We Must Cultivate Our Gardens

 This week is a good time to come back from my 2-month absence I reckon. I am working (and even getting paid for it) and studying, but have a wee bit of time to post. This week in my master's studies we were only assigned a discussion topic and a portfolio topic for personal reflection. Usually there's a writing assignment as well. I managed to combine the two assignments in what I think is a clever way (scuse me whilst I pat myself on the back). 

The first is the discussion topic. We're halfway through the course "Living and Learning Globally" now and it has so far been only about conservation, saving the planet and such. It's a topic about which I feel strongly, but I was expecting a bit of a bird course about teaching outside your country, being culturally sensitive and that sort of thing which, of course, I would ace. Turns out this course has been the toughest of the 6 I've taken! Every week we're assigned a book worth of reading, the usual writing, grading, groupwork, etc., and THEN some extra material on the state of our planet, the sustainable development goals of the UN and stuff like that. 

The first part of this post was an assignment I was none too thrilled about. I don't like rubrics because, like standardized tests, I find they focus students' efforts on passing, not learning. We were ordered to make a rubric to evaluate students who were doing projects like the ones in the YouTube vid about Indian Ocean region kids conservation projects. I designed a rubric for a garden project that I hoped would encourage learning. Here it is:

                                               Garden-Based Learning Rubric

The part that most impressed me in the video about the Indian Ocean region’s eco-schools was the garden-based learning project. In the past I have read about garden-based learning projects and actually experimented with them on my own a few times. I believe it is a good example of experiential learning, ecological literacy, agricultural discovery, environmental awareness, hands-on science, cooperation/collaboration, moral improvement through hard work, and possibly most importantly a chance to form a connection with nature that will grow into responsible stewardship and conservation of living things on our planet. I particularly liked the way Matthew Teeluck, a student in the video, said that he shared what he was learning at school with his parents who don’t know much about environmental issues (Eco-Schools, 2018).

I decided that if I had to make a rubric for a future project such as this, it would be divided into three parts: two parts formative and one part summative evaluation. The first will be my observation of cooperation and communication between the groups. Though the project will be about 90% hands-on, it will require effective and efficient collaboration with a partner for things like dividing responsibilities equitably. Planting, tilling, fertilizing, watering, weeding, and harvesting duties must be shared. There will be a variety of vegetables to choose from as well, so that choice me be arrived at democratically. Finally, the fruits (or vegetables) of the students’ labors must be divided up reasonably between the members of each group.

The second part would consist of a written report done by the students (ideally in teams of two) on how gardening is a good way to help the environment. In-class lessons paired with the garden project will include gardening virtues such as cleaning the air; benefitting the soil; lowering trips to the grocery store; reducing imported produce; composting and using your own waste; benefits to bees, worms, birds, spiders, insects; reduction of carbon footprint; reduction of global warming; boosting physical health through exercise and nutrition; stimulating mental health through peace and beauty; and lowering noise pollution. Any combination of five of these or any other valid benefits to gardening will earn the group full marks on their essay.

Part three will be based on what kind of connection the students form with nature. This may seem a lot for a teacher to expect from students, however, as of March, 2021 over 83 million Tamagotchi electronic, egg-shaped pets had been sold. If millions of people can form bonds with those, I think connections with living plants should not be considered an unreasonable thing to ask. Maria Montessori was an advocate of garden-based education. In “The Absorbent Mind” she said that when a student learns that the life of a plant depends on his/her care, it becomes more than a lesson, it becomes a mission (Subramanium, 2002). Part three will be a measure of whether the groups just thought of their plants as schoolwork, or if they took a genuine interest in their survival and success.

Cooperation and Communication	5. Students exhibit above average skills in democratic decision making and sharing.	4. Students show good skills in decision making and sharing.	3. Students show average cooperation and decision making skills.	2. Students have some difficulty in working with one another and making decisions equitably.	1. Students do not succeed in working well with one another.
Conservationism (Written report)	Students mention five or more environmental advantages of gardening.	Students mention four environmental advantages of gardening.	Students mention three environmental advantages of gardening.	Students mention two environmental advantages of gardening.	Students mention one or fewer environmental advantages of gardening.
Connection	Students show an obvious connection to nature.	Students show a palpable connection to nature.	Students show some connection to nature.	Students show very little connection to nature.	Students show no connection to nature.

  

References

Eco-Schools. (2018, December 5). Eco-schools Indian Ocean: from schools to communities [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/ofvcL7MZ4XY

Subramanium, A. (2002). Garden-based learning in basic education: a historical review. UC Berkely Monograph Series. https://doi.org/https://littlegreenthumbs.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/GardenBasedLearninginBaseicEducation_4H.pdf

The second assignment of the week was more in my wheelhouse. It was a quote from Voltaire that some of you have probably heard. His epigrams could be said to be the most recognized of his contributions to literature and this was one that was well known: "Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers." We were told to contemplate the quote and relate it to our teaching. I did that while also relating it to the other writing assignment of the week. Here's what I wrote:

                                              Question Everything

Voltaire said, “Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.”

            What is your initial reaction to this quote?

The first thing I thought of when I read this quote was the two-word title of this paper and the best advice I have ever received or given: question everything. I received it from my 17^th century literature professor Joyce Forbes, and it summarized quite succinctly the renewed hunger for knowledge and the vast supplies of it to which, at the time, my university education was opening my eyes. That, in turn, reminded me of the Socrates quote, “I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing” (Kreeft, 2002). The more I question things, the more I learn, and the more I learn, the more I learn I need to learn. Learning enough to satisfy my hunger is a lifelong challenge I cannot satisfy, but at which I will zealously fail. To be complacent in one’s knowledge is a sorry state I rejected early in life, but intellectual stagnation is a fate for which many volunteer, and this led me to my deeper reaction to this quote.

            What is your deeper reaction to this quote?

Consider the source. Voltaire was a significant contributor to the 18^th century Enlightenment. He declared himself a member of the “party of humanity” and waged war on the twin Hydras of fanaticism and superstition to which the European social order of his time had fallen victim to their intellectual endarkening, in his opinion (Shank, 2022). His best known work, “Candide,” which is subtitled, “or The Optimist,” is a savagely told satirical tale of an ignorant optimist upon whom the world of horrors is unleashed. Candide, the title character, grows up in a castle and learns that “all is best in this best of possible worlds” (Boyd, 2017).  This is the philosophy taught to him by his tutor Pangloss. “Pan” and “glossa” are Greek words for “all” and “tongue” respectively. I will not get deeply into the plot, but Voltaire’s life (and mine) were similarly blissfully ignorant and optimistic in youth until knowledge of the world was revealed through experience and questioning comfortable positivity.  Voltaire was, and remains to this day, a hero to those who would promote skepticism, critical reason and political resistance to achieve intellectual liberty and advance progressive projects of modernization and reform (Shank, 2022). This led to an even deeper reaction to this quote.

            What is your even deeper reaction to this quote?

It seems to me that the good people who make up the majority in our world seem to be held in a similar miasma of false optimism and ignorant inaction as Voltaire perceived the people of Europe to be under during his day. In no aspect more than the main subject of this course: global competence. People seem to be kept globally incompetent with a Panglossian optimism about the state of our planet complicated by environmental and ecological illiteracy. In Voltaire’s day it might have (or might not have) been more a question of philosophy whereas in modern times the Panglosses of the world are captains of industry who want to wring every resource out of the world before someone else can, with little to no concern about destroying the planet that is the only place where they can use those resources. In a word, they are apocalyptically antisocial and need to be subverted. These are the people who are telling us that they have all the answers when their one and only question is, “How can I maximize my profit?” When will we realize they are all tongue?

            How do you relate this quote to active/inquiry-based learning and assessment of student learning outcome?

The answer to that question is in the word “inquiry,” isn’t it? As a teacher in a world where people are assets of industry and beholden to capitalist sophistry, we need to encourage our students to disregard the false answers and concentrate on the question from whence they all emanate. And we need to teach our students to question that question. Is life all about profit? Is profit just about resources? What are the things that will profit most and from which the most will profit? Soon the idea of profit will take on a less industrial and more egalitarian meaning. Soon we will realize that we profit more from brotherhood, compassion, and empathy than competition, avarice, and violence. Soon we will realize worldwide similarities abound and Robert Putnam’s idea of bonding social capital will replace money as capital and a novel capitalism will be formed (Claridge, 2018). If we can teach our students to fight extremism and radicalism with harmony and mutual respect, they can be the Voltaires of our era. We must protect our own planet, or as Candide might say, “We must cultivate our own garden” (Boyd, 2017). Our students can save our planet. What a learning outcome that could be!

 

References

Boyd, C. (2017). Voltaire's Candide is the hero we need. Medium. https://doi.org/https://clarkboyd.medium.com/voltaires-candide-is-the-hero-we-need-59e1c9e9292

Claridge, T. (2018). What is bonding social capital? Social Capital Research. https://doi.org/https://www.socialcapitalresearch.com/what-is-bonding-social-capital/

Kreeft, P. (2002). Philosophy 101 by Socrates: an introduction to philosophy via Plato's apology: forty things philosophy is according to history's first and wisest philosopher. San Francisco: Ignatius Press.

Shank, J. B. (2022). Voltaire (E. N. Zalta, Ed.). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://doi.org/https://plato.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/encyclopedia/archinfo.cgi?entry=voltaire

 

What do ya figure?  

Stupid, or Stupid Like a Fox? Part I

 Back in Korea. This has become my adopted home country so those words should bring a little comfort if only through familiarity. I have to admit to some of that no matter how much I bitch and moan about Korea and oh I do, and oh I WILL, but home has its comforts. For example, I am drinking a coffee with fresh cream in it right now. I had to avoid Nestle while in the Philippines so instead of Nescafe coffee with Nestle Coffee Mate, I started the day with a local brand of coffee and a local brand of whitener. Not bad, just different and uncomfortable. But it was the best I could do while I was there. 

It's also nice to know that at some time close to lunch time on this Sunday morning I am going to have some bacon and eggs and it won't be eggs boiled in a kettle like I had at Studio 18 in San Antonio, Pasig City, Manila, it'll be scrambled or fried eggs with good bacon and a slice of toast with real butter on it. All luxuries a guy in a room with no fridge can't afford. It's also great to be sitting here on MY computer chair with my windows open in a nice, cool 19 degree temperature unaided by air conditioning or heat. It was a glorious sleep in my own bed with my own pillows and a temperature (even with the windows closed due to mosquitos) that required some use of blankets for the first time in months! What a great sleep! And it was needed for a number of reasons as you will see if you read on.

Okay, now that the first piece of bread is lain down, it's time for some Korea bashing in this shit sandwich I am going to call "Korea: Stupid or Stupid Like a Fox?" There could be a LOT more shit in the sandwich, but I'll just concentrate on what I'm dealing with at the moment, and I am not at all sure how substantial the top piece of bread will be if there is one at all. This could be an open-faced shit sandwich I'm making here. 

Do you ever wonder when you see something outrageously stupid, "Geez, that's almost too stupid to be humanly possible! I wonder if they're doing that stupidly stupid, fucked up, moronic thing maliciously."? Ever wonder that? I find myself faced with that mental anguish on a regular basis in Korea and although there has been development since '97 when I first came here, I find Korea's over commitment to technology to be making up for whatever examples development has overcome. They're determined to prove to the world that they are country of technology and whether they are ready for it or not, it has become a religious, name-it-and-claim-it sort of endeavor, the growing pains of which the people (including, and maybe ESPECIALLY, the foreigners) who live in Korea have been saddled with. I have posted literally dozens of examples here from the electronic, Star Trek sliding, glass doors that malfunction and lock people IN buildings to new websites for things like booking flights, receiving packages, online shopping, Covid shot registration, hell almost EVERYTHING that don't work because they are all strictly tied to bank, phone, alien card, and passport information that conflicts because the agents at those agencies are so fucking stupid that they write your non-Korean name in Korean characters. Here's the crux of my post: Wouldn't it be fiendishly diabolical if one or all of said agents at said agencies hated foreigners and wanted to cause them all a lot of headaches and wrote the name, with full malice of forethought, in a combination of Hangeul characters that he/she knew no other agent at any other agency would possibly duplicate? It would almost be clever, wouldn't it? Now you are probably saying, "Surely they write the name in your alphabet!" Well THAT would be the smart thing, and, I admit, it is starting to happen here, but for a guy like me who has been here as long as I have without learning to speak their language and is forcing them to speak MY language to do their job, it's a punishment that sort of fits the crime, no? And stop calling me Shirley.

Now there is no way, there is no fucking way, I can prove this ever happens, but there again is a nice little Chinese water torture constant dripping that is in the background wherever I go and whatever I do here. Does this really exist or am I making it up? drip Can a whole country that is so disorganized in so many ways possibly be this organized in its mistreatment of foreigners? drip Or am I just assuming it's happening to all foreigners? drip Maybe this is just happening to me. drip Maybe I am being terribly narcissistic here. drip No, I have friends who have the same experiences. drip Or are they just placating my rage? drip Do they really have the same experiences? drip Or are all my friends lying to me? drip It makes ME a worse person. I have had so many bad experiences, for example, at immigration that it is almost impossible for me to see them doing something stupid/smart again that will add frustration to my life and NOT hold all the other examples of the same shit against the current immigration officer. What makes it especially bad is, what if I'm wrong? What if it just appears to be something stupid/smart, but it is actually necessary? Am I jumping to those conclusions now? Am I becoming the bad person in the story? Am I the one who has overdeveloped discrimination against Koreans, not the other way around? 

I'll share an embarrassing example. I have come to realize that asking for help at "help" desks or from people in department stores whose job it is to give you help, is fruitless. It's easier and faster to just search for what you're looking for yourself. Again, I am not alone in this (and it's not just friends placating my rage). Had circumstances been a bit different yesterday, there'd be a beautifully poignant photo here of round, green question mark signs posted on a pole on the 3rd floor of Incheon International Airport Terminal 1. I wanted to take a picture, but I was so frustrated I didn't. Let me back up to the start of the story. I got up at 9 or so after only a few hours of sleep on my last night in Manila, packed up and got the attendant at the desk to call me a Grab cab. Grab is a huge company in the Phils. Their taxi service is like Uber. They are everywhere on scooters delivering food and other things too. Anyhoo, I got into the Grab cab already tired. I couldn't sleep mostly because of stress at what I was pretty sure would be a(n?) horrific few days coming up. We got to the airport a little before noon. There was a huge line-up to get into the airport. I got in line behind a white dude a little younger than myself sucking the face of a twenty something Filipina who had on sexy shorts and a tight, white, low cut top. Pretty obvious what was going on there and if I had my life's savings to bet on it I'd place it all on Angeles being the destination the dude was going home from. He was speaking English and I think I detected a German accent but couldn't be sure. They were holding up the works. The line had moved up while they were "engaged" and the girl politely motioned for me to go ahead of them. I did and heard Face Sucker say under his breath, "Nice shoes by the way." I was wearing my newly purchased hiking shoes. I brought them in case I wanted to do some jungle exploration. I had worn my sandals on all the walking around Manila though. Fate had not allowed me the visit to Palawan I was hoping for.

At any rate, I got to the end of the line and was told I was too early but I could wait in the passenger waiting area. Covid/Monkey Pox precautions I guessed. So I asked the security guard at the entrance to the waiting area when I would be able to enter the airport and she mumbled about 6 o'clock or 6:30. It was noon remember. I had 6 hours of waiting ahead of me. So I passed my stuff through the ex-ray and saw a sign that said restaurant over the entrance to the waiting area. I was hungry for lunch having had only a granola bar and some local coffee with local whitener for breakfast. I got to the waiting area and it was just chairs and chargers. The restaurant area was gutted. Just people sitting down and using devices. I had planned on studying during the wait so I got out my laptop and tried, but I couldn't construct an efficient way to read and take notes. My mind was on other things anyway. So I just waited. There was a Jollibee on the other side of the outer airport where I had some chicken (and that awesome gravy!) By 7 I had waited long enough to get hungry again, and way more tired. I stood in the perpetually long line-up again and when I got to the end I was allowed into the airport even though my flight hadn't opened for check-in quite yet. I saw TWO guys, both white guys if that matters, wearing hiking shoes like mine so I felt a little less self-conscious about Face Sucker's comment. 

Check-in was no problem, I got something to eat at an expensive (for the Phils) eatery with not-so-delicious (for the Phils) food. Then I went to a cordoned off area in front of gate 3 to wait another 3 hours or so before we boarded. There were security guards (with guns and rifles) making sure nobody left the waiting area. More Covid/Monkey Pox precautions I guessed. I even had to exchange my passport for a plastic tag with number 17 on it to go to the bathroom outside the waiting area. When I came back 3 minutes later, they asked to see my alien card to compare it against my passport (and they DID!) before they gave it back. The flight was unremarkable and as expected I got exactly zero sleep between midnight Philippine time when we took off and 4:30 Korea time when we landed. Now, remember this next part. It'll come to bear after I (finally) get through the embarrassing example I promised.

I disconnected my phone from my battery which it was hooked to in my bag in the luggage compartment for the whole flight. I knew I'd need it to scan the QR code for the PCR test I'd be getting. I had read that Sept. 3 the pre-flight PCR result before entering Korea had been dropped, but you'd still need to get one after landing and report it electronically. Electronically! Online. You can smell a problem arising here, can't you, my sagacious reader? The airport was relatively empty at 5 AM and I had stopped to pee out the beers I had had on the flight to unsuccessfully encourage sleep. Kloud beer of course. Being up in the Klouds. Anyway, the rest of the passengers had passed me. I was the last one, or close to it, off the flight. As I walked toward the luggage claim area I saw more and more people wearing a kind of Hazmat-looking full-body scrubs. They were the Covid/Monkey Pox precautions I assumed. Like 20 of them or so. A few of them motioned and/or said, "This way," or something. I got to a signboard that had two QR codes on it. One for Koreans (that probably worked) and one for foreigners. Doing my best to approximate the boredom of a seasoned traveler I got out my phone and prepared to scan the QR code. Two young fellas who spoke English very well approached me and asked if I had filled out my health statement. That was another thing I did after coming out of the toilet. I filled out my yellow health statement while other passengers who had received them from the flight attendants before landing passed me by. They told me they had run out when they reached me during the flight. I filled out my arrival card and customs declaration instead. Then as I deplaned the stewardi had yellow fans of health statements for those who had been lied to during the flight. I grabbed one and filled it out while sitting on a planter in the airport hallway. So I said to the fellas, "Yes, here it is," and produced my yellow health statement. They looked at it and said, "You're good. You don't need this code. Go ahead. Keep going." or something like that. I said, "I don't need to do any test?" and they said no. 

Remember that. Also, there was a girl, in full hospital hazmat garb who handed me another paper just before I got to the immigration area. Immigration is what had caused most of the stress that kept me awake the night before and during the flight. I had two days left on my D-10 visa and was wondering what I could do about it. Could I get an extension until after the weekend? It was early Saturday morning, so Sunday (today) was expiration day. Could I get a new D-10 at the airport? Could I hand in my alien card and switch to a 6-month visitor visa? It used to automatically kick in after a visa expired if I'm not mistaken. But either for Covid reasons or others, I assumed that would not be the case. So I had a bit of curiosity along with the overwhelming feeling of DREAD caused by the umpteen dozen problematic run-ins I had had with immigration officers during my years in Korea. I have grown accustomed to them and am utterly unable to put them out of my head when I do anything with immigration. But this was maybe the one and only time I was actually looking forward to talking with an immigration agent to get some closure on what was going to happen. I reached immigration and was in line to talk to a human agent and some lady dressed in her security-like uniform pulled me out of line (I don't know why she singled me out) and told me to use the passport scanner. Ah automation! It makes everything easier doesn't it? (scoff scoff) I scanned my passport and it didn't work. I scanned my passport and it didn't work. I scanned my passport and it didn't work. She grabbed my passport, scanned it on a different scanner and it worked. So I was able to pass through immigration without talking to an immigration officer. Automation had once again given me what I DIDN'T want.

As I exited the immigration area to find out what carousel my checked baggage was riding, I noticed a girl at an unmarked desk. I took a chance and asked in English where I could talk to an immigration officer hoping she could point me to one of the immigration officers RIGHT THERE. She said airport immigration opened at 6. I explained my situation about my fast expiring visa and she vehemently removed herself from any responsibility for knowing what I could do, but told me airport immigration opens at 6 and they might know what to do. I thanked her and proceeded. By the time I had gotten my checked bag, gone through customs and re-entered Korea, it was a little after 5 and I was hungry again. Tired as fuck and hungry. I say that as an excuse for the upcoming embarrassing part. 

I saw a young, pretty girl behind the desk under the question mark as I exited customs. I walked up to her and asked where airport immigration was. I said, "Hi, where is immigration?" She looked befuddled and answered, "Zimmigration?" Immediately all the past immigration AND information, help worker, and a few good-looking Korean airhead incidents rose up in the judgy part of my brain. Nevertheless, I pursued the issue because I was in no mood to wander around the huge airport and find it myself. I said, "Immigration. Where - is - immigration?" A trifle over-enunciated, but I was a tired, hungry passenger. "Aaaah aaaah immigration!" she corrected. My pronunciation of my language is often corrected by Koreans who suck at it so add them to the judgy part of my brain. She told me it was on the third floor behind the letter H. I thanked her and went up the escalator carrying my two unwieldy bags. On the third floor I found H, found a luggage cart, and looked all around H and EFG, and IJK. I couldn't find immigration. I checked my phone and found a helpful site for airport information and entered "immigration." No match. I found a website with a map of the airport. No immigration. I checked about half a dozen sites online and found exactly no information about immigration at Incheon International Airport. I KNEW it existed because I had been there a couple of times. Once I paid a fee there for overstaying my visa. 

I found a big, electronic panel that invited me to touch the screen for information. I did so. Everything you need to know about the airport was right at your fingertips. The wonders of technology. I looked at the map. No immigration. I did a search. No match for immigration. During my fruitless phone search there was a site that mentioned "manned immigration" so I input THAT. No match found. I overheard a group of people speaking another language behind the useless machine I was screwing with and one word stood out, "Immigration." In my tired, hungry frustration, I just asked them in English, "Hey are you guys looking for immigration too?" They were Indian, so they spoke English. One of the guys in the group of five came over to me and said, "Yeah. We have been looking for it. There are no signs anywhere." He was right. They have signs with arrows pointing out all kinds of things in the airport. Not immigration. One of the ladies in the group pointed to a board full of references helpful to travelers and said, "No immigration." I said to the guy, "It used to be right here. I remember going there a long time ago. Maybe they moved it." He said he remembered it too and pointed out where he thought it once was. "Maybe it's been removed because of the new automated passport system," he said. I thought he just might be right. There was an office for customs, overweight baggage, money changers, bank machines, a couple restaurants, a Paris Baguette and a coffee shop (closed because who wants coffee or pastries at 5:30 in the morning? Stupidity or ingeniously irritating?), airport police, all kinds of stuff but no immigration. 

I wished my Indian friends luck and continued my hunt. I found a large map of the 3rd floor similar to the one the Indian lady had pointed out no immigration on. No immigration. I saw two big question mark circles though. One was not far from where I was reading the map. I figured I'd give this another shot. So I went to find the information booth that one would ASSUME is located at an area marked on a map with the internationally accepted icon of information - a circle with a question mark. I got to the area and there on a pole arranged in a triangular pattern around it were three circles with question marks on them. No booth, no person to give you information, just signs. I mean, that IS what the map promised isn't it? LMFAO! Stupid or intentionally and diabolically infuriating?

I take the elevator down to the first floor and push my cart back to the first girl. I say, "Hello again. I am looking for an immigration officer. Where could I find one?" She, of course, reiterates her original response. I said, "There's no immigration office there. There is customs, but not immigration." She insists again and again. Shows me a map with immigration office behind the H. I say, "Well there's a map upstairs that has an information booth marked on it and no information booth so sometimes maps are wrong." She kept insisting and even offered to walk with me and show it to me at 6 o'clock. It was about 5:50. I said, "If you are going to keep insisting it's where I've already checked, I don't want to waste another 10 minutes to check where I've already checked. Thanks for trying to help, but you didn't." Then I left and some nosy Korean dude asked her a question in Korean that included the word "immigration" in it. All the nosy asshole Korean run-ins I've had rose up to the judgy part of my brain too. But I went back to the elevator and avoided confrontation.

Now I was on the third floor just wandering around hoping to bump into an immigration officer by fortunate accident and fucking FUMING at all the current occupants of the judgy part of my brain. By fortunate accident, I happened upon the OTHER area that was marked on the 3rd floor map by a question mark in a circle and this one actually had a counter and another pretty girl, not just a pole with some question marks on it. LOL. Classic! Okay, there is probably an explanation like the kiosk is temporary and is not set up at the moment, although if they are as serious about this pandemic as their enforcement of the rules regarding it is, now is the time there are people who need information, isn't it? Like, where can I get a PCR test in the airport. At the beginning of the pandemic I flew to Guam and the airport was impossible to pass through without getting your temperature checked. And they checked and RE-checked those checks. Here is a pic of the sign WITH the kiosk set up underneath it and the polite agent (with the requisite white gloves lol) and the cute Korean animation that give the impression that this fever check isn't something they will shoot you dead for if you refuse to comply.

 

So anyway, I approach the new girl and ask. She says, "It's right over there behind the letter H." I say, "Are you SURE? I just came from there and there were several of us looking for it and we couldn't find it." She got annoyed and made a point of showing me that by putting down whatever she was holding a little too hard, opening the door to the kiosk a little to quickly and walking a little too fast motioning me to follow. I slouched behind the far too low cart and being unable to take normal strides without smashing my shins on the cart, I didn't keep up with her. This further annoyed her and she stopped way ahead of me, turned around and motioned a little too energetically, for me to follow. When we got behind the H, she started looking around like all the Indians and I had. She was NOT sure where it was either. In fact she walked right past it, turned around and THEN pointed to it. I said, "Great! Thank you." in as sweet a voice as I could. 

I SO wish I could post a photo here of the post festooned with question mark signs with nothing underneath it that I saw yesterday in Incheon Airport, rated fourth best in the WORLD by Skytrax, but, alas I didn't click a pic. It would have been a better way to end this post. I hadn't planned on it being so long. A warning about anything Korean being rated, if it's an internet rating, they'll vote, if not, they'll pay. They even have a word for it: sajaegi. You can read a little about it here.

So I guess this'll be a two-parter. It's well after 1 and I still haven't had breakfast. It's time for me to brunch. Suffice to say for now that airport immigration wasn't really helpful after all that effort. There was one dude and one girl and the girl did the talking. She said that they couldn't help me. They made absolutely sure that I understood that. I asked what my options were. She said she had no idea. Why that would be, I don't know. You'd think it'd be something they would know. Remember, I had been to that very office to pay the fine for an overstay before. So somebody who worked there in the past knew the rules. But that's the thing about immigration: the rules are never absolute. Every agency and every agent is different. The strict nature of enforcement is absolute, but the rules they are strictly enforcing are fluid. So it wasn't a surprise I didn't get much help from airport immigration. But it wasn't a waste of much time, so I thought I'd try.

Or maybe one of the agents I was prevented from seeing by the lady who forced me to use the machine instead might have known. Who knows? Anyway, she told me (and I think this was just to get rid of me) that she reckoned if I went to the Daejeon Immigration Office on Monday, the day after my visa expired, I'd be okay. I asked if I'd have to pay a fine, if so how much, but she didn't know. At least said she didn't know. So I said I was just happy that I wouldn't be deported. I added something about now all I needed to do was make an appointment on the HiKorea website to visit the office in Daejeon and sometimes that isn't easy. I gave her a little wink as I said this, thanked her and said goodbye not realizing how right I was. 

Consider that a teaser for part two.

Another Rubric in the Wall

 Third week of my fourth and fifth courses at UoPeople. I am still in the Philippines. It's been 25 days since I submitted my request papers for my pension dough. They said it could take up to a month. They also said it should only take 1-2 weeks. But it would have been foolish not to expect the month. So that's what I did. It's getting tense though. I extended my Sept. 15 ticket back to Korea to Sept. 23 so if the money doesn't come this week, I may have to eat that ticket cuz I don't think you can extend a ticket twice. I'll try if it comes to that, but I don't think it'll happen. So then I'll have to buy a new ticket home. Hadn't figured that into the budget. Life eh? It's always keeping me guessing.

Since there's not a lot new here just walking around the same hood in Manila every day and studying my courses, I figured I'd post another one of my papers here for your perusal. I've never liked rubrics and to be honest, I just hate the word. It sounds pretentious to me. Most of the teachers I heard talking about them WERE pretentious. Now though it's becoming a fact of life. Schools are using them more and more. MY school uses them. So I wouldn't be me if I didn't write my latest discussion post slagging rubrics and my school for the use of them. It's almost like I WANT to self-sabotage! 

                                             Discussion 3 Authentic Assessment

            Discuss benefits for students in using authentic assessment

I think it would be best to begin with a couple of warnings from Alfie Kohn before delving into authentic assessment. Kohn says that “…not all alternative assessments are authentic” (Kohn, 2006, para. 2). He also recommends a re-assessment of assessment to verify that it is consistent with the reasons most teachers decide to get into teaching in the first place (Kohn, 2006). According to a 2015 survey, the top reason teachers get into teaching is they want to work with kids to make a difference (Marsh, 2015). It almost seems absurd to say, but to make a difference in education… you need to educate. So let’s see if the benefits of authentic assessment for students include making a difference in their education.

At this point it would be prudent to define authentic assessment. Interestingly, at the outset of the article entitled “Defining Authentic Classroom Assessment,” the authors write that there is no consensus on the term or characteristics of authentic assessment (Frey et al., 2012). It is just one of many abstract concepts educators deal with in the notoriously imprecise, subjective enterprise of trying to gauge and judge students’ understanding and learning. The authors set out in an attempt to clarify just this one concept which they felt was mostly to do with mirroring real-world tasks or expectations in classroom assessment exercises. After completing their study of 109 scholarly publications about authentic assessment, they found that close to half of them did not include the critical dimension of realism in their definitions of authentic assessment at all (Frey et al., 2012).

Rather than trying to make it more concrete and quantifiable through definition, it might be more useful to look at a few practical examples of authentic assessment exercises. Indiana University published a list of exercises in their explanation of authentic assessment that they use ("Authentic Assessment," n.d.). It includes patient case studies and plans of care for the nursing program; company sales plans for students in the business program; troubleshooting code and website design for students of computer science; examining a case study from multiple theoretical positions for psychology students; diagramming natural processes for chemistry and biology students; and role playing significant events in history for the history program ("Authentic Assessment," n.d.). I do not think a person needs to be an educator to understand how these exercises can be considered “authentic,” and would be highly beneficial (and would make a difference) for students at Indiana University. When Frey et. al. (2010) traced authentic assessment to its original source, it was described by Archibald and Newman as having meaning or value beyond success in school (Frey et al., 2012). That really should be enough for a good teacher to be able to understand and implement authentic assessment in class, but there are costs and sacrifices involved.

            Analyze whether there are costs for teacher in using authentic assessment

In order to satisfy those who want some digestible representations of abstract concepts like learning and knowledge, shouldn’t there be a method of focusing the messy, complex, real world situations into easily evaluated and standardized boxes? Rubrics to the rescue! Although Chapman and Inman write that well-constructed, “rubber” rubrics can have some flexibility (Chapman & Inman, 2009), it is hard for me not to see, “Will you give us a rubric for that?” as the latest, “Will this be on the test?” An example was used of a parent trying to help her fifth grade daughter with homework and the daughter said, “No, that’s not in the rubric. Here’s the rubric. This is all we’re supposed to do” (Chapman & Inman, 2009). I read that trying to imagine why any fifth grader should even know the meaning of the word “rubric.” In the same article the authors write that matching students’ work to teacher-designed templates differs from analyzing, synthesizing, and thoughtfully evaluating it (Chapman & Inman, 2009).

I was evaluating a fellow student’s writing just yesterday. The rubric for the assignment called for the writer to outline two philosophies of classroom discipline and choose one over the other. The student whose paper I was grading made a very convincing argument that elements of both models of classroom discipline were useful and rather than abandon one and choose the other, the most effective way to create a positive classroom environment (which is the name of the course) would be to blend the two theories. I gave the student five out of ten for not making a clear choice, but I felt terrible about doing it. I tried to redeem myself by giving the student a perfect score for the category of academic language in which third person is to be maintained even though he/she used a lot of first person pronouns. After all, how can a person describe a personal choice without using the first person?

The above experience illustrates some weaknesses in rubrics that teachers may be forced to endure in order to make assessment exercises more closely aligned to the curriculum goals and standards. Rubrics can make authentic assessment less authentic by limiting exploration and creativity and herding student thoughts into such similar work it’s hard to differentiate those who grasp concepts from those who are grasping at concepts (Chapman & Inman, 2009).

In conclusion, I think authentic assessment is highly beneficial to my students, and others. I often use situational role play conversations in my ESL classes. I never attach rubrics to my assessment exercises because I feel they legitimize focusing student attention on grades rather than learning. I do understand how useful the rubrics can be for the administrative members of the schools at which I teach, but I have been fortunate enough to keep my authentic assessment rubric-free and thereby more authentic. I believe it has made a difference for my students.

 

                                                                  References

Authentic assessment. (n.d.). Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning. https://doi.org/https://citl.indiana.edu/teaching-resources/assessing-student-learning/authentic-assessment

Chapman, V. G., & Inman, M. D. (2009). A conundrum: rubrics or creativity/metacognitive development? Educational Horizons. https://doi.org/https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ849020.pdf

Frey, B. B., Schmitt, V. L., & Allen, J. P. (2012). Defining authentic classroom assessment. Practical Assessment, Research, and Evaluation, 17(2). https://doi.org/https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1245&context=pare

Kohn, A. (2006). The trouble with rubrics. English Journal, 95(4). Retrieved September 19, 2022, from https://doi.org/https://www.alfiekohn.org/article/trouble-rubrics/

Marsh, S. (2015). Five top reasons people become teachers - and why they quit. The Guardian. https://doi.org/https://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2015/jan/27/five-top-reasons-teachers-join-and-quit

 

 

Hangin' in the Phils

 First week of Filipino study in the books. When I get this master's finished, I'll be able to look back at it and say it was truly international. Originating in Pasadena, based in Gongju and Pyeongtaek, with an additional contribution from Manila. And it ain't finished yet! The first week was easy although since there is no writing evaluation or group work in the first week, it's always easy. But I think being in Manila where I've pretty much done everything in my little area of Pasig City that I want to and a little bit outside of it, has kept me bored enough to sit down and read the articles and bang out the papers. Given my past vacations here, I never thought I'd be bored in the Philippines. But this is not really a vacation. Usually toward the end of the month I'm vacationing the days take on a pattern, but not a boring one.

Already the familiar pattern has started with the courses too. I used to look at the upcoming week's readings, find something I used as a reference the week before and say, "HEY, what a coincidence!" Now after having exactly that happen in BOTH courses after the very first week, I'm saying, "HEY I'm not just a student, I'm a curriculum developer!" The curricula for these courses is full of readings from the 90's and early 2000's but little to nothing up to date. I try to find stuff more current in order to make my papers... more current... and my teachers are saying, "Thank you very much, I'll just slot that into the second week's readings..." I wonder if it happens to other students too. And it's happening so often! I guess it IS cool to be contributing to a good cause, but there must be a better way to do this. Like maybe just give me the damn degree and say, "Dude, you are killin' it! Why don't you just join our curriculum development team so we don't have to keep swiping your good articles?"

Still no word on the lump sum pension payment. It's early yet. My ticket home isn't for another week and I can extend my stay if I need to. Or want to... My blood sugar has been good even though I'm not eating well. Lots of Jollibee, BK, McD breakfasts, and other junk food. There is a street right outside one of the gates that protect my little hood that is full of Korean places so I've had some Korean food. A lot of what I eat is stuff that I can bring back to my room and not refrigerate. So not that good. But still below 150 every time I've checked. That IS good. It probably has a lot to do with the walking. I have started using my pedometer app. Since coming here I have AVERAGED over 9000 steps a day. I'm trying to get that up to 10,000. So some of the neighborhood dogs, cats and chickens are getting to know me. Some of the beggars are too, but it's WAAAAAAY less of a hassle here than the resort areas.

Here I deal with a better class of beggars. Like the lady at the desk who tried to charge me about double what the girl had cheated me for the day before. Both gave me higher prices than were advertised on their website and both had this peculiar habit of shuffling around books and papers when asked a question you'd think they'd get asked all the time: "How much?" I'm just going to come out and say it, I'm white - that's what happens to us here. We get the white price. And before you enjoy too much righteous shock at my brashness, I have been told this by multiple merchants in multiple countries. It's a fact so it's not politically incorrect in any way. What the girl charged me was only a little bit over the actual price and it works out to less than 40 bucks a night for a nice room. What the lady quoted me was almost 80 bucks a night. I think she gave me the Japanese, Korean or rich Chinese price. Ha ha ha, okay now THAT mighta been a bit politically incorrect, but still factual. I was shocked! She wanted to charge me only a little bit less than what I'd pay for this room in a "civilized" country like Canada or Korea! The nerve!

And the taxi drivers. I went to the Rainforest Park yesterday and both ways they said, "How much?" TO ME! "Five hundred, boss? How 'bout four hundred?" I just say, "How 'bout you turn on the meter?" It was less than 200 both ways, but again, I know everybody's on the con around here so I tipped them anyway. You get used to it here. And again, the 200 I ended up paying was a very good deal.

So here are some of the pics:

First I went to the flower area. This bunch of flowers above were the best.

I dunno what kind of flower these are, but they're gorgeous. Smelled good too!

This is mostly what I saw in the park: loafing school kids and people taking "princessy" photos of kids and young girls in front of flowers or Alice's Castle dressed in elaborate, long trained dresses. I went to the hedge maze next, which had an Alice in Wonderland theme.

The Cheshire Cat greeted me at the start of the maze. 

It wasn't much of a challenge at first. I guess with the Covid slowdown things at the Rainforest Park got a little run down.

This Alice looked a bit unkempt.

And here we see a coupla cards that have been chucked into the shrubbery.

But as I made my way around, the bushes got thicker, I found some more characters from the story, and I got sweatier. Alice has a little castle in the center of the maze.

Castle guards and view from the tower.

There were Lego guys and dinosaurs there too.

I've been walking around a lot and finding places and trying them out. I got some Korean groceries from Kim's Convenience. I didn't ask for the gay discount though. Viewers of the show will get that.

This was interesting. I saw a few people walk by this and touch it or kiss their hands and touch it. 

I got big time deja vu walking past Metrowalk. I think I've been in one or two of the places in this little party complex in downtown Pasig city. I mean maybe the places I went to have been replaced a time or two since I was there, but I have a feeling I have patronized this establishment...

Manila has some huge and pretty cool buildings. The top one is right downtown in the business district and the one immediately above is the BDO gate to my neighborhood. Those twin towers are right behind the Estancia Mall.

Like any sunset photo, this didn't do it justice, but still nice, no? 

I went to the Tipsy Pig. Heard it was a good place to go. I didn't like the layout inside. All big tables for groups. So I sat outside. I got wings...

and a beer. The beer was good, but the wings weren't. The 4th one was rotten. Even through the extreme thickly painted on hot sauce, I could taste that that wing was well past its prime. And ask anyone who knows me, if I won't eat it, it's rotten. I paid, didn't finish the wings, just left. I walked half a block to Buffalo Wings and could smell the rotten wing inside my mask. It was disgusting. 

Buffalo Wings was good. This is Anne. She took care of me. I had 5 medium and 5 hot wings there. And some beers. I didn't get a Sapporo, but I love their Samurai sword tap!

So in spite of this sign in the Estancia Mall where all of this happened (except the Rainforest Park of course) I think I'm losing weight. My sugar hasn't been above 149 (the day after wings and beer) and my steps haven't been below 5000. 

I'm not in Palawan where I would like to be kayaking into a mountain and hammerin' back the gin and tonics with calamansi at some beach bar, but things are pretty good here. On Sunday I think I'm gonna go visit John and his Dad and maybe have dinner at their place. Maybe Josefino will be there. Hope so. And with luck, I'll get my cash deposited in time to fly back to Korea on the 15th. That'll be the start of week 3 of classes. That's group project week. Always hectic.

So that's about it from the Phils. My next post will probably be written from my apartment in Gongju. But one never knows. With my screwy life, anything can happen...

Who's Making YOUR Bed?

 "Oh Canada we stand on guard for thee." If you are Canadian and our country commands true patriot love in you, then you should stand on guard. That's the basic point of the anthem of our country. It's a good anthem. The people of any country need to be on guard to make sure the bad people don't overcome the good. When one says, "En garde" in fencing, one is taking the ready position preparing to stab or be stabbed with a sword. By extension, and without, I think, taking too much license, standing on guard for Canada is meant to be both an offensive and defensive position. My purpose today is to investigate and expand upon a personal sentiment that the only thing offensive in the average Canadian in regards to our patriotic duty of standing on guard, which we have all sung or heard sung about thousands of times, sometimes with hats off and hands on hearts, is how derelict we've been in its performance.

I've done this many times in many ways in many posts, but with the specter of moving back to Canada looming larger every day, I'm trying to collect my thoughts and prepare myself for the financial beating that entails. Let's look at some stats and see why the prospect of returning to my home and native land is so daunting, shall we? If I manage to hit the ground running and land a job at 15 bucks an hour, which is the minimum wage in the provinces I'm most interested in living, I'll be making $28,800 a year. It sounds like a lot, but when you look at expenses, which are out of control lately, it's not enough to get by. I used movingwaldo.com, admittedly not the most scientific of sources, and I found they vastly underestimated things like tax rates and the price of groceries ($53.50 a month? If I smoke a pack of cigs a week that puts me over budget ffs!), but it'll give you a rough idea. Rent for a 1 bedroom apt. between $1095 in Calgary and $1925 in Vancouver; utilities between $283 a month in Ontario and $362.50 a month in Alberta; Car insurance (cuz in Canada a guy needs a car) $1179 in AB to $1458 a year in Ont; gas for the car was left out but I calculated 2 tanks a month at 100 bucks a tank; Groceries for me I'm VERY lucky to keep it under $300 a month; internet/cell 75/50 a month; and this is not including entertainment or purchases of clothes, furniture, electronics, vehicle maintenance, etc. I averaged out some things and improvised a little and it works out to $30,640 a year. That's what I need just to get by.

The average income of a full time employee in Canada is a little more than $54,630 according to this page. The average is not really the average because it includes the super rich, who, like many "developed" nations nowadays, are the only people getting richer in Canada. The biggest lie repeatedly told to and accepted by vigilantly "on guard" Canadians is that of the 15% tax rate. Read my previous blog post called "A Taxing Endeavor" and you'll see that in the real world Canadians pay closer to 100% tax than 15%. But only the middle class and poor Canadians. The rich pay nothing. 

That said, if you calculate that ludicrous statistic into the salary I will most likely be getting when I return to Canada, it works out to $24,480. So I'll be working 40 hours a week all year long with no vacation and making -$6,160 a year. If I land the job of my dreams - the "average" job in Canada, don't buy anything, don't drink or smoke, live essentially as a hermit, I can look forward to $15,796 a year. According to this site, the average person needs $800,000 to retire in Canada. So that means I'll need to find the best job I've ever had, do absolutely nothing but work, and do that work for a little over 50 years. Then when I'm 105 I'll have enough to retire. 

I can't even dream of a 54 thousand a year job in the field of ESL even with my masters degree, even though the field of education may be the best example of inflation there is. Little to none of that windfall profit has gone into increasing teachers' salaries. 

So if I use my savings from working outside of Canada, cash in all my valuable hockey cards, and invest in a house, which has been the surest way of making a profit in Canada in its history, I still might be in trouble. Even though experts are calling for a(n) historic correction in the major housing markets of Canada, that correction will not make up for the fairly recent skyrocketing of real estate prices virtually across the board in the areas I'm considering settling in. I once actually had enough money to make a down payment on a house in Calgary. I was looking at duplex prices. Now a oneplex is too expensive for me. In order to counter the huge price hikes in real estate, the central bank of Canada has raised interest rates.  According to this website, we've had two historic interest rate hikes in two months and are due for more. The Bank of Canada rate went from practically nothing to 2.5% and is projected not to stop until it hits 5% or so. Add that to the price explosions that have recently happened in all the places I'm looking to settle and it is the absolute worst time in history to buy a house in Canada.

Same exact shit going on in Korea.

What has happened to Canada? And who are these liars that keep telling me before hockey games that they are standing on guard for Canada? I can think of two entire political parties every member of which should have been symbolically or literally stabbed with swords since long ago for selling out to big business and bringing about the mugging of the middle and lower classes of Canada. Who was "on guard" while this was happening? And what has caused the drastic price hikes in real estate? Largely people from other countries (mostly China) creating feeding frenzies on newly built, or yet to be built properties that artificially increase the prices enabling buyers to "flip" the properties at huge profit for the real estate speculator and huge expense to the person (usually Canadian) who eventually buys the property to live in, not just play money games. It's how a lot of the rich Chinese people became rich. It's also how a lot of Chinese people are now losing money because corrupt Chinese real estate companies (which is redundant) like Evergrande have started building lots of speculation properties and don't have enough money to complete them. People are stuck with just the frames of condos/apartments that they can't live in or flip. Ask me if I feel sorry for them. You can read about it here. 

But forget about the house, what can I do for work in Canada? I've tried going back a few times and it's like starting in the work force fresh out of high school. I have the advantage of many years in the workforce, but if I can't get a good ESL job (and they're not easy to find) I'll have the disadvantages of age like physical problems, general disenchantment with all workplaces, and an all but defeated optimism in humankind. Who wants to hire a grumpy old man like me? 

My one saving grace might turn out to be online ESL teaching and ironically, the largest and most lucrative spots are mostly Chinese based. I could make a decent wage teaching online while finishing my masters. Then with the masters, I could have an expanded job market to search that includes non-teaching positions in education. That's the dream, but even if that all falls into place, Canada is the worst place to do that from because it's the most expensive. I'd be much better off finding an apartment in the Philippines. I'm going there at the end of the month to look around. I spent a few days in Seoul visiting with friends who were enjoying the end of their vacations. For one night (Saturday) it would have cost me 150,000 Korean won to stay in a hotel with just bed and bathroom. I've priced out some bigger rooms in Manila where I have bed, bathroom and kitchen for the same price. Oh yeah, and it's for a MONTH, not just a day. I would imagine rates in Canada are even worse than the Seoul prices for most cities. The clear choice here is to get my arse out of Korea and not to go back to Canada, but try to find something in the Philippines that I can do while finishing my masters degree without paying such huge monthly expenses.

So that's what I'm going to try to do. The Korean system of paying out pension has contributed to this decision somewhat. I can't collect my pension, or at least they cannot deposit it into any bank account, including my Korean back account, while I'm in Korea. It is about a thousand times easier, but that's not the way they do it. So I'll have to go to the Philippines and hang out there while my pension is "processed" and keep checking my Korean bank account until I see that it's been deposited. Then I return to Korea and either stay, or with a little luck I will have found a job that I can do from the Philippines and I will move there. I already have contacted some schools and offered to interview in person while visiting the Philippines. If I don't have to interview in person, I can always do so online. The places I've looked at all have free wifi and if it's not fast enough, I can go to a cafe.

Waiting for my pension money to drop is also something more enjoyably done in the Philippines. I don't want to spend too much money while I'm there, but I've always wanted to go to Palawan, particularly El Nido where a guy can kayak like 5 km. into a mountain cave. Even around Manila there are lots of fun things to do. Plus I have some friends there I haven't seen for a while. Manila will be a fun place to wait for my pension money. El Nido - even more fun!

Doesn't that look cool?

But back to Canada and the reason I'm trying to avoid a return there. The French word for goalie is "gardien de but." It means guardian of the goal. Here's a goalie who reminds me of how well we Canadians stand on guard of our country:

Is it the fault of the average Canadian? I don't think that would be fair to say. In fact if the Canadian people have exhibited one tragic flaw in all of this inflation and greed run amok, it's their kindness, and I just hate to think of that as a flaw. Adam Smith (yes the "father of capitalism who has been built into something he clearly was NOT) said that when people of trade meet together, their conversation ends in conspiracy against the public(k), or in some contrivance to raise prices. We have been more than accommodating to these contrivances and conspiracies as a nation. In fact, we have developed clichés and aphorisms that contain what our bosses want us to believe are general truths the worst of which is undoubtedly, "It's just business." I can't tell you what I hate worse, that saying or the person who has been socialized to believe that business (meaning cheating) is something we have to accept and not complain about because it's nothing personal. Taking a person's money is personal. Taking too much of it, i.e. cheating or charging too much, which is 99% of business in Canada, is intensely personal, it's not "just business," it's people fucking over other people. 

What are some others? "Fair market value." If there is anything patently unfair in Canada, it is market value. All the data I can find shows that for many years the increase in inflation has outpaced the increase in average wage about 2-1. And let's not forget that inflation IS an average that is believable, but wage increases include the rich and very rich, who are responsible for a huge majority of wage increase in Canada (not to say all of it) so wage increase is a very misleading stat. Still a country that knowingly allows prices to aggressively outpace wages brings us to another word we like to use that may not be as accurate as we think: "civilized." Am I really saying Canada is not a civilized country? Well, you tell me. Is pricing people out of an increasing number of things, including necessities like housing and food, year after year the behaviour of a civilized country?

"If you can't find a job, yer not lookin' hard enough." This one is true. There are jobs. The ones that make you negative 6 grand a year minus lots of tax. Sorry for not falling all over myself to line up for those jobs! Older people tend to believe this, especially older people who haven't looked for a job lately. Those who last looked when there WERE good jobs out there. Along the same lines we have the old and pithy "You made your bed, now you have to lie in it." Do you want to make a capitalist orgasm? Just blame his greed on the victims like you are doing when you say this. We've watched those greed-addled industrialists make our beds and we've wanted to intervene as we saw them putting the pillow cases on inside-out and putting the sheet on before the fitted sheet - in other words, we watched as they fucked our beds up but we felt helpless to stop them most likely because of these sayings of ours and other effective and efficient brain washing that made us feel like that asshole was the guy who should be making our beds and not us. 

It was this "bed making" that drew me to overseas work in the first place and since Canada has been so lousy at stopping the makers of its beds, it's what is keeping me here. I think one concept I've learned to be more prevalent over here applies. In business and in life a lot of folks equate kindness with stupidity. I think Canadians have been too kind and allowed our nation to develop the massive gap between Have-too-muches and Have-too-littles and I don't see it slowing down any. So before - WHOOPS - all our pension money disappears and the whole country says, "Oh well, that's business I guess...," I will collect mine and hopefully not have to use it while living, studying and working in either Korea or the Philippines. Canada is still not out, but it's highly doubtful. That's my new plan anyway. Wish me luck.