Jane’s blog

I went to the KoRoot post-reunion meeting today and have been bummed ever since. I can’t really figure out why, which is vexing. I do, however, have this weird feeling that I am not an adoptee, but rather an alien or spirit who was given the experience of being an adopted human.  That is sad because what I really want to be is a dog.  Well, to snap out of this weird mood, I’m going to focus on some lighter things:

1. Design festival coming up in Seoul, advertised on the subway. I love this calligraphy — you can see either mountains and moon, or the word Seoul written in Korean.

2. A very pleasing lunch with Yewon and Boon-young down the street from my house.

3. The neighbor’s dog. She was not too excited about brushies today. She also misses Denis, who has been playing his guitar in Europe for 1 week now.

Since Denis is not here I will have to read a book before bed instead of laughing and smiling myself to sleep, which is normal when he’s around. Boo. Tomorrow: writing, gardening, cleaning and hanging out with KBS so they can tape record Denis and me on this wonderful thing called Skype that makes intercontinental communication possible.

In general I think I like Korean camera men. They seem to be kind of happy guys.

Below: a very sweet girl I met last week

Five Guys and a Baby Angel

This is a new series in South Korea that (I read in English) is designed to promote domestic adoption. It seems typically South Korean in style. Click here for the series’ homepage on MNET.

NDW: Vital Records: The Debate on Adoptee Rights Pt 3

GREAT video. I hope one day South Korea will let international adoptees access their full records through a depository that is not connected with their adoption agency.

Got Records?

A great video that sheds some light on the domestic adoption situation the U.S.

http://adopteerights.net

Thanks Indigo Williams Willing for the tip on this great paper by Damien Rigss published in Dark Matter: Contested Multiculture, in which Indigo’s paper from Outsiders Within is quoted, as well as Kristen Hoo-Mi Sloth’s paper.

Abstract: My concern is centrally with the ways in which academic research has at times been of benefit to white queers, and certain white queers in particular, and how these benefits arise precisely from the aspects of white knowledge claims that overwrite Indigenous sovereignties, or which fail to acknowledge their location within global economies of privilege and oppression. In this sense, and without undermining the discrimination faced by white queers, I highlight the racial politics of (predominantly) white queer rights claims, and locate them within a relationship to the rights claims of other marginalized groups. The article also explores the questions that have been asked by transnational adoptees, who have questioned how research conducted by non-adoptees focusing on the life outcomes of people who are adopted can adequately capture the experiences of adoptees, particularly when such research is reliant upon the logic of assimilation to assess ‘successful life outcomes’.

Sweet!

What a day ….

Wow, I am sitting so loooow in my chair at work thanks to the world’s best massage by Mira! Thank you Mira for untwisting my back and pulling my shoulder out of my ear!

Anyway, lots to tell but I think I can’t now since I’m about to fall over and it is just too much to process any day anyway …

OK. If you have (or used to have) the name Jeong or Jung Kyong-Ah and you were sent to either the U.S., the Netherlands, or Denmark around 1972 to be adopted, would you please stand up?

I was at the Anti-corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC) today (the office formerly known as the Ombudsman) and they told me that the reason why my Korean hojuk says I was adopted and got citizenship in the Netherlands (What am I talking about? Please refer to  My Adoption File ) is because there were 4 kids named Jeong Kyong-Ah at that time, and they sent 2 to the U.S., 1 to the Netherlands, and 1 to Denmark.

Kyong-Ah is not THAT rare of a name, but I don’t think it’s that popular, either… Why all these other kids got my name??

(Drug-sniffing dogs cloned in S. Korea, named Toppy, Toppy, Toppy and Toppy.)

OK whatever, if you’re Kyong-Ah, Kyong-Ah, or Kyong-Ah, or if you think you are, I’m interested in knowing what else your papers say. Are your adoption papers, by any chance … MINE? Because the story on my English adoption papers (which they say is a “mistranslation” — that is a hella lot of fantasy mistranslation) AIN’T MINE!

Also, just for your peace of mind, if you read this, I asked the worker at the ACRC to try to rectify the situation for the Kyong-Ah who actually went to the Netherlands, but whose records most likely say something else. If her mom comes looking for her, she’s gonna look in the wrong country.

On this issue and so many others, I heard so many standard adoption agency excuses today. I just want somebody to say that they take responsibility — not all this “It was a mistake by the city government!” or “It’s not like that anymore!” (as if we have any way to know until all the kids who got adopted today find their parents anyway) and “At that time in our society we didn’t keep careful records,” etc. I mean, by the time I was adopted, intl adoption from S. Korea had already existed for almost 20 years and they still hadn’t got it right, and I’m sure that one of the reasons why the adoption program got so big in the first place as it was touted as being the “Cadillac” of intl adoptions due to its supposed legality and ethicality, etc.

Anyway, having to hold in all my rage instead of screaming my head off sure made me tired. A three day weekend is coming up. Thank god. Aeranwon craft bazaar from 11-4 tmw, all welcome, buy some stuff to benefit single moms who keep their kids. ASK is having a thing down by the Han River on Children’s Day.  BTW regarding my new house and everywhere else I have ever lived in Korea: Korean sewer systems are not just a cultural difference — they are objectively stupid and bad by any standard. Denis does’t like me swearing  (even though he curses up a storm in French while driving.) But he doesn’t read my blog. Fuck Fuck fuck Fuck fuckity fuck.  I don’t care if swearing is a symptom of a lack of imagination. Fuck that STANK! That’s all for today. G’bye.

Denis was on Arirang TV last week. Here’s the video. He plays the Villa-Lobos Prelude in e minor SUPER WELL in this clip at about minute 19:45. BTW there are two clips in front, so either sit through the commercials or fast forward to the third clip.

Also, KoRoot guesthouse has plenty of space for adoptees visiting Seoul.  It is $10 a night. That includes Western breakfast and Korean lunch. The staff is very friendly and helpful. They have dorm rooms, a couple room, and a family room. I’m on their adoptee advisory committee and I, uh, advise staying there! It is run by Pastor Kim and his wife, but you don’t have to be Christian to stay there. It is very very low-key about that — no need to worry about proselytization! There’s no curfew, laundry on premises, very clean and home-like. KoRoot does so much for adoptees’ and mothers’ rights in Korea, so please support them by staying there when you visit.

I was just looking around for an alternative to Severance Hospital’s foreigner clinic, which I’m not sure I’ll go to again for various reasons, and I found this!

http://www.womanlaser.com/App/Medi/medi_02_03.asp

Click around and see the things that they can do to women with lasers. AMAZING!! I especially like the Laser Micro Hymenoplasty, which can apparently turn a Korean woman into a white virgin for her wedding night. Fucking A! (Maybe not, but I am just picture reading.) Bring on the veil again, what the hell.

By the way, does anyone else wonder why women in the Joseon dynasty just threw coats over their heads instead of designing, like, an actual veil? I mean, if you’re going to make women wear veils, the least you can do is give them a veil — not a coat!