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September 9, 2005
God Bless America
Like most nights out in Seoul we had descended with vulgar enthusiasm upon a hof, or pub, determined to take full, and unfortunate advantage of the local mekju, beer. And, like most nights, we ruthlessly monopolised the internet jukebox, ensuring no half-bred, hyper-real Korean pop fucked up our night. It was always an easy conquest—we simply beat the Koreans hands down at obnoxiousness. It was a bitter-sweet victory.
And so, like many other nights, and many more to come, we each sat at our table—a little piece of cultural geography annexed from the East—and danced and laughed and spent our (seemingly) fake money at the bar. But, unlike most nights, it got serious real quick.
He was 19, and piqued by such a large bunch of Westerners. Usually the shyness overcomes any chance of encounter, but our young guy had some moxie—and a full belly of rice wine.
“Hello,'' he smiled at us.
Most ignored him, but I invited him to sit down.
“Thanks,'' he said.
“Sure. Have some soju,'' and I poured him a shooter of lemon-tinted rice wine.
He smiled.
“Many thanks.''
“Sure.''
He stared at us, kinda dizzy-like, while we each tore apart the night. Others would ask him questions about Korea.
“It’s, ahhh, it’s okay,'' and he would turn and look at his friends who were envious.
Someone yelled kombei, the Korean drinking salutation, and so we drank.
The kid spoke up: “I go to war soon.''
“What?''
“War. I go soon.''
“War? Whaddaya mean, ‘war’?''
The kid dropped his smile, and turned anxiously to his friends. He pointed. “Him, too. He go to war.''
South Korea had just pledged troops to Iraq. South Korea had a mandatory two-year military service. This kid was going to war.
“I’m sorry,'' I said, “I’m embarrassed.'' The truth was, I was embarrassed, I still am embarrassed. This damn crooked cultural hegemony of the US has got it so that every US kid, in the eyes of the Korean youth, has triple, quadruple the cool points that he does. The Korean kid can’t win.
“I’m scared,'' he was certainly drunk now.
I drank more slowly this time, staring at his eyes, thinking that first and foremost this kid just wanted to hang out with older Western guys. He would rarely get the chance. What was so acutely embarrassing was the fact that this kid felt genuinely proud to be hanging out with us—a group comprised largely of Americans. He felt good about it. Damned fucking chipper. And yet the fact that he was going to war… our war… fell in his reverence’s shadow.
I bought him another drink and explained, once again and in terrible Korean, the concept of regret.
Posted by Martin McKenzie-Murray at September 9, 2005 11:10 AM
Comments
can anyone shed any light on the recent posting to my apples in stereo review?
just curious.
m
Posted by: marty at September 9, 2005 11:30 AM
marty, it's a spam bot - they target blogs now; remove the comment, and don't auto-approve unknown commenters
i got the same message.
pfft. as if *i* need viagra ...
r
Posted by: ruby at September 9, 2005 3:28 PM
Yep, I spend my weekends cleaning up comment spam for you ungrateful blogger mugs. They do it for many reasons, mostly for extra google rankage. Would you like some real estate and pills? guvnuh? So long as you only approve folks you know, I've got enough filters in place to keep most of it out, but we're actually hit by hundreds of attempts a day. sigh.
Posted by: patrick at September 9, 2005 7:16 PM
okay, a few thank-yous: Ruby--for reading this damn thing; Patrick--for cyber-vigilance and for reading this damn thing; YHA Northbridge--for a job for which i get paid 20 bucks an hr. to read blogs and listen to wilco.
"summerteeth" rocks, and so do y'all.
god bless amerika.
Posted by: marty at September 9, 2005 8:49 PM
p.s. most of the comments (i've realised that they're everywhere) are strange, pseudo-philosophical ramblings of deranged heretics -- as opposed to the slimy junk of a pig-fucking salesman.
or they could be the same thing. the spamming world confuses me.
m
Posted by: marty at September 9, 2005 8:56 PM
Would you like some slimy junk from pig fucking salesmen? Pig Fucking IS hot business right now...
Alex
PS hope you're peachy. i glimpsed some snapshots of you fellas on panda's blog and strike me dead if it didn't put a huge smile on my face.
The Korean army situation is a fickle one. It's drummed into the kids from an early age how important it is to have Americans in Korea, protecting them from the the horrid reds from the north and whatnot. But it's more than just military support. America has slimed itself into so many facets of Korean life that the youth of today are paying a culutral price for American support.
I really want to talk to you. Let me know a good time to call.
Posted by: Alex at September 11, 2005 8:28 PM
good time to call, eh? the days might be easier -- say midday on wednesdays? i know you're probably working, so thursday nights would work too... i work most friday nights, am drunk saturdays, so i guess that leaves sunday nights as a possible option too... okay, hope you get through...
be good,
m
Posted by: marty at September 13, 2005 8:43 PM
