Two articles to make up for lost time

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/02/world/asia/02race.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

The article is basically about racism in South Korea, how the complications began and how they're ingrained in society today. I think what I like best about this article is how it represents the issue as complicated. It is. As I said before, it's all ingrained in history (as is all racism). We're also talking about a country where you'll see black face on TV being done for laughs (no joke, seen it numerous times) and terrible Native American stereotypes (look up Indian Boy by MC Mong, it's slack jaw worthy--the most face palm worthy to come out of this was when I saw an interview with the guy, the girl who was conducting the interview pointed at her head, where a feather was wrapped around her head, and said cheerfully, "I'm an Indian girl!"). Read the article, do some quick research. I remember something somewhere written where someone had said that the US is liberal, someone retorted that no it's the most conservative in the Western world, and someone else had emphasize that it's quite liberal in a global sense.

This article is pretty representational of the frustrations I have with East Asian society (among a few others to list, one of them below).

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/11/japanese-man-broadcasts-h_n_782140.html

This particular article is about an infamous event that occurred when a Japanese man broadcasted his suicide. The story behind this whole ordeal is that the man went online and told his problems and contemplations to an audience. Some egged him on, told him to do it. Others tried to convince him not to go through with it. Suicide is quite...interesting in Japan. It's hard to explain without writing a whole essay about it. It's the country where seppuku was done--better to kill yourself than live in shame and dishonor. Japanese people are known for not outright expressing their inner emotions. Therapy is not exactly promoted (looked down upon, really).

There's another article I read that I couldn't find about an older Japanese man and his wife who were finally sick and tired of having to see so many young people commit suicide by jumping off this cliff (it was a popular spot to commit suicide). They took measures, living near the cliff, for decades by talking the people out of doing it. Distracting them, giving them a meal or drink at their home, installing a wired barrier around the cliff (so if you jumped you'd land on that fence rather than in the sea). They took action, something that many people don't do.

I chose these rather controversial articles since they really do reveal the darker sides of these societies. Racism, suicide, sexism/mysogyny, teen prostitution, hebephilia/ephebophilia--it doesn't come up when you open up a guide book. It doesn't come up when you type Korea or Japan in Google. You'll see creepy teen pop idols (another issue in my opinion, I can explain, really), dramas, anime, manga, weird porn (I firmly believe tentacle porn originated in Japan), etc etc etc.