Talk concert with Charles Hay, the British Ambassador to Korea
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- Writer 커뮤니케이션팀
- 보도일자 2016-04-06
On March 23 (Wed), a talk concert was held with Ambassador Charles Hay at our university’s Centennial Hall’s Shinhan Bank Hall. This concert that was jointly organized by our university’s Korea Center for Digital Humanities at SMU (Kim Hyeong-ryul, Professor and Head of Department of History & Culture) and Asia Institute was a time for Ambassador Charles Hay and Sookmyung people to share opinions on global issues such as climate changes, anti-corruption, and antibiotic resistance, based on the theme “UK:KOREA - Facing Common Global Challenges.”
Born in Scotland, Ambassador Hay studied Korean for one year in London and Seoul, and he is a pro-Korean who has shown extraordinary love for the country as to even have experience homestay at a Korean household for three weeks. After his service as the Head of EU Economic Affairs and as the British Deputy Chief of Mission in Spain, he began his post in Korea in February.
In his opening message, Ambassador Hay emphasized the long history of alliance between Britain and Korea. He mentioned the cooperative relationship between the two countries during the Ebola crisis in West Africa in 2013, the help from the Korean navy in the evacuation operation of British people in Libya in 2014, partnership in the fight against pirates in the Indian Ocean, among others. He also emphasized that “such friendly relations do not happen overnight” and “the cooperation with Korea and peace in the East Asia are few of the highest priorities of Britain.”
Concerning the issue of climate changes, Ambassador Hay said, “Countries around the world decided to participate in the reduction of greenhouse gases through the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference that was held in December” and expected that “the accumulation of practices such as the recent energy aid agreement between the British Ambassy, Hampyeong County, and KT will contribute to the reduction of carbon emissions.”
Ambassador Hay also concentrated on the issues of anti-corruption and antibiotic resistance. He said, in order to prevent global economic losses from corruption, international communities such as G20 must share anti-corruption initiatives. He also pointed out health crisis facing the international communities resulting from the emergence of bacterias that are immune to antibiotics cannot be overlooked. He added, “The MERS scare that was experienced in Korea last year shows how challenging it is to handle such health risks.”
Meanwhile, this talk concert was held as a part of the “Dialogue with World Scholars” series that is jointly planned by the Korea Center for Digital Humanities at SMU, Asia Institute, and EBS, where internationally renowned scholar in East Asian studies, Professor Ezra Vogel at Harvard University, is planned to be invited through the Google Hangout (online video chat) in April. The Dialogue with World Scholars is planning to continue on and offline discussions between world scholars and Korean college/high school students on international issues. Interested Sookmyung people can apply by visiting the Korea Center for Digital Humanities at SMU (Sae Him Hall Room No. 204).