Happy New Year ! Bonne Année ! Buon Anno !

 New sun is rising, followed by the year of the ox, with growing hope, leaving the old one behind the horizon. The year of the Covid-19 pandemic is gone, leaving seeds of hope for the future ahead.

 Covid-19 has created many hardships. It denies our raison d'être by disrupting communications between the social animals. It also places our survival in jeopardy by disrupting daily economic activities. Nevertheless, people in Canada extend helping hands to their neighbors in need, keeping hope for a better future. Various initiatives have been launched to address the impacts of Covid-19, to support communities, and to bring people together in unique and innovative ways. The Korean-Canadians have also contributed much to these ongoing initiatives, highlighting the immense source of strength in Canada’s cultural diversity.

 The Koreans here are descendants of their ancestors with success story of immigration. The ancestors from Northern Manchuria, Central Asia, India, and Chinese continent, went through tough and dangerous passages in land and sea to settle in the Korean Peninsula. They overcame enormous challenges, achieved successful settlement and harmonious integration, and developed rich culture together with prosperity. In the recent century, they achieved another success story of economic and political development along the Han River.

 The Niagara Falls block the passage to other Great Lakes, frustrating human beings and stifling further progress. But the construction of the Welland Canal made many things possible: connection with the rest of the Great Lakes and economic prosperity of the surrounding areas. Though the Covid-19 pandemic disturbs human communication and other activities, the high technology of IT and AI allows us to explore the passage to the future and precipitates the advent of mature information age. Toronto, in competition with Silicon Valley and connected to the world through its ethnic global network, is at the front in pioneering this divine mission.

 In the information age, the physical geopolitics doesn’t apply. Korea now is not the Korea before and Canada is not either. The small Portugal and Netherland were dominant players in the era of maritime activities. Like those Korea, without notice, has become a major player in the information age with enormous potentials. The geopolitical destiny of Canada is getting closer to that of Korea these days. In a sense, the some future of the world looks dependent on how the two countries move forwards. The Koreans in Canada together with the peoples either side of the Pacific are expected to make meaningful contributions to our future in the 21st century, surely based on great potentials accumulated so far.

 I encourage them to keep going and others to pay attention to them, while often saying “we can change the world from Toronto, another Silicon Valley, another Hollywood, original York compared to New York, supported by multinational network”…

Tae-in CHUNG

Consul General in Toronto

Republic of Korea

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