Joseph Reyes

November 6

Back in 2016, people didn’t know how bad he would be. This time in 2024, people know exactly who he is. He promised to be a dictator on day 1. He took away abortion rights from women. He gave the biggest tax cuts to the richest people in the US. He tried to stay in power by unleashing his followers to the US Capitol. He was impeached, convicted of financial crimes, accused of sexual assault, convicted of sexual assault, and confirmed to be close friends with Jeffrey Epstein. He is no friend to Ukraine and he is no friend to Palestine either. We all know this. And yet he won.

My sister is celebrating this election. A Trump supporter, she celebrated the Republican win of the three branches of government. I know she’s a good person. I know she only wants the best for herself and for her family. But she’s not the only good person in this picture.

Immigrants are good people. Illegal or not, they are looking for their own American dream. They still see America as the shining city on a hill. They are not rapists, nor are they in the country to steal American jobs. The last time I checked, picking oranges was never an American job. They have families of their own, and in some cases, they trudged through hell in order to make it to America’s border in order to escape violence that’s not only coming to them, but to their sons and daughters- their small children. They are good people, too.

The people of Puerto Rico and the Latino community are good people. Puerto Rico is not a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean. It’s a beautiful place filled with kind, resourceful, and hardworking people.

Trans people and the rest of the LGBTQ community are good people. They deserve protection and the freedom to pursue their identity. Most families have a member who belongs in the LGBTQ community. They might be your brother or your sister, of they could be your third cousin. But they are people that need to be happy just as much as any other person. They are not out there trying to warp the mind of children. They are just minding their own business. They just want to live normal lives just like the rest of us.

Women who want or need an abortion, be they victims of rape or incest, or maybe they’re just not ready to have children- they are also good people. They just want to have control of their own bodies, make their own choices, and not have another person or the government make their health decisions for them. The women who need an abortion, they are also good people. They just want to live.

The people of Ukraine are good people. They are a brave and resilient people. They don’t deserve what is being done to them by Russia. They need all the help they can get to win against an oppressive outsider that aims to steal their country. The country deserves to be exist, and its people deserve to be helped and protected.

Same goes to the people in Gaza and the West Bank. Contrary to some people’s belief, not all of them are terrorists. They are people just like everyone in the region. They weep for the death of their families and the loss of their homes, just like any normal person would. They are good people placed in difficult circumstances. They deserve to live normal lives. They deserve to live.

But these are just some of the good people who won’t see Trump winning as good news. Of course not all voters are immigrants, trans people, or women who need abortion. But I hoped that people in America would at least vote, not solely for their own personal interests, but also for the sake of others. This time, despite knowing how much Trump destroys institutions and manhandles crises, more Americans decided to vote based on their own interests, prejudices, and grievances. Instead of moving forward, they failed to look backwards. They quickly forgot how bad the Trump administration was.

It’s going to be a long four years not just for America but for the world. It’s going to be a long lifetime for many young Americans as well, living with the extremely conservative right wing Supreme Court that’s guaranteed to be appointed under Trump’s second term. Trump and his administration will enrich the already rich. They will take away so much from the American people. Extremism will only get worse from here on out. It will be a long and painful journey that will be felt universally. God help us all.

December 19

I didn’t participate in any shows at all this year. I believe it’s a mixture of lack of opportunities, a lack of cohesive theme in my works, and basically being too busy with life. Next year in January however, I will be participating in a group show featuring some of my older works which fill the page. I will be posting more details on my socials once the date gets nearer but I’m excited to be involved with something artwise for once and not just making art on my lonesome.

Speaking of lonesome, I started BlueSky and it looks more promising than Twitter. I’m already on Threads, but Threads is mainly for people who hate one billionaire: Elon Musk. BlueSky is for those who hate two billionaires: Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. Anyway, the growth on BlueSky is slow and steady. It’ll be interesting to see where it goes.

August 14

Took a hiatus from making art. Can you say you took a hiatus when you’ve been unable to do art because work has swallowed you whole? Well, that is exactly what happened. Because of work, I haven’t had much time to make art, nor do I have the energy to make art because I haven’t been sleeping regularly. Unfortunately, I think that’s going to be my situation for a while, since my work schedule isn’t about to change anytime soon. And when people say “artwork,” I think people forget the part of it actually being work. There is a need… a compulsion for me to make art, but that doesn’t make it any easier. It is still in many ways work, which makes it difficult to produce these days due to my extremely busy schedule.

Still, I’m going to try to produce more art. It’s just been amazingly difficult to find time to sit down and get to an art-making frame of mind. Either my mind is too busy with work, or I’m too burnt out and have to sleep. I miss making art regularly. I miss hearing from people and talking about art, too.

I also recently learned that this year, a guy I used to teach has committed suicide. One of the things I don’t like about this country is the culture of running people to the ground and driving them to suicide. Living in Korea is stressful, the culture is very competitive, and there seeking mental help is often seen as a sign of weakness. Not only that, with people, including high profile celebrities and politicians, committing suicide, it has become one of the options that people consider when faced with daunting life circumstances. It’s still a shock to me that he committed suicide. He seemed to be a well-adjusted and humorous guy. He has a family, seems to be quite involved with his kid’s life, and doesn’t seem to be the type to take extreme measures such as suicide, not that I would know the type exactly. I was originally tasked to coach him with his English to improve his presentations and such. The sessions eventually evolved into just talking about English for a bit and just shooting the breeze for the rest of the time. Again, I didn’t notice anything was amiss during this time.

Life is fragile and fleeting. Be kind to those people around you. And if you ever feel hopeless or start having suicidal ideations, talk to to someone, anyone. Heck, go on Reddit and talk to strangers if it helps. Just do something and don’t let hopelessness consume you. This all might sound rich coming from someone who is not really all there mentally at times, but yeah, death is too big a price for whatever is making your life miserable.

Not everything has been dire in the past few days however. I went to Vietnam. It’s become one of my favorite places to go to in the summer. The beaches are decent, the prices are cheap, the food is healthier than what I’m used to, the streets are safe, and the people are super friendly. I used to have a problem with the airports, especially since they’re one of the few places where I could feel the presence and quite frankly, inefficiencies of communist rule, but this time they’re modernized their airport and going through customs and immigration was a breeze.

God-willing, if I could afford to, I would retire in Vietnam. I’d be one of those old expats I see in Vietnam just lounging around in bars and swimming at the beach. That, minus the harassing of local bar servers. Anyway, it would be a dream to spend my retirement years in Vietnam, cause there’s no way I could afford to retire in Seoul. Living in Seoul, I’ll have to work til I’m dead.

April 9

Tomorrow is election day in Korea. Though people have been able to vote since last Saturday, tomorrow is the main election day, and unlike the United States, is an actual holiday so people have no excuse for not voting. It appears a lot of people have already voted. It either means a lot of people have strong emotions riding with these elections, or they really want to do nothing tomorrow.

According to a Swedish study, democracy took a downward slope during President Yoon’s two years in office. This is due to his attacks on figures from previous administration, the regression on gender equality, and the undermining of freedom of expression. This puts Korea in the same level of regression as Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Myanmar, and the Philippines.

The authoritarian bent of President Yoon is quite evident in his way of handling the medical crisis currently happening in Korea. Doctors and medical professors are striking in opposition to the government’s plan to add 2000 doctors to the number of doctors in the country. The problem is, the government doesn’t really have a reasonable plan to make this into reality. And the president is not interested in negotiating with his opposition in fear of appearing weak. This crisis has dragged on for months and seems to have animated a lot of people in these elections.

There’s also been a increasing amount of censorship under the Yoon administration. The conservatives have effectively co-opted much of the major news outlets in the country, but I’m surprised that not only are government officials quick to act in covering up for the the president, but many people seem to have grown numb to it. What I’m referring to is the green onion gaffe which happened in March, when the president visited a grocery store and wildly under priced a bunch of green onions. People online locked into the moment and made him look out of touch with the common man. Election officials however were quick to ban brandishing green onions at the polls, concerned that it may be “election interference”, and while it annoyed many people thinking that it was a sign of a president with an overly-sensitive ego, many people didn’t care about the matter.

The last time I checked, this was a free country. Anyone should be free to bring any fruit or vegetable they want while they voted. As contrived as it mat sound, what if they were just out shopping for vegetables and wanted to vote on the way? Anyway, this caused a backlash, with some people going to the polls with faux green onions, fake Dior bags referencing the first lady’s bribing scandal, and memes being generated online.

Well, I hope the election goes well for the left. It’s sad to see what’s happening to the country under President Yoon. He is not more corrupt as his conservative predecessors like Lee Myung-Bak and Park Jung-hee, but I find him more politically inept. He just doesn’t seem to have any clue how to govern effectively. There’s three more years of his tenure to go, but the less power the right has, I think the better it is for the country.

May 22

Came back from Canada. I miss you, Canada. I love you. The whole country has moved on without me and I feel like alienated a couple of times, but most of the time, it still feels like home. I still want my ashes to rest there at the end of everything.

It was good to see family and my good friend Jordan, but I have a feeling it’ll be a long while before I find myself in Winnipeg again, or for me and my family to be together as a whole family again. Everyone’s just settled in their own corner of the planet, far from each other. My sisters raised good children. It was good to see them, my niece in particular, for the first time.

I really wish my family and I lived closer. It was good waking up to family, having talks with my dad, etc. Travelling to Winnipeg isn’t cheap, but each day was worth it just to have a precious day with family. People don’t realize how lucky they are to have family accessible to them.