9 Jul, 2006 in
Asia-Israel connections . Tags:
Fili's world
Culture & Travel – China, Hong Kong and Taiwan
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Somebody's knocking on my door, and my dog – who rose back from the dead – was going mad. I got up, opened the door, and saw an Asian girl standing there. You might say, that of all things I expected to see when I opened the door – this was certainly not one of them. Neat, I thought to my self, I don't have to come up to them anymore – they just come up to my house now.
She looked a bit confused, so I started with my usual Asian greeting of "hey! I'm fiLi, where are you from?". Her English seemed to be a bit off, not to mention her Hebrew, but then she reached for her bag and got an official letter out by the "Women's Federation for World Peace". Every year a group of Japanese women come here to Israel to promote the organization's goals and go door-to-door to raise funds. The letter was asking for 20-100 shekels donation (~4 to 20 US$).
It was quite funny, actually. She pointed her finger at a sign I posted up next to the door in both Hebrew, English and Chinese saying "Beware, there's a dog in the house", and was giving facial expressions of being impressed by finding Asian characters next to the door. We tried to chitchat for about 10 minutes, so I was able to gather that there's a group of them here, staying in friends' houses, liking Israel and especially Jerusalem, but that it all seems very strange to them. She asked for my phone and email so that the organization could contact me to invite me to their conference. Sure, World Peace in mind ofcourse, I'd absolutely love to go :P
She was looking very shy and somewhat scared, which I could understand from the situation she was in. I couldn't imagine going door to door in Japan, not knowing Japanese or English, and asking for donations. Dear lord, the people she must have met! the responses she must have got! Yet, come to think of it, I do have friends that as part of a after-the-army phase in life went to sell jewelery in Japan for 3 months (illegally, I think, like some English teachers in Asia), god knows why, and they told me some really bizarre stories. She's a brave gal.
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Here's the brochure she gave me :
UPF : An odd Japanese meeting in Jerusalem » fiLi’s world | November 19th, 2006 at 12:25 pm #
[...] I kept silent for a few moments, trying to recall anything that would explain this phonecall. It took about 20 second to remember the no-English Japanese girl who knocked on my door one day asking for donations for the Japanese/Korean World-Peace Federation held in Jerusalem every year or so. [...]
Ray Sanderson | February 17th, 2007 at 7:03 am #
The leader of J/P World-Peace Federation is the leader-
founder of the Church of The Unification . They were here in Birmingham, Alabama . The money they gathered went to the “church” . In the 1970s he spoke here and the translator a retired Korean military officer . Found out he spoke great english .
We called his followers Moonies . It, to my shame was the only way to them to fustrate their intent to sell roses to you .
He pairs off the followers and marries them in a big ceremony held at various cities world -wide .
Served time in a federal prison for what I remember were tax troubles .
The reason I have rambled is give you some hints in how reasearch Moon and his organizations .
I really have enjoyed your blog . Love the Chinese people . My extended group of friends include chinese who arrived to do medical research . They were able to get perm-visas due to the T-Square tradegy .
By the way your the first blog I have responded to. Moon trigered some old memories .
Best wishes , ray(rei)
fiLi | February 17th, 2007 at 9:58 am #
Heh, thanks for the info. I’ve met with them once again and that meeting was even more confusing than the first one.
Keep commenting… It gives the bloggers a good feeling. ;)
Tengri | July 27th, 2008 at 5:06 pm #
where’s some of your current stuff, fiLi? The stuff I find is all a couple of years old.