"2MB"

jessicainkorea:

Today I learned that the nickname many Koreans have for their current president, Lee Myung-bak, is “2 Megabytes”: as in, he so dumb that’s how much his brain can process.

Claims my students made about Lee Myung-bak:

• Apparently, he’s imported mad cow disease into Korea. (I looked this up, they’re freaking out because President Lee is allowing US beef to be imported to Korea and Koreans believe US beef carries mad cow disease.)
• He’s a corporate fraud in bed with most of the Korean mainstream media (from what I gather, this is true.)
• They don’t like him because he was born in Japan (kind of silly, but understandable. I mean, we’re talking about the country that occupied Korea from 1910-1945.)

2MB. Ha! Clever.

From what I gather, the criticisms of President Lee Myung-bak is that he’s a corporatist, Christianist right-winger whom many consider “stupid.”

Sound familiar?

Haha, 2MB is a good nickname—I don’t think I ever heard that.  I could never believe how much my little students critically talked about their president.  I probably barely knew who ours was when I was nine.

I’m really bothered by how many negative comments I’ve seen regarding Obama’s winning the Nobel Peace Prize.  Please, people, it’s not like he asked for it.  The committee even addresses previous controversies here and pretty much says they look for potential above all else.  Please, give me someone else who you think is better suited to win.. or just stop being a hater.

Living abroad has allowed me to step back from American politics and look at things differently.  It’s crazy to hear my eight-year-old students bash Bush and then talk about how much the love Obama.  Granted, this is probably all echoes of their parents’ beliefs, but even that says a lot.  Americans don’t realize how much impact our government has internationally, and to see people thousands of miles across the world celebrate our president’s election is kind of eye-opening.  I really, really wish that when I decide to come home for good, the political climate has changed a lot.  That underrepresented people have earned more rights, and that—god forbid—everyone is allowed accessible healthcare.

Seeing all this negativity on facebook and elsewhere makes me dread going back and remembering how much Americans suck.  Why you guys always gotta hate on everything?!

Three days later, I’ve finally looked at some of the inauguration stuff.  I love that so many Americans actually care about our president and finally have some hope.  Here are some pictures from the Boston Globe that I liked.  

So many people everywhere. 

I definitely cried watching them dance, ha.

He even made the front page here.  It amazes me how interested people were about the election here—even my 10 year old students.  This just shows how much American politics really affect the whole world.  And now, at the very least, people all over get to feel some optimism.  Finally, I feel proud to be American*.  Let’s hope I still feel this way in four years.  

*While writing this, I checked out cnn.com for the first time in awhile and was quickly reminded of the batshit craziness that seems to only exist in America.  One headline: “I hope Obama ‘fails,’ Limbaugh says.”  Yes, good idea.  Let’s all hope for our new president, and therefore our country to fail, so that we can be in deeper poo-poo than we already are.  Then I almost had a seizure after reading some comments on another site.  I’ll go back to forgetting that the disturbing school of thought known as “American conservatism” exists, and I’ll just be happy that I’m celebrating from afar.  

Probably the only day that I would want to watch CNN or an English news channel is today.  But of course these channels aren’t working.  Just a blank blue screen with Korean writing on it that I can’t read.

So on my lunch break I’m watching the Korean news channel and trying to decipher what they’re saying.