Poet, Democracy Activist Becomes Professor
By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
Kim Ji-ha, a poet and environmentalist, was appointed chair professor of Dongguk University, the university announced Wednesday.
Kim, the chief director of the Life and Peace Foundation, will teach ``life and environment.’’
The University was attracted to Kim’s work, which caused social respect toward life and green environment. ``He will apply Buddhist’s naturalism to his ideas in his lecture,’’ a spokesman of the Buddhist foundation-run school said.
Kim graduated from Seoul National University and began his career as poet in 1969.
He is known for raising a strong voice against the dictatorial government in 1970s. He was imprisoned after the publication of ``Five Thieves,’’ a parody of corrupt politicians, government officials and businessmen. Nevertheless, he did not stop writing and in 1974, he was court-martialed and sentenced to death.
The news spread around the world and both national and international efforts rallied to mitigate his punishment to a life imprisonment. He was pardoned and rehabilitated in 1984.
Recently, he has dedicated himself to the ``ideas for life’’- an ideology that rejects the survival of the fittest as the basic rule of existence. Instead, he proposes a life of mutual cooperation and survival rooted in the belief that all life forms are fundamentally related and dependent to each other.