Well, this has been a week

(And change)

I made it clear after the US presidential election that I think Donald Trump is a very bad pick. That is putting it mildly. I'm the kind of person who needs to get to work in a crisis, because if not I'm going to go crazy. My childhood was as short as everyone else's, but I will never forget how much I chased at the lack of agency. Now that I've got it, I'm going to use it.

But I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel some despair afterward, and for so many reasons.  Climate. Pollution. Human rights. Racism. Sexism. Education. Health. Inequality.  Everything. I was going to do the work, but I didn't feel any optimism.

Now I do.

I am so happy that Bashar al Assad, the butcher of Syria, is gone. I did not think I would see the day. It was hard to find news of the Syrian resistance for a good few years; the last I could find, they had been confined to one area. But I did see that much of the Arab world was trying to normalize relations with Assad. All of them, evidently, had made the assessment that it was easier to work with him than against Iran and Russia. Once again, screw the Syrian people.

But a funny thing happened while politicos and pundits were playing 4D chess amongst themselves so they could arrive at doing exactly nothing: the Syrian resistance refused to die, and as soon as they saw that Russian and Iranian assets were being moved out of Syria, they moved. And they won.

I have no delusions about HTS (Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham). No, I don't care about the "Islamist" label, but they have been credibly accused of violating people's rights on occasion, and they are almost certainly receiving support from Turkey, which has been aggressive toward the Kurds in Syria, particularly in Rojava. But I don't need HTS to be perfect; I just need then to be not as monstrous as Assad. Shockingly they've met that low bar, so I'm happy to celebrate with the Syrian people. 

But because it pours when it rains, I am also proud as hell to be Korean. God damn. 

Let's back up: I take no pride in the fact that President Yoon Suk Yeol, one of the moat unpopular elected presidents ever--anywhere--declared martial law. He's not wrong to call out the opposition, the Democratic Party, for being obstructionist, but you don't mean obstruction with martial law--and especially not in South Korea after the decades they laborer under it. 

And I'm not the only Korean who said so. The South Korean citizenry came out into the streets immediately. This was not their first rodeo, and they knew that you have to stop a would be dictator immediately. There's a measure of luck--Yoon, clearly, doesn't know how to plan a self-coup, because anyone could have told him it won't work without the military under control--but this would not have ended so decisively if South Koreans weren't willing to stand in below freezing temperatures for over a week to make it clear that Yoon was done. Say what you will about us, but we know when we're being bs'ed, and we'll have none of it.

Syria, South Korea, and OG resistance as well as straight up bad assery out of Ukraine give me hope. Donald Trump would very much like to be a dictator, but even now, he's getting pushback from within his own party, some members of which still, shockingly, have either their pride or some standards. (Or maybe they just really didn't like Matt Gaetz.) And most interestingly of all, Trump seems to smell the rot on Putin and is distancing himself. (I suspect that may be the result of pressure from our own corporate interests, but it's only a guess.) There's still plenty of damage they can inflict on millions of people without being the Joker and Penguin in some kind of tag team from hell, but it's a glimmer of hope if they're not ride or die.

I can do my work--I was going to any way--but now I see a glimpse of what this might end up looking like. It just might be a future worthy of the Syrians, Ukranians, and South Koreans.

Deb in the City

Meanwhile, in South Korea (Day 35)

I haven't been following any news as closely for the last week and a half--as I've said, the more you read books, the more foolish "the news" seems--but I do try to keep an eye out for news out of South Korea. As ever, the stories that make me scratch my head are the ones that keep my attention.

South Korea is hurting for medical personnel. This is something that I, as a resident of Boston, can sympathize with. You may live in an environment where a lot of doctors are trained, but the competition to see said doctors can be brutal, especially if you're in the midst of a demographic shift, as South Korea is. On top of that, South Korea is one of those places where the capital dwarfs the next largest city, so the lion's share of the action still takes place in Seoul. And because they are a highly urbanized population, activity is biased toward the cities (I am hard pressed to think of a case in the world where that isn't true right now).

So, as it stands, there aren't enough doctors, and there especially aren't enough in rural areas, or for the elderly. (You've got to imagine how dire it might be if you're an elderly person in a rural area.) Not surprisingly, the government announced a few months ago that they would now increase the number of students accepted into medical school, both to get more doctors into the field and to relieve the pressure on the existing doctors. 

A little digression: this sounded like a great idea to me, in part because last year some of Boston's residents had a strike. They had been laboring under low pay (Boston is very expensive) while being absolutely hustled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I've been in medical settings; they are overworked, and I supported their positions. Thus, I thought South Korea was on the right track.

Oh boy. Clearly, the younger doctors did not agree, but they are not just striking but *resigning* since the announcement. They are, in a word, outraged.

This is where I started scratching my head, until I came upon this: 

However, these proposals have been criticized by doctors and professors, who argue that medical schools are currently struggling to provide adequate teaching and training resources to students at their current enrollment levels. 

Oh. Right. Yes. And in retrospect, not sure why I expected more from the Yoon administration.

There is no doubt that South Koreans, just like the Americans, just like most other people on the planet, need more, but we need the *right* kind of more. It is not enough to increase the supply of some resource; we have to make sure that we can put those resources to work.

I'm reminded of a conversation I had with a Lyft driver years ago. He was more conservative than I am (this isn't hard), but it was a pleasant discussion. This was around the time politicians were beginning to make proposals for free college education. At least one child was in college, and three would be going later. I don't think college solves everything or even most things, but I think it should be accessible. My driver did not agree, but not because he didn't think everyone deserved an education. What, he asked, would that look like if it happened right then? What would the quality of that education be for everyone if all we did was make college available to everyone but didn't really change anything else?

As he spoke, I remembered the classes my daughter had taken at community college, taught predominantly by people who had to teach at multiple institutions to make enough to live on. Many times those professors or instructors aren't as available for questions as their tenured equivalents might be, and who can blame them when they have to hustle as hard as they do. I could easily see a nightmare scenario, a la Tithonus, where students could take whatever classes they wanted, they just shouldn't expect that the instruction would actually teach.

Just as, perhaps, South Koreans might be able to get more doctors, they just shouldn't expect that they'll actually be well-trained.

Temporary stopgaps can be simple, but permanent solutions don't tend to be. Which is why it's not a bad idea to keep an eye on labor groups and what they have to say about a given issue. They see things the rest of us don't, and when we don't listen, it's almost always to our detriment.

Deb in the City

A meditation on South Korean entertainment

I used to joke that I didn't watch any entertainment that wasn't in Korean, only it's so frequently true that it's not really a joke anymore. Not that I'd be inclined to feel guilty about this for any reason, but even people who are shouldn't. It's too easy to snark about how unoriginal Hollywood productions are these days, and I find myself watching something made in South Korea and think, "why can't Hollywood do a story like this?"

I recently finished Delayed Justice. Two unrelated Parks -- an attorney who only went to high school, and a reporter from the wrong side of the tracks who recently lost his good-paying job -- team up to get justice for one downtrodden group of defendants after another, all connected to a corrupt judge, an uncouth businessman turned mayor of Seoul, and a kingmaker who used to be a prosecutor during the last military dictatorship. It was a fun little show, and I'd be lying if I said that some of the backstage drama -- one of the original actors got picked up for drunk driving and needed to be replaced -- didn't add to some of the appeal.

I also recently enjoyed Lucky Romance, but that was primarily because the leads (Ryu Joon Yeol and Hwang Jung Eum) are so charming and talented they could move me while reading the phone book. And A Korean Odyssey was one of the best ensemble comedies I've seen in a long time. And while sometimes I tire of derring-do in Korean action, Vagabond was AWESOME. Now if only they come back for a second season to close the loop...

K-dramas are fun, but in general they're just not as satisfying as the movies. (I don't think this is specific to Korean entertainment.) Not all movies are perfect -- I can think of more than a few that have fallen flat -- but when they're good you feel like you've spent two hours (or more) wisely. Best movie I've seen in several months is Beasts Clawing at Straws. By the title, you can guess that it's about the poor and/or desperate of South Korea trying to pull themselves up with one fever-pitched, make or break attempt, and you'd be right. The stories are intertwined, and even when you think you can see where it's going you'll still feel hit by a curve ball at least once. Can't say it had a happy ending, but most people will be satisfied by it.  

Beasts Clawing At Straws...everyone is as well-adjusted as you think they are.

I'm probably like a lot of movie viewers in that I'm prone to following good actors. Ryu Joon Yeol, mentioned above, is REALLY good. The first movie I saw him in was Believer, and he played the kind of character that made me want to hide under my covers while I hyperventilated. Then I saw him play completely different roles in Little Forest, The King, and Hit-and-Run Squad that made me feel, well, a little less panicky. He's an actor I really hope we see more from soon. 

Gang Dong Won is another compelling actor. I knew this from some of his recent films, but I was surprised at how adept he was over a decade ago in The Temptation of Wolves (look, I'm not the one who makes up these titles, okay?) and Haunters. He, like Ryu Joon Yeol, is a good actor for a director to enlist when they need someone to sell something absolutely crazy and make you believe it. 

Ryu Joon Yeol: trust me, this guy can play scary as easily as he can play charming.

 

No discussion of Korean cinema is complete without Song Kang Ho (you can think of him as the Parasite guy). With the glaring, horrible exception of Drug King (just...why?), he's been universally fantastic. The oldest movie I've seen him in is a ridiculous little film called Foul King, but he managed to be really touching and made the best of the material. After that, he really took off, starting with Joint Security Area and then Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance. (People have probably seen him in Snowpiercer and The Host, but those just aren't my cups of my tea.) He was excellent in both The Attorney and A Taxi Driver, but my favorite of all of his roles is Age of Shadows. Basically, if you see Kang featured as an actor, it's an almost sure thing the production will be good.

Wait, aren't there Korean actresses? Um, yes, but I'm sorry to say that with few exceptions, women have better roles on television than in the big screen. Many of the movies fail the first two questions of the Bechdel test, and I've seen very few that pass the fourth question. Actresses who consistently work in movies include Kim Hye Soo, Jun Ji Hyun, Kim Tae Ri, and Kim Go Eun, but even those actresses arguably had roles with more depth on television than in film. In that regard, it's more than a little depressing that South Korea has the same problems that Hollywood does. 

Kim Hye Soo: A talented actress who should keep playing leading roles.

Deb in the City

PS Just about all of these movies are available on Netflix or Viki. Also, I am not getting any consideration from AsianWiki.com, their information is just more consistent than Wikipedia's.