Korean Job Discussion Forums

[laogaiguk]

[The Lemon]

It's also the reason why I can't give the time of day to those who say 9/11 and JFK were government conspiracies. This is the same US government that couldn't keep arms dealings with Iran or the breakin of a Washington hotel suite secret.

[GoshiwonGuy]

The Lemon wrote:

[huffdaddy]

Regarding the waving flag.

Go to www.google.com

Type in "waving flag moon conspiracy". The first page:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=waving+flag+moon+conspiracy&btnG=Google+Search

I may be mistaken, but I believe every one of these sites debunks the flag waving

[GoshiwonGuy]

huffdaddy wrote:

[mithridates]

[huffdaddy]

[Privateer]

So by 2030 a single apartment block in Tokyo will literally be worth the Moon.

[The Bobster]

Somthing about this thread made me think of a blog post I submited some time ago. The blog is now defunct, but I had the wit to save it elsewhere - it's a bit longish, a bar story really, so feel free to scroll past if you're not in the mood, but one or two friends have confessed to amusement ... if it makes you smile a little it will make me smile a little more.

It reads like fiction, but it's pretty much verbatim what I remembered over lunch the next day, when I jotted it down. (I was still chuckling about it. Actually< I still am now.)

People who know me are aware that my views on some things are somewhat different from what is expressed here. It happens sometimes, perhaps perversity on my part - people who are not from my country and decide to take a perspective that is unkind or, as in this case, just uninformed, often get to hear the patriot inside me speak ... gently and sometimes with a bit of irony.


So I'm drinking last night at a small bar near my hotel here in Bangkok, getting into a chat with a fellow named Jools, from Capetown, I think, who right off the bat wants to commiserate with me for the fact that I come from "the most hated country in the world right now."

"Really?" I said. "Most hated? That's saying a lot isn't it? Didn't realize - hey, maybe it means we're doing something right, then ..." Big wink.

"Don't get me wrong, I don't hold anything against you personally, in fact - "

"Thanks. Appreciate that. Mighty nice of ya, haha."

" - I really enjoy talking to Americans individually."

"And we like talking to you ... shall I buy the next round?" Signalling the bargirl next to me. "Most hated, huh? In the whole world?"

"Sure, an' I'll buy the one after that ... "

"Must be a nice change for you, considering how people used to feel about S Africa, you know, before Mandela got out of jail and won the Peace Prize and all ..."

"I'm not saying it's fair, and Bob, same thing, lotta blokes assume I'm racist because of where I come from - "

"Naw, I'd have to get to know you more before I said anything like that. Cheers." I raised the bottle, tipped it back. "But really, I can understand anti-americanism when it comes from some countries. Japanese, Vietnamese, Nicaraguans, Koreans and Chinese, too, and the Palestinians, Persians and Iraqis - our bombs end up on top of them from time to time, so one could understand if they get a bit peeved. But when I talk to people from other English-speaking countries, the Kiwis, the Aussies, the Brits, the Irish, the ... what do we call people from your country?"

"South Africans," he said.

"Right. And what I don't understand is, what did we do to you lot?"

"But, you know, the American govt - not to say the American people, not that - 'ave set themselves up as a sort of police for the whole world."

"Yeah, and I wish we didn't do that - I've had friends and family killed that way ... but y'know, one point of view is the idea that when we do this it means you guys don't have to."

"Ah, but that's all about self-interest, innit? Look at this, this thing now where they're not letting France and Germany take part in the postwar rebuilding over in Iraq ... a bit childish, right?"

"Maybe, sure, but well, I haven't been back home for a while but I think a lot of people there feel like, hey, they opposed the whole project, didn't want any part of it, so why should they get any benefit from the aftermath. And really, you know, not having the French involved was a terrible blow to us - like someone said, it seriously impaired our ability to surrender."

"Ha ha. Good one, that. Let's have another round. My shout this time - Chang again?"

He went off to the toilet while the drinks were being poured, which gave the comely serving wench I'd been buying Cokes for an opportunity to impart some medical advice. It seems she sincerely believes that sleeping alone is unhealthy.

"Really?" I said. "Sabadi mei shai?"

She nodded, the most serious expression on her face I'd ever seen in a bar at 1:35 in the morning. "Barfine only 300 baht."

An ounce of prevention, and all that ... "Maybe next time," I told her, patting her hand and assuring her, "Khun chan narak. You are sweet and lovely."

I didn't have the heart to mention that a lot of my friends have also expressed anxiety about my health while I'm over here, but for reasons pretty much exactly the opposite of the ones she had cited ...

Jools came back from the 'loo just then and wanted to know if I really believed that Americans ever walked on the moon.

"Um, yeah. I think so. I really do. You think they faked it?"

He nodded sagely with an air of wisdom only possible after a dozen or so inexpensive draught ales.

"It was the most incredible and successful hoax in the history of the human race."

"Didn't fool you, though. Damn, and I thought we were doing so well ... Lemme get this straight. We couldn't win a jungle war in Southeast Asia but we could pull this off? You give my government a lot of credit, my friend. They bombed Cambodia and Laos and they couldn't keep that secret. The president back then couldn't even keep the lid on a small hotel burglary that happened in his own city, but we could keep something like this secret? All these years?"



"Kind of odd, isn't it, no one's been back there in all that time."

"Hey, you're welcome to make the trip anytime you like. We didn't annex the place or anything - we came in peace for all mankind, you know. Seem to recall we left a lot of garbage up there. Sorry, you might have to clean up after us, I'm afraid."

"Still, just those two guys, Neil Armstrong and whatwasit, Buzz Aldrin, and only that one time ..."

"Oh, come on, there were 4 or 5 other times after that. There's been something like a dozen Americans walked on the moon, not just two." I was on the verge of giggling, never once having ever imagined having a conversation like this.

"Really? That so, then why weren't they on television?" Yeah, I know, nothing really happens unless it happens on television.

"Actually, I think they were televised, but it stopped being interesting after the first time. They even started trying to jazz it up with golf and cute little moon cars, then people started realizing, well, that's all very silly, isn't it?"

"But, mate, those pictures, the flag is flappin' like in a breeze but there's no bloody air on the moon!"

"They built it into the fabric, Jools. Tiny wires, I think, something like that."

"You believe that, huh?"

"Look, no reason to bring the fool thing all that way except to take the picture, right? And a flag just looks better that way, how we're used to seeing it. Like in the anthem, "Oh, how proudly she waves ..."

"Sure, right. Go on, pull the other one."

"Look, I'm old enough I actually watched it on TV when I was a kid in real time. The weird thing to see was the waving pattern of the cloth and the fact that it actually wasn't moving at all."

"But, wha' abou' all those shadows? Eh?"

"Shadows?"

"Yeah, there's shadows goin' off in several different directions."

"Christ, you read this off the internet, didn't you?" I laughed. "There are several different light sources up there. The sun. Reflected light from the earth. The walls of nearby craters reflected light also, and mountains, and no atmosphere to diffuse it ... and then the lights we brought for the camera also."

"Lights from the studio, you mean - it was a sound stage!"

"Actually, the opposite. We know how to control shadows in an enclosed area like that. Hollywood doesn't make those kind of mistakes."

"I think we're just gonna hafta disagree, then."

"Sure," I said. And unless he could think of something to say that isn't rubbish I supposed we'd continue to do so, amiably enough if he's willing to buy every other round. In truth, I hadn't been so amused in a while, and the whole time I kept expecting him to confess he was just having me on.

"While we're at it," I said, "we never really dropped any bombs on Japan, either. That was also a big scam, and they were in on it all the way up to the Emperor. We promised to give them our electronics and automotive industries, just to have something to scare the Russians into an arms race that would eventually bankrupt them. Worked, too."

Jools got a thoughtful look on his face for a minute, then he smiled. "No, I think the bombs really happened."

"Nice talking. Hey, I like this bar. See you again?"

"No doubt at all, mate."

The girl on the stool next to him was a little more successful with her medical arguments than mine had been, and they left together. A downunder fella at the other end of the bar was doing something that involved balancing 5 toothpicks between the endpoints of all 10 fingers and slowly moving his hands over his head and behind his neck. He promised 1000 baht to every girl in bar, and mamasan too - all of whom were sitting in rapt attention watching him - if just one of them could repeat the trick.

"No can! No can!" they all cried.

Aussies always seem to know the best bar games.

[GoshiwonGuy]

mithridates wrote:

[The Bobster]

[GoshiwonGuy]

^

Ok, frankly, I didn't pull off the hoax so I don't know the exact motivations of those that did...but;

[Bulsajo]

So, we should just take your word for it?
Why should we trust your answers over NASA's?

[The Lemon]

[GoshiwonGuy]

^

Actually, I am not trolling.

*scary thought*

I believe what I may about the 'Holocaust' *whistles*, have my doubts about the moon landing, but know for certain that the Official Version of the 9/11 situation is a lie.

Bulsajo wrote: