Category: Politics, Economics & Current Affairs

Caveat: The big f엌ing deal

Philosophy & Cultural Criticism / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs

I want to say something about Obama's healthcare reform.  And don't blame me for the title – that's what Joe Biden calls it, and he's probably right, too.

I was reading Andrew Sullivan's blog at The Atlantic, and he said something in passing about the fact that if Obamacare is successful, it will improve his overseas popularity.  This is exactly right.  In fact, I would hazard a guess that it will improve his popularity a great deal more in foreign countries than in the U.S.  If this healthcare reform passes, I would like to suggest that that single action will do more "cancel out" the bad image W's invasion of Iraq gave of the U.S. than any possible Iraq exit-strategy.

How is this possible?  It's because for the most part, in most parts of the developed world, the U.S.'s refusal to have comprehensive, universal healthcare is not only puzzling, it's downright weird.  I can only speak from the example of South Korea, where I am now, but I think it's same when looked at from Japan, Australia, Canada, or Europe, too.  No one in Korea, no matter how conservative, questions the government's important role in providing healthcare to citizens. It's part of being civilized.  So Koreans are often shocked and dismayed when I begin trying to explain the lack of universal coverage in the U.S., and even more disturbed by the notion that it's been a sufficiently unpopular idea that it still may not pass. 

So Obama, by passing healthcare, will give the U.S. a newfound patina of rationality in the eyes of foreigners like Koreans.  And that, in turn, can improve U.S. credibility, which has been so badly damaged by Bush's unilateralist tendencies in the area of foreign policy.  Thus a strictly domestic policy move on the part of Obama's administration will, I predict, actually have more impact in the area of foreign policy than anyone realizes.  And thus it is that Hillary Clinton still has a vested career interest in healthcare reform.

Caveat: spinning faster by 1.26 microseconds per day

Politics, Economics & Current Affairs / Science & SciFi

I read an article in the LA times recently that said that the recent giant earthquake in Chile shortened earth’s day by 1.26 microseconds. Somehow, the adjustment to the distribution of mass for the planet as whole was such that the earth began to spin a tiny bit faster, kind of like a spinning ice-skater pulling in his or her legs to spin faster.

1.26 microseconds isn’t much. In something short of a million years, we’ll lose one day, because of it. Plan your calendars accordingly. And it’ll make a good excuse, if you’re late for work.
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Caveat: More neverminding

Banalities & Journaling / Life in Korea / Philosophy & Cultural Criticism / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs

Normally, I try to change themes with each new post. But this racism thing seems to have opened a can of worms – not so much among others, as in my own mind – although I’ve received some feedback, too.  

My friend Christine wrote a long comment in an email to me, which she sent to me right as I was posting my first “nevermind” (previous post). She said things that surprisingly matched what I wrote in that post, but one thing she said that I didn’t address stands out.  I will quote the relevant paragraph:

I would never defend racism, especially after my own experiences with them. But honestly, after all the racial slurs / comments I’ve heard in America towards non-whites (and many directed at me), I don’t feel like Koreans’ racist views are all that unique, only disturbing in how comfortable they are in them. But you know…if you want to see things as cause and effect rather than good or bad, Korea’s own idea of race will probably change as they become economically wealthier, better known globally, thus inadvertently attracting other races to move to Korea. 

I think this is a very important perspective, and it’s surprising to me that I didn’t include some mention of this before, in either my original post or in my subsequent apology. Surprising to me, because, in fact, I’ve talked about this idea very often with friends (probably with Christine, more than once, last year): Korea is changing rapidly, including in its attitudes about race. I’ve said before that actually, I believe Korea may be better positioned, culturally, to become a country that welcomes immigrants than any of its neighbors, e.g. especially Japan or Taiwan, which are the countries it most resembles socio-economically at this point.

And if Korea is going to be welcoming immigrants, that implies strongly that it’s going to be dealing with its blatant racists in some way or another… much as Europe has been struggling, not to mention the U.S., over its long historical cycles of immigrant-welcoming and immigrant-bashing.

What I most want to make clear is that even in my anger, in my original post, I realized that the racists in Korea are not the majority. And my conclusion, now, is that they’re really no more numerous than in other places. They’re only more visible, because of the lack of social constraint on the open expression of such ideas.

Perhaps the same analysis could be applied to one of my other personal conflicts with Korean culture: ageism. This is one which negatively affects me much more directly than the issue of racism (which, given the bias toward people of northern European descent, actually favors me, in a majorly guilt-inducing way – see also the “charisma man” phenomenon, from Japan). I wonder if, like what I’m saying about racism, Koreans are only more open about age-related biases that, in fact, exist within and across most world-cultures, these days: the youth-worship, the superficial-beauty-cult (with respect to both woman and men), etc.

These tendencies are deeply embedded in the output of the world media machine(s) (i.e. Hollywood) , which Koreans happily consume, just like Americans. If anything, we should be looking for the origins of Koreans’ worship of youth, superficial beauty, as well as their preference for pale skin and blue eyes, not in Korean culture, but in the Western paradigms they’re avidly consuming.

More later.

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Caveat: Nevermind about the rant

Banalities & Journaling / Life in Korea / Philosophy & Cultural Criticism / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs

Well, somewhat. In my previous post from earlier today, I was angry, and so I ranted about Korean racism. Riding the bus back to Suwon, I had an insight: maybe Koreans are no more racist than Americans. Which is to say, I would guess that there are probably just as many racist Americans as a percentage of total population as there are racist Koreans. Not a majority, but probably a scarily large subset of the total population.

The difference is more subtle. Americans who happen to be racist are raised, nearly from birth, to be circumspect about their racist attitudes. They come to understand that there are real consequences for openly expressing their feelings, from ridicule to lawsuits to criminal prosecution. So they learn to be circumspect. Koreans, who live in a largely homogeneous culture, have little reason to be circumspect about such attitudes. “Good” race or “bad” race, it’s all the same, mostly: just a bunch of foreigners – so openly expressing one’s positive or negative opinions about them is no big deal. So racist Americans are stealth-racists, while racist Koreans are in-your-face racists. Maybe there’s actually something positive in that, as there is in any kind of transparency. Certainly, at the least, it’s clear whom to avoid.

That doesn’t change my feeling that it bothers me. A lot. But I need to be careful about what I allow to annoy me about Korean culture, lest I fall into a trap of hypocrisy. So… nevermind about the rant – at least on the charge of racism. The other comments can stand, for now. But I’m over being mad about it, I think. Sorry.
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Caveat: Language is not the same as culture (thankfully)

Banalities & Journaling / Life in Korea / Passive-Aggressive Lunatic Ravings / Philosophy & Cultural Criticism / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs

This is one instance where the “caveat,” above, is “real” – I really mean that as a caveat to what I am about to say.

I have been feeling a bit annoyed with some aspects of contemporary South Korean culture, lately. The issue that came up yesterday was perhaps just a “final straw” that pushed me into outright anger. Many Koreans are unabashedly racist. This is not the same as the mild xenophobia that I often comment on.  Korean xenophobia is something that is both historically understandable given their repeated subjugation over the centuries to the Chinese, Mongols or Japanese, as well as being something that I would characterize as essentially more naive and reflexive rather than somehow premeditated or unethical.

But many Koreans also have openly racist attitudes, which are more complex than simple xenophobia, because there are hierarchies of “good” and “bad” races. I see these as having been “imported” at some point from both Japan and the West, and more specifically, from 1930’s Japan and 1950’s America – which were the “occupiers” at those specific times. Pale Europeans, whether from Europe or North America, are near the top of the hierarchy. Koreans and Japanese are, too – although since the Japanese are the “enemy,” they get disqualified from Korean respect for different, non-racist reasons… if that makes any sense. More like a hated sibling. But to be a non-European, non-East Asian in Korea must be utter hell. That’s my speculation.

Um… I’m being disorganized, here. I’m ranting. Yesterday, talking about student exchange programs with a Korean, he mentioned something about the difficulty of placing minority American kids with Korean host families. And something like, “hopefully we can convey this sensitive issue to the Americans.”

I thought about this a bit, and felt only outrage. Why should Americans bear the responsibility for accommodating Korean racism? If Koreans want to participate in a student exchange program, it should be their sole responsibility to cope with making sure their attitudes can accommodate any possible American. That’s the only possibility that looks ethical, from my point of view.

OK. Back to the “caveat.”

I have always felt a great deal of ambivalence about some aspects of Korean culture. There’s the low-grade disrespect for rule-of-law: the never-ending stream of offers for illegal employment being just my own personal brush with this phenomenon. There’s the xenophobia, already mentioned.  There are the in-group / out-group distinctions, which can sometimes make one feel that one is living in a country inhabited exclusively by people suffering from a mild form of autism.

Then there’s the ageism. Ostensibly, Korea is a culture that honors elders. But there’s a caveat there: elders are only honored as long as they’re doing what they’re supposed to – they need to be fulfilling age-appropriate roles. Thus, I have actually been refused two interviews for teaching jobs, solely because of my age, and I was openly told that that was the reason – it’s not illegal, here, to discriminate because of someone’s age.

My love affair (if you want to call it that)… my interest… my focus… has always been an unabiding fascination for the Korean language. Unless you’re some kind of unreformed Whorfian, you will understand that culture and language aren’t the same thing.

So, I reserve my right to love the Korean language, and nevertheless harbor serious misgivings about parts of Korean culture. Which isn’t to say there aren’t parts I like, also. The food is incredible. The entrepreneurial spirit is stunning – though often repressed by the neo-confucians in the bureaucracy. The genuine generosity and kindness of most individual Koreans is undeniable.

I feel thankful that language and culture are not, in fact, the same. Otherwise, I’d feel compelled to leave, just at the moment.

Well… that is a really poorly-structured rant. But… such as it is. More later.
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Caveat: Eerie Synchronicities

Banalities & Journaling / Media (Texts/Music/Movies etc) / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs

[this is a "back-post" written 2010-03-01]

I was riding the subway on my way up to Ilsan, this afternoon.  There was a giant earthquake near Concepción, Chile.  And at almost exactly the time that the earthquake was occuring, I was reading Pinochet's chapter in his autobiography about his own experience in the January 24, 1939, earthquake in near Concepción.  Of course, I didn't realize the synchronicity until hours later, when I heard about the Chilean quake.  But it struck me profoundly.  Obviously, pure coincidence.  But still kind of eerie. 

Caveat: The Literate Dictator (Dreams of His Father[land])

Media (Texts/Music/Movies etc) / Philosophy & Cultural Criticism / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs

One of my many eccentricities is my strange fascination for the now deceased former Chilean dictator, Augusto Pinochet.  I've been carrying around and re-reading the first volume of his autobiography, "Camino Recorrido:  memorias de un soldado." 

I'm hardly an apologist.  He was a brutal dictator, and his actions on September 11, 1973, and subsequent misrule and corruption are indefensible.  But several things stand out about this man, that make him different from most historical personages of the "evil dictator" stripe. 

First, of course, is the very existence of a fairly well-written, reflective autobiography.  And although some will disagree, I'm almost certain it was not ghost-written.  Firstly, there's the fact that he was a published author (mostly in the area of social sciences and military history) prior to becoming dictator of Chile.  Not very many evil dictators moved into that latter career from academia, but arguably, Gen. Pinochet did.   Secondly, the book is too stylistically immature to be ghost-written.   What I mean, is that its tone veers from petty-defensive to philosophical to nostalgic to sociological, without much logic or consistency, yet, for all that, it's got some very well-written passages.

Secondly, there is the fact that, unlike most evil dictators, Pinochet accepted the results of a plebescite and stood down, after 15 years in power, and willingly allowed the dismantling of the undemocratic 1980 constitution that he himself had created.   Again, his late-career actions hardly excuse his behavior at the height of his rule, but… well, not all evil dictators are equally evil, perhaps.

Lastly, I for one am inclined to believe the speculation that he was not an entirely willing participant in the initial coup, despite his own efforts to rewrite history after the fact to make his role more prominent.  In essence, I believe that he attached himself "at the last minute" to the CIA's plot, because he saw the writing on the wall, and that, as bad as things were, there were few leaders in the Chilean military who would've been "better," and many, many, who would have been much worse, and much scarier.  In essence, I would argue that his role was, paradoxically, a moderating one vis-a-vis the ultraconservative establishment in Chile.

Again, it's not my intention to defend him – but having access to his autobiography, and to sit on the bus this morning reading his nostalgic prose about his high-school years in Valparaiso and his time as a cadet at the military school in Santiago in the 1930's… well, even evil dictators can be humanized.  I've always thought that there were eerie and unintended similarites between his autobiography and, for example, Garcia Marquez's El otoño del patriarca.

And, how can I deny that I relish the sheer eccentricity of being an American on a commuter bus in Seoul reading Pinochet's autobiography – it's one of those moments when you get to think:  "Wow, I bet no one has ever done this, before.  Ever."

Caveat: Trade Secrets

Internet & Blogging / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs

Apparently, five Silicon Valley giants (Google, Apple, Oracle, Applied Materials, Yahoo) have managed to convince a judge that being required to release statistics about the race and gender of their employees would reveal too much of their business strategy to competitors.  I saw this in an article inthe Mercury News.  In other words, the race and gender breakdown of their employees is some kind of trade secret.  This seems creepy, to me.

What would such statistics reveal?  That their employees include a preponderance of immigrants from Russia and India?  That they're whiter than the general population?  That there are almost no Mexicans?   That they are mostly male?  These are my personal speculations, based on experience in the IT industry.  But how could this kind of information reveal business strategy?  What weird facts would studying the statistics reveal?

These companies (well, except for Applied Materials, which I know nothing about) kind of creep me out even on good days – kind of the tech equivalents of the "banks too big to fail," perhaps.   But this is disturbing, especially in light of the fact that some other large Silicon Valley companies (including Intel, Cisco, and Sun [which has now been swallowed up by Oracle]) had no problem disclosing the same sorts of statistics.

Caveat: We made our down payment a decade ago

Banalities & Journaling / Life in Korea / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs

The other night I was discussing with my friend Seung-bae Korea's apparently rather efficacious management of the current world financial crisis – of all the OECD countries, Korea has experienced the least recession and least impact on economic statistics such as growth and recession, although there has been some inflation, linked to the somewhat-managed slow-motion "crash" of the won (currency) a year and a half ago. 

My friend Seung-bae made the following wry observation:  "we made our down payment a decade ago."  This is a reference to Korea's "IMF" crisis that occured in the wake of the 1997 Asian financial crisis.  That's true – from everything I've read, that was quite a mess.  What's perhaps disorienting or odd, at least to me, is the idea that the country's government and economic leadership may have actually learned some lessons from that experience that have allowed them to better weather the current crisis.  To me, it doesn't seem like very often that economic leadership is actually capable of learning lessons.

Caveat: Rule of Law

Banalities & Journaling / Life in Korea / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs

I think "rule of law" is important. 

I have been depressed and alarmed, of late, by the number of offers for illegal employment.  I realize that this is an endemic problem in Korea, and I will acknowledge that the often inconsistent and bizarre application of the poorly designed laws that surround employment of foreigners in Korea probably encourages the practices in question.

But it's just frustrating.  I think one area where Korea's made so much progress in recent decades is in "cleaning up" its reputation for corruption.   It's part of what has led to its remarkable growth and new-found prosperity, too.  Although that's an unsubstantiated opinion. 

Basically, people find out I'm looking for a job, and they make offers for me to teach English (as a tutor or as a classroom teacher) in exchange for cash – without getting a regular work visa and without participating in the formal economy.  On the one hand, my sympathy for the situation of "illegal immigrants" in the US causes me to question my own discomfort with these sorts of arrangements, but I worry a great deal that the Korean immigration authorities are sufficiently competent that if I were ever to be caught, their system of deportation and blacklisting for illegal workers would essentially ban me for life from Korea – I like it here too much to want that to happen.

But there's a broader philosophical concern:  I truly believe in the importance of rule of law.  I'm not going to make the outrageous claim that I'm a 100% law-abiding citizen.  Clearly not.  There are the occasional downloads.  The jaywalking.  The 10 miles-an-hour over-the-speed-limit.  And, when traveling in Latin America, things get much more problematic than that, very quickly.  I've paid bribes to border officials in Central America, for example.  And to cops in Mexico, in the 80's.  Most famously, in my own life, is the fact that my work in Mexico in the 80's was irregular – it was, essentially, the "gringo's revenge," because I was an illegal immigrant in Mexico, working a hotel job without visa or paperwork.

These are part of existing in societies made of imperfect laws.  But, in general, I feel badly about these violations.  I make rationalizations about why they've occured.  I suppose, I could easily make rationalizations about working illegally in Korea, if it came to that.   But I really think that one should make at least some degree of effort to "follow the rules" even when they appear illogical and inconsistent – as Korea's immigration and work-permitting processes so clearly do.

It's one thing to race across the street between crosswalks late at night when the light refuses to change.  It's another, somehow, to take envelopes of cash from people who feel their government places undue restriction on their ability to hire "foreigners."  Maybe the difference has to do with where the petty violations become unduly wrapped up in financial gain – something like the difference between illegal downloading for personal use, which feels OK, and illegal downloading for financial gain, which feels wrong.  Is this irrational?  Probably.  But it's pretty much the way I seem to draw the line, in my own mind.

Caveat: Institutionalized Infantalism

Banalities & Journaling / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs

Like most, I'm disappointed with Obama.  It's hard for me to explain why or how – I actually didn't have as high hopes for him as so many of his supporters apparently did.  I saw him as a consummate politician, an insider, and viewed the rhetoric of hope and change as nothing more than that:  rhetoric.  Still, even in that light, I feel dismayed.

A recent blog entry by Jason Linkins at Huffington Post perhaps expressed my frustrations fairly clearly.  He wrote:

I'm particularly struck by the way this proposal [the 3-year spending freeze on certain symbolic sectors of the federal budget] marks a return to the institutionalized infantilism that so defined the Bush presidency. One of the most significant things that Obama promised to do during the campaign was to simply level with the American people — deal with them in straightforward fashion, tell the hard truths, make the tough choices, and go about explaining his decisions as if he were talking to adults. But this plan is so lacking in fundamental seriousness that it cannot be said to play any part of a mature exchange of ideas.

My primary optimism with respect to Obama was merely that he seemed quite intelligent and reasonably honest, and that would have been a nice change from the business-as-usual:  either intelligent or honest but never both in the same president, thank you.

It's almost as if somehow politcs will render otherwise honest people dishonest, or otherwise intelligent people stupid.  And thus it goes…

Caveat: What, me worry?

Life in Korea / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs

So, the revanchist Globally Dynamic and Xenophobic Cosmopolis had a little border skirmish with their annoying revanchist neighbor, the Insanely Autarkic Hermit Kingdom, involving artillery and machine guns.  Oh… some 50 km northwest of Ilsan.  Two very different brothers, squabbling in the back seat of the car, over where the dividing line lies.

Is it scarier than living in Los Angeles?   Not really.

Caveat: all the buddhas died

Media (Texts/Music/Movies etc) / Philosophy & Cultural Criticism / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs / Quotable

I was reading the Economist, yesterday.  Apparently, Tsutomu Yamaguchi died.  He was one of the very few "double survivors" of the US's atomic bombing of Japan in 1945 — meaning, he survived Hiroshima, and then, 4 days later, survived Nagasaki.  What I was struck by were some bits of his poetry, quoted in the magazine:

Carbonised bodies face-down in the nuclear wasteland

all the Buddhas died,

and never heard what killed them.


Caveat: La derecha gana en Chile

Politics, Economics & Current Affairs

It's been 20 years since Pinochet yielded power in Chile, and the vaguely leftist Concertacion has won every presidential election since.  I say "vaguely" leftist because, for all their rhetoric, they did not significantly challenge the status quo as established during the dictorship:  Chile retained a neo-liberal economy.  Nevertheless, I was impressed with how the Concertacion, over the years, managed better than most Latin American countries to hang on to a commitment to some kind of social safety net, how they refused to privatize the state-owned copper industry (which is Chile's international income cash cow), and invested, at least a little, in education.

When I studied there in 1994, the dictatorship was still fresh in people's minds, and yet Pinochet could have received 40% of the vote in an open election — which is to say, he was still popular on the right.  Much has changed since then, including the revelations of his financial corruption.  Watching Chilean politics from afar, I was often concerned that the Concertacion was turning Chile into one of those "single-party democracies" a la Mexico under the PRI or Japan under the Liberal Democrats.  So in some ways, I find Piñera's election reassuring — it means there's some kind of real alternation of power going on.

Chile is very interesting, to me.  Aside from having studied there, it's clearly a unique and interesting country from a socioeconomic perspective, over the last 30 years.  It has leaped from middling status among Latin American countries to the very top in economic terms:  they are the wealthiest country south of the US border in GDP terms, now (except maybe Costa Rica?), and recently joined the OECD, a distinction they share only with Mexico (which joined more because of its proximity to the US and sheer size more than because they really deserved to as a "developed" nation, kind of the way Turkey was allowed to join).

Anyway, I doubt (hope not) Piñera will be changing the social contract significantly.  The outgoing president, Bachellet, has implemented some promising reforms in education and civil liberties, helping to cement the Concertacion's "clean-up" of the dregs of the Pinochet era. 

Someday, I need to go back.  Congratulations, Chile, on a successful, peaceful alternation of power.

Caveat: “the ashtrays aren’t even full yet!”

Banalities & Journaling / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs / Quotable / Science & SciFi

My friend Gerry (of Teulon, Manitoba), whom I visited today, is an astronomer and "space geek."   The very moment I pulled into his driveway, he accosted me and pointed upward and said, "there goes the International Space Station, just in time to see it!"

Sure enough, the glowing object was passing directly overhead, zooming along.  To my uninformed eyes, if I'd seen it without that introduction, I'd have thought it was just some airplane. 

Anyway, a little bit later we were talking about the ISS because it showed up in the news on the television that we were sitting and watching, in his living room.  And he was complaining about NASA's shortsightedness in wanting to end the program and shut it down.  He was talking about the Russians having showed interest in taking it over and continuing to maintain it, if the US gave it up, and he explained the Russian perspective memorably, saying, "… but the ashtrays aren't even full, yet!"  That sounded so stereotypically Russian, and it made me laugh very hard, conjuring up the image of a bunch of Russian cosmonauts sneaking cigaratte breaks on the space station when those uppity Americans finally weren't around.

Hmmm, aside from the fire and health hazard, are there other possible issues with smoking in space?

["back-post":  posted 2009-11-20]

Caveat: Immigration Risk

Banalities & Journaling / Hiking & Travel / Philosophy & Cultural Criticism / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs

I crossed the border into Canada, today. Barely.
I spent two hours being intensively interviewed by a Canadian border official. It turned out that they had decided I was an “immigration risk.” Yes, that was the term used.
I was meticulously honest about my life. I prefer to operate that way, with officialdom. But I could offer “no fixed US address,” I had a passport full of exotic stamps, no “proof of current employment,” a truck full of “junk” (things I’ve been carrying around with me to sort through along with some books I collected in Arcata), and, probably most alarmingly, a bumper sticker reading “migration is a human right” (yes, I really believe this, and I’ve written about it before in my blog).
The potentially offending sentiment:
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I really didn’t think about these things. I’ve entered Canada so many times, in life, and they’ve almost always hassled me about one thing or another (always very politely, as that’s the Canadian way), but in the past it was always because they were worried about drugs or some kind of customs-related thing. Or who knows.
In fact, I’ve probably crossed at the I-29/MB75 crossing at least six times. And I’ve done my recent travels in Asia and to Australia last year utterly effortlessly, when it came to border crossings. Japan to Korea by boat was easier than England to France – they asked me no questions, despite the fact that I’d prepared a complicated explanation for returning as a tourist only 10 days after the expiration of my work visa, which I was worried would raise alarm bells.
Well, so… anyway. The Canadians didn’t want me to immigrate. The man was very nice, but very firm, and I was deferential and scrupulously honest. He wrote it all down – I’m thinking of going back and offering him a job as my ghost writer for my autobiography, because he really got quite detailed. “You have to see it from my point of view,” he said, and I nodded sagely.
I offered to go online and show them receipts from my storage unit in Minneapolis, the ticket back to Korea that I’d recently paid for, this blog, even, where they could spend time reading about my vacillations about future plans over the past year or so, but could clearly discover that immigrating to Canada was NOT one of the many options I’d been contemplating.
But they strongly resisted the idea that I lived my life “online,” and they couldn’t seem to understand that I didn’t carry paper copies of these things. I finally sighed, and said, “well, I guess it’s not that important to visit my friend in Winnipeg, it was a kind of spontaneous, impulsive decision, anyway. How about I just turn around and go back into the US?”
The friendly Canadian went off to have a “little meeting” with some of his coworkers, or supervisor, or something. Or maybe he googled me – that’s what I would have done, maybe. To try to check me out.
I sat and pondered what would end up happening if I turned around and then had to pass through US border controls. The US people are always hard-asses anyway, and much less polite than the Canadians, and I began to visualize trying to explain to them that the Canadians had rejected me. That would, of course, set off alarm bells with the Americans. I started developing a little scenario where I lived out some weeks or months in my little truck, parked in the no-man’s land between the Canadian and US border control stations on the Manitoba / North Dakota border, because neither country would let me in.
And then the big, burly, boy-scout-freckled Canadian waved me over and said, very seriously, “we’ve decided we trust you. I’m giving you a one month visa.” And he stamped my passport. And then proceeded to try to convince me to stay more than just one night in Winnipeg, which is what I’d told him my plans were, because, after all, he said, “there’s a lot of fun things to do in Winnipeg.” Really. He said this.
And then, like a latter-day Colombo (70’s TV police drama), he held up a finger and said, “Just one more question.”
I smiled, “Sure, anything.”
“Why was it, again, that you said you had all this stuff in your truck?”
Here we go again, I thought. I began to give, with more detail than before, the story of how I had landed at Minneapolis, and preliminary to driving to California, I had collected some boxes of stuff to “sort through” on my travels.  He said OK, but nodded skeptically.
I shook his hand, went back out to my truck, and drove away from the setting prairie sun, toward Winnipeg.
My friend Gerry said that, on the contrary, it wasn’t the bumper sticker that freaked them out;  it was the laundry basket! “People don’t travel with laundry baskets. Only people who are moving carry laundry baskets.” Hmm… is this a Canadian proverb?
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Caveat: Tagging on the 10

Found Online / Media (Texts/Music/Movies etc) / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs

See video embedded below:  take some geeks, a lot of hardware and software and do some crazy coding.  Mix that together with some quadriplegics who got attitude.  And go out "tagging" on the 10 freeway.  As I understand it, it's a sort of "virtual tagging" that doesn't involve real paint, but I'm unclear as to whether the images are projected onto the real objects in real time (i.e. using something like an lcd projector of the sort ubiquitous now in business meetings for showing powerpoint presentations), or whether it's a matter of manipulating the video signal of the scene/surface in question after the fact.  Either way, it's a strange, unique, entertaining way to spend a lot of money and time.   The video is on a site called vimeo.com.  I like the content on the site, but the streaming rate, at least from where I sit currently in South Korea, is horrendously terrible.  

SE2 EP4 – Eyewriter Tempt LA from Evan Roth on Vimeo.

Caveat: What about Gitmo

Banalities & Journaling / Internet & Blogging / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs

The Obama administration has proven disappointing in lots of ways, so far, although it's early to pass judgement.  But one thing I'm surprised about is how stymied they seem over the Guantanamo issue.  There was a proposal by someone named GUÉNAËL METTRAUX in a recent New York Times that seemed like a plausible and workable solution to the dilemma created by Bush et al. 

In a side note… I may have to stop reading the New York Times online… more and more, I'm getting "you have to pay for this section" or "you have to be registered for this section" notifications.  It's annoying.  I quit reading the Washington Post for a similar reason.  Everyone says… well, papers have to support themselves.  True.   But sitting in South Korea, it's not necessarily convenient to have some kind of online subscription to a website, given unreliable access issues (due to being inside Korea's weird, unpredictable national firewall, and having a crappy DSL provider, among other things).  So I just shop around for what's convenient, I guess.

Caveat: “I want my America back!”

Banalities & Journaling / Life in Korea / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs

My contract at LBridge ends in just over two weeks. There are ways in which I'm looking forward to moving on from some of the more frustrating aspects of my job, but the truth of the matter is that I'm very much not looking forward to leaving Korea. I've been in Korea for almost two years, and I've never once felt homesick for my home country. I have felt homesick for some certain geographical or meteorological things: a California fog or a Minnesota blizzard or Lake Superior or the Chicago skyline. I have felt homesick for friends and family, sometimes. But my country, despite the election of Obama with is mandate for "change," seems downright nuts.  

Perhaps I spend too much time viewing my home country through the lens of Jon Stewart:  this recent episode underscores so many of the aspects of life in America that seem truly messed up.   I particularly enjoyed (maybe in an embarrassing schadenfreude way) the following exchange:

"I want my America back!" — Crazy lady in a townhall meeting about healthcare

"She wants her America back? Go tell that to the Indians." — Larry Wilmore

I know for absolute certainty that South Korea is no less messed up, in its own special ways… but living here as an alien, I don't have to worry about it so much.  I don't have to feel responsible.  I can look around and say, "Very interesting.  I'm sure glad this isn't my country."

Oh dear, oh dear… have I become (resumed being?  never gave up being?) one of those America-hating liberals?  I feel like a caricature.

Regardless, I'm kind of dreading my return to America.  Are things as bad there as my limited view seems to indicate?  Is there really that much acrimony, anger, and division?  Is the economy really that bad?  Have I been living in a fortuitous bubble?

Caveat: Stealthbucks

Philosophy & Cultural Criticism / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs

I guess Starbucks corporation, having made its name synonymous with brand ubiquity, is going to be experimenting with running locations under alternate brands (see this article in the Seattle Times).  Call them "stealthbucks."   They're trying to have it both ways:  mega brand identity for mass consumers seeking sameness and comfort, but also the rebellious consumers who want locality and uniqueness.  Can it work?  What other companies have successfully operated this way?  Is this a genuinely new corporate branding strategy?  There have been many cases of companies maintaining different brands for different demographics, but the idea of creating one-off brands for individual locations… that seems very subversive.

Caveat: ‘오바마스럽다’=’쿨하다’

Life in Korea / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs / 한국말을 배움 (Failing to Learn Korean)

Headline from a Korean news website, an article about how the word “Obama” becomes a synonym for a certain type of “coolness” in the U.S.  The phrase above translates, roughly, “being like Obama = being cool.”  Note the Korean verb for “being cool” is /kulhada/ [literally “to do cool“], borrowed directly from English.

Caveat: Making money from open source

Databases, Smartphones & Computers / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs

I've seen two news items that seem to me to be defining moments in the open-source software industry.   First, Microsoft is apparently contibuting to the Linux kernal, obviously therefore conforming with the GPL.   Everyone loves the irony, but my only thought is that it signals Microsoft's undeniable adaptability.  They may suck at the internet, but they're still kings in the world of actual, meaningful giant software projects (hey, even kings can sometimes still make dogs like Vista, but they've made plenty of products I definitely respect, most notably SQL Server and the .NET framework).    The other item that I thought was mildly interesting was that Red Hat, the biggest Linux distribution company out there, has now been added to the S&P500.  I wish I hadn't sold my stock.

Caveat: Libertarian Utopia

Banalities & Journaling / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs

I had kind of a bad day yesterday, as sometimes happens when I have one of my "one-day weekends" (the result of working Saturdays).   I don't know why that makes me particularly blue, but it does.  I didn't accomplish any of the things on the "to do" list.  I read some books, surfed the internet, watched part of a movie (and didn't like it enough to even finish it).  I took a long walk.

I was listening to NPR (streaming KCRW of Santa Monica) and I heard a reporter talking about working in Somalia.  Explaining that it was MUCH more dangerous than Iraq, because in Iraq, there's an occupying army trying to control things, and offering places to take refuge from the danger.  No such refuges in Somalia.  Lack of functioning government, and all that.

I didn't catch his name, and I can't confirm what he said.  But it was terribly funny, in a gallows sort of way.  He offered an anecdote about landing at the Mogadishu airport, where he was given an "entry form" or something like that to fill out.  The form only had a few questions:  Name?  Date of Birth?  Nationality?  Caliber of Weapon?

Hahaha.  "Caliber of weapon?"  It reads like something straight out of a vaguely Heinleinian future-libertarian utopia.  But we all know that Somalia is not particularly utopian.  I grow more cynical about the possible advantages of libertarianism as I get older.

Caveat: Underground Railroad

Politics, Economics & Current Affairs

There is an amazing underground railroad that exists, right now.  It moves North Koreans through China, and thence to the "outside world":  mostly to South Korea.  The politics of it is driven, like America's underground railroad of the second quarter of the 19th century, most often by people of faith.  That makes for complicated motives, and ones that I sometimes disagree with.  But the humanitarian aspect is undeniable.  Here is a compelling video about one case study.  The video is a bit melodramatic, in parts, but I think it's something people should see. 

I often make light of, and even joke about, the fact that I live within "walking distance" of a "socialist workers paradise."  I know that that's not the case.  I am fascinated by many aspects of the North Korean polity, but I think that ultimately, from a humanitarian standpoint, it doesn't have much redeeming value.

Caveat: The icons of my youth are dying

Banalities & Journaling / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs

I awake this morning to news that not one, but two, of the pop-culture icons of my youth had died:  Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett.  I never idolized them, exactly.  But they were ubiquitous figures in the pop-cultural landscape of the late 70's and early 80's, those so-called "formative years." 

Is this what it's like, growing old?  Outliving the immortals…

Caveat: “벼락 오버머” 사랑해!

Kids / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs / Quotable / The Wonders of Work

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I was correcting student workbooks earlier today. There’s an article in the most recent newspaper (an ESL “teaching” newspaper published in Korea) that features “Barak Obama” – our belovedly misspellable future Space Emperor.

I found this picture, above, in Julie’s workbook. It’s BHO’s best picture ever! And she wrote above his misspelled name her own personal misspelled transliteration: 벼락 오버머 (byeorak obeomeo, rather than the standard translilteration, 바락 오바마). Note the little lightning bolt above the “벼락” (byeorak means lightning bolt, I think).

Relatedly relevant:

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Caveat: Do the multicultural…

Kids / Life in Korea / Philosophy & Cultural Criticism / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs

We have had "multiculturalism" as our debate topic the last few weeks.  Specifically, multiculturalism as an emerging social phenomenon (very peripheral, so far) in Korea.  I actually have some thoughts and observations at a fairly serious level about this idea, but I'll save that for a later, more coherent post.

For the moment, it's interesting seeing the Korean kids trying to make sense of it.  One of my favorite quotes comes from Kevin, who says, "if we do the multicultural, then Korean men can be happy."

I think Kevin is referring to the fact that many Korean men, these days, have been in essence "importing" brides from Southeast Asian countries – enough so that it's becoming a "problem" the government has been trying to address.  But the way Kevin writes about it makes it sound like it's some kind of weird dance.

"Hey, everybody!  Let's do the multicultural!"

Caveat: GM in bankruptcy, stockmarket soars

Politics, Economics & Current Affairs

GM declared bankruptcy, and the Dow soared.  What does that mean?  At first,  I thought it was because GM was removed from the Dow, but in fact, that changeover doesn't actually happen until June 8, if you read the fine print in the financial press.  So Monday's soaring Dow is still home to now officially mostly worthless GM stock.  

I guess the traditional analysis would be that the market had already "priced" the GM bankruptcy, and therefore it didn't really impact the Dow's reaction to other news and issues.  It's also indicative of the extent to which cars, and heavy industrial production in general, are no longer core to the US and/or global economies.  In the Dow, GM is being replaced by Cisco.  Tech conglomerates are the new blue-chips.

One article I read was quoting criticisms of the US government's managing of the auto industry's collapse, including, specifically, a complaint that the government was "giving" Chrysler to a foreign auto company (Fiat) rather than merging it with GM.  The reason why Chrysler cannot be merged with GM is because of union resistance:  a merged 2-out-of-big-3 would introduce economies of scale that would result in further plant closures and layoffs, which the UAW obviously cannot favor.  I agree with that.   But on the other hand, I think merging Chrysler with Fiat is possibly smart for a reason that wasn't mentioned:  European automakers have a better chance at navigating the US's new "socialist" regulatory and government-owned and union-owned industrial landscape… they've been doing it successfully in Europe for decades, right?  What we're seeing, in other words, is a Europeanization of the US auto industry. 

Caveat: Proliferation Security Initiative

Banalities & Journaling / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs / Quotable / Teaching & Methodology / The Wonders of Work

According to various news sources (e.g. The Korea Herald, The Australian), South Korea's response yesterday to the North Korean nuclear test has been to finally get around to joining the US's "Proliferation Security Initiative."

This was particularly interesting to me, because of an incident in one of my most advanced debate classes about a month ago.   We have these "newspapers" (they have current events packaged for ESL learners, produced by a domestic Korean publishing house) that always have a current debate topic in their pages.  I really like pulling our in-class debate topics from these newspapers, because they are always topics that are immediately relevant to South Koreans, being policy issues that are under discussion by the government.  I can urge the kids to consider that they are learning not just English, but something along the lines of a South Korean civics class.  This provides at least some of them with some additional motivation, and because the topics are prominent in the South Korean media, it also makes them easy to research, even if they are often conceptually quite difficult.

 Last month, the newspaper had as its debate topic the question as to whether South Korea should fully join the US's Proliferation Security Initiative.   I didn't know much about it, and I didn't put too much time into researching it, myself.  I read the article, gave it some thought, and it seemed like a pretty uncontroversial thing, to me.  I understood South Korea's ambivalence, about it, however, given the always fraught nature of its relationship with its northern neighbor — North Korea had basically said that it would view South Korea joining this treaty as a "declaration of war."  Huh… right.

I tend to avoid stating my personal opinion on these debate topics until after the debate is finished, so as not to bias the students' take on them.  But I'd formed in my mind that joining PSI would probably be OK.  Until Sally's discussion of it.

Sally is a sharp sixth grader.  A bit of a prodigy, in some ways, excellent with these civics and social studies type concepts.  I have joked that she's going to be a lawyer, some day.  Anyway, we were beginning our discussion of this Proliferation Security Initiative, and she begins, quite simply:  "I read about it, and I think it's illegal."  My jaw dropped open.  "Uh… That's not what the newspaper said," I was thinking to myself.

But she went on to explain that it involved arbitrary search and seizure in international waters, and that it basically boiled down to a form of international racial profiling of ships-at-sea.  Not using this kind of vocabulary — she's not THAT good — but she did a perfectly adequate job of making these ideas clear using simpler vocabulary.  And I was just stunned, even recognizing that she was probably basing this on something she'd found on a Korean opinion website of some kind.  Because here was a 6th grader, lecturing me on international law.   She'd managed to internalize the arguments, and it was clearly not just parroting but that she understood the significance of them.  I was so impressed.

Sure enough, when you look at Wikipedia on the topic of PSI, you find that it was another one of those dubious cowboy-internationalist undertakings of John Bolton, former UN Ambassador under President Bush.  Given that pedigree, how could it NOT be illegal?  I bonked my forehead and went "d'oh!"  And, because of Sally, I changed my mind about South Korea joining the Proliferation Security Initiative.

Now, it becomes moot (note to self:  now is the time to explain the meaning of the word "moot" to Sally's class — we can revisit PSI for 5 minutes in light of the news).    South Korea has gone and jumped into it, anyway, in reaction to the North's intemperance.  Ah, well…

Caveat: The Space Emperor, Drawn to the Dark Side

Banalities & Journaling / My Photos / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs

Our future Space Emperor, BHO, is clearly not afraid to disappoint his fans. Whether this represents cynicism or realpolitik, I find hard to judge. I really, really enjoyed Maureen Dowd’s recent mocking of the situation vis-a-vis Cheney: “Dick twinkles. ‘Yes, we can.'”
pictureIn other news, I collected all my retired (read, broken) plastic alligators and brought them to class today, because this is the last week of the Spring term. Here is a picture after the Eldorado2 kids had arranged them.
Notes for Korean

야경= night view
-스럽다 = to seem like
사랑스러운 = love-like ~ “lovely”
올리다=raise up, [and many other meanings, maybe “begin”?]

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