CLEOPATRA AND POPULATION
Banquet Speech by
Chang Kun Lee, IAEA, 18 June 2007
Some 2,000 years ago, all the lands around the Mediterranean were under the rule of Roman Empire. It was a simpler time than now though there were problems. The population was a mere fraction of what it is now, and the energy needs were trivial by today’s standards. Communication traveled at the speed of a horseman or a sail ship. The most powerful Romans in mid-first century B.C. were Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, and Octavian known later as Augustus Caesar. And Cleopatra of Egypt was able to seduce and make love with the first two. She also tried with Octavian but without success. When we are asked to think of the most beautiful women from all of human history, Cleopatra’s name often tops the list. In the list will be other names such as Helen of Troy, Juliet of Verona, Nefertiti of Egypt, Yang Kuei-fei of China, and so on. In my own country, the list would include Sung Chun-hyang, the young girl who was imprisoned by a lustful provincial governor, Byun, before she was freed by her young lover & hero Lee Mong-ryong. Remember, this young Korean Romeo had the same family name as me!
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Cleopatra seducing Mark Antony. Illustrated by Rockwell Kent in “Antony and Cleopatra” by William Shakespeare, Garden City Books
Cleopatra-engraved Coin minted in the Ancient Roman Times In point of fact, however, Cleopatra was not at all beautiful. Actually, she was somewhat ugly and probably fat. This is clear from surviving Roman coins of the period on which she is shown as a sharp-nosed, thin-lipped woman with protruding chins. However, Cleopatra was, if not beautiful, very smart, ambitious, and full of charms. At the age of 21 or so in 48 B.C., she totally charmed Julius Caesar who was in Egypt pursuing his enemy Pompey. She bore a child called Caesarion connoting “little Caesar” who may have been Caesar’s kid. Unfortunately, Caesar’s love with Cleopatra terminated 4 years later in 44 B.C. when he was brutally assassinated by a dagger from his political enemies. Out of the ensuing power struggle emerged Mark Antony who again fell under Cleopatra’s electromagnetic spells. In fact, Antony became a slave to her attractive personality, her wit and her constant companionship, and heaped honor after honor upon her. Cleopatra was 28 or 29 at the time, and they were lovers for some 10 years even though Mark Antony’s high-spirited wife Fulvia, who was involved in petty skirmishes against the other members of the triumvirate in Rome, was still alive for part of this time. Cleopatra bore three children for Mark Antony. At the age of around 35, Cleopatra, now a mother of 4 children, also tried to seduce Herod the Great, the King of Judaea, but he rebuffed her. Julius Caesar’s heir designate, however, was his great-nephew Octavian, and soon Octavian’s armies were clashing with those of Mark Antony, who was stationed mostly in Cleopatra’s hometown of Alexandria, Egypt. At the Battle of Actium in 31 B.C, Mark Antony’s fleet sustained major losses---in part because Cleopatra pulled out her fleet during battle. Mark Antony killed himself later, and conquering Octavian visited Cleopatra in Alexandria. The 39 year-old Cleopatra attempted to turn on her charms on Octavian but it didn’t work, and Cleopatra committed suicide using an asp, a snake symbolizing divine royalty. Cleopatra of Egypt was in fact of Macedonian descent---having descended from one of the generals under Alexander the Great---and had no Egyptian blood. Her main language was Macedonian Greek though she alone of her house took the trouble to learn Egyptian. Early historians of antiquity like Plutarch, Josephus and Virgil took a dim view of Cleopatra. However, under William Shakespeare’s brilliant pen, Cleopatra and Mark Antony were resurrected as great immortal lovers, and other writers like George Bernard Shaw only added luster to their lore. Hollywood movies, like the 1945 “Caesar and Cleopatra” featuring Vivien Leigh as Cleopatra and the 1963 “Cleopatra” starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, did much to reshape our thinking on this romantic pair. So, what are the main lessons that we can learn from all this? subtle implications for us in the nuclear sector, as well: I think there are several---and with
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1.
First, if you have world-class minds and writers like Bill Shakespeare on
your side, you can win the public perception debates hands down. If the best of what Hollywood has to offer also works for your cause, the battle is won before it has even begun. Most people nowadays are inclined to think that Cleopatra was a beautiful clone of an Elizabeth Taylor in her prime even though the queen in reality was somewhat ugly. People also think that she was Egyptian or Ethiopian although she was actually a Macedonian. And people seem to be under the impression that she was a good queen for Egypt even though, in fact, her overreaching ambition meant that Egypt’s autonomous status within the Roman Empire ended with her death. 2. Second, if you want to get at truth, you must require verification, just like
with cases involving nuclear non-proliferation. You must demand and look hard at concrete evidence, like ancient Roman coins, before making any conclusions, for example, about Cleopatra’s looks. Myth and false claims must be separated from hard facts, but once perceptions are formed, they are difficult to change or to dislodge. No matter how many ancient Roman coins you show, to many people Cleopatra will always be the beautiful Egyptian queen. Similarly, one bad snafu at a Chernobyl or at a TMI will wipe out several million hours of safe operating record in one fell swoop. So, we must always be vigilant, and especially because negative impressions are more difficult to alter than positive perceptions. 3. If you want to get any real work done, particularly in the area of seduction, you ought to do it while you are still young. At 21 and 28, Cleopatra was able to seduce Julius Caesar and then Mark Antony. At 35 and 39, Cleopatra’s charms no longer worked on King Herod or Octavian. So, work hard, especially in this nuclear area, while you are still youthful! This principle may also be eminently applicable when it comes to educating the populace regarding the benefits and inevitable uses of nuclear energy, and when it comes to convincing them that nuclear energy is absolutely needed to keep our civilization going while keeping the environment clean & friendly. Time, expenditure and efforts necessary to educate a target audience are usually inversely proportional to the age brackets. 4. Cleopatra also proved that good looks and appearance are not so important.
She was able to deploy her smart mind, her irresistible charms, and her ability to use the vast wealth of Egypt as queen to attain her various ambitious personal goals. She mobilized all the possible ways and means to attract the men she targeted. Historical records tell us that Cleopatra first met Mark Antony on Cydnus River in her luxurious barge with its golden deck, silver oars and perfumed purple sails, and the pleasure-loving soldier-prince offered no resistance and became a willing captive at her frivolous and extravagant royal palace. 5. In any case, what is considered sexy and beautiful changes over time and with cultural evolution. When societies faced scarcity and having enough food was a daily issue, women were considered
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beautiful who were Rubenesque, who had some extra fat.
But nowadays, all super-models are We thus see that the concept of
way tall and rail thin, and some have in fact died from anorexia! what is beautiful is subject to change.
Similarly, with nuclear power, as more and more people come to understand the serious nature of global warming, we are becoming sexier and more beautiful as an energy provider. Yes, my friends and colleagues, the pendulum has now swung in our favor, and our time to be beautiful and sexy is finally coming here! In this vein, nuclear community must always be mindful to keep our nuclear machine designs simple, slim and elegant, like a contemporary super-model, and also to keep the machines accidentfree at the same time by reducing the total weight, the necessary hardware and, of course, the costs so that these sexy machines stay more competitive and reliable as ever. 6. In history and in public policy debates, you must align yourself carefully with the correct ascending powers, the forces that have history’s blessing. Cleopatra cast her lot with Caesar and then with Mark Anthony but, ultimately, Rome went to Octavian (Augustus). Throwing your lifeline to wrong places can mean certain doom, so one must be judicious and perspicacious when rethinking one’s future. Now let us zip 2,000 years forward to the present, and focus our attention to my own country of the Republic of Korea. These days, there are many youngsters in Korea who, for a number of reasons, remain single and do not get married. One of their main reasons is said to be that they cannot find an ideal partner. Most Korean boys want to mate with a girl who has the looks of a Cleopatra --of course, the mythic Cleopatra and not the real historical Cleopatra --- , a Marylin Monroe or a Miss Universe, or a Miss Korea. But girls who meet their unreasonably high standards very seldom exist, and there are practically none around them. On the other hand, Korean girl’s specifications for her partner or husband are usually as follows: A. B. C. D. He must be valiant and nice-looking like a Korean tiger. He must be physically potent and slender like an Arabian stallion. He must be straight-charging and energetic like a bear. He must work hard like a bull and make lots of money, and then remit all the hard earned money to his wife’s on-line bank account. At home, he must be gentle and soft like a lamb, and, above all, he must follow her like sheep. Most important of all is that he must be loyal, sacrificing and obedient to his wife like a dog, like a Korean Jindo dog.
E.
F.
Unfortunately, Korean tigers are almost extinct as a species. And there are not many stallion-like, bear-like, bull-like, and dog-like Korean boys who can meet all these criteria required of a partner
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by a Korean girl. Hence the high expectations go largely unmet, and so many left-over young people remain single, not contributing to the population growth of our country. As a result, many Korean men, especially rural farmers, are now marrying women from other Asian countries. The consensus among young people in Korea nowadays is that it is best not to have any children even after marriage, and that it is optimal maybe to have only one child eventually, but two are too many. The saying is, if someone has had three children, he or she is called a “barbarian”, while those who have procreated four or more are looked down with contempt and viewed as some kind of a primitive “beast”! Well, I have three kids. So, following their classification, I can be rebuked as a “barbarian”. But it seems that I am pardoned on account of my age. In any case, Korea is now a very civilized country where we cannot find too many barbarians or wild beasts any more, and this explains in large part the extremely low birth rate. True to form, all of my three fully-grown kids still remain single, and none has sired a grandchild for me! Korea has been a model to the world when it comes to family planning. But we have gone too far in controlling population growth. The average number of children per Korean couple in 1998 was 1.7, and that in 1999 was 1.42. It went down to 1.18 last year, which was the lowermost number in the world. Inevitably Korea will suffer from a shortage of working manpower and a surplus of dependent old folks and, consequently, the nation will face a serious imbalance between social welfare dependents and the workers who support them. I understand that this exact same problem afflicts a fair number of post-industrial countries as well, and especially in Europe. According to someone’s calculations, Korean people would become extinct as a race should the current birthrate trend continue. If so, there would be no need of knowledge management, no reason to have nuclear energy to sustain our well-being, and no hope above all. Therefore, my solicitation to you is to make Korean boys and girls more fecund and procreatively productive even if it means remodeling them to be “barbarians” and wild “beasts”.
Thank you.
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