
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Proofiness

Proofiness
Multi-cultural living or the inevitability of being an a**hole.
This annoys me.
I will be leaving my island this weekend, like I do just about every weekend, while most of my colleagues will not be because they have to work on Saturdays and I do not. This weekend it is likely that a storm will be coming and I may not be able to return on Sunday as I usually do. If I were Korean it is unlikely that I would be "allowed" to leave. But I am not, and so I will go.
But this annoys my colleagues.If I were to tell my teammates to stop giving me "advice" they would be angry. Here one does not refuse the words of one's elders.
If they were to tell me that I could not leave, I would be angry. I believe an employer has no right to tell me what I can or cannot do on my days off, and am I not responsible for possible weather events.
And so on some level, and realistically, most levels, we view eachother negatively. Though we both understand cultural differences and make allowances neither one of us is willing to live by the other group's standards. In fact I have learned that becoming too close to my colleagues is a bad idea to the extent that the closer I get, the more they treat me like one of their own, which means expecting me to act as if I were a member of the Korean social hierarchy. This wouldn't be a problem except that being relatively young I am at the bottom of that hierarchy and being myself I am unwilling to subject those "below me" to what I consider ill-treatment.
And so I consciously stand apart.
Which also annoys my colleagues.
The end result is that we both on some level believe eachother to be a-holes. Because we are mature adults we manage to get along most of the time , excusing each other's behaviour rationally, or venting behind eachother's backs. But still that raw feeling that the other person is an a-hole is always lingering just beneath the surface. And because we live next to eachother it always will, unless one of us changes our minds or moves.
But then why should either of us change our minds? We live in different moral universes, both coherent, and yet opposing. Should I accept, indeed embrace, the idea that society should hierarchally arranged? Or contrary-wise is it reasonable or realistic for me to expect my 40 year old colleagues to act towards me as if I were their equal? I don't think so.
This is one of the less comfortable facts of living a multicultural life. You are inevitably an a-hole.

Multi-cultural living or the inevitability of being an a**hole.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Monday, September 27, 2010
Friday, September 24, 2010
"Are we run by a**holes?" asks Jon Stewart

"Are we run by a**holes?" asks Jon Stewart
You can't make this stuff up: Radiolaria


h/t to org.theory for finding these. They are tiny microorganisms called radiolaria, what you are seeing are their shells. They are alive.

You can't make this stuff up: Radiolaria
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Washington Corruption, doing the "third world" proud.

Washington Corruption, doing the "third world" proud.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
ADHD is about willpower
In Korea disorders such as ADHD are almost entirely undiagnosed. I am not skeptical that they indeed exist in some form everywhere but I do think their existence as social entities, and therefore how they are conceptualized and dealt with by differing societies, varies quite dramatically. The American treatment for ADHD is drugs. Other societies have other ways of dealing with it. In Korea children are taught that they are responsible for their behaviour and that diligence is something that all people, no matter what their initial standing, can learn to cultivate.

ADHD is about willpower
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Constructing (conceiving of?) beauty


Constructing (conceiving of?) beauty
This American Life on Cop Corruption

This American Life on Cop Corruption
Friday, September 10, 2010
Frankenfish or simply the future?


Frankenfish or simply the future?
Monday, September 6, 2010
Selling sex

Selling sex
Ignoring the plank in our own eyes: prisoners in the U.S. and Saudi Arabia

Ignoring the plank in our own eyes: prisoners in the U.S. and Saudi Arabia