"What to Do with 200,000 Adoptees Overseas"

French-Speaking Korean Adoptee's Open Letter

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From Adoptee to Minister - Fleur Pellerin is the French minister of small- and medium-sized enterprises and the digital economy. The 38-year-old technocrat was adopted when she was only six months old to the French family. South Korea earned a shameful nickname as the "top exporter of orphans", as the number of Korean adoptees overseas has amounted to over 200,000 since the Korean War (1950-53).

As a French-speaking "Ibyangin", Korean-born adoptee, I am a bastard child of Confucius amongst the 200.000 of others alike scattered overseas. I accuse the Neo-confucianist South-Korean society to maintain an ambiguous relationship with the adoption issue.

Korea, amongst the top industrialised country in the World! Korea, member of the G20!

Korea, member of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development)!

Korea, host-country of the Winter Olympics in 2018!
Korea, worldwide top-sellers of cars, lCD screens and phones!

Admittedly, a materially and technologically very well-advanced society, but, at some points, an archaic society in its social-welfare approach.

Korea who, yet never signed the "Hague Convention of 29 May 1993 on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption!"

Korea who, in 2012, keeps 'feeding' the International adoption 'network' with its "bastards children!"

Korea who treats childishly its adult adoptees in quest of their origins!

Korea who asks to their "bastards who never asked for" to bend their backs and accept without complaining what they are being told by the Post-Adoption Services!

You have praised and brought to the limelight of the media: (non exhaustive list)

Senator Paul Shin (US)
Toby Dawson (US): Bronze medal at 2006 Winter Olympics
Denis Sung-Ho Janssens (BE): Guitarist
Sang-Hoon Degeimbre (BE): Belgian cooker-owner of Michelin-Star restaurant "L'Air du Temps"
Jean-Vincent Placé (FR): Elected Senator at the French National Assembly in 2011
Pierre-Sang Boyer (FR): Finalist at Top-Chef reality show in 2011
Fleur Pellerin (FR): Named Minister-Delegate in French President Hollande's Government in 2012
mainly because of their 'blood and genes' although they grew up like their nationals in their adoptive country.

For those few praised by the Korean media,
How many have fallen?
How many made an attempt to their own life?
How many are living-deads in a non-Roots' land ?

Marie-Antoinette would have said to its people who were uprising:
They don't have bread? Then give them sweet bun!

You! "Korea-Antoinette!" You are throwing out to your Confucius' bastards spongy breadcrumbs.

Nay! Que dis-je? Tinsel and 'bling-bling' glitter such as your cruel entertainment industry!

In the light today, in the forgotten darkness tomorrow!

'Motherland' trip-tour? Hangul Scholarship grants?
F-4 visa? Double nationality? Are you expecting to buy your redemption and shame ?

Do you honestly believe that a Korean Passport or a Korean ID card would make us feel more "Korean?"

Do you honestly believe that promoting Korean domestic adoption instead of international adoption will resolve your deeply rooted systemic socio-cultural problem with abandonment of babies?

Who do you think you are luring, except yourself, Ô Korean people!You are pitying us, but we, Confucius' bastards, should pity you!

My heart cries and is full of anger, not for myself but for these thousands of my peers who have to face the daily humiliation and to live the loneliness of their identity.

You, neo-Confucianist people who lives christianism outrageously, watch out because for "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap"

Similar to the Yin-Yang on your Taegukki flag,
Between the single mother and the well-offs,
Between the abandoned-child and the distinguished-family-born, You have chosen the confucianist precepts' rules accordingly to your honorable 'bloodline' ancestors.

Inveigh against children born out of wedlock!
Taboo on sexual education for youth (and less young)!
Outside "family blood" kinship, no salvation!

You, Confucius, I do respect you and hate you at the same time! My ambiguous feelings toward you, Korean Neo-Confucianist, is full of contradictions and schizophrenia.

I do respect the secular society Confucius has dreamed for. A structured society based on study and respect for others, but, a society where each moment of the social life is ruled and which leaves few place to human emotion, passion and failure.

And yet, Confucius, you forgot that the beauty of human being is unpredictable by definition.

Indeed, human being is not a mechanical being who obey without flinching to the rules no matter the 'wisest rule' you may have enacted.

I, a bastard child of Confucius, I accuse Korea of abandoning their orphans for the second time.

To 'kill' their identity a second time by impeding access to their biological relatives.

You, heirs of Confucius who are running after International recognition! This recognition, you'll deserve it the day when you'll respect your own neglected citizens.

The day when you'll defend the widow, the orphan and the single parents!

The day when you'll prioritize the child's protection fundamental rights to live with his/her family, single or not!

The day when you'll be less preoccupied by your 'image' overseas ! Then, that day, with dignity, you'll serve the true Confuceans' humanist values !

You, Korean male who rules this machist society,
Respect and cherish your mother, your sister, your wife or your daughter because they are the future of our World.

You, Korean male who married a woman who has a hidden past of relinquished child, Respect and cherish her because she's stronger than you!

You, Korean Mother who gave up your child,
Whatever the good or bad reason you did that,
Deeply buried in your heart and your mind,
the scar remains open which you cannot escape.

You, single mother who gave birth to a child,
Whatever if it's an expected or unexpected event,
You deserve support and consideration from your compatriots because you are not responsible of the Confucius' inheritance which still affects the today's Korean society.

Korean people, I love you and hate you at the same time! I said !!!

This open letter is dedicated to those thousands adoptees of Korean origin whove seen their life being "destroyed" until they are willing to extinguish their own living-flame!

T Sanghoon Verraes
an Confucius' bastard Ibyangin from Belgium (Europe)