Meditation continues. It's noon on Saturday the 4th, and I have just returned from another session. For me, today's session felt unusually warm, due to my own body energy being generated.
I heard lots of valuable stories about the value of qi, and the importance of proper feng shui as it applied to various people. More revealing, however, is the tyranny of South Korea's multipayer healthcare system, which overrules many of the doctors' decisions in the interest of maximum profits. It's actually driving many honest doctors out of business, leaving only the crooks who are able to beat the system to maximize their own profits at the expense of the patient. I've been told that this dysfunctional healthcare system is based pretty much on the US system, and it does look that way to me; although my state, California, does not offer government healthcare except to the poorest of the poor, a number of other states do offer a good availability of government healthcare, and therefore resemble the South Korean system of a government insurer sharing the marketplace with many private insurers.
On the way back to the apartment, I passed through the Seoul Station plaza, normally populated by the Christian doomsday missionaries. Today, however, it was hosting a very sizable left-wing rally, though I have no photos. The rally was marking the first anniversary of the October 4th agreement, signed by President Roh Moo-hyun and North Korea's Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang, exactly a year ago today. The agreement had called for a number of joint initiatives for the two Koreas' coexistence and co-prosperity, including more South Korean tourist programs in North Korea, as well as running a joint train of sports fans to last summer's Beijing Olympic Games. However, North Korea has failed to live up to its end of the bargain, and the agreement is now no more than a hollow shell; moreover, it's gotten even worse with the new Lee Myung-bak presidency in the South, and his buddy W in the US, as a banner at the rally gladly pointed out.
I am more determined than ever to do my part to ensure a Barack Obama presidency in the US, the first step in ensuring prosperity and peace in the US, in the two Koreas, and throughout the world. Fortunately, the Sarah Palin glow, which had boosted John McCain, appears completely finished, and Obama is enjoying a sizable lead, at least 9% at the latest count. Once that's taken care of, I will continue to do what I can to help out with the change of both Korean regimes, who currently put their own power and ambitions first, and their people last.
I will most likely visit the Yeouido district later today. Yeouido is a sandy island in the middle of the Han River that has seen massive development since the 1960s, earning it the nickname of "Seoul's Manhattan." Once home to Seoul's first airport, today the airport is a well-landscaped park; the island also hosts the National Assembly building, the world's largest Protestant congregation, riverside parks, and many notable skyscrapers. Starting at 5PM, a fireworks show will take place at the island's main riverside park, and I will look for a suitable vantage point - most likely the park itself, but possibly the observatory of the 63 Building.
