Forty Years Of The Coordinating Committee For Geoscience - CCOP

Box 8
Memories of a Special Adviser
The call by CCOP’s present director, Mr Chen Shick Pei, for a small
contribution to this fortieth anniversary publication had the same effect
upon me as opening a box full of photographs of the past: the
photographs not neatly filed but, nevertheless treasured, with each of
them a source of a special memory. For sixteen years, from 1974 to
1990, my regular work with the Dutch Geological Survey (RGD) and
my advisory work for CCOP were closely intermingled, so that CCOP
became almost a part of my daily life.
Only seven years after its foundation, in 1973, CCOP had accepted an
offer by the Dutch government to participate in offshore surveys in the
South China Sea and the Andaman Sea. Because of my involvement in
these projects, Dr C.Y.Li invited me to attend the next Annual Session
of CCOP. This was to be my introduction to the full CCOP family. It
was on a very warm day in August, 1974, that I excitedly paid my
respects to Dr. Li in the annex of the Tower Hotel in Seoul where the
eleventh Session of CCOP was being held. In a quite different and
Figure 19. Dr Erno Oele,
Special Adviser to CCOP,
1974 to 1990.
sadder way, further excitement was to follow, when, one or two days later, the President of the
Republic of Korea, President Park, was assassinated in the nearby Parliament building. All the CCOP
participants felt touched by this sad event, which cast a shadow over the meeting.
At the Session it was a great surprise to me to find, that in that short time span of seven years after
CCOP’s establishment, Dr. Li had created such an extensive network of outstanding geologists from
the region as well as from many Cooperating Countries. Apparently he had used all available
diplomatic and technical channels of ECAFE (now ESCAP). My own presence was the result of such
a contact with the Dutch ECAFE representative who fortunately attached great value to natural
resources and related research. Before travelling eastward I had little idea of the full meaning of cooperation
with East Asian countries but assumed it merely implied the introduction of new
specializations and techniques already developed in advanced countries.
I was immediately nominated as a Technical Adviser to CCOP and a year later as a Special Adviser,
much like the stepwise inauguration as member of a respected society. The binding element, I felt,
was enthusiasm for the field of earth sciences in general and the belief in the social and economic
importance of its practical application. Sharing this conviction, CCOP penetrated deeply into my work
within the RGD. Many of my staff were recruited to assist in CCOP projects, not only in the CCOP
region, but also in The Netherlands itself. Quite a number of geologists from the CCOP region came
to The Netherlands for practical courses in Quaternary geological mapping and surveying techniques.
Several of my staff stayed for years in the region. It was remarkable to observe how warm the mutual
relations between the Dutch and CCOP geologists became, stimulating further participation in CCOP
activities and recurrent meetings with dear friends from the CCOP region. We all were fully aware of
working for a justified and important cause. The results of these and others efforts as shown in the
increasing respect for CCOP throughout the region and adjoining areas was to confirm this view.
By the middle of the “1980s” however, it had become difficult to raise Dutch funds for the CCOP
cause so Dr. Li visited Holland on a fund raising mission to see his old Dutch friend who had
supported him through ECAFE so strongly in the past. A meeting was firmly scheduled, but the
former ambassador did not turn up. Occupied by local problems he had completely forgotten this
appointment, keeping Dr Li and myself waiting in vain in his office. There was, however, a fortunate
outcome to this unfortunate incident as the ambassador felt he could only counterbalance his mistake
by obtaining an impressive amount of funding for new CCOP projects sponsored by The Netherlands.
All in all CCOP has enriched my own life, for which I thank all people related to this organisation.
Now, for the time being, I close the box containing all those good memories, only to reopen it
whenever I receive CCOP’s Newsletter and other publications.
Dr. Erno Oele, The Netherlands
36
A World of Difference