role for their sons and daughters and lead their children with wisdom. Even though our society is run by patriarchs, the mothers play a great role in the lives of their children. In the case of Paul McCartney, he mentions his mother in the times of trouble to give him the correct words of wisdom. In the visions outlined by Chairman Man Hee Lee, he strongly believes that the mothers must lead their sons from war with the mother's heart. Women are the ones who are mother to their sons, who fight wars. If the mothers speak up their voice, they will be also able to lead their sons away from war with their wisdom.

The song, "Let it be" speaks of hope, in which an answer will exist for all the broken-hearted people. It continues on by raising up the waiting chance. We still have a chance to avoid from leading ourselves into destruction. We are able to achieve that answer of peace through this chance. So let's "let it be." Let's let the world become what it used to be. I do not wish to imagine that the world was always filled with war. I would like to imagine a world, where harmony exists. So let it be. And after this long night, we may be able to see the light that will shine unto all of us. We will all be able to experience the grace that heaven provides to all of us. We only need to stop creating the fire that will cover the sun. Although the context may be completely different in the original lyrics, I hope that we all may sing "Here comes the sun" together after the smokes of the firearms that we created are clear.