The Great Game -- in Asia

As part of the Great Game -- originally describing the cold-war-like battle between Russia and Great Britain in the 1800s -- between China, Korea, and Japan, recent elections of more conservative and certainly more nationalistic leaders have led to a war of words. We all worry that the words may escalate to more damaging exchanges.

As South Korea is now trading furiously with China on the economic front, the political connections continue as well. While I was in China last month, the news media trumpeted the repatriation of the remains of Chinese soldiers killed in "the war against American Imperialism" (later editions termed it "the korean war"(all lower-case)). China Daily's front page displayed a nice photo of military honor guard bearing caskets at an airport, and described the great care that South Korea had taken in disinterring the remains. A few days earlier the same newspaper reported that a new holiday had been declared, to commemorate the end of the War against Japanese Imperialism. It also noted the recently-established memorial to freedom fighter Ahn Jung-Geun who assassinated the chief representative of imperialist Japan in 1909 (They neglected to note that the location, Harbin, was then part of Russia. The city of Harbin is now proudly part of China (in fact, our tour guide in Beijing was originally from Harbin). The Korean government will be sending an official delegation to the museum next month (unless, we presume, the Japanese relent in some other supposedly unrelated disputes).

South Korea and China both are tussling with the Japanese over sovereignty rights in the waters between their respective nations. And what shall we call the ocean between Korea and Japan? Korean-American activists have worked hard to convince the state of Virginia to mandate that Virginian social studies students will now learn that the body of water between Japan and Korea is possibly known as the East Sea, rather than the prejudicial imperialist term Japan Sea. Oklahoma is next -- or so reports the Korea Times.

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Where we are working now

ISG Jubail School is the Anglo-American school for this area: Jubail is one of two planned industrial cities in Saudi Arabia, given a special royal commission for development and planning. Our district, the seven schools of International Schools Group, runs the school in the other industrial city -- Yanbu -- as well. Jubail is on the east coast, between Dhahran and Kuwait. Our nearby "big city" is the tri-city metropolis of Dhahran-Khobar-Dammam, where all the big shopping malls and quaint old markets are, along with the central 3 schools of our district, where Coleman attends high school. ISG Jubail has 410 students -- an average of 2 homerooms for each grade, K-10. Class size varies, up to 22. I have 12 in my required course "Computers & Information Management"; Barb has 12 students in her first-grade class. Most of the teaching staff come from the U.S., some from the Commonwealth. Several teachers are wives of engineers an...

Riding the Bus often

From 201010 Saudi scenes It is ironic that this land of cheap gasoline has so much group transport -- buses. From 201010 Saudi scenes Our housing compound has a Toyota-Coaster bus that takes some to/from school (we usually go earlier and return later, on a similar bus that the school provides). Driver Yahya takes residents on the 90-minute trip down to the Big City shopping every Thursday morning. The above picture shows our group one Thursday, usually going to Ikea or the new Lulu's Hypermarket , or the Dhahran Mall. Coleman rides a different bus every day to and from school -- usually 100 minutes there, 80 minutes back. His bus is evidently an old tourist bus, usually comfortable but a bit dusty. The air-conditioning usually works too well. I've ridden it with him several times, to attend business meetings at the district office. From 201010 Saudi scenes There he is, at 5:45am every morning, at the start of the bus run. Fortunately only about 20 stu...

Reservoir of European Youth, Parliament

A few days ago I walked to the nearby Pasteleira Park, planning to visit the city museum at the Reservoir. Walking through the park I noticed a large group of young people gathered in a circle, engaged in team-building activities. My days in education attuned me to the spectacle and piqued my interest, so I sat on a nearby bench and watched as a succession of enthusiastic students ran to the center and started an activity, which all the others joined enthusiastically. What sort of group would this be? A typical high school class would include a portion of disinterested teens, and others only half-heartedly participating. This crowd was unanimous in their excitement. I also noted that the leaders were speaking in English, though the breeze muffled the words. I walked around, found a couple of older participants on the side, with official-looking lanyards, and asked: this was an activity of European Youth Parliament , simil...

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