#ImpeachTrudeau is a bot fairy tale.

The day after I posted about voting for Justin Trudeau, news started showing up about the prime minister wearing brown face and black face. Now, Canada doesn’t have much of a history regarding black face, and brown face wasn’t historically used to dehumanize brown minorities, but it’s not a stretch to see that in both instances, they were both done in the spirit of humor mixed with some mockery. However, they were all done over ten years ago, and the prime minister now doesn’t demonstrate any racial animosity against colored minorities. Some of the government’s policies might still ignore the plight of minorities, particularly the First Nations, but there’s been no racial or bigoted aggression towards minorities, much like what we see in the United States. I mean, you don’t see the Trudeau government calling Mexicans rapists or banning Muslims and refugees.

It is quite obvious that whoever planted the stories sought to damage the Liberal’s election campaign by having them out now so close to the election. They to spread the Liberal votes to other parties and increase the Conservative lead in a very, VERY close elections. They hope for people not to vote for Trudeau due to his past racism, and in doing so open the window for actual currently bigoted politicians like Scheer to take power. And it’s annoying that it just might work.

What’s fascinating is how the whole thing was getting promoted in the media, specifically Twitter. Usual culprits like @TheHill kept on tweeting and retweeting the same story to generate outrage and retweets. What I noticed however is that as I was commenting and interacting with people online, especially via the New York Times and the Washington Post, most of my detractors were two-week-old accounts with names followed by long strings of numbers. Ex: Lisa_Lamplight10098723k21.

It’s amazing how many of the anti-Trudeau interactions I had came from what I assume are bots. The responses were very lifelike, probably taking cues from people’s responses. The script used is quite extensive, even taking into account accusations that they’re bots. Now, before I get accused of labeling people as bots when they are not. One big tell for bots is if their responses or hashtags don’t even make sense at all. For example, one hashtag I noticed was #impeachTrudeau. Now, I haven’t seen any news in Canada regarding impeaching Trudeau and yet it was being pushed by some people on Twitter. Looking into the accounts, most have no followers and are also retweeting alt-right and MAGA-related posts. Does the Russian propaganda machine smell something in the water?

It is good however that Canadians by and large seem to be unaffected by the scandal. Perhaps we have seen what happened with our neighbors and are more hip to the scam. Or perhaps at this stage of the game, voters have already made up their mind who to vote for. This is not the case with me, however. I was planning to vote for a more progressive candidate, but after this attempt to sabotage Trudeau’s campaign, I’m more inclined to vote for Trudeau, just to make up for the small losses. My friends can vote the other candidates. I know that’s not how one should vote, but I also recognize when malicious forces are trying to subvert our electoral process.

As for the offense of wearing black face or brown face… why do people keep doing this? And not just white people, Asians do it as well. And it’s most often in the spirit of mocking or making a cartoon of the other race. It might not always be intentionally malicious, but it is immature, hurtful, and demonstrates ignorance. The reason why Trudeau’s actions are forgivable is because he actually apologizes for them and the accusation that he is a virulent racist right now is completely inaccurate in its face. Also, Trudeau doesn’t get a complete pass as some of his detractors might claim. The fact that people are actually having a debate over this and he has lost some support is proof that he is not getting a full pass for his actions. This will still haunt him in the long run.

I can vote again.

After being unable to vote in Canada for a couple of elections, I was finally able to register to vote for the upcoming elections. Previously, Canadian living abroad for over five years were unable to vote, with the logic that they don’t get to feel the direct consequences of their vote, especially if they live far away. Who cares who’s the Prime Minister of Canada if my life is more affected by the President of Korea?

Actually, both affected me. Steven Harper took away my right to vote, and Lee Myung Bak dramatically increased my taxes. And notably, if I were an English instructor, the conservatives in Korea would have forced me to take an AIDS test prior to being allowed to work. So yeah, citizenship and elections have consequences to expats from two governments regardless of how far removed they are from their country of origin or to local politics.

This reminds me of Michael Sandel’s lecture in 2009 regarding solving the immigration problem. Gary Becker, a free market economist suggested selling citizenship to people. Why not just sell American citizenship for $50,000? Perhaps even higher? This would automatically guarantee certain characteristics like a level of wealth which makes them unlikely to be a drain to social services. It would also automatically make them contributors to society. Now, ignoring the other parts regarding refugees, selling citizenship seems to focus more on an individual’s merit and contribution to society as the main criterion for citizenship. If that is the case, that would make me more of a Korean citizen by virtue of my taxes and the value of my work and how it affects Korean society in general.

When it comes to everything else however, I’d like to think I’m still very much Canadian. My artwork is mostly focused on Canada and North America. Most of my friends and family are in Canada and I have no doubt that my ashes would someday be scattered in the Red River. Culturally, I am still very much Canadian, although an older Canadian. As for education, I have educated myself a second time just to make myself a more informed Canadian citizen. So yes, when it comes to love of country, I have often said that, “if I could, I would kiss Canada in the mouth.”

Thus, the recent Supreme Court decision proclaiming the inalienable right of Canadian’s abroad to participate in federal elections is very important to me. It bothered me that Steven Harper ruled the country for so many years, and it also bothered me that Justin Trudeau won in 2015 with only 39% of votes out of the 60% of Canadians who voted. Less than 30% of the country want him to govern. Something is not right. Not enough people are voting.

Quite frankly however, I would take anyone as leader of the country other than the conservative Andrew Scheer and the goofy PPC Maxime Bernier. Despite my feelings regarding Trudeau, I would be comfortable with the Liberals leading the country for a few more years. But I would hope that the popularity of Jagmeet Singh would push Trudeau to a more progressive bent.

I love you, Hong Kong.

I love Hong Kong. I love the city, I love the people. I find the people very polite and it’s very easy to make friends in Hong Kong.

My mom and my dad both visited Hong Kong on separate occasions when I was young, and I was always intrigued by their pictures and the souvenirs they brought back. It was the first foreign place overseas that I ever flew into, and I’ve since visited the city many times. The only couple of bad experiences I’ve had in the city are from scammer foreigners, but other than that, Hong Kong is a wonderful city with a wonderful people. It’s gotten more and more expensive to visit Hong Kong these past few years, but it’s still my favorite city in the world.

I’ve been following the umbrella protests since the first Umbrella Revolution in 2014. It was impressive seeing Scholarism, basically a group of young kids, start a movement which rippled out to other countries. I remember seeing protesters and meeting Hong Kong students right outside my office in Seoul. And now, after months of protests, they’ve won a major victory facing against one of the strongest forces in the planet. I hate what China is doing to Hong Kong. I hate how it’s transforming the city to a police state warzone now that it can afford to since China has started to grow several other cities which will rival Hong Kong as economic hubs in the future.

But it’s great that the protests worked. It’s amazing how almost a quarter of the population rallied against an oppressive force. And it wasn’t just young people, it was also the older generation protesting to protect the city’s youth. Protests do work, and it was good to see it in action. The last time I saw protests like that working, it was here in Seoul when they ousted the former president.

Unfortunately however, Carrie Lam’s words when conceding to one of the demands of the protestors show signs of a prolonged conflict. She labeled the protestors as rioters and accused them of violence. These are the words of someone who thinks the Internet does not exist and outsiders don’t have third party media to see that it’s the Chinese police who are consistently perpetuating the violence. It’s the protestors who are protecting themselves with vinyl umbrellas and putting out tear gases using innovation and science.

The protests are going to continue. There are still more grievances that need to be addressed, especially stemming from the government prolonging the protests, using brutal tactics, and arresting thousands of protestors. China and their puppets in Hong Kong will continue to spread a propaganda war against the protesters. I suspect this small victory serves as an appeasement to tamp down on the protests. People are getting tired, and this small victory might just be enough to make some people want to stop and even turn on other protestors who want to continue protesting. It’s cunning politics, but it’s evil.

I don’t blame China for trying to bring Hong Kong to heel however. With many different regions, and countries like Taiwan claiming to be an independent country, it is in their best interest to demonstrate that a move towards independence is not in the best interest of the local population. However, the whole Hong Kong affair could’ve been dealt more diplomatically and really should’ve followed the spirit of the agreement following the return of the Hong Kong to China back in 1997.

In any case, I do hope things calm down in the city someday soon. The city is wonderful, and its people are brave. They deserve freedom and independence.