The day was pretty uneventful for me. I had the day off from work, but there were no parades or events to see. I spent the day watching my new-to-me 27" TV (yay!) that I bought from a used appliance store on Friday night for $50. To get out for a bit, I went downtown this evening to get some skin food and while I was walking home with a Mr. Pizza, vegetarian style, sans the mushrooms, I snapped this shot with my smartuh pone:
This is the street on my side of the blue construction wall. You can see the Korean flags that were mounted on the light pole for Liberation Day. It's a bit odd to see flags hung all around the city (and country, I presume) that aren't your native flag, and its made a bit more weird when it reminds you of the way Christmas decorations are hung around the city at home. I actually don't ever remember seeing flags displayed all over cities like this at home, even on July Fourth. Koreans have a TON of pride for their country, and yet they are incredibly accepting of other cultures and languages into their own. The USA could learn from South Korea, that's for sure.
Here are a few things that the USA could learn from South Korea:
1. Acceptance of others. The driving test to get a license in South Korea is given in six languages to make it easier for [legal] foreigners to get a license to drive around their beautiful country. At home, the test is only given in English, and people protest at the thought of offering it in any other language.
2. Pride in the things they make. Koreans manufacture Hyundai and Kia vehicles, among other products, and I'd say 80% of the cars I see on the road are Hyundai or Kia. They boast about their skills and do almost anything to defend the products they manufacture. On the other hand, the USA has developed, at least at home, a bad reputation for domestically manufactured cars: Ford (fix or repair daily), Chevy (something about hearing valves rattle), GMC (greatest made chevy), Dodge (drips oil, gutless engines, and then some), Chrysler (something about learning engine repair) ...need I say more?
3. Pride for country. Nothing can replace this. Koreans are (shudder from a past job) gung-ho about their country. Koreans have the best food. Koreans have the best people. Koreans have the best education. Koreans have the best shopping. Koreans do it , whatever it may be, best. These Koreans have not forgotten what they fought for in the 1940's to break away from Japan and then again to break away from North Korea. They remember it every single day. Every man must do several years service in the army, and every 20- to 40-something's father today has probably fought in one war or another. Koreans are proud of their country, and though I am sure there are some things the individual would change about the whole, there is probably not one thing an entire group of people would use to retaliate against their government in protest. On the flip-side, I don't think this blog has enough room to list all the things that Americans are in an uproar against the American government about: decreased credit rating, oil, taxes, cost of imported goods, exported jobs to China, a weak job market with strong unemployment numbers... the list goes on.
So happy Liberation Day, Korea! May you continue to have many resilient years ahead of you.
I think resiliency is my new word. :)
On second thought, I just did a Google Image search for 'resilient' and one of the more popular images was of some sort of machine valve, while another popular image was that of tires. I also saw a human arm sticking out of a body of water, and in its clenched fist was some sort of pointy rock that made it look like the hand was making an undignified gesture to its viewers. Hmmm.
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