The one where the wind comes whistling through the panes

I got up this morning and read the outside temperature as 38°F (3°C).  That's the lowest I have seen so far, and it's depressing.  But it's Korea, so having the windows closed doesn't necessarily mean the cold wind stays outside.  The window and door sealing products industry does a brisk business, pardon the pun, during the initial shock of winter.  Korean construction techniques are probably the worst in the world north of the 30th parallel.  They are shoddy, unsafe, and wasteful.  My friends and I often shake our heads when even the simplest room isn't square or plumb and floors crown or tilt.  Windows are placed in buildings where the openings vary in size so much that even an extra tube of silicon putty isn't enough to seal some of them. That is one of the drawbacks of their poured concrete method of building walls and floors.  In come the sealant products to the rescue.  Even our Homeplus, as small as it is, sticks three racks of sealant products in the middle of an aisle because they are guaranteed sales.

In 12 years, I have seen little let-up to the deplorable construction methods here.  Buildings have stopped falling down, though, so I suppose there has been some improvement in oversight.  Unscrupulous construction company owners would often scrimp on concrete quality to line their pockets leading to the deaths of innocent people when the bridge or store or housing unit collapsed.  It's probably only a matter of time before bribes reach the necessary level to allow for that again.  The public, instead of demanding better quality construction techniques, simply do what they've always done, take it in the ass and say "Thank you", then go spend too much money on temporary fixes every year that allow them to sit in their homes with a modicum of comfort.

Why don't they stand up to the construction companies and demand better quality or better building techniques?  Because Koreans seem to believe that they are powerless against such huge forces.  They are not a people of individual independence, ambition, or resolve.  They are not the kind of people who see a problem and independently make a point to take it on and solve it.  They are not the kind of people who see trash on a public floor and pick it up to throw it away.  They do not see themselves as actors within the play of society. They are passive and prefer to lie low hoping to be  overlooked by the terrible forces of life swirling about them.  Not all, but many, enough to create a national characteristic of acquiescent docility.  They are also fanatical about Korea appearing better than it really is.  They ignore problems and go out of their way to cover them up.  If Korea can save face by filling its country with jerrybuilt crap, so be it.  However, it's impossible to hide their characteristics from us who live here.  A Korean might break into tears reading this and wish I would leave their country and never come back because I say such "hateful" things. An independent thinker, a grown-up, would read this and say, "It's true" and try to do something, anything, to make things better.  Not to please foreigners, but to please themselves.  To make their own lives more comfortable, to save money in the long run, to enjoy good buildings that last more than a few years, to be able to say, "We do things right and we're proud of it."

The one about dignity

People in my profession, teaching English to speakers of other languages, we sometimes find the right place and settle in, sometimes we just drift from country to country.  Maybe it depends on one's age, I don't know, personal disposition maybe, but I have been in Korea now for over 12 years.  That isn't to say I don't fantasize about the liberty of youth who think little of hopscotching around the globe teaching in whatever countries they want or can.  I do.  Anyone in this profession who isn't married to a Korean more than likely dreams of wandering to other lands every so often. We aren't paid as well as Korean English teachers, of course, and we're not respected for what we do, but it's a peaceful country with generally nice people who pretty much leave us alone to pursue our various pastimes.  It grows on you.  The initial shock of their lifestyle fades after a few weeks.  The garish town life and piles of trash become the accepted norm.  

The constant noise (of all kinds) was hard to handle at first, and health suffers from the tension it creates.  However, you can learn how to deal with it, to accept it, to let it run in the background without affecting you mentally or physically, if you want to.  A lot of people come here to teach, but don't figure out how to handle the filth, the noise, the tasteless neon, the dirty air, and the lack of space.  They usually end up leaving before their time, and I don't blame anyone who does that.  Few people help foreigners adjust to the unusual world of Korea, and when the foreigner cannot handle the craziness on his own, he has no choice but to leave in order to salvage his health and well-being.  I understand that.  I have almost left a couple times myself just to get my mind back from the brink. On the outside, it seems like a dishonest thing to do, to leave before your time, but from a human point of view, it's sometimes the right thing to do.  The Koreans often bring this on themselves, so I have little sympathy for their plaints against those who choose to leave.  We are not going to "become Korean" just because we are in their country.  They are not going to get run-of-the-mill people to come here.  People who go to live and work in other countries are not a common breed.  There is something a little unconventional about us from the start.  We are braver than many. We value our freedom.  We are curious.  We are willing to learn.  But, we will not sacrifice our dignity indefinitely.

The one where christianity disproves itself

This is from ProfMTH on YouTube. He outlines one of the points about the cult of christ that got me re-thinking my commitment to this nonsense several years back now. He uses examples of some christian sects, but there are so, so many who declare Jesus as the son of god, but these believers are divided, sometimes violently, among themselves. My own former faith, the Anglicans, have been dividing over their views of the bible lately, a collection of literature that should surely be ignored by intelligent people. Many other sects have divided over a lot less. Believers in christ must see that this division is contrary to the teachings of their magic book, but they persist in it anyway. The bible says that you must believe that Jesus is the son of god in order to be saved, yet each sect has decided to add something more to the requirement, to expand on that simple notion. They decided not to associate with those who don't like their new take on things. They sometimes fight those who disagree. They excommunicate or ostracize people who haven't quite bought the sect's point of view completely. The very proof that the cult of christ is wrong is in the people who claim it as their own.

The one with the battery

 For about a month I've been having to push start my motorcycle.  At work, parking on a hill helps, but at home, on level terrain, well, let's just say I left out a note to my loved ones every morning in case I had a heart attack trying to start my bike.  However, yesterday was free and I went in to have the oil changed and the battery looked at.  And he said I needed a new battery, but since he had just put one in last March, he didn't charge me for the new battery.

I was fascinated to see the process of preparing a battery and installing it in the bike.  They take this package of liquid, unseal it, and stick it in the holes in the case.  (Rob tells me over my shoulder that it is distilled water.)  Then they hook it up to an electrical current to charge it, and it goes under the seat.  What you can't learn by observing, eh?

Today for lunch, I whipped up some meat pies since Rob was up visiting from Busan and I try to have something Western when he visits.
It actually tastes pretty good, if I do say so myself... and I do.

The one about the Constitution

Like fundamentalist christians who read the bible as literal, the very words of God committed to paper and ink, the new right has taken to reading the U.S. Constitution the same way.  They nitpick about this passage and that passage the same way they do about selections of the bible that prove troublesome to them.  They blame "the media" (their convenient whipping boy) for interpreting the Constitution differently than they do despite the long record of justices both conservative and liberal performing that almost thankless task.  And why have justices been interpreting the Constitution for us these last 220 years?  Because the Constitution says they have to.  How ironic.

The framers of the Constitution, if their personal papers are any indication of the thoughts that went into it, expected the Constitution to be changed as time went along.  Not a one of them seemed to think the document was a static organ of state handed down from Olympus or Heaven or wherever your favorite deities reside.  You don't really have to read their personal papers to learn that, though, since the principle of change is built into the Constitution itself.  It outlines how the document can be altered and amended.  If it weren't meant to be changed, then why would they include directions on how to change it?


The Constitution is not the bible for our government.  It's simply the agreed-upon source of law for the United States.  It was argued over and hammered into existence by men whose goal was to create a union of several states working together under a central coordinating government.  It was designed to maintain the autonomy of the states but also create the means for these states to cooperate in harmony for the good of the entire nation.  It has not always been successful, and those times of failure have required people of good intention to try to repair the deficiency.  I'm disheartened when I hear Tea Party loyalists insisting that this branch of government or that President "return" to the Constitution or "start following" the Constitution.  Then it dawns on me that these Tea Party folks don't know anything about the Constitution, its purpose, place, or history, like they slept through social studies classes and civics courses, if they actually studied it at all.


A return to the "original" Constitution would mean no Bill of Rights.  It would mean a black man would only legally count as three-fifths of a man.  Non-whites would be denied the vote.  Women would be unable to vote.  Involuntary servitude would be legal.   18- to 20-year olds would definitely be unable to vote, including our soldiers, even though they are risking their lives for our country.  Is that what the Tea Party devotees really want?  Personally, I don't think they know what they want.  Almost everyone in America is feeling left out and marginalized, but it isn't because of misreading the Constitution.  It's because the richest 10% of the nation is pulling the strings on us citizen puppets.  The middle class and poor are dancing to the tune of the plutocrats who rule our country from secret back rooms.


The uneducated and undereducated masses of Americans don't have the acumen or wherewithal to know everything that's happening in the upper reaches of Mount Olympus Wall Street.  They just know something is wrong.  They want to have a voice.  So they blame teachers not leading children in prayer at school.  They blame the courts for not siding with their religious doctrines.  They blame science for not teaching mythology as fact.  They blame condoms.  They blame gays.  They blame Canada.  They blame Mexico.  They blame Europe.  They blame whatever is different now than it was a hundred years ago as though life had been better in "the good ol' days."  The United States chose the path of individual liberty over social responsibility a long time ago.  American individuals wanted to be able to do whatever the hell they felt like and damned be anyone who got in the way.  There is a price to pay for this socially irresponsible free-for-all.  It means any Jack, Jill, or Johnny can start a tax-free business called a church and bilk the suckers who join out of their livelihoods.  It means a bank can charge whatever it wants in interest no matter how crushing the weight.  It means a railroad company can take your farm without paying a fair market price for it.  It means a city can take your house and land to sell to a private business enterprise.  It means a food chain can pour bleach on its ham and sell it as edible.  It means gas rises to three dollars a gallon while oil executives enjoy "unexpected windfalls" from gas sales.  It means corporations in America pay nothing in corporate taxes decade after decade because of the generous loopholes granted by Congress.   But more insidiously, it also means that our governing oligarchs will rake in billions of dollars of profit on the backs of the American working poor while Congressmen and Judges enjoy luxurious holidays abroad for greasing the wheels of law and justice in favor of the plutocracy.


No, it isn't the Constitution.  It's just us.  I hope America will continue to correct the mistakes of its past and move toward democratic social responsibility.  Like everything else on earth, America is evolving little by little, and it's scaring people.  Good.


Photos: 
obamaconspiracy.org                                                                                                                                                      
rubylane.com

The one about plutocrats

I just saw Art Robinson, a kook running for Congress from Oregon on the Republican ticket, on Rachel Maddow's TV show.  If that guy is one of the sane Republicans, then there is no hope for them.  He just sat there yelling at the interviewer instead of talking about anything meaningful or responding to questions.  Of course, he's playing to the glee of his half-wit supporters, but still, he could at least be a gentleman and pretend to be interviewed.  I was so disgusted by that arrogance, I am glad I don't live in his state, or he'd be getting a stern letter from me.  A man who aspires to public office and can't be relied upon to stay civil and answer reasonable questions before an international audience is unfit for public office.  But that standard fell by the wayside a long time ago, I suppose.  The United States has always been a land of money-grubbing politicians fawning over the wealthy plutocrats at whose teats they suckle, but there were codes of honorable public behavior in days past.  You can be passionate without being rude.  You can extol the virtues of your beliefs without denying the same to others.  You can guide interviews toward your points without yelling at the interviewer.  The longer I live, the more disgusted I am with the rich, with big business, with Republicans, and with religion.  It all turns my stomach.






  

The one with a flip

Like most people, sometimes I'm patient and sometimes I'm not.  There are times when I'm not patient, but I put on a good show to appear patient, and sometimes, oddly enough, I'm actually patient but appear impatient to onlookers.  Go figure.

One of the most striking cultural characteristics of the Koreans is their seemingly total lack of patience.  Their very language gives a hint.  Movement and action almost invariably include the word for "quickly."  "Quickly do!"  "Quickly come!"  Even when there isn't the real need, perceived need, or even hint at urgency in the situation.  When I first came to Korea in 1997, there were no number slips at the bank to determine who got to see a teller next; everybody simply struggled for the teller's attention, pressing against the counter like European soccer fans on game day.  The same was true in the market where you physically had to stand your ground to get your purchases added up and pay the bill against the press of those competing for the clerk's attention.

Most of my close brushes with death in this country have been on account of not my impatience, but that of the natives.  Behind the wheel of a vehicle or sitting on a motorbike, what pretense at patience they might possibly have is disregarded more than ever.  While riding my motorcycle to work, there is a sharp curve in a one-way section of the road.  Behind me today, a taxi appeared, and I could see that he had no fare, but he did his best to try to squeeze by me on my left as we went round this sharp curve in a cramped place in the roadway.  I came to a stop forcing him to stop, too, since there was no room for him to go by me and proceeded to show him with my left hand how I felt about his impatient risk of my life.  For good measure I showed him my right hand, too, as I got ready to pull away.  He was not happy that he had to come to a stop and see such vulgarity, especially from a foreigner and one on a motorcycle no less, nearly the bottom of the social ladder.  Was I impatient?  Obviously not since I was willing to stop.  I was angry, and I consider someone else risking my life because his culture is so treacherous to be worth a little display of anger now and again.  Does it do any good?  Not in the least.  Koreans have this knack of dismissing anything that is not of them, not of their culture, not customary, not "our", as they say.  I'm mindful that my anger is futile, but isn't there some therapeutic value in expressing oneself?  Death and maiming are not pleasant things, I'm sure.  So long as these are possibilities at the hands of the "quickly" culture, I'm all for free expression.