Essay and Writings of Yoon-Mee Lee

Granddaughter of Eekwon Lee and Jongja Byun

Eekwon Lee and Jongja Byun International Relations and Cultural Awareness Scholarship

From the Granddaughter of Eekwon Lee and Jongja Byun

My Responsibility

            I would like to tell you a short story about ‘Human’s Social Responsibility.’ During the preparation time for my final exam, I participated in a school’s extracurricular activity where I watched some documentaries about the world. From one of those films, I found a very shocking truth occurring in the opposite part of the Earth from Korea.

            That is about the Caribbean’s poor country, the Republic of Haiti. In a region called ‘Citi Soleil’ in Haiti, poor children are eating cookies which are made of mud to feel full. With “the Mud Cookies” they forget the feeling of hunger at the spot, but soon they suffer from pain and diarrhea. However, some rich upper class people in a beach in the same country don’t know about this fact. This documentary was made and broadcasted a few years ago.

          Recently, people are focusing on Haiti again because the severe earthquake occurred this year in that area, Citi Soleil. The world affairs are so harsh. The cruel scenes of the damaged district broadcasted on TV overlapped with the story of this documentary, so I felt a heavy heart.

            During the Korean War in 1950, the Republic of Haiti was a country which supported South Korea financially. After several decades, Korea became free from the war and poverty. Haiti, on the contrary, became poor. One factor that makes Haiti suffer from a shortage of food is the sudden rise of the international grain price. Ironically, some people said the recent rise of the international grain price may be affected by the mass production of Bio-ethanol which reduces the greenhouse gas on Earth. When I heard about this, I thought that there are many unexplainable things confusingly entangled in the world. When an action is taken to fix something, it may actually impact something else.

            These days I’m reading a book called “Justice: What’s the right thing to do?” which is written by Michael Sandel, a professor of the Harvard University. ‘Is our world fair?’ ‘In the world of a free society, should citizens be able to build any obligation to others?’  Would I get the answers of these questions after I finish this book?

            I was planning to write a ‘short story’ about ‘Human’s Social Responsibility’ but it became the story about ‘too big subjects’ with the eternally unsolvable problems. Then what is my responsibility? Education-conscious Korean parents usually say that: “The best responsibility of students is just studying hard.” I cannot deny that reality of Korea. Now I have to study for more than 12 hours a day again. Unfortunately, I’m in a situation where I cannot give a helping hand to those poor people around the world and for those global problems. It makes me sad. However, one day I will become the age in which I can do something real for the world. I hope I can be the person who actually works for something rather than worries about the responsibility.

July 18, 2010

Yoonmee Lee