Scribblings of the Metropolitician

Bomb English #15 - Being a Lesbian in Korea

In our 15th episode, Jennifer and Michael talk with a Korean lesbian who tells us what many people want to ask, but never get the chance. "Are there REALLY gay people in Korea?!"

For those of you who don't know, our Bomb English project is going pretty well, where we provide good conversational English content along with a transcript for free. We keep it frank, honest, and real as can be. No Arirang, EBS English here -- recommend it to your Korean friends for their intermediate/advanced study, and listen in yourselves as native speakers, since we treat the topics as real topics and not just awkward, superficial conversations about things we don't care about.

This is real English, with Korean content. So there's something for everyone.

Check us out!

"The Five Mistakes Clinton Made", Why She Doesn't Deserve to Be President, and Why It's Time to Hang It Up

The "five mistakes" are kind of telling, in that these are not the kind of mistakes that I would have wanted a potential president to make. And when I say "deserve," I mean it -- look at the frickin' delegate count lead Obama has, which has remained constant for far longer than Hillary should have been in the race. Time Magazine's list:

1. She misjudged the mood.

2. She didn't master the rules.

3. She underestimated the caucus states.

4. She relied on old money.

5. She never counted on a long haul.

What does this add up to? "Out of touch" and "arrogant" spring to mind. Oh, and "elitist," a term she has (inexplicably!) trying to pin on Obama.

As I've said before, when I called it right, and I'll say again -- it's time for Hillary to step aside.

I've come a long way since I first decided to tentatively decide my conscience and realize that Obama was going to be a great candidate, or stop believing the line that "no one would really vote for a Black president" and that once in the voting booths, white people just couldn't punch it for a black man (and they call ME the cynic, right?), or the accusation that the real hope and excitement Obama supporters see was "cultish" and MLK's greatness was diminished as "just words", or when the Clintons started pulling out the "kitchen sink" and engaging in a politics of "hopelessness", And even after Obama actually WON Texas, and didn't win Ohio (which didn't even affect his delegate lead, but the media kept reporting it as a "loss"), or the Wright non-fiasco that was absolutely racist in the way the media chose to put Obama's feet to the fire but let the far more crazy of the religious crazies with far closer actual ties to other candidates (both past and present) completely off the hook, even as he handled it by dropping the science and one of the most important pieces of political rhetoric in a century...

Obama's come a long way, too, and more than earned the right to shake of the "all talk" jabs by holding his own against anything that Clinton threw at him, by taking the high ground, by actually not engaging in the dirty pool that he claims to not want to play. His money came from average people and not old money, he planned ahead, he had a pulse on the sentiments of the people.

How is he not completely and obviously better qualified than Hillary to be nominated? What remaining reservations are there? Ah, he's not a realist, we need a connected political animal to get things done? She has "more experience?" Pshaw. Is that all that's left?

In a way, it doesn't matter. Obama's done the do-diligence. He's run the political gauntlet, even as people (including myself) were half covering their faces and hoping that he wouldn't fall flat on his face, and as he not only didn't, but continued to display his appropriateness for the job, and many on the side of the fence who might actually vote for him have continued to be emboldened enough to be more vocal about their support for him.

Many African-Americans were initially quite skeptical about his prospects at the beginning -- and did not offer the kind of blind support that many seem to assume was given only because he was black (umm, Jesse Jackson was also black, but let's not nitpick...) Now, Obama's completed the tough task of convincing these final cynics -- us.

What people fail to realize in this myopic, horse-race way of dealing with political races in the US, is that Obama has already changed a lot of the rules of the game, has raised the level of political discourse, has already raised the bar again for what can be hoped for in politics. Is the job done? No.

But the man ain't even President yet. And prognosticating naysaying aside (since he's made it through a whole heaping helping of that and come out rosy), what if...just what if...his candidacy actually reflects what he does as president?

Imagine that!

My vote's right where it's been since December, 2007.

And yeah, I told you so.

A Voice of Rationality

I love being right. I really do.

No, I'm not a scientist, as certain irrational people point out -- I love when people point out the obvious -- but I am a reasonable, educated person who has the ability to discern substance from, ahem, bullshit. (Yes, I am trying to be "punny.")

So -- as I've been saying from the beginning, when I have been taking people to task for 1) not really knowing what the actual source was for the "Korean genetic predisposition to mad cow disease" argument, and 2) for misinterpreting what even the apparent meaning of that statistic is -- the media and the general populace has been freaking out over nothing. Let me repeat:

It has not been established that American beef is any more unsafe than any other country's beef.

And so says the author of the scientific paper being (mis)used by PD 수첩, crazed netizens, petrified students, and anti-American FTA activists (who must be complimented for an amazing PR coup, since this was, admittedly, a master stroke of political theater and manipulation):

국내 광우병 사태를 촉발한 ‘한국인 광우병 취약’ 논문의 저자인 김용선 한림대 의대 교수는 자신의 논문이 일부 언론에 의해 과장 보도됐고 정치적으로 악용됐다고 주변 인사들에게 말한 것으로 확인됐다.

김 교수는 4일 한림대 의대 학장 자격으로 핀란드의 헬싱키 의대 등과의 업무 협의를 위해 윤대원 한림대 이사장 등과 함께 핀란드로 출국했다.

6일 헬싱키 시내 호텔에서 만난 윤 이사장은 기자에게 “김 교수의 논문은 일부 미디어에 의해 부풀려졌고 이를 다시 정치권이 마녀사냥 식으로 악용하고 있다”고 말했다.

I put it in Korean so it's clear to the several commenters who seem to take my critique of the poor critical thinking skills of the media and political groups as proof of my arrogance (guilty as charged, since I consider the rantings and ravings of stupid people, umm, stupid, and I don't consider myself stupid), or proof of me, once again, "hating" Korea. (You can read the English-language breakdown of the article quoted above at the Marmot's Hole.)

Well, it's not surprising, since the author of the study has had his house attacked by shit-throwing idiots. And I don't mean that in the rhetorical sense -- I mean that people have actually found his house and thrown shit at it. If even the author of the study in question gets shit on, is it surprising that anyone with lesser authority (ohhh -- I'm not a scientist!) would get the same treatment? Because we all need to be scientists or other specialists to make critical judgments of obviously faulty logic or specious claims, right?

We should be a clear expert or authority to make any claims? Kim Yong-seon has that authority! "He said Koreans are 94% more likely to...umm...I don't really understand it, but...anyway! He said it! See!"

But then that very authority turns around and says, "No. That's not what it says. You're wrong."

So people start throwing shit at his house, and he's afraid to even come back to Korea from his research trip. The man's nearly in hiding. And what did he do to deserve this? Umm, absolutely nothing. Lovely.

What is more obvious is that PD 수첩's research is shoddy and unprofessional -- I've said it before. And I'm right again: obviously, they never even contacted the professor to discuss the meaning of his paper. Otherwise, they wouldn't have made it the center of their claims, linking it with other specious claims.

The point is -- to those of you getting on my case for pointing out that the statistic looked fishy and taken completely out of context -- you need to ask yourself why it was so obvious to someone like ME that the "94% genetic predisposition" claim looked very suspicious, and NOT to someone like YOU. What separate us? Nationality? Genetics? What neighborhood in Seoul I lived in? Or perhaps my school names?

It's critical thinking skills, people. Link that with a little basic understanding of logical and statistical fallacies, a rudimentary understanding of the science we all should have learned in high school, as well as not being beholden to a slavish belief in "authority," or the petty maneuverings of a self-interested few of what is clearly a highly-politicized issue -- and you get the ability to not be driven into irrational hysteria over a minor trade dispute.

Does this make me arrogant? If so, I guess I'm arrogant, then.

Does pointing this out make me an asshole? If so, I guess I gotta be an asshole, then.

Does this make me anti-Korean? Again, I'm just pointing out what I consider to be the overreactions of the irrational. By some people's standards, that makes me "anti-Korean," I guess. Hmm.

But then again, by "some people's standards," this innocent professor who did nothing but write a paper on an issue that people not only didn't properly understand, but actively misused for political gain, and when he simply clarified the actual meaning of the research being misused by intellectual brownshirts (and I use the term "intellectual" hesitantly), a completely innocent academic who literally has been dragged into a political shitstorm now has cow dung being thrown at his house and fears for his physical safety.

I guess that makes me, him, and anyone else who raises a voice outside of the mass-mind of the angry crowd, "anti-Korean," right? But to the mob, what does the truth -- nay, even mere rationality -- matter? "You're either with us or against us." Or, as the great Captain Jean-Luc Picard once ominously warned while under the assimilative mind control of cybernetic alien nanoprobes, "You WILL become one with the Borg."

"대~한민국!"

Korean Designer Profiles: Hwang Jae Bock

FMS is starting a series on Korea's most famous and influential fashion designers in the field of Korean fashion! This first episode kicks off with Hwang Jae Bock, a leading fashion designer and head of the Seoul Fashion Designers' Association. Check it out!

For those who prefer the YouTube version (compatible with more browsers):

What I really liked about the interview was the fact that I was able to stick in one of my little working theories about Korean fashion -- as the balance between a pressure to break out from the crowd as powered by a new boldness largely enabled by the Internet in constant tension with a a very Korean "social monitoring" that keeps people generally within the socially-acceptable range of the crowd -- and she saw it exactly the same way. Having one's observation be confirmed by someone much more knowledgeable is a very reassuring feeling and gives a certain boost in confidence.

At the end, I liked the fact she bought it in terms of my "Korean street fashion is ready-to-wear" and "Japanese street fashion is couture" metaphor. And I think I got a lot of credit for that one in her eyes. I thought it was a good interview to lead off the series with. And you might have noticed ExpatJane's voice in there, as she had arranged all the interviews for the show. Major hat tip to her!

Get more into Korean fashion by going over to FeetManSeoul.com and taking a look around!

More Details on the Soyuz Return Trip

Just got an email from a reader with a link to a pretty cool story on the Discovery Channel web site describing in detail coming back in on the Soyuz space capsule. Their first "rescuers" were Kazhak farmers, apparently. Peggy Whitson's money quote about getting having gotten out of the capsule: "I was having neuro-vestibular problems. I was not feeling great. My primary concern at that point was not puking."

Hehe. After 8.2 G's (not the 10 reported in other media -- interesting), I think my primary concern would be similar. Again, congratulations to everyone and we're glad all made it back safe and sound. [HT to Tony!]

Colbert Got Rained On!

Good stuff. I guess his profile got big enough with Speed Racer that they thought of a way to bring him on without a translator. That line when Rain entered was a sample from the movie, I think. Clever. [HT to Ggamssi!]

You Know, Maybe Government Suits Should Read the Expat Blogs...

Guess what? What many foreigners have been saying for a long time would happen HAS! While the Seoul Metropolitan Government wastes time asking western foreigners whether or not they like the toilets and tries to encourage tourism in Korea by just saying the country is now "sparkling!" foreign investment in Korea has been falling faster than a crackhead's mean body weight.

Any and all foreigners who've been in the middle of Roh Moo Hyeon's anti-American, anti-foreign, kneejerk nationalism has wondered how Korea would ever become the "hub of Asia" if any foreign firm who makes money here is constantly vilified beyond reasonableness, even as actual North Korean propaganda is allowed to be taught to schoolchildren by members of the Korean Teachers' Union, and the media continues to set up foreigners as the ultimate scapegoat for everything they can't now blame Lee Myung Bak for.

We've been saying it for years now.

If you're going to make Korea a place where it sucks to live, not to mention invest and make money, do you think anyone but the craziest or most committed are going to stay? Especially with the open and welcoming arms of China right next door? The first thing that Korean slogan and campaign planners need to figure out is that Korean automatically being the hub of anything was only a truism before there was international plane travel. Because now, people can fly OVER Korea without going THROUGH it.

I hate to say "I told you so." (Well, actually, I don't.) But "I told you so." And so did any other foreigner who's been here a long time and has been constantly shaking their head as Korea continued to embarrassingly piss yet another dream of being a "hub" down the proverbial drain.

And in this particular case, there's no one to blame other than -- wait for it -- the usual suspects: a formerly anti-American government and a continually anti-foreigner news media.

[Go read more here!]

Congratulations! This time, there's no one to blame but Korea itself! And with the hysterics over the KORUS FTA, wow -- for better or worse, Korea sure knows how to create a hospitable atmosphere for making agreements and then having the population go absolutely berzerk over it for the most irrational of reasons.

The Logic of Illogic

Needless to say, I couldn't find any answers to the question of where the "94% of Koreans more genetically susceptible to mad cow disease" claim came from, so I did my own research, since not knowing such things bothers me. Here's the answer, in terms of where this flimsy set of ideas is coming from. The article on "kuru" on eMedicine.com, which was reprinted from WebMD.com, and was written by:

Paul A Janson, MD, Instructor, Tufts University School of Medicine; Director, EMT/RN Consultants; Consulting Staff, Department of Emergency Medicine, Lawrence General Hospital

Along with coauthors:

Rachel H Chung, MD, Consulting Staff, Department of Family Practice, North Clinic, North Memorial Hospital; Mary Buechler, MD, Per Diem Staff, Department of Emergency Medicine, Caritas Holy Family Medical Center; Stuart H Cohen, MD, Director of Infection Control and Epidemiology, Associate Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, University of California at Davis School of Medicine

Here's the excerpt of this article, last updated on October 15, 2005:

"Prions are thought to be both the infectious agent and the cause of spongiform encephalopathy in animals and humans. The prion is a naturally occurring protein (termed prion protein [PrP]) found in the CNS and elsewhere.

In the alpha-helical configuration, PrP usually is sensitive to protease degradation and is termed PrP-sen. Disease results when the PrP is reconfigured into the beta-sheet configuration, which is resistant to protease degradation. This configuration is termed PrP-res. The PrP-res proteins are resistant not only to protease degradation but also to radiation, heat, and most other processes that destroy proteins. Neither the transmissible agent nor the disease-producing agent contains any DNA or RNA. Because they are naturally occurring proteins, immunologic response to the infection is absent.

The prion of kuru is infectious orally and is capable of transmission to nonhuman primates by this route and by direct introduction into various tissues. Scrapie may be transmitted to sheep from pastures that have previously been grazed by scrapie-infected sheep and have remained unused for as many as 30 years, demonstrating the extreme resistance of prions to degradation. CJD also has been transmitted iatrogenically by transplanted tissue such as dura mater grafts. Potential transmission via the blood supply has been suggested but never demonstrated.

Prions are capable of replicating themselves in organisms; or, more correctly, prions are capable of changing the existing PrP-sen to PrP-res. This change takes place particularly in the CNS. Resistance to degradation is the probable source of disease because prions accumulate within the CNS, causing amyloid collections and resulting in neurologic symptoms and the spongiform appearance on pathologic examination. Hence, the term spongiform encephalopathy is applied to this group of diseases.

The name prion has only recently gained wide acceptance, replacing previously used terms such as slow virus, infectious proteins, infectious amyloids, and crystal protein. Mice that lack the gene responsible for PrP cannot be infected with the agent causing spongiform encephalopathy. The lack of this protein has no apparent effect, except an alteration in the circadian rhythm of these mice. They have a normal life span. For this reason, the PrP has been proposed to be a redundant protein.

The PRNP gene has recently been identified as altering the susceptibility to prion infection. The gene has a polymorphism at site 129 for either methionine or valine and has been noted as showing a strong increase in susceptibility to kuru if methionine is present on both genes (M/M). All cases of vCJD in the United Kingdom have occurred in people of the M/M genotype as well.

The pathologic similarity between the spongiform encephalopathies and other degenerative brain diseases, such as Alzheimer disease, is the subject of speculation at this point."

OK, now that's something I can work with. The problem is, it still doesn't lead us to the conclusion that Korea and Koreans are somehow more susceptible to getting mad cow disease, even if it is established that the M/M genotype is expressed in 94% of the Korean population and only 38% of the American population. [And where did these numbers come from?]

The main problem is still the same: preventing tainted meat from reaching the population. If tainted meat hit the shelves of American grocery stores, it doesn't mean only 38% of the population would get it, nor does it mean that 94% of the Korean population would get it.

Neither population would find such a figure acceptable. The fact remains that one has to be exposed to said tainted meat, and a single case of vCJV in the United States in 2003 doesn't establish American meat as any worse than say, E. coli infections in Korean beef, which actually HAVE killed people, and have killed many more people in Korea than any cases of "mad cow" in the US. If there's something more logical to crow about, it's E. coli infections that have forced mass recalls of American beef -- not mad cow disease.

In the end, this is about fear-mongering and existing anti-American sentiment. The question isn't supposed "susceptibility" but whether or not mad cow disease is in the meat of that country. I'm still waiting -- for the over one million Americans of Korean descent (myself included) who've been eating American beef since they were born, how many cases of mad cow disease were there? Was that single case back in 2003 with a Korean American?

Where's the logic, people? It's about the absence or presence of contaminated beef -- not genes.

Some people automatically say "you're just defending America because you're American." That's fucking stupid, if you read this blog (which takes aspects of US society to task every bit as much as I do for South Korea), and my main argument is that if you want to protest the KORUS FTA, do it.

The Korean beef industry wants to protect its market, Korean farmers don't want the FTA bringing in American-grown rice, Korean car manufacturers don't want Ford, Chrysler, and GM selling its cars without the tariffs that have kept them out by keeping their prices double those of domestic cars. Fine. That's all economics, interests, perfectly reasonable arguments, whichever side of them you fall on.

But this fear-mongering about the certainty of death if American beef imports begin again is illogical: even assuming a 94% distribution of the M/M genotype (versus a supposed 38% prevalence in the US) doesn't mean 94% of the Korean population is going to get mad cow disease. In the end, one still has to demonstrate that American beef is particularly dangerous vis a vis "mad cow disease" actually being present, which so far, hasn't been demonstrated. Otherwise, I would have stopped eating American beef a long time ago.

American or not, I'm not stupid enough to eat infected beef. So I would appreciate it if Koreans dropped that line of argument. If and when it is demonstrated that American beef is unsafe, I'll stop eating it. And so should Koreans struggle to keep it out. Until that day, I'll still be getting my occasional beef fix at the local Burger King.

And so will most Koreans, after this all blows over. Illogical and extreme gesticulations and much ado about nothing are usually followed by completely forgetting about the issue.

Because Koreans are just almost even more "mad" about "cow" than Americans, what with the allegiance to foreign fast food chains such as Burger King and McDonald's. I predict a slight drop in sales in both establishments right after American beef comes in, followed by complete amnesia and business-as-usual two weeks later.

Such is the way of things in Korea, and why this whole thing amounts to a whole bunch of silliness. If people were really so worried about their health, they wouldn't eat beef AT ALL, since my vegetarian friends, plus the American book Fast Food Nation, illustrates just how unhealthy the beef industry is in general. Yet, I'm a carnivore. Can't help it.

Alternatively, if Koreans were so concerned about random and inexplicable death, they would also wear their seat belts. But generally, not only don't they, all my friends outright refuse to buckle up in the rear seats.

Pass the steak, please.

Feel the Force Unleashed

And I'm going to crow again about my skills in divining the divine.

Remember me going on about the Wii and The Force Unleashed?

Now shut up and go buy that shit. Don't have a Wii? Well, get one. September, dude, September.

My Movie Calls for the Summer

I saw Iron Man. It rocked. Explanation? Downey, Jr., good script, written with a set of balls. And I mean that in the non-PC sense of the word. Key to rockingness? A script and cast good enough to make me want to watch the movie and not roll my eyes while waiting for the next action sequence. Wired is spooging all over itself about it. Well, it's good enough to, so it's cool.

[Source]

But what my Korean friends teased me for -- a silly movie about a "철인" (an "iron man") -- will only be #2 best movie this summer, since The Dark Knight is going to absolutely fucking own everything this summer. Reasoning? Partially the same as the last one: Bale as the Bat, Caine as Alfred, Freeman as Fox, finally taking Batman seriously and not some Happy Meal joke. And for the present one? Ledger as the Joker, introduction of Two Face, the Batman gets darker. Oh, and the new trailer!

Looks gooood.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull will be #3 best blockbuster of the summer. Why? Jones is back, the movie admits he's old, they tried not to use much CGI for the stunts, and there's something about aliens. Why #3? Because Spielberg's become a big pussy and he's gonna cheese it up somehow. But it won't suck -- we'll just roll our eyes a few times. As for the place in the Indy pantheon, my hunch is that it'll go Raiders, Skull, Grail, and Temple. Listen -- the quest for the Holy Grail wasn't actually THAT good -- it doesn't stand up to many close watchings.

And many parts of that scary-ass Temple were pretty good, and I liked Short Round. That kid was hilarious. I almost placed Grail last, but I realized that that would have totally shot my credibility with certain people. Even though the opening sequence rocked, the banquet scene is legendary, the removal of a still-beating heart by a Thugee priest and lowering the still-living victim into a lava pit scared the pee-pee outta me and scarred me permanently all were friggin' AWESOME, and it was the only one in which Indy actually somewhat confronts the fact that he is actually not so different from his former nemesis Belloch, in terms of being an overblown grave robber, some people still think it was "too dark." I think it was awesome, with the only detriment being the annoying Girl Friday. But she was supposed to be annoying, so was it so bad? And did I mention the banquet scene? Oh, yeah. I did. "Chilled monkey brains!" Oh, yeah.

After that? Well, who cares? I'll still go see stuff, but it won't be a party. And as I said, we're going to be having some events, baby. Movie nights -- Dark Knight and Indy. More on that later.

But I've called 'em. Dark Knight, Iron Man, and Indy, in that order.

Speed Racer? I think it's gonna kinda suck as a film, from my viewing of the trailer -- and I'm pretty good with the trailers, baby. But I think John Goodman and Christina Ricci will be good, and the picture will be a visual treat -- that trailer looked fuckin' sweet in HD! -- but I think the movie is gonna be limp overall. Sorta like Lost in Space, which looked great, but made me yawn. Hopefully I'll be wrong -- and if the racing sequences are as good as they say, I think it'll be well worth seeing, but I still don't think it'll be top 3. And Rain? Who cares? His English is still awkward and will make everyone wince, from what I saw. I think he's just a nod to lock in Korea as the 3rd-largest movie market in the world, right behind Japan, which will be sporting the very talented and gritty Hirouki Sanada as its entry in the film. He was great in Sunshine, though -- and he certainly doesn't make you wince.

The new Hulk flick with Edward Norton? Well, restarting franchises has been a good idea, what with Superman and Batman getting renewed lives. But the first/last Hulk was like, not even 10 years ago, dude. Right? Norton's cool, what with his complexity and raw talent, yadda yadda. But the Hulk will pass without much notice.

These are my calls. Let's see how they pan out, and let's just go see 'em!