The Incidental Tourist Read online

  Apart from the motor group, Hyundai is involved in steel production and in a variety of innovative engineering projects. Like most leading auto manufacturers, the company is also committed to developing clean and green vehicles, though their focus on hydrogen fuel cell and all-electric cars is more at the lower-cost end of the market. The quality of the Korean automotive product line receives increasingly positive reviews, and they’ve been taking a lot of business away from Japanese and European manufacturers.

  Seoul is a well-organised and clean city, with the most unusual, and immediately obvious, architectural feature being tall apartment towers identified by very large numbers. With 45 per cent of the population having the family name Kim, Lee or Park, and a relative absence of street names, the building numbers are obviously important for finding anybody! The towers look a bit cold and impersonal from a distance but, on that later visit to POSTECH and the Seoul POSCO Center, several of us were entertained briefly (prior to a formal hotel dinner) at a very comfortable apartment in one of those rather forbidding blocks. The view was great, but the most memorable part of that evening was hearing the host’s teenage daughters perform as a classical music duo. That’s not an experience I’ve had elsewhere, and says something substantial about the high aspirations of Korean culture.

  Being driven through the countryside during our earlier historical tour, we saw the gates of the POSCO steel company and signs in English and Korean extolling the virtues of developing a low carbon-emissions economy. The air wasn’t pristine – South Korea has the same problem as Hong Kong with pollution blowing across from the Chinese mainland. The People’s Republic of China claims to be very committed to moving away from coal, but that’s clearly proving to be a most difficult transition.

  Being October and autumn, red peppers were drying everywhere, hanging from the fences, along the roadside, and in any available space. Peppers are (along with onions, garlic and ginger) essential for making Korea’s national dish, Kimchi. For most Westerners, Kimchi is an acquired taste. But it’s soul food for Koreans, and adequate Kimchi supplies were evidently essential for maintaining morale during the violent and massively destructive war between the North and South.

  Though most of us would think of South Koreans as, historically at least, being embedded in one or other Asian religion, that’s more a feature of earlier times. Like Australians, many South Koreans claim no affiliation with organised religion, while declared Christians (about twice as many Protestants as Catholics) outnumber (29 per cent versus 23 per cent) those who identify as Korean Buddhists. And, having lived in the home of Presbyterianism (Edinburgh), it was intriguing to find that two-thirds of South Korea’s Protestants are Presbyterians.

  Presbyterian missionaries from the United States, Australia and Canada began medical and teaching activities in the 1880s then founded a theological seminary (1901) in Pyongyang. The Australians were from Victoria. Presbyterians (like our longest-serving prime minister, RG Menzies) have long been prominent in the Melbourne political, legal, medical and business establishments. Though actively persecuted during the Japanese occupation and suppressed in communist North Korea, the Presbyterian evangelicals of South Korea currently send more missionaries abroad than any country except the United States.

  Of the US Ivy League universities, Princeton was founded (1746) to train Presbyterian pastors and missionaries. The Presbyterians were fully engaged when recently elected (in 1952) President Dwight D Eisenhower helped bring the Korean War to an end with the July 1953 Armistice Agreement dividing Korea into North and South along the 38th parallel. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and his brother Allen (the first civilian CIA Director) both graduated from Princeton and were grandsons of a Presbyterian missionary (to India) and sons of a Presbyterian pastor. Their opposition to ‘Godless communism’ set the course of American foreign policy in Asia for twenty years, till President Richard M Nixon’s 1972 visit to China.

  Living for five years during the 1960s in John Knox’s (the founder of Presbyterianism) town Edinburgh made us very aware of the Presbyterian commitment to universal, affordable education, including higher education. Presbyterianism, education, hard work and wealth generation go together, and the Scots have long been known for their engineering skills. Has this influenced the Korean character, or was that steely Protestant resolve just in accord with the way Koreans naturally see the world? Like the Scots, the Koreans have long had to resist powerful neighbours who sought to inflict their religion, government and traditions. During the 1910–45 occupation, for example, compulsory ‘Japanisation’ marginalised Christianity and tried to impose the Shinto belief system. Abandoned in 1946, what was the Chosun Shinto Shrine is now the site of the principal Presbyterian theological seminary.

  The traditional Eastern way of thinking is, of course, very different, as we experienced when we left South Korea’s Western-like engineering, university and manufacturing culture behind to spend a little time in the hills with relics of an earlier, and continuing Buddhist (from the seventeenth century) tradition. We climbed to view the 4-metre-high, ninth century seated Buddha carved into the limestone cliff at the Golgulsa temple. Familiar from earlier visits to other Asian countries, the elaborately decorated wooden buildings at the Bulguksa Temple and Seokguram Grotto sites featured gold, stone and ceramic representations of the Buddha.

  Nobody struck the massive Bulguksa Temple bell while we were there, but we did hear monks chanting and the gentle tinkling of small hand bells. As with plainsong in the soaring space of a Gothic cathedral, the sense of peace, reflection and wellbeing was a reminder of the Buddhist respect for all life forms. On the one hand we need, as a species, to be much more conscious of that Buddhist imperative to preserve the diversity of life. On the other, we must recognise that, with ever-increasing human numbers, simply embracing non-interventionist Buddhist views can do little to stop the rapid biodiversity loss associated with mindless environmental degradation and climate change. Sustainable solutions will only emerge if we exploit the science-based approaches that emerged concurrent with Europe’s Protestant reformation to understand what’s happening and develop realistic policies and remedies to protect the world’s remaining wild species and wilderness areas.

  Some will be aware that South Korea’s rapid industrialisation has led to the destruction of major, coastal wetlands, though those who live in Western societies can hardly point the finger as our irresponsibility in that regard goes back to much earlier times, and still continues. Democracies like South Korea and Australia that have a good number of smart and well-educated people and are not substantially overpopulated can hopefully develop strategies to ensure the long-term sustainability of complex life forms on this increasingly challenged planet. But, while there are important lessons to be learned from both the Eastern and Western traditions, South Korea, Singapore and Japan also teach us that formulating ideas and policy in the context of the old East versus West stereotypes is essentially useless.

  We are, of course, acutely aware that South Korea faces an unpredictable, and potentially catastrophic threat from the north. As with so much of what bedevils the global politics of today, the disastrous partitioning of the Korean peninsula reflects a poorly thought through political deal made by the great powers, in this case the United States and Russia during the Second World War. We can only hope that what looks at times like a very dangerous play starring two erratic actors, Kim Jong-un and Donald F Trump, will end peacefully. The South Koreans, at least, are doing their utmost to speak with a sane and moderate voice. In January 2018, the encouraging news is that, with the recent implementation of draconian sanctions intended to deter the further development of nuclear weaponry in the north, the two Koreas held diplomatic talks.

  CHAPTER 17

  Ups and downs

  FLYING ON MODERN COMMERCIAL jets is incredibly safe, and much less risky per kilometre travelled than driving a car, or being in a cab controlled by someone who seems convinced that he’s in the Dakar Rally.
Still, I’m an aware though not a nervous passenger. The maximum danger if something goes badly wrong is on take-off. As the plane climbs rapidly away, a sudden loss of power due to, say, hitting a flock of birds that disables both engines leaves pilots with few options. Just departed from New York LaGuardia and north east of the George Washington Bridge, that’s exactly what happened to US Airways flight 1549 piloted by Chesley Sullenberger and Jeffrey Skiles. Flying what was now a very heavy glider, these two heroes managed to save everyone on board by ditching their Airbus A320 in the Hudson River. We’ve all seen the video, and maybe the movie Sully, and just about everyone who flies anywhere has been on an A320 recently. Pilots are superbly trained, with hours in simulators added to their airtime. These are incredibly competent people.

  Though it wouldn’t help with a water landing, there’s no way I’ll remove my shoes before the plane is well and truly in the air. What if things go badly but not so badly that we do have the chance to make a run for it? Then there are other (doubtless futile) habits, like not wearing synthetic clothing that looks as if it might be highly flammable. Quite frankly, if I think about it rationally, such precautions would likely be pretty useless if something really did go wrong, but I’m happy not to have done the experiment! And I do understand that I’m at much greater risk of being killed by a speeding bicycle as I share the dual pedestrian–cycle pavement on my walk to work each morning! Life, and its continuance, is all about probabilities and relative risk. We are fragile and not machines!

  Landing can also have its challenges, especially if the problem occurs after the pilots commit and it’s too late to go round again. And being in a big plane as it descends near mountains has its moments, thought it’s pretty certain that everything is well under control. One place where the tall buildings of a big city and the surrounding hills (elevation of 600 metres and less than five kilometres away) always seemed to be too close was Hong Kong’s old Kai Tak airport. Closed in 1998 with a history of accidents (some due to bad weather), the runway never seemed quite long enough – an issue that was more of a problem on take-off as the high ambient temperatures require jet engines to work harder. I doubt anyone was sorry to see Kai Tak replaced by Chek Lap Kok International which, built out into the water on open, reclaimed land, requires a somewhat longer cab ride to the city. We exchange one risk for another!

  A vivid memory of Kai Tak was arriving on a British Airways flight from what was Bombay (now Mumbai) in India. Flying from Nairobi in Kenya to Sydney in the mid 1980s, I’d missed an Air India/Qantas connection on what turned out to be a 72-hour, rather than a 24-hour trip. Grounded in the old Bombay airport for longer than was desirable, I was rebooked on BA 747 headed for Hong Kong. Decades later, I recall the great sense of relief as, anticipating an imminent escape from the heat of the tarmac, and the dreadful air quality, I climbed the steep stairs to the pristine plane. Then, just as I was boarding, and focused on the open, front door to the big white jumbo, I looked to the right and realised that there were three engines on the port side. A BA 747 had broken down in Hong Kong and this plane was ‘dead heading’ an extra engine bolted inboard under the wing. The flight was a bit slow, but the landing in Kai Tak was impeccable.

  Especially when descending to table-top airports (like Mangalore in India), where the terrain drops away steeply and the runways can be very short, you may, as the plane hits the tarmac, tense a little waiting for the disc brakes on the wheels to bite and the engines to go into reverse thrust. Reverse thrust? If you’re sitting where you can see them on a big, modern jet, you may notice a door sliding back on the side of the engine, then there’s a roar as the pilot hits the throttle and the jet blast is directed forwards. On some of the older and smaller planes, it’s quite dramatic to watch the target reversers (a couple of clam-shaped doors) fold out and essentially block the rear of the engine. With the smaller turboprops and those that still use automobile-like engines, the rapidly rolling aircraft vibrates as the pilot reverses the pitch on the propellers to slow the plane.

  Some years back we would get to see a video from a forward-facing camera as the aircraft took off. That practice stopped after May 1979, following the catastrophic Douglas DC10 crash in Chicago, United States. The DC10 is that three-engined jumbo, with one under each wing and another high up on the tail. A massive bolt sheared on the portside engine, which, at maximum thrust, flipped up, cut back through the wing and then fell from the ascending plane. Fully loaded with fuel, the plane rolled fatally to the left, then into the ground. There was no possibility that anyone could survive. Including the fireball, the whole thing was recorded on video and it has always seemed particularly horrible to think that the passengers were getting a clear picture of the rapidly unfolding disaster. It can be better not to know. The global DC10 fleet was grounded until the accident investigators could work out what had happened.

  As it was the cheapest option available, we’d booked to fly on a Continental Airlines DC10 from Los Angeles via Honolulu to Sydney. The aim was to visit family and, in the process, give a seminar or two and catch up with colleagues at institutions where immunology was a significant focus. With its DC10 fleet out of the air, Continental rebooked us and we flew out on a Qantas Boeing 747. Many airlines, including Qantas, did not buy DC10s and, after the horrific Chicago crash, there was some discussion that the DC10 was a rather inferior knock-off from the design of another three-engined jumbo, the Lockheed L1011, which, flown by British Airways and Delta, was a very comfortable and safe aircraft.

  By the time we were at the end of our Australian visit and due to fly back to our then home in Philadelphia, the Continental DC10s were again in the air and, in the certainty that the plane would have been checked very thoroughly, we felt quite safe as we set off across the Pacific. Continental wasn’t an airline we’d flown internationally before and, considering what had happened in Chicago, we were a bit disconcerted when the first meal they served on the long flight was accompanied by a little printed prayer. Evidently the airline’s owners were religious and this was normal practice.

  Over the years we flew a lot on the DC10s and their successor, the MD10, as both Northwest and KLM airlines used them on the only direct flight between Memphis in the United States (where we moved to in 1988) and Europe. The city lost that convenient connection via Schiphol, Amsterdam, when Delta took over Northwest in 2008 and, redirecting traffic to their home base at Atlanta, Memphis was downgraded from being a major hub to the status of a regional feeder airport. Other airlines have come in to take up some of the slack, but it’s been a major downer for Memphis. Having an international airport makes an enormous contribution to the economic health of any big city. International business people like to fly direct to their ultimate destination and, when vacationing travellers are connecting locally via a hub, they may decide to stop-off for a day or two and check out the local sites rather than just change planes and fly on.

  Still, Memphis remains, after Chek Lap Kok (Hong Kong), the world’s second busiest freight airport. The reason: Memphis is the birthplace of Fred Smith, the founder of Federal Express (FedEx), the package airline. Operating twenty-four hours a day, and a much better all-weather airport than Atlanta (less subject to high winds), many of the big mail order businesses have warehouses in Memphis, while planes from myriad destinations bring stuff in then carry other stuff out after sorting in the enormous FedEx facility.

  The biggest carrier globally in terms of freight tonnage, FedEx has the fourth largest fleet of any airline, ranging from single-engined Cessna Caravans, to DC10s, MD10s and MD11s. The DC10s (which are slowly being replaced by the more efficient two-engined jumbos) aren’t the biggest planes you will see lined up on Memphis airport. That distinction goes to the massive military transports (Lockheed C5 Galaxy) of the 164th Airlift Wing. Most of the Galaxy flights to Iraq, Afghanistan and other places of continuing conflict are flown by FedEx pilots who are also part-time officers in Tennessee’s Air National Guard.

  What happened to a FedEx
DC10 in 1999 showed what a resilient aircraft this is – a conclusion reinforced by their excellent long-term safety record. With severe, though apparently underappreciated psychological problems, and gripped by despair at the knowledge his job as a FedEx pilot was soon to be terminated, Stanford graduate and former Navy flyer Auburn Calloway hitched a ride on a DC10 freighter loaded with electronic equipment heading from Memphis (where we were living at the time) to San Jose. Hidden in a guitar case, he carried a spear gun and a hammer that he used to attack the three-man crew (two pilots and a flight engineer) shortly after take-off. My memory was that Calloway intended to crash the plane back into the massive FedEx sorting facility, but the investigation evidently concluded that his aim was to fly on for thirty minutes till what had happened was erased from the black box data recorder, then bring the plane down so that his family could claim on an insurance policy.

  Severely injured, the captain Dave Sanders and flight engineer Andy Patterson tried to subdue Calloway, while co-pilot Jim Tucker did his best to throw the attacker off balance by, among other extreme manoeuvres, putting the ‘heavy’ into a 850 kilometre per hour dive (way beyond the plane’s tested tolerance) and flying it almost upside down. Remarkably, they got down safely. Calloway was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison, but Sanders, Patterson and Tucker were so severely injured that they could not be certified to fly again commercially. The company no longer allows either their own employees, or anyone else, to deadhead. Upgraded to MD10 status, which removes the flight engineer (Patterson likely saved the day for Tucker and Sanders, and the plane for FedEx), the thirty plus-year-old jumbo remains (till 2018) part of the FedEx fleet.