i was right!

yup, i guess the cheerleaders did the trick! (just kiddin..)
lee myung-bak won the presidential election yesterday, and starting in february, will take his seat in the blue house (seriously.. thats what i've heard that the building is called). he promises to place 'reviving the economy' of south korea among his top priorities throughout his term. lee said “we should create a new development system in which the benefits of growth will be returned to the middle class" - joongang daily. winning the election with over 50% 0f the vote, there seems to be no debate in who koreans want as their leader. i'm excited to take part in the events which will surely unfold under this new governing power. i have been ignorant to politics for long enough, and while here in korea, i would like to stay on top of the news.
However... there is soooo much more going on in the world. isn't it always true, that phrase the grass is always greener on the other side... there is so many stories that are worth following out there, and as someone with easy access to so much information, i feel, as a fellow human being, that it is an obligation to hear at least something about the lives of other humans in our global community - that is, if i am looking to be aware of the lives that reach beyond my local neighborhood. i feel more and more the importance of "taking part", whatever that means. perhaps it means that we should vote, or perhaps it means that we should contribute our opinions to our local political leaders, or perhaps it simply means... uh... not playing loud music and waking the neighbors? in whatever capacity we choose, i feel more and more the importance of getting out there and living as a people, as a part of something. that's just me though. if you are looking for a good place to start learning about the goods and the bads in the world why not try the "not-as-good-as-the-good-news" news first? (save the good news until last!) check out a humanity lost? this is a blog that becky has created to keep herself and its readers informed of the goods and the bads in somalia.

how bout ending on a good note? or.. at least a funny one?

maybe if george bush had cheerleaders... nah, i still don't think it would help him

so it's election day tomorrow. and a statutory holiday to boot. woo hoo!
since november 27th all i have heard was the banter of pop songs; their lyrics have been changed to state the party's political agenda, and to promote the candidates themselves. near my house, all i hear are these newly written pop songs with the words "ee-myung-bak" (the name of one of the candidates). the funniest thing about it is that in front of their portable stage parked at the side of a busy intersection, they have dancers (whom i call cheerleaders) dancing along to the music in a choreographed manner. donald kirk of the asia times writes "it's an orgy of democracy in action that won't stop until december." december 19 that is... tomorrow.

these dancers are supporting ee-myung-bak, the presidential candidate you see in the poster above.
this poster, placed right beside one of the main bridges to get to the island of yeongdo-gu (where i currently reside), reminded me of orwell's 1984 - big brother, don't you think?
who's to say in this crazy "orgy of democracy" who will win? well, my money's on ee-myung-bak: he's ahead of in the polls, he only as been accused of being involved in a scandal with samsung, and he has the most attractive dancers.

for more info on the election check out:
the korea times
chosun
joongang daily
dongha
or even wikipedia has some up to date stuff, click here for that.

a fear of mine..

With the Christmas season upon us, and me being at such a distance from my family and many of friends, my mind has been wandering about the idea of time. Time spent in Korea, time spent in school, work time and play time, the present time and lifetime.
So this brings us to the title "a fear of mine.." Ever since my first year of University I've grown to love learning, and thanks to the influence of the community in little St. Stephen, and a few influential and inspiring friends, I have come to see the beauty in so many different things. I think a fault of mine has never been unwillingness to try, but rather the opposite: the willingness to try everything. Starting many things wouldn't be a bad thing, if only they could conceivably be completed. My sights however have been set upon so many different things that it might be impossible to complete them all (to "complete" meaning, to be satisfied enough to move on from that subject). I took a Spanish course in my first year at SSU. I took a German course in my last year. I wanted to/want to learn French again to help me remember what I had lost in the years of not studying it. I am now teaching myself Korean, and am being sidetracked because of the "coolness" of learning Japanese and Chinese. The problem is, that I have a hard time saying to myself "no, it can't be done". So I undertake many things, which lead me to more amazing things that I want to learn and do. This all leads me to one end; being only a little aware in a variety of different subjects.
I have never had "one" passion, or dream, but I've had many. But those many only seldom reach 'near completion'. The question I guess I'm really asking - what leads to a fulfilling life? Aristotle said;

Now the peculiar excellence of man is his power of thought; it is by this faculty that he surpasses and rules other forms of life; and as the growth of this faculty has given him supremacy, so, we may presume, its development will give him a fulfillment and happiness.

So knowledge gives us happiness? does it? What brings us that fulfillment? No Impact Man thinks that if we want fulfillment, if we want to be loved,

what we we need is living rooms full of people instead of closets full of stuff. We need community. Isn't that an important point? We could be happy without the stuff and without wrecking the planet. We just need to hang out more.

I think he's right about less consumeristic practices and more wholesome family time practices, but what about living life. The movie "The Pursuit of Happiness" taught us that we will never reach that final goal, but we'll always be in pursuit of it. So then the question is... How do we pursue?

Story of Stuff - Annie Leonard

Annie Leonard has spent over 20 years researching the life cycle of stuff. You know, our material purchases- from our mp3 players to our clothes- the life cycle of these items has been hidden half hidden from consumers for some time now. I'm sure many people have wondered about how these everyday items get onto the shelves, but it seems that curiosity rarely goes beyond that initial wonder. Annie Leonard has created a few videos that reveals her findings in a easy to understand, entertaining way. I really think these short videos strike at the heart of a few issues. I also think that their message should be passed around as much as possible. As "going green" and caring about the environment becomes more trendy and cool, perhaps people's mindsets will change.
Check these out - they're short and only take a few minutes, but their worth seeing.

muddled words of fear..

"me... mother, father.. understand.. not... painful"
I just said goodbye to a Korean friend (although I'm weary to use the word 'friend' without actually knowing his name) who I walked around with after Kom-do (Korean sword fighting). Every night after work I head over to the Kom-do place and take part in the fifty minute training sessions. I find it's one way to get in some exercise in an otherwise un-strenuous day.
Anyways, this Korean friend of mine asked me (using his VERY small English vocabulary) if I would get Ice cream with him. So we went out, and had some ice cream (on a stick) - his treat. I told him that I would treat him the next time that we went out.
That next time was tonight. We went out after Kom-do and I treated him to Dokk-bu-kee (kind of a rice textured tube in a spicy/sweet sauce). After we had finished, it got kind of awkward. I wanted to go home, make some food and then sleep, but he seemed to want to walk and talk. So, we walked. A while later, after walking up and down streets attempting communication with one another, I decided to go home. I told him that I wanted sleep and started toward home. He tagged along and said that he would walk to my house. It wasn't too late so I said I led him to my apartment. I really think that hanging out with a foreigner in public really boosts the status of Korean people, and that's why I think we walked around together. I'm getting to the quote above, don't worry..
So at my house, after looking at my Korean- English dictionary he starts spilling out all these fears that he has about returning home. He says "me... father, fearfull", and points to a Korean word where beside it states it's synonyms: "ill treatment", "treat badly", "abuse". From what I understood of the conversation was that, because he had no job, his parents treated him badly. In Becky's school it is encouraged for the teachers to discipline the children by hitting them, often with a bamboo stick. I'm not sure what parents are allowed to do to their children, but I'm sure it's probably worse. My friend is 29 years old, but even grown men here have quite a high level of reverence toward their parents. If he were beaten, he would probably be beaten badly.
I didn't know what to say to him. "home going... want.. no", he would mutter. We were both holding dictionaries; him with his cellphone dictionary, and me with my book. In between the frantic looking up of words, his father called. And then called again. I don't understand much of the Korean that is spoken here, but one of the first things I looked up was the swear words. "She-bal" otherwise known as "fuck you" (or something to that effect), was said every second word in the phone conversation between father and son. Full of remorse, and fear, my friend headed toward the door. "me talking... late... sorry", he would apologize for staying as long as he did at my apartment. sigh.. what do I do? What can he, or anyone like him do in his situation? The way of life here is SO different than at home. There is no comment that I could make, no consolation that I could provide. Although I turned to the bright side and told him that we'd go for chicken and mek-chu (beer) after the next Kom-do practice, the same fear and sorrow still gripped his face.
I'm not sure how to handle the domestic disputes that happen here, besides turning my head and looking the other way. Not my culture- things are done differently here. But still, I see the stressed out kids at my school; I read about the attempted suicides of kids who have to take the nationwide tests determining whether they make it into good high schools or not; I hear stories of kids living with their grandparents because their parents split up, leaving nobody legally responsible for the child, and I think... this is terrible. There are some amazing roses in Korean culture, but tonight, I can't seem to get past the thorns.