shout out to korea!!

so here's to korea. korea, the brave penisula. so as y'all know, i'm here in dental school at columbia. and well, columbia loves its diversity. so by that i mean we have x amount of states and y amount of countries represented. but the truth is, there is a predominant korean population. korea is so hot right now. for real, being korean is soo in. korea is the new black. if you wanna be hip this season, be korean. i don't get it. i mean the japanese had their day. prolly back in the eighties, with everybody kung fu fighting (yes, i know, that's chinese, but the eighties didn't know any better), bands like shonen knife, songs like "i think i'm turning japanese" and "domo arigato mr. roboto" (shout out to alien robots.) were getting serious play. i guess we had our day in the sun, the ever "rising sun," but now, its time to pass the wand to our neighbors to the west across the JAPAN sea. so here's to you korea. you're so hot right now.

so, pardon my sporadic spasms of thought. onto the topic at hand. korea. 60% christian. i wonder how that compares to the states' statistics. interesting things going on in the penisula these days. and i'm not talking about the vertically challenged nuclear weapons procurer. i'm talking about a much smaller item with potentially grand implications. stem cells. now, being a faith-guided individual, i find the current situation in korea intriguing. some time ago, a world-leading korean stem cell researcher had to confess to the public that he had used questionable means in the acquisition of eggs necessary to continue his stem cell research. however, subsequent to this tragic announcement, women from all over the country volunteered in great numbers to donate their eggs to the cause. and he was and will quickly be restored to his quasi-national hero status hereafter. i find this situation very interesting. where on one side of the pacific, bush found support from the christian right to impede the very exploration that scores of women from a predominantly christian country anxiously support. could it be that in the grand advancemnet of knowledge in this information age god would support greater scientific discovery towards the alleviation of sufferers? could this research be quicken as it will by the light from above? do faith-based initiatives fall on both sides of this dispute? if america were to change its direction, how much quicker could we spring open the door of discovery? or should we maintain status quo? while i don't pretend to have the answers, it remains a demanding dichotomy nonetheless.