Where It's At

In bullet form because frankly, I'm not sure what I'm going to say once I start writing....

• The new job: Well. hmmmm. It hasn't settled down yet. No, not one bit. We've had at least one change to our class schedule every day this week; there is still confusion over which students belong in which classes, what are homework assignments are supposed to be like... Or not. And well, this is the really frustrating thing about working in private schools in Korea: It's all flash and PR to attract extremely wealthy parents and their rotten kids. Here's a great example: we have oil pastels in the art room. And expensive paints. And that kind of coloring chalk that artists use, but we don't have any complete sets of crayons in our class rooms. Nor do we have enough scissors, glue, file folders or a copy machine that actually works, or enough damn desks for all the teachers in our faculty lounge. So we are always fighting over materials and workspace, thereby reducing the amount of time we have to be productive when we are not in the class room, and in fact always having to leave our classrooms to find the things we need. And when we do find the things we need, we usually have to steal it from someone else, which of course is really annoying because it never gets returned. Just, why oh why are we dealing with such ridiculous scarcity for the things we really need, when our school is overflowing with stupid, pretty, useless things that are going to break or get wrecked within 2 months anyhow? SO FRUSTRATING!


• Speaking of rotten kids... my kids are like totally rotten. Cute, but rotten. Smart, but rotten. We had a meet and greet with the parents last weekend. Boy, was that telling. Our students rule their parents and as such they expect to rule in the classroom. This week has not been easy. No, little 5 year old, you can not tell me what to do. This is school, and I am not your mother... So my students come from an interesting and assorted group of the Korean elite: I have one child who is the daughter of a very famous actor; another whose father and uncle are professional baseball players for Texas and some Florida team in America; a big politician's daughter; and the remainder mostly come from rich executives or old money from the Korean chaebol legacy. I'm trying to remember that it is not the kids' faults that they are so damn rotten, but when you have 8 students with 8 ideas about what they want and have never been told "no," well, sometimes you just feel like lining the kids up against the wall and making your classroom into a boot camp that breaks their will. Now in honesty, the thought of that abhors every anti-authoritarian instinct I have, but it's a hard balance of teaching a kid to remain independent and spirited and not letting them step all over each other and their teachers... Especially when their parents are teaching them to step all over everyone to get what they want...


• OH what happened to my sweet, smart and respectful students at the first school? Dolphin class and Giraffe class, I sure do miss you kids.... and your great parents.


• Life with the GS this week has been a little better. He hasn't worked since last Friday when his dad died...He has a lot on his mind of course, and has spent a lot of time on the phone with his family and is doing his best to help them from here, but it's been really nice just to see him after a totally exhausting day and not wonder how late his meeting is going to last or if he is going to have time to eat a meal with me this week. Unfortunately this week will be over as of tomorrow, so it' s back to the grind of being too busy for much of anything outside of work.


• Although no decisions have officially been made yet, it looks like this will be the last year for us in Korea. He will probably go to Bangladesh first to take care of things with his family... I'm not sure what my plan is yet because I want to finish a year at this school and make enough money to be able to travel to the US and to Bangladesh before I'm settled anywhere.


• I'm not freaking out as much as I was last week, mostly because that stuff doesn't make sense to freak out about right now. And the GS is still the same old GS, and although it is really sad that his dad died, it is really nice to see him reconnecting with his family and owning up to his responsibilities. And while I don't know what that means for us as a couple, I guess it is good for me to see this side of him and get to know him more deeply... And well, isn't that what being in a good relationship is all about? The adventure; the learning to be there for each other even when it is confusing and hard; and the rewards of growing together, even when it is in sometimes equal and opposite directions... You can spend a whole life time getting to know someone... Isn't that fun?
  

Lazy Weekend Bonus

Lil' Sister tagged me for the 6 weird things meme... I've been avoiding it for the obvious drama that has taken over my life, but let's take a break from the drama and learn about just how un-weird I actually am despite the, um, unique circumstances of my life now.

1. I'm a bona fide anarchist, in the good old fashioned Emma Goldman meaning of the word. That's right. Stay away from the 3 pernicious influences: god, private property and the state, and live happily ever after. I come mostly from the anarcho-syndicalist camp of anarchism, which if you read the link, you will find out that anarcho-syndicalism is not mutually exclusive of collectivism or some of the other schools of anarchist thought. These days there is a movement amongst anarchists in which they kind of defy these kinds of "old fashioned" definitions, but that is such a long discussion that it is probably better to keep simple here. And oh yeah, in true anarchist style, I have been tear gassed and beaten up by police, but sadly never actually arrested. I'm not sure how I avoided that actually.

2. Despite my "we're all in the same boat, so let's row it together" mentality, I am a bit of a lone wolf. That's right, WW is not a pack animal. Sure I have friends, and back home in America, I have lots and lots of friends, but I've never been the kind of person to go along with the crowd and have always found small ways to make my self different even if I look pretty darn average. I like people, but damn, I love to be alone with a book even more. People make me tired. And sometimes cranky. Especially stupid ones.

3. I am completely lacking in the self-censorship part of the brain. Show me the line and I will leap over it. Diplomacy? I've tried it, but it never worked for me. Rude jokes? Cynicism? Opinions? Yes, I share them freely, often in the company of those who would rather not hear it. And I'm not sorry about it. Not one bit.

Is any of this actually weird? I don't know.

4. I have a green thumb. And I can milk cows. And goats. And make cheese and yogurt. I don't even mind shoveling shit and throwing around hay bails. Yes, I'd love to live the life of an organic (very small scale) farmer by summer, and urban street smart nearly 30 something by winter. Here in Seoul, I am gearing up for my rooftop container garden that will feature flowers, flowers, flowers! tomatoes, peppers and onions. Maybe even a pumpkin or 2 and some cukes. I love to make things grow.

5. Prepositions are my passion. Okay, not really but I am an EFL teacher in Korea. Koreans don't have nearly as many prepositions as we do, so it's hard for them to wrap their brains around all the different ways to make different parts of sentences fit together. I seem to be the only English teacher in the country who has explained this part of English to students. Oh, adverbs too. Don't English speakers know what an adverb is? So what this boils down to is that I love grammar, although I am no longer all that good at. But I'm in Korea, land of the really really stupid English teacher. Stupidity, from my point of view, is relative, so here I am GRAMMAR QUEEN of the peninsula. I am also especially good at explaining vocabulary words, perhaps owing to my fifth grade spelling/vocabulary club called the HYPERPOLYSYLLABICSESQUAPEDALIST which is a long word that means a person who says long words. Or so I was told by my fifth grade reading teacher, Mr. Peters.

6. I don't like cake. Or frosting. Or pie. I guess there are exceptions to that, but they don't exist in Korea. I'd take ice cream over cake or pie any day.

PS I'm not tagging anyone because I'm like the last person on the internet to do this meme. Besides, I don't even have 6 blogging buddies....

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Edited to Add:
So I started thinking about this post and really got the feeling that I wasn't digging deep enough and that I needed to reveal something, at least one thing, that was actually weird about myself. So here I go:

I don't wear deodorant. I stink. And I like the way that it smells. It's kind of musky and soapy at the same time. And the GS likes the smell, too. Maybe we are both weird...

The GS doesn't wear deodorant either. But he doesn't stink. He always smells fresh and clean, even when he is under enormous amounts of stress. Don't ask me how he does it. I sure am jealous.

And I'm a closet Justin Timberlake fan. That's probably not weird, but something I wouldn't admit under normal circumstances.

I have had several "ass injuries". The first was when I was 5 and got attacked by a dog and had to get stitches in my ass. Still got the scar to prove it. The 2nd was in the 4th grade when I bruised my tailbone badly showing off my mad gymnastic skills on the playground and flew off the bar early on a dismount. And the last was, well, I guess I only had two, but for some reason butt trauma takes up a lot of space in my mind.

Last thing: I don't know how to cut my nails so I bite my fingernails, yet somehow, they never look bitten, but neatly trimmed. My teeth have got mad skills, y'all. 'Cept for that one time I chipped a little piece of my front tooth whilst nail biting. That sucked.

Now if there was a meme on strange injuries, I think I could do really well...

questions that'll make a girl freak out

Well, it seems that the storm that was sweeping the heart and mind of my General Secretary has passed and now his thoughts are as lucid as the blue sky on a Spring day. I'm not quite sure what happened in the last two days, but when he came home last night, his face was at ease and he was even smiling a little. When I asked him he said simply, "The prayer has cleared the confusion from my mind and now I know what I have to do."

"What has become more clear?" you might ask. Well, the GS has decided to take his role as oldest son seriously. He started talking about his responsibility to his family in a way that I've never heard before. In the past he has acknowledged that he hasn't lived up to the expectations of how a son or a father should act, but he was never quite ready to take responsibility for any of it. Now, quite suddenly in my mind, he has started talking about what his job might be when he goes back to Bangladesh; where he might live because they no longer own a home in Dhaka, only one out in the country in a village that still doesn't have electricity; where his mother might live; how he might have to support his sisters and brothers until they get married in addition to his own daughter.

And I'm sitting there thinking, "Huh? Where do I fit into all of this?" I mean, we've had these conversations in the abstract before, but now this is all feeling quite real and fast and I'm really scared. And as was demonstrated in the last few days due to the sad fact of his father passing away, I have a long way to go in understanding his culture and religion. And I'm not Islamic so I'm excluded from the big ritual parts of life in Bangladesh. And I'm never going to be Islamic so how can I fit into his family and social structure?

And is he going to freak out and become like REALLY Islamic? Not like fundamentalist or anything like, I just mean more conservative?

And does this mean he is going to take is role as "THE man of the family" so seriously that I am then "THE woman"?

And isn't his family going to see me as some kind of Western home-wrecking whore? I mean, I am not conservative by any standards. And well, let's face it. One of the first things he will have to do when he goes home is get a divorce. (OH my god! Has even thought about it that way?)

And won't his daughter really resent me?

Am I just thinking about all of the negative things that could happen now that we are suddenly catapulted in the reality of our situation?

So just to clarify things a little (don't freak out mom and sister), there are no definite plans for us to move Bangladesh any time soon. As far I'm concerned, I have to finish my year at this school and save some money or I won't be going anywhere for a long time. But yes family, brace yourselves for the fact that I might just maybe move to Bangladesh, but it would not in anyway as far as I'm concerned be a permanent move....

Oh my god, I'm admitting these things on my blog so they must be real. Because blogging is real, right?

My last question is: Do I really want to post this for the whole world to see? Isn't it a bit premature to publish the kind of freak out to the web? Well I don't know, so here I am... pushing the publish button...

Confusion, Grief and Dealing

A few days ago, the GS got a call from his family in Bangladesh with an urgent message: Come home now, or never see your father again. Well, of course he wanted to see his father, but was faced with a rather impossible situation: if he left Korea, he wouldn't be able to come back. Maybe ever. Such is the life of an undocumented worker. Not to mention the fact that he works for a union and barely makes enough to eat in a month, much less buy a plane ticket. So needless to say, he didn't go.

Yesterday morning, another call came from Bangladesh. His father had died. I can't really pretend to know what he is feeling about this. But I know that he was already racked with guilt and feels as though is father's illness was his fault. You see, his father had a stroke just after a huge fight they had over the phone. And he hasn't been home in 10 years so he has missed seeing his daughter grow up, his sisters and brothers become women and men, and his father's steady progression into illness. The GS is the oldest son in his family, and now as such is responsible for the welfare of his brothers and sisters in Bangladesh since his father has passed. He is now not only the man of the family he created in Bangladesh, but also the man of the family he was born into. In abestentia, that is.

So I was crazy busy at work yesterday and didn't know that the GS had been trying to reach me all day. Finally at 5 I checked my messages and discovered that his father had died. He asked me to come home as soon as I could, and I did. But unfortunately that was at 7:30. I came home to an empty house and he wasn't answering his phone. Finally he called me to say that he had gone to Mosque to pray, something that I'm pretty sure he hasn't done for 10 years. He came back 2 hours later, his face dark and stormy in way I had never seen before, and remained reticent.

I have never been good at the these kinds of things. I did the only thing I could think of: gave him food, coffee, a lot of hugs, a head massage, and my ears if he wanted them. About an hour later he tells me, "It's Islamic law. No physical contact for three days. No crying. No drinking. Only praying. Alone." So no kissing? No hugging? No crying? Nope. And you have to be alone?

Well now I'm really at a loss. And utterly exhausted from a really terrible, confusing and busy week. I'm feeling stressed about how I can be there for the GS with having absolutely no tools to deal with this cultural difference. I can't tell if he wants to be alone and or with me and when I ask he says he doesn't know. So after dancing around the issue for 2 hours, I went to bed. He came to bed about 2 hours later, turned his back to me and didn't really even look at me this morning. This morning I had to work (yes, it's Saturday) and the GS wanted to go to a mosque in Ansan, which is about 2 hours away so I haven't seen him today either. When I call him, he doesn't really answer my questions and kind of avoids committing to coming home or being anywhere in particular. I never would have guessed that this is his way of coping with loss.

So he is dealing with his grief alone. He is dealing with his guilt alone. I feel totally shut out and apart from his life. And it hurts me to watch him hurt so much. I don't know what to do, but I know the last thing I want to do is talk to him about how I feel because this really isn't about me. I am worried about him. I worried that if he feels like I'm not supporting him now, he'd rather be with someone who understands his culture, religion and traditions, so I guess that means I am worried about us, too.

He asked me to pray for his dad and his family, but I really don't know how to do that. I'm not sure who or what to pray to. I don' t know what I would say. So mom, maybe you could do it for me? Sister? Anyone? How do you do that?

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety Jog

As it turns out, I did make it back to Korea on Monday with few problems. I made a phone call to Korea on Monday morning and talked to my boss who told me that I was flying stand-by and that I should get to the airport as early as possible. Well, I didn't even know that you could fly stand-by on international flights, but I ran to the airport, got to the check-in desk (where not a person was stationed because there were no outgoing flights for that airline until much later in the day) and then searched the airport in a panic to find out what my status was. I located someone who was a little confounded by my panic; she checked the computer and informed me that my boss was an idiot, I needn't have run to the airport and that I had a seat that I could check in for 4 hours later...

So I spent a beautiful Spring day inside the Fukuoka airport instead of outside, but at least with the security of a confirmed seat (11A, thank you very much) and just enough money for lunch. So I guess all is well that ends well.

When I arrived home, my phone was ringing off the hook with bosses and managers and co-workers and friends who wanted to make sure I arrived. I walked in the door to find a tired roommate and crying cat with no food in her bowl and a cat box that hadn't been scooped since the day before I left. The floor hadn't been vacuumed, the dishes hadn't been washed, and all of my laundry that I had just washed (but apparently never dried) was filling my room with the smell of mildew. I was already tired and stressed out, and now to add to it all, very annoyed.

But there was no time to deal with any of that because I had to wake at 7 the next morning so I could get to work early because I had an inordinate amount of catch up work to do due to my prolonged stay in Japan. I walk into a confused, disorganized office and tried to get going only to find that the copying machine was broken, none of the computers in my office were connected to a printer and I had left my personal jump drive at home and our office had nothing I could use. So I spent the day fighting over our limited computers (which we all need all day right now), emailing documents to myself so I could print them downstairs, and trying to pacify the worries of our 2 new teachers who have never taught before, never planned a lesson and who have received no training for their brand new job in a brand new country.

I worked at the kindergarten until 6 and then rushed off to teach my 3 hour middle school class from 7-10 pm. It was a brand new, unbroken in class and really hard to teach. Middle school students can really just suck the life out of you. So by the time I got home at 11:30 pm I was feeling broken and tired and so my house is still pretty much in the same state.

And Wednesday? Pretty much the same as Tuesday. Except on Tuesday night the GS finally picked up on my weariness and did some laundry and took care of the cat poo so our house is a little bit less disgusting.

And today? It's a national holiday so I finally got some much needed sleep, prepped for my class tonight (for the middle school students at the school that does not observe national holidays) and should be finishing my lesson plans for the kinder school, but instead I just feel like complaining. Sometimes life just feels like boot camp, but I'm not sure what I'm training for.

Tomorrow is our first day of teaching. Hopefully it'll go more smoothly than the week of preparation has been...

Stranded in Japan, but trying to appreciate it

maybe a little unsuccessfully...

I know. It could be worse. I could be stranded in Iraq. Or Afghanistan. Or some other war torn god forsaken place, but instead, I am in the most expensive country on the planet with almost no money. No credit cards. No ATM cards... That's right folks, I've got nothing but my wits and we all know that can only go so far in a place where you can't speak their language and they can't speak yours. For real though, Japan is like the least English-speaking country I have ever visited (and I didn't count on being here for more than 24 hours so have no phrase book or anything). I have never had to point. nod. smile. so many times in my life. I am frustrated. This is getting old.

But let's keep it real here. The reality? Well, it's actually a sweet one. I'm here on a free trip. One that was supposed to last 2 days (one overnight) so that I could get my work visa for Korea, but due to dense fog in the Incheon Airport area, my flight was delayed by 6 hours, thus making it impossible for me to get the embassy on the same day that I arrived in Japan. So here I am, spending a wonderful, long weekend in a lovely city that is experiencing an early spring. All at the expense of my employer. The only problem is that I don't know when it is going to end and I'm starting to feel a little stressed out about the fact that I don't have a plane ticket home yet and I'm not sure that my money will last if I have to stay past Monday.

I have to admit that coming out of the airport, my eyes nearly popped out of their sockets when I saw the ground and trees bursting forth with color. Plum trees are in their peak, cherries are starting, the grass is green, bulbs are poking out of the ground and they've already put many of their SUMMER plants outside... Fukuoka would be heaven if I didn't feel so nervous about running out of money and landing myself a nice card board box on the street Monday night.

To give you some examples of the outrageous cost of Japan:
2 pairs of *cheap on sale* underwear-$30
one pair of socks, not on sale- $10
one subway ride, 2 stops- $2.50
lunch- average $9
one *happy hour* beer- $5.25
admission to a very bad art museum (as in almost no permanent collection and a super badly curated temporary collection)- $9
international phone call (to nearby Korea)- $1 per minute
internet- $1 for 10 minutes

And oh I wish, I wish, I wish I had some extra cash on hand because I LOVE japanese fashion. I could spend a million dollars on clothes here, but instead I have to wear the same exact thing for 5 days because well, I thought I was only going to be here for 2....

I'm torn between complaining about how I don't like to travel alone anymore, feeling lonely and moneyless, and basking in the glory of a beautiful foreign city, japanese food, sake and plum blossoms...

Life is hard, I know.

Justified Weekend Ranting

Over the weekend, there was a fire at the immigration detention center in Yeosu (way south of here) and 9 migrant workers died, while about 24 more have been hospitalized and are not expected to survive. The workers who died were Chinese and Sri Lankans who were slated for deportation. It seems a cruel fate to die in a detention center after they've spent their youths indentured to ruthless bosses. Is there NO justice in this world? I mean, at least if they actually got deported, they would've been able to see friends and family.

You know what I say? Borders + Visas= Bullshit. Those guys should have never been in a detention center in the first place. Why is that corporations, and the people who run them, can run rampant across the globe with virtual impunity, while the people who are actually doing the work that makes the world go (like make food, clothes, buildings, etc) are being criminalized for trying to eke out a meager living? It just doesn't make a damn bit of sense, people. I mean, if a CEO can move his factory to another country to make more money, why can't a worker move his/her body and family to another country to make more money... Doesn't that just seem hypocritical?

Furthermore, it's the corporations who are the real law breakers in this new globe trotting economy. Take environmental laws for example . Or how about labor laws. Tax laws. I mean, if the government wants to crackdown on some international wrong-doers, maybe they should start with GE or LG or any of the hundreds of apparel companies that operate here. I guess it's just that the workers are easier to catch and harder to piss off so it's easier to show you have rule and order.

And anyway, when was the last time that a CEO got a debilitating workplace injury? Died in a factory fire? Got beheaded on the job? (That actually happened about a year ago in a factory not far from Seoul). When's the last time a CEO was forced to leave his family for decades so that they could survive? We all know that these things don't happen to CEOs. And I'm not saying that they should. But in a time of enormous wealth and incredible technology, why should they happen to anybody?

Hey you guys up there! Stop being so goddamn selfish and share with the rest of the world. Or else we're gonna get you and you're not going to like it.

And Life Goes On

Well, I guess it's a good thing that I don't have high expectations for much of anything anymore because if I did, I reckon I might've been disappointed by today. You see, today I went to my unpaid training at the new school where I'll be teaching in March. But it wasn't so much a training as a really long meeting to inform us that we are going to be so busy that we won't have time to pee, breath or finish all of our mandatory lesson planning due to the incredibly heavy teaching load we'll have. I mean, in a school where you will be teaching 33 of the available 40 hours in a work week, you would think that they would want to cut down on the extra paperwork crap so you would have time to prepare your brain and materials for your classes. But then, you remember that this is Korea and what usually makes sense in the work place is ignored, as is conventional wisdom about efficiency, productivity and workplace happiness.

But you see, I was expecting all of this, so no, I am not disappointed. But I am wondering, should I just drop it? I haven't not signed a contract, gotten my visa or made any deals that I can't break, so would it be so terrible to just not do it? Of course, I do live in Korea and if I live here, I'm gonna hafta work here... So then, is it just pointless to quit this job before it starts and find another, equally shitty job? I mean, let's face it, I haven't liked any job I've had in this country, so should I even try? If I know the reality, can I live with it?

Okay, these are all redundant questions. I'm not going to run. I'm not going to quit. AND I'M NOT LEAVING KOREA YET, so don't even throw that one up in the comments field... On the up side, my new coworkers seem decent. I think I might even like them, but it's not official so no press conferences, okay?

And the rest of my life? Well, you could say that it goes on. My Korean is improving despite the fact that I never study. The GS has been re-elected, and the GS, as usual, is not home even though it's my bedtime. Rani the cat is bigly huge now, but still pees in my room when she is angry at the GS. And my roommates, no, they aren't home either.

Like I said. Life. It goes on.

승리-Seungri-Victory

This is a repost from the MTU website. Yesterday everyone was so surprised, excited... and happy, finally feeling like all these years they've spent struggling have been worth it. Morale has been low in MTU lately, so this news has really renewed everyone's spirit, commitment and energy. The GS's face has been plastered all over the TV for the past 24 hours and last night he came home with a grin that I haven't seen for months. This can only mean good things for undocumented workers in Korea, though unfortunately there is still a chance that the Ministry of Labor can appeal the decision to Korea's Supreme Court. Despite this, MTU officials are going to officially register the union today! Hooray!

Statement Welcoming the Seoul High Court’s Decision Overturning the Rejection of MTU’s Application for Union Registration

- The Korean government must now grant official union recognition to MTU immediately!
- We welcome the decision of Seoul High Court to overturn the rejection of MTU’s application for union registration!

Today, 1 February the 11th Special Division of Seoul High Court (Justice Su-hyung Kim presiding), issued a judgment calling for the cancellation of the rejection of MTU’s application of union registration. This judgment overturned the previous ruling (Feb. 2006) which had upheld the original rejection of MTU’s application. MTU presented application for union registration to the Seoul Regional Labor Office on 3 May 2005. However, the Labor Office rejected our application on 3 June 2005 on the basis that undocumented migrant workers do not qualify as workers, and based on unjust requirements such submission of the name of each workplace represented, the names of union representatives and a complete list of union members. Following this, MTU filed a suit with the Administrative Court protesting the Labor Office’s unjust decision and asking that the rejection of our application be cancelled. However on 7 February 2006 the Administrative Court turned down our request, claiming again that undocumented migrant workers do not have the same status as other workers. We against protested this clearly unjust decision and filed an appeal to the High Court. Now, after waiting no less than one and a half years, the justness of our claim has finally been proven.
We welcome today’s decision with great joy!We believe that the high court’s ruling is the outcome of our long and difficult struggle for the human rights and labor rights of migrant workers. We also believe that it is the result of the warm solidarity of our Korean comrades who have defended and supported us this whole time. We hope that today’s decision will give new hope and spirit to the 400,000 migrant workers who have been suffering under the relentless crackdown and deportations. We believe this judgment provides a new opportunity for us to deepen our organizing and strengthen our struggle for migrant workers’ rights. The road before us is still long. Right now, many migrant workers who have been caught in crackdowns are suffering from shock and the horrible treatment inside foreigner dentition centers, which are worse than prisons. They are unable to receive the severance pay and back wages justly due to them. Those who are sick are unable to get medical treatment. Instead they are being forcibly deported. We must struggle with even more determination to end this oppression and win the rights of migrant workers so that we may life freely and safely with the dignity of human beings. Now, the Labor Office must accept the Court’s ruling and recognize MTU as an official union. If it does not accept the decision and instead appeals to the Supreme Court, we will condemn this ant-labor attitude of the Ministry of Labor and continue to struggle with even more conviction.

1 February 2007
Seoul-Gyunggi-Incheon Migrants Trade Union
Korean Confederation of Trade Unions Seoul Regional Council

The State of Our Union

This title could be taken to mean many things. And in this case, it does. This is a report on the state of my relationship. This is a report on the state of the Migrants' Trade Union, which has great bearing on my relationship. And lastly, this is a report, much like GWB's State of THE Union last week, that is bogged down by the reality of a situation in which you just can't win. Period.

So let me start off by saying that I am not in a funk again. I am just faced with what seems to be, despite my simpleness of mind and life style, an increasingly complicated situation. It is no secret that the General Secretary and I are caught up in the politics of Korea. He, the leader of a trade union that fights quite militantly for the rights of undocumented workers, and I from a trade union background, are united by a simple philosophy: Life is not fair, but if we work together we can make it better. And despite all of the set backs, the shit that life throws at you, and the losses, I still believe it to be true and so does he.

So why then, is this philosophy, and specifically our common desire to build a democratic movement that will give migrant workers a voice and some power, the very thing that is tearing us apart?

This has been a particularly bad year for foreign workers in Korea. After the 2 year mark of Korea's new immigration law, EPS, which was supposed to reduce corruption and make improvements on migrants' rights and rates of documentation, the number of undocumented workers has unofficially soared to nearly 70% of the foreign worker population. And as a result, the government crackdown on undocumented workers has also gone through the roof in an effort to bring this number down. Additionally, the right wing of Korea is saying that EPS is too generous to migrant workers in Korea, and that further restrictions on migration need to be made.

We have seen so many friends get caught by immigration this year. The government has some fancy new strategies that make immigration officials harder to recognize, and therefore has made it more difficult for us to warn our friends (we have set up an alert system, so when someone see a crackdown, they report it and a message goes out to everyone so that they can avoid that area). Everyone is more afraid to leave their houses or factories, and everyone is more afraid to fight for fear of becoming a government target. When just over a month ago our friend Jaman was caught at his factory, immigration officials were downright celebratory in the
detention center when they realized they had caught a leader. And accordingly, they made life more difficult for him in the detention center.

And now, immigration officials do not only raid factories and subway stations, but also mosques, markets and any place they believe an undocumented worker might live or hang out. In short, undocumented workers in Korea have no right to live, no right to sleep, no right to go shopping for necessities, and no right to worship, but are in fact needed for the economy and coveted by bosses, for the more terrorized migrants are, the easier it is to exploit them.

All this said, it is not as though migrant workers have had no victories this year. MTU and another trade union in Daegu have been able help workers recover lost wages, get work injuries paid for by employers, and in some cases, have even got undocumented workers released from detention centers.

All of this makes for an extremely busy General Secretary. A GS who works from morning until past midnight nearly 7 days a week. A GS who rarely sleeps and who sees his friends even less. A GS who has no time for a personal life (ie no time for me). And so I'm not going to lie. I was downright happy when he told me that we was not going to seek a second term for MTU. I became optimistic, thinking that finally we would have a chance to see what life together might be like if we actually had time for each other.

But this was not to be. The pressure for him to run started a few weeks ago and has been relentless. And I, for the most part of have been silent, not wanting to pressure him, only wanting him to make a decision about what he wants to do. And I was pretty confident that his decision was to leave leadership and become a regular old member again. So when he told me on Monday that he was running for a second term as General Secretary, I had a bit of a meltdown... When, after all, is OUR life going to start?

But here is the reality. Even if the GS did become a member again, he is still undocumented. He would have to find some shitty work in some shitty factory that he is overqualified for. He would have to work 14 hours or more everyday in a job that has takes no safety precautions for a pittance, all the while looking out to make sure immigration doesn't raid his factory while he is there. He might have to live in said factory because it is becoming more difficult to work in Seoul due to all the crackdown. He is more likely to get caught, more likely to get injured and in fact, we probably wouldn't see each other anymore than we do now...

And, well, I have to admit that he is the rightful leader of MTU. He has a plan, he knows what to do, he has all the connections with unions, support groups, government parties (actually, he is an elected representative in the Korean Democratic Labor Party and in the last election, got more votes than any other candidate who ran for a post) and officials, and people trust him to do the right thing. The GS was born to be an organizer. So how could I be angry at him for doing it?

So now I'm realizing that our problems have an external source: Global capitalism. Does that sound crazy? Well, think about it. He left Bangladesh so that he could have a job. He came to Korea and found that it was impossible to stay here legally. But he didn't have much choice, needed money and stayed. He became outraged at how he and his friends were treated here and became a fighter. And it's ironic that he is safer from immigration and makes nearly the same amount of money (okay, less, but it is stable income) as other migrant workers by fighting for their rights here, which someone has to do. So for him, on the personal front, it is a situation that he can't win. And that's the case for the rest of the migrant workforce here, too. They have to survive, and as I'm finding out, this comes at enormous personal cost. It is just not possible to survive AND have a healthy, functioning family. It is not possible to survive AND have what Americans (who have never undertaken the migration process) would consider a "normal" relationship.

Global capitalism is not an excuse for some of the bad choices that both of us make, but I am learning the hard way that I have to adjust my expectations of what it means to be in love, have a relationship and be happy with what you have....

Just... Why does it have to be so hard? I never realized before that loving someone and actually being with him is a privilege that a lot people don't experience because of their economic situation. And it really gets me when I hear people say, "How could he leave his family for 10 years?!" Well, the reality is that the family is able to eat, have a house and get an education because he left them for 10 years. This system is tearing families, lovers and friends apart. This system is leaving thousands of children fatherless (and in some cases completely parentless). This system is also preventing me, white middle class college educated American, from being with the person I love in a "normal" way.

This system sucks.

I hope we can make enough money to leave Korea soon... I hope we can survive the political reality of living in Korea as foreigners, one documented, one without even a passport... I hope we can change this filthy, rotten system for good so that our kids (the editorial "our") don't have to make the same kinds of hard decisions that we do about loving or living.

The Fun of the American Forces Network

For those of you who are not familiar with the AFN, it is the media network owned and operated by the US government (the Pentagon, I believe is actually in charge) to provide at-home-like media services to American military folk who are stationed abroad. In Korea, it is a welcome (and scary) part of my cable package as it carries CNN, American movies and sitcoms as well as a rare treat: The State of the Union Address.

Did any of you watch what appeared to be a somewhat defeated George W Bush deliver what was possibly the least arrogant speech in his State of the Union history (which we all know has been far too long)? I did... But you know, these speeches just seem silly to me because it, in fact, did not address the state of the union, but gave rather vague outlines for what we might expect from him this coming year, which I have to say, doesn't sound like a whole lot. If he had really given a state of the Union, it might have sounded like this:

Yes, America, it is true. We are losing the war in Iraq. I have no idea what is going on there, but damn, I was wrong, wrong, wrong. And, by the way, I have no idea how to get us out of there. But this is the global war on terror, so we have to keep looking like we are doing something.

On the economy: Finally, success! We have economic success! Our stock market has reached all time highs and rich people like myself are richer than ever! And I have no idea how people who aren't rich are fairing. Any idea out there? Congressmen? Senators? No? oh well, you are all rich, too.

Health Care: Simply unattainable for the masses, so just give up, okay?!

Energy: We are too dependent of foreign oil (well, last time I checked we are too dependent on ALL oil, but anyway) and we need to invest in renewable technologies. Okay, George got that one right, but somehow when this actually translates in policy, I hardly think it will be meaningful. And George, would it really kill you to say "Global Warming"? I mean really, enough with the "global climate change" euphemism. Everybody knows we have global warming...

So we all know that W is just full of a lot of hooey. So back to the AFN... Well, wouldn't it be just like the AFN to cut off Barak Obama in the middle of his critique of the Iraq policy and change over to "A Guiding Light"?


More reasons why the AFN is frighteningly entertaining:

• Pubic Service announcements: Low budget and poorly made,they usually expound the obvious like: It is against the law to traffic humans. Or, turn on your lights at night so you can see when you are driving. If one had to estimate the collective intelligence of the military based on these announcements, I would say they are, on average, as intelligent as 7 year olds.
• Pentagon News Round Up: Either entirely pointless (like the human interest story I recently saw about the commander who always checks his humvee's mechanics before driving it) or amazingly biased (like the story about how we won the war in Iraq, No, REALLY, they are still saying that). I have yet to learn anything that is accurate or useful from watching the Pentagon's news service.
• Why We Serve: Kind of cute, and extremely low budget, you almost never hear the real answer of, "well, I'm poor and there were no job opportunities and I can't afford an education, so it was either the military or a life of crime." Hey, I know people also join because they want to "serve their country", but come on, the economic reality of these soldiers' lives far outstrips any civic duty that most Americans feel. I mean, we don't even vote, do you really think we are going to willingly fight a war?? Either that or we have some pretty screwy ideas about what civic duty means.
• This Day in History: another low budget segment that offers us glimpses into the invention of the Patriot missile and its exemplary use in the first Gulf War; the glorified success of Operation so and so; W's first inaugural address; and other events of military import.

If I was to say, watch the AFN as my only source of news, I might, just might, support W. A gal is hard-pressed to find any critique of the Bush administration even though there are plenty of people in the armed services who are disappointed, pissed off and all around fed-up with Iraq and Afghanistan (which is also a disaster that no one is making the W administration answer to). It is obvious by the amount of dissent there is in the military that most people are really thinking, evaluating and criticizing... So my question is, why doesn't the media? The AFN media, or the rest of the media for that matter??

So here's to the AFN for providing some comic relief (in a slightly less offensive way than say Rush Limbaugh)... just don't take it too seriously.

And here's to a GWB who is eating some much needed humble pie. Don't that taste good Georgey? Don't it?

my name is woman warrior and i am addicted to tv

As my new kitten, Rani, sits on my shoulder and grooms the left side of my face, my hair and my neck, I wonder, when did my world go from the New York Times and NPR to America's Next Top Model and Project Runway? How is it that in the last couple of months I've transitioned from intellectual(ish) activist to Tyra Banks cheerleader?

It's true, I spend surprisingly little time these days... thinking. Observing. Analyzing. Reading. And let me tell you that it is not for lack of time. It's just that, well, I spend all of my free time watching elimination show after elimination show, spiced up with a little Sex and the City, and the occasional movie.

And let me tell you something else. This does not have anything to do with depression. No siree. Well, maybe the original habit does, but hey, I'm over that. Really. The days are getting longer, things are looking brighter and I'm actually hanging out with *new* friends (well acquaintances at least). That is, when I'm not home watching TV.

You see, there is just always a big excuse. Like this week, I fell really very extremely ill and literally couldn't leave the house for like 3 days. I mean, the air is damp right now, cold and full of pollution. The air is so thick, it chokes you. And the dampness seems to stick to you. So no way was I going out there. Nope. I mean, one breath of that air, and I like fall to the ground in a coughing/choking on air fit that has been rivaled few times in my life. (Although, for those of you who remember the bronchitis I contracted during the Pollina campaign in 2000, well, this might compare.)

So I guess I feel that I'm ready to enter the thinking world once again. Only, well, where do I start? (I suppose now wouldn't be the time to turn off the computer, and turn on the tv, would it?)

Somebody, please, tell me what to read!!!

Another Job Dilemma

The history:

This summer I took a job with a reputable and high paying private institute. I had friends who worked there, vouched for it, and it is a difficult job to get. The screening and interview process is rigorous and unlike most private institutes in Korea, they don't just hire anyone off the street. So when I started, I had some pretty high expectations about the professionalism, work environment and level of organization at my new school. But as it always seems to be, I was almost immediately disappointed when I discovered my supervisor what a nit-picky, inarticulate, paranoia-inducing jerk, and the school wasn't as organized as I had hoped it to be. Nor had they fulfilled all of their contract obligations to us (four people were hired at the same time) regarding our hiring, and while my co-workers weren't happy, they weren't willing to speak up for the things to which we were entitled. But I was designated bitch and lead the charge, and we eventually received everything we were supposed to get. Which lead me and said supervisor almost immediately into a vicious cycle of confrontation and passive aggressiveness that ended only when I was terminated, on the weekend via text message and email just 6 weeks or so after I had started.

I was shocked, pissed off, and thrown into immediate financial peril. Not to mention that I am here on a guest worker visa, which is terminated when your job is terminated... Oh, the problems were really starting.

So when the owner of this institute offered to extend my visa, somewhat indefinitely, if I would substitute a class here and there, I couldn't really refuse. I need money. And even more than that, I need a visa. So this little agreement has lead to apologies, followed by more steady work, and now followed by a full-fledged job offer at a new school that she just opened, where I happened to substitute for her yesterday. Where the money is good, and where I'll be teaching little kids again, and where the hours are somewhat normal (now I teach at night, which is convenient for the time-being, but I'd like a normal 9-5...)

Is refusing this job a case of too much pride? I know I've been apologized to, but the way I was fired was just so dirty. I feel so burned. And I feel like they know they made a mistake in firing me and not that damn supervisor (actually, after I was fired, then talked to, then apologized to, they investigated a little more and discovered the inarticulate prick was the problem and not me, and he got the boot, too)... I don't want to refuse what might be a good job, but I also don't want to put myself in the path of getting burned again. Because it has become all too clear to me that this boss is not afraid to burn people. Now I am in the unique position of doing "favors" for her by subbing. I say when; I dictate the rate of pay. I am a free agent. But if I'm contracted to work for her again, won't that relationship change?

Oh, the headache... What should I do?

continuing to live a funk free existence

So I haven't been writing because I just kind of don't want to jinx it...But, well, here we are and so here I go.

Dare I say it? I actually feel... happy. I cannot pinpoint exactly why my emotional hardwiring is deciding to do an about-face, but damn it feels good to not feel bad. I have been blowing off my Korean classes, mostly because I don't have time to do the work to pass and it is beginning to feel hopeless. But you know what? For the first time, this does not stress me out.

The General Secretary. Busier than ever. But, this also does not stress me out... With him I just let go of expectations. I know his job is hard. I know he's always working and that he wants to be here as much as I want him to be here. But I know, too, that this is a short term situation and for the next month this is what life must be like. So why start a fight about it? So I've changed my mind-set to how I think when I'm single, which is much healthier anyway, and the General Secretary and I (though not broken up now) are going to have a go at what a real life might be like together when his post with the Migrants Trade Union is completed in just over a month.

And work. Well, I still don't care, but I have resolved to make a lot of money in the coming year and so I'm on the hunt. But I think I've figured out that doing a lot of different kinds of teaching is what just might work for me. Right now, I am working part time at a hagwon, teaching private lessons, and about to pick up another part time kindergarten gig. It's all different enough that I'm not bored out of my mind by the repetion and right now it's enough work to live comfortably (if not a little meagerly)... So in March, we'll see if I can keep up this kind of schedule or if I have to become a one-job woman again.

I'm still on the look out for an affordable gym that makes sense given all the different places I have to commute to around Seoul, where I can get into a routine and stick to it. But in the meantime, I'm not feeling as lazy as I was a couple of weeks ago.

And lastly: Rani (roll the r, short a, kind of spanish sounding). Rani is the newest edition to our bustling household of 4 and one of the cutest darn kittens you've ever seen. And perhaps the most social I've ever met. She cannot stand to be alone and is extremely jealous of the GS, which unfortunately for me, has resulted in an abnormal amount of laundry. But she is playful and cuddly and everyone loves her and she has really earned her name, which means "Queen" in Bangla.

3 Days, Funk Free