So apparently Kim Jong-Il died of fatigue mid-train ride on Saturday, according to Yonhap News. Here's another article from the Sydney Morning Herald that's a bit more detailed (my favourite bit is how he could apparently alter the weather with his mind and was as skilled as a trained mechanic by age 14).I'm kind of surprised - even though he's been in failing health for a long time and obviously no-one lives forever, I think the DPRK press had been doing a pretty good job of covering up how quickly KJI's health has been deteriorating. Let's hope he doesn't pull a Jesus in three days time :P (haha, I know I know, if Hell existed I'd be there in a hot pool with a face mask enjoying the sauna already) Since I've already blasphemed I might as well keep going - I know it's in bad taste, but Merry Christmas and/or Happy New Year everyone!
Back to being completely cereal, it should be a tense next few weeks and months. Let's hope that his son Kim Jong-Eun manages the change with a bare minimum of metaphorical muscle-flexing because North Koreans are probably going to have a hard enough winter with the cold and snow and, you know, general shortage of decent food, fuel and electricity already as it is. Or that, you know, the whole regime manages to collapse in on itself with a bare minimum of repercussion and turmoil - Christmas is the season of wishful thinking after all, is it not? Anyway, there it is. No alcohol at work, but a celebratory cup of tea is just as good :)
Showing posts with label north korea. Show all posts
Showing posts with label north korea. Show all posts
Monday, December 19, 2011
Friday, October 21, 2011
One last thing
So I wasn't going to blog today, seeing as I did yesterday and don't really have anything interesting going on my life right now to add to, but I had to change my min after reading this article on "Illicit Sex in North Korea" from the blog Clever Turtles (thanks to James at The Grand Narrative for the referral). I know stuff about gender roles, sex and sexuality comes up occasionally here, so skip to the end for my cheery farewell for the weekend if it bores you or you don't want to be fairly horrified by the second article on sex trafficking in Australia - sorry.
First one:
An article about how North Korea is becoming a pit of sexual decadence.
A few things have to be kept in mind whenever reading stories "from" North Korea. Pretty much all news comes through a few anti-North Korean activists who cultivate communication channels with dissidents inside North Korea and refugees who have recently run the border. Several of them have religious motivations and ties with the South Korean evangelical community, who remain the most actively interested audience for news from North Korea. This is transparently obvious in this article. That said, it is an interesting window into the daily lives of the people of North Korea, and a reminder that they are no more or less than human.
I did find it humorous how the article emphasizes that extramarital sex or vaguely transgressive sexual activity is the fault of Chinese influence. Because pornography, adultery, and prostitution were alien to Korea until recent foreign influence. An ironic case where the North Korean party line matches that of anti-North cultural conservatism.
On a side note, apparently the 109 Group is special group formed under the People's Safety Department of the National Defense Committee. It was apparently formed as a task force specifically to crack down on transgressive social behavior in the northern border regions.
Original posted in the Segye Ilbo.
Anyway, so I thought that was interesting, regardless of bias in the initial reports etc., especially after reading a novel about family and romantic relationships in North Korea (can't remember the name, sorry ㅠㅠ) that I think I got one Christmas as a present or was loaned to me by a friend which was written from the accounts of defectors, one of whom detailed falling in love with a boy in North Korea and then meeting him again when they were both adults and had made it to Seoul and the different dynamics and expectations that were at play each time they met or corresponded. I don't know where the original reference came from, but I also remember reading about someone (either a DPRK official or a visiting RoK politician) who had caused a lot of uproar when he drunkenly praised Kim Jong Il's sexual prowess at some meeting and how the DPRK Government had had problems dealing with it.
Second, a tragic article from the SMH (thanks again James) on sex trafficking in Australia. I have mentioned it here partly because one of my friends mentioned the other day about how Koreans sometimes don't see Korea as a developed country, and the fact that stuff like this happens so easily and that predators can find victims to walk into the trap of their own free will through the lure of 'education' in an English speaking country seems to kind of support that. Not to say that stuff like this doesn't happen in English speaking countries (because let's face it, there are always scam artists around anywhere you go) but I didn't realise that it happened in such a highly developed country as Korea. It's possibly also more evidence of the (somewhat ridiculous) lengths that Asian countries go to in order to pursue this desire for mastering English. Anyway, the article is really long so I haven't reblogged it, but please take some time to read it, even if it it's only to make you reconsider what you think you know about how 'safe' our country is.
Ok well that's my depressing stuff for the weekend. Sorry to bring you down! For those of you who read all the way through (and those of you who skipped to the end), here is some happiness to take you back up again into the sunshine :)
First one:
An article about how North Korea is becoming a pit of sexual decadence.
A few things have to be kept in mind whenever reading stories "from" North Korea. Pretty much all news comes through a few anti-North Korean activists who cultivate communication channels with dissidents inside North Korea and refugees who have recently run the border. Several of them have religious motivations and ties with the South Korean evangelical community, who remain the most actively interested audience for news from North Korea. This is transparently obvious in this article. That said, it is an interesting window into the daily lives of the people of North Korea, and a reminder that they are no more or less than human.
I did find it humorous how the article emphasizes that extramarital sex or vaguely transgressive sexual activity is the fault of Chinese influence. Because pornography, adultery, and prostitution were alien to Korea until recent foreign influence. An ironic case where the North Korean party line matches that of anti-North cultural conservatism.
On a side note, apparently the 109 Group is special group formed under the People's Safety Department of the National Defense Committee. It was apparently formed as a task force specifically to crack down on transgressive social behavior in the northern border regions.
Original posted in the Segye Ilbo.
Prostitution, '8/3 couple' . . . Even in the North decadence spreads
Financial support to lure into adulterous relations often . . . teens prostitute in order to buy cell phones
Porno videos popular in marketplace . . . influence of weakened control over people
Also stripshow bars for the exclusive use of upper echelons
In North Korea's society, that is so closed that even romantic matters between men and women are regulated, decadent sexual culture is spreading. It is reported that prostitution as a livelihood is a matter of course and sexually promiscuous behavior is spreading like toadstools, to such a degree that they have created the neologism '8/3 spouses' for adulterous couples that finish up at the end of the workday.
An anti-North source, who early this year contacted refugees from the North Hamgyong province adjacent to China, said on the 9th, "In North Korea, in order to earn money for living expenses or disposable income, prostitution of women is spreading, and it was reported that the reality is that even young female students are appearing as prostitutes in order to buy cell phones." The source reported that in North Korea's interior '8/3 spouses' with adulterous relations are spreading like they are fashionable and some among them indulge in drugs, porn, and group sex. '8/3' refers to the date August 3rd, 1984, when Chief of the National Defense Council Kim Jong-il, who was named the successor at that time, laid down the pronouncement to "utilize the by-products in the factories and enterprises to make the necessities of daily life." but it has degenerated into a term for fake and shoddy products.
It is reported that recently they haven't stopped avoiding the net of surveillance and secretly steal looks at pornography, and even businessmen have appeared who mobilize North Korean women directly to produce and sell obscene videos. According to the results of one research study of domestically resettled refugees, 'adult products' are so popular that adult video CD-Rs, popularly called 'Sex-Rs', trade for higher prices than general movies and dramas in the North Korean markets.
Experts on North Korea see it that after the 'Hard March' period of the 1990s while economic difficulties were prolonged, they took advantage of the opportunities afforded by the weakening of the government's control over the people, and in the process of the rapid inflow of outside culture into the center from regions adjacent to China such as northern Hamgyong decadent sexual culture also spread.
In this way sexual culture became popular in all parts of society, so in a 2009 revision of the penal code North Korea strengthened the crimes of the transportation, possession, or distribution of decadent culture, strengthening the enforcement and punishment regarding sexual disorder, such as estabilished provisions so that in the case of transporting, possessing or distributing adult videorecordings one would face a 5 to 10 year sentence of labor reeducation.
But there are indications that North Korea's ruling class are an obstacle to the eradication of decadent culture. In several large cities strip show bars are operating that only party and public peace officers may enter, and refugees messages are that there are cases where public safety officers use financial support as bait to form adulterous relationships. In particular, they report that it is often the case that even agents of the 109 group, established to crack down on antisocialist activities, receive sums as bribes to pass over these matters.
Reporter Kim Po-un spice7@segye.com
Anyway, so I thought that was interesting, regardless of bias in the initial reports etc., especially after reading a novel about family and romantic relationships in North Korea (can't remember the name, sorry ㅠㅠ) that I think I got one Christmas as a present or was loaned to me by a friend which was written from the accounts of defectors, one of whom detailed falling in love with a boy in North Korea and then meeting him again when they were both adults and had made it to Seoul and the different dynamics and expectations that were at play each time they met or corresponded. I don't know where the original reference came from, but I also remember reading about someone (either a DPRK official or a visiting RoK politician) who had caused a lot of uproar when he drunkenly praised Kim Jong Il's sexual prowess at some meeting and how the DPRK Government had had problems dealing with it.
Second, a tragic article from the SMH (thanks again James) on sex trafficking in Australia. I have mentioned it here partly because one of my friends mentioned the other day about how Koreans sometimes don't see Korea as a developed country, and the fact that stuff like this happens so easily and that predators can find victims to walk into the trap of their own free will through the lure of 'education' in an English speaking country seems to kind of support that. Not to say that stuff like this doesn't happen in English speaking countries (because let's face it, there are always scam artists around anywhere you go) but I didn't realise that it happened in such a highly developed country as Korea. It's possibly also more evidence of the (somewhat ridiculous) lengths that Asian countries go to in order to pursue this desire for mastering English. Anyway, the article is really long so I haven't reblogged it, but please take some time to read it, even if it it's only to make you reconsider what you think you know about how 'safe' our country is.
Ok well that's my depressing stuff for the weekend. Sorry to bring you down! For those of you who read all the way through (and those of you who skipped to the end), here is some happiness to take you back up again into the sunshine :)
 |
| Disabled doggie still loves his walkies! Retired police dog with arthritis still living life to the full :) |
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| cute monkey says what? ... BANANAS! teehee^^ |
Have a lovely weekend everyone! ^_^
And p.s. yes, I tagged this as 'love' because I don't want the kind of disappointment bound to follow from people looking for blogs about sex.
Monday, June 27, 2011
North Korea - famine, family and feuds
[P.S. If you are short on time, skip to the last paragraph. The first two are more or less just my ramblings.]
Although there are many good and bad things about teaching in South Korea, I think that one of the most interesting aspects of teaching at a middle-school in particular is to see how students of this particular generation view North Korea. Although it's not something I bring up in regular classes (most of my students wouldn't be able to express themselves anyway), it is something that I have discussed with my higher level conversation classes, as it often comes up in essays they submit to various English ability competitions. The view that comes forth is often pro-reunification, although many don't seem to know much about, or perhaps relate to, the Korean War, how it started and the politics around it, beyond "Kim Jong Il wants to kill us all". But there seems to be a generally positive attitude towards the North, and even though no-one agrees on how it is run (obviously - "history is [will be] written by the winners" anybody?), everyone sees it as the other half of the country and North Koreans as still essentially just other Koreans. Although most know about the part that Park Chung-Hee played in the industrialisation of South Korea and can recognise how it fits in to the comfortable lifestyles they live today (in fact, this was what one of them wrote an essay about once), the fact that life in South Korea during the 1960's - early 1980's was arguably worse and more restrictive than life in the North is not something commonly known. Perhaps the familiarity with both of these important parts of Korean history is generational - after all, many of these students' parents would have been born or grown up under Park Chung-Hee that could now see the payoff for all their effort, and similiarly there would be many grandparents who would have been born or grown up during the Korean War - but probably not that many now that were old enough to live through it as an adult and vividly remember everything that happened that are actually willing to talk about it to their families. Not exactly Happy Story Time, right? And after all, these kids are only 13 - 15 years old, so even being able to discuss what they can, in English, is pretty amazing.
What I find interesting is that the stuff I'm hearing now from these students is really not that much more in depth than the opinions I heard from university students in Seoul when I was studying at Ewha. Keeping in mind that Ewha is Korea's top women's university and ranked in the top 5, and pretty much everyone in Seoul seems to at least be able to communicate in English, this was a bit worrying, as the opinions were also completely the other way. At the time I was there in 2006, North Korea was testing nuclear missiles over the East Sea, so naturally there was a lot of worry that Seoul was the next target. Out of interest, I asked around about what my fellow (Korean) students thought of North Korea and I was fairly shocked to hear a pretty generalised "North Korea is evil, they want to kill us, we should kill them first" or "North Korea doesn't deserve our help and reunification will never be possible" or just plain indifference. Ok, sure, the threat of nuclear annihilation was probably a bit influential here. So I asked some of my class mates from my North Korean Literature and Education class what they thought of the country and the people. Not much difference. What about the famines and starvation? Don't you feel pity for the regular people? Nope. Out of about 30 people that I asked, only about four people responded positively, saying that they believed that reunification was possible or that the South should continue to send food aid to the North.
Anyway, so opinions vary. I can't help but wonder however if this generation's vague benevolence to the North has something to do with it's imminence to collapse and the South's clear upperhand in the situation. In 2006, even though the South was still obviously a stronger economic power and had the backing of the Bush administration in the case of military action, food aid was still being sent in fairly regular supply and the Kaesong Industrial Complex, run collaboratively by DPRK and a private South Korean company was thriving. Recently, with the decline of Kim Jong-Il's health and the preparation for the succession of his son Kim Jong-Un, military scuffles are becoming more common, food aid has been reduced and a general air of tension has been on the rise. As well as the sinking of the Cheonan battleship (after which Pyongyang pulled out of the KIC), and the shelling of Yeongpyong island, North Korea recently took great offence to the revelation that certain divisions of the RoK army were using pictures of the North's 'Royal Family' for target practice and severed further ties. All the usual faff and huff. However, a new and very telling development is the effect this has had in North Korea, but this time not just on the people, but also the military which until previously has been pretty well insulated from the effects of food and foreign aid shortages, taking longer to be affected during the famines in the 1990's (apparently North Korea actually requested that food aid be stopped in 2002 but luckily loopholes were found). Anyway, read this article from the ABC and watch the video. It says everything that you need to know. What do you think? Do you think reunification might be something we see sooner rather than later over, say, the next five to ten years? And if so, do you think it'll be reunification from internal collapse, or will the DPRK try to go out guns blazing?
Although there are many good and bad things about teaching in South Korea, I think that one of the most interesting aspects of teaching at a middle-school in particular is to see how students of this particular generation view North Korea. Although it's not something I bring up in regular classes (most of my students wouldn't be able to express themselves anyway), it is something that I have discussed with my higher level conversation classes, as it often comes up in essays they submit to various English ability competitions. The view that comes forth is often pro-reunification, although many don't seem to know much about, or perhaps relate to, the Korean War, how it started and the politics around it, beyond "Kim Jong Il wants to kill us all". But there seems to be a generally positive attitude towards the North, and even though no-one agrees on how it is run (obviously - "history is [will be] written by the winners" anybody?), everyone sees it as the other half of the country and North Koreans as still essentially just other Koreans. Although most know about the part that Park Chung-Hee played in the industrialisation of South Korea and can recognise how it fits in to the comfortable lifestyles they live today (in fact, this was what one of them wrote an essay about once), the fact that life in South Korea during the 1960's - early 1980's was arguably worse and more restrictive than life in the North is not something commonly known. Perhaps the familiarity with both of these important parts of Korean history is generational - after all, many of these students' parents would have been born or grown up under Park Chung-Hee that could now see the payoff for all their effort, and similiarly there would be many grandparents who would have been born or grown up during the Korean War - but probably not that many now that were old enough to live through it as an adult and vividly remember everything that happened that are actually willing to talk about it to their families. Not exactly Happy Story Time, right? And after all, these kids are only 13 - 15 years old, so even being able to discuss what they can, in English, is pretty amazing.
What I find interesting is that the stuff I'm hearing now from these students is really not that much more in depth than the opinions I heard from university students in Seoul when I was studying at Ewha. Keeping in mind that Ewha is Korea's top women's university and ranked in the top 5, and pretty much everyone in Seoul seems to at least be able to communicate in English, this was a bit worrying, as the opinions were also completely the other way. At the time I was there in 2006, North Korea was testing nuclear missiles over the East Sea, so naturally there was a lot of worry that Seoul was the next target. Out of interest, I asked around about what my fellow (Korean) students thought of North Korea and I was fairly shocked to hear a pretty generalised "North Korea is evil, they want to kill us, we should kill them first" or "North Korea doesn't deserve our help and reunification will never be possible" or just plain indifference. Ok, sure, the threat of nuclear annihilation was probably a bit influential here. So I asked some of my class mates from my North Korean Literature and Education class what they thought of the country and the people. Not much difference. What about the famines and starvation? Don't you feel pity for the regular people? Nope. Out of about 30 people that I asked, only about four people responded positively, saying that they believed that reunification was possible or that the South should continue to send food aid to the North.
Anyway, so opinions vary. I can't help but wonder however if this generation's vague benevolence to the North has something to do with it's imminence to collapse and the South's clear upperhand in the situation. In 2006, even though the South was still obviously a stronger economic power and had the backing of the Bush administration in the case of military action, food aid was still being sent in fairly regular supply and the Kaesong Industrial Complex, run collaboratively by DPRK and a private South Korean company was thriving. Recently, with the decline of Kim Jong-Il's health and the preparation for the succession of his son Kim Jong-Un, military scuffles are becoming more common, food aid has been reduced and a general air of tension has been on the rise. As well as the sinking of the Cheonan battleship (after which Pyongyang pulled out of the KIC), and the shelling of Yeongpyong island, North Korea recently took great offence to the revelation that certain divisions of the RoK army were using pictures of the North's 'Royal Family' for target practice and severed further ties. All the usual faff and huff. However, a new and very telling development is the effect this has had in North Korea, but this time not just on the people, but also the military which until previously has been pretty well insulated from the effects of food and foreign aid shortages, taking longer to be affected during the famines in the 1990's (apparently North Korea actually requested that food aid be stopped in 2002 but luckily loopholes were found). Anyway, read this article from the ABC and watch the video. It says everything that you need to know. What do you think? Do you think reunification might be something we see sooner rather than later over, say, the next five to ten years? And if so, do you think it'll be reunification from internal collapse, or will the DPRK try to go out guns blazing?
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Just a few things that make me happy
... and one that makes everyone say WTF - North Korea. The latest in it's crazy crazy search for whatever the hell it is that it thinks the world owes it. I mean, it's not like the South has been a paragon example of peaceful tolerance either, but suddenly throwing a tanty at an annual military exercise, killing someone, injuring dozens of others (including civilians) and basically forcing a bunch of people out of their homes? Honestly.
Although I have to admit, I did find it slightly amusing that they apparently faxed through their 'cease and desist' :)
Ok, so onto a cheerier topic.
The next food adventure was last weekend in Busan at Gwangalli beach with my friend JP and his boyfriend Jun-Ki. Busan is Korea's 2nd biggest city and biggest and busiest port, so it is naturally famous for it's seafood, and in particular it's sashimi. Jun-Ki was craving ojing-o (오징어, squid) sashimi (called hwae or 회 in Korean) so we spotted a likely looking restaurant that looked quite popular on the eight floor of one of the fish market towers and headed for that. Fortunately for us, the lift was really busy so we decided to walk up, and JP and JK both being smokers, when we struck up a somewhat puffed conversation with a Korean guy on the stairwell charging up the stairs with two heavy buckets full of water and fish from downstairs, he immediately sensed the opportunity to entice us into his restaurant instead on the 5th floor. We opted for the mixed hwae platter and some additional ojing-o for JK and it was great! Even better, part of it was nakji (낚지) or octopus sashimi, which is cut up alive and directly served to your table.
Although I have to admit, I did find it slightly amusing that they apparently faxed through their 'cease and desist' :)
Ok, so onto a cheerier topic.
FOOD! I do love it. Some of the great food I've had recently has included hanjeongshik (한정식) or a traditional Korean banquet meal with bulgogi (불고기 - marinated BBQ'd beef) and some spicy barbequed pork in Cheollabuk-do after hiking as mentioned in the last blog. It was pretty good - almost made it worth the bunged foot I ended up with! Hanjeongshik, to give you a brief summary, usually involves a couple of central dishes (like the BBQ'd meat) and a tableful of side-dishes, as well as a communal soup. The side-dishes that you get with every Korean meal can contain anything from vegetables to seafood, to meat, to pickles, to tofu, to eggs, to fried bits and pieces, to salad - anything and everything! - but in hanjeongshik are usually all traditional foods and also often try to use as much local produce and specialties as possible, so every hanjeongshik restaurant is different. The one that we had in Cheollabuk-do was delicious, as you can see by the picture, and had quite a lot of fresh seafood as well as about twenty side-dishes and four types of kimchi. One table of this was between about four people, but realistically it could have fed six.
The next food adventure was last weekend in Busan at Gwangalli beach with my friend JP and his boyfriend Jun-Ki. Busan is Korea's 2nd biggest city and biggest and busiest port, so it is naturally famous for it's seafood, and in particular it's sashimi. Jun-Ki was craving ojing-o (오징어, squid) sashimi (called hwae or 회 in Korean) so we spotted a likely looking restaurant that looked quite popular on the eight floor of one of the fish market towers and headed for that. Fortunately for us, the lift was really busy so we decided to walk up, and JP and JK both being smokers, when we struck up a somewhat puffed conversation with a Korean guy on the stairwell charging up the stairs with two heavy buckets full of water and fish from downstairs, he immediately sensed the opportunity to entice us into his restaurant instead on the 5th floor. We opted for the mixed hwae platter and some additional ojing-o for JK and it was great! Even better, part of it was nakji (낚지) or octopus sashimi, which is cut up alive and directly served to your table. |
| JP eating nakji |
As my sister might remember, we'd seen octopus cooked alive before (in a stew with a glass lid) but I'd never tried it like this so I was curious. Nakji hwae is cut up into smaller pieces so it doesn't try and strangle you from the inside out, and you usually dip it into a spicy gochujang (고추장, chilli sauce) paste and scoff it. Of course, the whole time this is happening, it's trying to cling to your chopsticks or escape, so it's not a meal for the absent-minded. But it was delicious ^__^
Cost? 104 000 won (~$90) for the three of us, which included a couple of bottles of soju and cider. So in all, about 35000 won each for a great dinner (with great company!:) ).
But this is not to say that there isn't delicious food in Cheongju! (Cheongju is the name of the city where I live). One of my favourite indulgences is fried chicken. Koreans LOVE their chicken! It's commonly eaten with pickled white radish and beer, and often sold by random vendors on the beaches of all places. Koreans also love home delivery - practically everything is home delivered here, and I mean home delivered, not just mailed for you to pick up whenever. This includes the usual groceries and furniture, but also shoes (:D) and even in my case a USB stick for school. No kidding! When I needed one at the start of the year, one of the teachers called up the textbook company and asked demanded one. They told me that the person bringing it would try to bring it to me at school, but if not, he'd just bring it to my house!
But this is not to say that there isn't delicious food in Cheongju! (Cheongju is the name of the city where I live). One of my favourite indulgences is fried chicken. Koreans LOVE their chicken! It's commonly eaten with pickled white radish and beer, and often sold by random vendors on the beaches of all places. Koreans also love home delivery - practically everything is home delivered here, and I mean home delivered, not just mailed for you to pick up whenever. This includes the usual groceries and furniture, but also shoes (:D) and even in my case a USB stick for school. No kidding! When I needed one at the start of the year, one of the teachers called up the textbook company and  |
| half yangnyeom, half fried chickeny yum |
But anyway, back to the food. So food is also pretty cheap in Korea, with foreign food being a bit more expensive. Chicken falls into this category, but it's still worth it and of course you don't have to go anywhere to get it - as long as you have a phone, you can sit at home like a fat slob demanding as much fried grease as you like. It also comes in four main types - fried, garlic, yangnyeom (양념, kind of meaning 'savoury' or 'condiments' I guess) or ganjang (간장, soy), all of which is delicious. My favourite chicken place is called Jjo-a Jjo-a (쪼아쪼아) which I think means "good! good!" Whatever it means, it's the bomb, and doesn't leave you feeling dehydrated, (extremely) greasy or with a slight MSG headache like a lot of places, and even better, comes with crinkle cut chips! O_O!!! If happiness were a potato, it would be crinkle cut chips (preferably smothered in gravy, but this is a good second). I don't normally eat a lot of junkfood like this these days, especially since I haven't been hitting the gym with my foot, but seeing as it's that time of the month at the moment and I've been craving chips for two days, I felt ordering it was justified. Delicious boxload of enough chicken to last me for about three days for only w14000 (~$12).
Oh and one last thing that hasn't made me happy yet but I hope that will soon: miniature hedgehogs. I WANT ONE!! saw them at Homeplus (a kind of mega-store like K-Mart meets Woolworths) with the gerbils (which I'd also never seen before) and the fish, and I happened to pass by as one of them was standing on its friend to drink water from the water bottle in its cage. You who know me know that I have limited cutesy tolerance but ...OMG! THESE ARE THE CUTEST THINGS I HAVE EVER SEEN! Dare I say it? Even cuter than ... Floss???? Maybe not quite :) But still pretty cute. And made even cuter by my students, who call them "hedgepiggys" or "hedgie-hoggies" ㅋㅋㅋUnfortunately, the only animals you can bring into Australia are pretty much just cats, dogs, birds and horses, so hedgehogs are classed as illegal foreign imports. And I don't want it to die or just dump it somewhere when I go because a) I have a soul and b) I actually like animals, so unless I can find someone I trust to adopt it when I'm gone or quarantine laws change, I guess I'm hedgehog-less for the moment. But I still want one.
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