Korea South, not North

Jasmina Tesanovic RSS / 19.09.2007. u 08:45

When I checked in for my flight to Seoul at the Belgrade aerodrome, 
the desk clerk was bewildered. She had heard of Korea, she had even 
heard of Seoul. But:  oh my god, she exclaimed, I do mix them up so, 
the north and south.

    When I finally landed in Korea -- no visa required -- they had 
never heard of Serbia. I had to trigger that magic word "Yugoslavia," 
so that the Korean computer blinked in nostalgic approval and allowed 
me into the country.

    The wild demilitarized zone between the two Koreas is a major 
tourist attraction: so I was told. Not for me it isn't, I said: I've 
seen too many of those borders, from Berlin, to Serbia, to the rest 
of the world.

       The American Cold War propaganda is surely bad enough there,  
but in North Korea they are segregated so drastically from the rest 
of the planet that everything they say sounds shallow. South Korea 
wants to reach out to the North, to build cultural bridges, 
communications,
diplomacy, finance, the usual, yet the North seems entirely 
uninterested. What must the people think? All this fanaticism without 
even the luxury of an ethnic
division.

      Until 15 years ago, in South Korea, women  would
get a driver's licences whenever their husbands got one.
Women never had to take any driver's education courses, as it was 
presumed that women would never drive. Then women took the wheel and 
finally the law changed.

      A huge, rapid transition for women, says a guest at the LIFT 
event in Seoul: I am an optimist.  He is a foreign expert living as 
an optimist in Korea, he hopes his daughter will marry a Korean and 
that two Koreas will re-unite.

         People are lively, hard working, and, I notice, strangely 
silent: this huge Asian metropolis of over 20 million is quieter than 
a small town in Italy. The airport is as clean and solemn as a 
hospital ward.  The service in malls, restaurants, hotels is like 
something from a science fiction movie: everything is possible, just 
let me know from which planet you come.

      The shopping malls are crammed with the usual Western luxury 
brands, and hordes of Korean women shopping: when the women meet for 
lunch, for once, they let themselves talk loudly.

      The city never sleeps, but the workers are allowed to sleep at 
work if they have no urgent duties or customers to pester.  Empty 
shops are manned by slumbering clerks.  Unemployment is next to 
zero:  everybody is doing his/her small task in the mighty chain of 
the big civil utilities, the Korean "chaebol" cartels.

    Love hotels  are rented  by the hour, ten dollars for a bed in a 
tall shiny building without architectural glamour.  The skyscrapers 
are as anonymous as the city's black and white cabs.  Nameless 
buildings  bear numbers in nameless streets which are also numbered...

      Beauty shops, beauty clinics, medical anti-aging clinics, in a 
city where obesity seems almost unknown if not expressly forbidden.

      What do they eat?   The famous Korean dog-meat, live octopus 
hastily chopped into violently wriggling shreds, a putrid pink fish 
which reeks of ammonia.  This pink fermented skate fish, stinking and 
crunchy with cartilage -- the natives of the Korean deep south long 
for this fish when they are in Europe, surrounded by  stinking 
European cheeses. And hot Asian peppers, even big Korean garlic 
cloves that are searingly hot, as hot as hot can get; they might not 
cure cancer, but one bite of those obliterates culture-shock.

    The farewell event was  a champagne party, sponsored by the 
French, aimed at Koreans.  Hundreds of beautiful Korean girls dancing 
to Brooklyn rap music, dressed in their silky local fashions and 
stiletto high heels, men in dark or silver business suits with long, 
pointed, narrow black shoes... One woman at the party told me how 
hard life is for a feminist in this very chauvinist male society. She 
wants her career: society wants her to have a baby. Perhaps that was 
why, after swilling much free champagne, she suddenly jumped into the 
discotheque's swimming pool, fully dressed. Her boyfriend jumped in 
after her and they lived there happily ever after.
    Seoul's statue of the Maitreya, the huge Buddha of the Future, 
was built only 11 years ago. In downtown Seoul this Buddha Who Is to 
Come oversees the bland skyscrapers with his tolerant, easy worldly 
wisdom.  In his towering concrete meditations, perhaps he will open 
the door to futurity for the one Korean people, so sadly divided by 
that military business they call the Past.

Atačmenti



Komentari (13)

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Nescha Nescha 11:11 19.09.2007

Korea South, not North

Ne razumem poentu ovog teksta (recimo da naslucujem), a jos manje razumem zasto je na engleskom.
Nemanja_K Nemanja_K 11:16 19.09.2007

Re: Korea South, not North

I think some Koreans she met over there are reading Jasmina's blog as well. That might be a good reason.
Nemanja_K Nemanja_K 11:14 19.09.2007

Business as usual

...sadly divided by that military business they call the Past


Jasmina,

Sadly, it's not passed issue at all. It's only a truce. NK and SK are technically still at war, never reached a peace treaty.
Jasmina Tesanovic Jasmina Tesanovic 11:19 19.09.2007

Re: Business as usual

u pravu si Nemanja, hvala na odgovoru
adam weisphaut adam weisphaut 11:57 19.09.2007

a litle troll

When I finally landed in Korea -- no visa required -- they had
never heard of Serbia. I had to trigger that magic word "Yugoslavia,"
so that the Korean computer blinked in nostalgic approval and allowed
me into the country.

Funny how that word's existence continues to linger on around the world although the object it denotes is dead and buried , just like a specter and it probably will for years to come
ig{n}or ig{n}or 11:58 19.09.2007

Seoul

"DMZ" je zapravo najmilitarizovanija zona na svetu, mislim da je gustina minskog polja tamo kao nigde drugde. Zapravo ono sto nude da se poseti su kanali koje je kopala vojska Severne Koreje ispod DMZ-a planirajuci invaziju na Jug, pre nekih 30ak godina (ako ne gresim).

Imao sam priliku da idem na demonstracije koje su odrzane u znak protesta kada su dva americka vojnika u saobracajnoj nesreci ubila dve koreanske devojcice i "za kaznu" su ih poslali nazad u SAD i nikada im se nije sudilo. Bilo je to par dana pre napada na Irak, anti-bushisam na vrhuncu. Na jednoj strani demonstranti, na drugoj strani klinci koji sluze nacionalnu sluzbu (poput vojnog roka) u policiji. Poprilicna guzva i poprilicno napeto, ali do kraja demonstracija nije bilo nikakvih problema. Prodavci przenih larvi (to svi grickaju, k'o da je kikiriki) ne dozvoljavaju da ih slikam, iako setaju zajedno sa demonstrantima i pokusavaju da prave biznis.

Jedan prijatelj mi je pokazao fotografiju ulaznih vrata jednog restorana. Na njima veliki papir na kojem pise "Americans are not welcome here".

2500 prigovaraca savesti je u zatvoru u Koreji. Vecina njih su jehovini svedoci, mada broj "non-religious objectors" stalno raste. Pre par meseci je ustavni sud presudio da se pravo na prigovor savesti mora priznati, ali tek sada predstoji ono najteze, izvuci sve te ljude iz zatvora.

U Koreji ne postoji 4ti sprat, tako da je 5ti u stvari 4ti, ali nemojte da ulazite sa njima u logicke rasprave o toj temi. Kazu da se broj 4 i rec smrt izgovaraju isto, pa niko nece da ga tera maler.

Isto tako kazu da je Juzna Koreja zemlja sa najvise univerzitetski obrazovanih gradjana. Univerziteti su na obodima grada (barem oni koje sam posetio), sto znaci da se morate voziti 2-3 sata kroz grad da bi ste stiglo do njih.

Da ne duzim sada sa mojim iskustvom iz Koreje, postujem domacicu bloga.
Jasmina, drago mi je da smo se upoznali u Valensiji.

Igor
dunjica dunjica 12:23 19.09.2007

Polu-troll

Bila sam prije 5-6 godina na jednoj izložbi oltara u jednom od düsseldorfskih muzeja. Oltari iz cijelog svijeta, mnogih religija, neki prvi put napravljeni i predstavljeni na jednom svjetovnom mjestu.

Od svega su mi bili najskurilniji oltari koje Koreanci prave u svojim kućama i uredima, a posvećeno početku novog posla, novoj školskoj ili radnoj godini, ... ma milion razloga za podizanje kućnog svetišta. Podignuti sinkretističkim božanstvima, s upotrebnim predmetima iz svakodnevice pomiješanih s tradicionalnom šamanističkim, budističkim, ali i kršćanskim ikonografijama. Puno egzotičnog kolorita i post-modernizma.
yu1bcd yu1bcd 16:19 19.09.2007

Re: Polu-troll

Danas sam proklinjao Koreance zbog skupog redovnog servisa na 15.000 km jednogodisnjeg Hyundai Getz

Secam se Japanskih komentara iz 1983 godine, da su postali leni u poredjenu sa Korejom. Cudna je ta visoka socijalna svest koja se ravila na otoku i bliznjem poluotoku. Kult rada i znanja, skoro kao SSSR, sa postovanjem starijih generacija. Setimo se Olimpiade u Seulu, svetskog nastupa Juzne Koreje za razliku od klasicnog Azijskog naslednog diktatora na Severu. Ili poredjenje prirodno bogatog Balkanskog i pustog Koreanskog poluostrva...
oldtajmer oldtajmer 19:25 19.09.2007

Korejanke

Women never had to take any driver's education courses, as it was
presumed that women would never drive.


e, ovo im i nije tako lose ))
zokkie zokkie 22:32 19.09.2007

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zokkie zokkie 22:32 19.09.2007

Alzo Korea

gledicki patuljak gledicki patuljak 14:41 20.09.2007

*novo Re: Korea South, not North

Ja planiram ici za Koreju za godinu-dve. Trazi se puno english native speaker-a, taman da okusim istok. Sto se tice klope, jeo sam ponesto, ako je katsu njihovo nacionalno jelo, onda nije lose. A podignuta nacionalne svest, kult rada i znanja, to je sve zaostavstina duboko ukorenjene konfucijanske misli i zivotnih nazora proizaslih iz nje. Zato ce se kapitalizam ponajbolje i pelcovati tamo. Samo im je trebalo vremena da nauce korake .

pozz
:)
skyspoter skyspoter 20:46 20.09.2007

friend of mine

is going to North then to South Korea in December. And I would love to hear wether her impressions are similar to yours. As far I know you can't take mobile phone or comp into North Korea. And Americans can enter North Korea once a year during the mass game ( the great big gymastic spectacle). I wonder how many other countries would like similar arrangments? ; -)

Arhiva

   

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