Falling off the mule

Bap mogoso?
When Koreans say hello, they don’t ask “how are you?” they say, “Have you eaten?”

It's a Sunday, and I was up at 7:30am. There's nothing better than being up that early on a Sunday - a perfect opportunity to come to grips with it all, catch up on all things undone, or just sit in my pajamas and watch movies. So you can guess what I did.

I saw a good movie called "pan's labyrinth", set in Spain, post-Spanish civil war. It was a great movie to watch after just having read Hemmingway's "for whom the bell tolls". a continuation of the same story. a visual of the book.

According to Chomsky, authentic participation in decision making and the free association of communities is the traditional anarchist ideal and it was only realized once, for just about a year in Spain in 1936, before…” it was crushed by outside forces, in fact all outside forces, Stalinist Russia, Hitler in Germany, Mussolini's fascism and the Western democracies cooperated in crushing it. They were all afraid of it.”

Interesting that Pan – the goat boy – is brought into the mix.

By the way, Pan also makes an appearance in Tom Robbins’s “Jitterbug Perfume”. In the book, Alobar, an ex-king on the run from his own people, meets Pan, who is a Greek God of Nature. Pan is weak from the spread of Christianity.

In the movie, Pan is in the same state, for the same reason.

I'm listening to "radio mitre" from Argentina, trying to keep a bit of the Spanish fresh in la cabeza.

It's a dark cold Sunday here. I’d say winter has officially arrived today. You can’t just step outside without a coat anymore. No way around it, I'm going to have to shop for warmer clothes.
My neighbor is crying through the walls again, so it certainly has the feel of a Sunday.
This past Thursday, Nov 15, was the "big test day" in Korea; probably the equivalent of SAT's in the US. It's the day that decides who'll be the next executives at Samsung and who'll be the next scooter drivers downtown.

Everyone gives the students gifts of sticky candy and treats, like rice balls. It’s important that they be sticky – because the Korean word for “glue” and the Korean word for “pass the test” have the same sound. So it’s how they say good luck.

At Susong elementary, it was just another day. I walked into my first class, grade one. A little girl was doodling at her desk. I took a look and saw that she had drawn a stick man with a penis. She pointed to the penis and said, go chu ! – which is the Korean word for a red hot chili pepper. Then she turned to the boy next to her, who I named Steve, as in Steve Yzerman, and asked him if he had one.

Anyway, it's was a huge day in Korea. During the "listening" portion of the exam, all planes are grounded in the country, so that all students can have the equal opportunity to hear clearly.

Businesspeople are not allowed to travel at rush hour. So companies start late in the morning and finish late at night. This gives priority to students traveling the subway at rush hour. So they have no one to blame but themselves if they're late.

I had a flashback to a night on the road in northern Ontario, probably '95 or '96. I'd been living in Vancouver and had jumped on the road with a band traveling cross country to the east coast. They were friends of mine. So I hopped in the van for the adventure, and made a few bucks along the way, selling t-shirts and cd's at the merch table.

Anyway, it was an independent band, on tour opening shows for a slightly more popular band. Both had videos on tv, and they were selling out college pubs.

On a night off, in North Bay, or maybe Sault Saint Marie, we were having beers around a pool table at the venue - a typical pub in the north country - ie. all hardwood, moose and deer heads mounted on the walls, red necks sitting around playing cards, motorbikes lined up out front, a stripper on stage, and pinball.

The guys in the two bands had gotten into a discussion about the music biz and where they fit in, and would fit in.

I said something about how cool it would be to get a major record deal - which didn't go over well at the table. i was referring to the "sell out".

The van had broken down so many times, we were frozen and penniless. We had no money for gas. And weren't sure if we'd even make it down the road to the next show. We were staying in the band accoms - a filthy room above the bar that six of us would share for the night - that must've been a brothel room from days gone by. It was as low as a band on the road could go.

My argument was - why spend the best days of your life without a cent in your pocket? Sell out, get the big contract, then bide your time. You don't have to go to the parties. Just squirrel your earnings away until that point when you can break free and head out on your own.
It was totally hypothetical anyway.

One of them shot me down. I was missing the essence of rock and roll, which was to earn respect by paying your dues on the road.

I never believed wholeheartedly in what I was saying. For sure, suffering it out on the road the hard way was a more romantic story - and would look much better in the biography. But I was just having a moment where the reality of life was smacking me in the face.

The boys were right. I knew that. There’s a reason why fans appreciate integrity in an industry that’s all bent out of shape.

What I didn't realize at the time, which I do now, was that I was essentially describing "the Korean way of life".

There are a handful of massive companies that control Korea, and run Korea; the government is a side show. The entire growth of a human being is preparation for entry into one of these companies and anything less - such as bad results on November 15th - is a disappointment.

There are many other large companies that the lower scorers can find. But they leave high school, run through the filter and land at their respective universities, by order of reputation (the best being Korea University and Yonsei). Then they join a large company - filling a gap, playing a role.

There a Korean learns the rules of life - "to make friends and influence his uncle" (as Dylan would say). The friends they make in the big companies are the ones who will help them survive; the better the company, the deeper the pockets of the friends who will help you.

The goal is to stay with the big guys until you can break out on your own with your own business; or, as it seems to me, your own 4 or 5 businesses. That requires know-how, which they learn at the big companies, and money, which they find through college contacts.

They are ALL entrepreneurs in training, in action or biding their time.

It seems like free thinking, or being eccentric, is an act of desperation by those who didn't make the cut.

Is it brilliant? Who am I to say it isn’t?

You have to admire the Koreans for their ambition and determination.

I wonder if this land is inspiring me for better or for worse.

On my subway rides to work, I've been reading Thomas Freidman's "The World is Flat" - basically a 600 page history of the last twenty years in business - globalization, from the perspective of a New York times columnist. The book has been putting the same question to me.

IT people are at the forefront of everything that's happening now in the world. They're writing the rules. For me, that world is still like, on the other side of the mountain. I've heard about it. (Remember "the blue lagoon" with Brooke Shields - the other side of the island?)

The world is moving like a high speed train and I opted for the mule. The thing is, that mule was never good to me, but I was enjoying the ride until I thought about the train.

So then I put the book away, get off the subway, and I start the walk to school that takes me through Bukboo Market.
The narrow road is lined on both sides with tarps and blankets laid out on the pavement and covered with vegetables, flowers, power tools, tupperware, five dollar levis, kimchi, watches, pig legs, scooter repair shops, dried red chili peppers, pumpkins, bowls of rice. Each little tarp display is covered with another little overhead tarp if it's cloudy. Everyone in the neighborhood is there from sun up to sun down, buying, selling, talking and smoking. They shout. They swear. They joke. That's their life - in the market.

I don't know what they're all talking about. But I'm guessing it's not related to how information technology has flattened the world. Or maybe, on another parallel level, that's exactly what they're talking about.

On one level, there's the reality that the entire concept of going to work and earning a living is being turned upside down and shaken.

Then on another level, there's this guy who knows the streets of Suyu very well. He has a killer engine in his scooter and makes enough deliveries in a day to put food on the table and tip back a few bottles of soju with the fellas on the corner as the sun goes down and just as I happen to be walking by, headed back for the subway ride home after class.

When I was on my mule, none of this really mattered.