Yourmemory

PLEASE REBLOG, PEACEFUL PROTESTERS WATER CANNONED IN SOUTH KOREA (14/11/15)

The citizens of South Korea are currently being oppressed with brute force by the government, Please reblog and help spread the word and bring awareness to the current situation

The recap:

Korea’s current PM, Park Geun hye has proposed to make complete alterations to the nation-wide textbook, consiting of heavily biased views about past events in order to manipulate and warp both history and it’s citizens. The new textbook condemns the Korean independence movement as well as glazing over the dictatorship of her father, erasing the history of thousands who were abused over his leadership.

A group of protestors, consisting mainly of uni and young high school students has decided to gather at Gwanghwamun for a PEACEFUL PROTEST (met all regulations, has been reported/notified to the police PRIOR the protest) when all areas leading to the area was cut off by police.

They have since fired WATERCANNONS (WATCH VIDEO) laced with capsaicin/tear gas (X) and oil, blasting at random at protestors AS WELL as ambulances and other volunteers trying to give first aid. A man has been blased in the face and is in critical condition while many others are injured or currently are being brutally mishandled by police. The tear gas used by the government has been notified to consist dangerous levels of capsaicin and  465.75 LITRES has already been spent already in close proximity of the protestors in just few hours. (Korea is also undergoing the worst drought in 40 years. Yay) BUT MOST OF ALL, THE GOVERNMENT IS HEAVILY CENSORING ALL THIS. They have censored the most popular website naver.com, erased all of the news headlines and refused to broadcast the current situation in all national TV news channels. We have no way of communicating without the censorship of the Government without depending on SNS.

Please share and help us from being silenced by this dictatorship.

#Fucking_korea

(tag used by Koreans)  

Revolution in Seoul: Tens of thousands spill out onto the streets in massive anti-government/anti-Park Geun-hye protests

Around 80,000 anti-government protesters took to the streets of Seoul in the city’s largest demonstration in almost a decade.

The marches in the South Korean capital were organised by an umbrella labour union and various civic groups.

Although people had diverse complaints, they were united against the conservative government under president Park Geun-hye.

Demonstrators, many of whom wore masks and carried banners, took over a major street and marched between tight perimeters outlined by police buses.

Officers had strategically parked their vehicles to prevent access to roads leading to the presidential Blue House.

Things turned violent when the police clashed with members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions.

There were no immediate reports of injuries, but shocking photos have emerged of police firing powerful water cannons to disperse protesters.

It started when I was in kindergarten, and I was so proud I did not have to go to Bingo class, unlike my friends, because I could speak good English -

although I had no idea what a yellow dog that could spell had anything to do with Chinese. 

(I figure out now that it was probably called Bilingual class)

I am lucky. I speak the fluent, accentless English of newscasters, the dialect spoken by the children of immigrants, that we learned not from our parents but rather from watching Sesame Street and other things on tv.

Last year, a white facebook friend of mine posted, “In order to celebrate Chinese New Year, me talk rike chinese man arr day.” 

And then told me that she was “sorry I was offended” and “she didn’t mean anything by it” when I (nicely, sweetly) told her that that shit was not okay. She said that she saw it the same as doing an accent, like Irish. Or British. Or Italian. (for bonus points, she even said that she has lots of Asian co-workers and friends, and LOVES Asian people, and so is not a racist.)

And when one of my white friends gets drunk, he thinks his “Asian accent” is hilarious.

And I was told by a coworker about the time my Asian coworker mispronounced “Barroway” as “Bwawwoway” and how hilarious it was.

Here’s the thing - can you guess how many Asian people I know who actually say

me rikey

me from _____

me so solly

(or, if you like, the fetishized versions: me so horny, me love you long time)

if you said ZERO, then ding ding ding! Congratulations, you have working brain cells.

No, my misguided fb friend, the “Asian accent” is not an actual imitation of an accent, comparable to your bad British/Irish/Italian - but rather a mockery of Asian people and their supposed inability to speak English. It is the perpetuation of the image of Asian people as perpetual foreigners in America.

Like that time when my family was at an Italian restaurant, and we were speaking to my father in Cantonese, and a drunken white lady said very loudly, “GOD when you come to this country at least learn the language!”

Or when my father was pulled over for speeding, and although he said “what’s the problem, officer?” the first thing the state trooper said was, “Do you speak English?”

Your fake “Asian accents” are not harmless and silly, because at the root of the joke, it says - you, you are stupid. You cannot speak English. You are Other. You do not belong.

my parents have been in this country for 30 years. They have been American citizens for 30 years.

And they are very self-conscious of their imperfect English, afraid that it makes them look ignorant, knowing that it marks them as immigrants. That, after 30 years, you can still be told (in not so many words) that you do not belong.

The Cultural Revolution started in China when my father was 13. He was pulled out of school and, later, sent to work in the fields. (He escaped to Hong Kong when he was 18, but that is another story for another time.)

When my father came to this country, he had a middle school education and did not speak a lick of English. He worked as a busboy at a Chinese restaurant, the evening shift that ran until 3 or 4 in the morning, and went to school during the day.

It took my father ten years to earn his bachelor’s degree. He is now an engineer.

Is this not your “American Dream?”

When my mother came to this country, she spoke very little English. She got a job as an entry level clerk. Over the years she earned one promotion after another. She is now management at a large federal agency, and manages funds for the whole state.

Is this not your “American Dream?”

And my father didn’t understand why his coworkers said, “flied lice, flied lice!” to him over and over and laughed.

And my father is still afraid to speak in a professional setting, even when he has ideas. 

And my mother still checks and double checks her professional e-mails with me, for fear of mockery from the same people she manages.

And people don’t understand why I can’t take a harmless joke. Why I don’t think that shit is funny.

No, I don’t “rikey.” 

No, I won’t “love you long time.”

And no, I’m not sorry.