In the News Today: Cars, Television, and Cows

U.S. and South Korea in Landmark Trade Deal.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/02/business/02cnd-trade.html?hp

This bilateral trade deal has been in the works for some time now, and the most recent breakthrough indicates success for proponents of the agreement. Generally speaking, the agreement will tear down the wall between the two countries that has slowed trade and created a substantial trade deficit for the United States.

Most recently, Korea enforced a ban against American beef due to Mad Cow Disease. President Roh had been losing popularity (as, I am told, Korean presidents have a tendency of doing) and tensions between the United States and North Korea have steadily been increasing.

The ban against American beef follows the wider context of Anti-Americanism that has followed an unsuccessful war in Iraq, tensions with North Korea, and a long history of American Military presence in South Korea which has never stopped having its share of controversy. Nationalism sentiment surged in choosing Korean beef over American, and the trade agreement in today's news is not only an indication of how unpredictable nationalism-driven politics' can be but it is also warns of the temporary nature of the agreement itself.

The tensions at work in South Korea are immense, and should not be taken lightly. The big losers are, after all, Korean agriculture. In the agreement, Korean farmers are going to sustain their hold on rice, but for the most part their recent hold on beef will be lost. There are protesters calling President Roh's agreement an attempt to make South Korea the 51st state, urging that "mad cow" be fed "to Bush."

South Korea is a fast changing country with a large influx of American culture constantly streaming into its brain waves. It is also a country with a long history of tension with America, as younger generations feel more nationalism, and less fear of North Korea. The hit taken by Korean Agriculture and the increased nationalistic reactionary sentiments to the agreement will give critics of the agreement plenty of ammo in the propaganda war against the policy.

It will be the Korean Government's prerogative to make sure they seize the agreement opportunity to strengthen Korea's export in America and expand its technology and industrial base in the homeland. The mass of unemployed farmers will have to be displaced with the educating of rural citizens in preparation of their taking part in the new technology/communications industry. The name of the game for Korea is development.

The United States stands to gain a lot in this deal, decreasing the trade deficit with Korea by increasing American automobile sales in the country, revitalizing the export of beef, and somewhat increasing accessibility of American cultural products such as televisions shows and films. The Bush administration gains points in creating an important economic deal in Asia, creating an opportunity for better diplomacy through increased interdependence. South Korea is, after all, an important economic and cultural center in Asia, influential in China and Japan, as well as in South East Asian nations.

The deal is meant to strengthen relations, but again, that remains tentative. The deal is good for big business, on both sides, and consumers will benefit from cheaper products. But also, the deal increases anti-American sentiments, weakening the popular support for the current administration, and creating a chance for opportunistic nationalist politics to seize control. The idea is, of course, that a smaller developing country has a lot to gain, depending on the development "stage" it is at, in such an opening up.

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It dawned on me today, that while not a realistic possibility, things could change so much in Korea in the next decade, that many of its current policies could dramatically change, including mandatory male military service. This false hope washed over me as a sad reflection on how our choices are limited by nations. As an American, I have taken for granted the ability to travel wherever I would like. I have taken for granted the ability to choose. However, in Korea, there are many who cannot travel to America due to visa limitations, who must spend over two years of their lives in the army.

Of course, it isn't necessarily a bad thing to be unable to come to America. If anything, my desire to go to Korea is a driven by a more naive desire to go home (fueled ironically, by the same Korean culture that refuses me) than the purely practical reasons that drive South Koreans to send their children to American.

But what if?

What if I could freely travel to South Korea and freely live there and freely reeducate myself of the culture, the language, the politics? What if I could see my extended family on a basis less superficial than as their American cousin who has IVY League education. These are naive dreams. But perhaps they are not. In many other countries, foreign raised children return to their homelands and struggle but succeed in forging new identities, and contribute largely to their respective nations.

What if I could? Would I? And why would I? Am I that distant from my American identity that I would forsake it for a distant homeland that accuses of me of the same crime as my birth-nation? Why move, when no matter where I go I am foreign?

Because fuck that, I know who I am. Nationalist fuckers on both sides of the same fence can go fuck themselves. I'm tired of being called a chink in New York, as much as I am tired of feeling ashamed of my weak Korean language skills. Exclusionary cowards can live in their deluded world of homogeneity and bipolar identity, I'm moving on to more complex equations.

Once again, the limits placed on my life push me to find greater things. Complications with my national identity force me to limit my stays in South Korea to 6 month intervals per year; my race, my nationality, my socioeconomic background, my personal flaws--all make me unique, and less easily palatable to generalizations and single color/single word categorizations.

And who would have thought: Kaleidoscope comes to mind.

So here it is, my latest post. It's been a while.
This is my affirmative action.

- Sol