Insomnia

I guess it's another sign of old age. I just can't seem to string together more than 3 or 4 hours of sleep. I had a good 40 years of awesome sleep though. I guess I'm pretty lucky. So it's 4 am on a Wednesday and I've been up reading news. It's the last thing I should be doing if I want to go back to sleep. News just makes me angrier and angrier and keeps me awake. But even worse, Korean news.

Since coming here in '96 there has been a constant barrage of stories circulating amongst the expats here that just make you shake your head. "Things that make you go WHAAA?" as they are called on http://www.seoulpodcast.com/page/2, a virtual goldmine of these stories. On some occasions they manage to leak out to the rest of the world but as hinted in last post, Koreans are very concerned about LOOKING not BEING civilized so they tend to try to downplay these stories and squash them before they affect Korea's global standing. That is, before they cost Korea money. In a perfect world, I suppose, the economically advanced countries should also be the most socially and morally advanced countries as well. I think globalization will bring us closer to this ideal. Which means Korea has to really step it up socially or their economy will take a dive. In my opinion, Korea was at its social best when I got here in '96 and is at its social worst right now. Yes, they are deteriorating. It's pretty obvious to me that Koreans are incapable of social change for the better. So long as they are economically stable. But when they fall on hard times they can put on a good show of fealty and global-mindedness. And we have seen them make promises to align themselves socially with other countries in their economic neighbourhood and we have seen them deliver on these promises - until financial stability was regained. Then back to the Korean ways. These shows will only fool the world so many times before it stops bailing Korea out. So rather than go the right way, reform, Korea looks like they might go the wrong way, isolationism. I think the idea of isolationism is gaining in popularity particularly when the possiblility of uniting with North Korea and no longer needing to outsource slave labour to people with non-Korean blood is looming. In fact they are probably in the midst of this disaster right now. I think we've seen Korea's glory days. But that's just my opinion. Why? Cuz I live here! And I can't escape these crazy stories.

A South Korean student in New Zealand stabbing his Japanese teacher in the back; A South Korean model not allowing her nude picture to be released in Japan; People given what the government, not they, considered fair payment for their homes which will be leveled to make richer Koreans richer, then some were killed by riot police during their protest; Actress Choi Jin Shil committing suicide after being rendered incapable of caring for her two daughters by her recently divorced husband, who was able to steal her fortune by Korean law; The suspension of the MUCH needed 50,000 weon note due to a map of Korea on the back that doesn't include Dokdo; Korean financial blogger "Minerva" jailed for being right about the recent economic collapse; ignorant treatment of dogs, mentally handicapped and women; these are all secondary. The issue that has me out of bed tonight is one that has been building at an alarming rate and one that for the first time has me a bit scared to be here. It's about sexual molestation.

The most famous case was of a Canadian guy named Christopher Neil who molested some Korean girls and was busted in Thailand and so on. This led to mass hysteria. It's now mandatory for all foreign workers to get criminal record checks that include a check to make sure you haven't committed this crime in your own country. Same thing happened with drugs. A foreigner or two was caught with them so they changed the laws. For foreigners. This I've blogged about before. It's not a bad thing to change these laws but it stems from racism, not any real concern for the victims. The whole time this was happening I couldn't help thinking that it was the old "blame-the-foreigners-for-the-ills-of-your-country" ploy. Not as much with the drugs but I was absolutely positive that Korea, a country that prizes martyrdom, and has a notorious hate on for foreigners would be a dangerous place if people started seeing how they could get a foreigner deported on a whim by claiming sexual molestation.

There was a very good episode of South Park where the kids got their parents taken away by social services by claiming they touched them improperly. No parents = paradise for the kids, right? They found that they actually missed their parents. Koreans are gonna find that if they start, (and it HAS started), going down this road they'll miss the foreign teachers. I've seen a few more teachers accused. And they always seem to be Canadian, dammit! I'm not saying that these teachers are necessarily innocent but I've taught Korean kids and I know Korean culture. The little kids are always jumping on teacher and kissing them goodbye or hugging them. It comes with the territory and is not discouraged the way it is in Canada.

Far be it from me to encourage prudery and discourage sexual freedom but although I have never witnessed sexual molestation at the schools where I've taught I've seen some very sketchy behavour and some VERY sketchy characters who I absolutely knew had ulterior motives for buying rounds of ice cream for the kids. Not foreigners. And I'm not going to get into it but there are some sexual tendencies in this culture that would make anyone from my country more than a little uncomfortable. SO it seems to me like some of the story is missing when I see the outrage at teachers who "touch students inappropriately". For God's sake because men are still dominant in this society through a system they call "hojeok", there is all kinds of inappropriate touching that goes on between female elders who are proud of young, male family members. And children are still spanked by teachers. This could very easily be done in sexually inappropriate ways. It makes me sick to talk about it.

But not as sick as the recent story about the 16-year-old girl who had been repeatedly raped, FOR 7 YEARS!, by three of her relatives. Two uncles and her grandfather. Do the math. They started when she was 9. So where is the moral outrage about THIS story? Has anybody outside Korea heard about it? Nope. Only through the blogs of us foreigners in Korea. And while there was a little bit of protest about it by Koreans, they quickly lost interest in it. The internet hits on the story dropped rapidly and died pretty fast.

These three guys went to trial and were found guilty of rape by Korean law. WHEW! Good! They'll certainly get what they deserve! Cuz this is an enlightened, civilized society and the laws are morally reasonable. RIGHT? These GUILTY men together served a grand total of zero days in jail! Nil. Nadda. Fuck all. And there's more. The victim was released back into their custody to be raped some more!!! There is even more. The girl was mentally disabled.

The inescapable conclusion, (and it's bolstered by other stories like U.S. soldiers abusing Korean women, so-called "comfort women" who were forced to have sex by Japanese during their occupation of Korea, and so on), the real outrage is not about the sex or the power dynamics, it's simply that Koreans don't like people sexually abusing Koreans - unless they are Korean.

I can't think of a clearer sign that Korea is a lost cause as far as globalization is concerned. But maybe I'm just cranky from not enough sleep. I don't know. Fuck. I work at a school where a majority of my students are young, pretty girls. I live in the same dorm as them. All any one of them has to do is say I was touching them incorrectly and who knows what might happen to me. Would my ten year career without any incidents be any defence? Doubt it. Would a parent or fellow student serve a day in jail for killing me? I doubt that too. But I'll tell you what, I personally know of a few incidents they've had with Korean teachers sexual misconduct here and not only were they not prosecuted, they were reinstated! Odds of that happening to me or any other foreigner under the same circumstances? Zero. Zip. Nadda. Fuck all.

Just feeling a little more vulnerable as a foreigner here in Korea. I had a picture of the new Korean 50,000 weon bill with an old Korean dude with his pants at his knees in the spot where national dignitaries usually appear. I thought it might be appropriate for this post. But for some reason I can't post pics or links here any more. Maybe I've been flagged by the Korean government already.