Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Czarjorge]

Alright, I know you just want the numbers, so at my caucus they were...

Edwards-10 delegates
Clinton-9 delegates
Obama-5 delegates

That is the least interesting part of the caucus experience, though, so allow me to spin for you a yarn...

A True Tale of an Iowa Caucuser

The caucus I attended was held at a local grade school gym. Walking up to the school required a high level of slalom skill to navigate the massive windblown snow banks, which were difficult enough but the addition of twenty-three Chris Dodd signs made the challenge mighty, and one I was barely up to as I happened to careen and topple a few of those signs. Whoops-ee.

Once into the school I stood in line for 15 minutes to sign-in. I was amazed by not only the number of people, but the number of young people. There were 211 people attending my caucus, compared to 142 four years ago. I am 28 years old, and I was surprised to see 23 people my age or younger, three of them were high school seniors, and all but three were supporting Obama. Four candidates had organizers; Clinton, Edwards, Obama, and Dodd. The Dodd people, firefighters all, even had lovely yellow t-shirts that said "Firefighters for Dodd." I couldn't resist asking them, "Is Dodd on fire?" Just like my stand-up I got more dirty looks than laughs, then again it was a pun, the sharpened stick of the comedy arsenal.

I wondered around getting a head count and gauging the crowd. The supporters of John Edwards are clearly fans of stickers as most were wearing three or four on their jackets and shirts. This was odd as there wasn't anyone under 35 supporting Edwards. Clearly middle aged white people love a good haircut. Clinton's supporters were predominately white women, ages ranging from early 20's to late 80's. I felt bad for the dour looking men in the Clinton group. Would you call being forced to support Clinton being cuckolded? They certainly looked that way, which brings up the question of Clinton's sexuality again, as those ladies were hot and bothered.

My group, the Obama group, ran the gamut from high school kids to a very old lady whose husband was ill, as she kept mentioning every few minutes. The male/female split was pretty even, and Obama was supported by the only minorities present at the caucus, one Indian, dots not feather, and two latinas. Iowa is very white.

[Milwaukiedave]

Czar...interesting stuff. Thanks for posting it.

Even though your location didn't win for Obama..Iowa did.

It's going to be a wild ride!

[Czarjorge]

The temporary caucus chair started the caucus by reading the official introduction. Perhaps he was nervous, perhaps he was illiterate, whatever it was he did it badly, compounding the hilarity of the problem was his complete ignorance of how to use a microphone. He actually spoke into the side of a uni-directional mic, holding it like an ice cream cone with a second scoop that wants to fall off. It tooks five minutes for him to adjust the sound on the makeshift PA, turning it high enough to create squealing feedback, then so low it wasn't working at all.

The first matter of business was electing a permanent caucus chair and secretary. The acting chair, the gentleman who was having so much difficulty with the microphone opening nominations by nominating HIMSELF. Then he asked if anyone else would like to nominate someone. The best part is I was among ten or fifteen people who laughed out loud when he nominated himself, not that anyone protested. Who wants to be a caucus chair?

When asked for a vote, out of 211 people, about 30 said aye. Now that's what I call resounding support. It's really too bad that party politics are so tedious that only dumbasses want to be cogs in that machine. Dumbasses and very old people. The couple, both in their late seventies based on appearance, who were in charge of registering caucus attendees were extremely hard of hearing. I said my name, then spelled my name, then said my name again. The poor elderly gentleman could not hear me over the din in that gym, and what should have taken a minute took over five. It wasn't until 7:20p that the caucus even started, though the doors had been shut at 7:00p. Old people and dumbasses, but maybe that's just Iowa.

After the adulteration of Robert's rules the caucus chair announced that at least 33 supporters would be required to acquire delegates and a half hour would be given to organize. Clinton's and Edwards' camps were already grouped fairly well, and the only non-viable groups were 6 supporters for Biden, 2 supporters for Richardson, and 27 supporters for Dodd. Of Biden's group 3 went Edwards and 3 went Obama. Richards' supporters all went Obama, and Dodd's group just sat grumpily in protest for twenty minutes.

[Czarjorge]

Once the chair called for a final head count Dodd's group finally broke up. All of the gung-ho Dodd supporters, the guys in yellow t-shirts who were primarily firefighters got up and left, noisily. Most of the older people and women who were with them joined the Obama group, with a few going to Clinton and Edwards. At that point the caucus chair called an end to the first round and did head counts of all the groups.

Here's where it got wacky. The "group leaders" of each candidate then went off with the caucus chair to call in the numbers and most everyone else left, including after the phone call the caucus chair. This was odd as we had not completed the caucus. Delegates had not been chosen, party platform had not been voted on, and the caucus had never been called to a close. I did mention dumbassery above, didn't I?

The strangest thing was the little old lady who was the secretary, the same one that was so hard of hearing, ran up to the front to try and keep everyone together. She didn't seem to know how to use a microphone either, and even with the help of Edwards' organizer they weren't quick enough to keep the attendees from streaming out, leaving about twenty of us there to finish business. Problem was, without the caucus chair we weren't allowed to continue business. So delegates were selected and we left.

Now you would think that would be the end of it. It's not. Only eight of Edward's people and seven of Clinton's stayed around long enough to sign up to be delegates to the county caucus in March. So both Edwards and Clinton essentially lost two delegates apiece to attend the county caucus. I managed to get not only all five delegates, but three alts as well. So at the county caucus Edwards and Clinton will be even weaker than they should be, dum dum dum dum dumb.

I'll be a delegate to the county caucus if I'm not in Korea by March, sweet jesus I hope that's not the case, and I'll report back at that time. Hopefully it will be better organized. It's funnier if it isn't though.

[Ya-ta Boy]

From the sounds of that, you have been through a fair approximation of the Korean education experience, so you won't be too surprised when you get here.

It was fun to read. Thanks for posting it.

[Czarjorge]

So the caucus equates to working in a public school or a hagwon?

[Ya-ta Boy]

Ummm...the semi-to-unorganized-verging-on-chaos nature of things.

Once upon a time I was working for a branch of the ROK military. It snowed a couple of inches, but most of it melted within a couple of days, except for the snow on our parking lot because it was in the shadow of a small mountain. One day the boss came into the office and told us to go out and help the seamen clean the snow off the parking lot. (What, an admiral had never seen snow?) We put on our coats and go out. The seamen were standing there looking distraught. There were no shovels. Finally someone came up with the idea of using some boards. The boss came out and said to push the snow that direction. So we all got in a line and started pushing and scraping the snow in that direction. About half an hour later he came back out and decided that direction was not going to work. So we started pushing and scraping the snow in another direction. Jae-Yi came out and said the boss like the way the snow was starting to look piled up in this direction either. Then he suggested we should just take the fire hose and melt the snow before the boss had any more bright ideas. In the end, we spread the snow back out and melted it with the fire hose.

Every single person on this forum could tell you several stories like this that will leave you bemused.

The classroom I teach in now is smallish but adequate for the 10 students. However, there is a table (the size of a lunchroom table) that projects partway in front of the whiteboard, making it impossible for anyone who is not left-handed to use the left side of the whiteboard. I have a lot of activities for 4 students to use the whiteboard but can only have 3 students because of this table. In our big office, there is a desk no one is using. So yesterday morning I had the students switch the table. We did our activity and we were all happy. I came back for our afternoon class and the big table was back. I didn't even ask. I just looked at the table and Mr. Jo said, "It's back. The Table Man said we have to have this table in our room." I said, "Table Man?" Mr. Jang, nodding, said, "Table Man. It's his job." After class I apologized to my immediate supervisor for making a problem for the Table Man. My supervisor said not to worry about it, that he hadn't known there was a Table Man either. Apparantly, there is a man somewhere who knows the location of every table in the school and must be asked before any table is moved out of its assigned location.

[Czarjorge]

Ah, so a general beauracratic morass. Gotcha. I worked in social service for six years, I will be suprised if anything can be worse than that.

The best one I've experienced, a direct care worker was hired. He was a Nigerian gentleman. We had several other Africans working for us, all of them Kenyan. The Nigerian gentleman was Ibo, I believe, and was a polypamist. He had never cooked. He had never operated any household appliance. During training he frequently commented that he would not do "women's work" as his "wives" did that and it would disgrace him to do those tasks. That was the job he was hired for, though he frequently commented "it takes all three of my wives to do these things." The uberliberales that ran the agency, the same schmucks that hired him, wouldn't fire him because he was "black." (That's not supposition, they actually said this to me.) The Kenyans went into action, apparently Kenyans HATE Nigerians, and essentially ran the guy off. I'm not sure in the Kenyans did this of their own volition or if they had been told to do so. So you get incompetence not only from a direct care worker but from the people who hired him. That job taught me to learn when to fight, and learn when to smile and nod. Apparently those skills will carry over.

[bassexpander]

Yataboy, that snow story is exactly what happened to the Korean teachers at my old school during break (public school). The principal didn't like seeing them sit around, and it had snowed the night before, so they were sent out to scrape snow off of the parking lot. Imagine 20 women in high heels and panty hose scraping snow with boards. It was a sight!

[Ya-ta Boy]

My Korean friends tell me that when even the nicest guy gets into administration he automatically becomes a power-mad blithering idiot. I have seldom seen any reason to disagree.