#national liberation day of korea

[cokun]

230815 code kunst ig post

어릴 적에 태극기를 잘 그리는 사람이 되고 싶어 많이 그렸었는데 아직도 이렇게 못 그리네요. 오늘은 광복절 78주년이라고 해요, 항상 아름답고 멋진 것들을 보며 자유롭게 생각하고 표현하는 삶을 살 수 있게 해주셔서 감사합니다 #nationalliberationdayofkorea

When I was young, I wanted to become someone who draws the Taegeukgi (Korean flag) well, so I drew it a lot, but as you can see I still can't draw it well. Today is the 78th anniversary of Korea's Liberation Day. Thank you for allowing me to live a life where I can always think and express freely while looking at beautiful and wonderful things. #nationalliberationdayofkorea

Trans. cr. 🐰 @ cokun.tumblr.com

[quotesfrommyreading]

There are little mysteries I understand differently now, all these years later. Visits to my family in Korea often meant dinners where I would be told, always, what we were eating, no matter how many times they’d seen me eat it before. Now that I know other Korean families do this, I wonder if it is all some relic of a time when the children had to learn the names of the food they could now eat again. The Korean-American habit of quizzing one another — When was the last time you were back in Korea? Do you speak Korean? Do you read it? What food can you make? — now feels to me like the drills of people studying for a more Korean future than the one they had had.

And the more openly didactic qualities of my visits with my grandfather — always being told that Korean culture or language was superior, for example, which once felt to me like his way of chiding my father for leaving for the United States and not teaching us Korean — I now understand as the act of a man who still woke from dreams in Japanese, who had lived to see a future where his son, also born during the occupation, could decide not to live in the country once lost to them, could decide not to teach what was once forbidden for them to learn. And his grandson might never know.

  —  My Family’s Shrouded History Is Also a National One for Korea

[goggledoddle]

[metamorphesque]

Monte Melqonyan/Մոնթե Մելքոնյան (1957-1993)

Honestly, I don't even know where to begin. He's one of those extraordinary individuals about whom countless books could be written and numerous movies could be made, yet still, so much would remain untold. You might wonder, "He's a National Armenian Hero—cool, but why should I know about him?" My answer is simple: if the world had more people like him, especially in today's times, it would be a much better place. He fought for justice, embodied culture and education, and radiated a deep love for his people and humanity as a whole. I believe everyone should aspire to have a little bit of Monte's spirit within them, regardless of their nationality.

Now, it's important to note that some things written about him in the Western press can be questionable and inaccurate. So, I would advise taking most of the information from those sources with a grain of salt.

Monte was born on November 25, 1957, into an Armenian family in Visalia, California, that had survived the Armenian Genocide. From 1969 to 1970, his family traveled through Western Armenia, the birthplace of his ancestors. During this journey, Monte, at the age of twelve, began to realize his Armenian identity. While taking Spanish language courses in Spain, his teacher had posed him the question of where he was from. Dissatisfied with Melkonian's answer of "California", the teacher rephrased the question by asking "where did your ancestors come from?" His brother Markar Melqonyan remarked that "her image of us was not at all like our image of ourselves. She did not view us as the Americans we had always assumed we were." From this moment on, for days and months to come, Markar continues, "Monte pondered [their teacher Señorita] Blanca's question Where are you from?"

In high school, he excelled academically and struggled to find new challenges. Instead of graduating early, as suggested by his principal, Monte found an alternative - a study abroad program in East Asia. The decision to go to Japan was not random. He had been attending karate clubs and was the champion of the under-14 category in California. He also studied Japanese culture, including taking Japanese language courses. After completing his studies at a school in Osaka, Japan, he went to South Korea, where he studied under a Buddhist monk. He later traveled to Vietnam, witnessing the war and taking numerous photographs of the conflict. Upon returning to America, he had become proficient in Japanese and karate.

Having graduated from high school, Monte entered the University of California, Berkeley, with a Regents Scholarship, majoring in ancient Asian history and archaeology. In 1978, he helped organize an exhibition of Armenian cultural artifacts at one of the university's libraries. A section of the exhibit dealing with the Armenian Genocide was removed by university authorities at the request of the Turkish consul general in San Francisco, but it was eventually reinstalled following a campus protest movement. Monte completed his undergraduate work in under three years. During his time at the university, he founded the "Armenian Students' Union" and organized an exhibition dedicated to the Armenian Genocide in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey.

Upon graduating, he was accepted into the archaeology graduate program at the University of Oxford. However, Monte chose to forgo this opportunity and instead began his lifelong struggle for the Armenian Cause.

In the fall of 1978, Monte went to Iran and participated in demonstrations against the Shah. Later that year, he traveled to Lebanon, where the civil war was at its peak. In Beirut, he participated in the defense of the Armenian community. Here, he learned Arabic and, by the age of 22, was fluent in Armenian, English, French, Spanish, Italian, Turkish, Persian, Japanese, and Kurdish.

From 1980, Monte joined the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA – I promise to tell you more about them later) and quickly became one of its leaders. In 1981, he participated in the planning of the famous Van operation. In 1981, he was arrested at Orly Airport in France for carrying a false passport and a pistol. During his trial, Monte declared, "All Armenians carry false passports—French, American—they will remain false as long as they are not Armenian." Over the following years, he perfected his military skills at an ASALA training camp, eventually becoming one of the group's principal instructors.

Monte with his wife Seda

After being released from a French prison (once again) in 1989, Monte arrived in Armenia in 1991, where armed clashes between Armenians and azerbaijanis had already begun. He founded the "Patriots" unit and spent seven months in Yerevan working at the Academy of Sciences, writing and publishing the book "Armenia and its Neighbors." In September of the same year, he went to the Republic of Artsakh to fight for his fatherland and its people. Due to his military expertise, he was appointed Chief of Staff of the Martuni defense district in 1992. His sincerity and purity quickly won the love and respect of the local population and the Armenian community as a whole.

Throughout his conscious life, Monte fought for the rights of Armenians, recognition of the Armenian Genocide, and the reclamation of Armenian homeland.

There are various versions of Monte Melqonyan's death circulating in both Armenian and azerbaijani media. According to official Armenian information, Monte was killed on June 12, 1993, by fire from an azerbaijani armored vehicle.

Monte remains a lasting testament to the incredible potential unleashed when the Armenian patriotic heart unites with sharp intellect.

In case you'd like to put a voice to the face and hear about the Artsakh struggle directly from Monte, here he is speaking about it in English.

[mesetacadre]

In February, 1945, when the USSR agreed at Yalta to join the Allies in the war on Japan, it was decided to divide Korea into two zones for purposes of military action. The Russians took the north, the Americans the south. The following July, at Potsdam, the 38th parallel was chosen as the “great divide.” Korea was a victim of Japanese aggression, not an enemy. We would come as liberators, not as conquerors. The military occupation was to end within a year of victory, followed by about five years of civilian trusteeship in which all the Big Four Powers, America, the Soviet Union, Great Britain and China, should help Korea to her feet. That was the plan. The reality proved otherwise. The growing cold war against the Soviet Union made Korea also a base. The two zones solidified into two areas of military occupation. Friction continues to grow. When American troops landed in South Korea, September 7, 1945, thousands of Koreans danced and cheered and shouted: “Mansai,” or “Live a Thousand Years.” Within six months surly Koreans were demanding how soon the Americans would go home. Within a year great uprisings took place in eighty cities and in hundreds of farming villages against the “police state” that the American armed forces kept in power. When the Americans landed in Korea, the Koreans had already a de facto government. A “People’s Republic” had been declared a day earlier by a congress of Koreans themselves. General John R. Hodge, commander of the U. S. armed forces, dissolved this “People’s Republic,” and drove most of its members underground. Two days after landing, Hodge announced to the Koreans – who had waited a quarter of a century for liberation – that Japanese officials would temporarily continue to run Korea. Korean delegations waiting to greet Americans were fired on – by Japanese police! The Russians pursued an opposite policy. They recognized the “People’s Committees” that the Americans were suppressing. They encouraged Korean initiative when it took the form of ousting the Japanese-appointed puppets, dividing the landlords’ lands, and nationalizing the Japanese-owned industry as the “property of the Korean people.” They especially looked with favor on what they called “mass organizations,” – farmers’ unions, labor unions, women’s associations and unions of youth. The Russian zone in the north fairly blossomed with such organizations energetically building their country after their own desire. From time to time the Americans and Russians held conferences to determine Korea’s future. Nothing came of these talks but increasing bitterness for two years. The Americans insisted on including pro-Japanese quislings and returned exiles in the provisional government. The Russians refused. The Russians insisted on including representatives of the trade unions, the farmers’ union and other similar organizations. The USA would not hear of this.

In North Korea: First Eye-Witness Reports, Anna Louise Strong, 1949

[jksslutprincess]

The Enigma [I]

Synopsis: You are his everything. He breathes for you, lives for you, kills for you.

tropes: college!au, strangers to lovers!au

w.c.: 2.3k

Raindrops trickled down the glass window, blurring the vibrant tapestry of Seoul's cityscape. You sipped your lukewarm coffee, the air-conditioning's gentle hum a counterpoint to the pitter-patter symphony outside.

A comfortable chill settled over the apartment, a welcome change from the summer's relentless heat. Autumn, your favorite season, was finally whispering its arrival.

Being a foreigner in Korea wasn't easy. The initial months had been a whirlwind of adjustments. Navigating cultural nuances, enduring the occasional microaggression – these were all part of the experience. Yet, there was a strange sense of liberation in this solitude.

With a sigh, you pushed yourself off the couch. The call of duty, in the form of your architecture class, beckoned. You were a master's student at Seoul National University, a prestigious institution that had beckoned you across continents.

Your journey here was paved with academic excellence – straight A's throughout your undergraduate studies in Italy, a testament to your unwavering dedication. But that very success, you often felt, had come at a cost. Friendships felt transactional, laced with a hint of self-interest. Was it any wonder you craved solitude?

Another sigh escaped your lips, the umpteenth since you'd dragged yourself out of bed that morning. The city lights, usually a source of comfort and inspiration, seemed muted through the rain-streaked window.

Autumn, with its crisp air and promise of fiery foliage, was finally making its presence known. A welcome change, you thought, pulling the collar of your thick turtleneck higher.

The previous day's downpour had left a chill in the air, prompting you to ditch your usual summer attire for a more practical ensemble. Today, a black turtleneck and a pair of straight-leg jeans were your armor against the unexpected cold.

Stepping out of your compact apartment, you locked the door with a practiced flick of your wrist and headed towards the elevator.

The hallway echoed with the distant hum of activity from neighboring apartments. A faint aroma of kimchi stew wafted through the air, a reminder of the vibrant tapestry of life that pulsed just beyond your door.

You reached the elevator, its stainless-steel surface reflecting the soft glow of the emergency exit sign. With a gentle press of the button, you waited patiently, the anticipation of a new day stirring within you.

The elevator doors slid open, revealing a glimpse of the bustling lobby below. You stepped inside, joining a group of students huddled together for warmth.

A quick exchange of greetings – a polite nod here, a mumbled "good morning" there – and the elevator continued its ascent. Reaching your floor, you exited with a final, purposeful sigh, ready to face the day.

The bus deposited you at the university gates, its doors hissing open with a pneumatic sigh. Rain slicked the pavement, and you hurried across the quadrangle, the damp air clinging to your skin.

Today, an unexpected stroke of luck – the bus driver had taken a shorter route, granting you a precious twenty minutes of reprieve. Your stomach, however, wasn't cooperating. A dull ache pulsed beneath your ribs, a persistent enemy threatening to disrupt your day.

Reaching the familiar edifice of the architecture building, you practically stumbled through the entrance. The hallways were deserted, a stark contrast to the usual pre-class bustle.

Relief washed over you. A few stolen moments of shut-eye in the quiet solitude of the lecture hall seemed like a divine intervention.

Pushing open the heavy oak door, you were greeted by a scene of hushed reverence. The vast room was bathed in a soft morning light filtering through high windows.

Empty chairs sat in neat rows, their burgundy upholstery gleaming. You sank gratefully into one, the cool leather a welcome comfort against your heated skin.

Professor Kim's voice, a measured cadence, echoed through the chamber. "At these connection points, we often see a shift from high-resistance insulation materials to lower-resistance framing members. This creates a pathway for heat to bypass the insulation, significantly increasing the U-factor of the entire assembly" The technical jargon of building science swirled around you.

You were a master's student at Seoul National University, a pinnacle of academic achievement you'd scaled with unwavering determination. Your bachelor's degree, a testament to your relentless pursuit of excellence, had come from the top university in your native Italy. But success, you'd discovered, often came with a price.

The classroom door clicked shut behind you, a welcome punctuation mark to the day's academic marathon. Tomorrow was a blessed Saturday, a day for much-needed rest and rejuvenation. But first, there was the matter of your evening shift at the cafe.

Financial constraints weren't a concern for you. Hailing from a prominent business family, you were fortunate to have financial security and the freedom to pursue your passion for architecture.

You could have easily opted for a more leisurely life, yet a curious draw to the cafe's ambience kept you coming back for more. It wasn't just the intoxicating aroma of freshly brewed coffee; it was the energy of the place, the constant hum of conversation, the comfortable anonymity it offered.

Truth be told, you were the cafe's resident coffee maestro. Your meticulous latte art and flawless cappuccinos were legendary. The owner, a kind-hearted woman named Aunt Byul, and Nenny, your equally passionate co-worker, held you in high regard.

Your professionalism and graceful demeanor earned you the trust of serving the cafe's most discerning clientele. You possessed a certain aura, an effortless elegance that captivated everyone you interacted with. Perhaps it was the undeniable allure of being an "exotic beauty" in a foreign land, or maybe it was simply the confidence that stemmed from your inner strength and self-assuredness

The tinkling of the cafe's entrance bell pierced the comfortable pre-shift quiet, drawing Nenny's attention from the intricate knot she was fashioning in her apron strings. With a swift glance in your direction, she chirped, "Hey Y/N!"

A smile bloomed on your face as you replied, "Hey Nenny, how's it going?"

"Significantly better now that my shift partner has finally graced us with her presence," she quipped playfully.

"So, only valuable as a coworker, not a friend?" you countered, a teasing lilt in your voice. "Just remember that the next time you need one of my 'friendly favors,'" you continued, earning a mock glare that sent you into a fit of laughter.

"Alright, alright," she conceded with a playful roll of her eyes. "Truce declared."

Nenny, a fellow business student at your university and a senior by a year, shared your passion for the rich aroma and nuanced flavors of coffee. Like you, however, she wasn't driven by a desire for financial independence.

Her bi-weekly shifts, dictated by the cafe's ever-changing needs, were a labor of love – a way to support her beloved aunt, the cafe's owner, who was struggling to keep the business afloat.

A year ago, Nenny had joined the staff, and through sheer determination and hard work, the cafe had begun to flourish. It was Nenny, in fact, who had introduced you to this haven when you'd first arrived at the university four months ago, practically dragging you through the doors upon hearing your inquiry about good local eateries.

To say you'd been captivated by the cafe's vintage charm would be an understatement. It was then and there, amidst the warm glow of antique lamps and the intoxicating aroma of freshly brewed coffee, that you knew you had to be a part of this unique space. Your offer to join the team had been met with open arms.

Now, with your apron and barista cap retrieved, you were ready to embrace your role as the cafe's star employee.

You donned your barista uniform with practiced ease, the crisp apron and matching cap transforming you into a soldier ready for coffee service. A warm smile bloomed on your face as Aunt Byul, the cafe owner, greeted you and Nenny, your fellow barista. "Hello beautiful young ladies!" she chirped, her voice seasoned with a hint of mischievousness.

"Hello my sweet lady," you countered, your grin outshining even hers. There was a genuine fondness between you and Aunt Byul, a bond forged over shared laughter and a mutual love for the aromatic world of coffee.

"Ready to work?" Aunt Byul's eyes twinkled with a knowing glint.

"Absolutely," you both replied in unison, your voices brimming with practiced enthusiasm.

"Let's get to work then soldiers," she declared playfully. "Looks like yesterday's rain is bringing out the drama queens in droves. Be prepared for a flurry of caffeinated tears and existential angst."

"Yes, Ma'am!" you and Nenny chorused, saluting her mock-seriously. The shared camaraderie was a comforting constant in the bustling cafe environment.

A melodic chime from the door shattered the pre-service lull. All three of you swiveled in unison, your gazes converging on the entrance. And then you saw him.

Jungkook

The aroma of roasted coffee beans and sugary pastries hung heavy in the air as I entered the cafe. The ambience screamed "old-school diner," a stark contrast to my usual preferences.

Why was I here, you ask? Because my best friend, Taehyung, had dragged me all the way across town – a forty-minute trek just for a slice of strawberry cake, a dessert readily available anywhere else. Yet, here I was.

The kick this guy gets by annoying me was beyond my understanding. Even though he is my best friend but the number of times he has gotten me into trouble always spoke otherwise, the urge to rearrange his handsome face with my fist flared up, but affection held me back.

With a sigh, I sank into the chair he'd pushed towards me. "Alright, bro, what are you having?" If murder weren't frowned upon, I might have been tempted to test the legal system on him.

"This is your supposed 'favorite strawberry cheesecake,'" I deadpanned, pointing a finger at him. "So why don't you order it? Let's see if this mythical dessert lives up to the hype. Because if it doesn't taste like the eighth wonder of the world, as you've bragged, I'm gonna make you taste my fist."

Taehyung, unfazed by my threat, merely shrugged. "Chill, dude. Trust me, it's good. Like, 'really good' good."

"We'll see about that," I muttered.

A chipper "Excuse me!" announced the arrival of our server. The sound of approaching footsteps clued me in, and I glanced away from the window, my gaze landing on a woman with a deep, feminine voice.

A beautiful tanned woman with a professional smile gracing Taehyung's side. She was tall and statuesque, with a European air about her. Dressed in a black turtleneck and blue denims, she exuded elegance and an undeniable beauty.

"Good evening! What would you like to have?" she inquired in a smooth voice.

"Two strawberry cheesecakes with extra syrup, and two medium Americanos," Taehyung rattled off.

"Certainly, sir. Anything else you'd like with that?"

"Yeah, five strawberry macarons – but later, please."

"Of course. It'll be about ten minutes," she replied, jotting down the order before bowing slightly and retreating to the counter. Her rose scent lingered in the air around, advocating for her presence near me.

"Do you like her?" Taehyung teased, his voice a low murmur in my ear. I whipped my head towards him, expression schooled into a blank slate. This guy.

He had a knack for getting under my skin, despite my affection for him. "I am just admiring god's creation. That's it" I blurted out.

"Seriously? Because your expressions say otherwise. You look like you've been starstuck."

"Maybe, may not be. By the way, you are regular here right?"

"Yeah, why?" came his curt reply.

"Do you know her?" I muttered under my breath.

"Nope"

The entire cafe visit was a blur of stolen glances in the waitress' direction. While Taehyung and I chatted, my attention kept drifting towards her.

Accelerating the car engine with ease, moving through the bustling streets of the city was a practiced and very usual adventure for both of us. Munching on the sugary treats, Taehyung easefully sat beside me in the passenger seat.

Saying a thing or two in between his bites, he extended his left arm infront of me, hands holding onto the macaroon, signaling me to take a bite.

"You know? Miss foreigner made these. Maybe you should try it."

The revelation only made me turn my head into his direction, an attempt to look at his face and make out if the information was actually real or whether he was just bluffing.

But the expression on his face, devoid of any mischief or fun emotion only fueled my curiosity.

"What do you mean- like for real"? hearing my own voice coming out with a bit of amazement even surprised me.

Turning my head back, my gaze focusing on the roads infront while my mind still lingered on the sweets and the their creator.

"Yeah dude... why would I lie? Are you for real right now? Like seriously? Why are you so bothered about the fact that she didn't treat you the way "you are supposed to be" huh? What is wrong with you?"

Taehyung retrieved his hands back , possibly irritated by my reaction towards the incident earlier.

Yeah I was pissed off by the fact that I was not given the "supposed special treatment" but it was not like he was starting to get annoyed now. I had only mentioned my displease for a couple of times.

"You know what? You are such a bogus, you hate when people treat you specially and also get mad when they don't. What do you even want you sick fuck. Stick to one side for god damn sake."

Feeling myself tightening my grip on the steering wheel, I could feel myself getting speechless with each second passing, not because of the foul words coming out of my best friend's mouth directed towards me, but because he was right.

"I thought that you like the cake but oh my mother how could I forget that Mr. Prince has a habit of being treated like the god he is and doesn't tolerate not being singled out."

[without-ado]

l 데니 태극기 Denny's Taegeukgi (left): the oldest one among Taegeukgi flags found in Korea. This was given to O. N. Denny (1838-1900, an American diplomatic advisor) by King Gojong of Korean Empire (cr. 문화재청)

815 광복절 Happy National Liberation Day of Korea!

“I want our nation to be the most beautiful in the world. By this I do not mean the most powerful nation. Because I have felt the pain of being invaded by another nation, I do not want my nation to invade others. It is sufficient that our wealth makes our lives abundant; it is sufficient that our strength is able to prevent foreign invasions. The only thing that I desire in infinite quantity is the power of a noble culture. This is because the power of culture both makes ourselves happy and gives happiness to others.” —Kim Gu 백범 김구 cr.

l 광복(restoration of light) means the end of the darkness of Japan’s rule over the Korean peninsula

[treethymes]

With the exceptions of North Korea and Cuba, the communist world has merged onto the capitalist highway in a couple different ways during the twenty-first century. As you’ve read, free-trade imperialism and its cheap agricultural imports pushed farmers into the cities and into factory work, lowering the global price of manufacturing labor and glutting the world market with stuff. Forward-thinking states such as China and Vietnam invested in high-value-added production capacity and managed labor organizing, luring links from the global electronics supply chain and jump-starting capital investment. Combined with capital’s hesitancy to invest in North Atlantic production facilities, as well as a disinclination toward state-led investment in the region, Asian top-down planning erased much of the West’s technological edge. If two workers can do a single job, and one worker costs less, both in wages and state support, why pick the expensive one? Foxconn’s 2017 plan to build a U.S. taxpayer–subsidized $10 billion flat-panel display factory in Wisconsin was trumpeted by the president, but it was a fiasco that produced zero screens. The future cost of labor looks to be capped somewhere below the wage levels many people have enjoyed, and not just in the West.

The left-wing economist Joan Robinson used to tell a joke about poverty and investment, something to the effect of: The only thing worse than being exploited by capitalists is not being exploited by capitalists. It’s a cruel truism about the unipolar world, but shouldn’t second place count for something? When the Soviet project came to an end, in the early 1990s, the country had completed world history’s biggest, fastest modernization project, and that didn’t just disappear. Recall that Cisco was hyped to announce its buyout of the Evil Empire’s supercomputer team. Why wasn’t capitalist Russia able to, well, capitalize? You’re already familiar with one of the reasons: The United States absorbed a lot of human capital originally financed by the Soviet people. American immigration policy was based on draining technical talent in particular from the Second World. Sergey Brin is the best-known person in the Moscow-to-Palo-Alto pipeline, but he’s not the only one.

Look at the economic composition of China and Russia in the wake of Soviet dissolution: Both were headed toward capitalist social relations, but they took two different routes. The Russian transition happened rapidly. The state sold off public assets right away, and the natural monopolies such as telecommunications and energy were divided among a small number of skilled and connected businessmen, a category of guys lacking in a country that frowned on such characters but that grew in Gorbachev’s liberalizing perestroika era. Within five years, the country sold off an incredible 35 percent of its national wealth. Russia’s richest ended the century with a full counterrevolutionary reversal of their fortunes, propelling their income share above what it was before the Bolsheviks took over. To accomplish this, the country’s new capitalists fleeced the most vulnerable half of their society. “Over the 1989–2016 period, the top 1 percent captured more than two-thirds of the total growth in Russia,” found an international group of scholars, “while the bottom 50 percent actually saw a decline in its income.” Increases in energy prices encouraged the growth of an extractionist petro-centered economy. Blood-covered, teary, and writhing, infant Russian capital crowded into the gas and oil sectors. The small circle of oligarchs privatized unemployed KGB-trained killers to run “security,” and gangsters dominated politics at the local and national levels. They installed a not particularly well-known functionary—a former head of the new intelligence service FSB who also worked on the privatization of government assets—as president in a surprise move on the first day of the year 2000. He became the gangster in chief.

Vladimir Putin’s first term coincided with the energy boom, and billionaires gobbled up a ludicrous share of growth. If any individual oligarch got too big for his britches, Putin was not beyond imposing serious consequences. He reinserted the state into the natural monopolies, this time in collaboration with loyal capitalists, and his stranglehold on power remains tight for now, despite the outstandingly uneven distribution of growth. Between 1980 and 2015, the Russian top 1 percent grew its income an impressive 6.2 percent per year, but the top .001 percent has maintained a growth rate of 17 percent over the same period. To invest these profits, the Russian billionaires parked their money in real estate, bidding up housing prices, and stashed a large amount of their wealth offshore. Reinvestment in Russian production was not a priority—why go through the hassle when there were easier ways to keep getting richer?

While Russia grew billionaires instead of output, China saw a path to have both. As in the case of Terry Gou, the Chinese Communist Party tempered its transition by incorporating steadily increasing amounts of foreign direct investment through Hong Kong and Taiwan, picking partners and expanding outward from the special economic zones. State support for education and infrastructure combined with low wages to make the mainland too attractive to resist. (Russia’s population is stagnant, while China’s has grown quickly.) China’s entry into the World Trade Organization, in 2001, gave investors more confidence. Meanwhile, strong capital controls kept the country out of the offshore trap, and state development priorities took precedence over extraction and get-rich-quick schemes. Chinese private wealth was rechanneled into domestic financial assets—equity and bonds or other loan instruments—at a much higher rate than it was in Russia. The result has been a sustained high level of annual output growth compared to the rest of the world, the type that involves putting up an iPhone City in a matter of months. As it has everywhere else, that growth has been skewed: only an average of 4.5 percent for the bottom half of earners in the 1978–2015 period compared to more than 10 percent for the top .001 percent. But this ratio of just over 2–1 is incomparable to Russia’s 17–.5 ration during the same period.

Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, certain trends have been more or less unavoidable. The rich have gotten richer relative to the poor and working class—in Russia, in China, in the United States, and pretty much anywhere else you want to look. Capital has piled into property markets, driving up the cost of housing everywhere people want to live, especially in higher-wage cities and especially in the world’s financial centers. Capitalist and communist countries alike have disgorged public assets into private pockets. But by maintaining a level of control over the process and slowing its tendencies, the People’s Republic of China has built a massive and expanding postindustrial manufacturing base.

It’s important to understand both of these patterns as part of the same global system rather than as two opposed regimes. One might imagine, based on what I’ve written so far, that the Chinese model is useful, albeit perhaps threatening, in the long term for American tech companies while the Russian model is irrelevant. Some commentators have phrased this as the dilemma of middle-wage countries on the global market: Wages in China are going to be higher than wages in Russia because wages in Russia used to be higher than wages in China. But Russia’s counterrevolutionary hyper-bifurcation has been useful for Silicon Valley as well; they are two sides of the same coin. Think about it this way: If you’re a Russian billionaire in the first decades of the twenty-first century looking to invest a bunch of money you pulled out of the ground, where’s the best place you could put it? The answer is Palo Alto.

Malcolm Harris, Palo Alto

[b-else-writes]

The Great CLAMP Re-Read Part 8: Legend of Chunhyang

Part 1 (RG Veda) | Part 2 (Man of Many Faces) | Part 3 (Tokyo Babylon) | Part 4 (Duklyon) | Part 5 (Clamp Detectives)| Part 6 (Shirahime)| Part 7 (X)| Part 9 (Miyuki-chan)

The RG Veda historical epic that never was, or better off cancelled? While X is widely cited as CLAMP's first unfinished work, there is actually another 1992 stillborn CLAMP work, before we can finally move onto 1993 in the CLAMP timeline. To be a broken record, I had no idea this existed! It’s unsurprising: only 3 chapters were ever published (plus 1 drama CD), before the magazine folded and CLAMP decided to cancel the project (yeah yeah they said they’d love to finish it. They’re liars).

Unlike many of their other discontinued early works, this one actually got a tankoban release, and Tokyopop did the now out-of-print English translation in a single volume with no extra art. Plus, I was hesitant about approaching a work of Korean folklore written by 4 Japanese women, given the history, and my fears were not unfounded. So I’m content that I put off getting the physical release for my collection. Spoilers (?) ahead.

Synopsis: In Ancient Korea, a brave young maiden called Chunhyang, opposes the injustices of the corrupt governing Yangbans. When her mother, a magic-wielding mudang, is kidnapped by their town's Yangban, Chunhyang is aided by the lecherous Mongryong, the Amhaeng’eosa, a secret government agent. Together, the two set off on adventure that will take them across Korea to liberate towns and discover the truth of Chunhyang's father.

The Story: I wrote all of that out, but the reality is what actually exists of Legend of Chunhyang is two chapters and a flashback. It's very hard to judge a story that hasn't settled in or moved further than the set up for the adventure. What we got is entertaining enough - chapter 1 is the inciting incident where Chunhyang’s mother dies and she teams up with Mongryong, 2 has them liberate a mystical flower village with the help of a rain god and twin mudang, and 3 is a flashback that reveals Chunhyang’s dead father was important and killed for defying the Yangban. It’s very Robin Hood, and moves at a good pace despite being pretty standard YA fantasy. Speaking of, I don’t think CLAMP realises most Korean towns back then would have been agricultural. Why does Chunhyang live in a huge villa doing nothing all day? I want my peasant hero, not a disgruntled pseudo noble.

The skeleton for the entire story is pretty obvious (bring revolution to Korea) and I’d definitely be curious to see more of it. But I’m also not sad we got nothing more. It’s a pleasant afternoon distraction.

The Themes: Don’t be a bully and tyrannical governments are bad and must be resisted - as long as they’re Korean (side-eyes that Rising Sun flag in CLAMP Campus Detectives. Ah, Japanese nationalism). It’s 3 chapters, that’s all I can glean.

The Characters: Chunhyang fits heavily into the CLAMP stock heroine: young, spunky, strong, pure-hearted, and athletic, shojo ingenue. Still, while she’s nothing new, I enjoyed Chunhyang. CLAMP has the formula for the fun, palatable heroine we love to see win, and I’m hardly immune. Mongryong was more bland to me, falling hard into that 90s era shojo hero who gets comically beaten up by his love interest, but always suavely swoops in to save her. It’s nostalgic, he’s hot, but that’s it. Maybe with time they would have defined themselves like RG Veda’s cast did (also archetypes), but there’s just so little!

The crumbs of minor characters are equally stock - one dimensional cackling villains, and pure beyond belief good guys. Mongryong’s tiger spirit was my favourite because I love all cats. It’s really the charm of Chunhyang that carries us above - she’s a good balance of fierce and endearing.

The Art: Legend of Chunhyang is interesting in that chapter 1 was brush inked due to their experience on Shirahime, but the remaining art was done with marker pen. The result is chapter 1 feels a bit unpolished, with backgrounds being mostly chunky blobs and quick lines in a way I found distracting. 2 and 3 work much better, with thick swirls of soft magic and flowers, giving Chunhyang a slight distinction from their other early 90s work. The panel work is quite conservative unlike RG Veda, very rarely having dynamic spreads, but satisfactory and readable. Chapter 2 is a standout of circling dragons and flowers. Everyone is gorgeously dressed and pretty. It’s not the best of CLAMP, but it’s nice and elevates the material.

Questionable Elements: While certain CLAMP podcasts have praised CLAMP for essentially rewriting the folktale to make Chunhyang more active - why would you even choose to adapt that Korean folklore then, if your intention is to make a generic Robin Hood sword and fantasy series that has zero to do with the original culture? You could just set it in feudal Japan! It feels very distasteful to deliberately choose Korea as a setting of barbaric unending tyranny that needs correcting. Especially given Japan’s history in “modernising” Korea.

On top of that, there’s a clear lack of research done - a lot of the outfits and hair accessories are inaccurate. Chunhyang’s mother’s decision to kill herself than risk dishonour is also incredibly Japanese (and notably doesn’t exist in the original). I have to cry foul because if you’re going to actually set this in a real ancient Korea, you should do your research. I’m not saying CLAMP are anti-Korean but they show a disappointing lack of care and bias.

Also. How old is Mongryong if Chunhyang is 14. Answer quickly, CLAMP.

Overall: Listen, RG Veda 2.0 this is not. Rather than an imaginative, fantastical, sweeping epic, Legend of Chunhyang is built on very familiar tropes and stock characters with a dose of cultural insensitivity and bias. It doesn’t even have a proper narrative arc, existing more as a “what if” than an almost masterpiece. It’s alleviated by the sheer charm of Chunhyang herself, its brisk, entertaining pace, and the enjoyable art. But it’s no great literary tragedy that it was never finished, and I’d really only recommend it to diehard CLAMP fans who want a quick, pleasant escape on a fantasy adventure.

[red-hot-temper]

Villains Are Destined to Die calendar 2023

January: 1 - New Year's Day, 22 - Lunar New Year (there is a quote of Penelope at the end of the page)

February: 14 - Reynold's birthday (Reynold's quote)

March: 1- March 1st Movement, 31 - The day that Siyeon transmigrated into the game (Penelope's quote)

April: 1 - Siyeon's birthday, 5 - Sikmogil Arbor Day, 15 - the imperial ball (second prince's birthday, but who cares THIS IS THE FIRST MEETING OF PENELOPE AND CALLISTO AAAHHH) (Penelope's quote)

May: 5 - Children's Day, 6 - VADD Festival (I think it refers to the beginning of the festival), 27 - Buddha's Birthday (Derrick's quote)

June: 6 - Memorial Day / Hyeonchungil, 24 - a banquet hall commotion, 25 - the opening day of the hunting competition, 30 - Eckles' birthday

July: no VADD events or holidays (the two quotes are from Eckles)

August: 1 - Callisto's birthday <3, 15 - The National Liberation Day of Korea, 16 - Penelope's coming of age ceremony (I swear I thought it was a week after Callisto's birthday) (Callisto's quote <3)

September: 13 - Winter's birthday, 29 - Chuseok Festival (Winter's quote)

Since Tumblr limits the number of images in the post, I'll do a reblog with the remaining months, wait a little!

[commajade]

i had a korean friend (living in korea, not korean-american) who told me once that he thought korean people felt a kinship toward black americans because of their history of being continuously exploited (on the korean side he meant by china/japan/the US). obviously i took that with a grain of salt because i'm not ignorant of korea's relationship to antiblackness but i still think about it a lot.

i think an important distinction needs to be made here in which the people of korea, the people of the korean peninsula, the people of joseon, are an ethnically homogenous civilization with a shared national identity of 500 years under the kingdom of joseon and shared cultural history of 5000 years. the koreans who are able to enact material and ideological antiblackness right now are the ones benefitting from the US neocolony that is the republic of korea and the ones that are diasporic (especially in the imperial core). the dprk has historically been aligned with the ongoing political struggle of black people in the US and the black panther party frequently published the writings of kim il sung.

here's a document from the dprk about US antiblackness and the oppression of the black panther party around 1970.

and if you see here, it's simply on a basis of morality and moral political ideology that the korean people stand with black people in the US, there doesn't have to be emotional commonalities. it is simply political and moral necessity to speak up about our support. we are being oppressed by the same regime of US empire and global white supremacy and racial capitalism, it is of the utmost importance to stand in solidarity with other people in struggle.

it's also very cool to see this kind of document. "trenchantly flaying the US imperialists for their occupation of South Korea" goes sooo hard. the US is indeed "the chieftan of world imperialism, the ringleader of world reaction and the common enemy of the world people." the dprk's political morals are a really refreshing reminder that korean people do not all have the same relationship to global hegemony and there have always been korean people who are against empire and struggling for liberation.

and what you're actually talking about here is about the empathetic resonances between the political struggles of black people and korean people, which do exist. they are there and it's important to feel them to begin any kind of political work as a korean person, though politics should not be based around anecdotal and emotional resonances only. korea was known as the shrimp between 2 whales between china and japan for 5000 years and china's word for korean people is eastern barbarians. many artistic, technological, and cultural innovations credited to china and japan are actually korean. china and japan would kidnap hundreds of artisans and scholars every time korean people invented something they wanted and usually the korean kingdom (unified silla, joseon, etc) was a vassal to china or economically beholden to japan so they couldn't stop it. even cherry blossom trees that are the japanese national symbol were first taken from the silla kingdom. and then planted all over joseon during japanese occupation hundreds of years later to show that joseon now belongs to japan. the constant cycles of theft, labor exploitation, disrespect, and humiliation are present in both peoples for sure. and korea spent decades freeing ourselves from japanese colonization and succeeded, only to be overtaken by US military occupation 3 days later. and then divided in half and made to be in perpetual war with our other half.

there are resonances with black people's constant struggle against institutional, ideological, and cutlural violence that seems to be never ending because of the strength of the US empire and global antiblackness. but both of our people can and will be freed, and the empire is decaying as we speak. we both have a lot of our people working for the colonizer's side but that can shift as well. i believe it. we have the same enemy and we outnumber them, we have been struggling for liberation and will one day succeed.

the important distinction here as well is that black people have singularly been exploited in the form of chattel slavery and the ideological work of whiteness to justify chattel slavery is the racial formation of the entire world. the entire world operates on an economic and ideological system of antiblackness.

i think every korean person coming to terms with the truth of the world needs to necessarily do massive amounts of academic and internal and physical work to come to terms with global antiblackness and our part in it, to redistribute any resources we have and support black people's vital struggle against empire. that is the first step to actual material solidarity, korean people have to make those changes within themselves and their lives first. like to even be able to relate to black people normally without the distortion of global narratives about blackness is going to require a lot of work. restructuring the way you and relate to the world and changing how you move in the material world as a result of that political realignment is deeply necessary for undoing the antiblackness embedded in everyone.

[mariacallous]

The April 10 legislative elections in South Korea loom especially large for President Yoon Suk-yeol. After winning his election in March 2022 by the narrowest margin in the country’s history, the conservative Yoon inherited the National Assembly elected in 2020, in which South Korea’s liberals won a historic landslide thanks to the Moon Jae-in administration’s strong response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Out of the legislature’s 300 seats, the liberal coalition won a 180-seat majority, the largest margin of victory in South Korea’s democratic history.

Two years into his five-year presidential term, Yoon has left a mark in areas that are down to the president alone. Yoon made profligate use of presidential decrees, executive orders that don’t require legislative approval. In his first year, Yoon issued 809 presidential decrees, while his two immediate predecessors, Moon and Park Geun-hye, issued 660 and 653 decrees, respectively, in their first years. Yoon also exerted influence through his appointments—most notably Park Min, the new head of the state-owned broadcaster KBS who sacked popular liberal journalists as soon as he took office. In foreign policy, Yoon capitulated to Japan’s demands to sideline World War II-era Korean forced laborers and release wastewater from the failed Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, paving the way for U.S.-Japan-South Korea trilateral cooperation.

But in areas that require legislative assent, Yoon has been stymied. The South Korean Constitution allows the executive branch to directly propose a bill to the legislature. For the first six months of Yoon’s presidency, the National Assembly refused to pass a single bill proposed by the government. Yoon’s campaign pledge of abolishing the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, pandering to the toxic misogyny rampant among young Korean men and fueling their conservative turn, has not come to pass because a reorganization of cabinet ministries requires passing a law. (Yoon has responded by simply refusing to appoint a gender equality minister.)

Meanwhile, the opposition Democratic Party has leveraged its commanding majority to pass laws that could have been highly damaging to Yoon, such as providing for special prosecutor investigations of the Itaewon Halloween disaster, in which 159 partygoers died in crushing crowds in Seoul’s popular nightlife district, and the alleged stock pump-and-dump scheme on the part of first lady Kim Keon-hee. Each time, Yoon responded by exercising a presidential veto, quickly racking up nine vetoes in the first two years of his presidency—equal to the total number of vetoes exercised by six of his predecessors combined.

Naturally, the Yoon administration and the ruling People Power Party (PPP) are heavily focused on recapturing the legislative majority in elections this month. Yoon was able to win the presidency by flipping a significant part of Seoul from liberal to conservative between 2020 and 2022, by pandering heavily to grievances over rising property tax. The real estate slump since Yoon’s election—Seoul’s condominium prices dipped by more than 7 percent in the past year—threatened to erode that support, as the lower condo price damaged upper-middle-class Seoul residents’ primary investment while the decreased profits and higher interest rate pushed large construction companies to the brink.

In response, South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service audited banks for charging what the regulators claimed were overly high interest rates, in a move seen as a tactic to pressure banks to extend loans to companies that posed a credit risk. The government also delayed the publication of major economic indicators such as the previous year’s budget deficit and the rising price of consumer goods until after election day on April 10.

For its interim leader in the run-up to the election, the PPP tapped Han Dong-hoon, Yoon’s justice minister and heir apparent. Because of his patrician air and relative youth at 51 years old, Han has been hailed as representing the next generation of conservatives. In the words of conservative columnist Kim Soon-deok of Dong-A Ilbo, Han stands in contrast to Yoon in three ways: “First, he does not drink. Second, he is not a stinky old man. Third, he dresses well and speaks with refined language.” With Han at the center, the conservative party has been able to distance itself from the deeply unpopular president.

The Yoon administration also enjoyed a bump in popularity with its proposal to increase the number of medical students by 2,000—a significant jump from the current level of around 3,000. South Korea has a very low number of doctors, which has resulted in a lack of access to medical care especially outside the Seoul metropolitan area. At just 2.6 doctors per 1,000 people, it’s as low as in the United States, which also has a significant and artificially created shortage, and less than half of the number of most developed countries. Doctors reacted strongly, with more than 90 percent of interns and residents going on strike. Nevertheless, the Yoon administration effectively painted doctors as money-grubbers who wished to artificially restrict the size of their ranks to protect their bottom line. With all these moves, by late February it appeared that Yoon and the conservatives had put themselves in the pole position.

Meanwhile, South Korean liberals have been mired in a civil war. Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the Democratic Party and a former presidential candidate who opposed Yoon, began as a member of the minority faction within his party. As the Democratic Party finalized its slate of candidates in February, the legislators not aligned with Lee found themselves sidelined from running for their seats again. Many of them—including high-ranking members such as Assembly Deputy Speaker Kim Young-joo—quit the party, casting their lot with the PPP or seeking a third-party bid with former Prime Minister Lee Nak-yeon, who lost a bitter presidential primary against Lee in 2021.

But the campaign landscape changed dramatically in March as a new third party, the Rebuilding Korea Party (RKP), took the scene by storm. The RKP was founded by Cho Kuk, who was widely considered to be the heir apparent to Moon as the liberal president’s justice minister. Instead, Cho’s short time in office fueled the rise of Yoon.

As South Korea’s prosecutor general at the time, Yoon conducted a massive investigation campaign against Cho and his family, eventually putting his wife in prison for forging a service certificate that was included in their daughter’s college applications. Yoon’s prosecution of Cho galvanized the conservatives, who saw Cho as a symbol of liberal hypocrisy. Liberals, on the other hand, saw Cho as a martyr whose family was destroyed for the sake of Yoon’s quest for power.

With Yoon’s unpopularity, the latter narrative began to win out. The RKP’s slogan is not subtle: “Three years is too long,” referring to the remaining term of Yoon’s presidency. The new party quickly became the rallying flag for South Korean liberals critical of Yoon but disappointed with the Democratic Party’s internal squabbling. Even moderates began joining the RKP ranks, attracted by the clear message of punishing the Yoon administration. Within weeks of its launch, the RKP became South Korea’s most popular party with approximately 25 percent support.

A major turning point came on March 18, when Yoon made a highly publicized visit to a supermarket—a photo op to show that the president was tending to the wild increase in food prices. In January and February, the cost of food in South Korea increased by 6.7 percent year over year, with popular items like apples rising by as much as 121.9 percent in the same period, resulting in some supermarkets selling a single apple for 19,800 won (about $15).

At the supermarket, Yoon held up a bundle of scallions and said: “I do a lot of grocery shopping, and 875 won for a bundle seems reasonable.” But in most grocery stores around South Korea, a bundle of scallions typically sells for between 4,000 and 7,000 won; the supermarket that Yoon visited just happened to be running a suspiciously well-timed promotion on scallions.

Yoon’s attempt at Potemkin produce, over a household item whose price is common knowledge, instantly became fodder for viral mockery. Especially in the Seoul metropolitan area, where partisanship is relatively weak and election results tend to alternate, support for the conservatives began crashing. Yoon’s gaffe, and the rise of his nemesis Cho, is threatening to reverse the gain that South Korea’s conservatives have made in Seoul in the past two years.

Seeking to recapture the momentum, Yoon took to the bully pulpit on April 1 to exhort the striking doctors to return to work. But the government’s standoff against doctors is now losing popularity, as the public is facing the consequences of a lack of medical care, such as emergency rooms rejecting ambulances and cancer surgeries being delayed indefinitely. The newly elected head of the Korea Medical Association vowed that the doctors would not negotiate unless Yoon apologized and sacked the health minister.

In his April 1 statement, Yoon offered no compromise—a stance that has done little for conservatives as election day approaches. After the president’s address, one unnamed conservative legislator despaired: “I feel like a dinosaur looking up at the oncoming comet, sensing our extinction.”

[swansongofalyre]

Where to Find Memento Mori (Updated 9/11/2024)

On August 13, two days before 광복절 (Korean National Liberation Day), my debut novel was released. The book is about Korean-American family, and also about Greek mythology, and I promise this combination makes sense in the end. (For those who are curious, I wrote an uncharacteristically personal guest post for Women's Writers, Women's Books on the topic of what inspired me to write a Eurydice and Orpheus retelling about my Korean grandmother.)

It was surreal to go to a store the other day and see it on a table next to Salman Rushdie and other acclaimed writers. After 13 years of this story existing in some form, I'm so excited that this book is finally out—both because it is a beautiful book that I am proud of and that I hope you enjoy, and also because I would love to stop being my own publicist (it is VERY awkward).

So here is an omnibus post of book-related info that I will keep updated and pinned going forward to finally give the memento mori tag a rest. Below the cut, you will find a running list of indie bookstores and public libraries that I know carry my book. (If you have a New York Public Library card and have 5 minutes, I will love you forever if you would email your local branch to ask them to carry my book, thus fulfilling my lifelong dream of living in the NYPL.)

Also below are a few upcoming events at which I have been invited to speak!

Bookstores by State (as of 9/11/2024)

Search for your local bookstore here!

Arizona

Changing Hands Bookstore (Phoenix and Tempe)

California

Gallery Bookshop (Mendocino)

Timbre Books (Ventura) Sold out for now (but you can still order online)!

Indiana

The Press (Valparaiso)

Iowa

Prairie Lights Books (Iowa City)

Maine

Longfellow Books (Portland) Sold out for now (but you can still order online)!

Massachusetts

Nantucket Book Partners (Nantucket) Sold out for now (but you can still order online)!

Porter Square Books (Cambridge and Boston both back in stock!)

Missouri

Skylark Bookshop (Columbia)

Montana

Chapter One Book Store (Hamilton)

New Hampshire

Water Street Bookstore (Exeter)

New Jersey

Watchung Booksellers (Montclair)

New York

Astoria Bookshop (Queens, 1 signed copy left!)

Book Culture (Signed copies at the 112th St. and Broadway stores; also available at LIC and Pittsford Pittsford has sold out for now!)

Books are Magic (Brooklyn, at both Smith St. and Montague St.)

Market Block Books (Troy) Sold out for now (but you can still order online)!

Greenlight Bookstore (Brooklyn) Back in stock!

Shakespeare & Co (Manhattan, Lincoln Center has signed copies; Lexington also as copies back in stock)

Yu and Me Books (Manhattan; comes with bonus goodies, see below!)

North Carolina

Quail Ridge Books (Raleigh)

Oregon

Powell's (Burnside, Cedar Hills, and Hawthorne locations)

Rhode Island

Heartleaf Books (Providence)

Vermont

Phoenix Books (Burlington and Essex)

Washington, D.C.

Politics and Prose (at both CT Ave NW and Union Market)

Washington State

Elliott Bay Book Company (Seattle)

Wisconsin

Woodland Pattern (Milwaukee)

Libraries (as of 09/10/2024)

Worldcat Listings (Probably the most comprehensive)

Libby (for e-books)

California

Berkeley Public Library

Illinois

Chicago Public Library

Kentucky

Lexington Public Library

Maine

Portland Public Library (On Order)

Michigan

Canton Public Library (On Order)

New York

Greenburgh Public Library (Available)

New York Public Library (Available)

Queens Public Library (Available)

Texas

Harris County Public Library (In Processing)

Virginia

Arlington Public Library (In Processing)

Wisconsin

Whitefish Bay Public Library

Washington State

Seattle Public Library

Online

Bookshop.org (US)

Bookshop.org (UK)

Massive Bookshop (all profits go to community bail funds)

Barnes & Noble

Target

KYOBO 교보문고 (Korea)

Upcoming Events

September 3: Astoria Bookshop in conversation with Maia Lee-Chin for the release of her incredible book Et Cetera

September 22: Narrative Bookshop (Somerville, MA) in conversation with Maia Lee-Chin

September 28: Brooklyn Book Festival for a debut authors panel moderated by THEE Edwidge Danticat

October 17: Fall for the Book Festival in Fairfax, VA for a panel on mythology with Rania Hanna, the amazing author of The Jinn Daughter

[papaya2000s]

The History of Korean Male Groups – From Yeonhee Professional Singers’ Quartet to BTS -> Pt. 2/? (Rewrite)

Like the experiences of the 60s-80s in Korea (I previously discussed the film Emergency Act 19 (긴급조치 19호) in another post that talks about the censorship.), the Japanese Colonial Rule era saw significant music censorship that impacted Korean culture, especially its musical landscape. Japanese authorities imposed strict measures to suppress Korean national identity and promote Japanese interests, harming both traditional and popular music.

This censorship included regulating song content and performances, banning many Korean songs with nationalistic themes or critiques of the regime, while promoting Japanese music and songs aligned with their cultural goals.

Despite these oppressive measures, some Korean musicians skilfully incorporated traditional elements into their work, preserving their cultural heritage while navigating censorship challenges.

Western Music in Japan

It might seem a bit off in the context of the history of Korean music, but just like today’s K-pop acts, earlier Korean artists drew a lot of inspiration from Western music legends like The Beatles. This influence came about when Western culture started blending into Asia, especially since many Asian countries had been pretty isolated for a long time. If you check out historical Asian dramas or anime, you’ll notice a mix of Western and Asian architectural styles. Plus, if you ever visit or live in places like China, Japan, or Korea, you’ll spot plenty of Western-style buildings that have stood the test of time.

Zhongyang Street from south, Harbin, 1920s (哈尔滨中央大街). Formerly known as Kitayskaya ("Chinese") Street, Zhongyang Street (中央大街) was and still is the busiest street in today's Daoli District. In the distance, Songhua River and the railway bridge. Photo by Moravius on flickr An example of Western architectural style in China, which is still there and looks the same today.

Yonhui College and what it looked like in 1918 which is still used today. This college, which will be discussed later, plays a significant role in the history of Korean music.

In the early 20th century, Japan experienced a notable introduction of Western melodies, particularly during the Meiji era (1868-1912), which was characterized by the country's swift modernization and embrace of Western cultural influences. This period facilitated the creation of numerous songs that incorporated Western musical elements, reflecting a significant shift in Japan's musical landscape.

Prominent Western classical composers such as Ludwig van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Schubert, Edvard Grieg, and Claude Debussy gained popularity in Japan during this time. Their works were disseminated through performances by Western musicians, the efforts of music educators, and the establishment of institutions dedicated to Western music education, thereby enriching Japan's musical repertoire and fostering a deeper appreciation for Western classical music.

How Korean Male Groups evolved over time.

Male groups in Korean music history have undergone significant changes and developments over the years. These groups were typically formed in two distinct ways, with one focusing on vocal harmony and the other placing a strong emphasis on performance.

Prior to the 1970s, the majority of male ensembles (a group of musicians, actors, or dancers who perform together) prioritized harmony in their music. However, a shift occurred in the 1980s, leading to the emergence of groups that placed a greater emphasis on performance and showmanship. This shift was particularly evident in the dance music genre, and these groups can be considered as the precursors to the modern-day 'boy groups' that are prevalent in the industry today.

The evolution of male groups in Korean music history can be traced through various decades, starting from the period before liberation (1910 – 1945), through the 60s, 70s, 80s, and early 90s, and continuing into the mid-90s, 2000s, and up to the 2010s. Each era brought about its own unique changes and developments in the male group landscape, reflecting the evolving tastes and preferences of the audience as well as the broader cultural and societal shifts taking place in Korea. By examining the trajectory of male groups over these different time periods, we can gain a deeper understanding of the factors that have shaped the history of Korean male groups and their significance in the music industry.

Before Liberation - 1900s:

The historical evolution of male musical ensembles in Korea before liberation lacks a definitive "first" group, with both the Yeonhee Professional Orchestra (연희전문사중창단) and the 'Youth Member' (청년회원) frequently cited as early contributors. These ensembles share significant similarities and play crucial roles in the history of male musical groups in Korea, regardless of their status as the inaugural ensemble. The available documentation for the Yeonhee Professional Orchestra is notably more extensive than that for the 'Youth Member,' which is often referenced in academic literature.

The Yeonhee Professional Orchestra is recognized as the first male ensemble in Korea to operate under an official name, predating the 'Youth Member' group. While the 'Youth Member' is thought to have emerged around 1923, there is a lack of substantial evidence, such as photographs or audio recordings, to substantiate its official recognition. Although this group is believed to have performed the <Hakdo Song> (학도가) in 1923, the complexities of its activities during the Japanese colonial period hinder the verification of its existence and influence on the musical scene of that time.

I did a bit more research and think I may have discovered the audio for <Hakdo Song> (학도가), though I could be mistaken. When translating the title from Korean to English, it could result in two different Romanized versions: Hakdog Song (학도가) and Hakdogga (학도가), but they are written the same way in Korean.

This is the video of the supposed song below and also the link to the lyrics to the song i found in the blog - Link

In contrast, the Yeonhee Professional Orchestra boasts more thorough documentation from the 1920s and 1930s. This male ensemble primarily consisted of students from Yeonhee College, which later evolved into Yonsei University.

The formal establishment of the Yeonhee Professional Orchestra as an official entity underscores its importance and acknowledgment within the music industry, distinguishing it from the less substantiated 'Youth Member.' The detailed records associated with the Yeonhee Professional Orchestra facilitate a clearer understanding of its contributions and significance during that historical period.

*Note - Yeonhee College/ University changed names and have had different spellings: Yonhui, Yeonhui, Yonhee and Yonsei.

‘Youth Member’(청년회원)

Given the scarcity of information, I will strive to provide clarity regarding the song they reportedly performed, known as "Hakdo Song" (학도가) from 1923. It is difficult to consider the ‘Youth Member’ specified in the album as a team name. The exact names of the members still can not be confirmed. I will also include links to the sources where I discovered this information, noting that their name has appeared frequently over the years, yet details remain limited.

The initial reference to 'Youth Member' within the historical context of Korean male groups occurs prior to liberation, specifically associated with the 'Yeonhui Professional Quartet.' The connection between these two entities arises from the possibility that 'Youth Member' may represent the earliest formation of a Korean male group. However, the lack of substantial information regarding this particular group limits our understanding, as the available records primarily focus on their musical contributions.

The mention of 'Youth Member' alongside the 'Yeonhui Professional Quartet' highlights a significant yet obscure aspect of Korean musical history. While 'Youth Member' is posited as potentially the first Korean male group, the scarcity of detailed documentation about its activities and influence restricts a comprehensive analysis. Consequently, the historical narrative surrounding these groups remains largely incomplete, with much of the focus directed towards their musical output rather than their broader cultural impact.

Album Photo Parents' Grace Song / Student Song. Official Song (Kwonhakga) Album Front, Collection of Lee Kyung-ho

The phonograph record in question is a Taegeukpyo release by the Nippon Gramophone Company, dating back to approximately 1923, and features three distinct musical pieces: "Parents' Grace Song," (부모의 은덕가) "Hakdoga," (학도가), and "Kwonhakga." (권학가).

This record has sparked discussions regarding the classification of changga (love song) as a form of popular music. Notably, "Hakdoga," the first changga featured on the album, holds significant historical value as it encapsulates the evolution of popular music during the Enlightenment Period, thereby serving as a crucial artifact for understanding the cultural dynamics of that era.

The first song confirmed on a record

Despite the existence of numerous records, the earliest confirmed song on a record is <Hakdoga>, attributed to 'Youth Member,' which is believed to be the first male group in Korea. This song was released by Nippon Gramophone Co., Ltd. (日本コロムビア株式会社) around 1921, catalogued as record number 6217.

The true identity of this album remains unverified. The only known version is a reissue from approximately 1923, which is exceedingly rare, with only one or two copies in existence. The recording features a choir format, and rather than listing a specific artist, it simply credits 'Youth Member.' The initial designation as 'Christian Youth Member' suggests that the performance was by a member of the YMCA rather than a professional vocalist. The introduction of the song invites listeners to "Let's sing a student song," mirroring the format used in Edison Records in the United States.

For some reason, finding the right company proved to be difficult, but I truly hope this is the one, particularly since it was the only option available when the song was released. Information about the company that the song was released by below.

Nippon Columbia Co., Ltd., established on October 1, 1910, in Kawasaki-cho, Kanagawa Prefecture, originally operated as the Japan Gramophone Trading Company, marking the inception of Japan's first online music service. From its founding, it maintained a partnership with the American Columbia Record Company, facilitating the import and export of both music and gramophone technology. The company underwent a transformation through Ichichu Kogyo and was rebranded as Japan Columbia in 1946.

'Student' (학도가) is a Japanese version of 'Railroad Window Song' (철도창가) with only the lyrics changed

The authorship of the lyrics for ‘학도가’ remains uncertain, with some attributing it to Choi Nam-seon (최남선) and others to Kim In-sik (김인식), recognized as the first Western musician. However, these claims lack definitive evidence, and there exists a considerable amount of misinformation regarding the composer. Notably, ‘학도가’ is essentially a reworked version of the Japanese song 'Railroad Window Song' (철도창가), which was released in 1900 during the Meiji era.

The lyrics of ‘학도가’ reflect themes of enlightenment, although there are variations from the contemporary rendition. The version performed by Myeong Guk-hwan (명국환) retains the original lyrics but condenses the content from six verses to four. In contrast, Go Woon-bong's (고운봉) interpretation incorporates Juja’s exhortation to learn (勸學文), derived from ‘Gwonhakga’ (권학가), further illustrating the evolution of the song's message over time.

Kim In-sik/ Kim In Hak (김인식)

Born in Pyongyang in 1885 and passed away in 1963, he is recognized as the inaugural Western music educator in the nation. I'll go more into detail about him in a future post.

Choi Nam-seon (최남선)

Choi Nam-seon was a prominent figure in the Japanese colonial era, recognized for his roles as a writer, journalist, historian, and pro-Japanese anti-nationalist. Born in 1890 and passing away in 1957, he pursued his studies in Japan, subsequently launching magazines and fostering a new cultural movement through his literary contributions. He was instrumental in the creation of a Korean dictionary and authored the "Declaration of Independence" during the March 1st Movement. Additionally, he was involved with the Gyemyeong Club, which focused on the study of Korean culture and history, and he served on the Joseon History Compilation Committee. From 1935 onward, he became increasingly active in pro-Japanese initiatives, promoting Japanese Shinto and supporting student soldiers while advocating the notion that Korea and Japan share a common cultural heritage through his "cultural mobilization theory." I'll go more into detail about him in a future post.

A scholar with an enlightened character

Gwonhakga serves as an enlightenment song that promotes the value of education. Unlike typical phonograph records that feature a single song on each side, this particular album stands out by presenting Gwonhakga alongside Hakdoga on the same side of the record.

The song's lyrics reference Juja's work, (勸學文), emphasizing the fleeting nature of youth and the challenges of learning, with the admonition that "young people are easy to grow old, but learning is difficult, so do not treat time lightly even for a moment." (少年易老學難成一寸光陰不可輕). This serves as a cautionary message to the youth regarding the importance of their studies, and these lines were subsequently echoed in Gounbong's ‘학도가’.

This is the video of the supposed song below and also the link to the lyrics to the song i found in the blog – Link Video - https://youtu.be/RrHfwmd1qU4 The song, which has been sung since the Japanese colonial period, also has the same melody as the ‘Student Song’ below.

What the ‘Student Song’ might mean - The 'Student Song' emphasizes the importance of youth and education, urging students to recognize their role in shaping history. It highlights a young boy's proficiency in mathematics and praises the remarkable Ilchon Gwangumdo. The imagery of jade hidden in lush mountains suggests that potential must be refined to reveal its brilliance, while the fallen tree symbolizes the necessity of sacrifice for growth. The song calls upon diligent students to remember their responsibilities, as the dawn moon sets and the bright Dongcheon Joil illuminates their path. Ultimately, it reiterates the significance of youth in the ongoing narrative of history.

‘Parents' Grace Song’ praising the grace of parents

The song titled "Parents' Grace Song" (부모의 은덕가) was initially released by Nippon Gramophone Co., Ltd. in approximately 1921, catalogued as record number 6216. The original recording has not survived, but historical documentation indicates that the title was originally inscribed in Chinese characters as "父母恩德 (Parents' Grace Song)," distinct from its reprinted version labelled as record number K200.

The lyrics of this song bear resemblance to contemporary songs performed on Parents' Day, emphasizing the virtues of parental kindness and the importance of expressing gratitude. Its emotional resonance remains significant today, and the fact that modern Parents' Day songs reference "Parents' Kindness Song" (부모의 은덕가) suggests that this piece has been preserved through oral tradition for many years.

[mesetacadre]

When the Red Army entered Korea in early August, 1945, heavy battles took place in the north, but the Japanese rule remained tranquil in the south, for the Russians stopped by the Yalta agreement at the 38th parallel, while the Americans came several weeks after the surrender of Japan, and ruled at first through the Japanese and then through the Japanese-appointed Korean officials and police. So naturally all of the pro-Japanese Koreans – former police and officials, landlords and stockholders in Japanese companies – fled south to the American zone. The flight of all these right-wing elements amazingly simplified North Korean politics. The Russians did not have to set up any left-wing government, assuming that they wanted one. They merely set free some ten thousand political prisoners and said, by implication; “Go home, boys, you’re free to organize.” Under Japanese rule all natural political leaders either served Japan or went to jail. With the pro-Japanese gone, the ex-jailbirds became the vindicated heroes of their home towns. They were all radicals of sorts, including many Communists. Anyone who knows what a tremendous reception was given to Tom Mooney when he was released to come home to the workers of San Francisco, may imagine the effect on the small towns and villages when ten thousand of these political martyrs came home. North Korea just naturally took a great swing leftwards, and the Russians had only to recognize “the choice of the Korean people.” People’s Committees sprang up in villages, counties, and provinces and coalesced into a provisional government under the almost legendary guerrilla leader Kim Il Sung. Farmers organized, demanded the land from the landlords and got it in twenty-one days by a government decree. (Compared to the land reforms of other countries, this sounds like a tale of Aladdin’s lamp!) Ninety per cent of all big industry – it had belonged to Japanese concerns – was handed over by the Russians “to the Korean people” and nationalized by one more decree. Trade unions organized, demanded a modern labor code, and got it without any trouble from their new government, with the eight-hour day, abolition of child labor, and social insurance all complete. Another decree made women equal with men in all spheres of activity and another expanded schools. Then general elections were held and a “democratic front” of three parties swept unopposed to power. The natural opposition had all gone south, to be sheltered – and put in power – by the Americans. This is the, reason, I think, for the almost exaggerated sense of “people’s power” that the North Koreans express. Their real class struggle is coming; it hasn’t fully hit them yet. The reactionaries all fled south, where they are bloodily suppressing strikes. In North Korea the farmers are building new houses and buying radios because they no longer pay land rent, while the workers are taking vacations in former Japanese villas. The North Koreans assume that this is just what naturally happens when once you are a “liberated land.” “They aren’t yet liberated down south,” they told me. “The Americans let those pro-Japanese traitors stay in power.”

In North Korea: First Eye-Witness Reports, Anna Louise Strong, 1949

[nobodysprincess]

“This is how colonialism works. It convinces us that the fallout from resistance is entirely our fault, that the immoral choice is resistance itself rather than the circumstances that demanded it.” — R.F Kuang, Babel

Resistance does not happen in a vacuum.

Resistance, rebellion, protests, marches, demonstrations, and boycotts all happen in response to injustice.

When you know the context, your humanity should pull you to come out in full support of the Palestinians.

If, after reading this whole post, or even half of it, if you are not emotionally moved or heartbroken by the oppression … I don’t even know what to say.

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When Native Americans fought for their land, the white people called them “savages” while the emigrating thieves were “civilized” and considered themselves “victims.”

Mandela’s ANC (African National Congress, a liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid) was considered a terrorist organization by the oppressors.

The Philippines were colonized by the Spanish for 300 years, then by Americans and then the Japanese. Their historical liberation movement was called “terrorism.” (And the League of Filipino Students stand with Palestine.)

The Hawaiians’ land was stolen. It’s a resort. Whenever you see it in stories (movies, tv shows, books), it’s for when the characters go there on vacation; and their culture gets warped, exaggerated, mocked, purposefully misunderstood, and also sexualized. But in reality, even til this day, indigenous children are punished for speaking their native language in school. Their language and culture is nearly extinct. All Hawaiians should be able to speak their language, not just a percentage of them. Even if you can’t relate, at least you can dig and bring up your compassion and empathy to the surface. Is it wrong to be angry about this? Is it wrong to fight back against colonialism and imperialism and capitalism?

Korea had their own independence movement and liberation army. It lasted decades. Yes, they used violent attacks. You wouldn’t have all those beautiful K-dramas to watch on Netflix, if they didn’t literally fight for their freedom.

India, too.

When Palestinians fight back against the oppression, they’re called “terrorists.”

These people are subjugated. It permeates every waking moment of their life. The Israeli colonizers who would call themselves ‘victims’ are the same people who “control the most simple and basic elements” of Palestinian life.

Read that again.

“We basically control the most simple and basic elements of life.” — Ori Givati, former Israeli soldier, speaking up about the occupation of Palestine.

With context, it’s a thousand times more chilling. But even without it, especially if you can relate to being controlled over everything by a bigger but terrible person while growing up, that sentence alone is heartbreaking.

But it shouldn’t take that sentence for people to realize that that’s what it’s been all along since 1948. You just need to open your eyes and see how they, the Palestinians, are treated.

The Palestinians’ water wells were cemented by Israeli soldiers, to stop them from getting clean water. So, forget the Israeli government turning on a simple switch to allow water from their pipes – ‘cause the Palestinians can’t even get fresh water on the only strip of land they have!

How can anyone defend or justify that?

Also, the millions of olive trees that had lived through generations (and it takes years for a new olive tree to produce anything) were destroyed by the Israel occupation since 1948. Now why would Israel destroy olive trees? Olive trees have a very special significance throughout the Middle East. Olive trees are important to Palestinian culture and heritage.

But Israel still continues to burn or destroy agriculture (aside from the bombs destroying it), they never stopped.

Gazan fishermen cannot even fish freely, there have been limits to how far out in the water they could go.

From the words of a Palestinian woman who works in a border school affiliated with the UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, established in 1949), translated to English:

“Fishermen are hunted at sea and they're falsely accused of getting close to the border. The fishing area keeps shrinking that they now have a tiny area from which they can make a living.”

Full post is here. For heaven’s sake, it takes a year to even get an item that they order from the Internet finally delivered, and even then it’s not a guarantee. The Israeli soldiers won’t give it to the purchaser if it’s dual-use.

Diving goggles are classified as dual-use, so the woman (who wrote the post I just linked) wasn’t able to get them. DIVING GOGGLES!

Where is your humanity?

If you are so desensitized to the gravity of this happening to 2 million people in the year 2023, and if you see all the deaths as just a number, and these numbers are just a statistic to you … I don’t know what I could say to make you understand.

How about the words of a Native American who visited Palestine in the past, and said it reminded him of his home in the U.S reservations? The United States government stole native land hundreds of years ago, and life in reservations are still so bad that this person felt at home in Palestine. THINK ABOUT THAT!

Go ahead, try and tell me Israel isn’t an apartheid that’s even worse than Nazi Germany, or the U.S. genocide of Native Americans.

This occupation has been going on since 1948! Gazans need a permit to enter West Bank (which is often denied to them), and there are checkpoints on every street. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Even when you finish reading this post, it doesn’t showcase half of how much oppression there is.

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The Israeli government “control the most simple and basic elements of life” there. That was a quote from one former Israeli soldier.

Here’s another former Israeli soldier, speaking up against the occupation, (Eran Efrati):

“I was broken. I felt like I was the terrorist. And my job was literally to scare people so they cannot think about acting against the Israeli settlers.”

“Very early on, I understood that the rights that the Jewish settlers have are not the rights that the Palestinians have.”

“I understood that I cannot touch a Jewish settler if he is attacking a Palestinian.”

“So (these) Jewish settlers that live in Hebron are living under the same rights that I live in, in Jerusalem. But the Palestinians next to them, next house over, next building over, or sometimes next apartment over, lives under my rule, my military rule.”

“And I can do whatever I want with him.”

By the way, this is Stage 3 of the 10 stages of genocide: Discrimination. The Stage 2 is Classification, and Palestinians are a separated group under Israeli law.

Here’s the link to the video.

And a former Israeli Air Force pilot, Yonatan Shapira, said this:

“I was a captain in Israeli Air Force, I was a helicopter pilot and I realized during the 2nd Intifada what Israeli Air Force and Israeli military doing is war crime, terrorizing population of millions of Palestinians.”

“As a child in Israel, you are being brought up in very strong Zionist militaristic education. You don’t know almost anything about Palestine, you don’t know about the Nakba, 1948, you don’t know anything about ongoing oppression.”

Here’s the link to the video.

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As of October 30, 2023, Israel has wiped out 881 families. Lineages. Bloodlines. This means 30 to 80 persons in EACH FAMILY.

On October 17, that number was only 47 bloodlines.

« Gaza, Oct. 29 (Petra) - The death toll from the war on Gaza has reached 8,005, including 3,324 children, 2,062 women, 460 elderly people, while 1,870 people were reported missing, including 1,020 children, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza.

The ministry spokesman said the Israeli occupation has carried out 56 massacres in the last several hours, killing 302 Palestinians. Most of the victims were moved to the southern parts of the Gaza Strip, which Israel claims are safe zones.

He added that 116 medical staff were killed, 25 ambulances were destroyed, and 57 health facilities were targeted, pointing out that 881 families were lost as a result of the occupation's purposeful targeting of them. »

And if you don’t believe these numbers, because you’d rather believe Israel – guess what? Israel is keeping score, and published it on their Channel 14 news channel with rising numbers. Israel are genocidal maniacs. It’s not my fault you refuse to believe what your eyes can see.

UPDATE

As of November 25 of 2023, the number of deaths reached 20,000. The number of children among them are 8,176.

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“We must learn that passively to accept an unjust system is to cooperate with that system, and thereby to become a participant in its evil.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Nice people made the best Nazis. My mom grew up next to them. They got along, refused to make waves, looked the other way when things got ugly and focused on happier things than “politics.” They were lovely people who turned their heads as their neighbors were dragged away. You know who weren’t nice people? Resisters.” — Naomi Shulman

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And along with Israel bombing the Palestinians using the internationally-banned white phosphorus—!

It is so violent in its destruction, and, I repeat, it is prohibited under international law! Of course, you’d think that violating the Geneva Convention would result in heavy consequences, but imperialist governments not caring and getting away with anything is a different topic.

It is so wicked, I can’t—

Even if you don’t care about a massive loss of human life, the phosphorus effect on agricultural lands are devastating and lasts for years. It still makes people sick and nauseous with no apparent signs of injury on the plants.

And all the mushroom clouds after those CONSTANT bombs drop on Gaza!

Even if you don’t care about the loss of human life, do you have a speck of humanity in you to care about all the pollution? At the very least?

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How many times does the Israeli government have to be caught lying or admit to lying, before you realize they can never be trusted because they’re liars? They have a long history of it, too!

OPEN YOUR EYES!

OPEN YOUR EYES!

When the people had a funeral for American-Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, the Israeli police kicked and beat the mourners who were carrying the casket.

Is it any wonder that there are former Israeli soldiers and pilots who stopped supporting their government because they felt like terrorists, and realized it is Israel who are the terrorists?

Look at this!

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It is also NEVER a normal time to say “I’m a little bit fascist,” whether it’s 2000 or 2023…but the video in the tweet below is from 2009. This is an Israeli woman saying, “I’m a little bit fascist.”

Imagine thinking this is normal to talk that way. Imagine thinking fascism is, in any way, good or beneficial.

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The Palestinians in the Gaza Strip do not have basic human rights.

If you value having your human rights, do not turn a blind eye to Palestine.

Their access to the outside world, via WiFi and the Internet, is the one and only way they can spread awareness of what’s going on.

No government should have the power to turn off water and cut electricity and telecommunications.

Collective punishment is a war crime under international law, a crime on humanity that could easily be done to you. You think you’re safe in your country? Every protest and demonstration or march (on any topic, really) is met with the same brutal police treatment. What’s to stop them from going all out, the moment they get the government’s green light? I remember military vehicles coming out in force during the BLM protests. Many people are permanently blind and/or disabled from the tear gassing and the rubber bullets.

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You cannot justify indiscriminate bombing on a densely populated SMALL area. It’s never right, but think about this…

The Gaza Strip is 139 square miles.

Detroit, Michigan is also 139 square miles.

Detroit only has less than six hundred thousand people in their population. The Gaza Strip has two MILLION.

Religious buildings, universities, hospitals … bombed, all under the excuse that “terrorists” were hiding there.

The same exact excuse Israel used to justify bombing a school in Egypt in 1970, it is not new and not exclusive to Gaza. They always use the same tactics.

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What I’m sharing here is pretty much everything I’ve shared (and then some) about the occupation and genocide against Palestinians. So, pardon me if it’s not cohesive, because it’s not really meant to be. I shared most of this just one time with somebody, and I still got hit back by that heartless lunatic threatening me to watch and “enjoy Israeli retribution.”

It’s bad enough seeing it in the comment sections on YouTube or Twitter; it’s even more mind-boggling to have it spoken in direct response to me in my attempt to appeal to what little speck of humanity they have left, so I don’t make a habit of speaking up.

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Palestinians are Arabs. Arabs are Semites.

If, for some asinine reason, you support Israel on the genocide they’re committing right now against Gaza, and you still want to call me an anti-Semite … then you should know that a former Israeli minister of education said (nonchalantly) back in 2002 that they always use that label as a trick on anyone who criticizes the Israeli government.

And a former Israeli Mossad agent, in 1995, said that labeling someone an anti-Semite is one of the ways he silenced critics. They know you’re not an anti-Semite, but they will label you as such to discredit you.

Victor Ostrovsky: « But I know what they do ‘cause I used to ask them to do it. When I was in the Mossad and we had a guy that gave us problems in the U.S., and he was speaking out and he was talking like people talk once and said, “Israel is bombing Lebanon with cluster bombs,” we say, “Hey, who’s that guy?” you know? ‘Pete Macockey,’ we used to call him. Yeah, which is Pete the Cockroach, ‘cause he makes a lot of noise and you can’t get rid of him. So, what you do is you get in touch with a guy in the station in New York or in the station in Washington and tell the guys in B’nai B’rith to label him. And, of course, the campaign starts, and before you know it, the guy is labeled. And he’s ‘an anti-Semite’ because that’s what we say he is. It shames me as a Jew to tell you that. But that’s the fact and it’s wrong. »

It SHAMED him as a Jew to say that this is what his government does. This is what Israel does!

The same thing happened in Nazi Germany – it was illegal to even mock Adolf Hitler, or talk badly about the Nazi regime. It’s the same thing regarding CPC, Chinese citizens will have their online posts deleted if they criticize China. And it’s the same with North Korea, it’s actually worse than China – they cannot even consume foreign entertainment if it’s not sanctioned by their government.

If you criticize Israel, their government will silence you by slapping on the “anti-Semitic” label onto you.

As Shulamit Aloni said, “It’s a trick, we always use it.” Thank you for exposing yourselves!

If you’ve reached all the way down to this part of the post, and anything I’ve typed out hasn’t moved you emotionally at all, you should stop calling yourself pro-climate and pro-life.

And look!

It’s there for all to see.

We don’t even have to expose Israel’s black hearts, they’re doing that all on their own.

We literally just have to point this out. The rest is up to you.

Imagine Russians doing this about Ukrainians!

Is this who you want to defend? “God’s chosen people” mocking cultural attire, comparing Palestinians to dogs, dehumanizing them, degrading their deaths, laughing at mothers losing their children.

Is this the hill you want to die on? IS THIS YOU?!

The depravity!

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“Words and terminology are crucial," said Hussam Zomlot, the Palestinian Head of Mission in the United Kingdom. "From the beginning, Israel wanted to link the Palestinian people to Hamas. And then they linked Hamas to ISIS. That’s linking ISIS to what? The Palestinians.”

Article by Lemma Shehadi • October 17, 2023

———

[A thread by Dr_MianUmair1 on Twitter]

There seems to be a lot of confusion regarding the distinction between Hamas and ISIS. It is important to clarify that these are two distinct entities with different goals, ideologies, and methods.

Hamas is a Palestinian political and military organization that was established in 1987. Its primary objective is the liberation of Palestine, Hamas engages in political and social activities, as well as armed resistance against Israeli occupation.

On the other hand, ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) is a radical Islamist extremist group that emerged in the early 2000s. Their goal was to establish a caliphate in Iraq and Syria, imposing their version of Sharia law and carrying out acts of terrorism worldwide.

While both organizations have been classified as terrorist groups by various countries, it is crucial to note that their motivations, strategies, and geographical focuses are vastly different.

Hamas primarily operates in the Palestinian territories, with a particular focus on the Gaza Strip; while ISIS was primarily active in Iraq and Syria, although their influence has significantly diminished in recent years.

Hamas, despite being a designated terrorist organization by some countries, also has a political wing that participates in democratic processes and provides social services to the Palestinian people (A reason why they love Hamas)

In conclusion, Hamas and ISIS may share the label of "terrorist organization," but they are not the same. Understanding their distinctions is essential for informed discussions about the region. 🌍🤝

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But, now, what if I told you that Israel (and the U.S., “indirectly and directly”) created Hamas?

U.S. Congressman, Ron Paul, in 2009:

“If you look at the history, you’ll find out that Hamas was encouraged and really started by Israel because they wanted Hamas to counteract Yassir Arafat [chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, PLO].”

“So, then, we as Americans say, ‘Well, we have such a good system, we’re going to impose this on the world, we’re gonna invade Iraq and teach people how to be democrats.’ We want free elections, so we encourage the Palestinians to have a free election, they do and they elect Hamas.”

“So, we [the United States] first indirectly and directly, through Israel, help establish Hamas, then we have election that Hamas becomes dominant, so we have to kill them.”

Hmm, so Israel-U.S help establish Hamas, playing them against each other until they get their dominance, just so Israel can justify killing Hamas and every single Palestinian? That, coupled with the former Israeli politician saying that they slap the ‘antisemitism’ label on critics to justify killing the Palestinians? Wow, Israel and the U.S. sure do sound like the evil villains here. It almost sounds like…they always planned to commit genocide! Look at my shocked face > ö

But anyway…

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Painting Hamas with the ISIS brush has implications for how Israel is expected to fight its war with the Palestinian militant group, experts told The National.

“There is a danger in comparing Hamas to ISIS, which can indirectly legitimise disproportionate use of violence on civilians in Gaza, under the pretence of fighting terrorism,” Ms Khatib said.

Experts highlighted the US-led coalition’s war with ISIS in 2014, during which Iraqi and Syrian cities were razed, killing up to 11,000 civilians in Iraq alone and displacing hundreds of thousands more.

“The US government labelled its campaign in Syria and Iraq as 'a campaign of annihilation', so for Secretary Austin to be suggesting Hamas is the same or worse is doing little more than encouraging Israel to assume a similarly brutal approach in Gaza,” said Charles Lister, director of the US-based Middle East Institute’s Syria programme.

The 6,000 bombs dropped on Gaza in the first six days, as claimed by the Israeli air force, had already exceeded the rate of US bombing of ISIS in Syria and Iraq, which averaged 2,500 per month across 46,000 square miles," he added.

NOTE: This article is from October 17. There, Israel wiped out 47 bloodlines (which means 30 to 80 persons EACH family name.) As of October 30, 2023, that number has risen to 881 families taken off the civilian registry. Whole bloodlines, gone.

As of November 25? 20,000 were killed in total. And 8,176 of them are children.

Don’t talk to me if you support Israel, even after everything you’ve read in this post.

FREE PALESTINE 🇵🇸

A focus on fighting terror would also obscure the “root causes” of the conflict.

“The narrative will be totally overwhelmed by terrorism and security. Whenever these things happen between Israel and Palestine, there is never a root discussion of settler colonialism, of occupation or dispossession,” said Chris Gunness, a former spokesman for the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees.

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This BBC documentary takes place in 1982, years before Hamas existed. What was Israel’s excuse, then, for their massacre of Palestinians and Lebanese Shias that took place after this?

Israel bombs Lebanon and Syria. Two completely different countries. There are no Hamas there. What’s the excuse?

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They’ve committed all the stages of genocide, and all you have to do is open your eyes.

Israel are the terrorists!

A giant with all the advantages of their size (and a world power like the U.S, the biggest, backing them and funding them) is NOT the victim.

Israel isn’t even scared of the United Nations. Think about that! Nearly five dozen U.N staff members, as of October 30, were killed in Gaza because of Israel’s bombs. And all the U.N can do is hold a service for their colleagues??? Acting as if this is normal?

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This is Palestine, BEFORE the Israeli occupation:

Where is your humanity?

Resistance does not happen in a vacuum.

Support Palestinians. Save Gaza. Free Palestine!

You don’t need to be religious. You don’t need to be a Muslim, Christian, or Jew. You just have to be human.