What Should Be Done Before Expecting for the Next World Cup
Not many people can deny the fact
that World Cup games come to our mind when we think of the most celebrated
event of worldwide society. Quadrennially, the host country put their full of
efforts on preparing for the event, which includes reinforcing social
infrastructure such as transportation, increasing awareness, and most
crucially, constructing fabulous and magnificent stadiums for the matches.
Millions of people from all around the world who cheer for victory of their own
national team crowd to the host nation, consuming countless of resources and
commodities, by which the host can take advantage of substantial amount of
economic benefits. The nation recently elected as the host country for 2022
World Cup Games, Qatar, also looks for these merits. However, the way they preparing
is highly problematic; irrefutably unethical and irrational actions are being
taking in the middle of Arabian Gulf.
According to Amnesty International,
approximately 1.35 million migrant workers are laboring in Qatar in 2013. Most
of them are from Central Asia, especially Nepal, seeking an economic prosperity
and an escape from poverty. Qatar, on the other hand, is currently recruiting
more and more migrant workers at a remarkable rate, in order to support its
construction boom, due to the dramatic increment of population and the World
Cup. A number of companies in Qatar, however, are being linked to severe worker
abuse, abusing migrants coming to Qatar. To be more specific, 90% of passports
of these workers are held by their employers, and 40% of them sometimes, rarely
or never received their salary on time. In spite of these mistreats, the workers
are being forced to labor for 20 hours a day, without being provided a
government health card, which is essential to access public hospitals. The
abuse mentioned above is not limited to domestic Qatari companies, but also
includes celebrated global companies, intent on maximizing their profits.
Nevertheless, it seems that this current issue would not be solved in the close
future. 94% of the total workforce in the country is made up by migrant
workers, which hinders the government of Qatar from imposing sanctions on these
companies.
The current situation held in Qatar
is undeniably regrettable; the attitude of companies ought to be altered. Most
of labor abuse in history came from a similar reason: superiority that
companies speak up for the legitimacy of their exploitation. Another event that
brought up significant disputes on its justification, the 1998 France World Cup,
also can be understood in the same context. Nike, a well-known company that
supplied official match balls for the game, tricolore, exploited Indian child
labor without compensating them in order to minimize production expense. This
obviously became a hot issue just right after the World Cup, which ultimately
led to led to enactment of a resolution by FIFA, prohibiting any further
unethical labor exploitation regarding the World Cup. As time passed,
technology developed, which enabled machines to substitute most of manpower
needed to prepare for the World Cup. However, unfortunately, in spite of these
improvements, still lots of greedy companies are preoccupied with devising ways
to maximize their profits. Companies in Qatar, being blind under economic
prosperity, are demolishing hope and expectations of migrant workers,
disfranchising their fundamental rights as human beings. What we have to
emphasize is that this is happening again and again although several actions
have been taken so far. Therefore, the most essential aspect that should be
changed is the attitude of companies; by initially demanding alternation of
companies, further restrictions and solutions by the worldwide society would
become much more effective and easy.
Next year, the World Cup will be
held in Brazil. Just as it was constantly repeated, millions of people will
gather into Brazil, and Brazilian government will be happy with their bright
economic prospect. However, for an authentic world festival, we should give
more attention to the dark side of its preparation, which is covered under
greediness of companies.
The Last Day when I was Alive
I feel cozy
warmth, and the dazzling shiny sunlight permeates through my eyelids. The sound
of birds singing gets larger and larger, awakening my tensed body slowly.
Finally, I open up my eyes, and look at a beautiful woman with a full smile on
her face. I used to start every day with this same pattern. I was satisfied
with every part of my life, and there was nothing to complain about. However, by
intuition I was able to know that this would no longer exist, as I saw a black
thick smoke rising from Mt. Kilimanjaro.It was a mundane afternoon, and nothing was special. I woke up as my stomach growled, came out of the cave I was living in, and found out that the sun was right above my head. The best woman, the one that I loved, Almasi, was preparing the dead body of lions that my brothers and I hunted yesterday, for cooking. She gave me a hug when I approached her, telling me to wait a bit until the meal was ready. To spend time in a more productive manner, and to give a good impression to Almasi, I decided to go to a nearby stream, and fulfill water storage for our family. A group of gazelles ran on the vast grassland of the Savannah, with Mt. Kilimanjaro being a dark background.
‘Wait, something is weird. Mt. Kilimanjaro cannot be seen that much vividly in this distance.’
I gazed at the mountain again closely. Black thick smoke was rising from the top of the mountain, and red rocks were spewing out. The rocks flew up more and more frequently as I kept looking, and it seemed that they were heading to my direction. Suddenly, one of the red rocks impacted a few meters in front of me, exploded with a huge bang sound, and set a fire. Being surprised, I instantly ran back to our family without looking back, shouting,
“Run everyone, run!”
The faces of people looked odd at first, but as they also saw the burning bombs flying above their heads, they ran away. I held the hand of Almasi, whose face explicitly showed how much frightened she was, and both of us ran to the cave as quickly as possible. Soon, a series of rocks bombarded the cave, and I lost conscience as I was caught by a giant bright sparkle.
It was cold and chilly when I was able to recover. Fortunately, Almasi was still at her position as she was, firmly holding my hand. I moved my aching legs slowly, and removed the rocks blocking the entrance of the cave. There were no more gazelles running on the grassland. No more birds sang, and the dark uncomfortable clouds replaced the sunlight. The lively scene of crowded people no longer existed.
Only about 150 people survived in total. Suffering from unfamiliar cold first ever in our lives, we gathered around the fireplace to device ways to solve the problem that we faced. We lacked all the resources; both crops and water storage were covered with gray volcanic ash. The sky did not seem to easily show sunlight to us. The chief insisted,
“The god of the mountain
is significantly frustrated with us! We should make a ritual ceremony so that
the god would calm down!”
The majority of
people assented to the assertion of the chief, by stamping their feet and blowing
whistles. Then, the chief continued,
“However, the
god will not use his divine power for us without getting nothing. Thus, I urge
the youngest man here to sacrifice himself for the whole community.”
At first, I
simply wondered who would be the victim in the ceremony, but my face got pale
when I found people pointing out, and coming toward me. Almasi was crying in
front of the chief, with her knees kneeled, and begging for finding out an alternative
way. I could do nothing: I just accepted all the actions people took, and when
I was conscious of what was happening, I was on a wooden altar, being firmly
tied. People were dancing and singing altogether, and my poor Almasi was wailing
to faint.
The chief, in front of the group, set a fire on the altar. I felt the heat gradually engulfing my body, and the sound of people singing got louder and louder. I fell down, but did not stop gazing at the deep, beautiful eyes of Almasi. I did not stop calling her name until my eyes finally closed, bidding farewell to my dear love.
Rain dropped slightly, while people kept chanting.
The chief, in front of the group, set a fire on the altar. I felt the heat gradually engulfing my body, and the sound of people singing got louder and louder. I fell down, but did not stop gazing at the deep, beautiful eyes of Almasi. I did not stop calling her name until my eyes finally closed, bidding farewell to my dear love.
Rain dropped slightly, while people kept chanting.
Zwitimbi,
Zwitimbi (Beads,
Beads),
Matshime,
Matshime (Water
fountains, Water fountains),
Vula,
Vula (Rain,
Rain)……
Final-term Essay (Preparation)
In KMLA, most of students share
information, chat with others, and make announcements through Facebook, a
well-known social network service. These characteristics that I mentioned are
general ones that other Facebook users also do. However, there is one more a
very unique custom in KMLA using Facebook: listing friends as spouses or
relatives. Not many people can deny the fact that from the viewpoint of outside
world, this phenomena is quite eccentric. However, within a special
circumstance like KMLA it is different, and I believe that this action has
mainly two meanings.
KMLA, as a matter of fact, is a school
located in Gang-won Province, far from urban area. Due to this low proximity to
cities, all the students have to live in dormitory, which is apparently hard
experience for teenagers who just graduated middle school. There is no one that
they can get care from, and convenient city life style does not exist. What
students in KMLA has to depend on is oneself, or other people that are facing
the same difficulty and tasks. This makes students in KMLA try to be as much as
friendly with their friends, and build intimate relationships with them. In
this situation, I strongly insist that being relatives or spouses on Facebook
substantially makes this process much more facile and easier. Rather than just
making close relationships and spending lots of time together, under the link
of ‘informal couple’ or ‘informal family’, students would feel larger sense of
kinship with their friends. Moreover, the openness of Facebook makes this
intimacy much more concrete, because by showing to others how much they are
close to each other, and getting positive responses from a number of people such
as ‘like’, they would feel much more connected and thus be more dependent. Thanks
to this firm connection, students can deal with difficulties such as stresses
from study, much more easily. Hence, it seems that making close relationships
with friends on Facebook was induced by harsh condition of KMLA, and students
use this in order to enjoy better school lives.
On the contrary however, to me, it looks
like students in KMLA are implicitly being contradictory to themselves.
Generally, in this isolated community in which nevertheless academic
performance is fundamental, students both consciously and unconsciously be
sensitive to this, and feel sense of competition to others. Of course other
activities at school such as club activities or having fun with friends help
this sense to be weakened, I still think that the competitive atmosphere does
not disappear keep surrounding the students. On this perspective, I believe that
the students are unintentionally hiding their desire to beat others or
eagerness to be better, by taking advantage of Facebook’s relationship listing
function. Again, the openness of Facebook helps this be firm, because as more
and more people recognize intimate relationship of two, the unconscious
intentions is less likely to be uncovered.
It is quite ironic to say that the special
custom on KMLA helps students be close to each other and adapt to school well,
but simultaneously it becomes a method for concealing involuntary competitiveness.
Considering the first semester that 18th wavers have successfully
passed without causing noticeable conflicts, I am really pleased to say that we
are using Facebook more for the former reason. Furthermore, I hope that this
trend maintains until we graduate, to achieve better school life and true
meaning of ‘KMLA family’.
595 words, 50 minutes in hand-writing
Minjok - Its Origin, Role, and Future
Introduction
A term Minjok
is one of the words that most frequently follows most of Koreans from their
births to deaths. Both consciously and unconsciously, Koreans acquires
opportunity to think what Minjok is,
and what it is like to be Korean. Like others, I also took the same path.
Until I was in middle school, I believed
that Minjok, or identity as Korean,
is somehow related to merely development of our country. Additionally, I
thought that to strengthen it, contributing to our country is necessary, as a
number of celebrities in Korea’s history who are known to be Minjoky, were simultaneously those who
brought national benefits. From this viewpoint, when I was applying for this
school, KMLA, I also wrote that my objective is to dedicate to Korea’s development
by learning true meaning of Minjok.
The interview day came, and during the
interview based on the application, my sight toward Minjok was totally changed thanks to a deep conversation with
librarian teacher regarding it. He fiercely refuted what I wrote on my
application, by suggesting bunch of plausible cases and examples. He asked me
questions such as, “Why does contributing to our country’s development is
related to Minjok?” or “What if a
foreigner changes his nationality and becomes Korean? Could he also can be said
to have Korean identity? What about his inherent ethnicity?” I was bewildered
by those rebuttals, and I cannot even remember how I answered to them. The
interview I had made me recognize lots of flaws and loopholes of my perspective
toward Korean identity. What I became so concrete after the interview was that Minjok is the term that should not be
approached by ethnic view, and those two are totally distinct concepts.
Clearly recognizing drawbacks that should
be improved, this essay would like to discuss Minjok in much more professional and academic way. Specifically, starting
from the origin of Minjok, it will
explain what it means to our society, and its prospect in the future.
Factor
that should be considered
Before
we go on, when we deal with the term Minjok, there is a very important factor that we have to take into our
account, in order to prevent it from being misinterpreted. It should never be
regarded as identical with nationality, because of mainly two reasons. Initially,
relationship between identity and nationality. Based on the question I received
during the interview for KMLA, about the one who changed his nationality, I
concluded that Minjok and race are
totally distinct terms, and should be carefully distinguished. Even though one
decided to be a citizen of a different country, one can still maintain identity
of his motherland. He can also put emphasis either on the identity of
the new country, or even on both. The identity of a person depends on one’s
decision and how one lives, rather than the country one is included in.
However, it is not negligible that one who is ethnically Korean has absolutely
high possibility to have Minjok. Not
many people can deny the fact that people in North Korea still shares same
identity as Korean, even though they are living in the society in which almost
all the aspects, such as social, economic, or political structure, are
apparently different from those of South Korea. Therefore, it could be said
that there is a link between Minjok
and race, but we should not beg the question that a person who is
ethnically Korean has the identity as Korean.
In
addition, explaining Minjok with race is quite a dangerous
thinking. This was apparently proved by Nazi’s ethnocentricism, prospered during the
World War 2. Adolf Hitler was the one who utilized Minjok on conducting
countless of crimes against humanity, which should never happen in human's
history ever again. He emphasized the superiority of Germanic race, by
insisting that any other tribes in the world are way more inferior, and should
be eliminated. Unfortunately, this abnormal assertion dramatically fascinated
and thrilled Germans, whose society was gloomy and hopeless due to social and
economic devastation that the Word War 1 brought. Germans started to worship Hitler,
and under Hitler and Nazi's order, the public consolidated and progressed only
for the victory of German army and Germanic tribe. The result was terrible.
This ethnocentricism caused an extreme nationalism, massacring 6 million Jews
people by various cruel methods, such as sending them to Auschwitz, a
well-known unethical POW camp that Nazi made. This case obviously showed how
easily the meaning of Minjok could be twisted and distorted. Now, having set all of these, let us move on to development process of Minjok, and take a closer
look on it.
What
made Minjok come out?
Lots of people believe that Minjok was originated from Japanese colonization era. However, it is almost
impossible to create something out of nothing. Although it is true that Minjok was first utilized in Japanese
imperialism, it was not created in that period; what actually happened was that
Minjok was elicited from Korean
society, which had existed implicitly in vague form.
When we look at Korea’s history, one of the
notions that we can most easily face is ‘homogeneous country’. Since the
ancient era, starting from Dangun mythology, Koreans have put great emphasis on
having ‘pure blood’, under the name of ‘the white-clad folk’. They have
believed that inheriting this pure blood is indispensable, and regarded it as
prerequisite of being Korean. This characteristic has created a special custom
called Jokbo, a book that records
family tree of the family. For a huge amount of time, Jokbo has been one of the most important items that one should keep
in Korea, and it has been so much influential that it even determined social
status of a person; one with cleaner Jokbo
had much higher possibility to be successful. Furthermore, fading its purity
were regarded as bringing the largest disgrace on the family, which made one
who did be kicked out from it. Horaejasik,
a slang which is still used today, was also originated from this perspective.
After a war between Chosun and Qing, called Byeongjahoran,
a number of women became pregnant because of sexual harassment of Qing’s
soldiers. This caused a serious social problem; hundreds of women committed suicide
in order to keep fidelity, and the number of divorce action skyrocketed during
the period of King Injo’s reign. These victims of the war were expelled from
their family, and their unwanted children were discriminated by the whole
society, being called Horaejasik,
which means ‘offspring of barbarian’.
Like this, Koreans have already regarded
maintaining ethnic as important, even without the actual concept of Minjok. It seems that this tendency has
been really concrete and persisting, as we still introduce our country by using
the term ‘homogeneous country’ even though it is not.
How
did the term Minjok originate?
As I mentioned above, while 5,000 years of
Korean history had developed Minjok
implicitly, Japanese colonization period finally brought it out to our society.
In 1910, as a cornerstone of their ‘Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere’
plan, Japan colonized Korean peninsula. At first, they conducted forced ruling
to Korea, in order to deter power of opposing forces and authorities. However,
this caused a huge side effect; in March 1st, 1919, a peace
demonstration was brought up in a nationwide grand scale, participated by
millions of people. Japanese Empire, which was substantially shocked by this
movement, decided to alter its ruling method. It believed that destroying
nature of the ethnicity is needed to fully control over it, so rather than
ruling with harsh violence, it started to annihilate Korean identity, by
disseminating Japanese ideology, such as forcing people to change their family
names into Japanese, or to believe Shintoism and worship Japanese Emperor.
In this status quo, a number of fighters
for independence felt a huge sense of crisis. They thought that in order to
gain enough support for their activities, faith and consolidation of people are
necessary. This made them find appropriate motivation for people, which became Minjok. The term Minjok was first introduced by Daehanmaeil
Shinbo in 1906. Through its column, it insisted that independency of Korean
race should be separated from that of both Japan and Asia. It also mentioned
that Korean people should firmly join each other in order to get out from
Japanese nationalism. In this social trend in which importance of group bound
together by a common identity grew bigger and bigger, history of Korea was
naturally emphasized. To be more specific, many celebrities such as Park
Eun-Sik or Shin Chae-Ho started to put gravity on Dangun mythology, with
assertion that people need a national symbol that can lead their ideas and
thoughts. Moreover, Joo Si-Kyung, Ahn Chang-Ho, and many other people built
private schools in order to provide education, and enlighten the public from
distorted education given by Japan. Under the specific figure and continuous
education, Korean
people achieved social unification, being fascinated by historical and ethnic
identity that they had never had opportunity to be directly told. Ultimately,
being supported by this strong social bond, national liberation movements
against Japanese Imperialism such as the establishment of de facto government,
were hot up, and Koreans were able to be freed from colonization.
How
does Minjok influence our society?
It seems that the meaning of Minjok changes as time passes. For
thousands of years, it had been a word to explain purity in ethnic term, but
since 1910s, it has become a method to induce social unification. President
Park Jung-Hee also took advantage on this characteristic. In 1963, Park mounted
a coup, and started 17 years of dictatorship. In order to solve significant social
instability, he believed that abundance should be given to the public, which
made him progress an economic development program. Like fighters for independence
in Japanese colonization period did, Park felt a strong necessity of motivation
for his project. Using his authority, Park emphasized history education to the public, and was successful on integrating the society. Under his charisma, strong driving force, and Minjok, people of Korea were firmly bounded together, sacrificed rights of individuals for benefits of the whole society. Miners and nurses headed to Germany, and lots of young adults entered the Vietnam War to earn foreign currency. Of course there are some criticisms toward Park's method of ruling that its process was unethical and inappropriate, but Park was able to achieve dramatic economic boom of Korea, which made our lives much more convenient. Again, Minjok made the public unify, and go for the development of the society.
The meaning of Minjok was changed again when it came to late 20th
century. It became much more spontaneous; rather than being used as a method of
authorities, it became a supporting energy for the public to gather by
themselves in order to achieve social development. During 2002 Korea Japan
World Cup, Koreans showed dynamic cheering culture, which had not been emerged
in former World Cups. Thousands of Koreans gathered on squares in front of huge
screens broadcasting soccer matches, and they all shouted for team Korea’s
victory, calling themselves ‘Red Devils’. Thanks to the enthusiastic support of
the public, team Korea was able to be placed on the fourth, first time ever
among Asian countries. This case apparently showed that Minjok has become a fundamental factor for integration of the society.
The
future of Minjok
I have illustrated how Minjok was originated, how it was
developed, and various meanings it had in Korea’s history
so far. Then, from today’s view, how would Minjok
be in the future? It seems that
the spontaneity of Minjok would not easily
change in spite of pass of time. In this advanced democratic society in which
rights of individuals are respected and protected, the method that President
Park took would be no longer effective. Hence, the public would maintain the
current trend: gathering on together by themselves for better society. In this
fast-moving modernized society, a number of people from the past generation are
worried about the young who do not care about Minjok
and facets related to Korean identity. However, considering other recent cases
that clearly showed solidarity of Korean society, such as West Sea that
recovered from oil spill in an incredible speed thanks to voluntary actions of millions of people, I
strongly believe that these people also have enough potentials to join together
under Minjok, Korean identity, and wisely
solve crises they face, as their ancestors did.
A video explaining how much Nazism was influential to German people
G20 Seoul Summit 2010 Video - Real Story of Korea
Bibliography
-『병자호란과 이혼』, Park Joo (Hongik University, 2001)
-『먼나라 이웃나라 9권 우리나라』, Lee Won-Bok (김영사, 2002)
-『구한말 단일 민족주의의 형성과 고찰』, Kim Soo-Ja (The National Assembly Library, 2008)
- What was life like for young people in Nazi Germany,
- G20 Seoul Summit 2010 Video - Real Story of Korea,
Outline of Minjok Essay
Before starting a long, burdensome, and profound task, which takes whopping 10% of total score, I spent a huge amount of time on organizing what 'Minjok' actually means, and grasping its characteristics. I ardently hope this helps me to write 'Minjok essay' in much more concrete, plausible, and reasonable direction.
1. Fierce debate I had with librarian teacher during the interview for KMLA
- Before the interview
- I thought that 'Minjok' is somehow related to ethnic term itself; one who has Korean ethnic poses identity of Korean.
- One who works hard and contributes to the development of one's country can be said to have apparent 'Minjok'.
- After the interview
- Totally unrelated to nationality, or even the ethnic characteristic.
- 'Minjok' is not something that can be gained
2. 'Minjok' in Korea's history
- Existed in our society implicitly, by posing significant importance on 'blood relationship'.
- Fiercely segregated women who had babies of Chinese after war between Chosun and Qing
- Until nowadays, Koreans put emphasis on the term, 'homogeneous country', even though it is not.
- Explicitly appeared during Japanese colonization period.
- Japan emphasized 'Minjok' to make Koreans regard themselves as subjects of Japanese imperialism.
- Kept existing as a remnant of colonization, even after the independence.
3. 'Minjok' in the present
- A method to achieve social consolidation
- Pr. Park Jung-Hee emphasized it in order to elicit social integration and thus acquire motivation and power for economic development.
- Under the term 'Minjok', thousands of people gathered in Seoul Square, hoping for team Korea's advance in 2002 Korea Japan World Cup.
- Korean identity does not merely mean having Korean ethnicity.
- Foreigners who change their nationalities obviously can be regarded having 'Minjok', if they follow Korean customs and try to be in Korean community, and vice versa.
- However, one who has Korean ethnicity has absolutely high possibility to have Korean identity.
- People in North Korea still shares same identity as Korean, even though almost all the aspects of them, such as social, economic, or political structure, are apparently different from those of South Korea.
4. 'Minjok' in the future
- 'Minjok' keeps changing as time passes.
- Should not keep persisting that identity of Korean is only limited to people who are ethnically Korean.
- Tremendously horiffic outcome that Nazi's ethnocentricism brought up.
Movie Review - Inception
On this period at which the final term is on its way, I watched a movie, in order to refresh stresses and present motivation for studying to me. It took quite a long time to select the appropriate movie. After several minutes wandering around the internet, a movie 'Inception(2010)' was brought up in my mind. In spite of its absolute popularity among people, I had not watched it yet, so I thought it would worth a lot to invest two hours on it. Like other people's reactions, I was not able to say less than AWESOME after watching it, and completely fascinated by it.
The movie's content is really intricate. It talks about stealing other people's minds and thoughts by sharing dreams with them, using an equipment called 'Dream Machine'. The main character of the movie and also an outstanding expert on this field, Cobb(Leonardo Dicaprio) receives a mission to commit 'inception', rather than 'extraction' that he has usually worked on. His duty is to implant thoughts on Fischer(Cillian Murphy)'s subconscious, to disintegrate his firm after finding his father's will. Cobb recruits a team for this project, and in order to solve this difficult task, he designs triple-layered dream, which means a dream within a dream within a dream.
While they are under the project, they face lots of difficulties due to attack of projections. However, the one that most significantly tackles their voyage is projection of Mal, Cobb's dead wife. Cobb spent fifty years with Mal in Limbo constructing a world from their shared memories while seemingly growing old together. Returning to the waking world, they found less than three hours has passed, but Mal, convinced she was still dreaming, committed suicide in order to go back to the reality that she believes. After this incident, Mal started to live in Cobb's subconscious as a sense of guilt, persuading Cobb to stay with her. Eventually, despite his team succeeds the project, Cobb remains in Limbo to save Saito(Ken Watanabe) from Mal, one of his teammates who falls into it. Cobb meets Saito after several years in Limbo, awakens him that he is still dream, and gets him back again to the airplane, in which they first slept. At last, Saito exculpates Cobb from his crime as compensation, and Cobb goes back home, finally meeting his children.
Although it was a bit hard to fully understand content of this movie, it was way much easier than its ending. In the last part of the movie, Cobb rotates his totem at home, and goes balcony to see his children. The totem keep spinning, and it does not stop even until the end of the movie. At first, I was really confused by it, because unstopping totem means that Cobb is still in dream, but of course I thought that Cobb successfully comes back to the reality. In order to get know what Christopher Nolan, the director of the movie, was intending to say, I made several analyses on this ambiguous ending by myself.
Initially, I thought that actually, Cobb himself is the target of the inception. In the front part of the movie, Cobb goes to France in order to meet his father-in-law, who is also an expert of the inception. Instead of giving direct help, his father-in-law introduces Ariadne(Elen Page), one of his students, as an architecture of the dream that Cobb tries to get Fischer in. During the project, Ariadne is exceptionally interested in Cobb's past. Only she meets Mal with Cobb, knows what makes Cobb distracted, and even sees Cobb's totem. After the project ended, and when they are all awake, Cobb finally goes to United States to meet his children, and the one who welcomes him is his father-in-law, who has to be in France. How can he go to United States on time, even without knowing unexpected funeral of Fischer's father? So it seems that Cobb's father-in-law committed the inception to Cobb by introducing Ariadne, in order to help him come back to normal life, and to be freed from guilt that he made Mal die.
Another ending that I thought was just a normal ending; Cobb succeeds his mission, and meets his children in the reality. Then, what about the totem that keeps spinning at the end? Cobb goes out to the balcony to meet his children right after he spins his totem. He does not check whether it stops spinning or not, and it is showed only to audiences. It looks like Cobb does care anymore whether he is still in a dream or he is awake; he is just satisfied with meeting his children that he thought that he would never meet again.
Among these two, it looks like the latter one is much more plausible, as Christopher Nolan also answered during the interview that Cobb comes back to the reality. As I mentioned above, at last, Cobb is not concerned with the place that he is in; he feels okay when he is in right situation that he desires to be in. Likewise, I believe that the movie 'Inception' was trying to give a message to audiences: try to enjoy one's life regardless of surrounding circumstances, and do one's best at every single moment.
Initially, I thought that actually, Cobb himself is the target of the inception. In the front part of the movie, Cobb goes to France in order to meet his father-in-law, who is also an expert of the inception. Instead of giving direct help, his father-in-law introduces Ariadne(Elen Page), one of his students, as an architecture of the dream that Cobb tries to get Fischer in. During the project, Ariadne is exceptionally interested in Cobb's past. Only she meets Mal with Cobb, knows what makes Cobb distracted, and even sees Cobb's totem. After the project ended, and when they are all awake, Cobb finally goes to United States to meet his children, and the one who welcomes him is his father-in-law, who has to be in France. How can he go to United States on time, even without knowing unexpected funeral of Fischer's father? So it seems that Cobb's father-in-law committed the inception to Cobb by introducing Ariadne, in order to help him come back to normal life, and to be freed from guilt that he made Mal die.Another ending that I thought was just a normal ending; Cobb succeeds his mission, and meets his children in the reality. Then, what about the totem that keeps spinning at the end? Cobb goes out to the balcony to meet his children right after he spins his totem. He does not check whether it stops spinning or not, and it is showed only to audiences. It looks like Cobb does care anymore whether he is still in a dream or he is awake; he is just satisfied with meeting his children that he thought that he would never meet again.Among these two, it looks like the latter one is much more plausible, as Christopher Nolan also answered during the interview that Cobb comes back to the reality. As I mentioned above, at last, Cobb is not concerned with the place that he is in; he feels okay when he is in right situation that he desires to be in. Likewise, I believe that the movie 'Inception' was trying to give a message to audiences: try to enjoy one's life regardless of surrounding circumstances, and do one's best at every single moment.
Ignition of the Cyber War Era? - Anonymous
The video that heated the whole world on June 17th.
And on June 25th, Anonymous announced through Twitter that it had started attacking North Korea at 11'o clock. Actually, a number of websites of North Korea were known to be downed, and North Korea's internal network 'Gwangmyeong' was hacked. Moreover, Anonymous even revealed a secret documentation, in which information of 13 North Korea's officials are included. After all, Anonymous stated that it will uncover other documentations and information that it hacked one by one, such as missile documentations, sharing them with WikiLeaks, a secret-disclosing website.
However, at the same time, websites of South Korea were also hacked, accompanied by distorted views and poor access. The most influential one was that of Blue House. At 9:30, the upper part of the website was suddenly filled with red slogan, revering Kim Jung-Eun as the true leader of Korean Peninsula. The one that more substantially shocked people was, the sign of Anonymous under the slogan. Based on the fact that Anonymous had forewarned their attack to North Korea a week ago, and it formally insisted that it is totally unrelated to Blue House hacking, there is high possibility that it was hacking from North Korea as a revenge. However, nothing has been known yet, and no one knows who actually hacked the website of Blue House.
Additionally, it induced a dispute over legitimacy of Anonymous, and any other antiestablishment activities. We should admit the fact that these groups play integral role in solving several worldwide unethical and problematic issues in this highly developed information society, as they keep neutral attitude. On the other hand however, they could serve as new absolute power that controls the world. From people of Korea inevitably believing the announcement that exculpated Anonymous from Blue House hacking, the one that we cannot even figure out whether it is really true or not, it seems that they have already started widening their power and range to worldwide scale. Considering their covertness and broadness, their impact would become much larger in the future than what we expect.Since it was originated in 2003, Anonymous has achieved a number of accomplishments, such as attacking the Iran government in 2010, which highly contributed to making better world. It is true that it has two faces and is quite ambivalent, but who knows? It could be 21st century version of Robin Hood unless it keeps its current concrete and righteous philosophy under the motto: "We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us."
Brave New World vs. Utopia vs. Republic
Plato's Republic, More's Utopia, and Huxley's Brave New World are all celebrated novels suggesting how the future world of human beings would be like. As a matter of fact, they were each written in different eras: 4th century B.C., 16th century, and 20th century. In spite of this significant time gap however, all three writings are related to each other a lot, and deal with what utopian society is.
Initially, both Brave New World and Utopia apparently shows aspect of communist society. They both pursuit benefits of the whole community, rather than that of each member. Needs and wants of individuals should be sacrificed for the greatest happiness of the greatest number. That is why they regard the development of the society as the most important objective, while efforts and abilities of individuals are significantly degraded. However, there are also some differences between the way how two worlds take in order to achieve this ideal. More's utopia tends to concentrate more on spontaneous efforts of its citizens, supported by stabilized society and reasonable rules. On the other hand, Huxley's world requires strong and powerful social structure, in order to effectively induce compelling labor of people in low-class. This part is intimately related with the world that Plato showed as well.
The common facet that consists both Plato's world and Huxley's world is existence of stubborn social hierarchy. Not many people can deny the fact that humans are subject to give up or drop their tasks when they are not provided enough motivation or reasons for them. In order to solve this problem, both society set solid limitation between social classes, so that low-class people can take their labor for granted, and pay attention on them without any complaints. These two different worlds also use same method for the maintenance of this social structure; they provide persistent education to their citizens from their births. In Huxley's Brave New World, all the citizens receive education called 'hypnopaedia' while they are sleeping. Through the process of this sleep education, emotions and perspectives of people are modified to fit their social role as the class they are included in. They are even controlled to regard death as natural, and to think parents as disgraceful one. This is how Huxley's world is able to make low-class people, such as Epsilons, to sacrifice for needs of the whole society, without knowing what Alphas do, and how convenient their lives are.
Huxley wrote Brave New World in 1930s, in which industrialization was rapidly proceeded. Work had become increasingly routine, and people had become slave to machines due to dehumanization. It seems that this unpleasant social atmosphere led Huxley to conclude that the rulers of future society would try to find a solution to make people keep working without raising up these problems. Considering unethical method it takes, such as controlling instincts of humans, in order to pack its society to be seen perfect, Huxley's world should be regarded as inappropriate future, rather than an utopian society that we would like to follow.
The common facet that consists both Plato's world and Huxley's world is existence of stubborn social hierarchy. Not many people can deny the fact that humans are subject to give up or drop their tasks when they are not provided enough motivation or reasons for them. In order to solve this problem, both society set solid limitation between social classes, so that low-class people can take their labor for granted, and pay attention on them without any complaints. These two different worlds also use same method for the maintenance of this social structure; they provide persistent education to their citizens from their births. In Huxley's Brave New World, all the citizens receive education called 'hypnopaedia' while they are sleeping. Through the process of this sleep education, emotions and perspectives of people are modified to fit their social role as the class they are included in. They are even controlled to regard death as natural, and to think parents as disgraceful one. This is how Huxley's world is able to make low-class people, such as Epsilons, to sacrifice for needs of the whole society, without knowing what Alphas do, and how convenient their lives are.Reminiscing Vision Trip
Today is June 18th, 2013. Well, there could be a lot of different meanings that today has. It can be either three days after the midpoint of June, the day on which probably almost all the frosh fluttering for three days of upcoming voluntary work, or even the day from which only sixteen days are left until the final-term. Among those various meanings however, what I regard as the most important one is the day that is exactly one month after the last day of vision trip. In this moment that a month has already passed, believe it or not, I would like to reminisce joyful and impressive memory that the trip in May gave to me, by introducing pictures of each day.
Boarding pass for 15 hours of flight
Day 1 - Departure!!! From Incheon International Airport to Washington Dallas International Airport via Tokyo.
In front of Lincoln Memorial
Day 2 - Washington D.C. tour. Visited lots of cites representing history and politics of the United States, as well as Smithsonian Museums. Moved to Pennsylvania and visited U Penn.
Swarthmore College
Day 3 - Swarthmore College and Princeton University.
A giant 'book box' inside the library of Yale University
Day 4 - Brown University and Yale University. Moved to New York.
Time Square
Day 5 - Met more than thirty alumni of KMLA in Columbia University. First day of New York tour, watched musical 'Lion King' in Broadway, and visited Rockefeller Center and Time Square.
Imitating 'Death of Socrates' at Metropolitan Museum
Day 6 - Second day of New York tour, visited Metropolitan Museum in Central Park, and went abroad a cruise on Hudson River to see overall landscape of New York. Moved to Boston.
In front of the library of Harvard Law School
Day 7 - MIT and Harvard University.
Jump shot on Twin Peaks
Day 8 - Moved to San Francisco. Visited several tour places such as Golden Gate Bridge or Pier 39.
Stanford University
Day 9 - Stanford University and UC Berkeley. Rode San Francisco tram.
The last luncheon that we had in the United States
Day 10 - Arrival. From San Francisco International Airport to Incheon International Airport. End of vision trip.
Vision trip absolutely helped me go through culture and atmosphere of the United States, face the reality, and broaden my sights. In spite of its ten days of short span, it was one of the most impressive moments that I have ever experienced in my life. As the one who definitely knows how worthy vision trip is, It seems that I would also envy 19th wavers soon when they go to vision trip, as 17th wavers did.
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