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Keep Up, People!

As usual, Simon over at Simon World has another edition of Asia by Blog. It’s the easiest way to keep up with all kinds of news from all across the continent.

And here’s a really interesting and well-written essay on American memory and forgetting, titled Nothing New In The World, presented by gareb in the journal The cultivation of a political Asian consciousness’.

Finally, Sarong Party Girl wrote a very powerful love letter (full of bittersweetness, as the best love letters always are) to her parents that is worth reading. It made me think of what Lime told me after an argument we had once, about two kinds of “harmony”. She said there is “nice harmony” (예뿐 정) and “ugly harmony” (미운 정). Nice harmony, is, well, very pretty and nice. Ugly harmony is the harmony that develops when you argue with someone, have disagreements and fallings-out. From such confrontations develops a stronger respect, knowledge of one another, understanding, and deeper love. Of course, I knew the same kind of idea, though I’d put it in other terms. It’s the terms that specifically interest me, though: I’ve never heard it expressed in such a way, the harmony that develops from ugliness and clash. It’s a very sensible idea, really, that takes into account the kind of tension inherent in every human relationship. Well, I wish to Sarong Party Girl and her family the kind of “ugly harmony” that comes through loving and respecting someone, and being loved and respected, through pain and tension and disagreements and all that with which her letter brims and sings.

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