Wrong direction.

I have noticed a lot of facebook fodder these days regarding racism in Australia...

While living in Korea...

...I haven't really kept up with the news in my home country...

...because the main news channels in Korea are KBS, SBS, CNN, and the BBC...

So I was a little shocked and disappointed this week...

... to see so many distressing articles and comments posted on facebook about racism on Australian Day...ㅠ.ㅠ

(Photo Source; http://www.thepunch.com.au/)

Of course some of the images I have seen posted on the web try to show a more progressive and positive image of Australia... 

(Photo Source: http://www.smh.com/)

But most of the content I have seen seems to suggest that a significant number of Australians are becoming more aggressive and hostile towards particular cultural groups...

A study done in Western Australia produced results stating that people who flew Australian flags on Australia day demonstrated significantly higher racist tendencies, in comparison with people who did not fly the Australian flag...

Racism towards Lebanese and Indian cultural minorities in Australia has been going on for a while...

...and it doesn't seem as though Australians are becoming any more civilized and sensitive on this front...

Indian students protested in Australia in 2009 (and perhaps later..) to oppose discrimination in Melbourne...

These kinds of protests become big news in other countries, and now Australia has been blacklisted (officially and unofficially) by a few nations, due to racial intolerance...

My father's family might be contributing to this problem...

...as certain members of my father's family are dangerously Protestant, and they sponsor vast numbers of missionaries to travel to India to try to convert Hindus and Muslims to Christianity...*sad face*

This kind of behavior is clearly irresponsible and offensive...

...as white Australian missionaries in India can further send a negative message to India about the intolerance of Australians towards other religions...

A number of Koreans have asked me if I will move to Australia again in a few years, with the Korean boyfriend. 

My answer is always, 'errr...highly unlikely'. 

The racism felt by members of my family who immigrated from Italy in the 60s has died down over the past 20 years...

...but I don't know if I could protect my Korean boyfriend from the racism that is constantly directed at new immigrants arriving in Australia...

...including (but not limited to) Chinese, Koreans, Indonesians, Malaysians, and Turkish migrants...

...I can't help but feel that Australia is headed in the wrong direction...

Exams.

I took the Korean Proficiency TOPIK Exam yesterday... 토픽한국어시험...

...the exam started at 2.30pm and finished after 6pm...

...the TOPIK exam was slightly more difficult than I expected... so I am not sure if I will like the final outcome of this exam...the vocabularly was quite complex...



I know a lot of Koreans who have taken the national lawyer's examination and the public servant's examination more than 8 times...

... I don't know if I want to follow their lead and keep taking the TOPIK exam repetitively until I get 100%...

...but I feel like I need to achieve a certain mark before I can present my TOPIK mark at a job interview...

On a lighter note...

...I was giggling this morning when I saw these hipster versions of Disney Princesses...

...featured in an article on http://www.thegloss.com/...

I must be pretty old...

... because I am not familiar with some of the names of these princesses...ㅋㅋ -.-;

These Days.

I have been busy busy busy over the past few weeks...

I was asked to participate in a Hyundai Construction marketing conference last week, and I had to work in a group with Hyundai employees to research a marketing strategy related to cities in Spain...

I have also been buying new books this week...

I know that I don't really have time for new books right now...but still...

Last week I went to the 임응식 Limb Eung Sik photography exhibition near City Hall... 

The pictures were taken by this pioneering Korean photographer...mostly between the 1940s and 1990s.   

One thing that I have failed to mention before...

...is that the reason why it is a little tricky to find Korean photos from the 1920s, 30s, 40s, and 50s....(the Japanese colonial era)...

...is that it was difficult for Korean citizens to have access to cameras at this time, and many Koreans used to believe that their spirit might be captured if their photo was taken (or so some Koreans informed me...)

The collection by this photographer was extensive, but I really felt like something was missing...

...I know that the intent of the photographer was not to give a direct opinion on war, poverty, or social justice...

...but I felt like I couldn't quite understand the point of view of this korean photographer...

I went to the Hyatt Hotel Itaewon last week to photograph Australian and New Zealand citizens living in Korea for a magazine in Seoul... 

 The group was made up of 99% women, and most of them seem to have moved to Korea to work in the banking industry, or because of their husband's transfer to a finance branch in Seoul. 

Oddly enough, I think I may have been the only unmarried woman at the event.  I think I may have scared some of the other Australian women when I mentioned that I am unmarried and have a korean boyfriend.  I always seem to kill the mood. *sad face*

I will complete the dreaded TOPIK Korean proficiency exam tomorrow...

*I am going to die*...

Off to study -.-;

Blue Collar.

Apparently it was Australia Day yesterday...

(or so facebook says...)

I don't know any Australians in Seoul...

...so I spent my Australian Day by myself editing legal case studies... **신난다**...ㅎㅎ

...while getting jabbed in the ribs on the subway and so on...

To be frank, even when I lived in Australia...

...I didn't really celebrate Australia Day...

(even though it is a public holiday...)

...sadly a large number of Australians decide to commemorate Australia Day by drinking excessively and starting fights or rioting...

(....ok, there are certainly a lot of rational Australians who are enjoying their time without becoming aggressive on Australia Day...but I just saw this picture *above* of the Australian Prime Minister being dragged away from a riot yesterday...it looked heated...I am not sure if this kind of violent action is necessary or not...Hmm...)

As many of my readers know, I am very rural and I come from one of the most remote settlements in central Australia (Western NSW), known as Broken Hill.

It's a mining town.

Many Koreans can't imagine a barren place like this...;

Broken Hill has an unemployment rate of 14% (approximate).

Population - 19,000 (approx.)

Broken Hill has one of the highest rates of domestic violence in the state of NSW...

It was certainly an interesting experience coming from a blue collar culture...

... and then entering law school in Sydney, with other students from prominently white collar backgrounds...

I didn't actually meet any other law students from mining or farming areas over the whole 6 years I studied in Macquarie Law School... 

I think that I am the only rural student to have been elected onto the Law Students Society Executive at my University in Sydney... (which means that other rural students must be non-existent or there might be some kind of discrimination against rural kids...)

There are, naturally, certain obstacles that students from Broken Hill and other rural areas encounter when trying to enter universities in Sydney, especially in the more specialized areas such as Medicine or Law.  

One problem is that many kids in rural Australia seem to get exposed to alcohol, drugs, and sex at a much younger age than a lot of urban private school students...(I may be generalizing...but this  is just my personal observation...).

 

I hate to be so negative... but when I visited Australia in November last year...

...I started to consider why unemployment, crime, poor health and drug abuse seem to be big concerns in the rural areas in Australia...

In Korea there also seems to be quite a lot of discrimination against students who have grown up in poorer remote areas...

...I am not sure how we can boost education in non-urban areas in Korea and Australia...

...but I hate to see young students in remote regions suffer from these kinds of discrimination...

Festive Eating ~

It was the start of the Lunar New Year 설날 on Monday.

새해 복 많이 받으세요 ~~~^^*

I went to my Korean mother's 큰집 family house ...

(my 한국엄마 Korean mother looks after me in Korea...but she is not my biological mother...ㅋㅋ).



I received some more toothpaste, shampoo, and soap as gifts... **woooooop**... 짱 짱 짱 ...^^*

Koreans give many kinds of  practical giftsets at Lunar New Year...

...I also received woollen socks from Japan...ㅋㅋㅋ....*warm*

I received lots of envelopes with money in them (korean won 원 and US $$)...

...but I won't photograph those because that might be bad kharma..(?)...

Koreans give a lot of money 세뱃돈 in envelopes to the younger children and some unmarried adults (myself included)...but the trick is that you have to say the right thing in Korean... e.g. 'Aunt, Uncle, Happy New Year...'

...and then bow down and receive the envelope with two hands... if you take the envelope with one hand the Aunt or Uncle might smack you...(which happened to me one time...*ouch*)

Actually, Seollal 설날 is a big eating festival in Korea...

As usual...for a festive occasion...

...I bought a new hat... 

We ate seafood...

...a lot a lot a lot... 진짜 많이 먹었어요...

...and raw fish회...

...Koreans eat 미역국 rice cake soup at Lunar New Year...and when they eat it they become 1 year older...

(magic soup?)

...and Korean pears배...

I wore a hanbok...

...but it was cold and I didn't have time to buy a winter hanbok...

...so I resorted to wearing a summer hanbok with a fluffy jacket...ㅋㅋㅋ



We played a traditional Korean game with wooden pieces called 윷놀이 yutnori...

(I lost 10,000 원...아...ㅠ.ㅠ...)

There was also a very very very small dog...

(Koreans seem to prefer little dogs over big dogs...due to small apartment living...)

The roads were clogged with snow when I walked to the subway this morning...

I am pretty busy in Jan/Feb with a legal research job, but there will be more posts to come soon...and trips outside of Korea starting from late February...