Miss Korea

Hee-Jung Park

Profession:
Student

Environmental Concern:
Recently as an honorary ambassador of Korea, I had a chance to visit inner-Mongolia on a reforestation mission where the root of yellow dust phenomena lay.
I had never been to a desert before but only read about it in books. In reality the desert was a big and scary place. It took one hour trip by plane from Beijing, but the wind carrying the yellow dust takes three hours. From there to Seoul, it takes two days for the wind.
This is a clear example of how environmental problems affect not only one country alone but all the others around it. I’ve read that there are many endangered species in the Amazon, and came to the conclusion that extinction of a species may affect our own environment as well. From that point of view, I think the forestation project in the ‘cufuchi’ desert area called “Forest of Future” that I took part in was very meaningful.
The Chinese government’s effort to prevent desertification is still a bit ineffective, because the country’s power is only focusing economic area. But we must not forget the importance of the environment and try to coexist with other species on earth. We must think of our future generations more than we think of our current economic well being. The damage caused by the yellow dust phenomenon is equivalent to 700 thousand million dollars annually. But if we try to prevent desertification by spending 7 hundred million dollar, we can overcome desertification and hinder an ecological disaster for a foreseeable future.
Korea is investing quite a bit in forestation projects in China, but in order to cover the mass amount of land, China, Japan and Korea must all unite forces to prevent desertification. If we think of the worldwide effects of desertification. I think we must all combine our powers in forestation projects in various regions of the world. To come to the point we must bring back our eco-system and preserve it. And we must remember that our life is based on nature and not in the city.


What makes you proud of your country:
To speak of the things I am proud of, there would be no end. The beautiful landscape, the colorful 4 seasons and rich culture based on our long history... but from all those, the thing that makes me proud of the most is the hard-working spirit of our people which brought a once impoverished nation into one of the world’s leading countries. Korea is in fact a relatively small country with few natural resources, but we have infinite human resources that comes from the laborious spirit of our people. Also korea is famous for its low illiteracy rate and high standards of mathematics. These special skills are not acquired through good genes but through hard working and diligence. Koreans have a special culture called “Jung”, and this exactly the driving force of our country that overcome all hardships and ordeals throughout history. The idea of “us” before “I” helped our people stay together for 5,000 years, and through hard working and diligence, our country has become the 12th largest economic power in the world. Once small raindrops become rivers and rivers become the ocean. Just like those raindrops I wish to do my best in what is set in front of me, and that is probably the best for my country.