Tangled Web

I have to admit to a tiny bit of admiration for a guy like Charles Ponzi, or the guy who invented pyramid scams, or that dude who withdrew a penny from everyone's bank accounts and made a gozillion bucks. These people have taken an unhealthy lust for money, total disdain for their fellow man and a bit of creativity and made it work for them.

I think that anyone who cheats me out of money in a creative way that is a good idea and that I didn't see coming makes me feel just a little bit like they've earned some or all of that money. They have outsmarted me and made me the wiser for the next time.

The term "con-man" comes from the fact that the dupe gives his or her confidence to the "confidence-man", (or woman), who then breaks that trust. The confidence may be acquired by appearing to have lots of money, appearing to be in some official position of authority, or maybe just by being a smooth-talker.

In any of those cases, there IS some skill involved and the con-man deserves some kind of, I don't think "respect" would be the word but something akin to it that we can bestow on a complete asshole.

Then there are these people you hear about who actually DO deserve respect because they are exploiting the unhealthy greed and disdain for man in OTHER people to take their money. A great example of this can be found in the movie "The Sting" in which a con lead by Redford and Newman's characters is run on rich, greedy mobster Doyle Lannegan. They tell him they are getting horse race results early and convince him to bet a big pile of money on one race.

Because of this thing called a conscience con-men often try to convince themselves that they were exploiting some bad quality in their victims. But most of the time that quality is greed, the very quality that lead to the invention of the con in the first place. So I rarely see any legitimacy to this Robin Hood heroism or morality instruction the con-men con THEMSELVES into believing is the main reason for their work. It's almost always just to make cash. Still, there's something to be said for con artists who put some thought into their cons.

There is absolutely nothing to be said for people who just plain lie for money. This is not clever. A person who believes a lie is not stupid nor is he/she in need of moral instruction. You are not creative or more clever than anyone you flat out lie to. You are just a common scumbag.

This seems to be becoming the con of choice around these here parts. And I'm getting real sick of it. My ticket to Thailand I bought at Unique Travel in Itaewon was an example. The guy who sold it positively knew the ticket was only good for a month and impossible to extend. He also knew that he'd be sending me an e-ticket and that little tidbit of information wouldn't show up on the e-ticket. I told him I would likely stay for 6 weeks or more and would need to extend my one-month visa and my plane ticket. He said that would be no problem.

I called the offices of Thai Airways and informed them that this is what was happening. Do you think they cared? Unique Travel will probably get a commendation from the airline. Thai Airways aren't innocent. In fact my ticket HOME was with Macau Air, a subsidiary. Stewardesses and crew all wore Thai Airways uniforms. Macau Air IS Thai Air. And it was the cheapest ticket I could find when I was looking to replace the return ticket I could no longer use. I THOUGHT it was going to be cheaper anyways. It turned out that golf bags are NOT free on Macau Air and they only allow 20, not 40 kilos of luggage. So I paid over 100 bucks extra to bring my golf clubs home. Again, I had an e-ticket and just assumed the free golf bag and 40 kilo rule from Thai Airways would apply to their subsidiary. Think about it. Who's gonna go one-way from Thailand to Korea with less than 20 kilos of luggage? I'm sure they make lots of money on overweight luggage charges. Assholes.

Then there are cable companies. When I was in Mokpo I got scammed by Hanaro Telecom. They assured me that if I opted out of my 4 or 5-year cable contract early there would be no penalty. I was positive I wouldn't be in Mokpo for 4 or 5 years. I got dinged for I think 120,000 won and because my cable bills just came directly out of my bank account, they GOT that money.

Now I am trying to get KT Telecom cable internet. It was part of the deal for me to sign on for another year here at Seokang. I asked for a place off campus and that was refused. So I asked for a raise AND my own internet. I told my supervisor that if I were staying in the dorms another year I wouldn't be sharing with the students. The internet here is WAY too slow. But I said we'd talk about that after I got back from vacation. He said okay, I signed the contract and went on vacation.

He has called KT about getting internet set up and they informed him of a 130,000 won outstanding balance from my account a few years ago when I was in Yangju. I'm pretty sure that this is not regular charges because I met with the landlord, future tennant and real estate agent and paid ALL the money I owed at that apartment before I left. What it probably is is ANOTHER fee for ending my contract with KT early. I am positive they told me there would be no early cancellation fees as well. And I had the internet for almost 2 years there.

But what can you do when people just lie to you? Especially in a country like Korea where I am just a foreigner with literally no legal recourse. I'll be damned if I am going to just start thinking EVERYbody is always lying to me. What kind of life would that be? But it's probably safer here. The lie is such an attractive option! It's amazing the frequency people go with that option over here. What is with that? I have a couple theories.

Firstly it is NOT Confucius's fault! Though he does shoulder a lot of the blame, he wouldn't condone this nonsense. Nor would Sun Tsu who in The Art of War says that almost all warfare is based in deception. Hello? Asia? World? Business is NOT warfare! Sun Tsu lied to save the lives of his soldiers. Assholes who equate that with their scamming, lying and cheating just so they can make a little more money to throw into the pile are just that: assholes.

The population problem has something to do with it too. If you lie to a customer, no problem, there are a billion more to lie to. This in a nutshell is the Chinese business model. And they're slowly learning the hard way that it doesn't work very well outside of China. If you lose a friend or co-worker by lying, again, there's plenty more where that came from.

And if you think you "save face" by lying consider one of the many recent examples I have to offer. It's my fifth semester here at Seokang College. Just about everything I do here goes through my supervisor, Jung. He gives me my schedule, collects my curriculum, attendance, marks etc. He's the guy who interviewed me for the job and gave me my contract. He's the guy who I negotiated my raise and cable internet with. But lately I'm starting to wonder how much of this stuff is really part of his job. And if I make requests to someone that aren't within the sphere of his/her job why wouldn't the person just tell me it's not his job or even better, tell me whose job it IS? No, being Korean, Jung chose the obvious course of action: the lie.

This session, last session and the session before that I have had at least one class where I walk into the room, introduce myself, pass around pictures or my family, friends, me fishing and golfing and petting a baby tiger, hand out the syllabus for the session, usually, (because I never have a class list by the first class), pass around a piece of paper to get the students' names and student numbers, I explain my marking scheme, I show them the textbook, I give them my email I do all this stuff before some brave soul amongst them tells me that I'm in the wrong classroom. Then I call Jung and he says the same thing: "There was some miscommunication." The fact that up until yesterday I've believed him shows what a trusting person I am. Perfect victim for the lie.

I've always thought it strange that when Jung gives me my schedule it never includes room numbers. And he always seemed a bit confused when giving me the numbers. He was confused because he was pulling them out of his ASS! Same thing this session. I even had a class in physical therapy, a class I had last session, and he told me language lab 1 on the fifth floor. I taught them last session on the first floor. I said to him, "Aren't they in the room on the first floor?" He mumbled some answer that really wasn't an answer. I went to the fifth floor classroom and got a call from one of the students telling me the class was waiting for me in the same classroom on the first floor.

Then on Wednesday I was supposed to be teaching dental assistants in, (hmmmm), lab 1 on the fifth floor. I went in and taught one of the greatest classes of my life - to the wrong people. I got them to give back the papers I had handed out, threw away the attendance list and went hiking. While I was out Jung called me. I told him what had happened and that now the dental students are a week behind. I also asked him if he was making the classroom numbers up. Of course he lied and said he wasn't and that there was, "some miscommunication." That's also when he told me about the outstanding 130,000 won fee and said that getting internet would be impossible. He then hung up on me without saying good bye or anthing.

I called back and said, "Get me my own internet or I don't teach." I was angry and started yelling about how I get no results when I try to be nice to him, that he never listens to me when I talk in person or on the phone and I was tired of him hanging up on me. He hung up on me.

He sent me a text message that said, "Please understand I am not your secretary."

That got me wondering. How much stuff had he been doing for me that really wasn't his job? And why in the wild wild world of sports has it taken him two years of working together and many disagreements, lies and arguments to finally grow a pair and TELL me? I had mixed feelings. I wondered how much stuff he had been doing just as a favour to me over the years. I was grateful for that and feeling like I should apologize. But then I thought of all the times when I had asked him to do something and it seemed like he had purposely ignored the request or done a piss-poor job of it. He was probably doing that just to discourage me from asking him to do stuff in the future.

So I sent him a text saying something like okay I'm going to talk to somebody and see what's what. I intended to go to the guy in charge named Park but on the way to his office I saw Peter. In my first year here it was Jung and Peter who shared the duties that now only Jung has. So I talked to Peter. Several times I asked him what exactly Jung's job is and he wouldn't give me a straight answer. I'm sure that some of the stuff he hasn't been doing IS part of his job but I think some of the stuff I assumed was part of his job wasn't. Anyway Peter was more receptive and seemed far less willing to give up on the internet. He told me to find receipts if I could from three years ago. Like ANYbody keeps receipts that long! But I was able to find the number of my real estate agent. I'm sure he could straighten things out. But I'm also sure that because he speaks very little English, if I called him I wouldn't be able to explain the situation. That's why I need someone Korean to do it. Also Peter just looked at a piece of paper and gave me the room number for my dental assistant class. 215.

So, here's the burning question: Jung knows that Peter has this magic room number paper. He knows I know who and where Peter is. Yet when I ask him for room numbers he just lies to me. Does he ENJOY causing me problems? Does he ENJOY lying? Does he think this is saving him face? Is he trying to give me wrong information to discourage me from asking him for ANY information in the future?

Whatever the case may be there is a lot of frustration and anger around here and it ALL could have so easily been avoided if somehow people could just try to be honest while working together. But there's no way Jung could know that cuz it's never been attempted here in Korea. I think this fascination with lying is a very modern part of the culture here. It's not the fault of ancestors, Confucius or Sun Tsu, it's lazy people looking for short cuts and quick fixes. Trying to explain it away through traditional business practices, thinking and morality would just be lying some more.