최근 세계적인 환경운동가 제인구달이 한국에 방문해서 조용하지만 큰 반향을 일으켰다. 서양인답지 않은 정갈한 몸가짐과 문화에 대한 열린 자세가 참 인상적이었다. 절에서 발우공양을 하면서 젓가락 사용하는 모습마저 전혀 어색하지 않다. 침팬지를 포용하는 큰 마음을 가진 그녀일진대 동서양의 이질문화에 대한 마음이야 오죽하겠느냐마는...
TV뉴스에는 먹거리에 대한 그녀의 생각을 보도한다. 불교계의 빈그릇을 남기지 않는다는 발우공양과 구달박사의 먹는 문화운동, 희망의 밥상은 일맥상통한다. 그녀의 주장은 이렇다.
"마구 먹고 버리는 인간의 욕심으로 지구와 동물들이 신음하고 있다. 유기농 식사를 하고 적게 먹고 음식을 남기지 말아 자연과 환경을 보존해야 한다. 고기는 최대한 덜 먹읍시다. 꼭 먹어야만 한다면 비인도적으로 사육되지 않은, 방목돼 자란 동물의 고기를 먹읍시다."
누군가는 말했음직한 이 내용은 구달의 입에서 나왔기에 무겁게 들린다. 이것이 구달박사가 지닌 힘이 아닐까 한다.
Goodall was born in England. Goodall's father gave her a life-like chimpanzee toy named Jubilee, although friends believed it would scare her. Today, the toy still sits on her dresser in London. After the divorce of her parents when Jane was only 8, Jane moved with her mother to Bournemouth, England, where her grandmother and two great-aunts lived.
It was while in Bournemouth that Jane first met up with distinguished wildlife authority Sir David Attenborough, who taught Jane the importance of the higher order primates, and impressed upon her the need to defend the fragile biosphere.
Goodall was interested in animals from her youth; this, coupled with her secretarial training prompted noted anthropologist Louis Leakey to hire her as his secretary during her trip to Kenya in 1957 and 1958. It was through her association with Leakey that Goodall began studying the chimpanzees of Gombe Stream National Park (then known as Gombe Stream Chimpanzee Reserve) in July, 1960. Leakey arranged for Goodall to return to the UK where she earned a doctorate in ethology from the University of Cambridge in 1964. Along with Dian Fossey, famous for living with gorillas, and Biruté Galdikas, who advanced studies in orangutans, Goodall was one of three women dubbed "Leakey's Angels".
Goodall has been married twice: first, in 1963, to an aristocratic wildlife photographer, Baron Hugo van Lawick; they divorced in 1974. Their son, Hugo, known as 'Grub', was born in 1967. She married Derek Bryceson, (a member of Tanzania’s parliament and the director of that country’s national parks) in 1975, and they remained married until his death in 1980.
Goodall has received many honors for her environmental and humanitarian work as well as others. She was named a Dame Commander of the British Empire in a ceremony held in Buckingham Palace in 2004. In April 2002, Secretary-General Kofi Annan named Dr Goodall a United Nations Messenger of Peace. Her other honors include the Medal of Tanzania, Japan's prestigious Kyoto Prize, the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Science, and the Gandhi-King Award for Nonviolence. She is also a member of the advisory board of BBC Wildlife magazine.
[Source from Wikipedia]