Off to Shanghai for a week of business meetings.
My delayed Shanghai trip is now upon me. I am leaving on the morning of the 27th. I will be back in full blogging mode on January 2, 2003. Mark that on your calendar.
I wish all of you a healthy and happy new year.
By the way, I have never been to Shanghai. If you have any ideas where I should go for good food, shopping, nightlife, culture, fun, etc. please leave a comment or send an email.
SECURITY THREAT LEVEL ELEVATED FROM YELLOW TO ORANGE
Transmission from US Embassy, Seoul to all US residents in Korea
Embassy of the United States of America
Seoul, Korea
American Citizen Services
Consular Section
Tel. 02-397-4441 / Fax. 02-397-4101
To: Participating Organizations, U.S. Embassy Warden System
The U.S. Embassy is transmitting the following Worldwide Caution issued by
the State Department based on information from the Department of Homeland
Security (DHS). This Public Announcement is being transmitted through the
Embassy’s warden system as a public service to all U.S. citizens in the
Republic of Korea. Please disseminate this message to U.S. citizens in your
organizations.
_______________________________________________________
WORLDWIDE CAUTION
December 21, 2003
Begin Quote:
“This supersedes the Worldwide Caution dated November 21, 2003. The text of
that Caution is being reiterated below to remind U.S. citizens of the
continuing threat that they may be targets of terrorist actions and to alert
them to the raising of the Homeland Security threat level from Yellow
(Elevated) to Orange (High). This Worldwide Caution expires on June 21,
2004.
The U.S. Government remains deeply concerned about the security of U.S.
citizens overseas. U.S. citizens are cautioned to maintain a high level of
vigilance, to remain alert and to take appropriate steps to increase their
security awareness. We are seeing increasing indications that Al-Qaida is
preparing to strike U.S. interests abroad.
Al-Qaida and its associated organizations have struck in the Middle East in
Riyadh , Saudi Arabia , and in Europe in Istanbul , Turkey . We therefore
assess that other geographic locations could be venues for the next round of
attacks. We expect Al-Qaida will strive for new attacks designed to be more
devastating than the September 11 attack, possibly involving nonconventional
weapons such as chemical or biological agents. We also cannot rule out that
Al-Qaida will attempt a second catastrophic attack within the U.S.
Terrorist actions may include, but are not limited to, suicide operations,
hijackings, bombings or kidnappings. These may also involve commercial
aircraft and maritime interests, and threats to include conventional
weapons, such as explosive devices. Terrorists do not distinguish between
official and civilian targets. These may include facilities where U.S.
citizens and other foreigners congregate or visit, including residential
areas, clubs, restaurants, places of worship, schools, hotels, outdoor
recreation events or resorts and beaches. U.S. citizens should remain in a
heightened state of personal security awareness when attendance at such
locations is unavoidable.
U.S. Government facilities worldwide remain at a heightened state of alert.
These facilities may temporarily close or suspend public services from time
to time to assess their security posture. In those instances, U.S. embassies
and consulates will make every effort to provide emergency services to U.S.
citizens. Americans abroad are urged to monitor the local news and maintain
contact with the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate .
As the Department continues to develop information on any potential security
threats to U.S. citizens overseas, it shares credible threat information
through its consular information program documents, available on the
Internet at http://travel.state.gov . In addition to information on the
Internet, travelers may obtain up-to-date information on security conditions
by calling 1-888-407-4747 toll-free in the U.S. or outside the U.S. and
Canada on a regular toll line at 1-317-472-2 328. “
End Quote
Additional information can be obtained at the internet website of the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) at www.dhs.gov .
_______________________________________________________
The U.S. Embassy in Seoul will continue to keep the U.S. community informed
of any changes in the overall security situation. To hear a recording of
the most up-to-date security information affecting U.S. citizens in Korea,
please call 02-397-4114 and press the following series of numbers: 1, 1, 1,
7. In addition, notices concerning security matters will also be broadcast
on AFNK television and radio. The Embassy encourages all U.S. citizens to
register their presence in Korea with the American Citizens Services office
at the U.S. Embassy or via the Internet at
http://www.usembassy.state.gov/seoul or http://www.asktheconsul.org/.
From the Korea Herald:
 |
Caption: A row of Santa Clauses cross a wooden bridge in a modern reenactment of a 300 year-old Joseon Dynasty ritual in Yeongwol village, Gangwon Province yesterday.
I don’t know what that means. How can I comment on something so amusing if I am not even sure what a 300 year-old Joseon Dynasty Santa Clause bridge-crossing ritual is???
So, I go underground for a couple of weeks and I surface to much more of the same. Here are headlines from the past few days. Bear in mind that Korea is a law-abiding country. All of this in three days. Nice.
Whistleblower Reveals Ambassadors’ Misbehavior
Ex-Consul General to HK Sold Visas
Two Face Arrest in Arms Corruption Case
Politicians Accused of Pocketing Funds
Four More Implicated in Sun & Moon Bribery Case
Politicians Hid Behind Special Party Fees
Man Arrested in Defense Contract Bribery Case
Cardinal Calls for Confessions from Political Leaders
Lee: I Will Take the Burden and Go to Prison
__________________________________________________________
Props.
I see that Pat Spacek has left a comment on my blog. For those of you who do not know who Pat Spacek is, shame on you! He is a master artist/cartoonist. His Parking Lot is Full kept me laughing for years. His complete irreverence and willingness to go after anyone at anytime for any reason is refreshingly hilarious. One of the very few truly funny liberals that I have seen. Check out some of his work from previous years. Apparently there is a new project in the works. I can’t wait to see what that brings.
Thanks, Pat!
My trip to Shanghai has been delayed for 10 days or so.
It’s time to warm up the old blogging machine here in Pusan again. Whilst I have been away, I have missed some great news and the entire Asian Blog Award process. This is unfortunate.
However, I am back. Here is an interesting bit to get the ball rolling again:
In this piece from the New York Post, there is a very short, but pointed, view on the problems of liberalism and why liberals would or should hate Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.
“The movie shows clearly that the only way to save the world from evil is to risk everything and fight to the death.”
BTW, saw the movie last night. Wow. Without using explitives, there is really nothing more that can be said than, “wow.”
WE GOT YOU, YOU MURDERING BASTARD!!!
FRANCE AND GERMANY, KISS MY HAIRY, YELLOW BUTT!
Here is part two of my early adventures in Korea.
Prior to leaving, I had somehow managed to sit through "Dances With Wolves" twice. I thought it would be interesting to pick up the book as brainless airplane reading. Usually the first thing I do upon boarding a plane is to open the magazine to see when I get fed and what movies will be showing. However, for some reason that escapes me now, I did not do that. About halfway through the book "Dances With Wolves," the in-flight movies started. My jaw dropped and my stomach hit the floor with a gut-wrenching pain that nearly caused me to lose consciousness as I saw that the first of our in-flight films was to be "Dances With Wolves." I forced myself to sleep through the movie and woke up just in time for the next feature, "Look Who¡¯s Talking Too." Not being tired and not having anything with which to take my own life and put me out of my cinematic hell, I put my headphones on and listened to the best music channel available, "light sounds of the 70s" or some such thing.
It was during that flight that I had my first real encounter with the phenomenon that, until recently had no name. A friend of my has labeled it the "black box." I came face to face with the black box. The black box is an imaginary box that encases the head of most Koreans. In the West, we have a similar phenomenon that we call the "window of life." The western window of life is that window through which we view our reality. The window is covered with the various filters and shades that have been placed there throughout our life.
Thus, the window gives us our tinted, and sometimes tainted, view of the world that we perceive around us. The window with all of its filters is what causes us to stereotype people and to shelter us from unwanted and unfamiliar things. It helps us compartmentalize our surroundings. New experiences are run through the filters on the windows to see how these experiences conform to our understanding. Unfortunately, these western windows can shade and distort perceptions and lead to negative generalizations such as, "all Korean taxis drivers are out to screw Americans," and "Koreans do not respect the rule of law," and countless other sentences, usually stemming from a single unpleasant incident, beginning with "all Koreans are ‘X’."
Although similar to the western window, the Korean black box is a black-as-midnight anti-matter chamber. New matter enters the black box with only the greatest effort. Once new matter enters the anti-matter black box, there is an initial matter/anti-matter reaction where the new matter is processed and absorbed at a great risk of shock and extreme confusion. Another facet of the black box is that, like a black hole, once something gets put inside the black box, it very seldom, if ever, comes out again.
I must point out at this juncture that I am not attempting to be insulting or to put Koreans down or to be offensive in my description of the black box. I am merely trying to demonstrate the complexity and severity of the cultural, societal, and personal differences between Korean and western thought and action. The black box is neither good nor bad; it simply is. It is the natural product of an extremely homogenous society.
The black box has been built up and reinforced for thousands of years of Korean culture by various factors, including centuries and centuries of Confucian blind obedience and unquestioning acceptance of anything that is put into the box by elders or social superiors. The box continues to be fed by government officials and mass media. The practical effect of this black box is to set limits and boundaries as to how the individual Korean perceives the world. Unlike the western window that allows a view into the outside world of change, possibility, and new ideas, the Korean black box shields the Korean from the outside world and puts up an impenetrable wall that denies the existence or even possibility of something different outside the box than that which is inside the box. In order to survive and function successfully as a westerner in Korea, it is vitally important to learn to penetrate the black box in such a way that the matter/anti-matter reaction is minimalized and the perceptions that are inside the black box are modified to allow a new point of view or new perception of reality that can include your views and perceptions. As Korea becomes more globalized and exposed to things that are different, the black box is becoming easier and easier to penetrate.
My in-flight encounter with the Korean black box was when I ask the flight attendant for a copy of the Joongang Ilbo newspaper. I wanted to be informed of a few current events prior to landing in Korea. Because of my previous experiences with Korean and flight attendants, I knew better than to ask the flight attendant for a newspaper in Korean. I asked the Korean flight attendant for it in English. I said, "May I please have a copy of the Joongang Ilbo?" The flight attendant looked at me and blinked¡¦.She blinked again. A white guy asking for a Korean-language newspaper had smacked squarely upside the black box. She did not know how to process this new experience.
She proceeded to kindly inform me that the newspaper was in Korean. SLAM! The invading "Newness" was repelled from the black box and she was once again at peace knowing that she had corrected the foreigner who had mistakenly asked for a Korean-language newspaper.
"Yes, I know," I replied, "I would like to read it."
Conflict¡¦. How to proceed? That thing that did not fit into the black box was back again¡¦ "It’s not in English," she helpfully explained.
"I know. It¡¯s OK," I told her in English. For good measure, I finished up by informing her in Korean that "I can read Korean."
"We have English newspapers available. Would you like one of those?" was her predictable, but frustrating answer.
The conflict was nearing critical mass. "Give me the damned Joongang Ilbo," I barked in English. BOOM! I lose¡¦ My first real experience with the Korean black box was a failure. I didn’t know how to play the game yet.
As I stepped off the plane at Kimpo, I was hit by a wall of muggy, near boiling humidity. Ahh¡¦Korea. Would I ever get acclimated to her summers?
I knew where I would stay for the first couple of days. I though I would return to Masan, where I spent some 14 ¨ö months of my mission. It would be nice to visit some old friends and see how they were doing. I wanted to surprise everyone, so I did not tell a soul that I was coming. I landed in Kimhae and jumped a bus to Masan.
Once I had arrived in Masan, it was time to put operation "Surprise!" into motion. While I was a missionary living in Masan, I got my hair cut at this little beauty salon that was owned and operated by a flamboyantly homosexual guy who has served as an anti-terrorist commando in the ROK Marine Corp. I knew he would let me crash at his place for a night until I could hook up with my friends. His place was ideal because it was a stone’s throw from the bus terminal so I would not have to schlep a year¡¯s supply of junk all over the city.
I pushed, pulled, dragged, and rolled everything down the street to the beauty salon. I turned the corner and saw a truck off-loading lumber into where the beauty salon had once been. Crap! No problem¡¦the helpful people moving into the joint could help me; they could tell me where he went. Well, they could have helped me if they had known anything more than the fact that he had moved out a couple of days earlier. CRAP!
Well¡¦that left me in a fix. I scrambled to find another place to stay. The only person I could think of on the spur of the moment, with the afternoon sun climbing high into the sky, was my personal "hero," Mr. D.W. Lee. He was not a hero in the sense that he had done something heroic for me, but he was a hero in the colloquial sense that he was the person whom I admired most. He was an outstanding father of four. He was a wonderful husband. He was a caring, compassionate, ethical, hard-working man.
He accepted my imposition graciously. He not only allowed me to stay at his home that evening, he asked me to stay as his guest for the weekend. He insisted that I eat with the family. He offered me his car for my own personal use during the weekend (which I declined). Without my knowledge, he shut his factory down for a day so that he could drive me to Pusan and see that I was settled in my living quarters. Despite my several attempts, he would accept no money for room board, loss of earnings, transportation, or anything else he had done for me. I was humbled.
It did not take long after my arrival at Pusan National University for me to realize that the sheltered life of a foreign missionary was vastly different from that of ¡°real life¡± in a Korean bureaucracy.
My dorm room was situated on the side of cliff at the top of a mountain. It was officially called Mirinae Hall, but within about 48 hours, it had become affectionately referred to as "The Hell Hole." The Hell Hole was allegedly a newly constructed building. It was a five-story building divided into three sections with around 40 to 50 rooms per section (I have worked hard to repressed memories of the actual number). Two sections were for Korean students and one section was for foreigners ("foreigners" being myself, a Chinese girl, and an alcoholic instructor from Alabama whose father had served on the White Citizens¡¯ Council for his hometown).
The doors between the two Korean sections were open, allowing free exchange between the students of either section. However, the doors between the Korean section and the foreigners’ section were all chained shut with heavy-duty ¨ú inch chains. The reason for preventing the mixing for foreigners and natives, as explained to me by the Director of the International Affairs Office at the university, was for our safety and to prevent the Koreans from being blamed should anything from our side turn up missing.
Access to the building was such that the Koreans could have male visitors as long as the visitors signed in at the guardroom for the respective section. No females were allowed in the Korean section. The foreign section, on the other hand, was off limits to anyone, male or female. Checking in same-sex visitors was not an option. It simply was not permitted.
Building security became an immense source of contention. Building security for the foreign wing of the building consisted of a man being there during the daytime that was either asleep, drinking, or not doing much of anything. At 9:00 at night, the guard would chain the outside doors shut with the same ¨ú inch chain that secured the doors between the wings. He would then lock himself in a room and sleep throughout the night. He was extremely grouchy and put out if you happened to come home after 9:00 p.m. and had to pound on the doors and scream and yell until he woke up and let you into the building. If you happened to be on the inside and needed to get out, forget it. Your only option was to climb out the second story window and lower yourself the ground. Then, you would have to pound on the doors and wake the guard to get back inside.
The whole door-chaining incident came to a head during the Korean Thanksgiving holiday of Chuseok. Apparently they could find no one who wanted to baby-sit the foreigners over the long holiday. So, the building guards settled for an alternative solution. Sherry, the Chinese student, and I woke up the first morning of the holiday to discover that the guard in our building had gone. The doors were chained shut. They were chained shut from the OUTSIDE!!! We were faced with the prospect of being locked in the building for three days.
Communications were another nightmare. You could not call out from the rooms. You could receive calls in the room by way of a terrible switchboard connection. The only method for calling out was to use the single pay phone at the entrance to the Korean wing¡¦if you were lucky enough to have a phone card handy. Both the in-room phone and the pay phone were out of order more often than not. This was a problem in emergencies, such as the time when I sliced the bottom of my foot to the bone and could not walk off the mountain and I could not call anyone to come and get me. I was forced to patch up my foot using assorted household items. However, as bad as the communications problem was, it was the same as the Korean students were facing and I really could not expect better treatment than was afforded the Korean students.
Personal safety was a serious issue for Sherry. I was on the fifth floor of the building, Mr. Alabama was on the third floor, and some genius had assigned Sherry a room on the first floor furthest away from the guard room. On a regular basis, Korean men would bang on her windows late at night and tell her to come out and play. Worse yet, on a number of occasions, people had tried to enter her room through the windows. She was scared to be there alone at night.
For the above reasons, as well as numerous others that would take entirely too much time and space to go into, including the attempted rape of a student in a small grove of trees behind our building and right next to Sherry¡¯s window that Mr. Alabama and I broke up, Sherry and I commenced our efforts to get out of the building and into better, safer surroundings where we were not chained in and denied visitors.
Shortly after we began our crusade, the instructor from Alabama and a newly arrived instructor were moved from the Hell Hole to the "Foreigner Guest House" at the bottom of the mountain just outside the back gate of the university where another instructor had been living for quite some time. From that point, Mr. Alabama, who had been supportive of our efforts to get out of the building, threw his efforts into preventing us from moving into the foreign guest house on the grounds that he was an instructor and should not have to lower himself to live with mere students. Aiding Mr. Alabama in his endeavors to prevent us from moving, was the Assistant Director of the International Affairs Office who admitted to my face that he did not like foreigners.
The manner in which this particular difficulty was finally resolved was enough to curdle my stomach, and that turned out to be the easiest situation to resolve. War was on the horizon.
Wars do not start spontaneously. There is always an underlying tension, hatred, conflict, or other such factor, whether it be unilateral or mutual. The conflict with International Affairs at PNU started within hours of my arrival at the university and was always on the surface and open for public display.
Things started to go wrong when I was first shone my living quarters high atop Hell Hole Manor. The room, which was about 7 feet by 10 feet, contained a small metal desk and accompanying rickety chair, plywood shelves mounted above the desk, radiator, small clothes closet, and a very small, thin mattress laid out on a plywood platform. That was it. There was nothing else. No blankets. No pillow. Bed sheets were not even a consideration at that point.
There was no refrigerator in which to store food and keep it fresh. The nearest store was literally a one-hour round trip from the dizzying reaches of Hell Hole Aerie to the valley floor below and back up to the nest. However, if one chose to shimmy down the side of the mountain and climb down the rocks behind the law building, it was possible to shave up to 15 minutes off the journey. Thus, there was no such thing as making a quick run to the store to pick up a few things you forgot to bring up from base camp. The Hell Hole was located next to the student center so it was possible to pick up a few snacks, but, as it says in the Bible, man cannot live by ramyon and squid balls alone.
The reality of the situation was very unlike the picture that was painted prior to my coming. Months before I arrived, I received a list of things that were and were not provided. As bedding was not specifically mentioned, I inquired about it and was informed by they study abroad coordinator at Utah State University that such things were provided.
In addition to the bedding problem, I was somewhat taken aback by the room itself. It was nothing like what had been described to me. The President of USU had visited Korea to formalize the sister school relationship about a year prior to my arrival. At that time, he was driven up the mountain (and thus deprived of the pleasure of experiencing the summer hike up the cliff) and shown the rooms where students would be staying. He talked about these relatively spacious, two-room affairs with a nice desk and a high-swivel chair, double-size bed, telephone, refrigerator, and other amenities. He was told that the living quarters that he was flashing his optics at would be the rooms where students would be housed.
Upon seeing my room and noting the absence of just about anything resembling what the USU President had seen, including bedding, I wanted to know what was wrong. After Mr. Lee, the man who brought me from Masan, left, I asked the xeno-loathing International Affairs Assistant Director where everything was. He denied any knowledge of what I was talking about.
Later that night, I met Mr. Fix-it. Mr. Fix-it was the first full-year student sent by USU to PNU. He was the original guinea pig for the exchange. He was supposed to have left PNU, but he was still there hanging on as long as he possibly could. His communications with USU ceased not too long after his arrival in Korea. As such, USU officials were curious as to what had become of him. I was charged with finding out the details. He was the elusive and mysterious Mr. Kurtz, and I was Marlow.
Upon my arrival in the Heart of Darkness, I was placed in my dismal quarters next to Mr. Fix-it. Mr. Fix-it¡¯s father had also witnessed the Shangri-La that was allegedly supposed to have been my room. I was eager to meet Mr. Fix-it and find out exactly what was going on. My first impression was that he looked a lot like McGuyver. As it turned out, he was similar to McGuyver in that he could make just about anything out of just about anything else. I was particularly impressed by his bypassing the building¡¯s telephone circuitry to allow him to call out on his own phone both locally and internationally and have the calls billed to Mr. Alabama (who had attended Robert E. Lee High School).
Upon making Mr. Fix-it¡¯s acquaintance, we waded into his room through piles of unidentifiable things and bits and pieces of electronic gadgetry that gave me the vague impression that I had seen something like his room in a Terry Gilliam film somewhere, I asked him about the room situation and why it was so much different that what I had heard. I was not overly surprised to learn that the delegation from USU had been shown rooms on the second and third floor of the Hell Hole. The rooms, which were twice the size of ours, had been fully furnished in preparation for a delegation of important scholars from Japan who had stayed for a couple of weeks. PNU apparently never had any intention of letting students stay in those rooms.
I was not real happy with being screwed by the university right out of the gate. I was to come to the realization that my stay at the university would be a series of "bend over and grab your ankles for a good reaming" experiences. Of course that first night I was to learn of the door chaining policy. The no guest policy was soon to weigh heavily upon my soul.
I moved into the Hell Hole Hall on July 26, 1991. From that time, I would have numerous discussions with the International Affairs Office regarding my concerns. The vast majority of the time, I was only allowed to talk to a lovely woman in the office named Ms. Bae, I believe. She was genuinely concerned and wanted to make my stay as successful and as enjoyable as possible. However, she had about as much power and authority to make changes in my arrangements as did a piece of gravel in the parking lot.
Finally, on August 13, 1991, things reached their first peak and a confrontation was looming. Sick and tired of being jerked around for weeks, I decided to handle things my way, which, as is often the case, was the wrong way. I marched to the building where the International Affairs was located. I completely ignored Miss Bae and stormed over to the desk of the Assistant Director and said that I wanted to see the Director. The anti-foreigner Assistant Director informed me that the Director was not in his office.
When questioned about who was on the telephone talking in his office, the Assistant Director, without any explanation as to why he lied to me, said that the Director didn¡¯t have time to see me. I said that I had plenty of time to see him and would wait until he was off the phone. As soon the voice from the Director¡¯s office stopped, I started toward the door to his office. The Assistant Director jumped from his chair and stood spread-eagle between the Director’s door and me, thus physically preventing me from meeting the Director.
For some reason, as if the issue of no bedding was the most important issue I was facing, I looked the Assistant Director in the eye and asked him why the school said I didn¡¯t need bedding when I actually did. He denied that school had ever said such a thing. It was then that I made the most serious miscalculation. I will not call it a mistake, because I am convinced that I am right. I told him flat out that he was a liar and that PNU had lied about nearly everything in their sister-school contract with USU and everything they said to me. Well, I had just thrown a match into the gasoline that was our relationship.
The conversation deteriorated into a "how dare you call me a liar" oral battle. Interestingly, during the several minutes shouting match, the Director never came out of his office to see what the problem was. We were shouting language that was peeling the wallpaper off the walls. Miss Bae was in shock. The Assistant Director was a curious shade of dark purple. I was concerned that he was about to have an aneurysm. I was also struggling not to just reach out and pop the loser right upside his cocky little mug. It ended on a highly adult note when I told him to intercourse himself and stormed out of the room. All this and school hadn¡¯t even started yet.
To go burn off massive amounts of postal worker style anger, I went off campus to one of the ubiquitous local video game rooms (which have once again risen in popularity) and spent a couple of hours downing planes, blowing up aliens, and playing tile-matching games to see just how much of her clothes the little animated woman would take off.
During my cooling off time, I began to realize that what I had done was way outside of the Korean norm, even though I felt I was right about everything I said¡¦except maybe for the part where I raised questions about the guy¡¯s parentage and suggested that interspecies breeding may have come into play. If I was to have any success with this Korean experience, I was going to have to learn to deal with situations such as this before they got out of hand and how to rectify things that did get out of hand. It hit me that what was expected of me in Korean culture was to apologize to the guy.
Koreans, in general, have a very deep sense of something that for lack of a better word I will call honor. If a Korean has lost face and/or been offended by something you have done, there is a good chance that that person will never speak to you again no matter how close they were to you. Even if they do, ¡°forgiveness¡± is not easily won. Thus, I had to take the humbling step of doing something that just drives a stake through my heart; I had to apologize for something that I do not think is wrong. I would have to go back up there, swallow my pride and apologize for calling him a liar and apologize for everything else up to, and including, the fall of the Holy Roman Empire.
It was tough. It hurt. I wish I had never said those things, no matter how true they were. As Mark Twain said, ¡°In our country, we have three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either.¡± Unfortunately, I lacked prudence and exercised the other two simultaneously. I apologized. The crisis was ¡°resolved¡± and actions stepped down to cold war status once again. As a brief aside, I never did see that Director face to face. Never.
It didn’t take long for things to sour again.
This is the informational insert that came with a bar of dashima soap (all misspellings are theirs):
Recommend a LAMINARIA FUNCTIONAL SOAP for you.
Our LAMINARIA COSMETIC SOAP which a natural extract.
VITAMIN-E, ALGINIC ACID, be mixed makes a springly skin and a soft skin as supply with the sufficient mutrition and DASHIMA¡¯S SKIN CARE and a CLEANSING among the excellent charecters of it.
It makes freshness and cleansing for your skin as an excellent whitening effects and helps a cellular formation, your skin corneous removal, and activates your skin cell and promotes a circulation of blood.
LAMINARIA CHARECTERS:
- Be good for an allergic cisease, troubles, a dandnrff remover, freckles, a pimple, beautiful skin, and usually use it when have a wash one¡¯s face and hands and a bath.
-Be good for piles, humid, athlete¡¯s food.
- Fernale: using as a vaginal detergent, It keeps a cleanliness and a protection from an insfection, and the improvement of hysterorrhea be happen by fungus¡¯ infection.
- Bad smell removal and the prevention of skin ageing, male or female in common.
- It specially is very good for mossage and moisture, and it be absorbed after washing your face.
Stranger in a Strange Land
In response to a huge number of questions regarding me and how I came to live in Korea, I offer a brief overview of the highlights of my first Korean Experience. After reading, take the visitor’s poll at the top of the right-hand column.
"Once upon a time there was a Martian named Valentine Michael Smith."
September 20, 1988; The Big Day. Korea was about to become a reality.
Barely nineteen years old, I was in the prime of my youth. For someone who had never been outside of the United States of America, or even anywhere east of Wyoming, I was surprisingly well cultured and experienced; a somewhat accomplished young actor, award-winning classical guitarist, successful radio announcer (politically correct form of "DJ"), well-read in the classics of literature. Culture does not come easily to someone who spent most of his life growing up outside the small, laid-back city of Logan, Utah, or in an even smaller "city" (apparently it qualified legally as a city) of Nibley. I was about to embark on the greatest cultural adventure of my life. I was going to Korea to volunteer my time and talents for two years as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Korean adventure continues to this day.
I had NO idea what to expect. They force-fed me Korean language and culture for two months at the Missionary Training Center. However, that was not enough to prepare me for a country of which it is said that the only way to know Korean culture is to be born there. Only a few months prior to my departure, I knew absolutely nothing about Korea other than most of my clothes and all of my matchbox cars were made there and the bits of wisdom I had picked up over the years watching M*A*S*H* Those things, and the fact that Korea was a small island somewhere near Hong Kong, was the extent of my knowledge. However, with the aid of an atlas and its index, I soon solved the location problem, despite the disconcerting grunts of disgust emanating from my father.
I was nimble enough of mind to note that the 38th parallel sliced Utah and Korea roughly in half. I noticed that the land mass of Utah and Korea was nearly the same. Both places had mountains. Both places had matchbox cars. How different could they be? I would soon find out.
When the time came to head to Korea, I was looking for adventure in whatever came my way. I was a true nature’s child. I was born - born to be wild. I strapped on the large Delta jet and hoped that it would not be shot down by Russians or blown up by terrorists like the two Korean Air flights I had heard about. While in flight, I thought I would take the opportunity to exercise my limited Korean on the Korean flight attendants. They were remarkably polite and tolerant of my Korean inability. One attendant was particularly helpful as she very politely said "I’m Japanese. Please speak English.?"
As the plane descended through the September cloud cover while landing at Kimpo International Air Port in Seoul, Desert Boy (that’s me) discovered his first difference between Korea and Utah. Korea is not a desert –especially not it September. I was sweating like a pig before the "climate-controlled" plane even touched down.
*SNIFF* *SNIFF* What was that smell? To my Rocky Mountain High, Unsullied Air-Sniffing Nose, Korea had a heavy, musky smell not unlike that of my camping gear after packing it away wet and forgetting about it for a month or so.
By the time I had swung open the big green doors that used to separate the baggage area from the main section of the terminal, I had begun to have the first inkling of the notion that Korea was unlike anything that I had ever imagined. Prior to leaving the US, I determined that I would have an open mind and look for good and positive things, always staying on the alert for a chance to gain experiences. It didn’t take long before I was able to begin accumulating experiences that could have a profound impact on my perceptions of Koreans and potentially solidify my attitude and approach for future dealings with Koreans.
One of my first recollections of an "experience" was my second night in the country. That night was my first experience with a "rotary" and Korean after-hours driving. As a passenger in the front seat of the then popular Bongo van, I was treated to the spectacle of a multi-lane five-way intersection with no traffic lights. As we approached the intersection, at a pretty good clip, despite the crowded road conditions, the driver turned off his headlights and screeched to a halt about six inches behind another vehicle. My journal entry for that day reads, "This country has the most insane drivers! I wonder how they manage to avoid accidents." I was quick to learn that they do not.
Despite the various explanations for turning lights off at night (which I still don’t really think is a good idea despite the perception of being "polite") and the addition of traffic lights, the jury is still out on the question of whether Koreans are the best drivers on Earth or the worst. The arguments for both sides are that if they were the best drivers, they wouldn’t drive like that, but if they were the worst drivers, they would all be dead by now. I’m sure the answer lies somewhere between the two extremes. Regardless, Koreans, as a whole are not much different than the average Utah driver, and a whole lot better than most Idaho drivers.
Three days later, I saw my first major traffic accident as we taxied along the highway between Ulsan and Kyoungju. We passed a major traffic accident and the taxi driver laughed. That was a little unnerving.
Two days after that, being my seventh day in the country, September 28, 1988, I woke up well after 7:00 a.m. I staggered into the main room and heard one of the other missionaries complaining about something. It turned out that someone had broken into our house during the night and burgled us. My brand new briefcase was stolen along with my language study materials, dictionary, books, passport photos, and camera.
The aforementioned incidents, let alone the lack of sleep due to the mourning rituals being conducted in the house adjacent to ours for the father who hung himself because of gambling debts, could have soured my attitude toward everything about this country and its people. However, a quick assessment of the situation made me realize that I was pretty lucky. It could have been a lot uglier had the same event occurred in the US.
As a direct result of this burglary, I experience my first real dose of Korean Kindness. Before the police had even left our home, the lady next door brought us a big batch of Kimchi because she felt sorry for us. SHE felt sorry for US!? This was the same lady who woke up to find her husband hanging from the chandelier less than a week earlier. We also received an invitation to have a wonderful dog soup lunch (my first, but certainly not my last).
Only two days after the burglary, while returning home, I stopped at the corner store to buy a soda pop and the owner presented me my stolen briefcase. The lock had been pried open, but everything was inside except for my camera. Apparently, someone else found it on the railroad tracks a short distance from our home.
As a quick aside, my journal reports that I was upset because the exchange rate was so bad. On October 15, 1988, the rate was KRW 703 : USD 1. It fell to KRW 686 : USD 1 shortly thereafter. Oh that we living on the Korean economy on a KRW-based salary had it that bad again.
Apart from the aforementioned incidents that got my Korean experience started off on a rather interesting foot, there were all of the little, petty things that foreigners were forced to live with at that time. No matter where you went or what you were doing, people would stare at you. No matter how much you wanted to be left alone, there was always someone who would bother you with some bit of English that they picked up in school. The kids would stare and stare and stare and stare.
Depending upon the age of the kids, they would attempt various forms of communication. The toddlers would look, point, scream, and run away crying. The little kids would look, point, and say "migook saram." The older kids (often into college) would look, point, and yell in their most abrasive tone, "OH! HELLO, MR. MONKEY!!!!" (Hello, Mr. Monkey was a quaint little pop song that someone wrote to be used as an English teaching aid). The older kids (I call them kids, but all in this category were older than me at the time) who were the college students that had graduated from the Mr. Monkey stage would look, point, and yell, "Yankee, Go Home!!"
Yes, despite all of the little quirks that made this country frustrating yet interesting to me, there was a deeper undercurrent in foreign relations than those mentioned above. 1988 and the next four years or so were a time of great social unrest. Kwangju was fresh in the minds of the people. General Roh Tae Woo, had just been enthroned into the presidency. Uncle Sam’s hand was seen as the main guiding force behind the Korean governments’ policies, including the handling of Kwangju.
Street riots and campus riots were a daily occurrence. There were very few of the "lets carry our flags down the street, beat our drums, and go home" riots that we have today. Most were the "get the riot police out here, throw a few rocks through windows, shout antigovernment and anti-American slogans, then go home" flavor of riots. A few, however, were unrestrained displays of violence resulting in massive property damage, serious injuries, and even death.
My first experience with a demonstration, affectionately called a "demo," was about two weeks or so after I arrived in Korea. I was living in the city of Ulsan. My missionary companion and I were walking down the street one evening and just as I was turning a corner near the Juriwon Department Store, and large pavement brick went sailing past my head. I turned the corner and saw several hundred riot police and several hundred students going back and forth with each other. The scene quieted down shortly after we arrived. I was like an old gunfight, just with a lot more people involved. The police were at one end of the street and the students were at the other end of the street. No one was doing anything except for the students shouting "Down with Roh Tae Woo," and "Yankee, Go Home!"
During the lull in the action, I took the opportunity to talk to one of the riot policemen. Using my two months of Korean and the help of my companion who had been in Korea for almost two years, I managed to learn a little something about society. It was explained to me that the students would throw rocks at the cops until it was time for them to enter military service. Some would become riot policemen who would spend a couple of years beating on rioting students. After they were finished being riot cops, they would return to school and start throwing rocks at the riot cops again.
I did notice that although we were two Americans standing on the sidewalk between the two sides (I did not want to miss anything by cowering in a building) no one paid any attention to us. Not even the students who were shouting "Yankee, Go Home!" gave us a second glance. However, sometimes the old riots could get out of hand and people would do really stupid things.
Take for example a different event that took place about a year after I arrived in Korea. At that time, I was living in Masan. At that time, Chondaehyop (The forerunner of Hanchongnyun), the nation-wide student organization, was actively carrying out demonstrations. There was also great labor unrest, particularly at the Hyundai car plant in Ulsan. The students had originally planned to hold a few demonstrations in a few key cities, before having a huge demon at Yonsei University. However, they thought it would be a good idea to join up with the labor leaders as a show of solidarity.
A few days before the demonstrators were to arrive in Masan, the city shut down. Incoming and outgoing traffic was limited. Anyone of student age was barred from entering the city. Riot police began pouring in by the thousands from all over the country. The news reported that the action was taken as a result of estimates that put the number of students and laborers who were planning to travel to Masan in the 50,000 person range. Security was stepped up at the military checkpoints that used to be commonplace here. Everyone, especially foreigners, were urged to stay in their homes.
Given the tight security that had been put in place in Masan, the demonstrators bypassed Masan and continued to Seoul. A day or two later, a group of Chondaehyup students managed to capture six riot policemen at a university in Seoul. The students took the policemen into a room, tied them up, gagged them, and blindfolded them. There was a standoff. The police said they would storm the building if the hostages were not released. Eventually, the police carried out their threat. However, as students fled, the doused the hostages with a flammable liquid and set them on fire. Several of the hostages died.
Despite the many negative experiences that happened to me during my first two years in Korea, they were, with very few exceptions, mainly petty things that could have happened anywhere in the world, not specifically Korea. Most of my experiences were overwhelmingly positive. Perhaps this was due to the fact that, as a missionary, I was not in "real life" situations. My schedule and activities were fairly structured with little chance of getting involved in much of anything that could lead to trouble or strife. I mean, after all, how much trouble can you get into and how many bad experiences can you have volunteering at orphanages, ministering to the sick and downtrodden, and generally doing good deeds? In addition to that, I was engaged in a work where the main idea is to do good and look for the good in others.
After the end of my two years of voluntary missionary service in July 1990, I returned to the fresh, clean air of Cache Valley, Utah, and my home nestled in the Rocky Mountains amongst the poplars, junipers, maples, rivers, streams, and meadows of Nibley. After reporting on my missionary experiences and taking of the suit, tie, and name tag, I resumed life as a normal person.
School started again and I began my junior year of university at Utah State University. On the first day of classes I met my Korean instructor, Kim Young Chul. We developed a close friendship that has lasted over the years. Within the first few months of school, Mr. Kim offered me an opportunity to return to Korea to attend Pusan National University as an exchange student representative of the newly formed sister school relationship between USU and PNU. I jumped at the chance and began making preparations to attend PNU at the start of the next academic year.
As the time to return to Korean drew near, I began to wonder what it would be like when I got there. What would be different? What new experiences would I have? What adventures awaited me now that I would not have a missionary name tag or any restrictions on where I could go and what I could do. I would be completely on my own without anyone watching over my shoulder. I wondered whether I would be treated differently by Koreans now that I was no longer a missionary. Would I return again from Korea with a different attitude than the first time I left the country.
Little did I know the adventures that would befall me during my next stay in Korea?…
The second time around, I was ready. I knew what I needed to pack. I knew where I needed to go. I knew what to expect. As I sat in the terminal watching the crew load the meals aboard the KAL flight, I was at peace. I was returning to familiar territory. I had spent the entire two years of my mission in the Pusan area. As such, I had some familiarity with the city; I knew where the theaters, international market, bus terminals, beach, and Texas street (for good clothes shopping) were located. I spoke the language. I understood the culture. What more could I possibly need? How about a place to stay for the first two months before school started. Heck, I could worry about a place to stay later. I had a plane to catch.
Here is an amusing tidbit that I saw on the Korea Herald open forum board:
let all the Piggish GIs be punched on their nose..and become roasted!!!!!
Well…It’s nice to know that we are all acting like grown ups and engaging in meaningful and adult discourse.
According to this article in the Korea Times, the US would like to see all of Korea become one huge free economic zone.
I’m serious! Really!!
Let us take a closer look at this brilliant piece of comedic writing.
An American official on Tuesday said South Korea should open up its economy if the government hopes to achieve its bold project of evolving into the business hub of Northeast Asia.
While most of the economic powers of the developed world would see this as an obvious truth, one only needs to look at headlines or the realities of the all give and no take of the Korean economic market to realize that the Korean markets are more tightly closed than a …er… than a something that is really tightly closed.
Kurt W. Tong, minister-counselor for economic affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Korea, made the comment at the Inchon Economic Community Forum, held at the port city’s Paradise Olympus Hotel.
And why he made those comments knowing that his great-grandchildren will likely die of old age before anything like that ever happens is a mystery. Perhaps he was just attempting to lighten the mood with a little humor. Perhaps he doing some sort of Candid Camera thing and had a hidden camera installed to record the reactions of people to certain absurd pipe-dream statements.
"A key question for us on Wednesday is how Korea will respond _ by turning inward _ or by further liberalizing its economy, removing trade and investment barriers and opening itself more completely to the world,” Tong said.
Gee, Mr. Tong, what do you think? Korea turn further inward and become more protectionist? NEVER!!!!!! (Please reread that last bit with the intended dripping sarcasm). Removing trade and investment barriers? Are you kidding? Just look at the headlines from the past few weeks: Movie screen quotas for domestic film are here to stay. Free trade agreements with Chile result in riots with farmers throwing rotten starfish. The US if forced to scrap plans for steel tariffs to protect the US industry. Then of course there is the ever-present opening of rice markets arguments that Koreans are happy and really enjoy paying 4 times more than they should for rice. Competitive advantage means nothing.
"Our own experience, of course, argues strongly for the latter course.”
Of course the US experience shows that the latter course is the best way to go, but guess where you are not? America! A few years ago I taught two courses at the Korea National Maritime University on the WTO and WTO trade dispute resolution. I desperately tried to pound home the explanation as to why it is better for the US to produce agricultural products on its vast tracts of fertile lands than it is for Korea to produce the same crops on a pile of rocks where all food and 40 million people compete for the same 25% of the land. I also tried to explain why it is better for the highly-skilled low-wage Koreans to make semiconductors and other electronics rather than it is for the over paid US union workers to do the same job. Nothing. Nothing at all. I kept getting the same answer,
The minister-counselor, however, expressed his concerns at the strong anti-globalization voice emerging in the country and warned it could deal a serious blow to South Korea’s economy.
I do not think that there has been a strong anti-globalization voice emerging in Korea. I believe it has always been here. Korea is not called the Hermit Kingdom for nothing. Japan has been open for about 500 years. Koreans stopped killing missionaries and other foreigners only a little over 100 years ago. A good example of this anti-globalization view is the reaction to the IMF. Korea wanted tens of billions of dollars, but they wanted it without conditions. They did not want anyone telling them how to do business. The could not understand why the IMF was insisting on banking reforms, investment reforms, transparency, and other globalization-related reforms as a condition to receiving the money. In fact it almost became as if the IMF was the evil party. It became the IMR Crisis, not the Decades of Protectionist, Elitist, Unethical, and Generally Crappy Business Practices of Koreans Crisis. Koreans talk about that times as "when the IMF came," not as the time "when we created a situation where we had to be helped by the IMF." History is doomed to repeat itself here, as I do not believe that the Koreans still fully grasp and comprehend why their economy collapsed.
"It is also fair to say that some powerful Koreans want to turn the clock back, and the Korean political system as a whole is showing troubling signs of allowing these backward-looking interests to retard progress in opening and reform,”
Retard is bad choice of words. It would have been better to say that these interests completely halt progress. It does not slow progress, it halts it completely.
Tong said. "This is worrisome, because economies that are too rigid and inflexible will not withstand globalization; they will be broken by it.”
Again, things are working at cross-purposes here. The US wants Korea to become globalized. Koreans do not want globalization. Globalization to Koreans does not mean give and take. To Koreans, Globalization means that Korea wants the world to take everything that Korea has to offer, but does not want to be forced to take anything in return. Look at the number of Korean cars in the US compared to the number of US cars in Korea.
He made no secret of his country’s real intent in welcoming Korea’s business hub plan because it will entail more economic liberalization and provide American companies with more opportunities to enter the Korean market.
"The United States, for one, strongly supports Korea’s idea of transforming itself into an economic hub for Northeast Asia. We applaud this concept because creating an economic hub in Korea would require policy changes that would both liberalize and open up Korea’s economy and create more opportunities for U.S. companies,” he said.
Again, why would Koreans want to help the US economy? Why would Korea want to create more opportunities for US companies? As new Korea blogger Mingi points out, Professor Yu Gyu Chang of Sookmyung Women’s University explains the problem with Korean negotiation and compromise to The Economist Intelligence Report as follows: There is no concept in Korea of a win-win solution to disputes, both sides always try and defeat the other. Brilliant self-assessment.
Tong proposed that all of Korea turn into a free economic zone. "We worry that the regulatory changes proposed for those (free economic) zones will remain limited to them, and not help improve the environment in the country as a whole.”
Of course, Mr. Tong, that is the whole point of the limited economic zones. They only want to give the appearance of change and globalization without actually having to do anything about it.
The official, however, cautioned South Korea will face strong challenges in reaching their goal and urged the country to build a flexible labor market on top of various reform measures and deregulation.
"Frankly speaking, Korea’s neighbors in Northeast Asia are not going to allow it to develop into the business hub of the region without a fight,” Tong said. "If Korea wants to succeed as a regional hub, it needs to be better than the competition.”
The only way that this will be accomplished is first to convince Koreans that they are not already better than the competition. You regularly read headlines here about how Korea outdoes one of its neighbors in some way or another related to business. We are operating in a society that already thinks it is the best in the region and knows exactly how to do everything correctly.
He said this means offering a stable business environment with a transparent regulatory processes,
Pound your head against a brick wall some more on this point. It improved slightly under pressure from the IMF, but things are still very dark. It is astounding how many companies keep two or three different sets of accounting books and how much paperwork gets lost at important times.
improved corporate governance,
Hey mouse, would you please guard this cheese?
reduced government interference
Government is so deeply involved in the regulations that even the jaws of life would have a hard time removing it from the picture. There are always new regulations and laws to thwart competition and control business. One example is a law prohibiting phone companies from subsidizing the price of mobile phones for purchasers because it was causing too much competition between companies. Too much competition? What does that mean?
and better intellectual property rights protections.
How about any semblance of copyright protection?
"Korea also needs to allow firms more flexibility in the hiring and firing of workers, and needs to seek more constructive relations between management and workers generally. These are problems that cut across economic sectors and discourage potential investors.”
The government wants these things. Allegedly. The government tries, but the workers and the labor unions will not cooperate at all. The workers and unions actively oppose the government through outright violence, the government then caves to the demands of the workers and unions, and nothing gets done. Until the Government can get the backbone to follow through with its plans, the workers and unions will continue to dictate policy to the government and change will be impossible.
Tong called on South Korea to take a more positive stance toward trade liberalization in the World Trade Organization. He lauded the nation’s efforts at the Doha Development Round but lashed out at its recalcitrance at Cancun over the farming sector opening.
Regarding the free trade agreements (FTA), the official recommended South Korea forge as much as such pacts as possible. "Intensifying Korea’s efforts to negotiate bilateral FTA’s, particularly in Northeast Asia, would give businesses confidence that Korea will keep its economy heading in the direction of greater opening.”
He said he took note of the announcement in Bangkok that South Korea and Japan plan to negotiate a bilateral FTA within two years, and that Korea and Singapore hope to close their negotiations within one year. "We believe that strong economic ties between South Korea and its neighbors, based on cooperation between free market economies, would be to the benefit of all those active in the global economy,” Tong concluded.
I will believe these things when I see them. This whole process is nothing but an exercise in futility. Nothing will change, indeed nothing can change until Korea realizes that they can learn things from other economies and the Korean workers and citizens realize that it is possible to have a win-win situation, and until they learn and accept that what may be difficult and painful in the short term will ultimately be good for them and for their country’s economy.
College Scholastic Aptitude Test Claims Another Victim
The tragedy of the Korean CSAT tests is that the numbers of dead and injured students continue to increase. Another young girl has tried to end her life due to poor performance on the tests.
According to Yonhap, an 18 year-old girl jumped from the 15th floor of an apartment building because of low scores. According to the article she "fortunately" landed in some trees, which broke her fall…sort of. She was admitted to a nearby hospital in critical condition with massive internal injuries and numerous broken bones throughout her body.
Congratulations again, Korea. This years CSAT tally: 5 dead, 1 critically injured.
Related stories:
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Last Friday, approximately 20 constructions workers were injured as they attempted to demolish a building in Seoul. Residents of the building scheduled for destruction turned violent and attacked the workers. The Buan riots stunned me with the people’s use of scythes and slingshots to battle well-protected policemen. However, the shock of that incident has worn off and has been replaced by disgust and horror after reading the Joongang Ilbo article stating that the building residents used much more serious weapons.
There is a high possibility that a rifle was used . . . Residents of the shantytown wield[ed] large slingshots that fired golf balls, steel and glass marbles and bottles filled with acid.
The residents deny that any such weapons were used but several construction workers were treated for wounds sustained when projectiles pierced the steel container they were in. Once worker had a "steel marble" removed from his calf. Additionally:
Police have seized bottles presumed to have held acid, steel marbles and metal scraps and golf balls collected by the construction workers at the site.
Another article in the Joongang Ilbo details the confrontation:
Residents said the confrontation began at 8 a.m., when more than 200 workers hired by Kyeonghyang Construction came to the site in Sangdo 2-dong, Dongjak-gu.
As the workers moved in to order the residents out and demolish the slum, about 20 residents challenged them. As the fight grew, the construction workers turned a fire hose on the angry residents, spraying them from a container that had been lifted by a crane 15 meters (yards) off the ground. The residents shook the hose until the container fell.
The demonstrators responded with firebombs, and the workers tried to flee the area. The residents also used large slingshots to fire golf balls at the workers. Flames quickly engulfed the area, and several of the workers received burns. Firefighters were called to extinguish the blaze. The battle intensified again when the shantytown militants took 10 workers hostage, holding them for more than two hours.
This is not a protest or demonstration. This is nothing short of attempted murder. Shaking a hose until a container full of people falls from a crane, shooting at the crane with rifles, using slingshots to launch pieces of steel and golfballs at unprotected workers, hurling firebombs at a container full of people, and throwing acid bombs?? ACID BOMBS???? Damnit! Where is the humanity in that?
Other links about Korean demonstrations:
Buan residents use scythes and chains.
Farmers hurl rotten star fish to protest free trade agreement.
Also, check out the Incestuous Amplification blog to get Kevin’s take on the Buan demonstrations.
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