HIGHRISE 1st writing

The HIGHRISE project.

Cuba. Havana. David.

 We now live in high buildings and apartments. Also, Cuba is not greatly different with us. David is a man who lives in Havana, Alamar. It is the city which places near the ocean. Also, it is the largest public-housing city in Havana. However, there are lots of defects in city. Its walls are broken, and there is no theatre, dance hall and other entertainment facilities. Overall facilities in Alamar are poor.

 When compare our life with Alamar, maybe some might be able to focus on the appearance and facilities but I think the most important point that we have to focus on the city Alamar is the unity between neighbors. Although city Alamar is less industrialized, it still maintains the unity between neighbors. The first scene of David portrays the festival preparation. Poesia Sin Fin. It is the festival which is related to poem. However, the Cuban ministry of culture and government recommended the festival. It is because that Cuban administration does not want to let people to freely join since Cuba takes communism for political ideology. (We may be able to compare political difference between Alamar and Korea.) But, interesting thing is the people in Alamar gathered and prepared festival in 7 apartments. It shows that the citizens of Alamar is very united and has kin relationships with others.

 Also these kin relationships are shown in other scenes of David’s. Even if they do not have other entertainment such as theatre, dance hall, they know how to enjoy with others. When there are activities in the city that other people can participate, many people come out from their apartment and enjoy the play together.

 How the citizens in Alamar are able to have good relationships with other, even if they have diverse races, and different in kind?

 From now on, let’s scrutinize our life and Korea’s city life before we go on actual comparison.

In fact, in these days, it is hard to find friendly relationships between neighbors in Korea. After the rapid industrialization and economic growth, overall life of Korean citizen became harsher. They do not have time to spare and enjoy leisure. Isn’t it obvious that they cannot communicate with their neighbors also? In Korea, the high apartments which have many separated rooms usually depicted in novel as isolated prison. In Korea, city life is not an example that shows relationships and communication but it verifies the elimination of mutual understanding.

 Sometimes, we get some news that the corpse of dead person were left alone for long days. For police officers, it is more important to find the cause of death. However, not only that, a corpse left alone shows that how we are apathetic to neighbors.

 We find clear differences between Alamar and Korea. The biggest difference between them is related to possibility of communication. The society without communication cannot be sustained. Lack of communication with others brings citizens to isolation. When these circumstances become severe, people will not be able to understand others different situation, and they would not effort to do that. And it will lead whole society in a state of isolation.

 With this comparison I structured some sub-topics for my real essay.

I will focus on the existence of mutual connection between people.

1)     Alamar and David.

1.     Contents. About their lives.

2)     Case of Korea.

1.  Show the life in Busan.

1.     Compare Alamar and Busan(Represents Korean city and where I live.)

2.     Before the rapid industrialization Busan vs. present Busan.

-       Since I assumed that the elimination of communication is due to rapid industrialization and loss of time, I should show the comparison between them.

3)     conclusion

About Satire

[What is satire]
 Satire is primarily a literary genre. And it can also portrayed either picture or writing.
Although its main purpose is to criticize some social situation that seems unfair or illogical,
it also gives humorous feelings by ridiculing situation.

[Example of satire]

Silla Hotel, one of the biggest hotel in Korea rejected the guest who wore Han-bok, Korean traditional clothes. Why do they rejected?
 They said Han-bok is bulky and dangerous clothes since it can hurt other guests. However, they permitted other clothes such as Kimono. ( Japanese traditional clothes.) This was such a weird situation.

This was satirized by Gag Concert. ( Famous gag program in Korea.)
 About Silla Hotel.
The one who dressed like manager rejected a person who wore Han-bok but he entered others including Japanese traditional clothes, Chinese, even the Gollum and Indian clothes.

 [My topic]

 I am going to satire previleged class.
They dominate all of the important resposibilites in government or office, and they also take important
parts on judicial branch and the Executive. With their powers they do not concern about other common people's life.

   The picture above satires the Argentina's monopoly. The biggest water company in Argentina dominates the water production and sell it with very expensive price.

 Also there is another picture that depicts gap between rich and poor.

Rewrite : Show me the money

The computer game, Starcraft, created by Blizzard, has some key words that a player can use as “cheats” to make the game easier. “Show me the money”is one of these codes. If a player types it in, they are instantly provided with 10000 minerals and gases for manipulating units, thus making the game player a virtual millionaire, and therefore able to achieve many amazing feats. Like the key words in the game, I want to make a lot of money. Earning a lot of money is my ultimate goal. "SHOW ME THE MONEY!"

Before entering elementary school, my mother bought me the book "The Talmud," life. When I read it one sentence in particular came in to my mind.

"The most harmful things to human beings are the mouth and an empty wallet."

(Maybe above sentence can be translated in English but it will use different expression.)
Although this sentence emphasizes that people should care about their conversations as well, I focused on the "empty wallet" aspect only. After I saw this sentence, I recognized the importance of money. ‘With money,' I thought to myself, 'I can do everything. In contrast, if I do not have enough money, I will live A very miserable life.’

With this idea, I entered elementary school. Like most kids, I lived A mundane and ordinary life. I walked to school early, played soccer with friends, and wrote words politely with a 4B pencil.

However, the problem happened in Korean writing class, when the teacher required us to write about our dream. Many friends wrote about becoming scientists, doctors, and presidents. In my case, however, I wrote that my dream was to earn a lot of money. I also provided my reasons:

 I think money is A powerful tool. We cannot buy things without money. Having a lot of money also ensures me happiness since it allows me to do many things.

 

But, lo and behold, my teacher did not accept my idea. She believed elementary school children's dreams should be something hopeful and idealistic. For her, my writing might be viewed as a crazy thing. She called me and we had counseling time.“Joohyung, why didn’t you write about your real dream?”
“Uh, frankly speaking, this is my real dream.”
“No, Joohyung. dream should be something you want to do in future. Something likes an occupation."

“Earning money cannot be the most important thing. There are many things that YOU cannot buy with money. Like your future and your dreams.”

 I stared blankly.

“Understand? So write this again and give it to me tomorrow.”
‘Meh.’
Counseling with her wounded my soft and genuine innocence of childhood. After that, in front of the class I said that my dream was to be a scientist, even thought I did not think it as my ultimate goal. Maybe, my life in elementary school was the life of a hypocrite. I covered my sincerity.

Not only my teacher, but also people around me thought my dream as a weird thing. They have some negative thoughts about earning a lot of money and becoming rich. Maybe they are affected by the social culture that emphasizes thrift and saving. In addition, in Korean society, there are many problems that were brought by the rich people’s greed. So, society often has a selectively negative view towards wealth, and they doubt the sources of it.

Accordingly, many teachers taught us with this kind of rhetoric: “Do what you want to do. Then the money will follow you if you do something really well.” Teachers can sometimes be the main characters in the movie "3 Idiots." Although their intentions are really good, they are too idealistic. I want to ask a question, not only teachers but also other people:
Do you really perform and choose your job with your pure interest?

People want to be famous writers, not just writers, since famous writers can earn a lot of money and get high social status. Many people are not free from their financial problems. They are afraid of money, hiding their real problem by saying fanciful words. They speak like they do not care or worry about money.

My dream is not a weird thing. I think it reveals most people’s desires.

I want people to speak frankly. We should be frank about our own desire. So, in my case,

I shout: “Show me the money!”

Story and Story

 My friends and I went 한라 mountain. Since it snowed a lot, we were not able to walk further. So we decided to sleep in Hotel near 한라.
After we finished shower, we were really boring. Before we sleep, we talked a lot. When one of my friends finished humorous story, we intended to sleep. But Chang-hun started another story. Although we were really sleepy, we tried to focus on his story.

 He started his story with dark and gloomy voice.
 “My story is really scary and it is my real experience.”

 It was a dark stormy night and I was studying in my room alone. At first, it rained a lot. As time goes by, the sound of rain hitting the windows of a room diminished gradually. The light of the bulb in the room started to shimmer and cold wind blew into the room. However, I have not noticed the changes. Since I focused on my work, and I turned my head toward the door. Somebody was standing there. I could not even scream because I was too scared. Since it was very dark. I couldn’t notice the force of the person. The black, tall figure approached to my side. I tried to run away, but my legs wouldn’t move. There was no way to escape. It was so clear that I would be seriously hurt if I jumped out the window – I live in the fifteenth floor.
 The person stared at me for a few seconds, and then, passed through me. Yes, literally “through” me. After that, I woke up, sweating. It was a dream, I felt a sleep, during the studying. Books were messly placed on the desk. I went to school and told my friends about the story, and this made Chris shatter. He used to live in the house where, currently, our family is living. He said that he had similar dream when he was living in the house. Immediately, I felt that there is “something” in the house.
 Right after I came back from school I visited my neighbors to find out what was happened in my house. I visited all people living in our apartment, but nobody knew about my house. I tried to give up figuring out what was going on. When I knocked the door of the last house, and old man came out. I was so surprised to see him because he looked very similar to the man who came out in my dream. However, he was smiling and was not scary. He said, “Glad to see you. I was waiting for you.” I was so surprised and again, couldn’t say anything. He kept saying, “There’s a lot to tell you, Chang-hun. Come in.” Oh, God! He even knew my name. The house was extremely large. I sat on a big sofa and looked around. Everything was huge, extremely huge. He brought a cup of coffee. “Umm… Chang-hun… I wonder where I should start.”
 “I am your father.” He said with great determination. “I AM your FATHER.”
 “What?” I shricked. “Can’t be.”
 I knew my own father. Though he lived far away when I was young, and I did not have much chance to spend time with him, he has always been there since the day I was born. The man seemed to hesitate. Then he went on to explain. “When you were 2 years old my dear, your mom and I had a big fight. We could not agree upon what we were fighting about, and we came to live in separate houses. The one you are living in right now is the house that I used to live in. Then one day, a guy came, claiming to be your mother’s “new husband”. He asked me to sign the divorce file, of which I did not want to sigh for I could not give up my right as your father. The man was enraged and he came to beat me to death. Or he thought death, at least. I was moved to hospital instantly after he left the house and gained my health back. And through the dreams, I was looking for you going through the hearts of boys your age. Then I came to see your heart, Chang-hun, and prayed to God you come looking for me. Without a doubt, you came, and here you are my dear. I’ve missed you.”
 I was shocked, shocked to death.
 “You were brought back to life… ?” I asked.
 “But, who called the ambulance.”
 “I did.” The man said. “I called the ambulance.”
Then I saw his feet. He had no feet
When he recognized that I was watching his feet, he laughed and grub my neck.

 We were horrified and forgot that we have to sleep. We asked.
“So, what did you do Chang-hun.”
“I failed to escape and I died.”
“Meh, It’s just a kidding, Chang-hun. Don’t lie.”

“Do you think I’m alive?”

He had no feet.
We screamed.


 At that moment, I woke up. It was a dream. It was today that I planned trip to 한라 with my friends. So I packed my bags and called to my friends.

 First I called my friend Byeong-Woo.
 “Hello, Is Byeong-Woo there?”
 “Is.. Joo Hyung?”
 “Yes, can I speak to Byeong-Woo.”
 “He died last night ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ.”

 “What?”

 I was shocked and I called to my other friends, but, they also died last night. I did not know why they died last night.

 Then, my phone rang.
“Hello.”
“Hey Joo Hyung it’s me Chang-hun.”

“Chang-hun, Did you know that our friends died last night?”
“…………”
“What should we do. ㅠㅠ.”

It was last voice that I heard from Chang-hun.
“Don’t worry my dear, I will send you to your friends soon.”

Story I

It was a dark stormy night and I was studying in my room alone. At first, it rained a lot. As time goes by, the sound of rain hitting the windows of a room diminished gradually. The light of the bulb in the room started to shimmer and cold wind blew into the room. However, I have not noticed the changes. Since I focused on my work, and I turned my head toward the door. Somebody was standing there. I could not even scream because I was too scared. Since it was very dark. I couldn’t notice the force of the person. The black, tall figure approached to my side. I tried to run away, but my legs wouldn’t move. There was no way to escape. It was so clear that I would be seriously hurt if I jumped out the window – I live in the fifteenth floor.

 The person stared at me for a few seconds, and then, passed through me. Yes, literally “through” me. After that, I woke up, sweating. It was a dream, I felt a sleep, during the studying. Books were messly placed on the desk. I went to school and told my friends about the story, and this made Chris shatter. He used to live in the house where, currently, our family is living. He said that he had similar dream when he was living in the house. Immediately, I felt that there is “something” in the house.

 Right after I came back from school I visited my neighbors to find out what was happened in my house. I visited all people living in our apartment, but nobody knew about my house. I tried to give up figuring out what was going on. When I knocked the door of the last house, and old man came out. I was so surprised to see him because he looked very similar to the man who came out in my dream. However, he was smiling and was not scary. He said, “Glad to see you. I was waiting for you.” I was so surprised and again, couldn’t say anything. He kept saying, “There’s a lot to tell you, Chang-hun. Come in.” Oh, God! He even knew my name. The house was extremely large. I sat on a big sofa and looked around. Everything was huge, extremely huge. He brought a cup of coffee. “Umm… Chang-hun… I wonder where I should start.”

 “I am your father.” He said with great determination. “I AM your FATHER.”

 “What?” I shricked. “Can’t be.”

 I knew my own father. Though he lived far away when I was young, and I did not have much chance to spend time with him, he has always been there since the day I was born. The man seemed to hesitate. Then he went on to explain. “When you were 2 years old my dear, your mom and I had a big fight. We could not agree upon what we were fighting about, and we came to live in separate houses. The one you are living in right now is the house that I used to live in. Then one day, a guy came, claiming to be your mother’s “new husband”. He asked me to sign the divorce file, of which I did not want to sigh for I could not give up my right as your father. The man was enraged and he came to beat me to death. Or he thought death, at least. I was moved to hospital instantly after he left the house and gained my health back. And through the dreams, I was looking for you going through the hearts of boys your age. Then I came to see your heart, Chang-hun, and prayed to God you come looking for me. Without a doubt, you came, and here you are my dear. I’ve missed you.”

 I was shocked, shocked to death.

 “You were brought back to life… ?” I asked.

 “But, who called the ambulance.”

 “I did.” The man said. “I called the ambulance.”

Then I saw his feet. He had no feet.

Show me the money

Show me the money

 Computer game, Starcraft, which was made by Blizard, has some key words that can make game easier. “Show me the money” is one of the key words that give 10000 minerals and gases for manipulating units. Getting 10000 minerals affects a lot to the game. It makes gamers in a state of millionaire, and he or she can make everything in the game.

 Like the key words in the game, I want to make a lot of money. Earning a lot of money is my ultimate goal also.

  Before elementary school entrance, my mother bought me Talmud. It is the book which tells us didactic stories about life. When I read the Talmud, the one sentence came in to my mind.

 -The most harmful things to human being are mouth and empty       wallet.-

Although this sentence emphasizes people to care about their conversations also, I focused on empty wallet only. After I saw this sentence, I recognized the importance of money.

‘With the money, I can do everything. In contrast, if I do not have enough money, I will live very misery life.’ With this idea, I entered the elementary school. Like most of elementary school children, I lived mundane and ordinary life. I walked to school early, played soccer with friends and write words politely with 4B pencil.

 However, the problem happened in Korean writing class. During the class, teacher required us to write about our dream. Many friends wrote their dream, such as scientist, doctor, and president. In my case, however, I wrote that my dream is earning a lot of money. I also wrote reasons.

-       I think money is powerful tool. We cannot buy things without money. Having a lot of money also ensures me happiness since it allows me to do many things. –

 But, my teacher did not accept my idea. She believed elementary school children’s dream should be something hopeful and idealistic. For her, my writing might be viewed as crazy thing. She called me and we had counseling time.

 “Joohyung, why didn’t you write about your real dream?”

 “Uh… Frankly speaking, this is my real dream.”

 “No, Joohyung, dream should be something you want to do in future. Something like occupations. “

 “ ………”

 “Earning money cannot be the most important thing. There are many things that cannot buy with money. Like your future and your dreams.”

 “………”

 “Understand? So write this again and give it to me until tomorrow.”

 ‘meh.’

Counseling with her wounded my soft and genuine innocence of childhood. After that counseling, in front of people I said my dream is scientist but I did not think it as my ultimate goal. Maybe, my life in elementary school was life of a hypocrite. I covered my sincerity.

Not only my teacher, but also people around me thought my dream as weird thing. They have some negative thoughts about earning a lot of money and being a rich. Maybe they are affected by the social culture that emphasizes thrift and saving. In addition, in Korean society, there were many problems that were brought by the rich people’s greed. So overall society has negative view toward wealth, and they doubt where the wealth originated from.

Also many teachers taught us like this. “Do what you want to do. Then the money will follow you, if you do something really well.” Teachers can be the main character in the movie 3 idiots.

Although teachers’ saying is really good, they are too idealistic. Not only teachers but also other people I want to ask a question.

Do you really take your job with your pure interest?

People want to be famous writers not just writers. Since famous writers can only earn a lot of money and get high social status.

Many people are not free from their financial problem. They are afraid of their saved money. But they hide their real problem, and saying fanciful words. They speak like they do not concern about money. Like my elementary school teacher.  

My dream is not the weird thing. I think it reveals most of people’s desire.

I want to say people to be frank. We should be frank to our own desire.

So I shout. “Show me the money.”

 

Rewrite. Man of the year.

“Information is the currency of democracy.” – Thomas Jefferson.

These days, the importance of information continues to become greater and greater. The information business has grown with the development of IT technology and it holds great portion in our life now. And modern people are unable to live without IT technology. This phenomenon explains why the two main candidates for TIME magazine's  “Person of the year” in 2010 were Mark Zuckerberg and Julian Assange. Both are professionals about the information, managing it with power and influence. However, Zuckerberg and Assange have a different approach toward information, and their views are quite different.

 First of all, let's examine Facebook. It is one of the biggest social network systems in the world, and many people use Facebook each day of their life. Also its economic profit is enormous. It earns 800 million dollars in 2008. And the question we naturally ask is - How does Facebook But, what makes Facebook to earn a lot of earn this fortune? Although Facebook is large and there are many users, it is unable to earn money through its SNS system. In other words, Social networking itself, it is not profitable. The thing that helps Facebook earn money is advertisement. Since the website has many users, Facebook is very attractive place for advertising since it is efficient for mass advertise. With this advantage Facebook owners have contract with advertisement companies. Usually they earn money by showing the advertisement in their website, they also get big profit by giving the information about the individuals to company. Can this be morally accepted?

 

There is a question as to what sort of information is important in the world, what sort of information can achieve reform. And there is a lot of information. So information that organizations are spending economic effort into concealing that is a really good signaling that when the information gets out. Because the organizations (including facebook) that know information is best, that know it from the inside out, are spending work to conceal it. Julian Assange called this phenomenon as the monopoly of information. Information itself is neutral, and should be opened for everyone. For equality, the actions that Facebook did to monopolize the information cannot be accepted. Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook is not a proper person for the Time’s “The man of the year” also.

On the opposite, there is Julian Assange. People have to know about Assange’s effort to spread information to many people. He struggles for the “right to know.” According to the journal about the Pentagon and the U.S government, since 9.11 the U.S government, through presidents Bush and Obama, has increasingly told the US public that “State secrets” will not be shared with citizens.

 The work that Assange has done is to “leak” these state secrets. Some might criticize Assange as anarchist, and person who destructs the social order by leaking dangerous information. Especially outraged politicians are claiming that the release of government information is the criminal equivalent of terrorism and puts innocent people’s lives at risk. But, we should know that Assange’s direction is justifiable.

“Information” is the lifeblood of democracy. Information about government contributes to a healthy democracy also. Transparency and accountability are essential for government. However, the US has been going in the wrong direction for years by classifying millions of documents as secrets.

WikiLeaks reports these so-called secrets will embarrass people. Assange also warned through the interview that the some of the reports can be very shocking. It is true that WikiLeaks and other media will make leaders uncomfortable. But embarrassment and discomfort are small opportunity cost to pay for a healthier democracy.

Assange’s failure of being “The man of year” shows that the Time magazine is also dependent to the politics and economic power. WikiLeaks and Facebook. Both have strong impact to our society. But which plays positive role for us? Wikileaks has the potential to make transparency and accountability more robust in the U.S and the whole world. Which can lead the development of the real democracy.

Let’s think of the our future for a moment, will be the future is more likely to be Big Brother exerting more control, more secrecy, or people watching Big Brother. It’s hard to predict. There are enormous pressures to harmonize freedom of speech legislation and transparency legislation around the world and their anti-power also.

But the most transparent thing is that we must support Assange to get rid of the Big Brother’s ruling.