Lost In Me

I read on yahoo news today that the American military has vowed to capture Osama bin Laden before the end of this year. This makes me suspect that they may already have him in captivity, and are waiting for the right moment to parade him in front of the cameras; a sort of hidden propaganda trump card for Bush in this election year.

I spend quite a bit of time almost every day scanning through various online newspapers, but I sometimes wonder why. After my brain automatically filters out the BS propaganda, there is very little substance left in mainstream news, as it is the same stuff over and over again (propaganda must be repeated ceaselessly in order to be effective). For instance, in an AP article detailing the Libyan surrender of its nuclear weapons program to the US, my eyes see "Bush administration officials indicated Gadhafi could expect some easing of economic pressure in return if he continued on a cooperative track... Gadhafi's turnabout, promoted by Britain with U.S. support, is being cited by the White House as a triumph in the campaign to halt the spread of nuclear technology." What I actually read is "The dictator Bush indicated that the dictator Gadhafi could expect money in his pocket so long as he became a puppet to the Bush regime... Gadhafi's decision, shoved down his throat by America and her satellite states, is being cited by Bush as a triumph for American imperialism and its monopoly on blackmail by weapons of mass destruction."

That littleboi, by the way, is probably hitting puberty by now--he graces also the cover of a recent book by Tariq Ali. I must confess that I've sadly lost track of that entire theater of war, though I was reminded of it earlier tonight on the WB, I think on 7th Heaven, though it could have been Everwood. The WB remains more segregated than my school, even.

Motte has sent me this picture, which I must say is the most sincere form of proactive pacifism I have seen in a while. Though Motte hopes that this picture is evidence that resistance in Iraq against the Americans is still going strong, the soldier in the picture is holding a Belgian-built FN FAL, or an Israeli-built IMI Galil, which I don't believe the Americans use. Judging by his uniform, the soldier is quite possibly Israeli, and perhaps the kid is Palestinian.

But even so, hats off to the kid.

I'm just now finding out how rude it was for me to cancel my trip to China at the last minute, as there were people there that had been expecting me. It was irresponsible of me to over-commit myself, with visit obligations to friends and relatives in two different countries... and though I'm used to over-committing myself to various academic responsibilities in college, I should have remembered what while it's OK to neglect a textbook, it is not OK to neglect friends and family.

Something to think about as I start another overloaded semester.

So I know of a certain guy who, when his girlfriend called him for comforting after a nightmare, calmed her down by telling math stories for three hours. I found this quite amusing, as this is a certain sign that the man is a math nerd.

It's been a very laid back week for me since returning to this side of the world, consisting mostly of sleeping off the enervating effects of my trip to Korea... not that my visit was bad in any way, but it did turn out to be a little too much fun and alcohol towards the end. And now that my body and especially my liver has recovered just in time for the beginning of a new semester, I ended up spending this evening slowly sipping on some cheap whiskey that my housemates had lying around, while chatting easily with Panna, Dave, and Mel. As Panna was raving about the new turbo-charged blender that she had just bought, I commented that the only useful article in Dave's Maxim magazine lying on the coffee table was one that compared various high-powered commercial food blenders. To this, Mel indignantly replied that I would find the magazine more useful, if only I were sexually active. It was a sure sign that I am indeed back in America, as people in this society have a certain predetermined image of what all quiet Asian men are like. And of course, this social image is different everywhere in the world I go, as I found out during my trip, so in the end, I conclude that these stereotypes mean very little.

Well, perhaps these society-specific stereotypes mean a lot in the study of sociology and the like. What I mean to say is that they mean very little to me.

Still alive, and back in the states... better start blogging again.

I've been doing well in Seoul, so well in fact that I've decided to cancel my trip to visit Galwang in China in favor of staying longer in Korea.

Today I spent most of the day traveling south to Gunsan. The trip was quite pleasant... rural Korea consists of serene mountains clouded in mist, and quiet farms deserted in the winter. I am visiting my grandmother in Gunsan, who raised me for the first year of my life, and still calls me "infant". It makes me sad to think of her lonely widowed existence in this sleepy port city on the western coast; her son is negligent and her daughter is halfway around the world. And I don't think my mother was kidding when she told me that this will probably be the last time I see my grandmother. It makes me think again about my strained relationship with my own parents.