Korean Movies land in Tanzania

The Ambassador (Young Hoon Kim) of South Korea to Tanzania has donated some Korean movies (several copies of CD movies) to a popular and leading private local tevevision in Tanzania (ITV). This will spread the Korean culture to Tanzanians and other nationalities residing in the country. The Korean movies have recently attracted attention of many Tanzania. for more information please see http://www.ippmedia.com/

South Korea and Tanzania Agree on Sectoral Partnerships

In September 2009, the Prime Minister of Tanzania Mizengo Pinda on his official visit to Asian countries, met the Preseident of South Korea in Seoul. The two countries agreed to strengthen bilateral economic cooperation. There is no doubt that Tanzania opt to benefit from the technology that Korea has attained including some agricultural techniques, machinery related to farming and technicians in agricultural sector. Although Korea is a country of Mountains, with high population approaching 50 million, but their advancement in agricultural technology has helped to increase agricultural production with small agricultural land available. However, Korea wish to expand agricultural production to feed its people by acquiring/lessing land outside its territory. Tanzania might be one of the target. Technology tranfer is seen as a benefit to developing country such as Tanzania. Lack of technology in developing countries has limited their agricultural production despite the fact that they own massive fertile land.

Other infrastrutures such as roads including bridges will benefit from the cooperation, Korean companies and business have been invited to take part in economic development initiatives in Tanzania.

Tanzania is already benefiting from Korean support for training Government Staff, example under Korea International Cooperation Agent (KOICA) many Tanzanians have been trained in Korea, most of them at Master deegrees. Some support is also been given to education institutions such as University of Dar es Salaam which has been supported in its Information Communication Technology an area in which Korea is now doing its best.

The Prime minister's visit was to put emphasis and expand the areas of cooperation. There is a lot that Tanzania can learn from Korea, a country that has shown a suprizingly economic development in the past recent. The good news is that in 2010, the G-20 meeting will be held in South Korea!!! This will make Korea take the chairmaship of the summit. Bravo Korea.

Jasson John,
Seoul

Did you know Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. Ltd is one of the leading Industries in the World?

In July 2009, the Presidential Council on National Branding organised a tour to some of the leading Industries in Korea. The tour comprised of students from all the continents (World Students in Korea), this group represents thousands of students studying in Korea. A group of 40 students drawn from 24 different countries had a rare opportunity to visit the Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) and other leading Industries such as POSCO based in the Southern Part of Korea.

HHI is among the 5 leading industries in the world together with other Industries in the USA, Japan, China etc. It is amazing to see the achievements in terms of expansion (which may be defined by the production) and the technology advancement that the HHI have attained in shortest time as compared to other Industries in the World. One would not talk of the Korean Economy without mentioning the HHI. In most African countries including Tanzania, one would see floating ships, construction gears and vehicles mainly KIA...mostly of these are made from HHI. About 5,000 vehicles are produced in one day in the industries that are based in Korea. HHI has also some production plants in other countries such as USA.Did you know that HHI is the leading shipbuilder in the World? The HHI built the World's largest shipyard in 19972. It is countributing immeasurably to the economy of Korea through tax payments and socio-economic activities such as schools, hospitals etc. There is a lot to learn from the History of the HHI todate for more information visit http://hyundaigroup.com.

Recreation Sites in Seoul: The Seoul Grand Park

Seoul Grand Park is one of the biggest Parks in the World to be found in cosmopolitan cities like Seoul! It is a very good site to visit in Seoul, you will experience the nature and human made influence in preservation of world animal species. It is a collection of animals from all the continents ( see the sheeps from Northern Africa, the King of the jungle, the Lion from Africa). You can also enjoy the nature while on the sky lift. It does not only preserve the caged animals but also provide condusive habitats for free ranging animals including the migrant bird species. One of the photo here shows a grey heron in breeding plumage (see the white crown, and the pink/red legs and beak), it not caged but inhabits the wetland within the Park. This is one example among the tens and thousands of other species that enjoy the preserved habitats!

A Maasai Shuka: Tarditional dress of the Maasai ethnic group found in East Africa

The Maasai Shuka is admired by many people across the globe! The Maasai tribe is found in Tanzania and Kenya, in the Maasai land. Traditionally they survived on meat, milk and blood from livestock. They practised wild animal hunting as part of their culture. However, they lived together with wild animals for years!!! It is one of the strongest tribe that has retained mantained its traditional culture. Recently they have started to supplement their life style with farming and small curios business. People from this ethinic group who managed to attend schools have attained the high ranking political posts and other jobs in governments and other insitutions.

The photo taken in July 2009 at Seoul National University, Korea: From left is Bolor Bold (Mongolian), Jasson John (Tanzanian) and Soumia Sadok (Algerian)

Worries on Cultural Erosion
A comparative approach between developed and developing countries with examples from Korea and East Africa..

There is no single country nor tribe in the world that can withstand cultural erosion in this era of globalisation. Most people don't want to say culture is being eroded but dynamism or advancement! For the most countries that were colonised, their present culture reflects the culture of their former masters. Very few countries have retained a significant percentage of their culture. In Africa there are some few tribes that have tried to retain their culture, and these includes the Maasai in the East Africa (Tanzania and Kenya) and the Hadzabe in Tanzania. Traditionally these are gathers and hunters, they survived by hunting wild animals, eating fruits, milk and meat from livestocks until recently. But with alteration of their natural habitats that has led to increased population of these families, but with limited resources such as wild animal declines, imposed protection laws and regulations by the respective governments that do not conform with the life styles of these tribes, have significantly affected their dream. Furthermore, some political leaders in these areas are addressing and imposing development policies that have been copied from developed countries or established during colonial rules without making changes depending on the current situations. Life styles of these tribes/communities and nations includes their languages, for example in countries that were colonised by British, if one can not speak or write good English is considered to be ignorant, uneducated and so on. Tanzania being one example, Tanzania official language is Kiswahili, a language that is now being spoken in many countries in Africa including Kenya, Uganda, Somalia, Rwanda, Burundi and DRC-Kinshasa, but you will be surprised that the education system uses English as a teaching language from Secondary schools to higher learning institutions including Universities. Although the media of communication in most public offices is Kiswahili, but one is surprised that interviews for screening employees is normally held in English! Currently there is a debate whether to change the media of teaching from English to Swahili, but some influential people with old mind would urge that the nation will be isolated from the entire World community, and that it will significantly affect the rate of development, but sometimes in public will agree and pledge to support the proposal of using Swahili.

I am one of those people that significantly differ with those minds, having seen the level of development that Korean has attained, the technology they have all sort of exports they are making, they have reached this level using their language..Korean language... Korean is not the only example that use their language and have attained such high level of development in Asia but it is a unique example that some of our developing countries in Africa can learn from, because it was once a colony of Japan, and then afterwards entered into a three year war with their relatives, the North Koreans.

As highlighted above that in this era of globalisation, it is very hard to maintain the original/traditional status quo of the culture, but at least some remnants should be retained. Korean have tried to retain some unique cultural aspects such as dressing (but these days only on important functions, festivals and memorials) example the Hanbok (한복), the Korean traditional dress is very rarely seen dressed by people in these days especially in Seoul. It is now not uncommon to see ladies dressed in very short skirts...the mini-skirts, I happened to ask some old people here, they are saying in those old days one could not dress such short skirts and go in public events, it was considered as misbehaving but now they have accepted the wind of change by young generation in the expense of globalisation. You will see many boys (mostly teenagers), wearing ear rings which is thought to be a different culture of the old Koreans. Language has remained the special entity of the Korean culture, although there is also dynamism in languages always imposed by young people who always want short cuts and this is also happening in most communities. The street language and the language used by young generation is different, but the Korean have retained the honorific aspects in their language. Different patterns are used when making official speeches, writing articles in news papers, speaking to old and respected people, and this makes learning Korean language difficult, but a unique entity of their culture. There are also popular English medium schools in Korea especially in Seoul, which is a good thing, but still all Koreans use their language (한국말) everywhere you go. The other good things in Korea, they have many museums where one can see, experience, learn their history, and these museum are very much maintained and visited or used by Koreans and foreigners who live or visit Korea. However, Koreans have maintained the Taekwondo as one of the most traditional martial arts, it has gained an international reputation and now included in Olympic games. Kimchi is also their traditional food. These are most common and known traditional symbols of Koreans.

In summary, I am not trying to say that countries should be isolated from the entire world or completely resist the changes in their life style, but at least every country/ region or tribe should struggle to retain their good traditional culture as much as possible, this would be important to the future generations. If culture is left to be like a free trade, then all countries whether developed or developing may be loosing an asset that may regret in future!

Prepared by Jasson John
Seoul National University

Korea Development and Culture ( represented in photos)

Traditional marriage ceremony and Seoul streets!!!