Korea and the World

It is a bit late, but I've just been getting in this Korean hostage situation in Afghanistan.

It's sad and intriguing... rife with politics and agendas. The war of ideas, roles, feelings, and beliefs. And in the end, there is still the lives of 22 young naive Koreans to care about.

Questions being asked are whether this is the price the Koreans must pay for joining in on the 'war on Terror' or whether the hostages were taken without actual consideration to whether they were Korean or not, just that they were a foreign group that could be used for trades? Or perhaps it was their Christianity and attempted proselytizing that infuriated the Muslim radicalists.

Meanwhile, sections of the Korean people are surely blaming this on Korea's efforts in Iraq. The anti-war groups are capitalizing upon this opportunity to capture the hearts of Koreans to stop sending troops. Nevermind the anti-US groups...

Koreans are then asking Ban Ki-Moon to use his status as UN secretary-general to save the Korean hostages. Surely in Ban-Ki Moon's heart he would want to move mountains for these people, but who is he anyway? He may be a Korean national, but he's also frontman of the organization that unites and represents the world. He can't make special exceptions for the Koreans... can he?

And then, the Americans are desperate not to have any more pullouts disrupt their mission and wish not to fan the flames of the fickle Korean populace and disturb an already fragile relations, but they sure as hell do not, as of yet, want to negotiate with the terrorists. US House of Representatives just passed the resolution put forward by Mike Honda which demands Japan to apologize to WWII sex slaves, of which Korea has demanded for 50 years. Now is this timing coincidental? I think not. And Japan is definitely not happy about being called out by the US for previous war crimes.

And yet the Korean government, while wanting to keep strong relations with the US, must balance this out with managing local concerns. Korea, one of the most strongly nationalistic countries, has seen a barrage of protests and candlelight vigils over this matter. They need to show resolve... But how?
They've taken measures such as refusing to allow Koreans to travel to Afghanistan, punishable by law. Is this a political move, trying to avoid further drama in the world's stage or is it the paternalistic aspect of which Asian countries are so famous for, taking care of their 'children'. I suspect its more political... but who knows. And what about the workers there? Do all of them want to leave? Or are some of them unfairly being kept away from their life's calling?

Even stranger, is the situation for the tiny tiny minority of Muslim Arabs in Korea. Yes, they do exist! They've issued several statements, had photo-ops of praying in their mosques for the hostages...

The more zealous Christians are calling this an attack on Christianity. I saw that on one blog, referring to this situation, commenting that Christianity is the most victimized religion in the world. Wow the absolute stupidity of that comment made me want explode. If anything Christianity has been victimized by... Christianity. And perhaps reason. But whatev.

But of course, the remaining 22 hostages, their grieving families... it's hard to report on their condition - but if you just look at the pictures, it hits home. These are real individuals going through real trauma...
And in this world today... I don't believe in simple solutions... but in the case of saving these 22 people's lives... I do hope and even pray for one.

Joe Biden

I'll write about him later,

but here's a decent article (I'd like to find you a good one, but I really should be getting to sleep now).

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1644834,00.html

When they fall, they fall hard.

So lately in media reports, it's always about George Bush's declining rate and the need to pull out of Iraq,
and I must be mad or something, but this news slightly infuriates me.

Why? Not that I'd want to see him in power, ever since 2004 have I been waiting for 2008. Not that I'd ever supported the Iraq War.
But it's a culmination of factors.

1) Lack of loyalty: Though a democracy should not have unquestioned kings, I'm appalled at the Conservatives now who are running, not walking, away from being associated with Bush or the Iraq war. Were they not spouting his praise only a few years back?
Ah, human fickleness.

2) The process of scapegoating: Many people now are trying to distance themselves from Bush and the Iraq War. But someone has to be responsible right? Who is the most widely known (and hated) of all? George Bush. So let's just put more blame on him.

3) The bandwagon (conformity): Goddamn, I hate the bandwagon, but it's such a fundamental part of our social behaviour. But if certain leaders (or the cool kids) decide to dislike him, and the guy to the left and right of you dislike him, hey, why not you? It certainly doesn't come at a cost to you, and you really respect that leader's opinion, and that friend of your is really well-spoken, and ya, you guess you don't have that much information so... you might as well blindly put yourself forth with hating Bush. Gee, I'm really glad we have fought for the freedom of thought.

This is most evident in the support for Iraq. An increasing number of journalists are coming out with increasingly blind bias against the Iraq War. There is no weighing of the two sides. The lack of analysis by politicians in the Iraq War is just phenomenal.
First, the reason why Iraq is somewhat akin to a hell on earth is due mostly to the invastion and perhaps the first 2-3 years, not the most recent ones.
But if invading Iraq started problem, is pulling out the solution?

No, what they are doing now is a sort of maintenance work, in which new tactics must be revived to try and restore some peace to Iraq.

Honestly, when I see people only starting to write about the atrocities of Iraq now, I'm like where were you 4 years ago???? You're just trying to make a gain with this popularized sentiment that the war is bad.

Did you not know that in war there are always unwanted casualties? Rape and systematic killings? I'm guessing this is just human nature. Having suppressed critiquing the war for years, you suddenly jump at ever higher heights to go full blast on this administration. You are encouraged by the heads nodding in agreement. All you need to say is, 'Bush Bad' and you get applause. Yet this moment of emboldenment has turned your rationality on cruise control and you cruise into the same mistake made by the administration itself.

For years, Saddam Hussein was killing Kurds by the thousands, first displacing them into crowded villages which were subsequently gassed.
And the US did nothing.
10 years later, they decide that this is almost reason enough to invade Iraq again. This is also 10 years after the gassing stopped.

The correct questions are not being asked!! There is low regard for consequentialism or something. Isn't the right question: How does this effect the people involved? how is this going to help? Are there any problems caused by this? How can we solve or at least mitigate the harmful effect...

I refuse to believe that we are at the pinnacle of human rationality.
We're digressing if anything.
F*cking will to power shit.
Hey, so I've never been to Iraq and I can't locate it on a map, I'm still know more about what to do with Iraq than that guy who has a phD and like studied Iraq all his life. Ya, if I will it, it must be true!

What's going to happen to Iraqis when we pull out? Af*cking lifetime of ethnic cleansing and instability.

Think Afghanistan post-Soviet invasion.

I could talk about how at the root of all this mess is a lack of education coupled with democracy. It shouldn't happen! And yet it does...
anyway, I'll continue later, I think I've said enough this time around.

Kosovo: Personal lessons learned

To acquire knowledge, one must study,
but to acquire wisdom , one must observe
- M Savant

(observe AND experience!)

Lately, I've become interested in the United Nation's participation in Kosovo and the treatment of Serbs in an Albanian-dominated Kosovo.
You might have heard about the Kosovo bombings by NATO in 1999, in which Serbs were deemed to be involved in ethnic cleansing of the Albanians. More than 800,000 Albanians fled Kosovo, thousands being killed, wounded, and raped.
Now 8 years later, it is the Serb-minority in Kosovo that is constantly being harassed by local Albanians, with an attempt of 'ethnic cleansing' of the Serbs as recent as 2004.

I've tried to chat about this in an Albanian Facebook group, "Appeal for an independent Kosovo".

And with the little wisdom I had, I tried to engage in a discussion about the Serbs, hoping to generate brainstorming of plans of which to deal with this problem.

What was I thinking?

Their minds were totally consumed by the enormity of pain and damages caused in 1999 and their 'eternal' hatred of Serbians.
I tried to state that they should look out for the Serbians because it would reduce political instability and get greater support from the EU, and thus attract more foreign investments (it was the poorest region in the former Yugoslavia).
I tried to use examples of the politicians that were putting their hatred aside and being hailed by the UN, trying to state that it can and should be done.
All my arguments were to no avail.

Since I'd brought up the Serbs, everything from my information, allegiance, intelligence, and ethnicity was questioned and immediately put down.
They told me that I didn't know anything (despite having read at least 15 different books and articles).
They relied steadfastly on information, of which the reports that I've read contradicted entirely (I attributed this misinformation to the Albanian's notoriously biased reporting).
Then they would make emotional appeals about what happened in 1999 oh the Tragedy!
And then they'd pat themselves on the back. 'Oh Meljos, good job! You put that beautifully.'

I couldn't believe it. I had done the research with an sympathetic eye towards the Albanians for what happened in 1999. But it was all overlooked. I'd been accused of being a Serbian supporter. Effectively, I became disliked by all the Albanian-nationalists, and in turn, my position against them hardened, my sympathies drying up. A rather unpleasant experience.

After complaining to Xiaodi about this rather frigid, actually downright rude reception, he told me that I can't approach emotional experiences like this from an academic perspective.
After looking at my experiences with people (I've offended more than one person with my views), I'd realized that I was coming at this from the wrong orientation.

I forget that political science is limited to a group that reads and critiques papers - many times far removed from the actual events.
Political science often favours the acquirement of power and stability above morality. It downplays the role of the individual, in favour of the entire system. It prides itself on being above emotional reactions - a rational study of humans - a science.

These biases within political science, I'd once critiqued... yet in my actual experience I carried them blindly. And to think, I'd actually prided myself for having a balanced view of means and ends. I'd always argued against the 'ends justify the means' response and yet... in wishing to satisfy an intellectual need for a plan, I'd ignored and objectified the people affected.

I now consider this experience a wisdom acquired.

Still, I don't know what to do with these people. I've learned what not to do, but hopefully observation and experience will lead me to be more human in my response.

From this - it seems that wisdom is knowledge placed effectively... yes, I'd like some more wisdom...

Water is Life

Man, I'm thirsty. I think I'll get some water... probably grab some Montclair, good cheap stuff. Ya, actually maybe I'll treat myself to some Evian. Oh, isn't Evian great? It's so lap-able, soft and smooth on my tongue and... huh? Water scare?
What are you talking about?

Water as a scarce resource. Who would have thought?
And yet, fresh bodies of water all over the world are disappearing.
We've seen bits and pieces of this information being disseminated.
For example, the polar ice caps are melting and the Great Lakes (the largest body of fresh water in the world) are massively polluted. The oil refining process in Alberta is taking lakes worth of water that may not be replenishable.

Yet, many of the losses, especially in the 3rd world, are happening under the radar.

More children die from lack of clean drinkable water than from AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined.

The 6th greatest body of fresh water in the world, Lake Chad, has been reduced to 5-10% of its original size. 9 million people rely on this water, and many of them are now leaving the area. This body of water has existed for 20,000 years, and only within the last 70 years is it being reduced with such rapidity.

In many 3rd world regions, including China and India, millions of water refugees are born. These people are forced to leave their homelands because there is not enough fresh water to drink.

And why has the world, the news world, not responded? It is a fault shared by the media and the media consumer. Because water shortage is not an attention-grabbing emotion-evoking issue. People like stories about HURRICANEs and TSUNAMIs, not a story about something as commonplace as water. Here, it seems unreal, almost impossible for us to understand... not enough drinking water? Why don't they just turn on their taps, use a Brita filter or something? But to create fresh water resources requires well-drilling equipment, which requires money - which, well you know the rest.

I've looked up some water-related NGO's
here's a list:

http://www.globalwater.org/
http://www.wateraid.org/uk/
http://www.bloodwatermission.com/
http://www.unicef.org/wes/index_links.html

here's an article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1234244.stm

Anyway, there is something that people can do. Donate. Even $5, $10, $20... and more if you can. The beauty of this is that this is simple. There's no ugly partisan issue, no human/social complications. It is a matter of digging holes...

Of course this is small-scale, but small-scale matters. Thousands of villages can be saved.
I generally don't expect more, as I am incredibly wary of a great change in public opinion about this matter. But who knows, perhaps you can inform your local politician, or perhaps you can bring it to the attention of Bono. Who knows. Anyway, I'm out.