Bad Students

When I first got here I noted how many students were wearing casts on their wrists and i thought it was strange. Then I learned that the reason these kids have casts isn't from slipping on ice or sports (like i'd assumed) but rather from fighting. These kids are definitely "bad" kids, which is strange considering they're still decently respectful to me and the teachers. Apparently these kids have a switch. When it's off they're normal and respectful, average, but you flip that switch and they go at it like two cats in a sack. Now sadly this just freaks me out even more about asians. I have no idea what's being said so if I start getting bawled out by someone I'm immediately going to be thinking "fight or flight". Cause who the fuck knows what they'll do. I saw two construction workers fighting just walking to work today (verbally, but looked like it was intensifying).

Oh and also apparently our 3rd years did really poorly on the Korean equivalent of the EOG. I had this really gut wrenching moment where I thought "is this cause of me, am I not meeting my goals?" But the reality is I don't play any part in the material on their tests. Grammar is up to the regular teachers, I'm just sort of a song and dance to get them to practice speaking (which I'm totally cool with for at least 1 year). their english tests are kind of ridiculous as well, the questions are fairly illogical to me but I'm not Korean.

On the plus side I've had a really good week with the 2nd years. I did a baller job on the lesson plan and the kids love it. 3rd year...not so much but oh well. Again, I have to say, if these are the "bad kids"...how friggin sweet must it be to teach the "good kids"?

God Damn it Kim!

Alright, so Kimmy in NK just reportedly set off a nuke in a test underground. WTF? the korean won plummeted over 1% in 1 day. THAT'S MY MONEY KIM, STOP IT YOU BASTARD! today I learn he's also shooting more missiles off the east coast. BLARG! I wish china would just fucking muffle this stupid little nation but i suppose when we've got israel mouthing off I can't say much about it. anyways, realistically i'm not in any way worried. China owns too much US debt to let it be written off by starting a war they couldn't win. Of course, if shit does go down SK WILL probably go under. I've seen the military personnel here, they are depressing to see. Out of shape, arrogant, ignorant. bleh. So I am slightly worried in that regard, but considering what it would cost china i can't see them letting NK go rogue (anymore than i can see the US actually letting Israel go rogue).

And at the same time a ray of hope, I just watched the acceptance speech of Sonia Sotomayor and I have to say it's a ray of hope to see an intelligent, balanced person get put into the highest court in the land. man that's a weight off of all our collective shoulders as americans. Cheers to that and the beautiful speech she made recognizing the impact her mother made on her life!

The Death of a President

On Saturday May 22 Korea's ex-President Roh Moo-hyun committed suicide. I haven't seen much of the mourning but apparently there's a great deal of it going on. Roh was viewed by many as a great person though perhaps not the most effective leader. Maybe a Carter type figure.

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1900808,00.html

There's also a great deal of anger towards the current president Lee Myung-bak for his involvement in the affair, his lack of tact for the most part. Lee is a dick, that's pretty obvious and he's been about as miserable failure so far as Bush at handling challenges. Ironically Bush embraced the Lee administration. Go figure.

http://english.ohmynews.com/ArticleView/article_view.asp?menu=A11100&no=385276&rel_no=1&back_url=

Roh did leave a suicide note:

http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/NEWKHSITE/data/html_dir/2009/05/25/200905250053.asp

Bah, sadness.

greed and altruism

are humans inherently bad? no. inherently greedy? yes. why? evolution of course. humans want the best resources for themselves and their offspring. bad guys in movies always do it simply because they are evil and i'm perfectly aware that there are truly evil people in the world. but the majority of "bad" people are simply stupid and greedy.

however, humans are also inherently altruistic. why? because humans survive better in groups than alone and groups survive better if you can trust the members in them. also darwin.

religion tends to make it worse.
"With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil—that takes religion."
Steven Weinberg

Star Trek!!

Star Trek began as the Vietnam War was just beginning to heat up, a time when the Cold War was at its zenith. Americans were afraid: afraid of Russians, afraid of communism, afraid of the racial, social and cultural upheaval confronting our nation. Amidst all this turmoil came a television show that depicted a vision of our future that was optimistic: A future in which the conflict between capitalism and communism had been overcome, a future where earthbound forms of racial, ethnic and religious strife had disappeared, a socialist Utopia where merit determined one's station in life.

By the 23rd century, the human race is done waging war upon itself. Instead, humanity is bound together in an interstellar federation, a united federation of planets engaged in missions of exploration and humanitarian relief. Science and technology are embraced as natural and good, reason and scientific method are valued; revelation, superstition, and the religious are missing all together, or viewed as suspect, and revealed as fraudulent.

Indeed, a large part of what made Star Trek great was the distinct lack of religion. Roddenberry regarded himself as an "agnostic atheist," and banned most religious references from the show. As such, the program was a subtle but powerful beacon for freethinkers and agnostics, for those who rejected the petty religious superstitions enslaving so many otherwise good people. The vision of the future articulated in Star Trek was a refreshing change from the apocalyptic future embraced by main stream Christianity. In Star Trek there was a glorious, alternative weltenschaung, a humanist world view, an affirmation of self determination and the dignity and worth of all intelligent forms of life. More than a negation of the supernatural, Star Trek represented a process by which truth and morality could be sought and won through human investigation.

This vision inspired a generation. The adventure continues, and the dream lives on.

from: http://www.examiner.com/x-10853-Seattle-Humanist-Examiner~y2009m5d20-Star-Treks-humanism

Casts

Yikes, so i just found out why so many kids have casts or bandages around their hands and wrists. It's because they've been fighting.

Was wondering about that...

The Agio, friggin amazing Italian restaurant hidden in a back alley. A little expensive but I think I'll be visiting there a lot.

Overcompensating sums it up best

This is the comic from "overcompensating" which i found sums up the main problem with American culture. That being, it cherishes stupidity.

Let's face it. Most of America is, and has been for some time, a country where learnin' is for sissies and panty-waists. Yet it is a place where it is "macho" to attach plastic testicles to your car. It is where pronouncing things correctly is considered elitist, and where denying equal rights is pious. That's why Miami Rick invented his Patriot Sauce. Do you know how Patriotic the Patriot Sauce is? It doesn't even have the ingredients printed on it, 'cause readin's for homos! There's one teaspooon of Eagle Juice in each bucket of Patriot Sauce. Nothing is fancy.

Even though America is way better than it was just a few months ago, it's still kind of a joke. I think we're doing okay if people flip out about the President ordering fancy-ish mustard. I still can't figure out what the hell that arugula thing was about.

Tat's

This is so awesome and so...what's the word I'm looking for...personal.

Anywho, I found this while looking for a tat idea. A tat should mark something really meaningful to you. I think calvin and hobbes represents a lot of the issues i dealt with as a child and things that, now that I understand the world and the comic better, I need to remember as an adult.

All I need to learn in life I learned from Calvin and Hobbes.

homogeneity, i was wrong

Well i was wrong. I've been thinking that one of the contributing reasons for violence and unhappiness in nations was homogeneity or heterogeneity. In fact. I was just wrong. my basis was, heterogeneous nations have a lot of cultural conflict be it religion, ethnicity, whathaveyou. nope.

If we take a look at this compilation of the "happiest nations on the planet" we also are provided with 3 of the unhappiest nations on the planet.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/11/061113093726.htm

This provides clear examples that homogeneity is not a factor as Zimbabwe is pretty much homogeneous and Switzerland and Sweden are heterogeneous. So. that's done.

For reference remember this link (the most peaceful nations on the planet): http://www.visionofhumanity.org/gpi/results/rankings.php

Now this is an intriguing correlation:

The happiest taxes on earth

Commentary: More people are satisfied in heavily tariffed nations

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-happiest-places-on-earth-are-heavily-taxed?siteid=rss

"With the highest gross domestic product in the world, we are the richest country. On a per capita basis, though, we don't even make the top 10. The U.S. ranks 15th in this category, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Denmark -- maybe because they are happy -- ranked fifth. Other, more "satisfied" countries also earn more on an individual income basis. Oh yes, and the average workweek in Scandinavian countries is less than the U.S.'s

We need to take better care of ourselves.

It may not just be taxes, of course, that lead to happiness. There are other factors to consider. But better social services and less worry about having to pay for things such as medical bills, retirement and education do help with the happiness factor."

What is the key then? It's eliminating the massive wealth disparity that has built up since Nixon. Taxing is important, and the more you make the more you should be taxed. Realistically we need to return to the tax levels of Kennedy. We need to stop spending on the military and start working within the global system. It's easy to get what you want when you spend 150 billion more on your military than the rest of the world combined but obviously it isn't making us happier. It's refurbishing our education system and putting health care, welfare, and other important social service programs into place efficiently. It's getting people involved in gov rather than simply ignoring it. the last election had an enormous voter turnout but that was relative. less than half of the nation voted.

The Pointless Abortion Debate

To start out with, this is for me. so...read at your own risk. I'm going to start prefacing all my personal thoughts like this I think.

Abortion. First of all it's worthless to talk about. The US will never overturn Roe v Wade and while it is a grand hot button issue for uniting the fundamentalists it will never gain the massive sustained support that pushed america into accepting the right of women to choose for themselves. Sorry you fucking tards. (deep breath)

Regarding the actual argument here's my real problem

1) What should be done if it becomes illegal and people get an abortion? that's first degree murder with a minimum of life in prison and the possibility of the death penalty.

2) Do you advocate for allowing abortion if the mother's life is at risk? Why? how do you justify that? Is it cool amongst you christian fundamentalists to trade one persons life for another? (based off jesus, yes, apparently it is...). If both die they both go to heaven but if you kill that "perfectly innocent life" you're damning whoever did it to hell because that too is straight up murder.

Further arguments based on what I commonly here from "pro-lifers":

justify biblically (just the quotes) life beginning at conception. God created life first with adam "when he breathed life into." life originally started at first breath. not conception. justify why abortion is acceptable if the mothers life is at risk. That is a bizarre argument basically stating that the babies life is inferior to the mothers inherently, which pretty well negates the entire argument. discuss the legal ramifications for women who get illegal abortions. justify your reasoning for not allowing sex education (which prevents unwanted pregnancies) from being taught in schools. justify why you, a libertarian or small gov conservative, feel the gov should have the right to tell people what to do with their bodies based on your PERSONAL religious beliefs. i am not a christian. i do not define life as starting when religious fundamentalists define it biblically.

apparently, you support religious tyranny of the minority. how intriguing.

Shun the nonbeliever...Shuuuuun

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5im0Ssyyus

http://www.alternet.org/rights/139788/40_million_nonbelievers_in_america_the_secret_is_almost_out/

apparently there are now 40 million of us secularists in america. probably a backlash to the insanity of the religious right which, in coordination with the wealthy GOP, pretty much destroyed our nation and defaced all of Christianity.

well...well well welly well well.

Screw american education.

ah. so i totally just realized that i can get a perfectly solid and respectable masters and phd abroad.

...so i'm probably going to do that. i really liked trinity in cork for instance, just the people and the place. America still leads the world in terms of higher education...but that's mostly just because of the money put into research programs. Which is all well and good but that doesn't really affect me.

hahaha! so excited!

reasons to give up american citizenship

I'm not really sure how or why to defend being an american anymore. America sucks. Like honestly sucks. Let's delve into this.

1) Religion. 1/5 American's believe the sun and the universe circle the earth. Yes, man may have gone to the moon but a fifth of americans still hold to geocentric values. this is beyond acceptable and highlights a very real problem in america. America was founded by crazy ass religious fundamentalists and this value (being fucking crazy) has survived throughout the centuries. From the Pilgrims and the Salem Witch Trials to modern geocentrists american's are intentionally ignorant. that's ignoring the fact that these same people are willing to accept the justification of torture.

2) CIA. the CIA have been actively killing democracy around the globe for at least half a century now AND installing fascists and dictators in their place. from mossadegh to pinochet the gov has literally been engaging in covert wars against democratic gov's because they fail to benefit America. This goes beyond the sleaziness of the IMF. Completely unnacceptable and still happening apparently. Assassins were recently captured in Bolivia where they were planning on killing Evo Morales. Considering he was responsible for nationalizing the natural gas (the exact reason they killed mossadegh) do we really have to guess who was behind it?

3) Torture. Ok, so here's what I can't handle. We did it. we did it and then at least half of america tried to justify it. and realistically, do we think we haven't done it before? you really think they didn't torture people in vietnam? we know they wiped out whole villages in bloodlust. This is fact. Same with Korea. Even obama still supports rendition.

4) culture. america has been bogged down in corruption due to it's wealth. it's disgustingly bloated on it's wealth and corporatocracy. obesity is the number one killer of americans now I think. fucking ew. Disney? christ, we've been exporting our little fairy tale around the world now and ruining entire cultures with our cutesy bullshit.

5) Police state. The right wing claims we are the leaders of the free world. shit the left does to. ...1 in 99 american's are behind bars. 1/33 are somehow being monitored in the prison system (from home arrest to probation). free? not likely. http://drugwarfacts.org/cms/?q=node/62

6) War. Have we gone 50 years at any stretch without war in america? Mind you, I think WW2 and prior we engaged in relatively just wars. Unless your a constitutionalist (liberatarian), than we saw the death of the constitution during the Civil War. Of course, without the Civil war the South would still probably have slavery as it was such an economic means of production. maybe not, but they'd have bangladeshi style sweatshops for sure and that's pretty much the same. After world war 2 our imperialism arose. Korea, Vietnam, Iraq 1 and 2 and all the military and covert activities around the globe (such as supporting the taliban against the Ruskies in the 80's). some of this was relatively justifiable actually, Iraq 1 had an honest coalition but the only reason we came to kuwaits aid was because of their oil, it's not like we had humane intentions (if we did we would have gone into rawanda, and we'd be in sudan now). at least clinton seemed to have honest intentions in the balkans. good for him.

http://www.visionofhumanity.org/gpi/results/rankings.php

The US comes in at 97. ninety fucking seven. Yea there are many nations out there that are worse...but i wouldn't want to fucking live in any of them either.

6) drugs. the war on drugs has had a devastating impact on both the US and the world. it's also directly tied to the CIA's operations around the world as proven by the Iran/Contra affair. You really think they stopped just because they were called out on it? it's also directly tied to the enormous prison system that is in control of so many american lives.

According to the American Corrections Association, the average daily cost per state prison inmate per day in the US is $67.55. State prisons held 253,300 inmates for drug offenses in 2005. That means states spent approximately $17,110,415 per day to imprison drug offenders, or $6,245,301,475 per year.
-http://drugwarfacts.org/cms/?q=node/62

Fucking disgusting and in case you weren't paying attention to portugal, it is completely counterproductive: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Portugals_drug_decriminalization_bizarrely_underappreciated_Greenwald_0406.html

7) Inequality. the US is the wealthiest nation on the planet. It also has the greatest wealth inequality currently as in any time in it's history. i've seen for myself the equality between white and black communities. why the fuck would I want to stick around for that?

I could go on but why bother? The reality is is that the idea of america being the land of the free and the home of the brave is a myth. an illusion. yea life there is better than a lot of foreign nations but there's also a lot of nations where you can live an equally fulfilling and secure life without the guilt of being an american. I swear I almost understand the christian sense of guilt when I tell people I'm american. I wan't to follow that detail with an apology everytime.

So where to go? I'm thinking canada. maybe ireland but probably canada. it's fairly close to america in most ways but it's missing all of it's major negative features. canada's pretty fucking awesome from all i know about it. none of the people who might read this are likely to go all pseudopatriotic but i would caution anyone who might against doing so. ultra-nationalism is an indicator of fascism. in fact...it's pretty clear that half of america is fascist. http://www.rense.com/general37/char.htm.

1. obvious, 2. see justification of torture of accused terrorists, 3. 9/11 --> Iraq, 4. Militarism (way to go Reagan you fucking fascist), 5. meh, complicated but look at the treatment of women in the military and the disparity between pay and the number of women in politics, 6. Fox News, 7. Homeland Security, the Patriot Act, 8. obvious, 9. obvious, you'll notice where the bailout went, the dems refused to protect homeowners recently killing a senate bill. look into how much bailout money went to political contributions (corporatocracy, look into it), 10. the right is desperate to put down labor, 11. calling obama an elitist and "out of touch with the avg joe" even though he came from the people but went to Harvard whereas mccain understand the people even though he's a fucking millionaire, 12. see prison system, 13. political system and corporatocracy is dominated by cronyism (see the prior head of the US treasury). I'm astounded by how much moving around these high level CEO's do and of course political power has become concentrated in the hands of certain families to a scary extent.

if that's not reason enough to get out i don't know what is.

Faculty Hiking Trip

I totally got hit on! holy crap. So this weekend I went on an all expenses paid faculty hiking trip. Well that's pretty sweet because i get stuffed with delicious food, i get to get out of the city, and i get to go hiking all for free. the only downside is only one of the ladies on the trip, a co-teacher, spoke decent english. BUT OH WELL!

So we hike around for a few hours and I'm having a pretty great time, racing some of the PE coaches and just goofing around. And then we all go out to dinner. Bulgogi is the greatest invention of Korea...ever. Anyways, i'm sitting next to and across from a bunch of cute teachers who (I think) are around my age. Generally just joshing around and whatnot. Then one of the girls straight up tells me that she was planning on going home with the half of the teachers who had left for seoul but instead stayed because she thought i was "a very good man".

now...i'm not one for tooting my own horn (lies) and i may have misinterpreted (truth), but based on the blushing, the general laughter from everyone else and the tone overall i'm pretty sure she was coming on to me.

unfortunately, she barely speaks english, she's a physics teacher (my mortal enemy since high school), she hiked around in clothes I would find preppy (which is saying something) and most of all, she's a co-worker. So it's all around a no-go.

too bad, she was a real cutie. (she's the one on the left)

Be the Change