Ruminations in Korea

We’ve all see them. The little white right angles painted all over the streets. Some intersections are full of them. These lines identify the locations of accidents.

I remember when I bought my first car in Korea. My insurance agent brought me the proof of insurance, some information, and a free gift. The gift was a small can of paint. The paint was to keep in the car in case it was needed to mark the location of an accident. Korea has one of the highest car accident ratios of any country in the world.

According to a Harvard University paper written by two Koreans, traffic-related injures are the 4th leading cause of death in Korea, after cancer, stroke, and heart disease (I thought kimchi and green tea were supposed to prevent all of those). When broken down, as of the year 2000, traffic accidents were the number one cause of death among people aged 0 - 29, the number two cause of death to people in their 30s, and the third leading cause of death for people in their 40s. In the year 2000, there were 10,236 traffic-related deaths and 426,984 traffic-related injury. Assuming a population of 40,000,000 people, this breaks down to 1 out of every 93 people was injured in a traffic accident in the year 2000. Broken down even futher, that means that someone is injured in a car accident approximately every 70 seconds.

Traffic accident happen a lot. When people get in car accident, after the shouting and/or shoving has stopped, the drivers will break out their little cans of paint and mark off the position of each corner of the car on the road, the direction the car was traveling and sometimes the license plate numbers of the cars. Then, the will move the cars off the road to allow traffic to continue to flow.

Occasionally, you will see a stick figure of a person or the outline of a body, which usually means that is where the dead body was laying after the accident.

In the following video, I talk about the outlines, I almost get hit by a car that ran a red light, and I find the outlines of a fatal scooter accident.

Click here to listen to the Dokdo Rider Blues

The little bits of rock islands of Dokdo, which continue to be a diplomatic issue for Japan and a life-or-death, nationalistic struggle for Korea, are in the news again.

South Korea launched a research vessel from here in Pusan to antagonize Japan conduct research. The Japanese Coast Guard chased the vessel. The vessel finished its antagonization research and is returning to port.

With that bit of news, I feel the need to check in on the Dokdo Riders. When last we left the Dokdo Riders, they were meeting the East Bay Rats Motorcycle Club and preparing to ride to Texas. Updates coming soon.

In order to celebrate the return of the Dokdo Riders to my blog and the public conscience, I have recorded a song that I call “Dokdo Rider Blues.”

Click here to listen to the Dokdo Rider Blues
To save bandwidth, please right-click the link or picture and save the link/target to your hard drive.

Lyrics:

Now tell me where my Dokdo Rider’s gone?
Won’t you tell me where my Dokdo Rider’s gone?
Well, everywhere these Japanese are always wrong.

Dokdo rider, he ride out on the road.
Dokdo rider, he ride out on the road.
I’m a poor boy here and I got nowhere to go.

There will be a time when we don’t need no Japan.
There will be a time when we don’t need no Japan.
So shut your mouth and don’t be raisin’ no sand.*

Bike I ride don’t burn no fuel at all**
Bike I ride don’t burn no fuel at all
The fuel I’s burnin’ some say is the cannonball

I went to the Island and put my old flag down.
I went to the Island and put my old flag down.
Dokdo blues overtake me and tears come rollin’ down.

Island I love it must be Korea land.
Island I love, it must be Korea land.
People say it’s Takeshima, and my face it in a terrible frown

I know a guy he protestin’ all of the time.
I know a guy he’s protestin’ all of the time.
Man if you don’t stop protesting you goin’ lose your mind.

Said fair brown what the matter now?
Said fair brown what the matter now?
Japan tryin’ to take my island and he don’t know how.

*“Raisin’ sand” is a blues term that means “causing trouble”, “making problems,” or “arguing.”

** This is a fairly inuendo-ridden sentence. In blues terminology “ride” is very commonly used to refer to an intimate act. “Cannonball” is used similarly.

Late last night I was reading Korean news. Story after story after story was about the World Cup and how Korea was unfairly ousted from the tournament because of a perceived bad call by a referee. The more I read about alleged errors, conspiracies, charges of bribery, etc., something inside of me snapped and the words began to flow, and within minutes I had the first and ony draft of the “Referee Blues”.

While this is certainly no comparison to the “F***ing USA” song that some Koreans produced following an incident of perceived injustice and incorrect officiating during the 2002 Olympics, it is my own little tribute to the 2006 World Cup.

To listen, PLEASE, for the sake of bandwidth, right click on the following link or picture, select “save target as” and save the file to your hard drive before listening.

Click here to listen:

Lyrics:

Hey there, referee. How can it be
You penalize Team Korea
No one else gets penalties?
That bad man. That cruel referee.

The Koreans told the referee
Please call the Swiss offsides.
We need this offsides badly.
‘Cuz we waited all our lives.
That bad man. That cruel referee.

What care I ’bout you babies
or the training all your life?
You and your coach Advocaat
Can’t seem to place blame right.
That bad man. That cruel referee.

Dae Han Min Gook
What that offsides flag for?
I didn’t hear no whistle blowing,
But the Koreans don’t play no more.
That bad man. That cruel referee.

Netizens all in a fury.
What you think about that?
We got 40,000,000 people
who want a piece of you.
That bad man. That cruel referee.

He stood there on the sideline
His head held way up high.
The Koreans all want to kill him.
They’d be glad to see him die.
That bad man. That cruel referee.

It has been a long time since my last audio blog.  There have been a million things going on that were preventing me from doing another one.  However, a lot of those problems and distractions have gone away.  So, I thought it was about time to make another audioblog post.

This is my first attempt at a mobile audioblog.  My previous audioblogs were done in a room with my studio recording equipment. This one was recorded on my Palmpilot, my Palm LifeDrive.

Click here to listen to my latest audioblog. 

Pictures will follow soon.