Petition; Blog

I signed another online petition yesterday, but couldn't think of anything more to do to publicize the censorship. One of the people I sent the link to was Matt. He took a look at it, but told me that he wouldn't even think about signing a petition to a foreign government when he's living in that country. Come on! Why not? If things got to be so bad that the government started harassing people for signing a petition, then it would be WAY past the time for us to be out of this country!

I've joined an ESL - EFL blog ring. I don't know why I didn't maintain a public site before. I've kept up with the other blogs and felt like I knew the people writing them, but kept my own writings limited to my family. Privacy is overrated! It's nice to have a larger audience.

Last night I stayed up late tweaking my site. Well, first adding the long post, but then adding the "About Me" paragraph on the side. As usual, the first try didn't work, or the second, or the thirty-fourth. It's not exactly what I wanted, but it provides some info.

I'm still not sleeping well--staying up until 2~3 AM, yet waking up at 8 or 9 AM. Once or twice would be OK, but it's been nearly all week.

Another Interview

I gave another interview yesterday. It was during the 7 PM class, but Joelle stayed in the class while I was gone, plus with me being so strict at the beginning of class they didn't dare act up when I got back.

This girl could actually understand English! In fact, I think I could have spoken naturally, but I still used a slower speed and easier vocabulary, simply out of habit. She had been in Australia for a while, so we talked a little about that. Then I asked her about her teaching experience, although Joelle had already told me she didn't have experience teaching children. Joelle said she had taught adultSSSSS in the past. However, the info I got was that she had tutored AN adult, an ajumma at that! Teaching ONE student who is motivated and teaching a classroom of children who would rather be playing is very, very different!

I asked her if she had any questions for me, and she asked, "Do you think teaching children is easy?" She asked it like that's what she believed. I said, NO!! While children are enthusiastic and learn things more easily that adults, they are also hyperactive and, in general, would rather be doing something besides studying. She was VERY surprised by what I said, and even looked a little scared. Then she asked, "Do you hit them?" NOOOOOO--I use other forms of discipline, if necessary. With kids you have to find a way to make learning at least a little fun, and keep things lively by walking around the classroom and changing activities frequently and being expressive, both with your face, body language, and voice. She made it sound like hitting them was the only way to keep them in line. One look from me will stop most kids from whatever they're up to!

I told Joelle that while her English was good, she didn't have a realistic view towards teaching children, so probably wouldn't be good. Joelle agreed. We talked a couple of minutes (in my classroom). The children were quieter than mice--not a single whisper or squirm, partly because the dreaded Joelle was still in the classroom, but partly because they wanted to see how much of our conversation they could understand. I don't know what Joelle might have told them before I came back, but I'm guessing not much. They understood a remarkable amount of what we said! After Joelle left they had tons of questions for me. Now usually I encourage questions, especially when the questions are driven by the children's curiosity and they really want to know. HOWEVER, I didn't know the answers to many of their questions, and wouldn't know what was appropriate to say, anyway. With the school having lost so many students, I don't see that there's enough work to even think about hiring another teacher. So that means one of our current teachers must be leaving. My first guess would be Stephanie, although Mona has expressed dissatisfaction with the job. Of course, that assumes the teacher is quitting and not the alternative!

Stressed Students

The moon was fantastic tonight. It's incredibly full and bright. No stars were visible, which made the moon stand out even more. Then there were numerous wispy gray clouds that kept floating in front of the moon. They weren't thick enough to completely block it out, just mute it a bit. Had I been in the countryside or on a mountaintop or by the sea in Bangojin it might have been spooky. But on a busy city street, it was just a nice piece of beauty.

On the door of my apartment building there was a flyer that wasn't there before. It had a lot of writing in Korean, but I didn't stop to look too closely. At first I thought it was some kind of notice about the mailboxes or trash, but then I saw "112." I'm pretty sure that 112 is the phone number for the police. (119 is for fire and ambulance, I think.) For all I know, it could say, "Warning! Dangerous killer on the loose! If you see anyone suspicious, call the police immediately!" My imagination is perhaps a little over-active.

In Steven's (Stephanie's 6 PM class) English Diary, he wrote nearly every day this week. The point system is working well for some students! (They get 5 points for every diary they write. His class has to write at least 2 diaries per week.) I still don't know what they can do with the points, or if it's strictly competition within their class. In one entry, Steven wrote,

Today I went to the PC-room. I went with my friends seven. And PC-room is computer room same. So I like there. Today My friends with me play the game. The game title is Crazy Arcade. I like this game. So today is beautiful day. I want to everyday same today. Do you want to go PC-room?

I responded,

Is your friend's name "seven," or did you go with 7 friends?

It was this morning that I checked ALL of the diaries (only took THREE hours, at least I was at home and could relax and listen to music while I was correcting them). However, between classes Steven found me and asked, "Teacher, did you check my diary?" (I share that class with Matt.) Yes, I did. "Oh, seven is not friend's name. I went with seven friends." Oh, OK. "Goodbye, teacher!"

During the 4 PM break I returned to the doctor and he confirmed what I already knew--the ear is responding well to the medicine. He only gave me 3 days worth of drugs, though, so I have to go back on Monday.

I tried using Matt's system of discipline today. In the past I've used the "3 strikes and you're outside the classroom" system. But especially with a larger class, that means that 12 students x 2 strikes equals 24 interruptions without much of a penalty. Matt puts the kids in the corner of the classroom if they speak Korean even once during class. I got strict with the 6 PM Can You Believe It class, giving them an "x" if they spoke Korean. But then with the 7 PM class I tried Matt's "corner" method. It only took a couple of kids to get the point across. I kept them in the corner, inside the classroom, for 2~3 minutes (faced away from the class). That way they could still hear the English, but couldn't see what was going on or make funny faces at everyone else. They really quieted down, while Jason didn't say anything in any language. Hey, as long as he isn't disrupting class, fine!

At 8:30 the girls were back, and only seconds after my explanation of the corner system and one warning, Grace was the first to try it out. She whined and it took a couple of minutes to get her to comply, but then she was better for the rest of class. Sylvia didn't respond as well, however. She angrily stomped to the corner, and when I allowed her to go back to her seat she sulked for the rest of class, wouldn't look at me, and didn't say goodbye at the end of class. Was I ever that bad as a teenager?!

The kids are under way too much stress. Yesterday the elementary school kids, today the middle school students. The girls are finished with their tests, but some aren't that happy about their grades, and they're still exhausted and stressed. Luby came into class a little late, and complained about not being able to get into her house after school because her twin brother (also my student) wouldn't wake up and let her in. I encourage them to speak about whatever interests them, so I asked a follow-up question. Suddenly she was crying as she explained that she banged on the door, and kicked the door, and yelled at her brother, but he wouldn't wake up. Then she called her mother, who called their house to wake the son up and have him let her in, but he still wouldn't wake up, and Luby was waiting for 30 minutes, and so she couldn't get inside to change clothes and change books, so she had to borrow a book from Mona for class. Every word was in English. I told her it was no problem that she didn't have a book--don't worry about it! I asked her if she had gotten any sleep recently, but the tests only finished yesterday and it doesn't sound like she has.

Sally and Lily were taking the G-TELP test that they missed on Monday, Ben was late, and Tony was absent, so only Laura and Edward were there to see the outburst from the normally very strong, though unconstrained Luby. I positioned myself between Luby and Edward so he couldn't see her blubbering, but I still had to give him some stern looks to keep him from laughing. Laura, too, was smiling at the pettiness of the problem. But put someone under that much stress, especially at such a young age (7th grade, or around 13 years old) and when they're going through so many teenage things, not to mention the hormones, little things can be monstrous. Luby's brother, Tom, didn't come to class tonight. Either he's studying for the last of his tests tomorrow, or Luby killed him.

Crying Kids

Today's work against censorship: I signed the petition and emailed the link to 27 people. A few Koreans, but mostly Americans and Canadians. Some of them are in Korea now, while others were formerly teachers here, and a few people have never been here, but I knew from home. I hope none of them are annoyed by the email; I wanted to get the message out. Four came back as undeliverable. That's the bad thing about email--you can't leave a forwarding address! When I send out my normal group email (probably Sunday) I'll let another, what is it now, 20 people know about the petition.

The adults asked me again what would be on their test and I told them that I don't know yet, but I'll write it this weekend and let them know on Monday. Next week starts 3 days/week with only me as teacher. They said it was OK to keep it M, T, Th, especially when I explained WHY I preferred those days over W and F. On W and F I don't finish work until 9:30 PM or later, so if I start teaching at 11 AM it makes for a long day. The other days I finish around 8 PM, so arriving at 10:45 isn't so bad. I told them the things that I might put on the test, and they protested way more than any of the kids do. "I've only studied some of the book!" "I was absent many times!" "I can't speak English!" "I hate tests!" Melissa's was the best, "Goodbye everyone!" She was implying that everyone would leave and not come back because of the test. However, Jennifer was good, too, "Next week I must go on a trip." They all said, "Next Thursday I will be absent!" I told them that they MUST come. I suppose I'll have to make it rather easy so they're not frustrated by it. If I make it to gauge how much they've actually learned in this book, then the scores would be too low and they'd be upset.

What's up with the crying kids?! Mina's 2 PM class (all 2nd graders) changed classrooms to be in a cooler room, and I asked Danny where the class was now. He led me to the new classroom, where most of the students were busy doing their "10 minute writing." Penny, however, sat separated from the other students with a sad expression on her face. I asked her what was wrong, and she began crying. The other kids tried to tell me what was wrong, and I only understood that Kate had said something that Penny didn't like. Before I knew it, Kate was sobbing! Either a student passing in the hall got Mina, or she just happened to be walking by, but she came in and they tried to explain to her what was wrong, but she couldn't understand, either. And she speaks Korean! She got the girls settled down, though.

The lesson today was, "Is this a pencil?" "Yes, it is." "Is that a desk?" "No, it isn't." Mina had already taught it to them, so they were pretty comfortable with it, and began using their own ideas to practice. While pointing to Maria, Penny asked, "Is her name Maria?" I think I may have gotten them started with, "Is she a crazy girl?" and before I knew it, they had labeled Clint a "crazy boy" and he was crying, too! He's usually so good-natured and positive. I told him we were only joking, that he wasn't crazy, and don't be sad! I think that the stress from their school tests today was getting to them.

The rest of the classes were fine, although many of the kids were exhausted from the tests. The middle school girls were happy to be finished with their tests (June 28~July 1) and planned to watch TV, play, and sleep tonight. They weren't particularly happy with their grades, but so far no one has been too upset about them.

Censorship Update

Most importantly, sign the petition that Joel wrote and set up! It doesn't matter where you're from or where you live now, just support freedom of speech and free access to information in this quasi-democratic country!

Since the internet block began I've done something everyday to try to get the news out. Yesterday I posted on Mikerowesoft (yes, that's spelled correctly) and got several hits here from that. Today I went to the GOP site because I read on one of the other blogs that it can't be accessed from Asia because that site doesn't want people from here bothering them. I used a proxy server to access the site, and then emailed them and explained the problem here, and asked if it was the Korean government or their site doing the censorship. I got a short response:

I am not sure but realise the importance of your concern. I am
forwarding your question to Network and Online services.

Sincerely,
RNC

In doing more searches on online censorship, I came across the ACLU website. In the past I've always seen them as the enemy, but suddenly they're looking pretty good! On their site they have a link to the Global Internet Liberty Campaign, which also has info on Korea's censorship in the past.

An article in the Asia Times Online, South Korea's post-mortem politics, talks about the wide-spread censorship and how some Korean sites are encouraging people to crash sites they don't like (that's what it comes down to, anyway).

This report tells about how various countries are regulating the Internet; there's a paragraph on Korea. One of the nasty organizations, the ICEC (Information & Communication Ethics Office), was established in 1995. Nine years of protecting the people from the internet!

Finally, this article from 2600 NEWS tells about Korean censorship occurring in 2002. It says,

If Korea can continue to block the websites of anarchists and homosexuals yet still be termed a "vibrant democracy," one wonders what President Bush has in mind for the United States. It is important that we oppose censorship in all countries, before similar occurrences happen here.

Giving an Interview

The kids were OK. Tomas was too talkative, then at 4 PM I kept the whole class after the bell. Part of the problem was that I was interrupted half-way through class by Joelle, who wanted me to give an interview to a Korean teacher they were thinking of hiring. No notice, no chance for me to prepare anything, just go and leave Joelle in charge of my class. When I came back, she wasn't there, but had told them to memorize the story. Some of them were sort-of doing it, but the class was pretty chaotic, and took a few minutes to completely settle down again.

The interview was fine. I was only slightly nervous, while the girl was VERY nervous. She kept giggling, and on several occasions spoke to me in Korean. Excuse me, I'm a foreigner! I understood what she said, but was surprised at her not being able to say those simple phrases in English! When I asked her, "Have you worked at an academy before?" She didn't know the word "academy," so I had to tell her the Korean word for it. Later, curious as to how she had worked 5 months teaching English before, I asked if there were any foreigners at her former job. She didn't know the word "foreigner," either. Her favorite part of teaching was phonics, and her least favorite part was grammar. Her pronunciation was good, but her speaking and listening weren't. She responded to my questions with the shortest answer possible, and at the end didn't have any questions for me. Unless she was teaching only very young kids, she wouldn't be good at our school. The current teachers who aren't good at speaking/listening are very good at grammar, so it sort of balances out. I felt bad doing it, but I told Joelle that I didn't think she would work at our school. Joelle didn't seem at all surprised by that, so perhaps was already thinking that, but wanted me to speak with the girl, too, to confirm her initial opinion.

I love the 5 PM class!! We talked a little bit about their tests and how they did (today was day 3 of 4 testing days). They asked me if I was a good student, and I said yes. They wanted to know what my "dream" was when I was in school, and I told them a few of the things that I've dreamed of doing during various times in my life. They were impressed by some of the things, and told me, "You have high dreams!" I hope that I'm showing them that it's good to dream big, and that they can have high dreams, too.

At 6 PM Billy and John were talking about the girls again, referring to them as the "Hulk family." Apparently the girls continue to beat up the boys, which is pretty pitiful on the boys' part. The boys with their big mouths probably deserve it! Then to finish off the day with the 7 PM class I was really strict with them to start, so the rest of the class was fine. Jake finished his taekwondo thing, so is able to stay for the whole class again, which is a lot better for him.

Last night I stayed up until way after 3 AM trying to figure out how to put a counter on my site. Not one of the ones that records how many people visit; I already have one of those. But one that updates itself everyday to keep track of how many days the MIC ban has been in place. It took about 3 hours to find one like I wanted and work all the bugs out, but I learned a good bit about HTML in the process! I also saw that when you're close to giving up, you often make a break-through, so don't give up, keep trying!

Doctor's Visit

Last night just before I went to bed there was this "pop" in my right ear. When I woke up this morning to a throbbing pain and virtually no hearing in that ear, was I ever scared! I immediately got online to do some research and decided that it was either a burst eardrum or a very sudden and very severe middle ear infection. The doctor was surprised to see me back--he thought he had gotten rid of me after 2 visits and 6 days of drugs! He looked in my ear with his thing that connects to a TV so I can see inside my ear, too. Given that he knew how bad the cold/bronchitis/whatever was last week, he promptly diagnosed me and said in his broken English, "You is otitis media. Understand?"

Now had I not already seen that medical term online while making my self-diagnosis, his statement probably would have freaked me out. As it was, from my research I knew that "otitis media" is the medical term for "middle ear infection." Yes, doctor, I understand, but you really need to work on learning layman's terms for medical conditions! He sat back down at his desk and brought up a picture of the ear and explained, in detail, how the ears, nose, sinuses and throat connect and that if one of the tubes connecting them gets blocked, then you get an "injection." It was obvious he meant infection, but I was afraid he would be embarrassed if I corrected him. He also looked in my throat and said that it was mildly inflamed. I guess I've gotten used to a perpetual sore throat. He said it'll take 14 days of antibiotics to get rid of the ear infection, but I have to go back in 2 days to get re-checked. I'm hoping that he'll give me the rest of the medicine then and won't make me keep coming back again and again. It's pretty cheap to see him ($6) but a pain to keep returning.

At the pharmacy I asked to make sure of how often and when to take the drugs, and the guy got someone else to help him explain, then added, "No drinking." WHAT? The doctor always tells me, "Drink water many many." You're telling me not to drink? My face displayed my confusion, so he clarified, "No drink alcohol." Oh, OK. No problem there. Is that what he thinks every foreigner does here?!

I also went by the bank before work, and was surprised to find that I'd been paid, and without reminding them, only one day late this time.

The Communist Interpretation of Article 21

Article 21 as written in the Korean Constitution:

[Speech, Press, Assembly, Association, Honor, Public Morals]

(1) All citizens enjoy the freedom of speech and the press, and of assembly and association.
(2) Licensing or censorship of speech and the press, and licensing of assembly and association may not be recognized.
(3) The standard of news service and broadcast facilities and matters necessary to ensure the functions of newspapers is determined by law.
(4) Neither speech nor the press may violate the honor or rights of other persons nor undermine public morals or social ethics. Should speech or the press violate the honor or rights of other persons, claims may be made for the damage resulting therefrom.

Article 21 (as interpreted by those MIC and ICEC Communists):
[Speech--no, you can't do that; Press--nope, that's ours; Assembly--that might cause problems, so no to that, too; Association--you can associate with who we say you can associate with; Honor--yes, you must honor us; Public Morals--at least put on a good show in public, then do whatever perverse things you want to where we can't see them]

(1) All citizens enjoy the freedom of speech. Those bloggers making all the fuss aren't citizens, so we won't let them enjoy that freedom.
(2) Censorship may not be recognized, but it can be done.
(3) Newspapers must print what we tell them to print to ensure their continued functioning (because otherwise we would shut them down).
(4) Criticizing Korea violates the honor of all Koreans and undermines public morals in some way or other, we just haven't figured out how yet. We're the best country in the world, and those foreigners should know that by now! Should their speech violate the honor of Koreans (especially Communists) we may make a claim therefrom. (We don't really know what that last part means, but it sounds impressive.)

Student Antics

In teaching the kids the page on, "Are you OK?" "Not really, I have a . . . " I learned a few new Korean words. The book had the typical words--earache, stomachache, toothache, cold, sore throat, and a new one for me to see in a TEFL book, flu. I thought of what else I could add (they're older kids, and the book is a little too easy for them). "Cut" was completely left out of the book, and that was easy enough to explain. "Bloody nose" I could explain using first English and then Korean to make sure they understood (코피, or literally, "nose blood") because it seems at least one student has one every day. (What does that say about their health?!)

Then the kids wanted to know what 눈병 was in English. I knew 눈 was eye, but didn't know the other part. Uh, I don't know, explain it to me. They didn't do such a great job, but I finally had a basic idea, so explained it a little better back to them to make sure I had the right thing. "If my eye is red, and if I touch my eye, then touch you and you touch your eye, then your eye is red, too?" OK, that's called "pink eye," or literally in Korean, "eye sickness."

Then the final thing I did (perhaps it was a mistake because it took so long to explain), was "blister." I only thought of that because my feet have a couple of painful ones right now. I explained, "If you walk a long time, maybe 100 KM (written on the board), your feet and your shoes rub together (hand motion) and make a blister (hand motion AND drawing on the board) with water inside. FINALLY one of the brighter students asked, "물집? Water house?" Water house! That makes perfect sense! Yeah, I think so. Later I asked Miro to make sure the kids got the right Korean word for pink eye and blister, and it was fine. Tonight I looked in the online dictionary and found "거푸집" for "blister." Hmmm. I guess there could be more than one word for the same thing, and the kids would probably use the easier, more literal word. I already knew the word 아프다 (sick, hurt, ache, etc.) and how the kids confuse the English words. I made sure they knew that you are sick, but that your arm is NEVER sick, but that it hurts or aches.

At 5 PM I had ONE student of my normal eight. The rest were studying for middle school tests. The one student came late (after raising my hopes that I'd have a free hour) and we talked for about 10 minutes. That was about all the time I could keep him talking, considering that he's a middle school boy and has no idea how to carry on a conversation with an adult foreigner. I'd ask a question, he'd make his reply as short as possible, and never ask a question in return or add any extra info. When I ran out of topics I asked him if he had any questions for me. Yes. The first question was, "How much money do you have?" That's a personal question! Pass! "How much money this academy give you?" That's also a personal question! Come on!

We then spent 30 minutes working on an internet scavenger hunt (the same one I used last week with another partial class). It's a list of weird animals and you have to find where they live using only English websites. The kid had no clue how to search. He didn't know how to look at the site summary on the search result page to see if the page was worth clicking through to, and once he was on the website, he either looked at the lines of text wide-eyed, or started reading word-by-word, line-by-line. I showed him how he could look at the first sentence of every paragraph, or if the page was numbered or had bold print, the stuff that stood out, to scan the page to find the info he wanted more quickly. Along the way I asked him questions about where different things were (Antarctica--he had no clue, Amazon rainforest--no idea) or added extra info about the animals. I think he enjoyed it, and I liked doing something different than normal.

In the following class I asked Harry why his palm was pink, and he explained, "Ink bomb!" He then went on to explain how a pen had exploded in his hand. Then he and Zach told me about their Boy Scout trip to Kyungju for "training" and how great it had been, and how delicious the food was, and that the head teacher was really strict, and that the hotel was poor, and . . . STOP! We have to study our book sometime today! It seems that the students either don't talk at all, or talk too much. Where's the happy medium?!

Civil Rights Abuses in the USA

Unfortunately, the civil rights abuses in the USA continue. One good article I found was Post-9/11, government stingy with information (5/15/2002). Though it's old, from what I've heard and read, not much has changed in two years. The best parts (many of which could be applied to the current Kim Seon Il situation!):

Regarding secret documents:

A growing number of critics, including several federal judges, say the administration's secrecy effort is beginning to look more like opportunism than enhanced security.

The whole prisoner thing is ridiculous, too.

We've never had hundreds of people arrested for long periods of time without knowing who they are, why they're being held, where they are and what the charges are against them. Even during the Japanese internment, there was no effort to keep secret who was being detained.

The American government is no stranger to secrecy, though.

The U.S. government often has embraced secrecy during crises.

Things that make the government open up again:

One is the reduced perception of threat. Things get better. The war ends. The second is proven abuses caused by secrecy. So far, the Bush administration has been effective. We hope we won't need congressional hearings to show how tragically wrong this instinct for secrecy has been.

And the last interesting point, very applicable to the current situation.

Ten years ago, there were no government Web sites providing information to the public; the current complaints are a reaction to a pulling back from a time of unprecedented openness.

Not too long ago, BLOGS did not exist. The internet and blogs have opened up a whole new world to expression and exchange of ideas. The government isn't quite sure how to respond to this new medium as many of the lawmakers (given their generation) have very little experience with the internet.

If the American government can put people in prison without charging them with anything just because those people have dark skin and strange-sounding names, then they could just as easily do it to me! But so far, because it hasn't affected me, I haven't done anything about it. Whoa, I've got to get more involved in the world. That's what's happening to me now!! My right to free speech was taken away, and no one wants to listen or do anything because it doesn't affect them.

I've never felt limited like this before. In university there were rules, but nothing that I felt was unreasonable because I knew the rules before choosing that school. If the rules had suddenly changed in the middle of my education, I would have been very angry. That's essentially what Korea has done--"Yes, we're a free country. Come and teach here . . . Ha! Got ya! We were joking."

From this experience, I already feel like I'm taking away important lessons:

1. If one right is taken away, others can be taken away, too.
2. We must protect the rights of others, because we might be next on the chopping block.
3. We must fight for what we believe in.
and hopefully some day soon,
4. Speaking out produces results.

That's what I've seen so far; possibly more lessons to come.

Letters and Video

I wrote one letter to the Korea Times yesterday and one today. Both were regarding newspaper articles; both were to different reporters (neither of them have responded). In fact, the only person who has responded to anything I've written was the Ulsan Web guy, who added the info on how to access blocked sites to the scrolling bar on the main page.

Yesterday's letter was about the article, "39 Websites Blocked." It's rather more than 39, unless they counting "blogspot.com" as one, "blogs.com" as two, etc. Today's letter was in response to the article, "Terror Drives Media Storm Over Kim." The article compared the emotional reaction Koreans are having to Kim Seon Il's murder to how Americans behaved after 9/11. I pointed out that the reporter could have made further comparisons. Immediately following 9/11 the American government abused its power by infringing upon the civil rights of its citizens/residents. Currently, the Korean government is abusing its power and breaking article 21 of the Korean Constitution by censoring what people are allowed to view on the internet. I went on with some more info and how angry we are, then said, "The fact that your newspaper is not reporting on this abuse of government power makes me think that you either don't care about this issue since it affects primarily the foreign bloggers, or that perhaps the government is controlling what you are allowed to print, as well." Will that paragraph get any attention?

I just read a fascinating article about the beheading videos, and then I promptly lost the link (this Unipeak thing is annoying). The article was written from a medical perspective and said that if you cut off a head when the heart is still beating that blood should spurt everywhere and make a huge mess. That didn't happen in the videos. Good point. It also pointed out (and I had already thought about this) that neither victim moved or made any sound just before their "deaths", even though they knew what was about to happen. The conclusion was that they were both already dead before their heads were severed (or at the very least drugged or unconscious). Does that change anything? Not really, they're still dead, but it made me wonder why would the murderers not just kill them by cutting off their heads. Why go to the trouble of killing them some other way, and then cut off their heads? After all, that's a common form of execution in that part of the world.

The Latest--Nothing

After checking all of the blogs, I guess the only new news is that either sites continue to be blocked or people are just discovering other blocked sites. Livejournal, another blog-type site, is also blocked now. I was hoping for another eloquent post from Jeff, but his masterpiece from Saturday is still there. A few conspiracy theories are floating about, but I'm exhausted so will make just a short comment. Whether it's the government or KT (a telecommunications company that controls most of the cables that connect Korea with the rest of the world) doing the censorship, it's wrong. The fact that the government hasn't commented makes me think that it IS the government, and that the few connections that aren't blocked were mistakes on the part of the ISPs/KT.

I'm getting a ton of people visiting from other web pages (a ton to me, anyway). Overnight I went from a few hits a day from family members to nearly 30 hits from all over the USA, Korea, Japan, and Finland. Welcome!

Korean Views to Censorship

I have no time during the day to post, so felt so out of touch with foreigners today, especially because the two other foreign teachers at my school were in Japan getting their visas. Because we were short the two teachers, we did the Junior G-TELP test with the intermediate and advanced students. Apparently the kids can't understand, "This is a test. DO NOT TALK." Finally, tired of it, I told them that if I had to warn them more than twice, that whoever was talking would have to give me his test and stand in the hot and sweaty hall until class was over. No one had to stand in the hall! Between making sure the kids understood how to complete the listening part and trying to keep them from cheating, I couldn't do anything more productive than flip through a magazine all day.

The adult class was quite interesting. I wasn't going to bring up the issue of the censorship, for fear that I'd get out of hand and criticize their country too harshly. However, Grace brought up the Kim Seon Il video, so I felt OK gently steering the topic over to the censorship. It turns out that Grace's 10th grade son and Melissa's 7th grade daughter saw a beheading video sometime last week at school (I'm not sure if it was of Kim Seon Il or Nick Berg). The teacher was out of the room, so the kids downloaded the video, watched it, and deleted it off of the computer before the teacher got back. I asked them if they were angry that their kids had watched it, and Grace surprised me when she said, "No, that's his right." Melissa only said that she wasn't angry. Now perhaps some parents had a problem with it, but Ulsan tends to be on the very conservative side of things, so if these two mothers didn't have a problem with it, then I can't see there being enough parents in the rest of the country angry with their kids accessing the video to warrant the government's actions. I explained my and my blogging compatriots' problems with the censorship, and they agreed, saying, "The government is crazy!"

Now, there is the possibility that because I'm the teacher, that they felt that they had to agree with me to show the respect that a student should show to a teacher (even though they're all in my mother's generation). But I don't think that they were agreeing solely because of that. It seemed that they agreed, with varying degrees of conviction, that censorship is bad. They also don't use the internet that much, so can't understand the online culture; I had to explain a "blog" to them. None of them are going to go home and write a letter to the MIC or anything, but they do agree that blocking information is a problem.

Grace asked me if I had seen the Kim Seon Il video, and I hesitated, then said yes. They cringed, thinking it was disgusting, but weren't at all angry or upset that I'd seen it. Just to clarify to them, I explained that some people thought it was disrespectful to Kim Seon Il and his family to see the video, but that I thought it wasn't a problem, as long as it wasn't done in a flippant way. I think that as long as people watch the video with the realization that it was a real event that happened to a real person and that his family is grieving, realize what a terrible thing it was, and know that we must work to prevent similar events in the future, then it's actually a good thing.

Grace's son's class discussed the troop deployment, and came to the conclusion that the troops must go to Iraq in order to avenge Kim Seon Il's death. Well, they could go to bring peace to a country, let people have a better life, or more, shall we say, momentous goals, but I suppose they could still accomplish those things, and avenge Kim's death.

The new signs were up at the academy today. I couldn't help noticing how much better they looked than the old ones that were faded and peeling off. The Korean teachers have a meeting tomorrow, and Dave's warning that a change of names meant a change of ownership echoed in my mind. Surely Sandra would have some idea if anything like that were going to happen, and surely she would have let me know about it, right? Dave also said that, at least in Ulsan, there's no middle ground for academies any more. Either they're doing really well, or they're struggling. Well, my school isn't doing really well, so I guess . . .

I have 3 months left, stay afloat until then!

Are Online Demonstrations Illegal, Too?

One more post before I go to sleep. Last spring (2003) when I had to use PC rooms a lot, I experienced problems signing on to my AOL mail account. I got the impression from the employee that he thought I was accessing some kind of pornographic site, and I understood that THAT PARTICULAR PC ROOM blocked certain sites because so many kids used that PC room. I found it annoying that there was no way around the filter, or whatever it was, even after explaining to the employee that it was only an email site. Eventually I switched from my AOL account to Yahoo for that and other reasons. However, I'm finding that the Korean government has a history of censorship, and apparently EVERY public computer (has/is supposed to have) QUITE A FEW sites blocked, beginning back in 2001!! The reasoning behind the ban is to protect young people, but the majority of my students use their home computers completely unsupervised.

From what I'm reading here, it might be illegal to demonstrate online, and they define many people sending emails to the MIC as being an online demonstration.

See here and here for more info, or just go check out everything that's on the Base21 and Freeonline sites.

Non-Bloggers' Response to Censorship

Oh yeah, my day. Not too much, as I couldn't stay away from the computer for long, and am still trying to completely get over the bronchitis. I talked with the people at church about the censorship, and they either:

1. didn't know about it,

or

2. didn't think it was a big deal.

HELLO!

If you let the government take away one right, then what's next? Will they block access to religious or pro-democracy sites? First keep people from speaking out on the internet, then cut off international phone lines, than maybe kick all of the foreigners out of the country and restrict the remaining residents from talking to their next-door-neighbor?? I mean, really, how far will this "reform" government go?!

Even Dave (a Korean-American who runs an English school here) wasn't at all surprised or concerned that the Korean Constitution is being completely disregarded. He said that the Korean Constitution isn't like the American one; the Koreans always write a loophole for themselves. Then why have the Constitution in the first place??

I recently read (maybe on someone's blog, sorry, I can't remember!) that Nazi Germany didn't start out gassing Jews. Had it started there, people wouldn't have allowed it. But instead they crept up on it, step by step. First they made them wear stars, then restricted their movement, then took away their belongings, then sent them to camps, and then gassed them. By the time anyone realized what was happening, it was too late to do anything.

Will we stand by and do nothing while seemingly small or harmless restrictions are made, but then cry out that we had no warning if bigger action is taken? The expatriate blogging community in Korea has made it clear that the action by the MIC is unacceptable, but the rest of the country seems unconcerned! Apparently they don't care about liberty, "the right and power to act, believe, or express oneself in a manner of one's own choosing" (definition from Dictionary.com). Well, I care about expressing myself, and this blog is the manner that I choose!!

I also went to Shinbok Church for the English Sunday School. Six kids came today, ranging in age from 5th~9th grades. Is it my imagination, or is the one 6th-grader getting a little better at reading English? Hooray!

Kevin Kim's Letter

The following letter was written by Kevin Kim at The Big Hominid. His site is not one I usually visit due to its frequent profanity and offensive topics, but he has every right to say whatever he wants to on his own website, and people should be able to view it if they so desire. That's the point of free access to information, right? He can write what he wants, I can avoid what I don't want to see. But anyway, his letter is well done, thus why I'm reproducing it, as he has asked other bloggers to do, here.

Fellow blogger,

I am sending this message to the bloggers on my blogroll (and a few other folks) in the hopes that some of you will print this, or at least find it interesting enough for comment. I'm not usually the type to distribute such messages, but I felt this was important enough to risk disturbing you.

As some of you may already know, a wing of the South Korean government, the Ministry of Information and Culture (MIC), is currently clamping down on a variety of blogging service providers and other websites. The government is attempting to control access to video of the recent Kim Sun-il beheading, ostensibly because the video will have a destabilizing influence. (I haven't seen the video.)

Many Western expat bloggers in Korea are in an uproar; others, myself included, are largely unsurprised: South Korea has not come far out of the shadow of its military dictatorship past. My own response to this censorship is not so much anger as amusement, because the situation represents an intellectual challenge as well as a chance to fight for freedom of expression. Perhaps even to fight for freedom, period.

South Korea is a rapidly evolving country, but in many ways it remains the Hermit Kingdom. Like a turtle retreating into its shell, the people are on occasion unable to deal with the harsh realities of the world around them. This country is, for example, in massive denial about the atrocities perpetrated in North Korea, and, as with many Americans, is in denial about the realities of Islamic terrorism, whose roots extend chronologically backward far beyond the lifetime of the Bush Administration. This cultural tendency toward denial (and overreaction) at least partially explains the Korean government's move to censor so many sites.

The fact that the current administration, led by President Noh Mu-hyon, is supposedly "liberal"-leaning makes this censorship more ironic. It also fuels propagandistic conservative arguments that liberals are, at heart, closet totalitarians. I find this to be a specious caricature of the liberal position (I consider myself neither liberal nor conservative), but to the extent that Koreans are concerned about what image they project to the world, it is legitimate for them to worry over whether they are currently playing into stereotype: South Korea is going to be associated with other violators of human rights, such as China.

Of the many hypocrisies associated with the decision to censor, the central one is that no strong governmental measures were taken to suppress the distribution of the previous beheading videos (Nick Berg et al.). This, too, fuels the suspicion that Koreans are selfish or, to use their own proverbial image, "a frog in a well"-- radically blinkered in perspective, collectively unable to empathize with the sufferings of non-Koreans, but overly sensitive to their own suffering.

I am writing this letter not primarily to criticize all Koreans (I'm ethnically half-Korean, and an American citizen), nor to express a generalized condemnation of Korean culture. As is true anywhere else, this culture has its merits and demerits, and overall, I'm enjoying my time here. No, my purpose is more specific: to cause the South Korean government as much embarrassment as possible, and perhaps to motivate Korean citizens to engage in some much-needed introspection.

To this end, I need the blogosphere's help, and this letter needs wide distribution (you may receive other letters from different bloggers, so be prepared!). I hope you'll see fit to publish this letter on your site, and/or to distribute it to concerned parties: censorship in a supposedly democratic society simply cannot stand. The best and quickest way to persuade the South Korean government to back down from its current position is to make it lose face in the eyes of the world. This can only happen through a determined (and civilized!) campaign to expose the government's hypocrisy and to cause Korean citizens to rethink their own narrow-mindedness.

We can debate all we want about "root causes" with regard to Islamic terrorism, Muslim rage, and all the rest, but for me, it's much more constructive to proceed empirically and with an eye to the future. Like it or not, what we see today is that Korea is inextricably linked with Iraq issues, and with issues of Islamic fundamentalism. Koreans, however, may need some persuading that this is in fact the case-- that we all need to stand together as allies against a common enemy.

If you are interested in giving the South Korean Ministry of Information and Culture a piece of your mind (or if you're a reporter who would like to contact them for further information), please email the MIC at:

webmaster@mic.go.kr

Thank you,

Kevin Kim

Paranoia

OK, so I am officially paranoid, and it's the MIC's fault!! Unipeak is working again . . . for now. Perhaps there was just too much traffic on it earlier. I'm investigating comparable websites and other ways to bypass government censorship on the web, just in case. After all, Unipeak is a pretty popular site in Korea right now; it's only a matter of time until the government/ISPs figure it out.

I've written more letters--U.S. Secretary of State, and a website, Free Expression, which I got an "away" message from. It's a weekend, everyone's on vacation, and no one's listening!

More Censorship

That didn't take long! Unipeak appears to be blocked now, too!!!! South Korea is turning into North Korea! Quick, let's get out of here!!

I say that on Monday morning everyone should call the MIC and chew them out.

If that doesn't work, how about let's do this Korean-style and stage a protest?? What is everyone doing next weekend?!

Are People Catching On?

I'm NEVER up this early, but had to find out if anything has happened. A Korean news site has picked up on the illegal nature of what's happening and reported it in their English pages--OhmyNews. Another source, perhaps less credible, is also reporting on it. Now how about the international press?!