Giving it all up

Most of you probably know that I have been doing my best to be vegetarian during the past two years, a surprisingly easy effort that I fear may have to come to an end once I return to Korea. The reason is simple, while it is easy to pass on the meat and enjoy myself with options like this in my neighborhood, it becomes much more difficult in a country where vegetarianism is barely understood and certainly not widespread.

On numerous occasions, other students in my program have crowed about how much pork they'll see me eat once I get off the plane in Incheon. There is certainly no malice in what they are saying, I only assume they bring it up (often) because everyone likes to have their peers enjoy doing the same things they do. Who likes to go out for a drink after work with a teetotaler tagging along?

I won't pretend that there aren't certain foods I would enjoy eating in Korea, notably the spicy, sweet, rich



But my fundamental logic for passing on animals hasn't been shaken over the past two years. Although sometimes even I think it is an overreaction, I just can't shake the conclusion that unless I am willing to eat all animals (dogs, cats, and horses included) I have no right to limit myself to only those which we traditionally eat.

Of course there are the health benefits, but what keeps me from ordering a big mac is not the cholesterol, but the fact that it would be fundamentally similar to ordering a plate of braised dog meat. I couldn't conscience such a thing.

This gave me chills

As much as I have studied Korea, statistics like this (end of the article) still catch me by surprise, 60%?!

A change in tone

Rather than waiting until the accumulated guilt from not posting enough pictures forces me to write a new post about my life here, I am going to write about what I find interesting and what preoccupies my mind. Don't worry, this won't devolve into tweeting, but hopefully it should become more regular, varied, and entertaining.

Tonight's Seminar

As part of my program as a scholar affiliated with the East West Center, I have an obligation to attend a weekly seminar put on by the center. Each week has a different topic, loosely connected this semester around the theme of migration. The seminar consists of a professor or expert speaking to a group of about 100 master's and phd students, the vast majority of which are from other countries.

This week's seminar linked a problem that is impossible to overlook, poor health among native Hawaiians, with racism. A summary can be found here. While the thesis is interesting, essentially linking perceived racism to high levels of stress, which translate into higher levels of cortisol, a chemical in the body that has been blamed for a lot of diseases, there were gaps in the logic and the quality of the research that begged to be pointed out. A lively argument ensued.

While racism in Hawaii and Hawaiian health problems are something I could not have cared less about before coming here, living in Honolulu and gradually becoming more exposed to different layers of Hawaiian life has forced me to realize that there are significant and intriguing issues. The speaker tonight, who identified himself as native Hawaiian, despite his mixed ancestry, (another issue), stated the problem thusly, (heavily paraphrased): "look at the schools, or the hotels. Who's the janitor? Filipino. Who's the security guard? Hawaiian or Samoan. Who's the teacher? Japanese. Who's working the hotel desk? Japanese. Who's the principal and the manager? whites."

At the same time, Hawaii as a state takes pride in portraying itself as a successful multicultural entity. Owing to the countless waves of colonization and immigration that make up its history, it is the most ethnically diverse state in the nation. (source) There are phenomena here that I have never encountered before in America. For example, in the elementary school where I volunteer, the kindergarten class spent one afternoon celebrating Chinese New Year. Not just with a quick mention of the holiday as it was celebrated by other people, but by having each child whose family celebrated the holiday bring in food associated with it. Thus there were Vietnamese candies, Korean rice cake, and Chinese sweets for everyone to try. The children even lined up and received a penny in a lucky red envelope from the teacher, (또 중국 식으로 절했어요).

The fact remains though, that Hawaii is really really racist. For all of the apparent inclusion, the problems remain and people are viewed through a race-based state of mind. The sister of a friend of mine who works here shared a story of what she had seen on her Facebook feed recently. Someone had written a post complaining, to the effect, about why all the damn haoles are so racist. (haole being a mildly derogatory term for white people in Hawaii). The irony of criticizing a particular race for its racism evidently did not occur to the poster. Of course, my impressions are all anecdotal, and I don't claim that Hawaii is more racist than any other state in nation. However, I do take issue with the public relations line that Hawaii is a place of many different peoples living together harmoniously.