Paint and Perv's

Daegu International Body Painting contest was held Saturday and we went along with tons of families and more than a few perv's.  Our friend, Moonsook, came along and we were hoping to see her shocked by the bodypainting, but she was not fazed at all.  Fortunately, some western girls starting making out while we were walking around and that made her crazy.. 

No times on the web site so we got there far too early.  It was pretty interesting to see the models being painting and the perv's panting.

Any chance there is a half naked young woman in the tent?

The showing was at night and I would guess there were 5000 people in attentdance.  I was shocked by how cool they were.

Proselytizing

According to Wikipedia., 46% of  Koreans cite no religion/atheism.  This is seen as a great opportunity for those proselytizing. Christians have been converting Buddhist here since the 1800's and, if considered jointly, are the biggest block of believers. There are about 70 Mormon missionaries in Daegu area now trying to convert Koreans. They wanted to have a chat with me...talk about barking up the wrong tree.


Korea, like most countries that were originally Buddhist, is very open to other religions.  At my school, every Saturday there are people proselytizing.  There is a weekly newspaper written by a ministry that is provided to the students.  I can not read most of it, but the students tell me there is some mention of religion, but that is not the focus of the paper.

I often wonder about these things.  Somehow it is OK to promote some religions, Christianity primarily, but I wonder how people would react if the same things were being done in the name of Islam or Atheism.

Is it safe for young girls?

As safe as I, and everyone I talk to, feels here, there are some serious problems for young girls.

Earlier in the month, there was a story about child rape that reported it was very high and increasing. A quote about the reluctance to report it made it even more disturbing: “Given this reluctance, the actual number of child sex crimes in Korea could be far higher than the number officially reported,” 

There was another story today  that said sexual crimes in general are vastly under reported here.  They found that the true numbers are 8 times as high as the official numbers indicate because "victims were deterred by society's negative view of sex crimes and their sense of shame."

I talked to a small group of kids about this awhile back and one girl said she did not know anyone affected by it, another told me a friend of her's was abducted and someone tried to abduct her.  Another girl said that two different people tried to abduct her. Scary.

Penalties for child rape have been really weak until recently. Last year there was an 8 year old girl, Na-young, was raped, tortured and nearly killed by a guy who had two previous convictions.He got a 12 year term. The public went wild.  Law makers are responding and the laws are being toughened.

It is good that the laws are being changed, but until people feel comfortable reporting the crimes it seems a bit irrelevant.  Hopefully, there will be more programs in schools to deal with this.

Heading Back

We are heading back to Korea tomorrow and I am really looking forward to it. Our life in Korea is pretty easy/good.  I miss the kids at school.  They make me crazy sometimes, but I really enjoy spending time with them. I am also looking forward to seeing our colleagues.

A few observations on our trip here. As expected, it was great seeing family. There were a couple of things I did not expect to like so much.  The biggest is the courtesy people show each other in stores, while driving, and just in general. I always forget it until I am in the environment. It is really nice to not worry about someone pushing or cutting in line or driving you off the road.  I also forget about the roads, how the medians are so beautiful and the roads well maintained.

The other striking thing is just how fat we are as a people.  Every time I return home I am shocked.

Some Good Shit

I am in the Seoul area waiting on my plane (heading to the US for a couple of weeks) and saw this sign when I was looking for a little dinner.

Koreans have difficulty differentiating between "P" and "B" sometimes in the most humorous ways.

6 feet + 5 feet + 8 inches= Motivated students

University students have come to our school for a few days to give the students some counseling (whatever that means). I was driving up yesterday and saw a girl I did not recognize. She was about 6 feet tall (5 feet of which were legs) and about 120 pounds. She had on ridiculously short shorts...maybe 8” from the waist line to the cuff.

I was talking with a boy later in the day and asked about the counseling session. He got that shit eating grin that every horny high school boy gets with the obligatory throaty Beavis and Buttheadesqe laugh. Yup, Super Legs worked with all the boys in his class. He explained that a lot of the boys had not done the work to prepare for the counseling, so once they found out she was doing it, there was a mad rush to complete it properly so they could be first to talk to her.

In short, Super Legs was able to accomplish something I haven't (motivating the boys) with a nominal amount of effort (and fabric). The girl is a freakin' genius.