Scribblings of the Metropolitician

Podcast #25 – Being Black in Korea

Here, a fellow black blogger in Korea and I hash out some views on being black or brown (but not blue!) in Korea, all while digesting some good Chinese from Holy Chow! in Itaewon.

It's not comprehensive or necessarily representative, but rather just an attempt to get different point-of-views out there. Most American expats – well, western expats in general – in Korea are white, Asian, what-have-you. Flipped the other way, they're not black. Here's a take on Korea you don't get to here so often, and which is long overdue as a podcast o' mine.

Yes, we're Americans talking about race – our culture's most sensitive topic – but don't freak out – we're just trying to talk about sensitive things in as nuanced manner as possible, while not beating around the bush.

A hard fence to walk, indeed.

Running Time: 1:16:23
File Size: 26.2MB
File Info: 48 kbps (mono) at 44.1 kHz, MPEG-2, layer 3 (MP3)

Show Links:

Regina's Blog
http://expatjane.blogspot.com/

Korea's Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) Is Up

Korean media, ya'll way behind the Metropolitician. (Here it is in Korean.)

"The quality of life for South Koreans ranked 26th on the United Nations’ Human Development Index (HDI), but Korean women ranked 53rd on the same body’s Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM), indicating South Korea’s marked gender disparity."

Way back when, I was already crowing and complaining about how Korea's Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) was a staggeringly-low 63, near the end of the 70 major countries measured at the time (Check it out here and here and here and here and here and here in chronological order.)

The countries were all ranked in a 2001 UN study according to standard of living (Human Development Index or HDI) and that GEM stat. Funny thing was, Korea was one of the countries that had a higher standard of living, but whose GEM was waaaaay off from that ranking. You see, most developed countries in that study had numbers that kind of made intuitive sense, with GEM rankings that kind of matched – not in a direct correlation, but generally – the overall economic and political development of the country.

Not Korea.

Here are Korea's peers in the 60's to the end in the 2001 study. In the left column is the HDI number, to the right of the country the GEM.

Honduras 60

75 Ukraine 61
88 Georgia 62
30 Korea, Rep. of 63
130 Cambodia 64
48 United Arab Emirates 65
96 Turkey 66
99 Sri Lanka 67
120 Egypt 68
139 Bangladesh 69
148 Yemen 70

Korea's HDI was 30. But a GEM of 63? 64 was Cambodia (which doesn't recognize domestic violence as a crime), and the United Arab Emirates was 65. Pakistan was in the 50's.

Ouch.

Given that the stats had a lot to do with women's economic and political positions of power, that made a lot of sense. Did the stat jibe with reality, upon informed and thoughtful consideration? In my eyes, yes. It hadn't been long as of 2001 since women were actually in permanent, career-track positions that didn't almost automatically involve men being exclusively ending up as the top execs or even middle managers, you still didn't see that many people in office, and in the "IMF Crisis" you actually had policies in many companies of firing any woman who had a husband with a job, since the idea was that you had to spread the breadwinners around.

Yeah, statistics aren't everything, but they are useful guides, if you understand how they were made.

Anyway, apparently Korea's made a 10-stop increase in its GEM since 2002. Bravo!

But there's still a long way to go.

Convicted Murderer Richard Markle Freed

The news came through to me via the Lost Nomad's site (I just read this and was about to link, but his site went down. Here's a link to a similar announcement-style post on ROK Drop, which has a link to the post mentioned).

For me, the most interesting aspect of this is disproving one of the main myths of the misinformed, politically-dogmatic NGO people – that the Korean police and judicial system are actively prevented from handling GI's in the Korean legal system.

In arguments over verifiable points-of-fact that these people consistently get wrong – and I'm not even a sign-waving, anti-American, anti-globalization activist, yet I seem to have the basic facts straight much more than they do on a lot of issues when I occasionally engaged such people in verbal battle – which totally baffles me, as I would have expected that those concerned about a topic would have actually done the do-diligence and reading up that most everypeople don't do.

The major myth that I heard on the streets in 2002 – at least among the people who got in arguments with me this over samgyeopsal – was that the convicted murderer was not allowed to be tried under SOFA provisions and given a slap on the wrist, and in some versions, even freed.

"Huh?" I would always reply. "His ass is sitting in Korean prison right now." Most people thought I was crazy and somehow making stuff up to defend some categorically pro-American stance. Most were stunned to see I was critical of Bush and also critical of many aspects of the US presence here.

"But you're an American? How can you call your president an idiot?" or some version of that was always the response. I would then counter, "Do all Koreans love Roh Moo Hyun?" to which there were knowing snickers, disagreements, or at least much chattering. "Of course not!" was the general response.

"So why do you think all Americans support Bush? Don't you even watch your own television news?"

As Jabba the Hutt (to whom I am increasing prone to compare myself these days) once chided, "Weak-minded fools."

Korean left-wingers and liberals – get a clue and do your homework. Markle's ass has been in prison all this time now, and here the Korean newspaper articles to prove it (since any non-Korean news source is obviously under that control of the evil American Empire™ and George Bush himself.

"But the American media is biased and pro-American!" they say.

Sure – to some extent, and in different ways than the same is true in Korea. But if I had to put my bet down on some counter-to-popular-sentiment journalism getting out there and published in one nation's media – who would you put your money on?

The point is that such people were placing me and the whole United States in the same category they had unconsciously created for themselves and in which they had actually imprisoned themselves – within a limiting box of extreme nationalist fervor and categorical thinking.

This is why dissenting views are not tolerated – especially among both extremes of Korean rightist nationalists and radical leftists – because actually, they are interpreting my assumed opinions and stances on things based on their own singular and narrow view on things.

Hence, the inability to reconcile someone who isn't an unapologetic booster for American Empire™ being critical of idiotic, anti-American NGO protestors (again, not "idiotic" because they are anti-American, but simply because their reasons for being so are so obviously political and self-interested) yet also being able to be critical of the actions of the United States, my own government.

Anyway, all I demand of people touting any particular political point of view is to get the basic facts of the main pillars of your argument (Markle is sitting pretty on a tropical island sipping daiquiries and laughing at the memory of the Korean prostitute he murdered, or that SOFA is even the main part of the problem – the Korean military has exactly the same arrangements for its personnel in East Timor, Kyrgyzstan, and Iraq, and a Korean soldier who accidentally shot and killed a fellow Iraqi soldier was tried by the Korean military) straight.

You don't have to agree with me – otherwise we wouldn't be arguing, now would we? – but you shouldn't be ranting and raving on the basis of things that are easily demonstrated as non-facts.

And to all those people who scoffed at me like I was crazy – and who probably don't read this blog, but whatever – Richard Markle has had his ass in prison since 1993.

Period. Like I said.

Goshdangit – why do the people on left, in whatever country I go to – tend to be as narrow-minded and dogmatic as the people on the right?

They certainly make for embarrassing bedfellows.

Ding, Dong, the Tape is Dead!

Wow – things change and times pass so fast while living overseas.

The VHS tape is officially no more, at least as a retail item.

So go pour some liquor out for our dead homey. This guy nearly raised most of us, and is still where many of our precious experiences and formative moments are still stored. The 80's may have come back, but not without a few necessary casualties.

Shout Out – "Black Man in China"

Now that I've decided to give Ron Sims a proper mentioning on this blog, definitely take a look at his most recent episode, in which he makes the pilgrimage to the Shaolin Temple. I think you will be as surprised as I was to see what he finds there.

Now, this is a video podcast done right. I think this works because 1) it's short and sweet, and 2) it doesn't rely on a strong interest in China as much as the POV of the person doing the show. Seeing the China through the eyes of a funny guy you'd definitely want to have a beer with makes it fun; I'm not gonna sit through even National Geographic's take on the story, no matter how well produced.

That's the power of podcasting, people.

And who else actually does real graffiti art (here's a video!) in addition to podcasting and has all the skills that go along with that? This is a talented "black man in China" – I see Ron Sims going places.

Personality goes a long way, as Mr. Tarantino once said, albeit virtually. I wish I had that much personality. *SNIFF* Is it because I'm only half a black man in Korea? Hehe. Joking, obviously.

On his YouTube director's page, he describes the show chronicling the life of "A Black Guy from Cleveland [who] moves to Fuzhou China, Ha! it's funny already." We're both black men from Ohio who moved to Asia. And I will join you in the ranks of video podcasting soon, albeit in a very different way from Ron. If you ever get to Korea, you've got a hookup here. That's an invite.

Keep it going on, Ron!

New Link – SeoulLife.net

A great blog that is updated fresh and daily, and has that rare extra element of wit and smarts that I like. I've added it to my select list of links.

And Cat's cats are cute. Almost as cute as my cats. Almost.

Just Plain Disgusting

It's simple.

History used properly, in the good-faith effort of finding the "truth" as opposed to riding the waves of politics and popular sentiment, is valuable.

This is why I would venture to say that the view of "history" in Korea is too steeped in assuaging the pain of subjugation, obfuscating the obvious guilt of the many, and being a political tool to rouse up anger for political gain.

I'll say this now and all to hear – any "historian" who approves of this decision isn't a historian, but a short-sighted nationalist or political opportunist. When did we let such people define historical discourse?

Well, this is disgusting. (Catch up to this debate here and here.)

The Commission should know that those rounding up comfort women were Koreans and those torturing people in police stations were mostly Koreans. Koreans, in other words, were more ``horrible’’ to Koreans in many cases than the Japanese were. The solution to this dilemma is to accept the notion of individual responsibility. I asked my father’s friend why he thought the Koreans camp guards were so nasty. ``When the camp commander was angry about something, he’d berate his officers,’’ he explained. ``The officers would take their frustration out on the Japanese privates, and they would take theirs out on the Korean privates. The Koreans would then take their anger out on the only people beneath them _ that was us.’’

That's part of the historical lesson. HELLO?!?!?! It's not just Japanese bad, Koreans good. It's political gold, but historical garbage.

This is almost – almost, I say – as disgusting as the American politicians and interest groups who tanked the 1995 Smithsonian exhibit on Hiroshima because present historical scholarship doesn't jibe with what most Americans want to hear, which is that the Hiroshima/Nagasaki drops brought about the end of the war (top military brass at the time all agreed that the Japanese were defeated and the Japanese were sending out "peace feelers" left and right, to be ignored by a government that had hemmed itself in with the needless mantra of "unconditional surrender" (one that turned out later to be far more than what any Japanese would have asked for before the actual surrender – maintaining the institution of the Emperor and kid-gloving war criminals and industries, indeed!), or that it "saved a million American lives." That's a statistic and historical "fact" made after the fact, and was never an actual point of consideration at the time.

And as most good historians know, one of the problems with certain elements of Japanese society being unable to face its past has to do with the kid gloves with which the US handled its prosecution of Japanese (and by extension, Korean) war criminals.

Point is, it's not like the US was being overzealous in the Tokyo tribunals – it was far more lenient and concerned with getting Asia back running again, and didn't have nearly the moralizing undertone as what happened with Germany under the Allies and how the Holocaust was constructed into a lesson for the world (for all you fans of historiography, even the words "The Holocaust" didn't exist until at least the early 1960's, if my memory serves).

But what makes the Korean case more disgusting, in my book, is how "history" is used as a weapon to condemn "Japan" or "America" – categorically, without any context or nuance – and ends up being a mere tool for hatred of what are far more complex, "imagined communities" that aren't the same ones who committed the crimes in question.

Point is, even one's own "imagined community" has to be defined as such, even and especially when you look back at your "own" history, at your "own" people. And to dismiss individuals basically because "they are Korean" and (we assume, or so they say, in their defense) that they "didn't have a choice" or "were just following orders" or anything else of that stripe of tripe – is bullshit, plain and simple.

Yeah, there were practical considerations for being a Kapo in Nazi concentration camps – the Wikipedia entry is wrong, by the way, as this word stands for "Kamppolizei" (camp police) and not the "capo" from Italian word for "leader", as it says – but they were the most brutal and had made the hideous moral choice to physically assist their killers.

For every protestation that they were "just doing it to survive", it takes away the millions upon millions of instants of poignant, personal meaning of all the people who chose not to step forward to join the ranks of the Jews who would monitor, beat, and control fellow Jews. These are the vast majority of people who could have scraped and begged and pleaded to be let into the ranks of the kapo but found it morally too disgusting to contemplate enough to volunteer.

Because history remembers. And no one wants to be remembered as the most traitorous of traitors, vile of the vile, lowest of the low.

They didn't have a choice?

If history teaches us anything, it is that we always have a choice.

Even if that choice is to close ones eyes and eat a bullet, or inhale the Zyklon-B in the "shower room", rather than volunteer or continue to actively do work that leads to the further oppression or killing of others, especially one's own people.

What acts of resistance can the commission show these people committed? Where's the specific rationale for this, based in evidence other than "they were Korean?"

Being Korean – or Jewish, or Black, or whatever – doesn't absolve one from guilt or the moral judgement that comes with agency and responsibility for ones actions.

This judgement is being offered in the same socio-political breath as those who want to insist that Korea in no way materially benefitted from the Japanese colonial period and that Korea's success is fully and indisputably the result of Korean agency and happened by dint of pure Korean know-how? And now this decision, which symbolically negates that? Lord have mercy. Does the right or the rightist historians even make any internal sense?!

To categorically dismiss guilt because of nationality and assumed reasons for having committed a not just a crime, but a war crime – without specific, mitigating circumstances backed up by documents, witnesses and testimony – is fucking disgusting.

Sorry – but as a young historian and scholar, that's as best as I can sum this up, for it's as complex a summation as a decision like this deserves.

"Me...Wii."

For those of you who don't know, but might be interested, the Wii has arrived.

The Wii (pronounced "we") has been the hot item of much restless rumor for a looooong time among the more geeky, with hype up the wazoo. And the cool thing is that even with all that, it has surpassed expectations – it simply rocks, and I'm sad I'm not home these days to join the frenzy. As far as I have heard on the Internet, the Wii's not in Korea until next March.

And for those of you like me – not a gamer and haven't been since before anyone was even called a "gamer" around the time of Super Nintendo's Zelda and Contra – you're probably gonna ask, "Why the hell would I want a video game machine?"

Because Nintendo's back, too, baby. It really is the 80's all over again. First, I like James Bond again. Now this. And why is Playstation 3 dead in the water, besides the facts of it being overpriced, underpowered for that power, late in the game, and as chock full of hardware defects and other crap as an old Goldstar boom box? Don't take my word for it – check out the best possible review.

'Cause the Wii's cheap, small, and frickin' fun! (My adult read).

You don't use a traditional controller – you have to move your hands, wave your arms, and even – imagine – get up off your ass and actually have to do what's on the screen. So you are a ninja taking a slice at your enemy with a katana blade? You have to actually do it. You driving a monster truck? You don't need no stinking extra controller. Just drive in the air. It's not like playing the old duck game on the Super NES with those clunky guns – you do every and all things with Wii's nifty new controller.

And as a home theater buff, I'll just say that this all makes sense. Screens are getting bigger, digital, and more often accompanied by tricked-out surround sound. People are making more room in front of those screens because of their larger size and more central placement and priority in the home, so a cute little interactive device – introduced at just the age when people reared and raised on the Super Nintendo are in the highest earning bracket – is perfect to introduce now. And what with all the dark and violent virtual worlds we've been entering lately (and I'm not gonna get all Tipper Gore on ya – I've pimped away some pretty exciting nights playing Grand Theft Auto with the best of 'em), it's a refreshing, cleaner change. Back to basics.

Everybody's been waiting for the Wii – the geekazoids and kids have, anyway – but now that it's here, you need to think about getting one, especially to pass the time and anger manage while being an expat here. Hey – it's an option.

So, let Nintendo make you a kid again with its much talked-about new toy that gets you moving, your blood pumping, and your heart racing. The other thing I like about it is that you can't sit on you ass with most of these new games and just thumb yourself into oblivion. It puts the "get off your ass" in play again, and since it's Nintendo, I don't expect to see Grand Theft Auto for the Nintendo anytime soon; thank God, since I would prefer not to see 8-year-olds knifing pimps in the neck to take their ho's and steal their Lamborghini. Save that for when that fantasy is actually matched by a clearer view of reality, such that it's not confused with such.

Also, the advertising campaign is a hoot. "Wii would like to play." Haha. Indeed. With a traditional Japanese stringed instrument rocked out to a hip-hop beat, and the two Japanese guys in the mini-compact car visiting American everybodies across the country. Genius. I'm pretty critical of mindless consumerism driven by large corporations and hyped products that we really don't need – but i guess Nintendo has a special place in my heart.

Embedding has been turned off on the vids, but just click over and watch the official extended commercial. Now, I know what the hype was all about.

I'll put my own spin on things, ending with the shortest poem in the English language, composed by Muhammed Ali and quoted in the killer documentary When We Were Kings, as cited by George Plimpton.

"Me. We."

Indeed. Because why am I gonna buy a Wii? Because I'm gonna use it to have fun with friends at get-togethers, as something to bring people closer together and have a little fun with, as opposed to thumb-mashing on a single controller all day by myself. If it allows adults to have as much fun as a party favor as kids can when they hang out after school, then it's a great product in my book.

Here's to making more "we" from Wii.

To All the Email I've...Ignored...

Meant to be sung to the tune of Julio Iglesias's "To All the Girls I've Loved Before", which I've had in my head all morning for some inexplicable reason...

It's just come back to me through the third channel this week that I'm lame for not responding to emails. I just want to say here on the blog and for the record that I admit that I'm lame.

I've been a busy bee this week, and my reporter friend is the third person this week to say that she was talking to someone who liked the blog/podcast, emailed me, and never heard back. Then there was the security guy working an embassy function this week who heard my name and told me he read the blog, liked it, emailed me, and never heard back.

Big "oops."

I can only apologize and say that it was really nothing personal. I do get those emails from time to time, and I read them and sincerely appreciate them. If there was a link or a URL in them, I definitely go and check them out. I really do.

However, I also have this tendency – a really bad habit – of reading it, thinking very nice thoughts, putting the email into its appropriate folder, and meaning to write back. And then I end up not.

I know it's bad, but I can only apologize and try to change my ways.

From now on, I'm going to put emails into a "to reply" box before filing them into boxes that I end up never getting to. And I'm going to get back to the ones that I should have a while ago.

AND – if you're in Seoul and I didn't get back to you, how about I offer you a ticket to our little outing to see the new Bond movie when it comes out in December? Least I can do, and then we can chat over drinks afterwards.

And if you'd like to re-email me to get a quicker response, please do. And/or leave a reply in the comments. You can even castigate me for it by relaying when you write the email and how long it's been since I didn't get back to you.

Seriously – sincerely sorry about that.

And by the way, I am about to get back serious about my podcasting – really. One of the reasons I haven't been podcasting is due to the lack of a job that gets me in the city, about town, and into money.

Also, I've been planning a video podcast and have been filming for that. It's just been a bit hard recently to divide up tasks between audio and video podcasts. But now, it's gotten clearer.

Hehe. You heard it hear first. (Like, where else would you hear, though?)

Thanks, fellow blog readers. You truly are appreciated, even if I do a crappy job of showing it sometimes.

Get ready for more, better podcasting and more responsible blogging ahead!

Whoo hoo!

I'm First In Line, Baby

First off, let me tell you that I'm not some die-hard James Bond junkie.

I was raised on Roger Moore, before getting older and starting to like the Sean Connery Bond who came before my time. Without getting into a debate over who's "better", I think we can all agree that it was downhill with the pretty boys Pierce Brosnan and Timothy Dalton, neither of whom could convince me that their skinny asses could swat a fly hard enough to keep it down for a three-count.

The scene, which I saw back in 1995 in Korea, in which Bond (I forget which one and I don't care) jumps off a cliff after an airplane, gets in, starts it, and pulls it up before kissing the girl in the opening scene – man – it had the whole audience rolling on the floor with the unintentional humor of its sheer ridiculousness.

That was the infamous opening Bond scene – and it lost me at "hello." I never really took Bond movies seriously after that. Especially the one with Denise Richards in it. Ugh.

Well, now – fuck dat shit. Bond's back, boooiieeeeee!

I called this the moment the trailer came out – when some Bond junkies were whining about him being too old and grimy-looking – I said, "Now that's a muthafucka who can kill somebody."

"You noticed."

Hey – CNN.com agrees – and they're idiots. But Queen Elizabeth's not an idiot. Neither is Judy Dench, who is the sexiest older lady I've ever heard deliver a power line in an action flick. As James Bond goes outside the plans and one of the support staff asks, "What's he doing?" – she replies, "His job." And she does it all Britishy-like, too. Hehe.

RottenTomatoes.com, which averages reviews into a stunningly helpful percentage – above 60% gets a "fresh tomato" and is the magic balancing point at which movies on their scale are actually enjoyable – it got a 95%. That's Lord of the Rings level, people. That's freeeeeesh. For comparison, Catwoman got 9% – and even the "good" reviews were reaching to be nice:

If you like "Van Helsing" and "The Punisher," then you'll enjoy this. Catwoman is worth seeing for its camp value and is better than it has any right to be.

That's some funny shit.

Anyway, Korean netizens also seem to be feeling the vibe. So far, the "pre-show hunch" rating stands at 94% – and why wouldn't it, for any reasonable person who has seen the trailer? Here it is, by the way, with Korean subtitles (via the official Korean website).

If you don't need the Korean subs, then watch it in real quality on Apple's constantly exhaustive collection of trailers.

Or you can watch it here.

But I bet you'll wanna download and watch the higher quality ones again.

And whenever the release date here in Korea in December – I'm gonna go see dat shit. Anyone with me? We'll make a night out of it.