My early days with the General Choi. By GM Michael Daher

I have been practicing the art of Taekwon-Do since 1972. 

I have many memories and had many experiences with our founder General Choi Hong Hi. 

One thing that comes to mind was when General Choi Hong Hi was here in Australia in 1993 conducting a seminar for us. 

We  advertised this event very well before his arrival. We organised a TV Station to do a news report and a South Korean news paper to do an  article on him, at this time, we received some information from the newspaper run by the student movement in Korea that the South Korean government was trying to create problems with this. 

We booked General Choi Hong Hi into a hotel room under a different name, and we had constant security organised for him. 

When General Choi went down to the restaurant to eat he forgot his key in the room. He want to the desk to have it replaced, the girl behind the desk asked him for his room number, the name and the room number did not match, they had a little bit of a disagreement , fortunately some of my students were there already and they explained the situation to her. She fixed this up. 

Upon my arrival, I went to have breakfast with General Choi Hong Hi and my student, when I sat down General Choi said “DAHER, I was born with this name and I like to die with this name. Why are you changing my name?“

I then explained to him the situation and the security regarding his trip. 

This is one memory that I can not forget, it is one that stands out for me.