Gesture of Good Faith cont.
The Korean War Baby is currently deleting portions of names of individuals involved in the hmmm, election of GOA'L back in 27th of March 2010.
In the spirit of moving towards a "sitdown" with the "group of 33" and others, I am deleting parts of names, just so Google and other search engines don't keep bringing them up.
WHEW, it will take awhile though so please check the first week of 28 March until April 1. These things do take time.
The Korean War Baby has declared an temporary Armistice.
September 20, 2010
September 17, 2010
Back to Manila
Cycles of Life
However, back to work teaching Korean children and adults to prepare them for their future in a globalized world. Then I found out that my dear friend from the film business years in the Philippines had passed away. He had struggled for some time with major heart attacks and other ailments. I know that he was getting ready to meet his maker and was quietly making preparations. One of his last wishes was for some of his remains after cremation, to be buried at sea.
Nick was a sailor, a fellow band of brothers who served in the Vietnam War. Nick would not brag about it but he was with the Navy Seal Team Recovery units that went into heavy hostile fire to recover US and Allied pilots who had been shot down inside NORTH Vietnam. We shared enough to respect each other as comrades-in-arms, a bond that had a special meaning for us. Henry
Strzalkowski, another PIGS IN SPACE (actor’s group in Philippine film making) founding member, was able to arraign through Ed, a relative, to go out to sea in Subic Bay. Sunday we scattered Nick’s remains after a simple ceremony and sharing of our last thoughts. Ed gave the litany for burial at sea and we shared a meal together afterwards.
Putting out to sea, into the Subic Bay where Nick Nicholson first arrived in the Philippines.
Henry, Annie, Charry, Tim, Juralyn, Ed, and I bade farewell to our friend.
 |
| Henry and I at Subic Bay Yacht Club. |
Our friend Steve Rogers could not get down from Sagada due to closed roads. He was the fourth founding member of our actor’s group,
Pigs in Space,
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| Steve Rogers, Nick Nicholson, Don Gordon Bell, Henry Strzalkowski, (1985) |
************************************
Makati, Metro Manila, P. I.
Makati, Metro Manila, P. I.
Henry used to manage some local clubs, “Heckle and Jeckle” and “Handlebars” both live band venues with pool tables, great food. Friday night I was able to catch the band at H&J.
Rock N Roll Legends Jam
Then, we went to a private party of Filipino Blues and RockNRoll artists spanning two generations. What started as a one night party was already into the fourth night. You couldn’t pay for this non-stop Jam session, with over 40 top artists performing for each other. Fantastic time and we left in the wee hours of dawn.
 |
| Henry is also a darn good vocalist. |
*******************************************************************
Northern Samar Province
Northern Samar Province
My friend Tim Ramey, who I had met in Seoul, Korea back in late 1996 and taught me all about teaching Koreans English, invited me to go down to the province of Northern Samar with his wife Juralyn.
Don, Tim & Juralyn Ramey
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| Tim's son NoyNoy Daniel Ramey |
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| Juralyn's daughter Nathalie, 7 years old. |
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| NoyNoy, held by Grandma is overwhelmed with toys! |
Children of San Antonio, Biri Island, Northern Samar
*****************************************
Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Thursday, on to Hong Kong, where I met my actor friend Romano Kristoff, and our UechiRyu Okinawan Karate teacher, Sensei Robert Campbell. We had not been together the three of us since 1985! Romano and I were students at the Manila Polo Club Uechiryu school that Sensei Robert ran there.
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| UeChiRyu, Okinawan Karate School-Manila Polo Club. Don, Romano, Grandmaster George Mattson, Sensei Robert Campbell (tallest). |
Don and Romano; Don, Robert, Romano
Dining out at Outback; Posing in front of Sensei’s Samurai Sword display.
 |
| Of course, Romano is showing his age but in great shape, body, spirit, and mind. |
Rumors about Romano have been great wild exaggerations, actually he has been delving into deep philosophical studies over the last decade. Watch for his book on “Reflections” to be released in Spanish/English. He read in Spanish and translated some to me, very insightful and I was amazed at the broad knowledge he has learned.
Well, that’s all folks, for now. What a blast to the past, yet I hope that I do have a few more years left on this earth, God willing.
Peace and Prosperity to all.
Happy Chuseok on Sept. 22nd.
The Harvest Moon celebration is coming next week in Korea.
Jillian Graham-Hot KAD singer
Jillian and Bill Graham- Jillian is from the first generation of KADs and played at the Sunday Nite “Black N White Affair”. Great fusion of Folk and Popular styles Jillian has a raw blend of great female singers with, may I say, a deep sexy voice and quite a range of melodious emotional delivery. Hey, I am not a music critic but she ‘brings it on home’.
Hi Friends and Fans;
Thanks for dropping by. We appreciate your support!
For upcoming show information, go to the "CALENDAR" tab.
You Tube Videos: see "NEWS" tab
Thanks for visiting--
www.jilliangrahammusic@gmail.com
http://www.reverbnation.com/JillianGrahamBand
Support KAD artists!!!
September 15, 2010
POV - In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee | PBS
The Korean War Baby supports the telling of our stories, no matter what the details may be- as each story is both unique and yet similar to others. What is important is to keep in mind that one story does not represent ALL, as there are a wide ranging spectrum OR even 'Shades of between Black and White.
Yet there are thousands of stories that have yet to be told. We must remember that not all were her story, nor should we use one story to make up figures and numbers. Many who will never know exactly “Why was I given up” may never have their questions answered. Some adoptees don't even WANT to search as the are concerned with all the 'can of worms' several adoptees have related to me would be opened.
As an older child Deann knew the truth and her quest for Cha Jung Hee is out there, somewhere. Perhaps, someday she will be ‘found’, for even the woman in the film may or may not be the real Cha Jung Hee (Oops, spoiler). Read, watch, learn, if that is what you need to do. Each of us must reach our own comfort level.
Korean War Baby
PBS Broadcast: September 14, 2010
Check local listings »
Online: September 15, 2010 through October 15, 2010
POV: In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee is the second of two autobiographical films you've made about your adoption. The first film, First Person Plural, aired on POV in 2000. Can you refresh our memory of First Person Plural and talk about how you came to make In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee?
Deann Borshay Liem: First Person Plural tells my story of being adopted by an American family. I was adopted by Arnold and Alveen Borshay from Fremont, California, when I was about 8 years old. When they adopted me, they thought I was a girl named Cha Jung Hee and that I was an orphan. I also grew up thinking that I was Cha Jung Hee and that I was an orphan. But when I was grown up, I discovered that I had a birth family in Korea. First Person Plural follows the journey of discovering the existence of my birth family, meeting my birth family and taking my adoptive parents to Korea for a meeting of the two families. It explores my relationship to both families, my sense of divided loyalties and divided identities and the paradox of living in two different worlds, being pulled in two different directions.
As for making In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee, I had always been curious and haunted by this identity that was never mine. Over the years, Cha Jung Hee has always been in the back of my mind. She was a girl I never knew; she was someone who apparently was at the orphanage with me, but someone I had never met. To this day, I have her identity, her birth date, her name and her legal papers. The clothing I was wearing when I came to the United States was hers; the shoes that I wore were hers. I have all the letters that she had written to my adoptive family from Korea. So in In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee I go back to Korea to look for her, to put this matter to rest once and for all.
In the film, I meet a number of women named Cha Jung Hee, and through the process I explore the history of international adoptions from Korea and uncover the deceptions and lies that took place within the process of my adoption. I also explore memory, amnesia and what it means kind of to live someone else's life.
POV: The shoes that you wore on your arrival to the United States and that you kept your whole life are one of the strongest symbols in In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee. They play a major role in the film, triggering memories and becoming a part of this lost history. Can you talk about the role of those shoes?
Liem: When I came off the plane in America as an 8 year old, I was wearing these shoes that didn't fit me. They were long and narrow, whereas my feet were short and wide. My adoptive mother couldn't figure out why the shoes didn't fit me properly, because she had bought them according to the tracings of Cha Jung Hee's feet. Well, it turned out I wasn't Cha Jung Hee, so that's why they didn't fit.
The shoes have always been with me. Whenever I've moved to a different house, I've always taken with me baggage that included Cha Jung Hee's clothes and her shoes and all these documents and things. The shoes, in a literal fashion, represented walking into her life — I literally walked into the life that she would have had. In this film, I wanted to find the real Cha Jung Hee and give back her shoes and all her letters and be free of this identity.
My actual journey turned out to be a bit different. But the shoes are symbolic: They represent how any of us might have had a different life. What are the possibilities of living someone else's life or walking in someone else's shoes?
POV: There's a bit of ambiguity at the end of the film about whether you find the woman you're seeking. Do you think it matters whether or not you find the "real" Cha Jung Hee?
Cha Jung Hee Ulsan and Deann Borshay Liem. Photo by Bonhae Ku.
Liem: I do think that the woman I meet at the end of the film is Cha Jung Hee, the one I've been looking for, although there is some ambiguity about that, in part because she herself isn't entirely sure. Many of the facts about her adoption match [information about] the person I was looking for, yet some things don't match. In the end I've come to realize that there were untruths involved not only in my adoption, but in other children's adoptions as well. Cha Jung Hee served as a kind of template; she became a kind of ideal orphan. She was a marketing vehicle that was geared to the desires of adoptive parents abroad, and facts were made up to suit those desires.
For me, it does matter whether the woman I met was the "real" Cha Jung Hee, but in the end I discovered that it wasn't so much about finding her, that it was really more about finding myself. I had to wade through the layers of who I thought I was and embrace my life in the United States.
POV: In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee is one of three films that POV is broadcasting this year about adoption. What are your feelings about international adoption?
Liem: Every situation is different, but I think it's best when a child can be raised in a family, preferably in his or her native country. In Korea specifically, it's probably no longer necessary to have a huge number of international adoptions and they should stop.
International adoption is often seen as the first choice in a situation. And I don't think it's the best first choice. When there are various possibilities, the first choice ought to be to keep families together — whether it's a single mother or a single father or a grandmother raising a child. The first priority, in terms of policy, should be to create opportunities within the country to keep those families intact.
POV: Ultimately, what is In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee really about for you?
Liem: The film is a journey to find the real Cha Jung Hee and, through that process, work through this case of mistaken identity. Meeting all the Cha Jung Hees in Korea really enabled me to imagine my own life if I had stayed in Korea. So in part it's an attempt to walk in their shoes and discover who I might have become. At the same time, I wanted to explore my own adoption, the ethics of adoption, international adoption and my own experiences with memory, identity and adoption.
I wanted to explore the personal impact of living a lie. I've had Cha Jung Hee's identity for more than 40 years. It's been eating away at me for all these years, and it has impacted who I've become. So this additional layer in the film looks not only at the impact of carrying this person's identity on myself and my relationship with my adoptive family, but also the way in which memory and amnesia have played a role in how I've resolved that history and come to understand that history.
Special UPDATE: now available on DVD at http://www.mufilms.org/buy-dvds/.
IF you live in USA or perhaps Europe Check forSteaming, er, Streaming Video on PBS. Look HERE:
http://video.pbs.org/video/1588661161
We see the difficulties of the Unwed Mothers with KUMSN (Korean Unwed Mothers Support Network) and of their stories as they bravely tell all to the society. In IKAA we heard the voice of just one of the 50 members, yet there are thousands of women who have kept their babies. It is the pressure of society that prevents more to keep their babies. We must understand all the equations involved in This Thing of Ours-Adoption.
Someday perhaps Deann could help the KWB do his own story…hmmm.
Also, check out the website, HERE: http://www.mufilms.org/
 |
| Multiple Shades are Gradations-There is no 'Black or White' or 'Happy Vs. Bad Adoptions" rather Gradations of stories, emotions, experiences. |
 |
| Balance is the Key to Life indeed! |
Actually only a few stories have been made into books and films, but Adoption Discourse (thanks Prof. Smolin) has increased as KAD's have reached out to each other. This Thing of Ours-Adoption has barely been researched yet, with surveys of Korean Adoptees rarely exceeding more than a few hundred.
It is a strong movement though to study, what I hope is that all aspects and experiences are included, not just the sad, mad, lucky, saved, etc. CATCHWORDS that get thrown about by many. Shouldn't we try to have Balance?
Deann Borshay Liem gives us her personal own story as she searches to find the answers. I have met and did a small interview with her when she was doing some documentary work. I have seen both films and they are powerful, well done documentaries of her story.
Yet there are thousands of stories that have yet to be told. We must remember that not all were her story, nor should we use one story to make up figures and numbers. Many who will never know exactly “Why was I given up” may never have their questions answered. Some adoptees don't even WANT to search as the are concerned with all the 'can of worms' several adoptees have related to me would be opened.
As an older child Deann knew the truth and her quest for Cha Jung Hee is out there, somewhere. Perhaps, someday she will be ‘found’, for even the woman in the film may or may not be the real Cha Jung Hee (Oops, spoiler). Read, watch, learn, if that is what you need to do. Each of us must reach our own comfort level.
Korean War Baby
************************************************
See Trailer: POV - In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee | PBSPBS Broadcast: September 14, 2010
Check local listings »
Online: September 15, 2010 through October 15, 2010
Synopsis
Her passport said she was Cha Jung Hee. She knew she was not. So began a 40-year deception for a Korean adoptee who came to the United States in 1966. Told to keep her true identity secret from her new American family, the 8-year-old girl quickly forgot she had ever been anyone else. But why had her identity been switched? And who was the real Cha Jung Hee? In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee is the search to find the answers, as acclaimed filmmaker Deann Borshay Liem (First Person Plural, POV 2000) returns to her native Korea to find her “double,” the mysterious girl whose place she took in America. A co-production of ITVS in association with the Center for Asian American Media and American Documentary/POV.
Watch the Interview of Deann!
http://www.pbs.org/pov/chajunghee/video_interview.phpInterview
Filmmaker Deann Borshay Liem talks about being haunted by an identity that was never hers, walking in someone else's shoes and whether the Cha Jung Hee that she finds in the film is the "real" Cha Jung Hee. POV: In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee is the second of two autobiographical films you've made about your adoption. The first film, First Person Plural, aired on POV in 2000. Can you refresh our memory of First Person Plural and talk about how you came to make In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee?
Deann Borshay Liem: First Person Plural tells my story of being adopted by an American family. I was adopted by Arnold and Alveen Borshay from Fremont, California, when I was about 8 years old. When they adopted me, they thought I was a girl named Cha Jung Hee and that I was an orphan. I also grew up thinking that I was Cha Jung Hee and that I was an orphan. But when I was grown up, I discovered that I had a birth family in Korea. First Person Plural follows the journey of discovering the existence of my birth family, meeting my birth family and taking my adoptive parents to Korea for a meeting of the two families. It explores my relationship to both families, my sense of divided loyalties and divided identities and the paradox of living in two different worlds, being pulled in two different directions.
As for making In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee, I had always been curious and haunted by this identity that was never mine. Over the years, Cha Jung Hee has always been in the back of my mind. She was a girl I never knew; she was someone who apparently was at the orphanage with me, but someone I had never met. To this day, I have her identity, her birth date, her name and her legal papers. The clothing I was wearing when I came to the United States was hers; the shoes that I wore were hers. I have all the letters that she had written to my adoptive family from Korea. So in In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee I go back to Korea to look for her, to put this matter to rest once and for all.
In the film, I meet a number of women named Cha Jung Hee, and through the process I explore the history of international adoptions from Korea and uncover the deceptions and lies that took place within the process of my adoption. I also explore memory, amnesia and what it means kind of to live someone else's life.
POV: The shoes that you wore on your arrival to the United States and that you kept your whole life are one of the strongest symbols in In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee. They play a major role in the film, triggering memories and becoming a part of this lost history. Can you talk about the role of those shoes?
Liem: When I came off the plane in America as an 8 year old, I was wearing these shoes that didn't fit me. They were long and narrow, whereas my feet were short and wide. My adoptive mother couldn't figure out why the shoes didn't fit me properly, because she had bought them according to the tracings of Cha Jung Hee's feet. Well, it turned out I wasn't Cha Jung Hee, so that's why they didn't fit.
The shoes have always been with me. Whenever I've moved to a different house, I've always taken with me baggage that included Cha Jung Hee's clothes and her shoes and all these documents and things. The shoes, in a literal fashion, represented walking into her life — I literally walked into the life that she would have had. In this film, I wanted to find the real Cha Jung Hee and give back her shoes and all her letters and be free of this identity.
My actual journey turned out to be a bit different. But the shoes are symbolic: They represent how any of us might have had a different life. What are the possibilities of living someone else's life or walking in someone else's shoes?
POV: There's a bit of ambiguity at the end of the film about whether you find the woman you're seeking. Do you think it matters whether or not you find the "real" Cha Jung Hee?
Cha Jung Hee Ulsan and Deann Borshay Liem. Photo by Bonhae Ku.
Liem: I do think that the woman I meet at the end of the film is Cha Jung Hee, the one I've been looking for, although there is some ambiguity about that, in part because she herself isn't entirely sure. Many of the facts about her adoption match [information about] the person I was looking for, yet some things don't match. In the end I've come to realize that there were untruths involved not only in my adoption, but in other children's adoptions as well. Cha Jung Hee served as a kind of template; she became a kind of ideal orphan. She was a marketing vehicle that was geared to the desires of adoptive parents abroad, and facts were made up to suit those desires.
For me, it does matter whether the woman I met was the "real" Cha Jung Hee, but in the end I discovered that it wasn't so much about finding her, that it was really more about finding myself. I had to wade through the layers of who I thought I was and embrace my life in the United States.
POV: In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee is one of three films that POV is broadcasting this year about adoption. What are your feelings about international adoption?
Liem: Every situation is different, but I think it's best when a child can be raised in a family, preferably in his or her native country. In Korea specifically, it's probably no longer necessary to have a huge number of international adoptions and they should stop.
International adoption is often seen as the first choice in a situation. And I don't think it's the best first choice. When there are various possibilities, the first choice ought to be to keep families together — whether it's a single mother or a single father or a grandmother raising a child. The first priority, in terms of policy, should be to create opportunities within the country to keep those families intact.
POV: Ultimately, what is In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee really about for you?
Liem: The film is a journey to find the real Cha Jung Hee and, through that process, work through this case of mistaken identity. Meeting all the Cha Jung Hees in Korea really enabled me to imagine my own life if I had stayed in Korea. So in part it's an attempt to walk in their shoes and discover who I might have become. At the same time, I wanted to explore my own adoption, the ethics of adoption, international adoption and my own experiences with memory, identity and adoption.
I wanted to explore the personal impact of living a lie. I've had Cha Jung Hee's identity for more than 40 years. It's been eating away at me for all these years, and it has impacted who I've become. So this additional layer in the film looks not only at the impact of carrying this person's identity on myself and my relationship with my adoptive family, but also the way in which memory and amnesia have played a role in how I've resolved that history and come to understand that history.
Special UPDATE: now available on DVD at http://www.mufilms.org/buy-dvds/.
IF you live in USA or perhaps Europe Check for
http://video.pbs.org/video/1588661161
****************************************
Well, there you have it the whole truth, complicated as it may be. The issues are complex, the solution are also, with cultural, social, personal viewpoints of Koreans changing but ever so slowly. One comment I will make is that Korean people, our mothers/fathers people will have to CHANGE their HEARTS and MINDS on the issues of supporting Unwed Mothers to keep their children, they will have to change LAWS but that does not change the attitude of Korean Society.We see the difficulties of the Unwed Mothers with KUMSN (Korean Unwed Mothers Support Network) and of their stories as they bravely tell all to the society. In IKAA we heard the voice of just one of the 50 members, yet there are thousands of women who have kept their babies. It is the pressure of society that prevents more to keep their babies. We must understand all the equations involved in This Thing of Ours-Adoption.
Someday perhaps Deann could help the KWB do his own story…hmmm.
Also, check out the website, HERE: http://www.mufilms.org/
September 14, 2010
Are We Working?
Hear ye, hear ye!!! I will be your best friend, buy you a drink, always have your back, but IF YOU FUCK with me, I will be your worse Enemy. This is MY TRUTH, this is my promise. I uphold the weak, downtrodden, will drink with any man or woman, whether they be 'straight or gay/lesbian/transgender/etc.', I give respect to all but expect mutual respect. To the bully- I will beat your ass, 'while I have breath and the ability to stand. To those of honor I bow to you, to the common man I am one of you.
I have lots to catch up on but later on. Just want to make sure Korean War Baby is back online. Crossing my fingers.
UPDATE: We are WORKING!
 |
| Corporal Bell, Junior Drill Instructor in "Boys of Company C", directed by Sid Furie. |
"Are We Working Yet?"
The Korean War Baby has had quite a busy time these last six weeks. IKAA Conference came in 3-8 August with fantastic meetings, symposiums, fun things, building relationships, etc. Then one of my best friends from the past as a B-Movie character actor, Nick Nicholson passed away on 17 August.
Two days later another best friend from Philippines, who just does not "DO Facebook", Romano Kristoff made contact with his sister in Spain and she gave him my email address.
About this time, another friend who taught me everything I needed to know about teaching English to Korean children arraigned for me to meet him in Manila. It was a combining of Interlinking Cycles of Friendships in reunions, burial at sea, meeting new life partners of one friend, Hong Kong reunions. NOW I can post on it.
My thanks to the Google Support teams that bore with this old fart who was completely baffled by DNS files, resetting this or that, NOW gotta make up for the past month of silence.
I beir the bel
 |
| "I Beir the Bel" |
"I Beir the Bel"- The clarion village alarm system that was rung to sound the call to arms, or to announce an event. This is the coat of arms for the Bells of Middlebie, known as the Bloody Bells of the Western Marches. They were one of the 8 Riding Clans that gave the English such problems that King James listed them under the "Unruly Clans" list for destruction and scattered them to Ireland and forced many to escape the Scottish Lowlands or also known as the Borderlands, where they were known as the Border Reivers (raiders) against England and each other.
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| Scottish Border Reivers of the Borderlands |
Well, by adoption, YES ADOPTION! I be Scottie as I was told by historians who explained that the Roman laws of adoption made me every bit a Scotsman. I was shown that my name had been added to the books being documented under my father's family line. This would NEVER happen in Korea, where I am a NON-PERSON, because I am considered a Half-Korean Bastard Mixed-Blood. Well, I am here to demand from my mother's people recognition and I beir witness in their face that they must acknowledge the many Mixed-Blood children who like me were sent away, and the one hundred thousand plus who NOW live in the ONCE Homogenous country.
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| Korea must DEAL with the Multicultural Marriages and Mixed-Blood Children, plus the one million Foreigners living in the country, Wake up Korea, Deal with Globalization, Deal with your Prejudices! Deal with your lack of support for Unwed Mothers, for the Special Needs Children, Korean Adoptees both INTERNATIONAL and DOMESTIC. DEAL WITH THESE ISSUES!!! |
 |
| I'm BACK!!! |
I have lots to catch up on but later on. Just want to make sure Korean War Baby is back online. Crossing my fingers.
UPDATE: We are WORKING!
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