Monday, June 28, 2004
A Stp-mother's Shrill Cry
Outbursts of emotion might be an inevitability at times. A necessity in some cases and a must in other cases. But a show of outbursts in the raw is something to be done away with--an anathema to civilized societies. Volcanoes of raw emotion are a confession of loss of self-control and proof of immaturity. They might remind you of tempestuous wild animals of rain forests deep in remote outbacks. Hitler had been a paragon of emotional eruptions in which people near him had shuddered with fright.
Mankind has developed, in a way or the other, outbursts as a means of handling the others. And women are more or less a crafty lot in the matter of developing, managing and applying them. Nobody has taught them. Feats are instinctive.
You can see human deception and hypocrisy camouflaged as sheer anger and sorrow. Disobedient offspring cries the most bitter cry in funeral ceremonies. What a disgust. A step-mother's shrill cry in Busan over her unfortunate 35-year-old step-son, who had been killed in Baghdad in a most barbarous and brutal manner recently, has been so bitter and so piercing that it could be heard in Seoul, 420km far from the southern port city.
Outbursts of emotion might be an inevitability at times. A necessity in some cases and a must in other cases. But a show of outbursts in the raw is something to be done away with--an anathema to civilized societies. Volcanoes of raw emotion are a confession of loss of self-control and proof of immaturity. They might remind you of tempestuous wild animals of rain forests deep in remote outbacks. Hitler had been a paragon of emotional eruptions in which people near him had shuddered with fright.
Mankind has developed, in a way or the other, outbursts as a means of handling the others. And women are more or less a crafty lot in the matter of developing, managing and applying them. Nobody has taught them. Feats are instinctive.
You can see human deception and hypocrisy camouflaged as sheer anger and sorrow. Disobedient offspring cries the most bitter cry in funeral ceremonies. What a disgust. A step-mother's shrill cry in Busan over her unfortunate 35-year-old step-son, who had been killed in Baghdad in a most barbarous and brutal manner recently, has been so bitter and so piercing that it could be heard in Seoul, 420km far from the southern port city.
Tuesday, June 22, 2004
Curses to the Brutal Bandits of Iraq
The brutal footage stunned me. The sense of powerlessness as a person and a sovereign state frustrated me. The mere thought of a captive person, rooted out from his dear family and his loving country, hacked by terrorists was a shocking chill on the spine.
What has been the origin of this vicious circle--a violence visited on by another violence? Saddam Hussein's dictatorial brutalities? America's greed for oil? Anglo-American collaboration for global helmsmanship through colonial expansion?
Whatever it has been, the summary execution done to an innocent foreign civilian by a masked group of heinous bandits must be an unpardonable barbarity. Oh, Mr. Kim Sun Il (35), a dear lonely soul, who is to be ordained as Christian minister next month, I am so sorry for all this. My ceaseless tears go to the late Kim and my lasting curses go to the armed bandits of Iraq who have been going berserk over the head of a Korean young man working in Baghdad.
The brutal footage stunned me. The sense of powerlessness as a person and a sovereign state frustrated me. The mere thought of a captive person, rooted out from his dear family and his loving country, hacked by terrorists was a shocking chill on the spine.
What has been the origin of this vicious circle--a violence visited on by another violence? Saddam Hussein's dictatorial brutalities? America's greed for oil? Anglo-American collaboration for global helmsmanship through colonial expansion?
Whatever it has been, the summary execution done to an innocent foreign civilian by a masked group of heinous bandits must be an unpardonable barbarity. Oh, Mr. Kim Sun Il (35), a dear lonely soul, who is to be ordained as Christian minister next month, I am so sorry for all this. My ceaseless tears go to the late Kim and my lasting curses go to the armed bandits of Iraq who have been going berserk over the head of a Korean young man working in Baghdad.
Thursday, June 17, 2004
A Nutty Crap of a Weird Korean Politician
Mr. Moon, an immediate confidant to and henchman of President Roh of Korea (Republic of), addressing a gathering of 700 odd members of Nosamo (the acronym for the group of supporters of President Roh), said in effect that all the frustrations and the subsequent resentments and sorrows of the nation originated from Pax Americana. "Our sorrow has been the result of Pax Americana," he opined. I have been thinking aloud. I wonder whether the upper crust of the Korean society has come to think and act in the other-worldly manner. So brazen and so weird.
What was he talking about? What the hell has his anatomy to do with Pax Americana or something? His height and protrusion has been the result of the Pax stuff huh? The Pax stuff has caused his obesity? As husband of a woman and father of two kids and as a paragon of a successful life in this era of the national plight in the "Suicide Republic," his reference to the Pax stuff was absolutely unbecoming and out of the mark. A total nonsense and a nutty crap.
Mr. Moon, had there not been the national travail prior to the Partition of Korea by the Soviet Union and the U.S.A? Has it not been an established historical fact that the Korean kings had offered annual tributes to the Middle Kingdom of China? Are you suffering from historical amnesia that the colonial Japanese government had inflicted on us Koreans unspeakable torment and immeasurable pain (1910-1945)? Has it not occurred to you that the frustration in General MacArthur's attempt in the Inchon landing operation and the subsequent communization of South Korea by DPRK might have resulted in your non-being? Had there been any foreign occupation forces gentler and more democratic than the United Nations forces under the command of the United States after the Korean War (1950--1953)?
Mr. Moon, an immediate confidant to and henchman of President Roh of Korea (Republic of), addressing a gathering of 700 odd members of Nosamo (the acronym for the group of supporters of President Roh), said in effect that all the frustrations and the subsequent resentments and sorrows of the nation originated from Pax Americana. "Our sorrow has been the result of Pax Americana," he opined. I have been thinking aloud. I wonder whether the upper crust of the Korean society has come to think and act in the other-worldly manner. So brazen and so weird.
What was he talking about? What the hell has his anatomy to do with Pax Americana or something? His height and protrusion has been the result of the Pax stuff huh? The Pax stuff has caused his obesity? As husband of a woman and father of two kids and as a paragon of a successful life in this era of the national plight in the "Suicide Republic," his reference to the Pax stuff was absolutely unbecoming and out of the mark. A total nonsense and a nutty crap.
Mr. Moon, had there not been the national travail prior to the Partition of Korea by the Soviet Union and the U.S.A? Has it not been an established historical fact that the Korean kings had offered annual tributes to the Middle Kingdom of China? Are you suffering from historical amnesia that the colonial Japanese government had inflicted on us Koreans unspeakable torment and immeasurable pain (1910-1945)? Has it not occurred to you that the frustration in General MacArthur's attempt in the Inchon landing operation and the subsequent communization of South Korea by DPRK might have resulted in your non-being? Had there been any foreign occupation forces gentler and more democratic than the United Nations forces under the command of the United States after the Korean War (1950--1953)?
Sunday, June 13, 2004
The Marketability of Price Disparities
The marketability of price disparities has been the culprit. Price disparities between lower-priced Chinese merchandise and higher-priced local merchandise have been a major cause for all the gamut of social evils ranging from cheats on the origins of farming produce to adulteration of goods.
Human greed is at work to enforce mercenary gains at their fullest by capitalizing on price disparities. Businessmen, merchants and neighborhood grocery store managers have been going nuts over the reality of huge profit margins.
The mechanism is heart-rending. Brokers used to whisper cheap China stuff to domestic dealers who were determined to fix the price. Every member at every level of domestic markets has had an every itch to make an entry into the ring.
The marketability of price disparities has been the culprit. Price disparities between lower-priced Chinese merchandise and higher-priced local merchandise have been a major cause for all the gamut of social evils ranging from cheats on the origins of farming produce to adulteration of goods.
Human greed is at work to enforce mercenary gains at their fullest by capitalizing on price disparities. Businessmen, merchants and neighborhood grocery store managers have been going nuts over the reality of huge profit margins.
The mechanism is heart-rending. Brokers used to whisper cheap China stuff to domestic dealers who were determined to fix the price. Every member at every level of domestic markets has had an every itch to make an entry into the ring.
Saturday, June 05, 2004
Women Jaywalking Me
It's been a bitter experience for me to see women usually in their middle ages "jaywalk". They have not jaywalked the street. They have jaywalked me, a "decent" male person, which has really pissed me off.
What have they done that for? They must have had no reason to hurry up. They have not been rushed by any person or time. Fact is that they have not hit the road but "measured" it. They have in most of the cases been out for leisurely walks in early morning hours, wearing gym wears and footgear.
Is there any feministic belief that jumping a "handsome" male progression in the morning could guarantee them a lucky day? I have been a victim of an ugly superstition may I presume? Shall I have to stand the repeat of this weird scene? Shall I have to get stuck with my mouth agape when a homely woman coming across a sidewalk in the opposite direction suddenly changes the course and crosssect my path crab fashion? Or stab at her back with heart-penetrating yells?
It's been a bitter experience for me to see women usually in their middle ages "jaywalk". They have not jaywalked the street. They have jaywalked me, a "decent" male person, which has really pissed me off.
What have they done that for? They must have had no reason to hurry up. They have not been rushed by any person or time. Fact is that they have not hit the road but "measured" it. They have in most of the cases been out for leisurely walks in early morning hours, wearing gym wears and footgear.
Is there any feministic belief that jumping a "handsome" male progression in the morning could guarantee them a lucky day? I have been a victim of an ugly superstition may I presume? Shall I have to stand the repeat of this weird scene? Shall I have to get stuck with my mouth agape when a homely woman coming across a sidewalk in the opposite direction suddenly changes the course and crosssect my path crab fashion? Or stab at her back with heart-penetrating yells?
Saturday, May 22, 2004
Dinner Parties and the Suicide Craze
What a contrasting and miserable landscape that even while the proprietor of the Presidential Palace called Blue House and his cronies were savoring gourmet dishes and enjoying vintage wines during early evening hours, scores of frustrated lot in the nation were hitting the road for the Abyss. They were trudging along the precipice of life and heading for the dark bottomless pit.
It is presumed that truncated souls, cornered and downtrodden by the financial losses, and deprived of all available means of survival, end up dragging their feet and setting their hearts and souls up to the crevice. What kinds of worldly sorrow will top this lone apocalyptic progression?
The nation deserves the designation of "The Suicide Republic." 40-odd South Korean people take their lives each day. Resources for deprivation of life are not rich enough, bordering on being primitive. The use of gravity on metropolitan high-rises has been on the top list, followed by self-strangulation and diving into the river and sea.
Subterranean suicides are in vogue these days. Some pilots of subway cars are alleged to have been consternated off and on at the unsightly scene of pop-up human body thrust into the dashboard of the car, after having smashed the window panes. Subway stops are a severe problem which has been devoid of any guard fences which could frustrate the impulse to end life.
What a contrasting and miserable landscape that even while the proprietor of the Presidential Palace called Blue House and his cronies were savoring gourmet dishes and enjoying vintage wines during early evening hours, scores of frustrated lot in the nation were hitting the road for the Abyss. They were trudging along the precipice of life and heading for the dark bottomless pit.
It is presumed that truncated souls, cornered and downtrodden by the financial losses, and deprived of all available means of survival, end up dragging their feet and setting their hearts and souls up to the crevice. What kinds of worldly sorrow will top this lone apocalyptic progression?
The nation deserves the designation of "The Suicide Republic." 40-odd South Korean people take their lives each day. Resources for deprivation of life are not rich enough, bordering on being primitive. The use of gravity on metropolitan high-rises has been on the top list, followed by self-strangulation and diving into the river and sea.
Subterranean suicides are in vogue these days. Some pilots of subway cars are alleged to have been consternated off and on at the unsightly scene of pop-up human body thrust into the dashboard of the car, after having smashed the window panes. Subway stops are a severe problem which has been devoid of any guard fences which could frustrate the impulse to end life.
Tuesday, May 18, 2004
Double-Dealing Folks in the Establishment
Somebody has to make a record of this shameful custom, however so it might be. Somebody has to document and convey idiosyncratic practices highly in vogue in the upper crust of Korea (Republic of). Since when have those snobbish practices become a national trait, I wonder?
What on earth is that high society people have taken advantage of the U.S. immigration system for their own sake, turned around and spat on the Immigration Office official (figuratively speaking), behaving as if the U.S. government had not done anything for them? Since when and why have they become such an ungrateful lot? What on earth is that they speak one thing and act another?
There have been scattered common specimens of double dealers in political, social, cultural and media establishments which used to keep so-called "two-house families,"--one in Seoul and the other in L.A. and other U.S. cities. Let me take one example. The cadre members of the press and broadcasting stations above the desk level, especially the television media people, have tended to go anti-American, blaring every dark aspect of U.S. society and the military.
Kim Dae Jung has been the one example who turned his back on the U.S. after all the gamut of benefits and benedictions showered on him by his American political allies by looking the other way while the anti-U.S. demonstrations were under way during the winter of 2002. They had literally saved his life from the political persecution of Dictator Park government and given him strong backup on his return to the Korean political arena. Even Nobel Peace Prize of the year 2000 would not have been possible without strong recommendations from the U.S. establishment.
Why do they, having gone through all the procedures of sending their kids to the United States in order for them to gain academic achievements or citizenship status, make a sudden metamorphosis from pro-American to anti-American activists? Sociological and psychological pundits please come forward. Would you please help us Koreans with an ample explanation for those brazen, ungrateful and back-stabbing human beings?
Don't mistake us Koreans for the ungrateful lot. The rest of the ordinary people appreciate all the U.S. efforts military and otherwise. We know what we are today is mostly indebted to the aid and good offices from the U.S. We regret and deplore all the negative aspects going on in the high society in the nation.
The political scene irks most of us Koreans, me included. The one irony is that they pass for liberals and progressives. They are propounding the need for reform. They are making targets of public hatred and inciting the public and friendly broadcasting media to attack "the public enemies", which are Samsung (target for industrial reform), Chosun Ilbo (the most conservative newspaper of the highest circulation) and GNP (the politically conservative opposition). They are making chasms and crumbling the very foundations of society with the wrecking ball of so-called reform. The other irony is that almost all the dear kids of those hypocritical and superficial anti-American activists are being raised, trained and educated in various U.S. cities. How weird.
Somebody has to make a record of this shameful custom, however so it might be. Somebody has to document and convey idiosyncratic practices highly in vogue in the upper crust of Korea (Republic of). Since when have those snobbish practices become a national trait, I wonder?
What on earth is that high society people have taken advantage of the U.S. immigration system for their own sake, turned around and spat on the Immigration Office official (figuratively speaking), behaving as if the U.S. government had not done anything for them? Since when and why have they become such an ungrateful lot? What on earth is that they speak one thing and act another?
There have been scattered common specimens of double dealers in political, social, cultural and media establishments which used to keep so-called "two-house families,"--one in Seoul and the other in L.A. and other U.S. cities. Let me take one example. The cadre members of the press and broadcasting stations above the desk level, especially the television media people, have tended to go anti-American, blaring every dark aspect of U.S. society and the military.
Kim Dae Jung has been the one example who turned his back on the U.S. after all the gamut of benefits and benedictions showered on him by his American political allies by looking the other way while the anti-U.S. demonstrations were under way during the winter of 2002. They had literally saved his life from the political persecution of Dictator Park government and given him strong backup on his return to the Korean political arena. Even Nobel Peace Prize of the year 2000 would not have been possible without strong recommendations from the U.S. establishment.
Why do they, having gone through all the procedures of sending their kids to the United States in order for them to gain academic achievements or citizenship status, make a sudden metamorphosis from pro-American to anti-American activists? Sociological and psychological pundits please come forward. Would you please help us Koreans with an ample explanation for those brazen, ungrateful and back-stabbing human beings?
Don't mistake us Koreans for the ungrateful lot. The rest of the ordinary people appreciate all the U.S. efforts military and otherwise. We know what we are today is mostly indebted to the aid and good offices from the U.S. We regret and deplore all the negative aspects going on in the high society in the nation.
The political scene irks most of us Koreans, me included. The one irony is that they pass for liberals and progressives. They are propounding the need for reform. They are making targets of public hatred and inciting the public and friendly broadcasting media to attack "the public enemies", which are Samsung (target for industrial reform), Chosun Ilbo (the most conservative newspaper of the highest circulation) and GNP (the politically conservative opposition). They are making chasms and crumbling the very foundations of society with the wrecking ball of so-called reform. The other irony is that almost all the dear kids of those hypocritical and superficial anti-American activists are being raised, trained and educated in various U.S. cities. How weird.
