Seoul, Korea
Saturday 16 November 2019
Three hours on the phone with Verizon and Apple takes up too much of the day. Wireless networks on two devices can be challenging to maintain.
But finally, an interesting day in Seoul. Sunny as the day wore on and pleasantly brisk. I am here near City Hall and the government buildings, so clearly this is the area for demonstrations. And my, do the Koreans know how to demonstrate.
A very vocal group of Koreans do not like the current president. Most of the day has been filled with non-stop raucous racket, rants and anger spewed in lieu of coherent speech, marching bands that make more nose than music, chants and non-stop shouts that can be heard blocks away. An equal number of non-demonstrating Koreans are enjoying their day, drinking coffee (two or three coffee shops on every block), grazing on Western junk food, laughing and totally indifferent to the disturbing pervasive energy of the demonstrators. I have heard other demonstrations in Seoul where the speaker was rousing the followers with a Hitler-like formula, but what goes on all day here is quite different; a united crowd are not enthusiastically following a leader. Instead, everyone is apparently a leader and everyone has something to say and they asserted until well past dark.
Now that Sue is uploading the photos, you can see what the non-demonstrators are enjoying in Seoul: this curious water park, a gem of a garden, trees still with autumn colors, a bench to share with a ready-to-go firefighter.
