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’.

Jillian Graham's website

Hi Friends and Fans; 

Thanks for dropping by.  We appreciate your support!

We have lots of new songs- check out our "MUSIC" tab above to take a listen.  We'll have more songs on CD Baby soon but until then if you want a CD or just a few songs, let us know at jilliangrahammusic@gmail.com.  We'd love to hear from you- send me an email or you can sign the "guest book" on this site.  

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

 

Technorati Tags: jillian graham,KAD artists,IKAA gathering,IKAA Gathering Seoul 2010

Support KAD artists!!!

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.


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 | PBS
PBS 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.php

Interview

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 Steaming, er, Streaming Video on PBS. Look HERE:

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/

Technorati Tags: deann Borshay Liem,in the matter of Cha Jung Hee,mufilms,adoption,korean adoptee,international adoption,transracial adoption,korean war baby,first person plural

Are We 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.

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. 

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!!!



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!

Technical Problems

This month has been plauged with technical problems, deaths of close friends, re-contact with 'lost' friend, IKAA conference. WHEW. Hopefully if you are reading this the domain name renewal finally worked and we are back up.

UPDATE: Google continues to be VERY FRUSTRATING...

Part 2-Letter to Dong Sangs

Part II

Letter to My Younger Brothers/Sisters

Dear Dong Saengs (Cont.)

Some of you may wonder "what is this all about?" Well to put it simply it is about the Few affecting the Many, the Few who represent themselves wrongly to the Korean Media as ALL Korean Adoptees "wanting to stop exporting/adoptions" outside of the country.  Some liberal Korean lawmakers are thinking that all KADs are whining and 'want to be white'. Hey, most of us have just dealt with it and matured to realize "hey, I ain't a whitey- I am a person of color". This is the personal Adoption Identity that we all have to walk out.

In Part I, the Korean War Baby, one of the First Generation of KADs, gave a challenge to the KADLinKs (Korean ADoptees Living in Korea) to be upfront and clearly state their position. Adoptee groups A.S.K. and T.R.A.C.K. are in-country KAD activist groups with members from international KADs and sympathizers who are in the Adoption Triad. Both have slightly different agendas and the KWB has joined both in order to understand exactly what they believe. I respect the effects to help Unwed Mothers that both ASK and TRACK are involved in.

However, some members of both are for the Stopping of InterCountry (Overseas) Adoptions as a solution. I know this from their writings and websites on Facebook/websites. I have documented the efforts by ASK to petition AGAINST ICA and though I agree with the PRO-Unwed Mother aspects...I totally disagree with the idea of stopping ICA: WHILE MOST KOREANS DO NOT WANT TO KEEP MOST CHILDREN. The myth of "Koreans do not want to adopt" is foolish, proven to be wrong by KWDI. The Civil Code Law Adoptions and Domestic Adoptions far out number the total InterCountry Adoptions each year. More than 450,000 Korean mothers have given up their children for adoption IN-Country and Overseas.

I have gained research from many sources but best exemplified by Korean Women’s Development Institute and their excellent compiling of MOHWFA facts, charts, and summaries. However, only the Executive Summaries are in English and translation of 200 page reports is difficult. Some are posted as Pages under the heading of KWB.

One highly esteemed and respected (even by me) colleague of yours (KADLinK), in better days, once challenged me, “Don, are you for the F*cking Truth?” Well, YES, I am for the whole f*cking truth, no matter how ugly or shocking.

Apparently, the number of Unwed Mothers KEEPING their children ARE in fact INCREASING. This is DESPITE the challenges that they face. Even the KWDI points out that getting proper numbers is difficult because the right questions are NOT being asked on Census surveys. This year's Census may have modified questions, to determine the mother's status. However, not everyone will admit on a survey with personal information that they were UNWED at time of birth. I have pointed out that Court cases of yearly adoptions may show the CIVIL CODE LAW adoptions that are 100% Secretly done. Adoption is still a shameful thing to admit, ask the KWB wife about that one. She never told her family that I was half-Korean OR adopted after 4 years of marriage. That blew me away and I demanded letters written to tell all her family who the hell I am. THIS IS KOREA. Got to Deal with them with the TRUTH.

INCONVENIENT TRUTHS

Every DAY in 2007 twenty-one babies were born to Unwed Mothers, and every day one thousand to FOUR thousand had ABORTIONS. In the six days of the Gathering that is 6,000 to 24,000 human fetus that would have been born were ‘eliminated or terminated’. That makes me MAD AS HELL, how about you?

What is also a FACT is that for every Unwed Mother who Wants/Keeps her child, that day MANY pregnant Korean women CHOSE to have an ABORTION. They have that Choice by LAW since 1973, and the ratios are from 1,000/21 per day up to 4,000/21 per day (depending on Government or OBGYN doctors’ figures). Let us not mention being ‘lucky’ or ‘fortunate to be alive’ for some get ALL bent out of shape on that, but it is the F*cking Truth. 

But what can you do? Force women to have the baby? Of Course Not. The government pressure earlier this year caused the price of Abortion to more than triple the amount for a short time. Some women went to China to afford the ‘procedure’ facing dubious medical care. Clinics and hospitals raised their prices in order to take advantage, check my blog under "abortion" for links.

 It seems to this old guy adoptee, that some are ignoring this truth- that TWO out of THREE Unwed Mothers ARE giving up their children for adoption, with 3 to 1 ratio of In-Country (3) to Overseas/ICA.

The daily numbers based on 2008 (according to KWDI-May 2009 rpt) show 14 babies per day GIVEN up by their Choice, (though I certainly agree that ‘forced by circumstances of life, society, family, motherhood, etc’ CAUSE them to give birth rather than ‘termination’). Of the 14 babies, the FACTS show that only 3.4 Daily of these babies were sent abroad in ICA adoptions. So called Domestic Adoptions (those sanctioned through Four Adoption Agencies) account only for 3.6 per day. Where did the other 7 go? Evidence suggests they were adopted through the Civil Code Law Adoptions.

Steve Morrison of Mission to Promote Adoption by Koreans (MPAC) has presented in his session that the final Revision of the Adoption Law will establish a common way for ALL adoptions, Civil Code Law, Domestic, and ICA. Perhaps some of you know of this development, which IS GOOD NEWS for us all as it would further help prevent abuses and standardize the processes into one that would protect the rights of the children, in accordance with Hague Conventions on Adoption and Children’s Rights.

I joined your groups, ASK and TRACK, because I wanted to learn ‘the f#cking truth’. I have studied carefully your writings and those of many blogs, sometimes reading every single posting of ‘Bastard Nation’, ‘Bastardette’ and other interesting sites, trying to understand what some of you believe. There has been many points that I have come to accept after deep reflection, but also some that I strongly disagree with. I respect those with differing opinions, even though I am concerned that a few extremists on both sides muddle the discourse. There is no “black or white” but rather shades of grey or a spectrum of colors in This Thing of Ours-Adoption.

I have told some of you that I agree wholeheartedly with the “Pro-Unwed Mothers”, YET I must conclude based on ‘Inconvenient Facts’ that it is NOT time to stop adoptions In-Country or InterCountry. This is where we differ, yet I have held out hope that with such brilliant young minds that you all have, that it would lead to some small compromise until THAT DAY comes that Korean people will accept Unwed Mothers, divorcees, widows, single moms, etc. THAT YOU BE PATIENT but persistent. Be for Unwed Mother but not against ICA. Publicly state your position on this matter, once and for all to review.

Here is my proposal for peaceful co-existence between YOU ALL and Moi, the Korean War Baby:

First, get it into your minds that while I live and breath and have being on this earth YOU WILL HAVE TO DEAL WITH ME!!! SUCK IT UP...you don’t have to love or like me but work with me together on these issues. Let’s be FOR the Unwed Mothers; For showing Korean media all aspects of adoption that it should not be a shameful thing; For bringing into the light of day all wrongs; work to move Korean society to improve on the issues of pity and shame; these are points we DO agree on.

BUT…if you A.A.A.A.s continue to TRY to STOP ICA, then you will have to put up with ME…I WILL FIGHT YOU ALL from stopping ICA ‘cold turkey’, I will DEMAND from the Korean government openness and truth in Civil Code Law Adoptions and Domestic Adoptions; I will push for unity in the Law for all adoption to be in accordance to the Hague Conventions and for Korea to sign and ratify them; I will pressure KCARE to be more than a front.

Am I being Dramatic? YOU have not seen drama yet, people. UNTIL I DIE and my COLD HARD FINGERS CANNOT TYPE, this is my promise.

There must be a Mult-tierred response to all of the complex issues. No one plan-fits-all but a truly comprehensive plan that we CAN agree on.

‘Cause I am HERE, Get over yourselves, DEAL WITH IT!! Deal with ME. THIS IS MY “F#CK@NGTRUTH”! I got more passion and balls to do things you people won’t do. I know how to work the media, just watch.

Many of you will move on with your lives leave the country, but Here I stand, I will stay the fight IN KOREA…will you fight WITH me or against me? It is up to you to chose, be allies together, putting aside our petty differences and working for the BIG PICTURE. I see the hope that one day, like USA or Australia the need for ICA adoption or Domestic adoption will NOT be necessary in this our motherland. Don’t we agree on this? Stopping ICA now is NOT part of the solution!!! Cut the Supply and the Demand will dry up.

If you will simply publicly state for the record that you will take down petitions against ICA on ASK website, not work to stop ICA WHILE Koreans do NOT take care of their own, I will reciprocate and withdraw many of the names and events posted on my blog. I will make it go away. Names will be deleted and entire posts will disappear.

UPDATE: After a heartfelt discussion Sat. Sept. 18th,  with Rev. Kim DoHyun I have offered to DELETE LAST Names as a SIGN of Sincerity and gesture of GOOD WILL. I will begin this action this week. We both discussed that the process of reconciliation will take many steps from all of us. Come dear KADLinKs, let us reason together for the best interests of those Daily being born in Korea, Hmmm. 

This is my heartfelt offer, and I DO respect what you want to do but NOT the way you want to ‘solve’ issue of stopping ICA. Is this too much to ask? Look at the realities, can you change the hearts and minds of Korean society and government policies so quickly?

What is your solutions to the children who cannot be adopted because of Koreans distaste for children with disabilities, abandoned, premature births, older children, etc? Surely you would not stop a premature child with heart conditions from being adopted by a well-vetted foreign family, would you? If you stop ICA that would happen. THAT will NOT HAPPEN while I live.

Come, let us reason together. Tobias, Kim Su, Jane, Jenifer, Nicole, Jan Wenger, Rev. Kim, K. Stoker, Tammy, Jenny, Johnny, and all others who are dedicated to these issues…

Let’s MOVE ON in peace. Or get it on. Again I say to you, I will be you best ally as a ‘First Generation KAD’ in all this OR YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE continues. This is not a threat, just reality. I am not asking for too much, am I? Only on the point of stopping ICA before the time is right. Is this too much for peace and well being?

I post this for you consideration and debate. Can’t we all just get along? Please discourse among yourselves and get back to me.

Respectfully,

Don Gordon BELL,

The Korean War Baby