Glass eyes

I saw glass eyes last night.

Eyes so hollow as if they were directly tunneled into an oblivion of the eternal darkness. They seemed transparent, yet unabled to show any signs of vividness from inside. They emitted a strange metalic blueness, almost surreal to envisage that they indeed belong to life.

Completely being bewildered and even feared by those eyes filled with rampage and hatred, there was I still desperately seeking a hint of fullness, warmness, and celestialness that once plenished thereof.

Confronted with impetuous hollow eyes at the front and a helplessly sobbing wounded heart at the back, I was crushed by the same dilemma once Camus faced and dictated in his "Le Mythe de Sisyphe." Quickly going through the past few days to examine any occasions that would've fired up the misfortunate event of the night didn't particularly provide any clear answers to the profound distress we were facing; only discarding what we believed as a source of this viciousness and praying for the best were followed.

Favoring abortion when a fetus is proved as disable.

Myung-bak, Lee, the former Seoul Mayor and a strong president hopeful from the major opposition party, the Grand National Party (GNP) in Korea said yesterday that he is fundamentally against the gay marriage and the abortion, but an abortion may be considered if a fetus is proven disable.

Not surprisingly, his comment brought up an immense criticism from civil groups advocating human rights particularly for those wtih has physical and mental difficulties. Tear shedding scene of physically challenged demonstrators in wheelchairs shrieking out strike slogans was painful to look at. They've already suffered from all forms of discrimination and unbearable arduousness beyond anybody's imagination. And this person who hopes to run the country "proudly" calls it may not be worthwhile to share the grendeur theme of "human rights" with the challenged personnels. Wonderful!

I was speechless when I heard him speaking it. I couldn't simply believe that someone intending to run for a presidency has such an unethical, cold-blooded, discouraging, and simply wrongful idea. And he didn't bother to make an official apologetic comments aftermath. Well, his spokesperson made a press release that his comment was "misinterpreted" by media, yet never made an apology. Very convient! More shocking fact adding to it? He is supposedly a sincere Christian, entitled with a senior position at the church he has been attending.

Listening to a series of mistakingly(?) made comments of his, I became convinced that he can't be a person who will give his best to embrace all and protect the needed, and he won't hesitate to leave those behind if they don't concur with his ideas or can't meet thereof, which severely blemishes one of the integral constituent of democracy; reaching mutual concurrances through negotiations, not leaving opponents behind offended and unsatisfied.

An exploding tomato.

This is a perfect example of what-not-to-do for a reporter. John Sweeney is a BBC reporter who was filming a documentary "Scientology and Me" at the time of him being caught in this Youtube UCC. He appears as completely lost while conducting an interview. Sorry for him, it is though unbelievably hilarious!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsHyRSi08ic

Japan takes steps to revise the Constitution's Article 9.

There have been concerns regarding the emerging movement to revise Japan's Constitutional Article 9, which was imposed by American occupation authorities after World War II. Living in Korea, one of many Japan's neighboring nations used to be a colony of Japan during the war, I felt this concern rising up close and personal.

Japan's strong nationalists supported neocons in the US that strategically have intended to position its ally Japan more to fill up the military vacancy, and thus maintain the power balance by surpressing the emerging power of China after the foreseeable withdrawal of the US military forces in the region.

Now, its parliament having endorsed a national referendum on the revision of the pacifist Constitution article 9, Japan will be able to hold the referendum as early as 2010 under a bill approved by the upper house of parliment; the bill was passed in the lower house last month. This rings an alarm bell in a sense that Japan has never been so clearly apologetic on war crimes committed during the war, and its educational system still not fully encompassing its past as it was.

Notoriously known, arbitrarily laid US foreign policies throughout the world, especially since early 20th century do not particularly lessen the concern. Al Qu'aida, once assisted by the CIA of the US in order to deter the former USSR's expansion to the region, is now THE evil target for the US to primarily destroy. The Khmer Rouge, which also was funded by the US as an American attempt to stop spilling of the domino effect of communism by Vietnam in the region in late 1960s and early 1970s, which only came up with self-created lunatic form of Maoism-like ideology resulting in the genocide of one third of its own population. What about the coups in 1970s in Korea by general Park, the father of one of the strongest candidates for upcoming presidential election (can you believe that? seriously, what's wrong with people in this country? they must be either out of their minds or have masochistic fetishes to vote for Park, Geun-hae). The coup by Park has been widely believed that it would not be possible if there weren't aids or at least intentional negligence from the US. The exemplary cases above imply a fatal tendency of the US foreign policies in modern era, i.e., their arbitrariness and ignorance on different poli-economical entities, and thus immense amount of finance and bloodsheds had to be spilt on route to clean up mess aftermath. How could we assure the US policy to support the revision will not bring out the similar consequences?

Being salt and light.

What use salt would have if it loses its unique taste?
This is quite threatening words if you think twice, since it is questioning the purpose of our existance, directly. For some time, but not from so long ago, I have been sensing that the once intense strength to differ myself from many of the others and drive me forward with critical perspectives to observe daily occasions have been faded away, very slowly and thus almost unnoticeably even to myself. Then, bang! Without anyh particular reasons or occasions, I just realized this morning that I have lost the unique taste of mine if there were any to start with in the beginning. Envisaging the above plunged my ever lazy awareness into a tiny confinement cell filled with senses of insecurity and endangerment.

It was when I listened to one of CBC Radio programs introducing a book called "Sleeping Buddha," written by a young Canadian woman with an Afgan ethnicity who travelled to Kabul and met with young Afgans as an attempt to understand how they perceive the world and deliver their thoughts to the outside of the Islam world. So she did. I was inspired not because that I felt the book was done in highly sophicated manners, but because the book was completed by a woman of my age pushing herself to seek what she aimed initically, which is in many ways, not so different from what I have wished for doing in my life. Through paying attentions to the voices unheard and assuring to publish their stories in the west, she realized her promises that she made to herself and to those she met along the way.

Depressing myself or the others would be the last thing I would want to do, but certain things seem seriously not right lately. Finally, the daily routines surpasses my reason, and this slowly yet painfully puts me into a deep sleep of numbness and indifferences. Occasionally, there are those trying to warn me for not noticing what I was supposed to notice, here and there of my daily routines, but I don't/can't seem to catch glimpse of them anymore. Oh, god, what should I do and where should I start to annihilate this viciousness?

Ladies' night in Chongdam St.

Well, yes! Five ladies with fire in their hearts got together after approximately a year of separation . We met as colleagues then, but the passage of time allowed us last night to let our hairs down and completely be comfortable with each other. To our amusement, we discovered one of our mutual bosses was truly a womanizer who tried smooches to more than three of us then but not so successful. We cracked out laughters for a while when one of us said she actually pinched his arse so hard until he outcried for pain. Gosh, for a moment, I was wondering how he would react if he were there listening all that.

Three of us spending most of the past one year in Seoul, one in Singapore, and the last in Ohio, we all were in slightly different walks of lives, yet there were still stuffs that we could relish mutually. The one visited from Singapore, where she is doing her PhD in public administration, before she hops off to Brussel for her internship in an energy chart organization under the European Union was constantly mourning about wrinkles on her forehead and was paranoid of this hollucination that she has been losing loads of hairs everyday from ridiculous amount of reading. Funny, i thought but completly understandable. After her brief affair with another coworker at work two years ago, now she's got a new cute aussie beau named James who had worked at the World Bank for some years before taking some time at the program she's in. she overall seemed quite happy and proud of what she's been doing.

Another lady just, who came back from Ohio after visiting her sister and brother-in-law who study there, looked ever more voluptuous and femine. Seriously, she could've had a better career in film industry with that body! Taking some time off from work and her seemingly not so pleasantly ended love, she came back with regained strength and zeal for a new start. Yet, she opted out for the night club, which i only later regretted not to join her.

Last but not least, a very deer friend of mine showed up with her usual combat-styled work wears of sneakers and pants along with her pink Channel jacket. Although her prestigious title at a regional branch of the UNESCAP, because of recent undergoing troubles with her boss at work, she now is considering to leave the work. Though complaining her near fiance departing for Australia this afternoon for a business trip without taking her, she also seemed enjoying her being herself again. Sometime, I do wonder why I talk to this woman so often and become so honest with her in almost all matters. Despite some characters in her that I would never act concurred upon, she is exceptional in ways of her bluntness and vigor on almost all subjects in life, which have facinated me for last two good years.

Anyways, after being mellowed with some good glasses of wine, we decided to extend our night excursion a bit further and hit the floor at a night club in Chongdam-dong, the fancy district for yuppies in town. Well, .. Although I have never experienced "night club" here, somehow I presumed it wouldn't be much different from one of those regular clubs. So we got a cab and proudly stepped out of it at entrance of the club. There were two bouncers at the door, looking very unprofessional and having boring looks on their faces. They bluntly asked if we were interested in "yangju (imported liquors)" seat. "Huh? What on earth this guy is talking about?," I murmured. Then, to our surprise, the youngest, shiest, and most moderate looking with very well-mannered one among us stood up and led our ways into the hall in the club passing smoothly through two dumb-looking bouncers. I asked later about the definition of this "yangju" seats to her. She, ever looking confident than before, explained that they are seats located in the private rooms surrounding the dancing hall, of which door is see-through so that people therein can watch the dancing floor and enables to pick ladies of their tastes. Yes, this kind place indeed exists in the land of morning calm, of which its supposedly most valued virtues include the modesty. Well, as soon as I heard of what she told me, I felt like being a piece of meat on a shelf. Without even realizing what had been going on for the first few minutes, my friends were "sold" one by one, and last two of us being rather still in shock decided to act as if we're in love.. Great!
Music was too loud so we could barely hear each other. Had a couple of sips before hurriedly moved ourselves from the panic hole. No drama took place that night, only memories and slight hangover in the morning.

Yamagata Perfecture

Three days in Yamagata perfecture went very quickly. To my surprise, it had abundant natural beauty to offer, including endless rice paddies, curvy mountains extending over an hour of train riding distance, multiple waterfalls and the green moss-covered paths therebetween. Late cherry blossoms were still blooming to savor, surviving through rains until a day prior to my arrival. Weather was warm enough to stroll around with shorts, and sellers of street vendors were kind enough to make me constantly indulge myself into new bursting tastes of soy souce and fish stocks.

The photos on top left was taken from the hike around Yamadera, a beautifully embraced path along the stream of crystal blue water amid of deep greens of early summer. One on the middle was taken on the first day of the journey at a walkway along a seashore busy with many street oyster shops. The top right is my tired feet wearing Simpson socks cooling off from the mountain breeze after a long walk.

Along the hiking trails, millions of flowers and herbs greeted us with somehow familiar, yet still exotic appearances and frangrances. Colors of wilderness ranging from yellow, blue, purple, green, red, pinkish white, etc. were proudly illumiating under summer sun ray.

Other than mesmerizing colors of wild flowers and their almost intoxicating frangrances as well as the superb weather all through my stay in the little mountaineous town up north, several hours of driving from Tokyo, my holiday was completed by a pleasant companionship from Thang, a friend from UBC who has been working at the Yamagata perfecture's provincial governmental office for three years. In spite of constant quarrels over cute Japanese guys by blaming each other for depriving chances to attract their attentions and some excessively heated debates on numerous subjects, we agreed upon the past couple of days being still mutually beneficiary and inspiring to each other. My trip could be perfect only because of you, my friend! Oh, I also appreciate your haiku!