Kimchi Mamas

Midlife?

Hi there Kimchi Mamas!!! How are things going?

Things are going alright here in the Choi family. I turned 40 this year and I kind of am really liking the older me. I feel so mature! Can you tell?

 

 

So mature! Right? =)

In all seriousness, I actually do feel like I am just barely starting to get this thing called life. And by "get" I don't mean that I have figured it out and have the solution to all of life's problems and have unlocked the secret to happiness. No. I do not have any keys to happiness here. And yet, I do feel a smidgen of self confidence and maybe a sprinkle of faith and a sliver of hope, that no matter what happens, that I will be ok.

And I know shit happens.

Why pull the fire alarm when you can send a bomb threat?

The more common method of a last ditch effort to avoid a final examination is the good old fire alarm. Get one of your friends to pull it or something. I dunno, I've never actually done it but there were several during my college years.

Well, I guess that doesn't cause enough chaos for some people. This person decided to send bomb threats to Harvard officials to avoid his final exam.

That final exam can NOT have been worse that what he is going through right now.

Reminds me of the time in ninth grade Spanish class. I didn't quite feel prepared for a test and I wrote some conjugations on the desk. The test had barely gotten started and I totally got caught. The teacher told me to stop and to come back later to take the test. She would knock off a whole grade as punishment.

I got an A+ on that test. I didn't miss a single quesiton. (It was downgraded to a B+.) And I never cheated on a test again. I guess I should thank that teacher for helping me learn a valuable lesson when the consequences weren't so high. Thank you Mrs. Brown!

- Mary

A Holocaust Ignored

I feel nauseated!  I have never before in my life read something that gave me a physical reaction like this. I have the physical urge to throw up! I don’t even know where to begin. I’m going to try... Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, who otherwise looks to be a human, said that the rape of women (comfort woman) was ok because it relaxed their rapists (Japanese soldiers).

Comfort women were NOT prostitutes! They were set up to be raped by Japanese soldiers by the Japanese government.  

Comfort women were kept in small cubicles that resembled micro-sized portapotties.  They were forced to stay in these cells without being let out except every couple of weeks to wash themselves. These enclosures had chamber pots within them.  Every fifteen minutes a Japanese soldier would enter and rape the woman inside the cubicle, and if the woman in anyway rebelled, she was pulled out, put to death and left where other women could see her as a warning.  The soldiers gunned down lines of women if they caught STDs, instead of treating them. The women were treated as less than human all those years ago, and now Hashimoto dehumanizes them again.

What if a German politician came out and said that some part of the Holocaust was necessary? What if he said that the victims of the holocaust deserved kind words, but that killing them, torturing them, using them as slaves made the German soldiers relax, made them feel good because they were at war, and provided needed relief?  How would the world react to that statement?  How would the victims of holocaust feel?  Is there inherently some difference between how the world views the victims of one country-wide tragedy to another? I wonder why one article on the BBC website is all the press this has received, and I wonder how different it might be if it were about another set of victims. 

I cannot understand where Hashimoto is coming from but you can read it for yourself here:

“Japan WWII ‘comfort woman’ were ‘necessary’ - Hashimoto

- Nancy

"An Overlooked School Shooting..." One Year Later

Did anyone else hear the NPR "Talk of the Nation"  "around the nation" segment about the Oikos University shooting? It aired earlier today: An Overlooked School Shooting and the Korean American Community.

It was a very short interview with Jay Kang, but I'm glad it was done at all. Mr. Kang spoke of "han", the idea of "The Korean Dad", and the stereotyping of Korean Americans and shootings.

I am curious to continue the conversation... I am curious to hear your thoughts and especially the thoughts of our fellow Kimchi Mamas who live in the SF/Oakland area.  Were there any memorials? Articles in your local paper(s)?

What was your reaction when this happened? How do you feel about it now? And how do you feel about it now within the context of the Virginia Tech shootings 5 years ago this month? And within the context of the Newtown Massacre?

How do you think this affected the Korea/Korean American community locally? Nationally? 

How do you think culture played a part?

 

(Angie in Texas)

*I purposely did not use the names of the shooters in any the events.

 

My son is six...

My son turned six last month. He started Kindergarden this year and his second adult tooth is growing in. He loves all things Star Wars and has recently really gotten into Beyblades. He loves his little brother and plays with him all day long. The sometimes fight and he's very good at coming to Mommy to tell on his little brother's schenanigans. Recently, his brother threw a trash bucket at him and gave him a Harry Potter esque scar between his eyebrows:

Summer 2012!

It's officially SUMMER!

My kids have been out of school since Memorial Day Weekend but most local schools got out some time after.  We have LOTS of summer plans: breakfast at 9:30 am, scoops of ice cream at 9 pm, overnight week-long camps for the kids (2 sessions) and mini-vacays for the adults, day camps with specific actvities (tennis, ASPCA, etc.), roller coasters, water parks, reading and math enrichment sessions, open camp fires, amusement parks, the beach (already been once so far), state parks, national parks, s'mores!, slumber parties, birthdays, "spa" days, swimming at the pool, neighborhood block parties, camping, the river(s), reading, visits with Ms. Beth at the library, arts and crafts, lakes, fishing, gardening, movies, at home movies and much, much more.

What are some of your summer plans?

And of course day trips to the parks and area lakes and rivers will include gimbap picnics and galbi bbq!

 

Angie in Texas LOVES summer! Not so much the Texas heat.

Book Review - Escape from Camp 14

Disclosure: I got a free copy of this book to review.

Escape from Camp 14 written by Blaine Harden tells the true story of how Shin Dong Hyuk broke out of a brutal labor camp in North Korea, eventually making his way to the USA. Complete with maps and drawings, Blaine makes it easy for the reader to picture this harrowing story. I heard Shin Dong Hyuk speak at an event in Stanford before so his story was not new to me. However, reading about the details made it so much more real.

Born inside Camp No. 14 Shin Dong Hyuk was the product of a marriage that was itself a form of reward, a reward reserved for prisoners who modeled "good" behavior such as snitching on fellow prisoners. He survived by doing whatever he could to secure food. He grew up to be the model snitch, not even thinking twice to snitch on his own family.

This book provides an accurate and horrifying look into North Korea's infamous labor camps. A hopeless world where humans become driven by hunger and hunger alone. Where affection does not exist. Yet even in such a bleak place, compassion comes at unexpected times. 

Kim and the World Bank . . . What a "Thriller"!

Jim Yong Kim was named the new President of the World Bank today. . . and that is COOL!

But Kim will always have a place in my heart for THIS performance (around the 1:26 mark) while President of Dartmouth College.

Congratulations President Kim!!

I'm sure you've made your own Kimchi Mama proud!!

 

--Angie in Texas *hearts* MJ no matter what!

Mass shooting at a school in Oakland, CA

I was listening to NPR when I heard the sad news story of a shooting that happened in Oakland this morning. Apparently, a disgruntled student open fired in a class at his former school. The school is Kairos University that apparently caters to Koreans and Korean Americans. Many of the victims (seven fatalities) as well as the prime suspect are thought to be Korean.

The man suspected and arrrested for the crime is One L. Goh, 43, of Oakland. He drove to a Safeway in Alameda and confessed his crime to an employee.

- Mary

The Korean Man's Anger

By now you've probably heard or read about Pinkberry co-founder, Young Lee, attacking a homeless man with a tire iron. When I was reading some of the details of what happened, and also accounts of his previous shady behaviors (like making threats against someone's life), I was like... I can totally picture a lot of Korean men doing this.

I do think that Korean men, in general, are quite hot tempered.

Why is that? Is it the prevalent use of alcohol and alcoholism? Too much emphasis on honor and respect? Too much pressure? Male chauvinism? Superiority issues? Imaturity? 

I'm not sure. Probably a combination of all of these. Whatever the recipe for rage is, Korean culture sure seems to have all the right ingredients.

I'm not innocent either. I've been classified as a "fiesty" one. I do get angry... but I don't think I would ever chase anyone with a tire iron. I scream at my kids and snap at my husband... occassionally cuss at bad drivers.

What are your reactions to this story?

- Mary