Saturday, May 9, 2009

La Pasionaria

La Pasionaria
May 10 2009

Someone compares Korean woman, Liu Kwan-Soon with La Pasionaria, Nome de Guerre for Dolores Ibarruri Gomez.
(Ernest Hemingway, in his famous novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls, wrote of La Pasionaria extensively.)
However, for me, the March 1st Movement against the Japanese Occupation was a myth...there has never had a follow-up movement and a majority (99 percent) of Koreans had chosen to live on their knees in order to save their necks.

Some, like Syngman Rhee, deserted one's native country taking up a comfortable residence in the US...others, like Gen. Park CH, actively joined Japanese colonial army.
Both came home much later and the former was given a title of "the Father of Nation" and the latter took the regime at gunpoint.
They were both entombed at the National Cemetry for their honorable(?) services for the nation.

Dolores Ibarruri once said: It is better to die on your feet rather than to live crawling on your knees.
She also insisted: It is better to be the widow of a hero rather than the wife of a coward.
Presently, for the Koreans, especially in the South, La Pasionaria is a rara avis...an endangered species that the Yankee cultural onslaught has been murdering constantly for over a half of century.

Watch the following youtube clip. I am sure you'd love to listen music and pictures.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QFM-HdAvkg

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