Reflecting back on everyone we met here, one group of people sticks out especially and deserve our most gratitude! These are our Korean translator friends, that stayed with us in the camp, were ready to help us day and night and taught us all we know about Korean culture, people, language and food. We will remember you and hope we can reciprocate one day in our own countries when they come to visit us!

On Saturday night we had our last celebration in the camp with many friends and co-workers of KFEM. Kim Choony, the Secretary General of KFEM came for a visit and we exchanged thank you speeches and gifts. It was really amazing to work with this local grassroots organisation here in Korea, and without them this would certainly have not been possible. In Seoul we will meet with KFEM again and set up parts of the Whale Embassy at their Headquarters. This campaign is not over yet and KFEM will continue the work to lobby the Korean government not to fund the construction of the whale meat factory and put effort into conserving marine species such as whales instead. Greenpeace and KFEM will stay in close contact to keep up the good connections and spirit and if necessary, we will come back and help them in their fight to protect whales in the future.

We hope that the people in Jangsengpo, Ulsan and maybe even all over Korea will remember the Whale Embassy that occupied the site of the proposed whale meat factory for 77 days and put much needed effort into protecting whales in Koreas waters and all over the world and raising awareness of the state of the world’s oceans.

The real shock came, when Jim returned and told us that there has been a new statement in an article on BBC News, quoting Koreas Whaling Commissioner Barng Ki Hiok on the importance of building the whale meat factory: "Once such a facility is built, meat must go there for processing.Then we can easily detect illegal trade. Therefore, construction of such a facility is the best way to prepare for the future, I think."

Apparently he also indicated that this means, the whale meat factory construction will go ahead.

Sweet Jangsaengpo

Back home on the other side of the world. Its 4:30am here, so it looks like jetlag has found me...I couldn’t help but sleep almost every minute of my plane ride from Seoul to Chicago, which was about 12 hours long, and most of my last flight to DC. After 24 hours in transit, I am now at home, with family, processing the last five weeks, thinking about what comes next. Being home is interesting...strange to say the least. Except for the memories I carry with me, everything that has been a part of my life for an intense five weeks, is gone.

We also had a bit of a scoop in that we had an official Embassy visit from the NZ and Australian Environment ministers in their lunch break away from the main meeting. They were greeted at the embassy by the embassy crew, a scrum of journalists and also Sidedish, who had auspiciously returned out of the blue to witness this historic event. We gave them embassy t-shirts and Adam showed them around with the media snapping away relentlessly. We talked with them in front of the cameras discussing the bycatch trade in Korea, the whale meat factory plans and also Korea's IWC voting record. AP, ABC, NZ 1 and 3, Yonhap, Western Australian and local news crews were all out in force..

Incidentally (or rather 'accidentally' as the Korean government would say), five minkes have been 'entangled' here in the last three days. They were immature minkes and sold for roughyl $20-35000. Incredible timing, seeing as it comes on the back of a three day whale meat festival, which will have inevitably depleted meat stocks.. a coincidence that we have been passing on to delegates and journos alike.

Tonight the Tomato Hotel campaign team are coming down to the embassy for a few hours so that the crew can go into town to wine and dine accordingly. It is Kelly's last night and she will be much missed.

(The photo is by Jeremy, and it's our whales guru John speaking at a press conference with Dr Susan Liebermann of WWF.)

In case you've been living in a cave, the Virtual March is the result of over 51,000 people submitting photographs of themselves (or their dogs, pet fish, small children and stuffed animals) holding anti-whaling messages to the Korean government. I was glad to see that apathetic shoppers and Pizza Hut diners couldn't help but stop and stare at the huge screen featuring projections of thousands of people from around the world holding anti-whaling banners. People even stopped their cars and gaped over their open car doors.

When our activists arrived, they saw the remains of an immature minke whale being butchered on a large tarpaulin amongst piles of ice. The butcher threw icecubes at our activists and splashed them with whaleblood. One eyewitness said that someone dipped his hands in whale blood and threatened to wipe them across her chest.

As our group returned to camp, a man in a truck went past and our translator heard what they yelled in Korean. It was "This whale was not bycatch, just catch." Of course we can't confirm if that is true or not, but otherwise the poor whale certainly has bad timing, happening to be caught right in the middle of a Whale Festival.

Since last night we have heard that the minke was only 4 metres long, a juvenile, and was sold for 31 million won (about USD$31,000).

I will post photos of this soon, but meanwhile - if you haven't alread, join the Virtual March! Only a few hours to go until this world first event ... and you could stop whales like this one dying.

Adele
(Photo copyright Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert)

But you never know who you'll meet at the Ulsan Copy Shop ....

I arrived in Ulsan delighted to see that Jim and Adam had made one of those little signs with my name on it saying "Welcome to Korea!". I always wanted one of those, even if they did spell my name wrong. (Don't worry guys, it's more exotic that way.) It's funny being back - Adam and Jim can't wait to show me how much the embassy has come along, it's almost like a highschool reunion.

Anyway, tiny Ulsan airport, with its engaging "disco dolphin" signs on its walkways - I'll try to get a photo on my way home - was deluged with visitors for the IWC. Some African delegates had arrived and Jim, Adam and I tried to determine which country they represented. Jim addressed them directly while Adam and I covertly tried to get a glimpse of their luggage tags, but they didn't want to talk to us. So we resorted back to our "base", apart from the Embassy of course, the tiny and rather odd hotel where our IWC expert and assorted other campaign team members are staying, within eyesight of the IWC building. I feel kind of like it's Hotel California, like I knew I'd be back here one day...

After a busy night meeting and planning, with a few diversions such as Jim accidentally swallowing the ring pull on his beer can and a minor panic ensuing about what kind of horrible internal injuries he might be suffering (he's fine), I'm back in my room ready to start designing a flyer for the Virtual March.

More to report tomorrow when the Whale Festival starts and I can once more join the Embassy staff on the ground in the run up to our piece d'resistance...the Virtual March ...

Adele

Great news from the whale embassy!

After days of hints, today we received a news article written in a national Korean daily, stating that plans to build the whale meat factory had been dropped because of pressure from Greenpeace. The article went on to explain that the reason for this was that building the factory would not be in the ˜national interest" of South Korea, and would label South Korea as a pro-whaling nation. The government will not produce any written documentation proving that the whale meat factory has been abandoned, because it would show a loss of face. The evidence for this piece was written after confidential discussions between the journalist and the Director of Fisheries and Maritime Affairs in Ulsan.

Over 60 days of sleeping in this once hostile, polluted, dusty, grimy place appear to have paid off. We couldn't have hoped for a better result only days before the IWC.

Best,

Jim

We have said more goodbyes to Jo and Eric, and have welcomed Jim and Adam home, so to speak. The last arrivals have had over a week to settle in and learn the ropes, as we focus on how to be most effective in reaching the public this weekend. The Whale Festival will bring more than 50 000 people each day to our location. Much like Ocean’s Day, the festival will take place in the field adjacent to our camp. It is still quite unusual – the juxtaposition of tons of white tents, lights and balloons, to our camp and whale tails.

We have broken up into groups, working together on the whole. The Whale Festival is not only taking place next to our camp, but in the downtown park as well – where the Greenpeace/KFEM booth will be. We have scouted out our booth, mere meters away from the Japanese Whaling Association’s (!!) and are sorting out what we will need there; who will staff it when. We are preparing the embassy for another deluge of visitors, tidying up, sorting activities, making sure the daily life of the camp continues to run smoothly. We must also prepare to say goodbye to many of the adults and children who have become accustomed to our presence – the children especially. Next weekend will be our last weekend here, (a statement I can hardly wrap my head around,) and we want to make sure we exit responsibly.

Adam’s focus will be on the Virtual March, which we have been granted permission to go ahead with by the management of the Lotte Hotel, (home to the IWC), the police, and the city council. Another stellar example of how differently things have worked here. Jim will continue running the campaign, an extraordinary feat in itself. While inside perhaps we are all rejoicing a bit by news that plans for the factory are off, we are cautious not to get ahead of ourselves. We must wait and see how the Korean Government will react having received questions and feedback about this decision from all the media over the next few days.

On a side note, the new t-shirts have finally arrived. Seeing them is bitter sweet, as the logo is a culmination of ideas from a group of which there are none left, with the exception of myself. As I mentioned before, it is hard to imagine that this will be our last weekend here. Next weekend the camp will be broken down and shipped to its various homes, the activists will have dispersed, and hopefully what will be left is the legacy of the work we have begun with KFEM, the memories of this extraordinary experience, and a step in the right direction towards Korea being a pro whale nation, not pro whaling nation.

It was mentioned a while back that some of the camp members suffered from the pollution in Ulsan. For me this continues to persist, as well as a new camp member, who is also being hit hard by the pollution. With the coming of spring in Ulsan, the smog levels from the factories all around us continued to rise to astronomic levels. To give you an example, sometimes visibility gets really hazy after about a 1km. The air has colour!!! Sometimes it is brown, some days it is greyish blue. As a result, I have developed sever persistent asthma. I have never been asthmatic before. But this spring in Ulsan, I developed really sever asthma.

Disappointment is an understatement of how I feel towards my health. I have been living in Korea for 11 months now. For the first 6 months adjusting to the culture was really difficult and I was often homesick. As time went on, I came to love this country and started to feel at home. I was planning on staying in Korea for another year, as there were many aspects of the culture that I still wanted to explore. I was also really excited about the new friendships I had with KFEM members.

So after lots of deliberation, I will be leaving Korea, within a month. My level of asthma is really preventing me from leading a fulfilling quality of life. I often am out of breath just walking. Sometimes sitting is all of have the lung power I have energy for. I first met the Greenpeace members almost 2 months ago when they went out for a rock climbing trip and joined my friends and I to MunSu Mountain. It was still spring then, and the air was still cleanish then. Now that summer is here and the heat traps in the pollution, I can no longer rock climb, as climbing a flight of stairs is a difficult task.

So this is how my days at the camp now go. I wake up in the morning. If I wake up because I am having a hard time breathing, I know it is going to be a BAD day. Then I check the wind direction. If the wind is coming off the ocean, my asthma will be only sorta bad. If the wind is coming from the direction of the factories, I will be having a difficult time breathing all day, often feeling like I am suffocating and frequently gasping for air. The fact that I work a 30 minute drive away from this toxic wasteland doesn't matter. The smog is thick everywhere in this country. In fact, last week Thursday I had to drive to Seoul, which is COMPLETELY on the other side of the country. The entire drive, even in the country side, was met with hazy air. Realizing that it was everywhere, made me feel claustrophobic, I couldn't escape it at all!! That is when I decided that I needed to leave soon and not later. Despite the learning experiences that I will miss out on, I need to take care of my body. (My mother, who is a nurse, cheered when I told her I was leaving.)

So now I'll be of slowly making my way to the Netherlands, a Greenpeace Meca, but not until I have first passed through Nepal. A fellow activist at the camp here, prescribed the air of the Himalayans to be the best therapy for an asthmatic. ...hey, you know, if it is for my health, I'll travel that extra mile. :)

Well, I could ramble a lot longer still, but I think most people would prefer to read about whales than me whining about not being able to breath. ...lets just hope that tomorrow has a lot of wind of the ocean.

Jodie

It has been about 6 weeks now that I adopted the Greenpeace camp as my new home in Ulsan and Greenpeace as my family. One of the things I have really enjoyed from my stay here is meeting Korean environmentalists. When I first moved to Korea, 11 months ago, I tried to find Korean environmentalists, but because of language barriers, I had difficulty making contacts. While being at the whale embassy, I have had the opportunity to make friends with many KFEM members.

The relationship between KFEM and Greenpeace at the camp has really been a blessing. Aside from our joint campaign, they have been very helpful in giving us insights into Korean culture, helping set us up with various things we need around camp and making connections. They have also brought a lot of energy into the camp when showing up with gifts, cooking traditional Korean food, and providing musical entertainment (the children's traditional group.)

I have felt a particular warm welcome from the KFEM members, as they have invited me to join them in different events that they have hosted. A group of students have started giving me regular drumming lessons :) Yesterday, I joined them for a KFEM picnic to celebrate a traditional Korean event of making rice cakes. What impresses me about KFEM is how it is truly family oriented. The children are very much a part of the group and are well educated in environmental issues. Yesterday, after the picnic, the kids eagerly ran to check on their organic gardens growing at the KFEM office. They excitedly told me about how they were growing it all without pesticides and what vegetables each of them were growing. I found this KFEM outing really inspiring. It was really wonderful to see the families of KFEM raising a generation of environmentalists.

I am now eagerly awaiting for the drumming group, who plan to arrive later this afternoon, where I will get my next drumming lesson :)

Jodie

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