Nature has a unique music
and it is home to everyone. Nature can make the most delicious cocktail out of anything
you give to it. It is an absolute solvent that can dissolve anything from
something as material as “you” to something as immaterial as “your soul”. In my
case there is only one place where I feel more relaxed than my bed. Make me sit
in the lap of nature amidst the music that it plays and you will find me culminating
to the contentment. My soul, body and nature would blend perfectly with each
other creating a music of its own.
The feeling was ineffable
amidst the soothing breezes, chirping birds, rustling leaves, glittering lake, colorful hills, smiling people and an endless view of the most effortless
existence. Words would fall short. I wish, some day, prominent linguistics from
all across the world would sit together at a similar place to coin a word which
could express the most intrinsic feelings of human soul.
It was something more
than just a field trip. Before going to the Gwangyang city and the
southern bay area, I had imagined a place as cruel as an industrial area. I had
imagined a polluted, dry, ruthless and a withered area which would cunningly
hide the nuisance and injustice it has done to the nature. But I was proved
wrong. I was amazed by the innovation, management and state-of-the-art
technology of POSCO Steel plant. It was largely automated in order to protect
the workers from such a high temperature where Iron is melted and cooled. The
level of safety for the workers in the plant could be clearly seen by their
organized and carefully designed operational area. It has some of the world’s
biggest furnaces and the production process was quite green and innovative. They
have planted as many as 6 million trees inside the 24 KM sq. area and produce
their own electricity. I was also surprised to learn about their byproduct
management skills. They have separate allied factories in the same area where
they utilize their byproducts. They run one of the best schools of Korea in
their city for the children of their workers and have a cinema hall inside
their premises. Their residential area can house around 14,000 people. They
have built an extremely wonderful bridge. Other than this they have built their
own port and they don’t use the government port.
POSCO is one of the
few companies in the world which has a separate organization to look into the
social service in the field of education. This organization is called “T.J Park
Foundation”. The foundation works pan Asia and Africa and is committed towards
the creation and excellence of the global leaders. In the world where education
has largely been commoditized despite of the fact that there are still more
than 100 million children who do not have access to education and those who have
access to higher education still accounts for the lower value of double digits,
there exists some entities like POSCO that understands the value of education and
helps the students financially to achieve their dream. If the duo of Asia and
Africa has to develop then it has to expand the opportunities for higher
education. POSCO has significantly contributed towards this crucial
requirement.
In our field trip
sponsored by the POSCO T.J Park foundation, we learned not only about the modus
operandi of POSCO but we also got the chance to visit Korean film set and
Suncheon wetland area which was again a beautifully designed innovative
tourist place. It was really a soothing experience to visit places out of the
hustle and bustle of city life and find some time to be lost in the beauty of
nature simultaneously enjoying its perfect co-existence with human innovation.
However, all of this
could not have been possible without the able management of the most amazing
and beautiful lady, “Ms. June Kim”, under whose supervision we had such a
wonderful, comfortable and cozy trip. I would like to extend my heartfelt
thanks to her and her team and to all the students who went for the field trip and would wish them all the very best for future.
“This article is dedicated to Ms. June Kim”
Kislay Kumar
Sogang University
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