Читать книгу The Power of the Warrior - Néstor Galarraga - Страница 15

1 La Argentinidad refers to the essence or quality of what is distinctive of the Argentine people, their typical features.

Like in many other countries, during the founding and expansion process of Taekwon-Do, on the sunny morning of June 22 of 1967, three Koreans —Han Chang Kim aged 29, Nam Sung Choi aged 31 and Kwang Duk Chung aged 18— arrived at the port of Buenos Aires, Argentine Republic, in a 28.000 tons Dutch cargo ship called Boesvian. Kim had a BA in International Relations, a man culturally and academically educated; he spoke a little Spanish because he had picked that language from the choices of foreign languages at the university (he says that he does not speak it well because to master a language you need to be born in the country of origin). He had been promoted to 4th Dan category by General Choi Hong Hi, but his instructor was Master John Chan Kim, who taught him the ITF techniques in the General´s house. The destination was Argentina; the mission, to promote Taekwondo in South America, which he achieved beyond the expectations. He was the most graduated of the three and the one with the most ascendancy, but he always recognized G. M. Choi, Nam Sung and G. M. Chung, Kwan Duk as his peers and fellow travelers, sharing with them the label of pioneers. However, the Taekwon-Do instructor, ITF style, was G. M. Kim; he was the only one who knew the ways.

There are two curious facts that I would like to point out. The first is that G. M. Kim had no visa to stay in Argentina, although that was his final destination. When they arrived in Rio de Janeiro, his desperation was so evident that an older man approached him and asked him what the matter was. He was a well-travelled man who knew the migration and customs authorities; as a result, by the time they were leaving Brazil —particularly the Port of Santos— Kim already had the visa stamped in his passport. Mrs. María Barranco de Grasso was expecting him in Buenos Aires and Kim recognizes her as his second mother. The Pastor of Mrs. Maria´s Church had arranged their introduction, a man who worked trying to find proper homes for immigrants coming from Korea during those years. They lived three years in her house in the eastern side of Banfield, and she treated them as if they had been their own children. The second fact to be mentioned is that Kim was not the first taekwondoin to arrive in South America; Myung Duk Sun arrived in Paraguay in 1966. But his attempts to promote the discipline were quite limited because, soon after his arrival, he focused on promoting the religious movement called the Unification Church (the Moon sect). There are two original and emblematic Korean flags: one is under the possession of Master Omar Reeberg, the one Kim brought from Korea; and the other, the one that Kim historically had in his gym, is today in Master Marcelo Minguila´s gym.

Argentina incorporated Taekwon-Do rapidly as part of its culture. Already in 1975, the pioneer masters had developed a structure with more than 100 instructors dedicated to teaching the discipline and delivering ITF Taekwon-Do classes to more than 10.000 students in the country (according to the prologue of the program from the First ITF Taekwon-Do National Tournament of October 11 and 12 of 1975).

Up until 1971, there was only one Taekwon-Do and it was ITF but, in August of that year, due to irreconcilable differences with the South Korean dictatorship, the International Federation met and it was decided that the ITF headquarters were to be moved to Canada, and General Choi was politically exiled from that country. Canada was chosen because Taekwon-Do was highly developed there and because, in 1976, the Olympics were going to be organized in Montreal and that was the movie that played in General Choi´s head regarding ITF Taekwon-Do: to reach the maximum international sporting scenario. Nobody would have imagined that General Choi would die long after without seeing ITF Taekwon-Do turned into an Olympic sport or himself proclaimed as true founder of a discipline that gave his country so many satisfactions, placing Korea on the map, worldwide acknowledging and positioning it within different areas of the arts, culture and sports. No even the last samurai in Japan, Saigo Takamori, achieved this much; he was considered a traitor for those who deviously advised the emperor on how to transform Japan. Yet, some years after his death, he was recognized by the emperor and remembered with honors by the Japanese people as a tragic hero, misinterpreted by the government. Today he is considered by the majority of the historians as the authentic last samurai.

In 1972, as Korea could not control ITF, it decided to create, in six months, a new sport with different regulations but with the same name. They created the World Taekwondo Federation WT and elected an agent of the KCIA (Korean Central Intelligence Services), who was working in the United States, Kim Ung Yong, as president of this new organization. As from that moment, the WT was economically and strategically supported by the United States and a deliberate race to get to the Olympics started and pushed ITF aside, but the true objective was to crush Choi and to steal his ITF instructors (ITF stands for International Taekwon-Do Federation). As of 1972, the year were a new sport was created by Korea by using an existing name, ITF has been used worldwide to name a style and to distinguish it from WT; however, it is actually more than that: ITF is probably the strongest cultural expression that Korea has had outside its borders.

The ITF conducted the first Taekwon-Do World Championship in Montreal, Canada, on October 4 and 5 of 1974, with the participation of 450 competitors from 27 countries. From that moment onwards, consecutive world championship competitions were organized every three years. However, on July 17 of 1980, during Session 83, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) recognized WT Taekwondo and invited them to participate in the Seoul 1988 Olympic Games, and this was a catastrophe for General Choi and all ITF Taekwon-Do followers. As from that moment and despite ITF Taekwon-Do being the original discipline, practiced in more than 100 countries, ITF taekwondoins have been persecuted, victims of all kinds of sport-related discrimination and officially ignored by all the international sports federations, every time, and this goes on up to the present time, even when comparing ITF with WT —as I have said countlessly when asked about it— is like comparing Basketball to Volleyball. I remember clearly the letter sent by General Choi to the IOC before WT was declared an Olympic sport. Let us observe closely the details of this historic document:

September 29 of 1981

To: Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee

Subject: Why should the International Tae Kwon Do Federation be recognized by the International Olympic Committee?

Initially, I began an analytic study of the Japanese and Korean martial arts, with the intention to promote health, which is the most precious asset of humanity, and develop power to preserve freedom and justice, thus contributing with peace in the world; also, with the purpose of leaving a noble spiritual legacy and advanced techniques for the generations to come.

Thirty five years have gone by; I have dedicated my youth to the creation and distribution of Tae Kwon Do throughout the world.

However, I want to point out that the purpose of this letter is not just a claim to be given credit for the creation of Tae Kwon Do, which is under my possession.

I am morally and emotionally bound to speak against the abuse the dictatorship exerts over this art as its political instrument. I cannot ignore the degradation of its techniques and its image having been tainted by imitators.

Today, I want to provide the truth to you, behind which it can be found a cruel battle fought by my dear students during the past ten years to keep its orthodoxy.

As I explained in the first report, I started investigating this martial art in March of 1946 and on April 11 1955 I named it Tae Kwon Do. With the consent of Korea and nine other Nations, I founded the International Tae Kwon Do Federation (I.T.F.), a worldwide organization based in Seoul, Korea, on March 22 1966. Since then, with the aid of the advocates of the martial arts, in 1967 Tae Kwon Do was already spread across approximately fifty nations, forty of which were national Tae Kwon Do associations that became its affiliate members, including the Korea Tae Kwon Do Association (K.T.A.).

Unfortunately, the former president Park Chung Hee, who once was my comrade-in-arms, due to his thirst for power, appropriated this martial art. By means of my friends and intermediaries, Park constantly demanded my cooperation, but each time he was faced with my rejection. It is well known that this was the beginning of an opened hostility towards me, personally, and towards the International Tae Kwon Do Federation.

Then, one could ask why Park was so anxious to obtain my cooperation, since I was neither a political person nor his best friend. It was obvious that he wanted to have access to the International Tae Kwon Do Federation, which was an organization set forth nationally and internationally that could serve as a powerful muscle in favor of his dictatorship. I could exemplify my statement by mentioning that Park used Tae Kwon Do instructors to kidnap fifty Korean students and teachers that were studying in western Germany and Europe in 1967. This kidnapping event was known as the “East Berlin Incident”.

Naturally, it would have been intelligent to cooperate with Park, if I would have ambitioned power and money. But for someone like me, who valued Tae Kwon Do above my life and my family, it was impossible to do something like that.

In retaliation, Park appointed a “complication control committee” as an attempt to create an internal fragmentation between the International Tae Kwon Do Federation and the Korea Tae Kwon Do Association. Ironically, the committee´s decision in my favor forced Park to use his last resort; he changed the President of the Korea Tae Kwon Do Association, Mr. Yong Chae Kim, for Mr. Un Yong Kim, who is currently the President of the World Federation (WTF). This happened before the 1970 presidential elections.

I still held out some hope over Un Young Kim, in view of the fact that the president of the Korea Tae Kwon Do Association would become the vice-president of the International Tae Kwon Do Federation and the president of the International Tae Kwon Do Federation would become honorary chairman of the board of the Korea Tae Kwon Do Association. Moreover, Un Young Kim´s rank was lower than mine and a close friend, and I trusted he would not cause any additional harm to a situation that was already quite dangerous. But my innocent intentions of finding a better solution based on our friendship was like “a lamb expecting mercy from a vicious coyote” within an amoral, unjust and inhumane dictatorship.

As it was foretold, political pressure escalated daily and, soon, I would have to choose between two alternatives: to succumb to injustice or to be sentenced to life imprisonment. It was under these dire circumstances that I decided to leave Korea, not because I was afraid to lose my life, but because I wanted to protect Tae Kwon Do and to follow my dream of spreading its seed throughout the world, without distinction of any kind, such as ideologies, religion, nationality or race, with the hope that this art could, one day, become an Olympic event.

Only my wife knew that in January of 1972 I secretly abandoned my homeland, Korea, and I headed to Canada, where I knew no one, to start a new life in support of the International Tae Kwon Do Federation.

When Park knew of his failure to keep me in Korea with the purpose of controlling the I.T.F. instructors and the Tae Kwon Do organizations through me, he ordered to take my only son and one of my daughters as hostages, as an attempt to force my return to Korea. It is not necessary to say that this was intolerable torture and a shock for me but, in tears, I announced that I was prepared to lose my children to save Tae Kwon Do.

No matter how inhumanly powerful Parker was, in the end, he was forced to accept that I would never go back to Korea. Thus, Park established in Korea the World Tae Kwon Do Federation (W.T.F.), using a great amount of money and power to bribe and recruit I.T.F. instructors, with the purpose of trying to kidnap me. Furthermore, he confined faithful Tae Kwon Do instructors and threatened their families and friends. Also, the World Tae Kwon Do Federation falsely announced the fragmentation of the International Tae Kwon Do Federation, by saying that no member of the World Federation was going to be illegible for the Olympics until Tae Kwon Do was accepted as an Olympic event.

Esteemed members of the International Olympic Committee:

Please, take into account that, to this day, the South Korean government is still trying to destroy the International Tae Kwon Do Federation, by gathering all the possible sources in the world as South Korean delegations abroad, news media, commercial bureaus and Tae Kwon Do personalities.

Conversely, our International Tae Kwon Do Federation is a non-profit organization with no strength that is suffering. However, I am proud to inform that the International Tae Kwon Do Federation still has skilled, legitimate, patriotic and brilliant instructors around the world, in the West and, also, in the socialist nations, and they are still securing the spreading of Tae Kwon Do.

If you need proof of all the information abovementioned or you have any questions, please, do not hesitate to contact me.

It is not a happy occasion for me to reveal the unjust, cowardly and brutal activities of the South Korean government, represented in some members of the World Tae Kwon Do Federation. For the sake of millions of faithful Tae Kwon Do students and its eternal future, I ask you to understand my viewpoint.

Together with the members of the International Tae Kwon Do Federation, I was astonished to find out that the World Tae Kwon Do Federation was recognized at the 83rd Session of the International Olympic Committee. The World Tae Kwon Do Federation is not based on the sport but it is rather a tool used by a political movement and it promotes the Chinese Palgwae martial arts (Chinese martial art) or Taegeuk (Japanese Karate), instead of Tae Kwon Do and, “as a tenant begs a landlord”, the World Tae Kwon Do Federation was recognized by the International Olympic Committee under the false name of Tae Kwon Do, something I would have never expected.

The International Tae Kwon Do Federation is the originator of Tae Kwon Do, with a long history and having as members even some socialist nations. For this reason, I am curious to know how it is possible that the members of the International Olympic Committee, who manage and are responsible for the athletes in the world, could acknowledge the World Tae Kwon Do Federation when, actually, it is the International Tae Kwon Do Federation the organization known worldwide to “promote physical and moral qualities, in order to build a better and more peaceful world and to introduce Tae Kwon Do students to a brotherhood throughout the whole world”.

We can see the destructive intention of the World Tae Kwon Do Federation when it falsely announced that Tae Kwon Do was accepted as one of the Olympic events by the International Olympic Committee. This proves that the real motive of the World Tae Kwon Do Federation is to recruit instructors from the International Tae Kwon Do Federation above all else.

Dear friends:

Like the famous story of King Salomon, who devised a way to detect the true mother of the child, by allowing the two women to pull from the arms of the infant, understand this is what I feel about Tae Kwon Do, when I say it is being used by a fake Tae Kwon Do organization.

It is for you a wise decision to judge which of the two organizations adjusts to the real Olympic spirit and to the original Taekwon-Do morality. Thus, before concluding, I urge you, in the name of the Tae Kwon Do family around the world, to arrive to a legitimate conclusion based on the principle of the sporting spirit and the genuine intention of humanity to protect the weak and to avoid resentment.

Thank you very much.

Choi Hong Hi

I.T.F. President

It was, indeed, a heartfelt letter with beautiful metaphors but, nonetheless, ineffective; on July of 1980, WT was recognized by the IOC.

The first WT Taekwon-Do entity established in Argentina was created and directed by Ambassador Edgard Pérez Colman, who was acting as Argentine ambassador in South Korea and left the embassy to work for WT in our country —something quite striking!—, using the political power granted by the military government in power. On July 20 of 1978, the Argentine Taekwondo Association (AAT-WT) and, two years later, pursuant to Resolution 1381 of the Provincial Direction of Legal Entities of the Province of Buenos Aires, it obtained its legal status on November 7 of 1980. Three years later, during the Constitutional Assembly of December 16 of 1983, an amendment to the name and structure was achieved, giving birth to the current “Argentine Taekwondo Confederation” (CAT, in Spanish), as the only and exclusive institution governing Taekwon-Do in the Argentine Republic (this resolution made no ITF-WT distinction). From that moment onwards, WT increased its efforts and dedicated itself to systematically persecute ITF.

Pérez Colman led the entity until 1991 and it is important to mention that, from his executive position, he kept a close watch on all the movements of the institution, being honorary president up until his last days (he died on March 11 of 2016). He was succeeded by Rogelio Lomazzo, from 1992 until 1998, then, Héctor Olivero took over, from 1998 until 1999, and Julio Cassanello, from 1999 until 2005, who had to leave office because he was elected president of the Argentine Olympic Committee. Julio Casanello, a soccer man, former mayor of Quilmes district during the military reorganization process. Why was he hiding behind Taekwon-Do? The answer is quite simple: the CAT was a political instrument that he could run at will and after 28 years managing the Argentine Olympic Committee, Coronel Antonio Rodríguez needed a successor and that man was Casanello, a man from the military reorganization process, from its kidney, figuratively speaking. Surprisingly, the president of the Taekwon-Do Argentine Confederation (the last sport to reach Olympic status), Julio Casanello, became the head of the Argentine Olympic Committee (COA, in Spanish), by winning with 26 votes a run-off against the second candidate, Mario Moccia, with 25 votes.

The CAT brought together a few Taekwon-Do entities and a lot of political power, collected during the military reorganization process. Just remember that the Argentine ambassador in South Korea ended up working for Koreans in Argentina. Said entity has quite a violent history that goes from leaders and controllers being threatened to death, books of records being stolen, meetings with the management committee where certain members were armed and other meetings that ended up with fist fights and leaders being sent to the intensive care unit of a hospital due to the severity of their injuries2; justice intervened, much too late, as it happens in the best Hollywood movies, but it did. Although, strangely, after such an institutional scandal, on September of 2008, an old character known mainly by the old taekwondoins from both styles reappeared: the former ambassador Edgard Pérez Colman3.

2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YWfRHCnnJ8

3 http://taekwondo-wtf-argentina.blogspot.com.ar/2008/09/la-cat-intervenida-argentina.html

In the meantime, luckily, the former mayor of Quilmes district in times of the military dictatorship, Julio Casanello, had to leave his hideout (the mothers of the Plaza de Mayo were the ones playing hide and seek and spotted him) and he was forced to present his “unwavering” resignation to the COA presidency. He left the Olympic Committee saying it was all a political and media operation staged against him. He knew he had to escape; otherwise he would end up in jail. How a man with such undemocratic precedents managed to lead the Argentine Taekwon-Do Confederation in the first place and, then, the Argentine Olympic Committee is inexplicable. But this is one of the clearest examples showing that the CAT was purely a political instrument.

Setting aside the affairs pertaining to the CAT exclusively, the fundamental objective of the WT throughout its history was to haunt ITF Taekwon-Do instructors, removing us from the places of education, sending letters or making calls in the name of the Armed Forces claiming that the places where we taught were seedbeds of extremists and that our activities were financing subversion in Central America, and that their recommendation was to shut our activity down. This completely insane nonsense could have cost us our lives. The common conduct of the time was to bust any venture stemming from ITF by systematically using political power to prevent us from connecting with the institutions that regulated the sport at a national level. I personally organized the most important ITF Taekwon-Do events in Argentina throughout history, including the epic ´99 World Championship, the 11th world championship in the Argentine Republic. It was the biggest ITF event in history and it took place in three locations simultaneously: the emblematic Luna Park in the city of Buenos Aires, the Club Atlético Provincial in the city of Rosario and the Polideportivo in the city of Mar del Plata. Three exceptional stadiums where 911 athletes and 50 teams from 75 countries competed, accompanied by more than 4000 people that came from other countries to witness the event which, over the course of 11 days, added up 50.000 spectators and it was televised for more than 100 countries through the network Fox Sports International.

Every time I went to the National Secretariat of Sports seeking for any kind of assistance, I hit a wall, always the same story; they all said the same thing: «the National Secretariat of Sports supports solely the federated sport…». I always remember one time, during the organization of the ´99 World Championship, after running around in circles from one state entity to the other, I ended up in the National Secretariat of Sports asking for help and, as a favor, the connected me with the president of the Argentine WT Taekwondo Confederation, who told me to go ahead with the world championship but silently. Then, I asked if they could not give me a hand, many countries where coming, I said, more than 70; I told him that I was overwhelmed by the organization of the event and that I knew they had a lot of structural elements that meant no money to them, but were gold to me. He said no, absolutely no way, we were not part of the federated sport. Then, with certain sarcasm, I said we needed a national flag, I asked if they could provide me with one Argentine flag and he replied: «not even a flag and don´t try to be smart…».

I also met with Daniel Scioli a few years later, for a couple of times, thinking things would be different; this time the reason was the 2002 World Youth Championship, and he was the Tourism and Sports Director, yet the answer was the same… «There is nothing we can do; the National Secretariat of Sports supports only the federated sport…». A terribly stupid answer folks repeated over and over again, but they did not have the slightest idea about what they are saying, because the purpose of the National Secretariat of Sports is not to support the federated sports exclusively. That is just an arrangement, a marriage, so to speak, between the NSS and the COA. Nonetheless, that is not the most astonishing thing; I think the most amazing fact about this situation is to find people holding state positions and speaking on behalf of sports, having no clue about what they are speaking of; they did not even know the sports laws.

Luckily, the time where the Argentine WT Taekwondo Confederation and the Argentine Olympic Committee were managed by military men and characters connected with the military dictatorship ended up for good. However, to us, ITF taekwondoins, nothing has changed so far, since argentine sports continue being managed the same way; it is a closed circle that cannot be accessed because no one is allowed in. A spurious business managed by a minority.

I do not want to make a complaint about the efforts and promotion of WT, which is a consolidated Olympic sport with its students and followers in many countries and, in our country, a well-deserved Olympic champion. However, while we share the same name and origin, we are two completely different sports. My claim has always been focused on the official recognition we deserve as a sport.

Be that as it may, as of 2010, there has been an paradigmatic change in the Argentine Taekwondo Confederation: its managing board set up a meeting with us —its executive president, Mr. Ricardo Torres, the vice-president, Mr. Ignacio Gontan and several members of the directive commission were present— they needed institutional assistance and that was the reason they had summoned us, quite ironic, they were trying to understand their own mistakes, to copy some aspects of our organization, given its sporting growth and development. We kindly agreed to meet with Master Alejandro Yapuncich and, for the first time in 30 years in a CAT meeting, members of both organizations sat to talk about sporting policies.

Moreover, we celebrate and feel very proud of Sebastián Eduardo Crismanich, born in the province of Corrientes and Taekwondo person, who has won the only Argentine golden medal in the London 2012 Olympic Games. Yet it really draw my attention that the Olimpia de Oro (Olimpia Award) was given to the prizefighter Sergio “Maravilla” Martínez, WBC middleweight champion, who was chosen as the best Argentine sportsman of 2012, by the Association of Sports Journalists, at the Rural Society of Palermo. I do not want to make a value of judgment but Martinez’s popularity, the sponsors (always tipping the scale a little bit…) or even sports journalists might have forgotten the value that an Olympic medal won in an individual event has and, at the time, they might have not been aware of the fact that Argentina has not won a medal of that kind in 64 years… A crying shame… Luckily, the captain of the Argentina men´s national basketball team, Luis Scola, handed over to Crismanich the waving of the flag in the Olympics closing ceremony. It was a grand gesture from Scola, but he did what he had to; Sebastián had won the first Olympic medal in an individual event in 64 years. And he should have also been awarded the Olimpia de Oro as well.