What's Going On?

In the last couple of days, Canadians in Korea who are thoughtful enough to register with the embassy here got an email. I know this not because I am one of them, but because my coworker mentioned it.

The email was about swine flu, which so far hasn't penetrated my life beyond the odd joke about having it (I happen to have a very sore neck - fell out of bed - and an ear infection complete with swollen lymph node). According to the dude in charge, swine flu has been categorized Level X and if it goes to Level Y, they may not be able to provide a full range of consular services.

To which I said, "Huh?"

According to Crystal, there has been one case in Seoul. One. To me, this does not sound like the kind of case where an embassy needs to send out emails about our loss of Canadian services abroad, but then, what do I know?

Not much, I'm afraid. I paid attention to the news for the length of time it took the Canadian government to prorogue itself merely because I liked the word (there aren't many I haven't come across before, as the word of the day email demonstrates). I followed the Democratic leadership race, but not much of the election itself. Since then, I think the only news I've caught was about Wolverine being leaked and that only after I had managed to buy the leaked DVD and feel somewhat puzzled while watching it.

Epidemics (is this one?) are not the only things that don't register on my radar. A friend from North America asked me whether I was worried about North Korea launching missiles. Want to guess my response? "Huh?" was my reply. I hadn't even heard about the missile over Japan and once I did, I couldn't care less. No one here is worried about North Korea and it's not just those of us who don't understand the news - Koreans are unfazed as well. I live within about an hour's drive of the DMZ and I can tell you that I have zero fear that North Korea is going to do anything to me, aside from annoy me by shutting the border so I can't go and play tourist anymore.

Even more hilariously (well, I find it hilarious, but I'm sure everyone else finds it uninformed), the only drive I have to follow the news is the regularity of the current events category in pub quizzes.