10.13.05-- The Three D's-- Difficult, Dirty, and Dangerous

Ah yes, Korea, the Far East, the Orient if you will... so authentically ancient. The men in the riverboats, the ancient architecture, and the fabric hanging from the trees. Too bad the pictures taken above are little of what exists in what is a rapidly urbanizing Korea. What you are actually seeing above, are pictures taken at a theme park just outside of Seoul. It's so unfortunate, that many of what you see above can only be reproduced in a park for the price of admission. Even the old houses in Seoul that have tile roofs and people sleep on the floor are on the way out for big highrises that will go in their place. And apparently much of Korea is urbanizing, moving right over many of the traditons that have come from rural living.

Build. Build. Build.

I am typing this on the bus, we are heading to the Hyundai factory now. The bus makes me so sick when I type. So I will have to make this update brief.

More reasons to shoot yourself now.

So the morning started with a lecture on the Korean economy. I never took an economics course so it was interesting and made me regret never having had taken one. I learned that in about 50 years, Korea went from being a poor rural country, devastated by war, with virtually no real exportable commodities to the 11th strongest economy in the world. They actually have enough in their foreign reserve that they are actually a creditor country.

How did it move up so quickly? Well. to put it lightly, our lecturer was pretty no-nonsense and "bottom line" in his approach of economic and capitalist theory. Basically he showed us charts, weird algebra equations, and all sorts of stuff that showed how (at least these are my conclusions), the country had to move away from manufacturing goods and farming and move towards becoming like America-- creating corporate structures, import good cheaply from other countries

He also said that while Korea does not take immigrants in as America does, foreigners come in to do work that embody the "3Ds"-- "Difficult, Dangerous, and Dirty." And they do this work for very little money. Ouch. Does this sound similar to a country you know of?

Economic growth and capitalism, in the case of Korea and America, only seems to exist by exploiting the resources from poor countries-- including labor, textiles, and oil. Creating economic growth is a strange game also of playing with numbers-- loans, foreign investments-- like a credit card that we don't have to pay off! (or get someone else to!)

It seems quite clear to from his explanations that small business can't survive under a model of economic growth. People, if they want a good salary will have to work for companies (that are taking them over). How culture, tradition, and humanity can survive these transition confounds me.

It made me really depressed to hear his thoughts on the American economy. That our welfare system was what was crippling the American ecomony, and not the war spending. Many of us disagreed with his thoughts on this. And I asked, "Why don't economists ever factor in spiritual, humanitarian and environmental health into the equation for economic growth?" and "So what are these economically strong countries going to do when every country has 'urbanized' and you run out of places to get your food, and oil?"

His response? "Well, that will be in 200 years. So, it doesn't really matter."

Good to know I'll be dead when this is all over.

More pics from the theme park

A picture of what my traditional Korean wedding will look like. I will wear a wedding Hanbok, hide my face from the groom, have live roosters wrapped in cloth at the altar, and invite all our friends and family to the theme park where it will be held to come watch.

I will also hire actors to carry me away in a box and take pictures giving the peace sign everywhere.

Korea has the lowest birthrate in the world. This is because it is becoming so expensive to have a kid and because the government once encouraged people to just have one kid. So now they are trying to encourage Koreans to have more kids so that their population increases not decreases. How can they encourage people to have more kids? My idea is that they play Barry Manilow at all the bus stops.

But for a low birthrate, there sure were a lot of kids at the theme park yesterday. Must have been every kid in Seoul was at the theme park yesterday. They were so excited to see the other delegates because it gives them a chance to say "hello" and look at big white and black people that don't get much of in Korea. As you can imagine, they weren't too awed by me. (yawn.)

I, Kristina Wong, pledge to do my part to increase Korea's birth rate. I will pledge to have as many half Korean babies as possible. Hurry up boys.

I think what has been a funny tricky thing this trip is that because I know a few phrases of Korean, and look Korean, people keep talking to me in Korean, or just ignore me or think I am ignoring them. These girls were so funny, they heard me speak a little Korean and knew we were from "Hollywood" and she started asking me nonstop questions in Korean before I have to explain that I was Chinese.

All the Koreans in the House say "Wehi-yo!"

We went to the "Hun Da" district yesterday which was a really cool East Village like area in Seoul. Lots of clubs let ladies in free and also offer a free drink. You also don't need to tip, so it's cheap to go dancing! The first club we went to, I saw this guy above and I screamed. It reminded me of one of Charles' old sketch comedy characters-- The Hung Yang Clan featuring Little Kim Chee. There are a lot of Korean b-boys at these clubs who I have to do a double take on because they look so over the top it's hilarious. In these pics I am holding the Korean Scriller-- the won, Korean currency. Yea boyee!

It was so cool. The men at these clubs are so well dressed. It's like Queer Eye came to Korea before the US or something. They are so cute too. Not just attractive but in their mannerisms. These two guys wanted to talk to us and got shy and started giggling and pushing each others arms like girls do before scurrying away. Then they finally came to talk to us. The men also dance together and touch each other's arms when they talk in each others ears.

I am so charmed by these Korean men so secure in their masculinity.

Ok, I need to stop typing before I throw up.

The next update will have pics of the "Blue House" (Korea's White House) and the Hyundai factory.

Love,

k