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Images source: SNSD Korean

The Korean Acidic Past

Upon seeing the exchange of fire (more like shells and bombs) between the "brethren" North and South Korea, many people began to ask this: Why are the brothers fighting? It makes no sense. Well, true, they might be like that all the time but why of such magnitude this time? They are still bros right?

It makes perfect sense, if you know the history of Korea. Why Korea is split as today? It kinda revokes memories on the East/West Germany prior to the fall of Berlin Wall. It all started on the days nearing the Korean War (June 25th, 1950 - July 27th, 1953), during the war, and after the war. Korean War was somehow forgotten, largely because probably it was overshadowed by: 1. The Vietnam War 2. The Gulf War. Korean war, in my opinion, is perhaps one of the wars that are nothing but a futile/useless attempt. Why? Most wars result in a change of environment (political/economic/demographic ...). But the Korean War, even after it was over, nothing had changed much. Before the war, Korea was already separated into two (read below). After the war, it was pretty much the same. Not much territorial changes. After the war, now and then the two countries fought each other on minor scale, especially on the DMZ (Demiliarized Zone, the buffer zone at the 38th peninsular separating the North and South) and the Yellow Sea. So far, 2 high profile disputes have occurred - the Cheonan disaster and the Yeonpyeong shelling. Want to know more about how North and South turn into the bickering bros? Read on but be warned, text heavy.


- End of World War II (WWII), 1945, US and the USSR (Soviet Union) forced Japan out of the Korean peninsular.

- Agreement between US and USSR – northern part of Korea was maintained by USSR while the southern part by US. The dividing line was set at the 38th parallel (38° N).

Problem starts here:
- 1948 – The Cold War tension between USSR and US escalated.
USSR and US pulled out of Korea, leaving a communist (N. Korea) and a democratic government (S. Korea) behind.

- Each side wanted to unify the entire Korea: North (led by Kim Il Sung) wanted Communist, South (led by Syngman Rhee) demanded Democratic. Sparks flew.

- After leaving, US also withdrew most of the troops and weapons. Why? 1. Due to a new policy in US on Asia; 2. Fearing Syngman Rhee would attack N. Korea.

- June 25th, 1950 – North Korean People’s Army (KPA) crossed the 38th parallel. The Korean War had begun.

[from now on, N. Korea is abbreviated as NK while S. Korea as SK]

- SK wasn’t expecting the attack and was trounced. SK has no weapons and lack troops (as mentioned earlier, US withdrew troops and weapons), hence they could not defend against the assault.

- June 27th, 1950 – Seoul had fallen. Now, SK citizens were panicked. Even US and UN were worried – they feared communism would spread if NK subjugated SK.

QUESTION: Why US didn’t use the atomic bomb threat? They did to Japan and it worked. By why not NK?

ANSWER: The USSR had already developed their atomic bombs, which was not available to them during World War II*(read the final part). If US were to used their nuclear arsenals, it’d become a full-scale nuclear war.


- Troops were sent in to reinforce SK by US . Now SK had both US and UN troops on their side but it was futile: the KPA of NK was unbeatable.

- August 1950 – KPA crossed the Nakdong river, SK’s territory diminished to the worst of all times (the yellow dotted lines on the map). If SK hadn’t pushed any forward, SK would lose this war.

- US pushed hard and for the next 2 weeks, KPA was drove away from the river. This was the FIRST victory by the south and the FIRST lost for the NK.

- Now, more troops arrived at Pusan. Pusan is an important port (even till today) and it must not be taken by NK. These troops were young and fresh .

- September 1950 – while still holding on to the river’s barrier defense, the SK allied troops (UN and US) were attacked by NK. However, the attack failed. Now, US planned to fight back.

- This was one of the history’s most brilliant strategic attack – it was difficult to carry out but was very important. The brain was General MacArthur. He planned to attack Incheon. Why is it a problem?





Self-drawn image. Do not use without permission.

Look at the map. Incheon (the explosive icon) is on the other side of Korea since the troops are now on the eastern side at the Nakdong river/Pusan. Plus, the entire Korea except for the Nakdong/Pusan part (yellow dotted line) was in NK’s hands. That means, Incheon was deep in NK’s territory. Why Incheon then? Well, Incheon was a huge supply depot. Now you know why.


- US troops first took over the Wolmi-do (an island). From Wolmi-do, they assaulted Incheon.

- September 15th, 1950 – Incheon was in US custody. NK was taken off-guard this time. Only 20 US troops were lost.

- September 18th, 1950 – a nearby Kimpo airfield was taken by US. Now, US turned their attention to Seoul, the capital of SK. It is very near to Incheon (see Map).

- September 21st, 1950 – battle for Seoul was a tough one. Although succeeded, only 33 marines survived.

- October 1st, 1950 – now the US troop had pushed NK all the way back to the 38th parallel, the rightful place where NK and SK should be divided. Here comes the big dilemma. A headache: Should US troops cross the line and take NK? Problems would arise then: Until now, it was a war to DEFEND against communism. If US crossed the 38th, it would become a war to ATTACK on communism. It means Russia and China would get involve. Not good. But US troops were high in morale, so they pushed on. Cities in NK gradually fell, including the capital, Pyongyang.

- November 1950 – NK was pushed all the way north (white dotted line). NK was almost wiped out – until they came face to face with China’s (PRC) army. China is also a communist country, so they came to help defend their allied NK. USSR was also NK’s ally but they didn’t take part in the war.

- November, 1950 – PRC armies retaliated, forcing the US/UN troops to retreat with mounting dead tolls. Chinese withdrew and attacked again.

- January 1st, 1951 – Chinese and KPA crossed the 38th parallel again.

- January 3rd, 1951 – Seoul had fallen. Kimpo airfield fell subsequently.

- March 31st, 1951 – communists’ supplies were insufficient, so they could not hold their grounds. They finally retreated while UN troops pushed them back to the 38th parallel. Not far from the 38th parallel was the Chinese stronghold, an area called the Iron Triangle. It was hard to penetrate but after 10 days of attack, UN troops shattered the place. Peace talks ensued but it lasted for 2 years. During these times, both sides fortified their defenses.

- June 23rd, 1952 – US sent sorties of new fighters to destroy hydroelectric plants in NK, resulting in 90% loss of power supply but NK wouldn’t budge.

- US newly elected president, Eisenhower, threatened NK with nuclear attacks (the world, especially US, wanted this war to end quickly, so nuclear was the best bet). Fortunately, NK took the threat seriously. Then, Chinese also pleaded to end the war.

- July 27th, 1953 – the peace talks ended and the war had finally come to an end.

Something to think about:
Who was the winner? – The territorial coverage before and after the war was roughly the same. To be precise, SK only gained 20 miles. Besides that, the war culminated in about 3 million casualties. Although the war is over, NK and SK are still bickering against one another today. Winners? No one exactly.

*Something interesting for you. In a way of speaking, the Korean War could be actually blamed on spies during WWII, spies known as “atomic spies” who sold US confidential nuclear weapons info to the Soviet. That time, the Soviets had engineering problems with nuclear bombs which only US knew how to solve. But infamous spies like Ethel and Julius Rosenberg sold the info to the Soviet. If Soviet didn’t have the ability to produce nuclear weapons, US would have threatened NK earlier on without fearing the Soviet. Actually, the judge in the trial of the Rosenbergs “blamed” them for the deaths in Korean War. The fate of the Rosenbergs? Death penalty.

Below is a schematic illustration of the Korean War before the peace talk began. It was actually a "tug-of-war" between the northern and southern forces. North crossed the line, then retreated, then crossed again, then retreated again.



Self-drawn image. Do not use without permission.


Reference:
Holloway, R. (2007). Korean War. Retrieved November 19, 2010, from http://www.learnkoreanlanguage.com/korean-war.html


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Enclave of Verdure - My Garden

*WARNING: IMAGE-HEAVY. READ AT OWN DISCRETION. 56K DIAL-UP USERS PLEASE STEER CLEAR OF THIS POST.*

We have fruit trees, palms, shrubs, flowers - orchids (parents are orchid aficionado) and perennials, begonias, and other variegated plants. This post is just a gallery of photos to boast the ...... nah, just plain boasting.














































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One of the hardest "how/why" questions


... well, at least in M'sia. Out of the available questions (5W1H), "how" and "why" are those we frequently have problems dealing with. Why? (lol...) Well, the answers are typically:

1. long. One or two word answers are rare, if not impossible (unless your answer is the universal 2-word: don't know, or the modernised version: dunno, or the even more modernised version: idk (which incidentally stands for I Don't Know, if you are wondering)).

2. lots of thinking must be done in order to answer them.

3. there might be more than 1 answer. Very frequently, I'd say, as compared to the other question types (who, when, what...). For example:

Q: Who is the father of this child?
A: John. (one word answer. Easy. And only 1 definite answer.)

Q: Why the child's father isn't David?
A: ...... (the dreaded why question. You need to think for a good reason, or reasonS. So, more than one answer, and you need to think hard and answer very carefully.)

Q: How in the world that the child looks more like David but is borne by John's wife?
A: ...... (refer to the previous question. "How" questions are equally hard to answer) And if you have noticed, in the encyclopaedia/general interest section of bookstores, there are books dedicated entirely to the compendium of "how's" and "why's". For instance: The book of How, 1000 Why's, Kids Why Questions, or even the "Dummies" series (eg. French for Dummies, HTML for Dummies...) etc. Rarely, we have books of what's and who's. That just vindicated my point: why's and how's are tough nuts.

Ok, back to the story. So what are the toughest How/Why for M'sia? Here:
1. Why Bahasa Melayu is not as important as English?
2. How to make Bahasa Melayu to be used as lingua franca or internationally accepted language?

Well, as mentioned above, how's and why's usually come with answers that are hard to cough out. However, there are easier answers to them in this case. Let me illustrate my answers with real life scenarios rather than just slapping the answer here directly.

Scenario #1:
On an advertisement, I saw this: Woksyop remaja (meaning Teenage Workshop in English).

My humble comment:
The last time I checked, workshop is called "bengkel" in BM. By the way, woksyop is not a valid word, unless DBP/Dewan Bahasa Pustaka has integrated the word into the Malay lexicon.

Scenario #2:
A commentator for the 16th Asian Games 2010 opening ceremony was commenting on the superb song composed by a notable composer. He was speaking in BM and this was what he said: ...... sebuah lagu yang dikompos (I am not sure of the spelling since this word does NOT exist) oleh ......


My humble comment:
Erm, dikompos? You meant the song was "decomposed"? What, the song is degradable and has turned into fertiliser? The correct word is "digubah" (gubah=compose, di- prefix is a passive voice indicator. So digubah=be composed by. See more at Scenario #4). God. My family was laughing so hard when we heard him saying that.

Scenario #3:
On the canopy of the market, it writes: Pertanian Adalah Perniagaan. (translate: Agriculture[pertanian] is[adalah] business[perniagaan])


My humble comment:
For non-Malay speakers out there, this is actually a very very very very basic grammar mistake and also very very very very much found all over the country. It is like "He are a boy" or "The dishes are washing me" kind of basic grammar mistake. The thing is "ialah" should be used in place of "adalah" although both means the same. "Adalah" is reserved for predicates that are NOT nominal (or nouns). In other words, "ialah" is followed by nouns or noun/nominal clauses. Only adjectives/adverbs/other non-nominal clauses are preceded by "adalah". "Perniagaan"(business) is a noun, so it's IALAH.

Scenario #4:
On a banner: Pakaian di jual disini (Apparels/clothes[pakaian] are sold[jual] at this place/here[sini]).


My humble comment:
TWO grammar errors, very common but basic: the di- conjugation. When "di-" is added as prefix in front of a verb, it means "being done by". In English, it is called the passive voice. In other words, di- is a passive voice indicator. So, if the Malay verb "beli" (buy) is used in passive voice, "beli" becomes "dibeli" (be bought). However, if "di-" is NOT used as a conjugated form, meaning if it is used INDEPENDENTLY, it is a preposition, corresponding to "in/at" in English. Example: Saya tinggal di Malaysia (I live in Malaysia). The "di" is NOT attached. It stands alone. So, the sentence above should be "Pakaian dijual (is sold) di sini" (at this place). Please, this is a fundamental rule, so get it right. Distanced or attached, please use accordingly.

Scenario #5:
A minister was commenting on the performance of some government department: "The prestation of the ......"

My humble comment:
What in the world is "prestation"? A pre-station? It turns out to be the Anglicised (made English) version of "prestasi". "Prestasi" means "performance" in English. In BM, many -si ending borrowed words from English are derived from English words that end with -tion. Example: communication - komunikasi, dedication - dedikasi, generation - generasi... But there are also a number words with -si ending which are NOT -tion ending words in English. Prestasi is one of them. So, by assuming prestasi is a BM version of the nonexisting "prestation" is a blunder.

Conclusion:
If you want to upgrade the status of BM into a world recognised language, please at least do the following:

1. Standardise the grammar. Don't change the grammar rules as you wish.

2. Standardise borrowed words.

3. Standardise NATIVE words. As my memory recalls, train in BM alternates between "kereta api" and "keretapi" for years and I think it finally settles for the former. Don't change spellings according to your fickle whim please. Language is not your shirt/dress where you can change it as you like.

4. When on broadcast, especially on national TV, please ensure the use of proper BM. At least avoid using seriously broken BM. If the broadcast allows faulty BM to be aired, audience will think that it is alright to speak/write as such. I can assure you that during my days in high school, I have heard a lot of complaints from my BM teachers about students using wrong BM grammar because they thought the grammar was correct, at least according to what they'd heard/seen.

5. Boost the country's performance standing economically, socially and politically. Stay abreast of other nations, not at rest. You want people to acknowledge your language, show them that you are worth being acknowledged.

I love my country. But it really could need some major revamping.


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I love to learn, to appreciate, to help, and to share. My only (un)healthy addiction: a therapeutic dose of Girls' Generation/SNSD/SoShi/소녀시대/少女时代. They are my mood-lifter. What is my true self? I will let you be the judge.
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