Idiotic Arizona

A couple of years ago I was riding my bicycle, my basket full of groceries, down a  little street in rural Japan.  Then, a couple of policemen saw me and thought they had reasonable suspicion to question me.  I guess the bananas in my basket looked dangerous or something.  I showed them my ID, and then they let me go.  All I lost was a few minutes and my sense of freedom.

A year later I was driving my bicycle down another little road just for exercise and another pair of police officers pulled me over.  Since I was exercising and not going to the store or anything, I did not bring my wallet and ID.  Luckily the police let me go after questioning me.

The next day I asked all of my students if any of them had ever been pulled over.  None of them had.  I was so angry and told my students what I thought.

Now Arizona has legalized this stupidity. This stupid policy will have no affect on people desperate for jobs, they will say they are there legally and the police must let them go.  It will have an impact on legal hardworking Americans who will be bothered by policemen that have to enforce this stupid law.

I heard some talking head say that it was not a big deal if people are inconvenienced every once in a while.  I am guessing he has never been pulled over for the color of his skin.

I know that something needs to be done about illegal immigration, but does it make sense to give away our liberties to protect them?  Idiotic.

The History with North Korea

Another blog had a great rundown on the history of the sorts of attacks North Korea has done in the past:

The investigation into the sinking of the Cheonan is increasing pointing to a North Korean attack as the most likely cause of the tragaty.  If so, it will not be the first or worst North Korean provocation.

The remarkable thing is how often these incidents, each of which would constitute an act of war* in other parts of the world, did not produce retaliation from Seoul or Washington.  Here is a partial list: 

• 1967:  The warship Dangpo is sunk by North Korean artillery near the Northern Limit Line (NLL), which marks the de facto sea border between the Koreas on the West (Yello) Sea.  79 sailors die.

• 1968:  North Korean Commandos infiltrate South Korea to assassinate president Park Chung-hee.  They make it within a few hundred yards of the presidential Blue House before they are stopped.  South Korea trained a group of convicts to launch a retaliatory attack but were never sent (as depicted in the movie Silmido).

Those incidents took place within the 1966-1972 DMZ war, a low-intensity conflict North Korean leader Kim Il-sung started to take advantage of America being engaged in the Vietnam War.  President Park pushed for retaliation but was restrained by a Washington that wanted to avoid a larger conflict.  The incidents continued after the "Second Korean War" petered out:

• 1974:  A North Korean agent attempts to assassinate Park.  He fails but kills Park's wife.

• 1983:  North Korean agents attempt to assassinate South Korean president Chun Doo-hwan by bombing a stage in Rangoon, Burma (now Myanmar).  Chun is not harmed but several South Korean ministers and about a dozen others die.

• 1987:  Two North Korean agents destroy KAL flight 858 by bomb, killing all 115 people on board.

• 1999:  North Korean boats repeatedly violate the NLL, causing exchanges of fire.

• 2002:  Four South Korean sailors and an estimated 30 North Koreans die in firefights south of the NLL

• 2009:  Yet another exchange of fire along the NLL

There have been few consequences for Pyongyang for engaging in those actions (although they have generally gotten the worse of the naval engagements along the NLL) and we can expect them to continue such provocations until there are. President Lee has to decide is now the time to try to break North Korea of the habit.

*Yes, the Koreas are still technically at war so North Korea's provocations could be considered ceasefire violations rather than acts of war.

Cheonan Incident

As you probably know, a South Korean warship sank over 3 weeks ago and a few dozen men died.  When the ship sank, it was news here of course and there was 24/7 coverage on the news stations.

I have been amazed how public opinion has been evolving.  The government has been saying that people should not jump to conclusions (i.e. the crazy midget downed the ship).  Initially, most people I talked to said they did not know what happened, but they did not think the North Koreans were behind it.  A couple of weeks ago, the defense minister said that it was probably a torpedo that hit the sub.  My friends were still saying they were not sure.  Now more and more voices are saying it was a torpedo probably sank the sub, and of course, the suspicion is the crazy midget was probably behind it.

The big question is what will happen if it is proven that the North Koreans did it.  One friend said, "You should leave because there will be a war". I don't believe that, but it seems likely that the heat is getting ready to be turned up.  There are likely to be more conflicts, especially naval ones, in disputed areas.

As always, everything depends on how the Chinese weigh in on things.  I do not think they control North Korea, but without their support, the North Korean regime would have a limited life span.  I am guessing that the Chinese would like to see a change if for no other reasons it would end the refugee problems and would be a new market for Chinese goods (instead of aid).  On the other hand, the North would likely come to the US sphere of influence which is pretty objectionable.

Speech Contest Update

I thought it would be fun to have a speech contest at my school and maybe a dozen kids would join...more like 43.  No big deal, I just have to come to school at 6:45 instead of 8:30, and I need to work through lunch.  I really do not mind because I know it is good for them, and I enjoy it.Getting to know the kids is the best part of the job, and when you have hundreds of students, it is not feasible in the classroom.

Helping kids prepare for this sort of thing is really challenging because giving a speech in your own language is tough, but in another language is ridiculously difficult.  The kids have to really put themselves out there...will they choke, will they be laughed at.

I have done this man times and I am always amazed at the kids who have limited ability and confidence, but immense desire, that join these contests.  I can't help but root for them.  Surprisingly, they have almost always given their best performance on the day of the contest.

Markers in Noses etc

I have talked to some friends recently about punishment in schools.  All of the schools give their kids a whack here and there, but I have heard a couple of remarkable/ strange ones lately.

One friend reports that when kids are chatting/whacking each other, a co-teacher will have the kids stand up, open their mouths, and grab their ears...for 5 minutes, 10 minutes, whatever it takes.  

Another friend tells me about a student who was acting up in class. She was sent to the teachers office and told to put  a highlighter in each nostril and stand there for the rest of the class.

The most amazing thing to me is the kids actually did it.  I can not imagine what would happen if a kid was told to do this in the US.  After the mutiny, I am guessing the parents would have something to say, but here kids comply.  

Amazing.

We've Got Water

While in Thailand and Burma, I started working with a friend on a water project.  My friend had found the project and, to be honest, did most of the work.  I just helped with some of the planning and fundraising.

As I mentioned before, we met with some people in the community, interviewed a driller, and helped work on some of the logistics.  Initially, we thought we would raise all the money for the project, but while I was there, I could see that the community was poor, but not so poor that they could not contribute. Contributing to their own cause has a lot of benefits including pride of ownership which, hopefully, will lead to better maintenance.

I suggested that we not tell them how much we could give and ask them to raise as much money as they could.  In the end, they raised a couple of thousand dollars from people through out the community. Truly shocking to me. In what may be a first, I told the friends of our family that we needed less money than we thought for a project.  They are really good people and I was really worried that things could go wrong because I was not working on this project everyday.

This is the best time of year to drill since it is the peak of the dry season and it will give us the best understanding of the water table.  We began drilling a couple of weeks ago and hit water at 150 feet.  We contracted for 200 feet, so the extra 50 feet will insure that there will always be water available from this well even in the driest of dry seasons.

I think the project will wrap up in about a month or so and the people of the community should have a reliable water source.

Was that me?

"What the hell is that smell!"  I thought yesterday.  I had a little gas, but there is no way it could be me.  As I was walking to the bathroom to be sure it was not me, I realized, it was time to spray the poop in the fields. 

There are rice paddies everywhere here and slowly but surely, all will be sprayed with some sort of brown solution that smells like sewage.  Last year the smell was everywhere for weeks.  Strangely enough, it becomes like background noise...a bit annoying when you notice, but you generally do not notice.

Being an Outsider

There is trouble in the teachers room...what is going on?  Did a kid do something stupid?  You ask a colleague, and you get a gentle laugh and a deflection.

Nearly all Native English Teachers face the same problem...we are kept in the dark about any problems the school has.  Maintaining the school's reputation is paramount here.  It is so important, that our contracts say that we can be fired for telling others about the problems at our schools.

I get that keeping the reputation is important,  but this makes me a little crazy. If I understand what is happening, I can help or, at the minimum, be sensitive to issues that may have an impact on the students.

It is an unavoidable fact that I am an outsider, but I hate having the idea reinforced.

Beautiful Fences

Korea has the most beautiful traditional fences anywhere. They are like little works of art. They combine stones, old roofing material, colored cement etc in the most artistic forms. 

I have taken a bunch of pic's, but this blog has tons that put mine to shame. It is in Korean, but you can enjoy the pictures nonetheless.

What Have I Done?

I thought it would be nice to organize a little speech contest for the students at my school. It takes nearly daily practice with the kids one on one to get them ready, but I have free time so I figured, "What the hell".   I announced it and thought I would end up with 10 or so...no big deal.

I had the meeting yesterday...40 kids, my why not, "What the hell" went to a this is crazy, "what the hell".  I have to start coming to school an hour and a half early for a month.  Strangely, I am still looking forward to it.  I am a complete idiot. 

The Smaller the Better

One of the first comments girls say to Sandy is, "You have such a small face!". Face size is really important in much of Asia. My wonderful small faced Korean sister-in-law explained it to me this way, "Who wants a big old Buddha face". I still smile when I recall that. Either way, beauty standards are different everywhere and there is no right or wrong.

A story in today's paper reports on a study where Koreans faces were measured and compared to Caucasian people's face size. The study reports that Koreans have smaller faces than Caucasians. What I find funny about this is:

• it actually merits a study
• they did not measure Caucasian face sizes, they relied on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data. The EPA of all places!
• the EPA's data was just a guess. According to the last paragraph of the story, facial sizes in the U.S. data were determined by taking the entire area of a person's head and deeming the face to take up one-third
• The study was conducted by the Korean Food and Drug Administration

I am trying to decide if this is the silliest study I have ever read, or the shoddiest. It also makes me wonder about other studies done by the Korean Food and Drug Administration.

A funny sign I saw at  a dermatologist's office for a small face machine (I think),

A Great Start to The Day

Below is my nomination for the perfect thing to find on your desk first thing in the morning.  Of course, by the end of my second class (which went like crap) I had lost the cockiness that this note created...but I did enjoy the first part of my morning.

Bullfighting

The town I live in, Cheongdo, is famous for Korean bullfighting. This does not involve a bullfighter or any of the stabby staby thing.  It is simply two bulls ramming each other until one runs off. 


There is a beautiful newish 10,000 seat arena built exclusively for Bullfighting.  There are bullfighting logos everywhere and it is an event that garners a fair amount of national media.

The only problem with it is every person I asked here hates it and think it is cruel and should be banned.

We decided to go anyway and I found it, well, ok..not very exciting, not gruesome at all, just a couple of bulls banging heads for as little as twenty seconds and as long as 42 minutes.

There was a surprisingly cool little display of lit, inflated statues on a stream near our house leading up to the festival.

After You

The head of Seoul's Tourism Organization says that the country needs an "After You" campaign according to today's newspaper. He said that, "Please, Thank you, and Excuse me" are three phrases all Koreans should know.

I could not agree with him more. The pushing, particularly by the old women, is one of my two big gripes (don't get me started about the driving) about living in Korea. It seems that people are sometimes totally oblivious to others around them until it is too late...no problem give'em a little shove and you are on your way.  My Korean friends tell me it is a bit rude, but they ignore it. I wish I could say that I have gotten used to it, but I have not and  I generally give people a dirty look or, if it is a particularly hard push, I say something.

Koreans are some of the kindest, most welcoming people in the world, but the pushing gives the totally opposite impression and should not be tolerated in a modern culture.

No More Cambodian Brides

According to an article in today's Yonhap News,  it is now illegal for Koreans to marry Cambodians due to fears of human trafficking.  The Cambodians had made brokers illegal in 2008 which resulted in Korean-Cambodian marriages going from 551 to 1372...guess that did not work.

I find it interesting that they have only banned Koreans. The article says it is because 60% of foreign marriages are with Koreans.

I have no idea why this fascinates me, but it does.

Mail Order Couples Happier than Korean Couples

An interesting story from today's paper reporting on a huge survey (73,000 respondents) of inter-cultural couples.  The focus of the article is the foreign brides are much younger than their husbands. Not sure this comes as a surprise to anyone.  What does surprise me is:.

• They are happier with their marriages than Korean couples.  Over 50% of couples are happy with their  relationships which, according to the ministry that put the survey together, is higher than Korean couples.
•  64% have graduated from high school. I do not know the graduation rate from each country, but that seems higher than I would have expected.

This is encouraging to me overall, but I still think that this is not sustainable and the government needs to take more action to get the male/female ratio in line and make it easier for rural men to find wives.

Paranoia

Somebody shattered two of our car's windows, and our sense of tranquility, while Sandy was at school today. Was it kids at the school having fun with rocks and things got out of control? Do some of the kids really not like studying English? Is there some dude who is unrelated to the school up to no good?  Will things get worse?

Imagine..you can't understand the language, only understand the culture on the surface, do not understand  the customs? What do you do?  

The schools reaction was muted...seemed that they wanted to keep things very low key. Friends told me that you would not usually file a police report for something like this (this makes me wonder about the validity of crime statistics here).We have been treated so well by the people here and this shocked and shaken me.  

We decided to file a police report and the school will investigate I really hope it is kids being stupid, but I am finding it hard to accept this since it is two broken windows. 

Paranoia...hard to avoid when you do not understand anything.

UPDATE

A couple of kids admitted breaking one window, but they said they were not sure about the other.  The students gave some money to repair the windows and the teachers gave the rest.  We really did not want the teachers to do this, but they felt compelled out of a sense of obligation.

Health Care Updates

Since they are still debating the healthcare bill in the US, I thought I would give a couple of updates to our experience here.


My insurance rate has gone up $2 a month to $63 a month.


Two friends had to go in for serious medical tests.  One needed a cancer check.  She is from Canada and needs to reserve a slot 6 months in advance there (wow!).  She called for an appointment here and they said she could come in the next day.  It turns out she needs an operation and it will cost about $1400 with the insurance.


Another person went to the doctor and he thought she needed a series of tests that included all sorts of scans, x-rays, she was put under and got an endoscope check. The doctor made the call and the tests were done 12 hours later for about $100 including two prescriptions.


As I mentioned before, Korea spends 6% of GDP on Healthcare compared to 16% in the US and by many measures has a healthier population.  From my experience, access is excellent and afford ability is great.

1st Week Complete

I just finished one week of classes.  I am always a bit excited and nervous to teach the new students.  A couple highlights (lowlights?)

While walking around class I often put a hand on the should of students....amazing how many flinch as if I am going to hit them.

A student asked me what I was most proud of about America in class.  I went on about the freedom and opportunity for all people.  I always cite my grandfather and now Barak Obama since there are few countries, including Korea, where a man of his heritage and life experience could become the leader.  After I said this about Obama, one of the students yelled, "But he is a liar". I was shocked and thought, "How is she watching Fox News here?"

Se Teu

Saturday morning we met with Se Teu, the boy who needed throat surgery because he drank acid, and his parents.  He had the first of the last three surgeries he needs about 2 months ago.  His condition has improved a lot.  He can now eat some semi-solid foods.  His parents think that he is well enough to start going to school in April.  The parents were really thankful to my students for helping them.

The meeting happened in the last moments before we left Sangklaburi and I can not think of a better way to end our trip.