Jeju When my sisterfinished nursing school, I recruited her to my Journey to the Center with theEcumenical Institute (EI) and the Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA) in ahuman development project on Jeju island before it became a touristdestination. This was prior to UncleSam’s anti-ballistic missile shield Naval Base at Gangjeong village inJeju. She then went on to the US to jointhe international staff and later, served with her dentist husband in Kenyauntil the Journey dissipated. They nowpractice their craft in Hawaii. We’ve playfullydesignated SoKor as the 51st Stateof the Union since citizens do not need visas to enter the United States. Thirty-five percent of SoKor appropriated thetraditions of Calvin, Luther, Wesley, and the Vatican II, so their selfhood nolonger approximate that of their cousins in the Mangyongdae hoopla in the northas they are to the “Praise the Lord” crowd of Southern California! The EI/ICA project inJeju was quickly absorbed in President Park Chung-Hee’s Saemeul Undong (New Community Movement) that swept the nationbeginning 1970. Chastened by the localenergy already on the ground, our international staff made a strategic retreatand left the tinkering on the socio-human psyche to the local’s nationalist fervor. I never made Jeju butI spent two months in 1972 in Suwon at an International Training Institute,before the farming town became a suburban bedroom for Seoul. I visited thecapital city again in 1978, but the international airport moved from Kimpo toInchon, so rejuvenated Seoul that allegedly looks like an extension of LosAngeles is only a picture in my readings. Jeju is back in thenews with the tragic sinking of a ferry with 325 students on a field trip tocelebrate spring from Seoul. The sinkingwas rapid. It took an hour for the boatthat sailed from Inchon to submerged after it reached the channel between thepeninsula and the island. The chaperoneschool vice-principal who survived felt too guilty that he committed suicide;the boat sinking will be like the Titanicwhen less than forty percent of the passengers survived. Two items in the newstouched my insides. One was the pictureof a teacher, one of the first three casualties identified, and the descriptionof her well-received and pleasant relationship to her students. Being a pedagogue who insists on treatingstudents as unique individuals rather than as impersonal digits in a numberedroll call practiced in many classrooms, her reputation resonates. The other is the boattrip itself. As a project director of anOrientation for Peace Corps Volunteers for Muslim Mindanao I led in ZamboangaCity in 1984, I took our whole training participants and staff to a weekendtrip to Jolo, Sulu. This was whenMuslims began to harass Gringos whose presence in the southwest region ofMindanao became more pronounced after USAID funds was shifted to the area. Menzi, the paper company, was in neighboringBasilan Island whose natives were earlier Christianized by missionaries sosecurity was not a major concern. ManilaPCV central office thought otherwise, and after the orientation, I was notasked to return to do another one, not withstanding the volunteers’ evaluationthat the field trip was a highlight of their training. The Jeju tragedyreminded me of what I was accused of being too indifferent about, thepossibility of tragedy that might have occurred during the overnight ferry tripgoing and returning. We did not have atragedy so I was dismissive then, and knowing how US Federal agencies focusmore on the “checks” than the “balances”, I took the word of reprimand as parfor the course. The current Jejuincident’s tragedy creeps into our existential consciousness with electronicspeed. One girl texted her father “notto worry for she was wearing her life vest.” When her father asked her to get to a window, she answered back that she“could not move as the hallway was full of people.” She is still missing. The Jeju tragedy has since deteriorated intofinger pointing; the captain and his crew are now the subject of criminal investigations. To check the state of the stables after thehorses had fled into the field is the usual practice. I did not expect this one to be different. The transcript of theexchange between the ship and the island’s security office is now used to portrayconfusion and indecisiveness during a 30-minute of chaos. “If only …” is again the armchairquarterbacking’s phrase. In a planetincreasingly getting democratized, with local folks raising their voices to beheard, clamoring for honesty and truth, central authority is harried toinvestigate aberrations and rhetoric of blame is the favored copout, from Kiev toKabul, Brussels to Bangkok, Cairo to Rio, Nairobi to Tokyo and, yes, KL toSeoul. The Jeju incidentneeds investigating but we can get to the truth without being stuck on tryingto determine who is to blame. Let thetears flow but tragedies in life come with the territory. We are better off turning them into lessonsfor the morrow! j'aime la vie pinoypanda2031@aol.com yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today. participate. In all, celebrate!