berlin wall

berlin wall
Originally uploaded by hanmao.

extract from President Ikeda’s “For the Sake of Peace”,

“There are those who sincerely believe in the historical reality of national or ethnic hostilities. Such antagonisms do persist, but they are essentially based on delusions. Recently, I read the interesting autobiography of Melina Mercouri, an internationally famous Greek actress who from childhood considered the Turks to be enemies. When she traveled to Nicosia, on the island of Cyprus, to work on location for a film, she found the city divided into hostile Turkish and Greek quarters separated by checkpoints that she, however, was permitted to cross. She was frequently entrusted with messages or small gifts from Greeks to Turks on the other side of the boundary. As time passed, Turkish people also started asking her to perform similar errands and to take letters and other things to their friends in the Greek zone. Reflecting on this experience, Mercouri said to herself: ‘I saw that they could be friends... Greeks and Turks would live together in peace if politicians didn’t find it useful to keep animosities alive.’

“When everyone sees the world this way, we will have built a new spiritual Silk Road joining East and West, North and South, in trust and respect.”

indeed, many such artificial barriers have been erected and some still stands strong today. on the right is a picture of the berlin wall, which i visited last dec. during part of this guided tour called the red berlin, we also visited a train station called Friedrichstrasse Station. here was where the w germans would cross over to visit their relatives in e germany. the guide then told us about the difficulties and inconveniences of crossing the border and how at the end of the visit, the relatives would part in tears. (i must comment that these guides are q good story tellers...) and the station was called the palace of tears.

sigh. with the testing of the nuclear weapons by n korea and the possible un sanctions, family contacts will be cut once again. i think it was not long, when the two kims met in 2000. and it was not long, when images of reunions across the boundary coupled with tears and hugs filled our screens. but...