Scribblings of the Metropolitician

"Avatar" a "Suicide Fantasy"?

This was my response to a link posted to me by a friend:

It frustrates me that there are so many IGNORANT people out there. I don't mean just plain "dumb." But really willfully IGNORANT of the history they never bothered to read, but talk about with such brass balls authority. They would look stupid if only most of their audience weren't as equally dumb as rocks. Here how my response went, but edited and proofread a bit this time:

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Haha -- I guess we "liberals" are even dumber than the blockheads portrayed in the film. Problem is, if this is a liberal "fantasy," let us have it. Because as simplistic as the bad guys were allegedly portrayed, greeting the natives with calvary, troops armed with machine guns, and forced relocation is pretty much ACTUALLY what went down in American history.

So what about this movie is so unrealistic again? Or how were the bad guys -- we humans -- overdone? The Pequot Massacre, King Philip's War, Trail of Tears, Sand Creek Massacre, and the end of the "Indian Wars" at Wounded Knee in 1890? Are these examples too much?

Hello?

For a guy who thinks the bad guys' attitude and actions were overdone, he sure is ignorant of actual history, when "we" did EXACTLY what they planned to do to "them" AGAIN in the film. In fact, far worse. What exactly is so far fetched?

It's a "liberal fantasy" to be moral? If I had been an American Army regular in 1890 with my machine gun turret trained down on Sioux tents from atop the hill and I decided to turn it on own soldiers -- or just not participate -- I would have been probably seen as a traitor at the time.

During the My Lai massacre in Vietnam, though, it was a helicopter gunner who pointed his machine gun at his own commander and told him to "Cease and desist" from continuing to shoot the civilians in the village. Is he a "traitor?" To some jarheads and neo-fascists, sure. But to most good Americans, such a soldier represents some degree of progress, as someone who doesn't define right and wrong by just his "orders."

Yeah, Doc Zero, sometimes your country, "your" people can be in the wrong. It's not your patriotic duty to be a fucking lemming -- it might even be your patriotic duty to protest, or even tell your commanding officer to go fuck himself because you refuse to kill innocent civilians. Those people aren't the cowards or traitors that the blind patriot would label them -- no, those are the people who have blue balls of steel.

Avatar is no more "fantasy" than Metacomet's example in 1675, the tragedy of the "Trail of Tears" in 1838 under Andrew Jackson's policy and enforced by US Army guns, or the more uplifting example of Warrant Officer Hugh C. Thompson, who reduced the number killed at My Lai by turning his sights on his "own" side and was later rewarded with a medal, years later. His commanding officer, Lieutenant William Calley, went down in history with the rest of the cardboard bad guys, because that's exactly what he had become when he started the machine gunning, rape, and murder of unarmed civilians.

Does this make me some "whiny" liberal? That I'm on the side of the scientist crying over the "blue monkeys" who want to save their "tree" in Avatar? It's a "suicide fantasy" to sometimes realize YOUR SIDE is in the wrong? That same argument -- that criticism of one's country, countrymen, or soldiers is tantamount to the desire to destroy the nationalist "self" -- is what leads to gas chambers, killing fields, and mass machete murders.

Stopping the destruction of a people, or the environment, or the committing of some other immoral act isn't something AGAINST "our" interest -- it's an acknowledgement of history, of the fact that some moral prices are too high to pay, no matter what the gain. It's a mere acknowledgement that we're actually LEARNING from our past.

THAT. IS. THE. POINT. OF. THE. MOVIE.

The "psychotic" officer portrayed in Avatar was no more crazed than any number of assholes in history who justified their actions by just "following orders." Avatar is no fucking liberal "fantasy." The real history that the movie channels ALL TOO WELL is as real as the My Lai woman whose brain was blown out onto the ground from the back of her head, through her mouth:

That shit is as real as it gets, dude.

Support that? Even if it's done by my country's soldiers? My fellow citizens?

No way. And that doesn't make me a traitor, nor does that mean I live in a fantasy world.

Intensive Beginner Photo Class!

From our most recent class, on balancing flash and outdoor light.

Designed for those of you still around and/or working in late December, you'll get a full education and a great deal of experience with your DSLR, which will prepare you for your upcoming vacations here, back home, or somewhere else abroad.

Session 1:
Just the Basics Dealing with the basic operations and functions of your DSLR, explaining each function, button, and doo-hickey. The bulk of the session is likely going to stick around the relationship between aperture and shutter, as well as depth-of-field. Basically everything on your camera has something to do with this relationship.

Session 2:
Composition and Shooting (Shooting Session 1)
We'll take those examples and look at them on the big screen, while also answering the concrete questions that will pop up about the stuff we learned before. Then we'll talk about composition and other framing issues, including lens lengths and why some lenses are worth $100 bucks and some are worth $10,000.

Session 3:
Flashes and Advanced Exposure (Shooting Session 2)
Dealing with flash, in terms of compensating above and below exposure levels (bracketing), as well as other bracketing techniques in general.

Session 4: Final Session/Critiques
Keeping it open, field trip using advanced flash and lighting techniques -- locations determined by the weather.

Four 3-hour sessions, as well as shooting sessions, photo discussions, and critiques. An individual photo essay will also be done as part of the ongoing class assignments. All for 175,000 won. A great price!

Usually, we offer 4 classes spaced over 4 Saturdays of any given month. This time around, since we know many people will be traveling at the end of the month -- especially on vacations with their cameras -- we are going to finish them off in 2-week blocks, on both Saturday and Sunday for 2 weeks.

So, sessions 1, 2, 3, and 4 of the second class this month will fall on Dec. 19, 20, 26, and 27, respectively.

Also, if you want to space it out over the month like normal, you can simply choose your own dates, such as sessions 1-3 on Dec. 1, 20, 26, respectively, and then take the 4th session the following month, giving you time to percolate on what you've learned thus far.

Check out the course description on Facebook and you'll see how this can all fit together quite well.

Payment information and directions are detailed in a Facebook note as well.

For information about the studio, the instructor, as well as sample photos and even videos, go to this page.

For any questions, OR IF YOU DO NOT HAVE FACEBOOK, please drop me a line to my email directly.

If you submit payment and drop an email to the email address listed at the top right of this page, along with your phone number, you're all set! See you in class!

An Open Letter to Steve Jobs from an iPhone Hopeful in Korea

Dear Mr. Jobs,

I've been a die-hard Mac user since the days I went to a fancy high school that had a bank of Mac Pluses, to the present day, as my long wait for the iPhone in South Korea seemed to be coming to an end. I had to wait for what seemed like an eternity to wait for the barriers and regulations that kept iPhone out of the market to drop. And now, in what seems like an act of divine Providence, the iPhone is on sale at a dealer near me, EVERYWHERE.

Except that if you are non-Korean, you essentially can't have one.

The carrier you guys went with happens to be the one with the most archaic and unnecessary hoops to jump through for foreigners, as they essentially haven't changed their policies regarding foreign residents of this country one iota. The claim continues to be that registering foreigners is dangerous because we might skip town with unpaid bills; but other companies, SK being an example, have simply instituted a deposit system to solve the problem. I switched my service away from KTF precisely because of this -- I had managed to get a phone turned on in my name, but to add services, change plans, or buy a new phone is a NIGHTMARE if you are a non-Korean. With SK, it's as easy as pie.

Now, I'm back to having to deal with KTF because I want an iPhone, and even I am surprised at how NOTHING has changed. I happen to have an F-4 visa because my mother is Korean, and I am technically supposed to have a status completely the same as a Korean national; yet, KTF hasn't updated its systems to accept foreign ID numbers as per a government mandate, and each time I go back for a visit, a different and ridiculous reason is given as to why I can't be registered: foreigners "can't have" iPhones, my visa isn't a "real" foreigner's ID, the term of the 2-year service contract must be must be changed to match the length of my visa (a statement flatly refuted by Immigration), silliness ad infinitum.

And that's for the status of foreigners like myself who have "Korean blood" and are supposed to be have legal equality with Korean nationals. I can buy land, own large amounts of property, register businesses, engage in certain kinds of trade in ways that general foreigners cannot -- YET I CANNOT BUY AN IPHONE. The dominant feeling is that, after a while, KTF representatives just start making up reasons to not allow foreigners to register. It is simply THAT ridiculous, arbitrary, and unprofessional. The number of crazy of stories I could tell you are simply legion, especially for foreigners of non-Korean descent.

For them, it's mostly possible, sometimes easy. A major requirement is that you have a Korean credit card -- no mean feat for most, almost automatic for a few in that process, which is its own, separate story -- which in short, is a means to keep most foreigners from registering. But even still, even with a Korean credit card, you have to buy the iPhone up front and you still have to use pre-paid service, which is 4-5 times more expensive than normal service. This is what I was told by a KTF representative yesterday. Who knows if this is even true?

In the end, there are nearly ONE MILLION foreign residents in Korea (2% of the population) who face extreme levels of difficulty in purchasing your fine product. As a proud American and avid Apple consumer, I find it quite ironic that I can't even purchase a revolutionary product made in my own country. Well, I guess it is really no surprise, given how hostile this country has been to Apple products, from when the Apple reseller Elex Electronics crippled the Mac's launch into Korea by charging 3-4 times the list price here because they had a captive graphic design/printing market. KTF seems to be a company of the same, old-school Korean ilk -- do as little as possible for the sake of the consumer, while bilking them for all they are worth.

It is unfortunate that Apple, through no fault of its own, is teamed up with a similar company. Perhaps that's not enough to hurt iPhone sales in Korea (which I think are going to continue selling off the shelves and have 30% of the cellphone market in a year here for a variety of reasons), but this situation is creating a LOT of anger amongst the group of Apples most loyal fans and consumers -- the many, many foreigners here who tend to be not more than a few years out of college, bring their entire music collections on their iPods, and use Macs at a much higher rate than the general population. And we're loud. Because the situation is so blatantly ridiculous -- and some feel, even racist.

South Korea is a nation that is quickly adapting to its new, larger foreign population. Many companies have adapted to allow us access to the same goods and services that Korean nationals enjoy. I can now use many sites on the Korean Internet (as you likely know, the government has mandated a "real-name system" requirement for major sites), can buy movie tickets online, get a retail discount card, and even access the Holy Grail of buying a cellphone -- with every carrier except for KTF, that is.

I write this letter with the hope of informing Apple just how archaic, anti-foreigner, and backwards a company KTF is -- even by the standards of other KOREAN companies. And the great desire for your iPhone, combined with being forced to try and get it through KTF, is creating a growing outrage amongst a population of your most historically most loyal consumers in this country, who have often, like myself, been the staunchest and most vocal Apple/Mac advocates in this land of previously near-total domination of PC/Windows.

There are a LOT of angry people here, who are veritably seething because of this situation. I simply wanted to let you know just how bad things are and just how much anger is building because of KTF's foolish and stubborn policies.

If Apple can do anything to pressure into KTF to making iPhone ACTUALLY and PRACTICALLY available to foreigners (I'm sure they will counter with how TECHNICALLY, any foreigner can register our product), it would be much appreciated by many of your most die-hard fans and advocates here.

Sent to:

[email protected]
[email protected]

iPhone Wars II: The Saga Continues

OK. Yesterday, I went down to the KTF center at the Ipark Mall in Yongsan and got Darth Vader on 'em. In Korea, I learned very quickly that when you become a problem they would like to sweep under the rug, unless you are either a) scary and imposing, b) extremely irritating, or c) able to drop the name of someone you know whom they are afraid of, nothing gets done.

Yesterday, a guy I know who happened to be in the middle of his own phone saga (he changed passports and they cut off his phone after years of being a VIP customer in good standing) got his "unsolvable" problem solved by threatening to call the Seoul mayor's office, to which he actually demonstrated her does have connections. Phone reconnected in a record 2 minutes after threat, after weeks of being told "it is impossible." KTF is full of some old-school Korean shit.

In my own case, I went down there, guns a-blazing, talking angrily and saying things like, "No, you're not just a human being. You work for KTF, you represent KTF, you ARE KTF! Stop saying it's not your responsibility! I don't look at you as an individual. You are KTF! Answer my questions!" In Korea, if you're an asshole, shit gets done. And the representative behind the counter was just stupid. As was the one on the phone last Monday. Without getting into the individual conversations, let me list the reasons I was apparently not qualified.

But first, you must know that I have an F-4 visa. Which gives me the right to register a business like a Korean, work without a visa like a Korea, even buy land and own major amounts of property like a Korean. The only thing I can't do is vote. Legally, though, an F-4 is a Korean. But not to KTF:

-- The lady said I needed to extend my visa period (2 years) to cover the 2-year contract. She said people do that all the time. The lady at immigration laughed and said that was bullshit. You can't extend your visa at will, and especially for a cellphone. You can only do the F-4 extension from one month or so before your period ends. Not a year. Fuck you and your explanation. HISSSS-PA. HISSS-PA.

-- The girl at the counter yesterday said that my Foreigner ID card wasn't actually one, since it said I was a "person of Korean descent" on the card (my card actually says "외국국적동포국내거소신고증") which simply indicates I am a person holding a "foreign person of Korean descent residency card" -- a different KIND of foreigner ID. A higher type than the general one, more akin to an American "green card" in a rough sense, versus someone on a more general visa. Except I have to renew it. But my foreigner ID is RIGHT there, with the proper type and number of digits. I quickly ripped her a new asshole for implying that my card was somehow not valid. That's simply wrong and she was trying to get out of having to deal with me anymore because she didn't know what the fuck she was talking about. At which point, she should have consulted someone she knew, rather than bullshit her way out of the situation. HISSSSS-PA. HISSSSS-PA.

-- The number apparently doesn't "go into" the system. Not my fucking fault, either. And I told them that I suspected that KTF hadn't entered foreigner ID's into their system or had not updated it to accept them. Other major companies have -- Naver is a great example -- and I don't have any problems getting confirmed by them. KTF's simply bonks and doesn't recognized it. Like many companies, I suspect they haven't updated, but unfortunately, there don't seem to be any penalties for not complying. Anyway, not my fucking problem. HISSSS-PA. HISSSS-PA.

So, I continue not yelling, but commanding, demanding, and exhorting: "Other companies don't have these ridiculous requirements that haven't changed in a decade, which discriminate against foreigners! Any foreigner can register with SK or the other carriers and simply pay a deposit! Why do you keep saying KTF 'CAN'T'? What you're really saying is you 'WON'T'! And in my case, I have the same rights as a Korean national, but you won't register my card? What is wrong with KTF?!" On and on. HISSSSS-PA. HISSSS-PA.

I am now Darth VADER. The Angriest Black Man in the Universe. And not taking shit off nobody.

And guess what?

I was absolutely right. After spending an hour on the phone calling several different places, running back and forth between a couple different locations in the mall, and even calling the personal number, apparently, of someone working in an internal service area of KTF that had a constantly busy line, it TURNS OUT that:

KTF installed a new system just last month that is supposed to accept my kind of foreigner registration number. They agreed that my number and situation is "100% correct." What apparently happened is that within the system, there is supposed to be communication between the deposit clearance system and KTF's registration system. When you put in a number from a center, it goes across to the clearance system, is approved, then sent back. When they put in my number directly over at deposit clearance, it's approved. On the KTF side, it's also approved. Problem is, apparently, that there is a glitch in the middle that comes up with the error code "현금개통불가" and the two sides can't approve an input number from a normal terminal on the KTF side. In other words, it gets nixed by the glitch in the middle. But my number is apparently 100% cool.

And apparently, there are several other F-4 visa holders in the same situation, so there's an engineer working on fixing the problem as we speak. Imagine that!

If anyone gives you shit and you have an F-4, they're WRONG. 100% fucking wrong. If you set up your account to:

-- mail your bills home (and not to a bank book)
-- if you set up to your bank book, make sure it wasn't opened with a passport number, but your alien registration number

You should be able to register it. The reason it's being rejected is because of the error code listed above, which is a SYSTEM ERROR. Call the KTF 대리점 at the iPark Mall in Yongsan and confirm that. I just put them through the wringer.

But for all of you who do NOT have Korean blood running through your veins, there is still trouble. I confirmed that:

-- You can't pay monthly for the iPhone, like a Korean, if you register in your own name. You have to pay for the entire service contract and phone UP FRONT. And you have to use a pre-paid card. So you ACTUALLY don't have real service. Just the "we-can't-register-foreigners-in-our-system-pay-four-times-the-amount" service.

-- And to do that, you STILL need a Korean credit card. To get second-class service. Same credentials, same coverage of liability, but you get to pay MORE. Lovely.

-- The logic still remains: IF YOU ARE OF KOREAN DESCENT, KTF CAN MAKE THE SYSTEM WORK FOR YOU, EVEN WITHOUT ANY ACTUAL COVERAGE OF LIABILITY FOR THE SERVICE CONTRACT. BUT IF YOU DON'T HAVE KOREAN GENES, YOU ARE NOT TRUSTWORTHY TO HAVE NORMAL SERVICE *EVEN IF YOU HAVE MORE GUARANTEES OF YOUR RELIABILITY* AS A KOREAN.

FUCK YOU, FOREIGNER.

In the end, no matter how you spin it, isn't that KTF's message?

"We can change the system for Korean-descent foreigners, even without any financial guarantors for the service contract. But no matter what, non-Korean foreigners are not worth changing our system over, even if all our competitors have. You are simply not trustworthy enough in ANY case. But you ARE if you have Korean genes."

Does Apple Korea know about this bullshit? Is this kind of blatant discrimination in the form of outdated and unnecessarily high level of scrutiny for foreigners who want to simply buy a fucking iPhone really something a GOOD American company wants to deal with? WHY DID APPLE PICK KTF ONLY? I hate dealing with these fuckers, and I switched to SK precisely because of their bullshit.

Yet, I want an iPhone badly enough to go through it all again. So, Apple Korea, can you please lift a finger and tell KTF to do what ALL the other carriers have done and STOP THE DE FACTO DISCRIMINATION AGAINST FOREIGNERS and set up at least a deposit system so we can simply register a phone? And obviously, the problem goes to their system being archaic and stupid, probably unchanged in many areas since the age of the PAGER.

WTF, KTF?

The saga continues...

iPhone Korea NOT For Foreigners, Says KTF

I just went to get an iPhone. I failed. Here's what the KTF people told me.

Since I am an F-status visa holder (meaning that I have Korean "blood" or am presently legally married to someone with said blood), I can get the iPhone. Since it's a two-year service contract, I guess foreigners who are mixing or presently holding Korean genes are somehow more trustworthy than other foreigners. Of course, I couldn't actually get the phone because my two-year F-4 visa is in the middle of its valid period, meaning that in order to get a cellphone, I'll have to go down to immigration and update my visa well before it expires in 2010. I'm looking forward to that conversation: "Why are you coming so early?" Answer: "So I can register a cellphone."

However, if you are a less trustworthy foreigner, say on an E-2 teaching visa, you have to have a Korean credit card. Now, if the girl at the bank thinks you're handsome, or your hagwon is a big company that happens to have a relationship with a bank, or you work for a university, you can probably get one. If, however, you are a part-timer like me who has never been sponsored by a hagwon, you can't get one. Even if I make 2-3 times what a hagwon teacher makes, and have been for several years, it doesn't matter. Foreigners can't build credit here. I've been a KEB customers since 1994, back when they REQUIRED a stamp with Chinese characters to open a bank account. They still won't offer me one. My friend who's been in-country for two months has a KEB credit card because he works for a hagwon. Clearly, I am a higher risk.

In any case, the credit card requirement is arbitrary because the ability to GET a credit is arbitrary. And KTF has always been the hardest-ass about foreigners registering their phones. They quote the tired old excuse, "Well, there's no way to guarantee foreigners won't run off without paying their bills." BULLSHIT. I think that's an old meme that I've been hearing since the latter days of the pager era, when many foreigners DID seem to leave without paying their final bills, mostly because the idiot companies at the time made it easy to do so. But that line is bullshit. Concerned foreigners will take off without paying? MAKE THEM PAY A DEPOSIT, idiots.

It's been several years since SK solved that problem, which enabled me to be a big, grown, human being and go buy a cellphone all by myself. That excuse is tired, and I think it's bullshit. KTF is just too lazy to change its systems, even if they are part of a discriminatory set of practices against foreigners.

I wonder if Apple knows just how hard KTF makes it for non-Korean residents of this country to buy its product. Personally, I think the process racist as a mofo, because 1) the requirements do nothing more than unnecessarily against a particular group, because 2) the requirements in question do not even accomplish the goal they were created for.

What's the difference between an F-4 visa holder and an E-2? Well, and F-4 person is less tied down and able to freely move from employer to employer at will, like a Korean. The residency visa is not tied to being sponsored by your employer. Technically, a less trustworthy group. So why isn't a Korean credit card required? I could get an iPhone, rack up 4 months of bills, then fly the coup. No one's getting their money if I move to Peru.

But an E-2 visa holder? Need a credit card. Which means that whether you have the ability to get one is just sheer blind luck. So, what to do? Require a deposit and if the bills racked up exceed what's in the deposit, cut their shit off. That's what SK did.

And that why KTF sucks my balls. And so does Apple Korea for not pushing them on that issue.

And as a member of the Presidential Commission on Nation Branding, I'm taking this particular one to our first meeting in February, and I'm going to let KTF HAVE IT as a company that is NOT internationally-minded, NOT global in thinking, and actively HURTING "Brand Korea" because of these myopic and borderline-racist practices.

And I wonder if, according to the newer interpretation of relevant laws, this practice might not even be illegal.

See, I'm gonna go to immigration and update my residency. Then, I'll get an iPhone. But being of Korean blood doesn't make me magically more reliable than other foreigners. Nor should any requirement disproportionally affect a single group of people in this country when a simple alteration in policy would solve the problem of security while offering foreigners fair and equal access to products and services here.

And SK already solved this problem. KTF -- what the fucksake is wrong with you? Just too lazy to change? Or just don't give a shit?

Apple Korea -- why are you working with a company that treats non-Koreans so shittily?

Disappointment, all around.

Even the guy at the counter was like, "Yeah, I think this is totally bogus. It's ridiculous, right?"

Out of the several in the crowd of people that were all waiting for registration, I went home empty-handed.

Thanks, KTF and Apple Korea!