Thank you.

@51 User-81, thanks for getting my back there. And thanks for inviting pawi to post the link to the (evolving) quote that he loves most to credit me.

Unfortunately, pawi failed to find the link (see 91).

pawi, I have no delusions of having movie star looks, but I will concede that I have a slight memory of stating something in the spirit of this parody:
http://tinyurl.com/2zba48
The point being, my expat coworkers (who I’m sure you HATE) and I have often laughed about the list of handsome actors that we’ve been undeservedly likened to in Korea.

Man, I am starting to feel stupid for even replying to you pawpaw. But whatever I did say about me and being a movie star really must have gotten under your skin, since you can’t help but mention it in every other post. So I’m happy about that. Or, maybe you are just baiting me, which is fun, but I really suspect that something about it is truly eating at you.

So pawi, just for you, I am going to stop being modest now for just a second, and tell you the truth. My Korean girlfriend is incredibly beautiful. A few years ago, she had sponsorship from a major Korean company in the preliminary rounds of the Miss Korea contest, but bowed out because she didn’t want to get consumed in the superficialness of it all, and she felt it wasn’t in line with her goals as a good Christian. If she and I get married, I’m going to totally pollute the Han River with her.

And feel free to misquote this post A LOT. 마음대로, get your hate-fix however you want.

The Yugoslav example shows how racial identities can be activated or created by politicians to serve political ends. Another example is racial politics in the US. What is an “Asian American” anyway? Are Indians and Japanese the same “race”? Do Korean-Americans and Thai-Americans have a similar defining culture? There wouldn’t seem to be any good biological or cultural explanation for the creation of the “Asian-American” ethnic group. Most likely it just makes good political sense to create a group large enough to compete in the American political arena. Even the concept of a “white American” is a fairly recent phenomenon. Prior to WW2 Italian Americans and German Americans were considered separate ethnic groups, and intermarriage between different groups now considered “whites” was looked down on by some people. So, the idea of race is artificial, and racial identities are pretty fluid.

Koreans should keep in mind that most are descendants of immigrants - from the Altaic mountain region, in Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Eastern China to the Korean peninsula from the 4th to 7th BC. The earliest Korean pottery, though, dates from 8,000 BC. So, modern Koreans should also keep in mind that the Korean peninsula was occupied for over 7,000 years by other groups, and that their ancestors likely include many of these people as well.

Race is merely a tool used by some group of people trying to elevate themselves over others - it’s nothing to be celebrated.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4xJoySp5sQ

Not my idea of good rock music (it’s too commercial, straightforward, and just too pedestrian in sound to appeal to me), and I actually just happed upon the video now, but certainly the title of the song warrants a post. :p

They’re more interesting than the average Kpop, “Dong Bang Shit Gi,” manufacture, nonetheless. The bassist is hot too.

A nice song of theirs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJe8TUNhsIE

Cute animated video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcsDv8VbCfM

Playing live:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....re=related

Enjoy!

A standard of gold? Me racist? Judging Korea as inferior? Whatever. Ethnic nationalism is BS, regardless of whose it is. Is that clear enough for you? Besides, how could I not know about neo-Nazis, for example? Sure, they exist, but they are part of the lunatic fringe. All I said was vast majority of Europeans don’t follow that line of reasoning when you, yes, you, suggested that they do. It was an attack that totally unrelated to the point I was originally making, which was that Korea was in the past and is becoming again an ethnically diverse society.

Oh, and why are you racist? Reread your comments, particularly the ones about my wife and I.

PS. I’m not white, you moron.

Croatia.

Let’s not forget “ethinic cleansing” took place in Europe in the 90s, while the whole world simply watched for more than 3 years and possibly 6.”

If you knew anything about Yugoslavia.”

I know more about it than you think.

The vast majority of Serbs and Croats were opposed to the secession and the war. The best way to describe how most former Yugoslav felt is to quote what my friend, half-Montenegrin (basically, Serb) and half-Croat, said: “In my band (he was a musician), we had Serbs, Croats, and a Muslim. We didn’t care about that bullshit.” Don’t believe me? Ask any former Yugoslav and he or she will probably go into a rant about how the foreign media made it into an ethnic war when it was really about something different.

Some suspect that the ‘military’ and ‘nationalist’ leaders dragged the population into a war they didn’t want in order to control a share of the drug trade (Yugoslavia was and still is a major entry point of Afghan opium into Europe). Some of the ‘military’ and ‘nationalist’ leaders returned to drug trafficking after the war.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wor.....057828.stm

http://www.macleans.ca/article.....ource=srch

Croatia.

Let’s not forget “ethinic cleansing” took place in Europe in the 90s, while the whole world simply watched for more than 3 years and possibly 6.

my tie to Iraq.

What, you want to say now that these 2 aren’t Europe enough?

Must I remind you that Ireland passed a grandfather clause very recently to limit immigration from Africa and the Middle East?
Ireland. Norway. Austria.

you’re racist, because you claim this standard of gold in Europe/west Europe and judge Korea like an inferior world.

why am I racist, by the way?

not too long ago, in the 90’s, a well known Swedish pop group’s star got into American tabloid trouble when it was revealed that he participated in some immigration political policy protest to keep “Sweden white”.

racist is a term that the white man throws around to discredit someone in the west. This is new. Post 1945. When he has historically been the one most guilty of heinous, murderous racist crimes against humanity.

I have nothing against whites, blacks, or anyone. Maybe something against the Chinese and the Japanese. That, I admit. I find it ironic that white people preach civil rights, racism is wrong, etc, and live 50 miles away from black people, and feel comfortable saying condescending things about black people to, well, yellow people.

Well Someguy, one of the bad things about Korea is even if you do good deeds you get dissed at. Which I admit is sad and frustrating.

#102.

I wouldn’t pop the champagne just yet. I said I will think over it, I didn’t say I wouldn’t post any “water cooler talk”. And I recall telling you that if you don’t like it you don’t have to read it.

Kinda reminds me of a friend of mine who occasionally tells me stories of say, how he saw (hmm, am I about to tell a water cooler story? Okay, just this once, and I do it for my favorite tofu muncher, Sonagi) a kid at the park fall on some fly encrusted dog droppings and crushing the majority of these happy campers, along with the droppings, on his new Gap pants (the green buggers were stuck on like large emeralds!); a tad bit gross and quite sad, while at the same time I can’t help but laugh a little, and even though he knows I would rather live without hearing these things, it amuses him to tell me anyway from time to time so I don’t pummel him too hard ;D. That or maybe he enjoys being pummeled…