luck favors the prepared.

It is said that we all currently live in the Era of Globalization. It is true that various countries constantly interact with one another. However, is globalization a correct, right, and appropriate term to be used? Free Trade Association, United Nations, and many other international organizations claim that their ultimate purpose is the fair and peaceful coexistence of the world. However, is it always true?

The Western colonialism and imperialism officially ended after the World War II. The colonies achieved their national independence. They were freed and liberated according to the textbooks. The Age of Colonialism and Imperialism was over, and the Age of Globalization has approached—people say and believe. Yet, unfortunately, what we—the world—is experiencing at this moment cannot be referred as a true globalization.

It is not globalization. It is pure westernization. Now, here I am to present myself as the walking example of the false globalization. I live in a country called Korea located in East Asia. I go to an international school. Teachers punish me whenever I speak Korean in the school. I receive western education. I read Jane Eyre in English. I speak English. I write English essays. I dress in western clothing. I eat hamburgers. I drink coca-cola. I use macbook. I watch Lost and Gossip Girl. I am writing this post in English and will post it up on wordpress.com, a western site with layouts written in English.

The stronger players (also known as the Westerners) want to call this phenomenon as globalization, because they desire to justify their continued, yet newly formed imperialism. The weaker players (the non-Westerners) hope to call this phenomenon as globalization as well, since they do not want to acknowledge their weaknesses and do not want to admit that they are doing nothing but imitating the West.

Ah, globalization! What a sweet-sounding and comforting term it is!

watch?v=e0atFVSyMxE

We Should Marry Mr. Bing.

My English class—Ms. P and all of us—had a fevered discussion over a practical issue: marriage. The question of what kind of man a woman should marry seemed quite vague for me. Of course, it was. How could have a sixteen-year-old girl, who hasn’t even imagined putting herself in a wedding-dress, create a structured standard of her future husband? However, it is a question that I must end up with a clear answer in the near future.
Despite its ambiguity, the question brought several adjectives in my head that would describe “the man”: tall, rich, polite, well-mannered, concise, respectful, humorous, active, clean, attractive, courageous, wise, smart, charming, sweet-sounding, tanned, organized, muscular, assiduous, decisive, and short-haired.
What a long list of impossible fantasies. It is not possible for a man like this to exist on the same planet with me. Well, luckily he may exist. But why would this Renaissance man want to marry me? There is no way for me to marry that man, and I know it so well. So, I decided to tear down my nonsense delusions.
Let’s be more practical. Let’s think of a person, a man, a character, whom I would want to grow old with. After a while, I was able to think of a fictional character named Chandler Bing from my favorite TV program, Friends.
Why would I marry this man?
First of all, he has his plan. Mr. Bing is a man who looks after for his future and prepare ahead for it. He earned money and continuously saved small portion of it in order to save budgets for his dream house in the countryside with a small yard where he can be with his children and Monica.
He owns true courage that makes him a real man despite the absence of manly body. Chandler is capable of expressing his love in front of his partner. He is a man who can show his wife his tears to tell her his sincere feelings. He is not a pretentious coward who is busy taking care of one’s own pride. Moreover, Chandler is brave enough to quit his job in order to achieve his real goal. This decision may seem risky, yet his passion and effort are trustworthy of grabbing success.
The very profound evidence of Mr. Bing so appropriate for a life partner is Chandler’s possession of his friends: Monica, Joy, Ross, Rachel, and Phoebe. I think looking at one’s friend is a fine way to determine what kind of person the one is. Having such worthy friends for such a long time evidently proves his good traits as a human being.
Chandler Bing, this man is not very rich. He is neither concise nor muscular. His appearance is portrayed as unattractive (although I personally think he is charming). Mr. Bing is not necessarily smart, clean, or organized. He is definitely not a Renaissance man. Yet, I would still love to walk down the aisle holding this lovable man’s hand.

With a romantic melody flowing, two half naked boys, full of passion, were holding each other. Sweat covered all of their bodies; gasping for breath, the two seemed inseparable. What are they doing? I asked myself, and the only answer I could think of was them making love. The very instant when I assumed them as homosexuals, a man who were watching the scene removed his headphone. The amorous song ended, and no more romance existed. Instead, loud cheers of a crowd filled up the speaker. An utterly different angle provided an unexpected image. No, they were not making love. They were two wrestlers struggling to defeat each other.
The situation was created by the company trying to sell their new mobile phone with an mp3 function. “Our company makes a cellular phone with great music which can change your way of viewing things” is the basic message that the advertisement delivers. Yet what penetrated my mind was not the fresh machine’s arrival. The advertisement itself with its astonishing way of destroying the viewers’ stereotyped image felt fresh. Breaking stubborn stereotypes hindering people from facing the truths that they are suppose to see—this is what I want to do. I want to become a thinker, speaker, writer, viewer who can remove colored glasses placed in front of eyes of people.
I want to be a person who is capable of showing the same image from an opposite angle and still convince the audience. The commercial with two naked boys which is supposed to be funny and humorous altered my life. Obtaining ultimate purpose of life from a laughable advertisement: isn’t this happening itself smashing the stereotype?

It was such a long day; I was bored. I turned TV on, so naturally as if I was planning to watch it. With the remote, I changed channels several time, and there it was. Cinderella. When I was young, I watched that film for more than ten times, and I just loved it. So I decided to watch it again with the remaining sweet feelings from old memories. Familiar songs made me smile. However, as it went on, I realized something; something new.
Currently, Cinderella is definitely one of the most loved and popular stories in the earth. Its sweet love lines attracted little girls all around the whole world. Walt Disney Productions had selected the fairy tale to make their 12th animation film, and its successful picturization caused more girls to fall in love with the prince.
Cinderella is the main character in this story. She is the one who was in charge of all the minor housework and she is the one who bears all the pressure from her stepmother and stepsisters. She is certainly a nice, polite, and virtuous girl, yet not a naïve one. The dress and her glass shoes that the fairy godmother has magically created for her perfectly fitted her size. If so, how is it possible for one of the pair of her glass shoes to come off? If she didn’t really have ambition, why would she want to go to the ball? Yes, she said “yes,” when the prince asked her out for a dance, and she was the one who later stepped out and tried the shoe on when the prince was searching for its owner. Love at first sight, people call it, yet loving someone after a couple hours of dance is certainly not enough for them to get married.
Although some people call Cinderella as the pleasant love story, the real truth about the story is quite bitter. The book directly handles lookism and importance of material possession. The prince fell in love with Cinderella since she was beautiful, not because of her inner personality. Cinderella loved the prince, knowing his background and wealth he had. They knew nothing deep about each other. What the prince recognized about her was her outer beauty, and what Cinderella noticed was his position, prince of a nation.
There is a new term called ‘Cinderella complex’. It is described as a desire to be taken care of by others, fearing being independent, which nearly occurs in women. This desire is originated from Cinderella, the story in which it values outer beauty, dressing pretty, and having wealth, but gives idea of a character that cannot be strong enough to be independent, waiting for a man—a prince—to rescue her.
Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Beauty and the Beast. What a coincidence! Every main character in the story is beautiful, young lady. Young girls do watch these things, and they do accept these things. Why do girls put on their make-up since young ages? Why do they want to shop all the time? Why do they consider plastic surgery? No wonder.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://youtube.com/v/XtPX2kXhu7I" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Capitalism.
Economic freedom.
Free enterprise.
Laissez faire.

They are nothing but fancy and alluring outer wrappers trying to cover human filth. It is almost impossible to not admit the fact that capitalism is the most effective economic model so far in our history. We, you and I have witnessed the eventual collapse of communism and other various forms of socialism. Socialism is definitely a wonderful model “in theory”, yet human nature is incapable of supporting its success. I live for myself, and so do you. We all try to put something delicious inside our mouths, wear finest clothing, and live in comfort. No one can be criticized for having such desires, because everyone posses such wills.

Our capitalistic and money-based society not only has caused the creation of natural flow of wealth, but also has given birth to certain crises.

Blood diamonds, often referred as conflict diamonds, are the breathing evidence of the chaos. Blood diamonds literally refer to diamonds that are produced on top of tragic bloodshed in Africa. Europe, the home of capitalism, had imperialized African continents for decades. When European nations finally released the continent from the chains, they have left the land with no effective counterplan. The sudden absence of power naturally created struggle for strength. Ambitious forces wanted heavy arms. Weapons required money. Power and wealth—these two have grown undetachable.

In order to gain money, armed forces began to kill. Africans killed other Africans over the control of diamond mines. Humans murdered other human beings for greater profits. There are 20,000 African child soldiers with guns in their small hands. The young kids use their fingers to pull the triggers.

Illegal diamond trading, Child labor, forced harlotry, and other dirty business are in presence. So many people are unaware of this tragedy. Some do know about this, yet they refuse to reveal this stain. Why? How stupid it is to even ask. They do not want to stop or talk about it because such businesses make considerable profits.

I am not attacking capitalism. I can’t, since I do not have reasonable measure that will replace the current system. However, we should stop for a moment. We should stop and have a look around us. We must see the sad reality and what we have done with our glorious, successful capitalistic minds.

If you want to know more about the blood diamond, click this link.

Walking down the hallway, laughing out loud with my friends, I suddenly stopped my steps after a glance at an object hanging down from the ceiling: a candid camera. With its one eye, it was facing directly at me and my friends. Perceiving my actions, reading my lips–these were what the camera was doing. With a strong, abrupt uncomfortable feeling, I refused to act as myself. Yes, I stopped being Dabin, yet started to act as a machine that performs restricted actions forced by school.

In one science fiction movie (with a title that I cannot remember), one of the main characters reveals top government secret: the satellites will be soon used by the government to observe actions of each citizen. When I heard it, I gave a snort of laughter. Invasion of privacy, I would call it. Yet with candid cameras watching over me, my friends, everyone in school, I started to think of it as a quite reasonable theory. If international schools where the authorities claim to respect their students start to invade their privacy, it only proves that the authorities suppose human nature as evil and unworthy of trust.

Although the original purpose and intention of the cameras are to prevent certain misbehaviors of students, it still feels like being a prisoner in panopticon–a specially designed prison where everything can be seen by observers.

This is a captured image of the world clock. Click the link if you want to view the real one.

We, human beings, are creatures that grow continuously and rapidly. Countless numbers of babies are born every instant; however this website not only proves how astonishing we are as a species that gives birth to new lives so quickly but also points out the fact that mankind kills and harms other organisms on this planet and maybe the planet itself as well. According to my observation, about 1,600,000 babies appeared on Earth while 330 species became extinct in one week. 7 days—in this short period of time, humans reproduce their own descendents without stopping; unfortunately, at the same time, we are the ones who are fully responsible for damaging this beautiful environment.

People cut down forests; they pump out oils using up uncontrollable amount of natural resources; cars never stop being produced causing pollution that will eventually make our planet a hotter (in terms of temperature) place to live in. It is amazing how fast our population grows. Approximately 600,000—only one third of number of births—died last week, showing apparent rise in the world population. Population growth itself is not a negative phenomenon; but what humans do as the population grows bigger engenders conflicts. Forests produce oxygen that we rely on. If we continue to cut forests down, then how will our grandchildren breathe fresh or any type of air at all? Global warming, although it seems like it’s not happening and some people deny its presence, surely takes place. There are lots of decimal points required to indicate temperature change, yet it is certainly going up.

Mankind not only harms other species but also kill each other under a tragic incident called war. People in Iraq are suffering; people all over the places are being injured by violence. People, standing on the same sphere as we are, commit suicides; and its rate seems like it will never drop. We need to stop damaging our gifted woods. We have to pay attention to those species being forever lost. We must put an end to ongoing cruelty within our species. Let’s realize what’s happening to the planet and to us. Earth has been a wonderful dwelling place for us to live on. Yet it will no loner serve as a peaceful, comfortable, and reliable home if we, human beings, continue to destroy it.

She cried. I saw her tears. She was yelling and crying out her daughter’s name. I did not know who she was and why she was crying. Later I found out that she was an old woman living in an apartment right in front of mine. Her daughter, 29-year-old girl, killed herself by throwing herself out of the window of 7^th floor. It was because of melancholia, people said. It was the mental sickness due to too much stress that killed her, they claimed. It was a tragic incident, but I felt sad and angry at the same time. No, it was not melancholia that killed her. She was the one who killed herself, placing her mother in deep sorrow, making all of her close ones dropping uncontrollable amount of tears, throwing away the given privilege, an opportunity to live.

To step out of a window or not—a single step forward can distance a young girl from opening her eyes in the next morning. Social oppression may drive a person to think about ending up one’s own life; but it is purely her or his choice to perform the dangerous plan into a physical action.

The universe granted all people including you and me the authority of possessing free-will. Affected by bitter reality, mortals occasionally cut off their own ropes of life using a sharp scissor called suicide. Despite all the outer influences pushing people to the fag end of their life, the granted right of free-will never stops providing unlimited opportunities that can continue their heartbeat. A final decision, determining whether to kill oneself or not, utterly depends on the person’s will.

Not being able to withstand severe pressure from the society may play an enormous role in providing reasons for a self-destruction; however it should not be forgotten that it was the person who fixed one’s mind to stop her own heartbeat. I never faced a difficulty in my life that will make me feel to kill myself; yet some of my friends told me that they had faced some. Is it really the matter of facing difficulties? Or is it the matter of “how” we take the difficulties?

The movie impressed me. Our Happy Hours portrays a life of a prisoner who is adjudged to die.

“If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone a her” (John 8-1). No human being has a right or an authority upon life of others. A person putting another man to death is called a murder. A capital punishment is nothing yet a second naming of murder.

There is only one difference existing between a real murder (that is considered as crime) and a death penalty: one is done through a legal procedure. Yes, a legal procedure to kill a person exists. A role of true government is to protect each of its citizens and to show exemplary behavior as leaders of a nation. A capital punishment goes against human morality and dignity. Another additional homicide is the only result of such punishment.

No human being is perfect. There is no way to repair if misjudgment case occurs. All the humans, including judges, are imperfect beings which always leave possibility of error and blunder. Although rare, these cases resulted by mistrials do occur, and it is impossible to pay the price when such mistakes take place. An innocent man may leave for a false charge, yet absolutely no solution is prepared for his undeserved departure. Controlling rate of crime is considered as the most substantial reason for practicing the death penalty. However, this is not necessarily true. I once read in an article that a stoppage of the penalty actually did not bring noticeable impact to the crime rate. Instead, there are even some odd examples in which Canada and the United States experienced decreased statistics of crime rate after the abolishment. The abolishment and the crime rate have no relations. If there is no good, then why kill?

1. There are no words in the English dictionary that rhyme with orange or silver.

2. In Washington, it is illegal to pretend one’s parents are rich.

3. Apocolocynposis: the fear of turning into a pumpkin

4. Arachilbutyrophobia: the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of one’s mouth

5. In Canton, Ohio, you have one hour to report your missing tiger to authorities.

6. In Denmark, it is illegal to wear a mask.

7. The Roman Emperor Domitain liked to spend hours catching flies.

8. Thomas Edison, inventor of the light bulb, was afraid of the dark.

9. An earthquake on December 16, 1811, caused parts of the Mississippi River to flow backwards.

10. A lump of pure gold the size of your thumbnail can be flattened into a sheet the size of a tennis court.

11. In 2002 the Greek government passed a flawed law that accidentally banned all electronic games.

12. The sentence “The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog” uses every letter of the alphabet.

During homeroom period, I had nothing to do so I looked through my agenda book. Information given in the above list is all true—some of them are stupid, but they are hilarious. I found them quite interesting and felt like sharing them with people!