[Oh, Korea-㉗] Madame Fleur Pellerin
[Oh, Korea-㉗] Madame Fleur Pellerin
  • 김정남(본지 고문, 전 청와대 사회교육문화수석)
  • 승인 2023.01.07 07:42
  • 댓글 0
이 기사를 공유합니다

By Jeongnam Kim
(Former Senior Presidential Secretary for Education·Culture·Society, World Korean News advisor)

Fleur Pellerin, who was born in 1973 and adopted away to a family in France when she was only six months old, 2012 became a Cabinet minister in charge of small and medium businesses and digital economy. According to the birth records her French parents received, her Korean name is Kim Jong-suk. The Korean media competed with each other to run stories about her for the fact that she is a Korean.

Of course it is extremely surprising that she became an Cabinet minister in France, known as more closed to the Asian people than in the United States. It was undoubtedly a very fresh news even for the French people so much so that a French broadcast station called her "a new face representing the variety of the French culture."

However, no help was offered to her from Korea or any Korean people to help her become what she is today. Thanks to her foster parents who gave her such a beautiful name meaning a flower and gave her all kinds of support, she was able to grow up in a good manner.

She had passed the Baccalaureate, the French examination for the admission to a college, two years earlier than other students, and she graduated from the Grands Ecole in the economic field and School of Political Science, Paris, before she finished her courses of the National School of Administration, a course which produces the high-echelon government officials in France.

And from the age of 26, she was in charge of the culture and visual audio media in the Board of Audit and Inspection, the post that only the top graduates were assigned to. Her advance to the political world came when she took part in the presidential campaign for the Socialist Part as a speech writer for the presidential candidate, and she was until recently the president of the '21st Century Club,' the group of the French elite women politicians.

She doesn't regard herself as an Asian. She says that she had hard time as an adopted child but that she has lived with thanks for the stroke of a good luck in the midst of misfortunes. "My look is Asian, but my way of thinking and behavior is French," she stressed. Such a mention of her makes us feel ashamed for our wishes to take pride for her Korean-ness. I want to ask a question if it is okay for us to brag to the world she is a Korean, whereas in fact we are the one who abandoned her in the first place. We'd rather feel guilty first, hadn't we?

It is shameful that we are the top in the OECD member nations exporting orphans abroad. In 2010, 36 percent of children adopted in the United States is Korean. There are quite a few children among the adopted orphans who became a social outcast for some of them are unable to adapt themselves to the social environment and there are some extreme cases in which some ended up suicidal.

The success story of Fleur Pelleran makes us feel rather ashamed than proud first, and it makes us think of the varied problems arising from the overseas adoption.



댓글삭제
삭제한 댓글은 다시 복구할 수 없습니다.
그래도 삭제하시겠습니까?
댓글 0
댓글쓰기
계정을 선택하시면 로그인·계정인증을 통해
댓글을 남기실 수 있습니다.

  • 서울특별시 송파구 올림픽로35가길 11(한신잠실코아오피스텔) 1214호
  • 대표전화 : 070-7803-5353 / 02-6160-5353
  • 팩스 : 070-4009-2903
  • 명칭 : 월드코리안신문(주)
  • 제호 : 월드코리안뉴스
  • 등록번호 : 서울특별시 다 10036
  • 등록일 : 2010-06-30
  • 발행일 : 2010-06-30
  • 발행·편집인 : 이종환
  • 청소년보호책임자 : 이석호
  • 파인데일리 모든 콘텐츠(영상,기사, 사진)는 저작권법의 보호를 받은바, 무단 전재와 복사, 배포 등을 금합니다.
  • Copyright © 2024 월드코리안뉴스. All rights reserved. mail to wk@worldkorean.net
ND소프트