» Kim Seon-woo.

The whole country is in a flurry over U.S. President George W. Bush’s visit to Korea. As I write this there are protests opposing his visit and gatherings welcoming him in downtown Seoul, and I’m told on the news that the police are on high alert. The police say they are going to fight back with liquid tear gas-laced water cannons and color guns if protests turn “illegally violent.”

Police declarations of war against the public are annoyingly repetitive, and this time around as well it looks like they have defined people who participate in candlelight protests as potential terrorists. To them it is a dichotomy; everyone is either a citizen or a rioter. Citizens laughed out loud saying, “Uh, we are citizens!” when the police told those participating in the candlelight protests that they were “threatening citizens’ safety.” What citizens were in need of police protection? There is such a thing as pseudocyesis, imagined pregnancy, so maybe this is like imagined citizens?

Anything that’s noisy should indiscriminately be put down by the authorities? Shouldn’t that kind of habitual response have changed by now? The world moves in a series of causes and results. When there is noise, the order of things should be to figure out what the cause is. Threatening citizens as was done in the past is not acceptable. Whoever may visit my country, I would like to be able to receive the person, then send him on his way with heartfelt sincerity. The Korean carriage of mind is to send even a drifter who calls on one’s home off after having fed him a warm meal. The Korean heart wants to afford people that kind of hospitality, so when people tell someone not to visit, you have to ask why.

The way the United States treats Korea is not the only problem here. Let’s ignore for a moment the hypocrisy and ignorance of the way it divides the world into either good or evil and maintains a constant tension, while all the while making itself out to be the apostle of peace and justice. The kind of thinking that considers the whole world to be prey for American capital, the dangerous arrogance of being in a throne of power that never hesitates to fight wars for money and that will only be satisfied when everything is America’s, is one of the greatest factors threatening world peace.

Because of the unquestioned consumer patterns of its capitalism, the United States dirties the global environment more than anyone else. Start talking about America and there’s no end in sight. So when the American president comes to town like a loan shark here to collect, what reason do we have to welcome him with open arms?

Those Americans. What they need most right now in terms of a transformation of their thinking is a return to the question of why. The United States needs to ask itself why most of the world does not like it, hates it and does not want to associate with it.

I have friends around the world who are embarrassed as Americans. I have met them in my travels and found they love the America they know as the home they were born and raised in, but are conflicted inside for being ashamed of America due to its politics. I, too, love Korea insofar as it is the home I was born and raised in. I love the warm carriage of heart that is inherent in our culture. When it comes to the political sphere, however, as a Korean I am frequently ashamed of Korea. Not just because of domestic Korean politics, either. There have been many times I have not wanted to identify myself as a Korean because I am embarrassed at the behavior of Korean capital in countries not as well off as ours.

Isn’t it strange? The friends I’ve made while traveling around the world, people who desire lives of freedom and peace, were all sensitive to shame. They hadn’t started any wars, but they were ashamed of their president and their countries’ power apparatus and wished they could make amends. I hope the American president remembers that if the United States is still around a hundred years from now it will be not because of those who now sit in power, but because of the wandering Americans who feel shame and repentance and know how to examine themselves. And so I would hope he is not too offended at the inhospitable reception he receives from us Korean citizens. Before being offended, I hope he first asks the question, “Why?”

The views presented in this column are the writer’s own, and do not necessarily reflect those of The Hankyoreh.