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In da Fleche
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This page was last updated on 08/02/07.
June 30, 2004: Boundaries. Everything has some sort of boundary. Today, the protesting students went past one, and in doing so pushed me past mine. As I mentioned yesterday, today was D-day and the news, I must assume, wasn't what the union wanted to hear. After school Marc and I were walking out as usual. The kids were chanting and banging drums as usual (the union was watching in the wings as usual as well.) So all was normal in our happy corner of Incheon. What wasn't normal was the flow of students looking confused and upset back towards school from the main gate. One of my favorite students walks by and tells us that they can't leave because the gate is blocked and locked. Rus' spidey-sense went off about that time. (in honor of today's movie release) Cruisin' on down the hill we see (sorry it's blurry, it was nasty overcast
and I was walking)
Well after he scoots on through the gate the kids get up and close the gate and slide the bolt. Oh no, you will not keep my happy ass on campus. This is that limit thing I was talking about. They were denying passage to other students, using intimidation and force to keep people from leaving. I'm sorry, but that's going too far. Demonstrate and ruin your grades and future (in Korea a bad semester can do that, especially in your 3rd year) if you want, it isn't my problem. But when you pressure and scare other students and deny them what limited freedoms they have you exceeded a boundary and made it my problem. I mutter something to Marc about how I'm walking out and move to the gate. I hear lots of Korean in the background but everything becomes muted and I go about my task. A kid throws the bolt to the locked position as I get there so I look at him and say "that's not gonna work." I throw the bolt and slam it back as he tries to hold it closed. Something wasn't quite right as part of the bolt was still in the way, but too many yelling students were gathering around me, so I just forced it on open. The catcalls grew louder and the kid that was futilely trying to hold the gate closed said something. I looked at him as Marc and I stepped through and said "And that is how it is done, junior." That should have been the end of it but it wasn't. Many students were yelling to be let out and were being harassed and all had seen me leave. I looked in our fired friends tent and I saw the smug looks and the deal was done. I pushed the gate back open, wedged my foot under it and invited the kids to hurry through. Probably 20 made it through while I was holding the gate. 4 protesting students pounded the gate trying to move me out of the way. That part was really quite amusing as they were getting nowhere against my wedged foot (and my extra mass helped a bit too.) When 2 more joined them their attacks moved it a little more closed so I told the escapees to bali (hurry). I start realizing Marc is telling me to go and that I have done enough and he is sounding more insistent. I also begin to realize that the voices are quite angry and getting very loud on the other side of the fence. I make one last comment about how weak they were and let the gate close. Four boys try to stare me down from the big gate and fail. (I have them on video, but quality is very poor. Actually I have video of the whole thing as my camera was recording as it swung from my arm, so it is a really bad video!) I smart off to them a bit, as I'm apt to do, until one finally says "No ENGLISH!" Funny, but one of the teachers they are so willing to fight for was an English teacher I think. Guess he wasn't that great, huh. I look back into the tent and the smugness is gone. They wisely said nothing to me as I was not in the frame of mind to be nice. I move on down the street a little and remember that Nicola, my Kiwi co-worker, was leaving a bit after us and I didn't want her to deal with the gate too. So I called Marc, as he was still talking to some of the union jackholes, and voiced my concern. He seemed to think that the gate stand may have been broken and it would be no problem, so I moved on to go home. When I got to the crosswalk all the girls that I had let out were there waiting on the bus and all thanked me profusely. Frankly, that made it all worthwhile. I can't wait till I get there tomorrow....See ya in July. Rus June 29, 2004: The month of June is almost spent. Where did the time go? I'm semi happy with the regularity of the June updates. I have some fill in to do (especially pictures) but overall, pretty amazing for my slacker ass. On the school front: I mentioned that they fired teachers are in a tent out
front the other day.
Tomorrow is supposed to be D-day, we shall see. From what I've heard the Ministry of Education has brought a little law to bear on the teachers that skipped a lot of class and they are scrambling to make up for lost time. Maybe that'll keep things quiet till I get the F#k outta Dodge on the 17th. Lastly, I still have tons of work to get done so updates will be sparse. Check the board for quickies. June 25, 2004: "To Die Well" has stirred a little debate and some comments which makes me happy. I welcome dissenting opinions to any statement or position I make. Rational and thoughtful discussion is what separates men from wild animals and we need more separation these days. Speaking of such (Political Correctness dictated I had to say :such" and not the word I wanted), it seems that Kim Sun Il had been held for at least 20 days before his first video release. Comparing pictures and video form his first days to his last shows a marked change. I would guess he was treated in a less than humane way and was quite broken by the time he made the released video. I still stand by my statement that I, that is me, myself, TheRus, would not want my final memory to be of me begging. I also stand by the statement that he had the power, one lonely and scared guy in Iraq, to make Koreans a much stronger and more confident people. Also on the 20 days topic, it also appears the AP had a copy of an earlier tape and when calling to confirm Kim's abduction, the Korean embassy and Ministry of Information(?) claimed to have no knowledge of him. There were supposedly only 75 Korean civilians in Iraq, what's the odds of this guy not registering when getting there? His boss also made at least 4 trips to the embassy in the time he was missing but allegedly never said anything. The boss is gonna be in trouble, the Korean government is gonna play the blame game for a while too I bet. (I know what idiom I would normally use here, but I think it would be a little, oh, insensitive. I'm guessing a few of our favorite idioms for describing getting fired or caught and punished are out of favor for a while...wonder if they would have been pre-PC era) Other updates may be a bit slow in coming. It is finals time here at school and I have 300 plus students to interview and then do all their grades for the semester, I'll be sick of Excel in about 20 more minutes thanks. One last tidbit! The fired teachers at my school are now in a tent outside the school gate. It brought a smile to my face as I walked in today. We are 5 days away from their ultimatum: the principal leaves or we start new demonstrations and basically strike. Of course their finals start the next week and they are unprepared for them (missing a week or more of classes will do that) so this may just be a way to cover up their failure to prepare the students. Payback is a bitch and I hope when these kids realize how you have screwed them over they come to collect.
June 22, 2004: I made the
news! Woo! No idea if I'm
misquoted or not, but I'll find out.
www.seoul.co.kr.
To Die Well "Please get out of here. I don't want to die ... Your life is important, but my life is important."
Want to discuss it? Try here
June 21, 2004: The calm before the storm? Well it looks like the Union can't read English well enough to talk smack on my board...'tis a shame. I've been told I'm a topic of debate on their cafe, but I wouldn't know. It is far too much work to dig through all that BS to find anything about me. Search is pointless since they could spell my name in many different ways (in Korean) and if they call me RK it is too short of a search. Oh well. I guess I'll have to wait till my interview comes out in the paper tomorrow. On a happy note: I bought a new toy and Sam's Mom was gracious enough to
bring it over. I must also point My new Pocket PC, The Toshiba E805. Perty spiffy it is. Wifi, VGA, SD and CF slots, lots of ram and fun. Being a little different than a real pc, I now find myself closing windows on accident on my real PC far too often. (X on PPC is more like minimize and OK in one) I already have Skype and ICQ/MSN on it for when I'm in WiFi range. Again, spiffy. I've been posting small things and stuff I don't have time for on the board, drop by and say hi. Oh ya, I fogot to say thanks for the plug on your blog M.Toast! It feels good to know someone is reading. June 17, 2004: Holding off on new stuff for a day or 2, don't want the 14th stuff to move too far down. Check the board, tell me to move on! New updates listed below. May 2004 is complete!. June 14, 2004: One week of little to no work and I got nothing done. Maybe this week since I'll be busy I can get some updates in. But how about this instead: (inspired by another confrontation about my camera and a phone call requesting I turn over my pictures) TO THE UNION TEACHERS THAT ARE SCARED OF ME AND MY CAMERA: What are you so scared of? Why does my camera inspire so much childish rage in you? You invite TV stations to tell "your" story, you invite the newspapers to show your "struggle," you have a huge message board on Daum, complete with pictures, and students from many classes have put up pages dedicated to this inane waste of a semester. Why are you so scared of me? Why do you instantly yell and scream like a 5 year old that lost his favorite toy when you see me taking a picture of a PUBLIC demonstration? That same demonstration that has TV coverage. That same demonstration that has 3 or 4 professional photographers milling about. That same demonstration where your cohorts film and snap pictures. Why must you throw a temper tantrum instead of asking why I like taking pictures? Why are you so scared of me? Why didn't you ever tell us (the foreign staff) why you were protesting? Were you afraid we would think you were being childish? I may have supported you, now you will never know . I may have been taking pictures to help you, to plead your case to the English education circles, but you will never know. I have a degree in Political Science, I'm trained to watch interactions between opposing groups and figure out solutions. I may have had some good ideas for both sides, but again, you will never know. What you will know, I will tell you now so get out your English to Korean dictionary and read along. I had no real cares about your fight because YOU gave me no reason to care. I take pictures because I like to remember what has happened around me. I was content to let this situation find a conclusion and be happily neutral. YOU chose to make me an enemy, so unless you give me a reason to support you, you have one. I do not care who is right or who is wrong. I want to do my work and help the students, again, something it seems you will never know. All I have seen is a group of teachers, people who are SUPPOSED to help and nurture and encourage your students, ruin the future of many good kids. Actions speak volumes and words fade away. I have seen students scared to leave a room because they will be forced to protest. I have seen students wandering the halls because their "teacher" would rather chant and sing than teach his class. Today I saw the end result of two months of manipulation. I saw students fighting parents because the parents told them to go to class. What you have done to these kids is sick. Are you proud of using, or abusing rather, that trust? Are you proud that many of these kids will now have a darker future since they lost one of their last semesters? Are you proud that you can hire news crews to tell your side of the story? Are you proud that you can intimidate the staff and students that don't feel the same way as you? And lastly, are you proud that you have taken a school that was changing, becoming something more than it was, something better, and turned it into your personal battlefield? Is that why you are scared of me? Are you afraid the world may see how selfish you have become? You are supposed to be adults. All I see are old children crying over spilled milk. Rational discussion is an adult behavior and I sure haven't seen that. Yelling and screaming and getting in people's faces is grade school behavior. Some of your students are acting older than you. The others can't really be faulted for following the path on which you led them. I'm tired of writing. I'm tired of watching this crap day after day. I'm tired of YOU encouraging the students to ruin their lives. I hope you are happy because you very well may have a reason to be scared of me. RK (Permission to copy this in whole or in part must be obtained in writing from R. Kiser. Don't misquote me. If you need help with the big words just ask.)
Want to call Rus an opinionated ass? Want to add your Opinion? Click HERE. July 16 mini update: It seems I have offended the students. Well, not really, but that's what they have been told to say. This, by the very same person that has been fired and called me very unkind things, in Korean and in front of witnesses, while I was taking pics the other day. These same words that would likely get me fired if I said them to a fellow teacher in anger. I'm insulting them by taking pictures of their cameramen. I'm insulting them by being screamed at and belittled. I'm insulting them by taking it like a grown-up and not kicking his ass on the playground. Frankly, I'm the one who has been insulted by having to put up with this crap day after day. The students have been insulted by being manipulated by these teachers "they love so much." Get a life. Fight your own fight and quit sending the students to do your dirty work. June 7, 2004: I have refrained from commenting much on what is going on at my school...but today it is getting very difficult. It is 9:30 am, and the union teachers are leading the students in a "demo" outside. It is loud and will ruin any chance at a productive day. There is talk of a student boycott today. It may be the best thing, but I'm sure my 1st year kids will still come to class. they won't work, but they won't leave either. I will not say more yet, but damn I'm getting close to letting loose on these turkeys. June 05, 2004: Had a small get-together last night to watch Game 5. Julie and I prepared a Mexican feast for the Cannucks, err Canadians, at her work and Kyle, a guy from Tennessee that lives nearby. I had found limes and some frozen guacamole over the previous weekend so it was a must do sorta thing. The game was good. The food was good. The company was good. It was good. Today, it was so bloody hot. It was still under 90 F I think, but it was damned nasty. The air was sticky and dirty and no breeze. I decided that if it was this bad this early I had to take that big step and buy an AC. Korean buildings are measured in "pyoung" 1 pyoung=3.3 meters square. My apartment is really large by Korean single person standards at 23 p. I know people with 4 and 6 p apartments! Well, after doing a little hunting, I found that most wall mounted AC units were in the 4-10 p range and the standing units are 10 to 20 p. Korean's don't have central air, nor do they have the standard window units we are used to. AC's here are in 2 parts: the blower and the compressor. The blower is a free standing thing about my height and the wall unit is usually about 4 feet long and 1 foot tall. Both have a compressor and cooling fan that are connected by tubing and pipes. Most places hang it outside the window and cut a small hole in the wall for the tubes but we couldn't do that. The window is only 2 to 3 feet away from the next building and I didn't think they would appreciate my heated air being forced into their apartment. So my compressor is on the roof....I'm on the 3rd floor of 5. That's a long way to run copper tubing! Let's just say the install guys were not too happy about that. I ended up with a 12 pyoung standing model. Overall I think I got an ok deal. I should be able to sell it when and if I leave this place. If nothing else I think can get a month's rent out of it if I leave it. Frankly, I don't care. I'm now chilly cool and that's worth the won. June 04, 2004: I'm getting a bit behind again, this time due to being busy and having an odd schedule more than being lazy or unmotivated. Maybe this weekend or next week I'll get May 2004 wrapped up with pictures and all. I decided to quit putting off the present so much while working on the past (still plugging away at Sept. 02!) Since picking up the keyboard again, I've made a few people mad saying things here on my page. Good. When I was writing this stuff 2 years ago, I tried to keep it light and entertaining. Now, while writing about day to day I still like the light side, but there are bigger issues I want to talk about...well some of the issues really are not that big, but often they do relate to a bigger picture. It's a hard choice to make: A fun page that many will read and enjoy or a page that opens up topics that some do not like or do not want to talk about. I'm leaning towards the latter. It is more of who I am really, at least who I am right now. With that being said, I'll still try to amuse you at times, but hopefully I'll make some of you, my few dear readers, think and maybe even act. In truth, this page isn't for you, it is for me. I'm just willing to share. I do really like comments, either by mail or on the message board to the left. |
These pages and images are © 2001-2006 Fleche.
rusATtherus.net |
out Lenape was the man and made the handoff to her at 4:45 am in the Garden
Ridge parking lot. We could be international drug dealers or arms runners but
alas it was just more techie geek gear! (what? TheRus got geek gear? no way! I
don't believe it.
