Some Stuff

An ajumma in Korea is a middle-aged woman with thick arms, baggy sweaters and plastic flip-flops whose work ethic and gun shows are legendary and whose tolerance for crap has waned dramatically over the years. Though this woman would be happy to serve you kimchi and rice, fry her once and God help you because everyone else in the vicinity would have cleared off. These ajummas now are fighting for their lives:

There is steel under those garish colors, for the ajumma is also legendary for her determination to pay any price or bear any burden for her family. Today, South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo reports that North Korean ajummas are leading the popular resistance to Kim Jong Il’s Great Confiscation, a canceling and reissue of the national currency that wiped out the savings of millions of families and threatens to plunge North Korea back into famine just as winter begins. Then, North Koreas died passively by the millions. Collectively, the survival strategies of those who remained formed an underground market, operated largely by North Korea’s ajummas. And this time, the ajummas are fighting the suppression of their survival strategy by forming something of a North Korean tea party movement:

“The women are tough and defiant,” a source said, “and now they are angry. Markets are turning into places of protest against North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.” The women gather to accuse the authorities, defying threats of arrest. [Chosun Ilbo]

In the usually male-oriented North Korean society, it is now the ajummas who are life-lines. (hat tip: OFK)



Islamofascists threaten the creators of "South Park" and "academic" brownshirts threaten academic censure. Discuss.


I would gladly vote a dog for mayor. He can't be worse than humans.