Korean Cops and Traffic Laws for Expats: Some Advice

I'd like to offer some advice to any expats out there who also have a scooter, motorcycle or even a car in the form of a simple story.

One of the powers of being a motorized bike driver in Seoul is the ability to ignore all traffic laws. The unstated rule among us is that if it's clear, go. It's certainly not allowed by the law, nor is it safe, but the bike culture here is based on speed and efficiency (a trait that many facets of Korean life lack). Most of the drivers out there are delivery drivers who carry huge loads and packages on the back of their bikes and a speedy arrival translates to more income.

I always laugh when I'm sitting on my scooter in the middle of these leather clad delivery road warriors. They're always smoking and are usually filthy looking. I, on the other hand, am much cleaner, listening to "Take My Breath Away" and wearing a suit. I look pretty damn out of place, so I laugh. The only other motor scooterists in suits are the entry-level guys who can't afford a car yet.

To the story...

The other day, I was waiting at an intersection for a green light that never seemed to come. My fellow drivers were only adding to my impatience by constantly revving their engine as they inched closer to running the light. Finally, the coast was clear and we all ran the light. That's usually how I judge it. If they go, I try to blend into to the mix and dash across the intersection. Most of the time, we're in no real danger, but if even if we were, we certainly wouldn't we give it a second thought. That's what we do.

As free or innocent as we usually feel, this time the police, who were literally hiding in the bushes, did not seem to agree. They had set up little red-light trap. Since I have a scooter, I have quicker acceleration than most motorcycle deliver guys, so I was leading the back (which I imagine looks equally as funny). The fuzz emerged from the shrubs and darted into the street waving batons, directing us to the side on the road. I thought about ignoring the officer's orders, but decided it would be best to pull over and see what they had to say.

I stopped the bike, pulled out the key and waited to be questioned and, I presumed, ticketed. An officer who looked like he was in his mid-forties approached me and asked me to remove my helmet. Up until this point, he assumed I was a Korean man. He was prepared for that, so when I took off my helmet, he was noticeably shocked. It totally threw him off his game. He paused and just started at me. After an awkward 30 second love-stare, he began speaking...in Korean.

He tried to make it simple for me by speaking only in nouns with no verbs or anything "tricky".

"운전 면허증(drivers license)."

I knew what he had asked for. Simple context was more than enough. I understood, but did I want him to know that?

"뭐라고" I responded.

He said it again.

This time I just shrugged and pretended that I didn't understand a word he was saying. In frustration, he walked over to discuss the situation with his fellow officers. I watched them out of the corner of my eye. He was trying to find someone who spoke English. Besides the fact that they were busy dealing with other angry drivers, I could tell that none of them did. I don't think the Academy requires TOEIC scores.

He walked back over to me. He was looking at my license plate, or at least where my license plate is supposed to be. He pointed at it and said something I actually couldn't understand.

I shrugged.

Again because context is quite helpful in tricky situations, I fully understood what he was trying to say.I assume it was, "Where is your license plate? You should have a license plate!"

I shrugged.

After a few minutes of silent frustration, he looked at me and told me to carry my drivers license.

I shrugged.

"GO!" he fired back.

I did.

My first thought was that if this was America, I would have gotten a ticket and my lack of communication skills would have only made it bigger. No American police officer would do such a thing, but this guy did.

Either way, this officer had options. He could have found an English speaker if he wanted to. He could have asked for my ID card and tried to give me some sort of fine. He could have pushed harder for my drivers license or plate, but he didn't. It was easier to let me go than to go through the trouble. It boils down to the fact that these officers are underpaid and lazy. On top of that, he's not a Gangnam cop, so bribery is off the table, so it was just easier for him.

What did I learn?

Pretending not to understand a word (although a little embarrassing) got me out of a ticket and maybe more. Not having license plate on the bike (it's in my storage compartment under my seat) made it impossible to track. I was essentially a unregistered dude that somehow ascended to a level of greatness where traffic laws don't apply.

My advice to other expat motorcycle drivers?

Take off your license plates and play dumb. Forget all the "perpetuating a stereotype" or "being rude" talking points and play the game. It pays off.

Will this work everytime? No, but I assure you it won't hurt.

Korean Students Love Marijuana

Not true, but flashy nonetheless.

It’s very foolish to do drugs in Korea. In fact, it's downright stupid. And if you gotta do it then at least wait until Korea is a memory. Between strict laws, witch-hunting Korean citizens and the risk of deportation, there is very little lure for the level-headed expats here. Still, some do it. For the average Korean citizen, the punishment is even worse both legally and socially.

In class this week, we're talking about drug laws, sentencing and a few other related topics, so today I started with a little open discussion about the perception of drugs in Korea, and marijuana was immediately brought up by one of the younger, “hipper” students. (Roboseyo has a funny little write up on his confusion with marijuana and the film “Marley and Me”.)

The student was speaking very openly about marijuana consumption in front of the class and even had to gall to ask me if I could assist him in his quest. I immediately told him to stop his inquisition, that that was not the aim of the discussion. I have no idea where one gets it anything in Korea, nor do I care to know. I don't want to deal with finger-pointing and he seemed to get the picture for about five minutes. But why was he so comfortable asking me in the first place?

When it comes to drugs, this man, like many of my students, has a very simplistic understanding of foreigners and foreign culture. Just as he was taught by mass culture, he believes most teachers are addicted to some sort of drug. The manner in which he was speaking to me resonated in stereotyped behavior and (outdated) drug-related colloquialisms. Having never been involved in any sort of Western counter-culture, he felt it was acceptable to ask for pot in front of an entire class while casually propositioning me to "travel to the US, get some marijuana and sell it to his friends in Hongdae". Why in the world would this guy ask such an outrageous thing in front of his peers? I was and still am baffled.

My theories:

1) He’s been indirectly exposed (not involved) to enough elements of Western counter-culture (probably television and film) that his curiosity now outweighs all of his naturally-honed Korean ability to fear all drugs.

2) He has such a warped idea of Western culture, from which he believes all of us to be involved with drugs and, since we are all addicted, it seemed acceptable to casually approach me in class as if he were simply asking for a higher grade. (Most likely)

3) He is a mole from one of these anti-foreigner groups and he’s trying to bait me.

4) Since he is the youngest student in the class (21), he is trying to play the role of the younger, rebellious youth that rejected society and blah blah blah…James Dean…blah.

5) He’s just a fucking idiot. (Also likely)

My guess? I think he’s a mixture of #2 and #5. Most Koreans think that all drugs are horrible and there is no difference between cocaine and marijuana. That view leads to alarmist reactions when they hear of drug use. Even an academic or legal discussion of drugs is not something I would recommend. But here’s this guy, trying to convince me that I would be rich if I smuggled dope in for his friends.

The other students in class were sheepishly smiling at his antics, but I’m certain that many of them were thinking that this guy is nuts and maybe a few of them were even considering calling the police. Alarmist yes, but this guy was asking for it.

I have since changed the topic for week to stupid Korean student's perception of what it means to be foreign.

Lesson one: Don't associate with douche bags.

A Pot Friendly US?

Fivethirtyeight.com has a nice write-up about some recent polls which suggest that American's are "growing kinder to bud".

Check it out for yourself, but here's a little highlight.


That's a pretty high number. Talkleft also chimes in.

ESL Email Scams

I received two emails recently and both of them are clearly scams. The first one is really obvious, but the second one is a little trickier and, honestly, I'm not sure what the scam is just yet. Plus, I'm on nurse-detail today because of 고's wisdom tooth removal and I figured I'd waste some time.

The obvious one first:

How are you doing today? I am sorry i didn't inform you about my traveling to Africa for a program called "Empowering Youth to Fight Racism, HIV/AIDS, Poverty and Lack of Education, the program is taking place in three major countries in Africa which is NIGER , South Africa and Ghana . It as been a very sad and bad moment for me, the present condition that i found myself is very hard for me to explain. I am really stranded in Ghana because I forgot my little bag in the Taxi where my money, passport, documents and other valuable things were kept on my way to the Hotel am staying, I am facing a hard time here because i have no money on me. I am now owning a hotel bill of $ 550 and they wanted me to pay the bill soon else they will have to seize my bag and hand me over to the Hotel Management, I need this help from you urgently to help me back home, I need you to help me with the hotel bill and i will also need $1050 to feed and help myself back home so please can you help me with a sum of $1600 to sort out my problems here? I need this help so much and on time because i am in a terrible and tight situation here, I don't even have money to feed myself for a day which means i had been starving so please understand how urgent i need your help.i have decided not tell my family so that they will not be worried.when I return I will tell them and they will understand.

I am sending you this e-mail from the city Library and I only have 1.30min, I will appreciate what so ever you can afford to send me for now and I promise to pay back your money as soon as i return home.You need to transfer the money through Money Gram or Western Union to the address below.Pls reply back to my alternate email address at kim.jiyeon@ymail.com. Becouse gmail service is very bad here in Africa. Hope to hear from you soon.


Name : Jiyeon Kim
Country : Ghana
City : Accra
Zip Code : 00233
West Africa

I know that you can do that and i wish you a nice day hope to get back to me as you done with payment so that i can go and get the money save. You are my hope

God Bless You
Thanks
Jiyeon Kim

So, it starts out by suggesting that we know each other somehow and that she had accidentally forgotten to tell me about her trip. She mentions "Empowering Youth to Fight Racism, HIV/AIDS, Poverty and Lack of Education" as well. Even though the name of the organization sounds pretty real (and suspiciously encompassing), I googled it to see if it was even legit and the only results were warnings about the scam and copies of the same email that I received. A scam's a scam, but I was shocked by how bad this one was.

The letter claims that "she" lost her "little bag" in the taxi, which of course happened to have everything of value in it. The problem with that is how did she pay for the cab? Did she give the driver the cash and then --somehow-- accidentally drop the bag back into the cab? It's not a wallet that can slip out. It's a bag.

Then she moves on to her hotel bill. She owes over 500 US dollars. I'm not sure what a three-month volunteer is doing staying in a hotel, but even so, the punishment for not paying is bag seizure (which doesn't have anything of value in it because she already lost that in the cab) and --my favorite part-- being "handed over to Hotel Management". I don't know a lot about the interrogation methods of Hotel Management, but I imagine it's not much worse than this:



If you're really bold, then watch this one or this one instead. (I wouldn't though. They're rough.) She goes on to ask for an additional 1,000 big ones for her flight home which is presumably Korea. Well, planes from Accara, Ghana don't fly to Seoul, so Tokyo is the closest stop and how much does that cost? Try over four grand. It's not a winner at all.

The next one, however, is much tougher to figure out because it's not asking for money. Instead, it's offering a job teaching English in the UK. I've recieved several of these emails.

Hello

Greetings of the day, me is Mr. Jerry married to Anthonia, we are both from France but have just relocated to Uk here in Belfast for three weeks now,because this place is an anglaise speaking /parlon country,i need a private teacher to come and teach me,my wife,my two kids who are Mark and Victoria how to speak and write English language, i want to build a hospital here and also reside here with my family. i will be needing you to come and work for me just for a period of oner year. will had to gave you 7500GBP on every month, a two bedroom apartment, flight tickets and other benefits.send me you pics/cover letter/resume/transcripts you can call me through +447024043001.

take care
waiting for your response
Dr Jerry.

His background story seems plausible, as does his reasoning for needing a teacher. But a few things don't pass the smell test.

Names: Jerry isn't really a French name and neither are Mark and Victoria. He also identifies himself as both "Mr." and "Dr." which is a little suspect as well. Most Phd's or MD's don't switch back and forth between the two.

Location: Why would he need/pay a teacher from Korea to move to Belfast to teach his entire family? There are tons of language instructors in England. Perhaps was looking online and stumbled upon my name on an ESL job site, and was inquiring to all the teachers he found. Maybe, but again, why not look locally?

Grammar: The grammar errors in there are not common for French to English translation. It looks like someone is intentionally trying to make mistakes.

Pay: Why would he offer such great pay PLUS housing? 7,500 GBP equals 10,747.53 USD. That's ridiculous. I would be making a ton of money, living in England and not having to pay for housing. That's way too good of a deal.

What's the catch? Well, the only thing I find that is somewhat odd is this line: "send me you pics/cover letter/resume/transcripts". Most likely, he found my email on an ESL job site, so that means he also has my pic/cover letter and resume. That just leaves my transcripts, but what can be gained from someone else's transcripts? Personal academic information? I guess he could doctor them or circumvent local laws by suckering people who are located in Korea, but I'm really not sure. My only guess is that maybe he can get originals from a lot of different schools and expand his fake transcript business.

Bottom line is that you should always take your information off of those job sites once you have secured a position. Most of these scams are clearly scams, but others look like great opportunities. Be smart and if something is too good to be true, that usually means it is.

I'm Closing My Facebook Account

What?? How could I do such a thing? That's a question that we all have to deal with at some point in our lives. When is a good and appropriate time to close your Facebook account? Isn't the site just for young people after all?

--OR--

Can you keep it open forever using it to stay in close contact with all of the people you have met over the years? Just yesterday, my Uncle got a Facebook message from one of his students from his teaching days at Clemson. They hadn't communicated in over twenty years. They were both thrilled to catch up.

Honestly, it seems like it would be more convenient to keep it open. Personally, I find sending email updates troubling and somewhat burdensome for everyone involved and calling is totally out of the question.

However, with the news that Facebook can now use personal information in any capacity they choose even after your account has been closed is more than a little concerning and has made me reconsider.

"Facebook's new terms of service say that it owns--or at least shares--your uploaded content. Your photos from a company retreat could show up in a Facebook ad. Or Facebook could sublicense the rights to your company jingle in a video. Does Facebook want to use your content like this? It doesn't matter--the company says it can."

Of course, Facebook has their terms available for all of its users to see, but I know that I had not read them in detail and I doubt many other people have either. The lure of unlimited picture uploads and instant contact with friends from all over the world easily distracts the new user. I've been a member since the end of 2004 and before today, had not read the terms in their entirety.(You can read them here if you want.)

Technically, the terms say that by joining and uploading, "you grant Facebook an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to (a) use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and distribute..." your content. Facbook also specifies it can "use your name, likeness and image for any purpose, including commercial or advertising... ."

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg is trying to tell everyone to "call down" and even released this quick memo on Facebook this afternoon.



Just in case you can't see that, it says:

Over the past few days, we have received a lot of feedback about the new terms we posted two weeks ago. Because of this response, we have decided to return to our previous Terms of Use while we resolve the issues that people have raised. For more information, visit the Facebook Blog.

If you want to share your thoughts on what should be in the new terms, check out our group Facebook Bill of Rights and Responsibilities.

I'm curious how they will "resolve this issue". I wonder if users will start to think twice when posting sensitive information on your profile. I'd like to think that maybe people have started realizing that they might be revealing a bit too much about themselves without any thought about how Facebook, a future boss, or the government might use that information.

The problem for some people is that they have profiles on other social networking sites. Should they be even more concerned?

MySpace's terms of use agreement grants the company the license to use your non-private content only within MySpace-related services. Moreover--and perhaps more important--MySpace notes that once you delete something from its site, it "will cease distribution as soon as practicable, and at such time when distribution ceases, the license will terminate.

With Twitter, the company's terms of service state it "claim[s] no intellectual property rights over the material you provide" and that "you can remove your profile at any time by deleting your account.

Even YouTube, owned by privacy advocate punching bag Google, limits its license to use your content at will. The license will "terminate within a commercially reasonable time after you remove or delete your user videos," the service's terms of service say.

Everybody will make their own decision, but right now, I'm in the process of saving all of my pictures uploaded onto Facebook onto an external hard drive (which will take about 12 hours)and after that, I'm probably going to close it down or at least totally minimize my profile.

I do foresee these types of sites becoming an issue for people in the future and I'd like to stay away from that while I still can, but it's a tougher decision than one might think. I had a friend who closed his account and I immediately started wondering what his reasoning was. Was it a personal problem? Was he getting a job and wanted to play it safe? I had no idea. In reality, I think he was just tired of the service and had had enough, but for some reason, I couldn't accept that.

So, now I am at that cross-roads and totally torn. I am certainly concerned about my privacy, but am also worried that I'll be in contact with friends back home even less.

There is never an easy answer to the tough questions. Stupid Facebook.

(And yes I see the irony that my Facebook imports my posts, so some of you will be reading this on there.)

November Issue?

Another party-line decision on the Supreme Court reverses the DC gun ban and nutters are rejoicing. Within minutes, St. McCain jumped in and let us know how original he can be.

“Unlike the elitist view that believes Americans cling to guns out of bitterness, today’s ruling recognizes that gun ownership is a fundamental right — sacred, just as the right to free speech and assembly,” Mr. McCain said."

There is nothing elitist about wanting a safe country FREE of guns. And today's ruling only highlights the fact that we can not allow for a McCain presidency where it is almost certain that he will appoint more far right-wingers to the bench. Here is McCain's full statement:

"Today’s decision is a landmark victory for Second Amendment freedom in the
United States. For this first time in the history of our Republic, the U.S.
Supreme Court affirmed that the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms was
and is an individual right as intended by our Founding Fathers. I applaud this
decision as well as the overturning of the District of Columbia’s ban on
handguns and limitations on the ability to use firearms for self-defense.
“Unlike Senator Obama, who refused to join me in signing a bipartisan amicus
brief, I was pleased to express my support and call for the ruling issued today.
Today’s ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller makes clear that other
municipalities like Chicago that have banned handguns have infringed on the
constitutional rights of Americans. Unlike the elitist view that believes
Americans cling to guns out of bitterness, today’s ruling recognizes that gun
ownership is a fundamental right — sacred, just as the right to free speech and
assembly.
“This ruling does not mark the end of our struggle against those
who seek to limit the rights of law-abiding citizens. We must always remain
vigilant in defense of our freedoms. But today, the Supreme Court ended forever
the specious argument that the Second Amendment did not confer an individual
right to keep and bear arms.”

The timing of this issue is interesting as it will certainly help McCain is some of the rural areas. It will help the New McCain, not the one who battled with the NRA and gun lobby just years ago. And apparently, the right to own a gun is sacred and that scares the hell out of me.

From Obama:

"I have always believed that the Second Amendment protects the right of individuals to bear arms, but I also identify with the need for crime-ravaged communities to save their children from the violence that plagues our streets through common-sense, effective safety measures. The Supreme Court has now endorsed that view, and while it ruled that the D.C. gun ban went too far, Justice Scalia himself acknowledged that this right is not absolute and subject to reasonable regulations enacted by local communities to keep their streets safe. Today’s ruling, the first clear statement on this issue in 127 years, will provide much-needed guidance to local jurisdictions across the country.
“As President, I will uphold the constitutional rights of law-abiding gun-owners, hunters, and sportsmen. I know that what works in Chicago may not work in Cheyenne. We can work together to enact common-sense laws, like closing the gun show loophole and improving our background check system, so that guns do not fall into the hands of terrorists or criminals. Today’s decision reinforces that if we act responsibly, we can both protect the constitutional right to bear arms and keep our communities and our children safe."

He takes the sociological approach like always and employs logic and reason rather than stump speech rhetoric. He is pushing for States rights and not pandering to the gun lobby at all.

I honestly do not agree with either on this issue. I want all guns to be banned outside of hunting. Period.

The signiifance of this ruling in regards to the election is what I am interested in. Slowly but surely we are seeing what is going to define this election and I can gaureentee you that McCain will be airing all sorts of ads in PA, OH, MT and WY to convince people of the same thing that Hillary did: Obama is an elitist who is out of touch.

For an excellent read on gun control check this out.

Obama Responds

Reported on Talkleft and from Obama's site, his response to today's Gitmo ruling...

"Today's Supreme Court decision ensures that we can protect our nation and bring terrorists to justice, while also protecting our core values. The Court's decision is a rejection of the Bush Administration's attempt to create a legal black hole at Guantanamo - yet another failed policy supported by John McCain. This is an important step toward reestablishing our credibility as a nation committed to the rule of law, and rejecting a false choice between fighting terrorism and respecting habeas corpus. Our courts have employed habeas corpus with rigor and fairness for more than two centuries, and we must continue to do so as we defend the freedom that violent extremists seek to destroy. We cannot afford to lose any more valuable time in the fight against terrorism to a dangerously flawed legal approach. I voted against the Military Commissions Act because its sloppiness would inevitably lead to the Court, once again, rejecting the Administration's extreme legal position. The fact is, this Administration's position is not tough on terrorism, and it undermines the very values that we are fighting to defend. Bringing these detainees to justice is too important for us to rely on a flawed system that has failed to convict anyone of a terrorist act since the 9-11 attacks, and compromised our core values."

I like it and I don't. I like that he issued the statement and threw McCain in there while painting an accurate picture of his understanding of why habeas is so important to our nation. That was good, especially since he will probably be appointing Stevens' replacement. I did not like it because he is still enthusiastically support the failed war on terror. But that's me.

How about you?

Winds of Change

Are we already feeling the winds of change? Could it be that the Supreme Court actually voted for democracy? It appears so...

From the NYT,

"Foreign terrorism suspects held at the Guantánamo Bay naval base in Cuba have constitutional rights to challenge their detention there in United States courts, the Supreme Court ruled, 5 to 4, on Thursday in a historic decision on the balance between personal liberties and national security."

Of course, the dissenting vote was Alito, Scalia, Roberts and Thomas, you know, the non-activist judges that legislate every GOP issue.
Scalia even added a little kick and claimed that this ruling“will almost certainly cause more Americans to get killed.”

Of course he would say that, but in reality

"The ruling on Thursday focused in large part on the centuries old writ of habeas corpus (“you have the body,” in Latin), a means by which prisoners can challenge their incarceration. Noting that the Constitution provides for suspension of the writ only in times of rebellion or invasion, Justice Kennedy called it “an indispensable mechanism for monitoring the separation of powers.”

Now all we need to is get rid of these conservative wacko's and continue moving forward.