Durdane of Istanbul!

Information

Durdane is a woman who lives in the city of Istanbul, which is the capital city of Turkey.

She lives alone in a small apartment building.

Her 7 siblings live in Germany.

Her parents went to Germany when Durdane was young and died very early there. They were buried in Istanbul again

In her house, there are lots of stuffs by which she can recall her childhood, such as plates, kettle, etc.

Her apartment building is not completely finished yet, since no buyer wants to pay for it. Even though Istanbul is located upon an active fault line, the apartment is not earthquake-proof.

When she was young, she lived in a small house, with 10 people in it. There was electricity in her house, but there was no WATER in her house. People in Istanbul started apartmentization by building one floor themselves.


Feeling

 

     The appearance of Istanbul in the Highrise video was like the  80s of Korean Society. In the 80s of Korea, the life of common people were not able to maintain a prosperous life. Korea was still a developing country at that period, so the welfare and the quality of the life was ignored to achieve more economic devleopment. The life of public was not a pleasant one. There weren't many families which could have enough water, food and electricity in their houses. The houses of them were not well constructed, too. They were temporal buildings which were primarily focused on a temporary habitation. It lacked basic supply of electricity and water. Personal hygiene wasn't even considered important to the people at that time. What they focused on was to live everyday life, eating three meals a day and sleep in a warm blanket. Most of the people couldn't eat more than 2 meals a day, and even the food was not nutritious. Water they had to bring from common well or stream was not clean, since all the houseworks were done there. However Koreans bore all the ordeals and achieved a great success.

     When I think of my hometown, Mokpo, I sometimes come up with the place where there are many illegal temporary buildings. It is located on the slope of a mountain. There aren't many facilities near there and not many people even go through there. People living there mostly are so poor that their income is far below the poverty line. It is also said that the government of Mokpo has decided to get rid of the village since they have to build new apartment buildings to provide wealthier citizens with more houses. Since those temporary
houses are illegal, the government won't pay them much money. Residents would fight against the city for their life, however, the odd is not favorable for them.

     Istanbul is a city where 80s and modern Korean societies coexist. Istanbul is a city which is developing but cannot be developed. Mokpo is a developed city but is not developing. What I want to focus on my Highrise essay is the difference and the similarity of Mokpo and Istanbul.

About Satire!!

Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement. Although satire is usually meant to be funny, its greater purpose is often constructivesocial criticism, using wit as a weapon.                                       

                                                                                

                                                                                           from Wikipedia

There was a big earthquake in Japan on March 11th. The magnitude of th earthquake was 9.0, which is the sixth largest earthquake that has ever been measured. It was a total disaster. Several hundred thousands of people lost their home, more than 20 thousand people were dead and about 30 thousand people were lost. 

Korea, as the closest nation, tried to help Japan as much as possible. Korean people voluntarily gathered money and provided Japan with diverse helps such as medical care, food support and rescuing. However, Japanese government betrayed the help. Japanese government kept claiming Dokdo, the island located in East Sea, which definitely infuriated Koreans. 

The picture above is a satirical cartoon of which the background is showing the imperialism that is left in Japan and describes Japan as a nation that is engaged in diverse territorial conflicts. For satire, I am going to write about the hypocrisy and insincerity of Japan.

Chain Writing-started by Youngwook+Story within a story

     I am now in GLPS(Global Leadership Program for Students) camp as a TA for summer. I am in the 1st grade in college and I worked in the camp to earn money for my flight fee.     
     Today was a hard they for me, since I had to check and evaluate 30 plus essays. After doing all the works, I came back to my room and started writing my Cyworld diary. Since I wanted to feel better, I opened my drawer and took out a bottle of beer. After drinking some of the beer, I felt too much depressed and suddenly came up with an idea about how can I achieve success. I started writing..........


      Success is something we achieve. Some people claim that the only thing we need for success is luck. It's true that we need some luck to complete our success, but we need more than that.The most important thing we need is passion. With passion, we can keep working when we face hardships. History gives examples of those who had great amounts of passion, for instance, Napoleon, in his urge and passion to conquer the cast land of Russia, ventured on an expedition which eventually led him to his death, In the Chinese tales of the Three nations, numerous characters venture on actions led by their passions and end up in mortal peril.


     Then, is passion really a good thing? Well, similar to many things in the world, it depends. passion can be a good fuel when people want to achieve something. However, if the person is so enthusiastic that the passion blinds one's rational thinking, then that person will act ruthlessly solely based on his or her instinct. In that case, something terrible can happen. The perfect example can be German's in World War II. At that time, Germans had excessive passion to make a powerful country, so they chased Hitler as their leader, and that brought a terrible result.


     However, excessive passion of Germans sometimes led positive results. Their passion for beer made German beer as one of the finest beer in the world. But I have never had a chance to drink German beer. Have you? You should one day.


     When it comes to a topic of beer, I always think of two Companies: Heineken and Asahi. Those two firms are two major beer-making companies that are really famous worldwide, and they also are my favorite companies. I once got a chance to taste beer of those 2 companies. At first, I thought they were simply the same. However, there was a slight difference in two beers. I preferred Heineken to Asahi for its freshness.


     Anyway, the most important thing you should know is that success can only be achieved when your luck and passion are combined. Though excessive passion and enthusiasm can lead to side effects, still passion is needed to achieve success. There is an old saying "Luck only comes to those who try their best." Devote yourself into something that you desire. Put your all efforts into what you want. That's how you can make a success.

I have a dream-2nd draft

           When I went to middle school, I had a fantasy that I would become a totally different person with abundant knowledge and talent if I entered Korean Minjok Leadership Academy, which is one of the best high schools in Korea. Maybe that’s the reason why I always kept studying so hard. But know that I'm actually here, the truth, in fact, is far different from what I , and most of society, expects it to be. KMLA is as same as other school. Students suffer from the burden of education, but still enjoy playing with friends and getting through the daily routine. The only difference is that the school certainly has a very good reputation among Korean society.

             Unlike the reality that all the students of so called specialized schools are doing the same thing as the students are doing in normal schools, people of our society, especially the students and their parents, certainly have a bias upon selective school system. They believe that only the children of  affluent family can go to those special schools since the cost of education, they think that they should spend, to make students reach certain level of scholastic achievement is high. Furthermore, they think that just entering to those schools will guarantee the success of their life.  

     Last semester, I had a chance to go to a small middle school in the town near my school to provide the students with educational help. The girl I had to teach was 15-year-old girl who had interest in studying. She was friendly to people whom she'd never met before, always behaved brightly; she treated me as if I were her true friend. 

    After few minutes of teaching, I asked her the reason why she takes the after-school education program, and the answer for that reckless question was so shocking to me. The bright and lively girl said to me that she couldn't keep studying in her house because she had to do the housework and take care of her younger brother before her mom came home. If she didn't take the class, she'd miss opportunities to hopefully study in schools like KMLA-the place, she believed could make her life change. 

          After listening to that, I couldn’t keep teaching her due to the shock she gave me. I knew that some overly eager parents wanted their children to go to so-called prestigious schools because they thought that it could make their child’s life better, but hearing the same idea from a girl who lives in the  countryside in poor family environment made me think of how our society should be.

             Social mobility, which is a term referring to the degree to which an individual's or group's status is able to change in terms of position in the social hierarchy, was once much more conceivable in Korean society. It was possible for common people to succeed in any field of our society such as law, finance, politics, and economy. As Korean society developed so rapidly, however, the social mobility decreased at such a rapid speed. In the 1980s, people from lower society could succeed by studying hard and showing their own ability. In current society, it is almost impossible for poor people to have their child receive proper and sufficient education, since the cost of has dramatically increased. Furthermore, nepotism, a term referring to favoritism granted to relatives or friends regardless of merit, prevails far too strongly in our society. It forbids the unprivileged from achieving high positions based on their abilities, and I think it should be abolished. For these reasons, I've sadly become skeptical of Korean society

      In KMLA school motto, there is a phrase which says, “Let us study not for the sake of personal advance, but for the sake of learning itself. Let us not choose a career in thoughts of personal gain, but choose a career based on talents and aptitude.” If anyone hears this motto, they will think it is so ideal; that if it is kept, that the ultimate goal of public education can then be accomplished. Nevertheless, it is obvious that domestic field students want to go to Seoul National University because it’s the most prestigious university in Korea. Likewise, international field students want to go to so-called HYPS(Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford) because they think those schools can guarantee their success. I ask myself why this is the case.

 Is it because people from such schools primarily succeed and preferentially provide favors to their juniors, which will prohibit fair competition. Due to this kind of culture, there are some victims who are victimized not because they are "inferior" - but because they haven’t had the same level of from their parents. By definition, is this not unjust?

             Jooyoung Jung, the founder of Hyundai Group, went to elementary school only. Daejoong Kim, the 15^th president of Korea, and the first and only Korean recipient of the Noble Peace Prize, had gone to commercial high school and hadn’t graduated from any university. The question raised is: could they meet today's new standards of success?

     Myself, and those like me, are fortunate to be on the chosen path. I do believe that it is our duty to share what we have, what we enjoy, what think about what we potentially squander.  I also regret not being responsible of all the privileges I enjoy just because I was born in a family where I can do what I want to do. I think that it's ours, and my duty to make this society fair, so that all the people as well as the girl I mentioned before can achieve their dreams not being thwarted by some obstacles they didn't deserve. I have a dream that one day, on the high summit of Nam Mountain, the sons of common people and the sons of the "haves" will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.

Essay posting

     When I see my younger relatives, they sometimes enjoy making fun of small creatures near them. They throw stones at the birds, throw bugs into the sky, and even simply kill them. It is very hard for adults to teach them not to belittle the preciousness of life. Since they just can't understand what animals will feel if attacked and tortured. In fact, I even don't yet understand perfectly what the value of life is.
     In the film "Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring", there's a boy living with a monk in a small temple located in the middle of a lake. One day, when playing in the mountain, the boy came up with a idea that it would be fun to tie animals with stone. He actually tied a fish, a frog and a snake with stone so that the animals couldn't move their body freely. The monk, who is like a father of that boy, was watching all the misdemeanors the boy had done. So, the monk, with the idea of teaching the boy a lesson, did exactly same thing to the boy while he was sleeping. The boy woke up in the morning and found himself tied up. He begged to the monk to free him, but the monk replied to him that he will untie him if he untie all the animals which he bounded yesterday. The boy went to the mountain again to free the animals, however, he could have saved the frog only.
     When I was watching the film, the memory of my childhood suddenly haunted. The memory of seeing my friends dropping a baby chicken from the roof of a high apartment building. Although what I was a short moment of falling, I was really shocked at the moment of sudden elimination of a life. I felt uncomfortable at the fact the I might also have done the very same thing that my friends did. Just like the boy in the movie, I cried alone in the room after watching the scenery of the death regretting all my mistakes. The lesson of the experience was that the value of life is the most sacred thing, so it cannot be invaded in whatever situation. Also, I think that the monk's lesson to the boy isn't limited only to the nature, but also related to the human society. The lesson I found from the monk is that since all entities in the nature are all same in their preciousness, nobody can torment or torture others just because of the difference of physical power.
     It is impossible for humans to measure the value of life due to its enormousness, so it's meaningless to compare it. I hope that all the people in the world figure out that our duty as humans, who can think wisely and make wise decisions, is to fully understand the worthiness of life and to respect all other creatures in the nature and the society with their deepest hearts.

30 things that you should know about me!

1. I love eating chocolate


2. I love listening to music


3. I want to have a pet but I cannot have one


4. I love playing the violin.


5. I'm pretty talkative


6. I was born in mokpo.


7. I love French


8. I want to be a lawyer in the future


9. I have an older brother


10. My older brother and I have a same birthday.


11. I love singing but not good at it.


12. My favorite pop artist is Beyonce


13. I like writing in Korean and I think I'm a little good at it


14. My favorite subject is Chemistry and P.E


15. I'm not good at English.


16. I have been to Sierra Leone for volunteer work


17. I love teaching children.


18. I don't play computer game since I'm not good at it.


19. Reading news paper every morning was once my habit.


20. I used to be a person always excited.


21. I love online chatting with my friends


22. I like to plan for a trip abroad and are planning for a trip to Europe.


23. I hate going to Kendo class every morning.


24. My favorite teachers in KMLA are 정선희 tr and Mr. Garrioch.


25. I like playing badminton


26. Watching movies is my hobby


27. I want to live in Swiss after I retire.


28. I think that the most important virtue that should be in between friends is to be honest and tell everything what he or she is concerning about.


29. I love doing Facebook since I can have chances to meet my seniors, friends and juniors.


30. What I mostly like in my school is that I can compete, cooperate, play and enjoy our life.

Diamante Poem

This is my Diamant Poems

Morning Exercise

Cold, Tiring

Sleeping, Moving, Sweating

kendo, Taekwondo, Stab, Punch

Piercing, Hitting, Shooting

Bleeding, Painful

Killing

Math

Difficult, Abstruse

Thinking, Calculating, Solving

Equations, Figures, Strategy, Pokerface 

Faking, Selecting, Competing

Fun, Addictive

Game 

Why Facebook?(2nd draft)

      600 million users, 65 billion dollars, a quarter of all page views in U.S. these are the statistics Facebook is showing, and amazingly they are increasing. Facebook is the biggest social network that provides its user with various services helping Friends connect and enjoy fun applications. The effect of Facebook upon  society is increasing rapidly day by day, as more and more people join.

     The influence of the Facebook's founder, Mark Zukerberg, is also increasing. His personal worth is about 6.9 billion dollars, and the movie about his story, Social Network, succeeded greatly. He also received a great honor by selected as 'the person of the year' by Time magazine. But there rises a question: Does he really deserve that title?
     Let's first think about the meaning of the person of the year. Considering all the prior recipients , we can figure out that the standard of selection is based on the influence of the person regardless of whether the effect was good or not. Usually, person regarded as  good person receives the honor, but dictators like Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, also earned the title. Then, we can easily figure out that what we have to consider is the influence of other nominees to know who truly should be the person of the year.

     1st candidate: Julian Assange
        
    Do you know Wikileaks?  According to a blogger named  D.E. Wittkower, the WikiLeaks way means more public knowledge, more public involvement, and less public deception. Wikileaks is a non-profit organization which reveals confidential information related to the issue 

of politics, economy, diplomacy, and even national securities. It has revealed so private and intently concealed information, such as Hillary Clinton had ordered to collect the information of the Secretary General of UN, Mr.Ki-mun Ban, Suadi Arabian King asked the commander of U.S army privately to foil the nuclear project of Iran, or Chinese government is related to the hacking of Google server. Julian Assange is the editor-in-chief of Wikileaks, and he is vilified by the public for causing social unrest by disclosing confidential and important information which is tacitly hidden by the government or official organizations to settle down society. If there were no Wikileaks, it might be impossible for the public to know the truth. The impact of Julian Assange is so great that even Governments around the world are trying to stop him through diverse tactics such as suing  Wikileaks and censoring information on internet. Mark zuckerberg had commented on Julian Assange and Wikileaks during the interview with TIME that at a very high level, some of the themes could be connected…the WikiLeaks story I think is fascinating but I also don’t think we’re anywhere near the end of it. Yes.He may not provided us with the endings, but he had given us the start. If is our hero who had sacrificed himself, why not we give him the title of 'the person of the year'?

 2nd candidate: Steve Jobs

 If Mark Zuckerberg is selected because of making Facebook, which is an internet website using diverse IT technologies combined with the idea connecting people, why can't we make Steve Jobs as 'the person of the year' since he also made lots of fascinating IT products, such as Ipod, Iphone, and Ipad. He made apple as the company of which the market capitalization,the total value of a firm's stock, is the biggest. We cannot belittle the innovation and competition brought by Apple company of which Steve jobs is a CEO. Isn't it strange why only Mark Zuckerberg deserves 'the person of th year?

  The influences of people working in various fields of our society are causing important changes which can even lead us to 'The Fifth Wave'. The impact of IT revolutions, such as SNS, smart products, the democratic revolution spreading in Northern Africa, environment NGOs, and the newest scientific studies and technology development can change and is changing our society. Every single side of the world is affecting the world in any kind of way. Some are causing changes by stunning people, others are fighting against the dictators, others are adapting new system as soon as possible leading the trend. In this changing world, who should be the person of the year? Obviously, Mark zuckerberg has earned the most profit among three of the candidates I've mentioned. He has connected a twelfth of all the world's populations, made the most successful social network. However, it is obvious that Facebook had let all the private information in danger and might make the movie 'Eagle Eye' possible which Julian Assange had prohibited. Citing from The Telegraph article saying that Assange sees the world as filled with real and imagined enemies; Zuckerberg sees the world as filled with potential friends., I found that  the truth is that people don't like negative side of our world.  I don't think that Mark Zuckerberg deserves such title, but still the public might want him to have it. 

1st Assignment: Ode

Dear my cell phone,


     Hello my dear cell phone. You might be in my pocket waiting for me to check whether there is a new message or not while I'm writing this letter to you. I  want you to read this letter and get the messages I'm trying to send to you from this writing.  I think that you might be curious about the reason why I write a letter to you, which I usually won't do to others. The reason is because I really want to appreciate to you for all of your help and to say sorry for mistreating you.  


     You really are one of my best friends. Though you are not a human being, you are almost as same as them, and even better than the others in some aspects. You have provided me lots of entertainment so that I can relieve stress easily, and listened to my complaints however ridiculous and unreasonable they are. Moreover, you were always with me. You woke me up in the morning so that I can not be late for school. You were with me when I was alone while waiting for bus, and you helped me fit into my schedules by telling me what the current time is. You helped me apologize to my friends, talk to my parents who I am not staying with in the same place since I have to stay in the dormitory, and sustain the friendship with my friends of elementary and middle school. All the help you gave me as my friend made me enjoy my life better and to have a intimate relationship with my real friends, and that really made me happy. If I were without you, I just couldn't become a person who has lots of friends and is close with them. 
     


     Also, I really want to express apology for all of mistakes I've done to you before. Although you are my best friend, I had just treated you as something I can easily purchase, use and throw away. I hadn't cleaned you regularly and just put you anywhere dirty, dangerous, and even in public places somewhere I don't know. I dropped you everywhere, even on a wet road in a rainy day. You were damaged, scratched, and your body and your soul, which normal people call as 'software', was damaged and became dysfunctional. However, you haven't let me down. You always responded to me as polite as possible right after I dropped you on a road, and were always turned on however hungry you are until you have no choice but to turn yourself off. Moreover, you are still with me even though I got a new and even closer friend, my ipod touch; you are just the same even though I care less about you and I sometimes just consider you inferior to the ipod I have now. I am sorry my friend, and I hope you could forgive me and let us become the best friends like we used to be.


     My dear cell phone, I know that you might find it difficult to forgive me by just reading an incredulous letter that might not be a sincere one. I might be just belittling your feeling of anger and I am shameless upon you. You know what? I really love you my friend, and I hope you can understand my feelings with your deepest mind of sympathy and love. 


Sincerely yours, 
Daniel

No Title

I think that human mind is so sly. I often regarded myself as a person who treats friends sincerely, and thought that all of my friends would understand my mind. However, I figured out that I was wrong about myself. I was not a person who is either sincere or selfless. I was just selfish and reckless. I spoke bad expressions to my friends so that they might feel insulted. I was concealing my mind and just pretended to be a really close friend. I felt jealous about my friend's success and just belittled the friends by fathoming that they are inferior than me. The most important thing that I really hate from myself is that I didn't have a real friendship with my closest friends. I had ignored their abilities and belittled them...

Introduction of Department!!

Today there was an introduction of the department of Justice!!
I think that all the members had done a very good job in the introduction, for we had boasted
our department fairly well. Although there might be a slight conflict between us and 문기부, since we negatively advertised them, but i think that they will excuse us. lol;;

I hope 16th wavers to enroll for department of justice a lot so that we can select a very nice student!
I really love 법무부!!

God save us!

Hi

WOW it's the first time of me to write something on my blog...;
I'm not really familiar with it....lol