Dispatches by John P. Gamboa

DMZ Tour & Third Tunnel of Aggression

Two weeks ago, on the last day of the school semester, I went on a trip with my school’s faculty to the Demilitarized Zone.

Those unfamiliar with the DMZ should check out this Wikipedia page. In short, the DMZ is hilariously misnamed as it is one of the most heavily armed regions of the world.

The bus trip was only an hour away from my school. The closer we got Paju, the district the DMZ resides in, the more security I saw. Riverbanks had concertina wire; pillboxes were built into hills; tank stoppers scattered on the highway and armed personnel patrolling the region.

When we got to the main checkpoint, we had our IDs checked by ROK soldiers to make sure we were cleared for the area.

The DMZ is still considered dangerous. Back in the 1970s, firefights and small battles breaking out on the DMZ were commonplace. Even today, despite the relative calm, seeing warnings for landmines was an uneasy reminder of this fact.

Once we got into the restricted zone the first stop we made was at the Third Tunnel of Aggression. ROK forces discovered this tunnel in 1978, which passes under the DMZ. The Koreans People’s Army (KPA) built the tunnel under the heavily mined DMZ in order to move troops and equipment across the border in the event of an invasion of Seoul by Kim il-Sung. It’s estimated an entire infantry division could move through the tunnel in one hour. It was about a mile long, six feet tall and seven feet wide and now serves as a tourist destination.

Visitors get a short video on the history of the region, the war and an explanation of the tunnel. Afterward, we some slow trams that looked like carts for mineshafts and were taken 1KM into the tunnel at about 70 feet in depth.

Sadly we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside. However, the inside was a cramped, wet tunnel that ended with a barricade and a sealed door with more concertina wire. The most hilarious part of the whole tunnel was the granite walls painted black. After the initial discovery (the first two tunnels were discovered in 1974 and 1975 and the fourth in 1990) the KPA denied any involvement. They then backtracked and said they built the tunnel for peaceful purposes to mine coal. The best part is that there is absolutely no coal in the region. Just granite. The granite was painted black to make it look like coal in an attempt to trick the South. Right…

The historical information provided on the tour was much more compelling than the actual tunnel. The simple 500m walk from front to back in cramped spaces with dead-end wasn’t that exciting.

Dorasan, Part 1

The next part of our trip was to the Dorasan Observatory, one of several observatories of the North and the DMZ.  This was the most compelling part of our tour  as I finally got a solid look at one of the most closed-off nations in the world.

I had seen the North in the horizon on a trip to Gangwha Island several months back. This time, however, I could see a village, some farms and the North’s own military presence. It was all less than three kilometers away.

The observatory was another place where photos were forbidden. I tried to get a good shot from the back of the viewing platform. Ten feet away from the ledge, however, pictures could be taken. I was able to get some shots of the Propaganda Village across the way (more on that later) and some of the vegetation throughout the DMZ by sticking my camera in air taking blind pictures.

The meaning of the DMZ has changed quite a bit over the years. This 2KM wide, mine-ridden space may bisect the Korean Peninsula, but it also serves as one of the most pristine nature preserves in the entire world. Unlike other nature preserves, this literal no-man’s land has allowed many endangered species to flourish in relative peace. There have been reports that the Asian tiger still inhabits this region. With the knowledge of this preserve, Koreans have sort of taken pride in it. So much so that in Korea, one company sells “DMZ Mineral Water.” The image of the DMZ as a space of natural splendor is embodied on the water bottles label. The thoughts of war, division and history are completely removed from the idea of the DMZ as a nature preserve. It’s quite an interesting thought.

So, after looking across this thin strip of nature, I could see the country that the world fears, despises and is also fascinated by. I am staring at a relic of the Cold War. This is one of the remaining pre-9/11 “Good Guys versus Bad Guys” countries. America now fights ideas, strategies and thought, not an evil incarnate in the form of a totalitarian leader.  How could a victory over a strategy like terrorism have the same feeling of satisfaction as a VJ-Day parade? How do we even claim victory over ideas? Now, our bad guys aren’t red, but gray. Politics, economics and history now create frenemies and ambiguity to what is just and unjust.

Some people in America are wistful for a time of intense heroics with black and white politics, evil nation-states and their leaders. Nothing is more evident to me than video games like “Modern Warfare 2″, in which a modern Russia invades the US, just like a Cold War fantasy. In another video game, to be released in 2011, North Korea invades and occupies the United States. Called “Homefront,” and written by John Milius, who also wrote the original “Red Dawn,” this first-person shooter pits American rebels in Colorado against a now-unified and mighty KPA. It’s all crazy talk. Here’s the trailer to prove it:

But back to my trip…

Looking across the DMZ, I didn’t see a country that could one day invade the South, all of Asia and the United States. I saw a poor, starving nation trying very hard to save-face against the rest of the world. I saw a nation so poor and entrenched in ludicrous ideology that its leaders would rather have its people starve to death than ask for help, or compromise the tarnished veneer of its military force. That’s where the Propaganda Village comes in.

Almost on the immediate North Korean side of the DMZ stands the world’s tallest flagpole with the blue, white and red DPRK flag waving about. At the base sits a small village, called Gijeongdong, that almost looks like a Christmas model display.  There’s a school building, a hospital, several gray late-1950’s Soviet-style housing blocks and an empty road. It’s vacant, lifeless and very odd looking. That’s because nobody actually lives in this village.

The DPRK maintains that 200 families live in Gijeongdong.  However, experts and defectors have said that the village is actually empty. It was built at a time after the war when both Koreas were rebuilding after the cease-fire. It was meant to show residents in the South that life in the North was defecting for. Electric lighting was installed at a time before most people on either side even had electricity. Supposedly, skeleton crews go through at night and maintain much of the village’s image to make it look clean and nice. To everyone else, it just looks silly.

I didn't take this one

Part 2 will be next and include Dorasan Station and Epilogue.

Summer.

It’s that magical time of the year for Native English Teachers at Korean public schools to do absolutely nothing but sit at at desk. This sweet time is known as Desk Warming Season.

The video is for their song “Party With Children” and featured a white parrot in front of a green screen. The video was mind-bogglingly posted in 1080p HD.  After not having touched Adobe After Effects in several years, I decided to jump back on the train by remixing the video. It’s more or less and attempt to get my creative juices flowing again. There’s no real cohesion to it. Try not to have a seizure while you’re watching, please.

I had a short online discussion with my friend Steve, who lives in Daegu, about the video and why I did it:

Steven

Does this get the juices flowing again? Are you warmed up?

Me

I guess. I realized that I could make any effect that I want, but I have to be in a situation to necessitate it.

Steven

OK that’s fair.

Me

Then I realized, I need to create some sort of narrative for my next video. That way I could think outside the box more for my effects.

Steven

Just be careful not to use effects for using effects sake.

Me

Right. I feel like this video was the only case where its acceptable.

Well, I’ve been slacking a bit on the blogging lately. Namely because a lot things have been going around school (where I do most my blogging), like summer school and things.

I have three main blogs in progress. Most of them are longwinded topics like Korea’s exclusive use of Internet Explorer, The Korean War, and my trip to the DMZ. You can check out my photos on Facebook from said trips right here.

With half my day spent not teaching, I’ve started to geting into other endeavors (like video editing). Currently, I am remixing the video to Ratatat’s “Party with Children.”

An in-progress screenshot can be seen below:

The original video was just a 3:01 minute video of a bird in front of a green screen. It begs for people to edit it. Check it out here.

….Was from my friend Say, a major in the Republic of Singapore Navy. He is seen above flexing while eating some Southeast Asian cuisine in West Covina, California.

Yesterday I had my open class, which is a sort of evaluation of my teaching skills.  A group of teachers, the principal and the vice principal sat in on class. In my prep and brief feeling of anxiety, I remember Say’s  immortal words, which he imparted to me on the day before I left San Diego in February bound for Korea.

Don’t fuck up.

Short, sweet, profane and right to the point. Given the success of my open class, I feel Say’s words were spot on.

Yes, that’s John Wayne as Genghis Khan. It’s from a (terrible) Howard Hughes-produced biopic made in 1956 called, “The Conquerer.” You can watch it on Google Video here.

But Mr. Wayne’s method acting is not why I made this post. I wanted to share the fact that I finally made my plans for summer vacation!

It’s official: I’m going to Mongolia next month (for 10 days). After long debate on my travel plans, I opted for going to Mongolia for a myriad of reasons, but I’ll give you the main two.

One: I’ve never been there. Two: summer is really the only time I can make it out there. I wanted to go to Japan, but after some review, I realized that it’s still logistically feasible for me to go to Japan in the fall, winter or spring. I can’t say the same for cold, wide-open expanse of the north.

I’ll be flying into Ulanbaatar, the capital, on August 12, and it will be around 80 degrees. Nice and cool compared to the heat of  Thailand and The Philippines, where a lot of my friends are going for their break (and coincidentally, where I visited last year.)

I don’t have any major plans as of yet once I get there, but a friend I met in Hong Kong last year told me to just up at the guesthouses and poke around to find travel buddies for things out on the steppe (or accommodation at ger camps).

I am very excited to travel to (another) country and get into some wide-open spaces. After spending time in a very compact and dense country like Korea and briefly visiting the very large, overpopulated cities of Shanghai and Beijing, I’m ready for a change of pace.

This quote by Khan at his death perfectly sums up my reasons to travel there tool:

…[M]y life was too short to achieve the conquest of the world. That task is left for you.”
—Genghis Khan, to his sons at the end of his life.

This week is finals week at my school and as a result I’m not teaching at all. Last week I didn’t teach much, either, so I have some time to blog.

One thing I try to do as much as I can is teach students with music videos. This is especially the case when I have 15 minutes left over from speaking tests or a shorter lesson.  I don’t really expect them to follow along wit the lyrics, unless I supply them, like I have done in the past with “California Stars” by Billy Bragg & Wilco and “Thriller” by Michael Jackson (Directed by John Landis).  Sometimes I just give them songs with easy lyrics to see if they can understand them, like “Take On Me” by A-ha.

Sometimes I try to extract a student’s thoughts and point of view toward something with the videos. Other times I just want to freak them out (educationally).  One video I showed as of late is Peter Serafinowicz’s video for Hot Chip’s song “I Feel Better.” To me, I see it as a parody of pop singers, and in a way that the director didn’t necessarily intend, Korean pop songs in general.  The video plays out like the way the students are used to, young men dancing and looking sexy in front of a camera until a Mr. Burns on drugs-looking character comes in and zaps them to death.  They general response by students was 뭐, or “what…”

Other times I try to show them videos that are bizarre or funny and ask them why they think it’s funny and what it is about them that they enjoyed. In those cases I videos like “Two Weeks” by Grizzly Bear,  “Heaven Can Wait” by Charlette Gainsbourg and Beck or “The Polite Dance Song” by The Bird and The Bee.

On different occasions I present videos for songs that I really like and have some deeper meaning they can extrapolate. My example  is “No One Does It Like You” by Department of Eagles. The general response is, “War and people -go to heaven- dead.”  or “War is bad.”  I don’t expect full sentences on complex subjects like war, but I want to hear them try.  When they can deliver their feelings towards music and its message in English, or maybe look at music beyond  their K-Pop scope, it’s quite rewarding.

In that sense, music videos can be an invaluable teaching tool and not just a time filler for when lesson plans run short. It gives the students a peek into American and Western culture beyond what has been funneled to them from the charts. Part of our job as Native Speakers is to ease them into understanding Western cultures, not just teach the language.

And lastly, sometimes I show videos like the one I attached at the top. The song is  ”Marrow” by St. Vincent.  I like showing it because, well, I am completely entranced by Annie Clark’s eyes.  That, and she and her band was the last show I saw in San Diego and the last topic I wrote about for KPBS. My wallpaper on my Korean phone is even from some decent photos I took at the show.  So, yes, I have my ulterior motives to show some music videos, but they are pretty benign.