Arbor day: A new national holiday

I still remember the time that my grandparents planted trees every 5th day in April. They planted acacia tree, pine tree and white birch in mountain near the house. Planting trees granted me a great joy. Digging a ground to half feet depth, placing sapling inside, filling the hole with extracted soil and watering them. Through the procedure I learned about the existence of nature that surrounds us and how marvelous nature is. The memory of Arbor Day still stored deep in my memory palace with sense of nostalgia. 

The last Arbor Day as a national holiday in Korea was in 2005. Started in 1948, Arbor Day was originated in purpose to turn Korean mountains green again. Before this project, most of the mountains in Korea was bare mountains. Slash and burn farmers cut down trees for farming, while other use tress for firewood. Due to such artificial interruption, there was no green in mountains but only brown and red bare soils. Bare mountains were vulnerable to sudden flooding. Every summers, people lost their homes and lands due to mass landslides. Mountains were horrible in aesthetic view either.   

Bare mountain in North Korea. Unlike Korea, bare mountains still remain in North Korea

Finally, in 1948, Korean governments realized the seriousness of this problems, and this was the genesis of Arbor Day in Korea. Registering to national holiday, people started to plant saplings in mountains every year. Mountains gradually turned into green. Birds and animals returned. Thanks to this effort, majority of bare mountains were recovered.  

However, as mountains became green again, people started to question the necessity of Arbor Days. They believed that Arbor Day has no use since most of the bare mountains are recovered. Like killing a  dogs after hunting is over. Anyway in 2005, Arbor Day was excluded from national holiday. And my memories about Arbor Day stopped from that moment.

But was that a wise choice? Absolutely not. The original purposes of Arbor Day was not still completed. If I hike a mountain right behind my school, I can easily find acacia and maple trees. They are the results of 60 years Arbor Days tree-planting. The problem is, those trees are not perfectly suitable to Korea. Acacia and maples were imported from America and Canada in 1960s. Since they grow fast in harsh conditions, they were 'selected' by governments. In other words, we brought invasive species to recover environments, and it is worthless to stress out hazardous of invasive species in local environments. 

This directly become the reason why we should register Arbor Days to national holiday. Country government have responsibility to rectify their past fault. Currently, Korean temperate forests require continuous control. Native arbor species like oak and pine should planted and dead tree branches and leaves that block sunlight reaching to young saplings needed to cleared. Arbor Day can accomplish these goals. As I mentioned above, national holiday has great influences to people. Reminds how Buddha's Birthday or thanksgiving day affects people's behaviors. People tend to put significance and follow the original purposes of national holidays. In other words, national holiday leads people to 'act' something. 

Today, nobody doubts the importance of preserving forests and environments. We all know that is crucial problem which directly tangled with our lives. But, despite those significance, it is hard to reach to real actions. Arbor Days can be solutions that guide people to take actions. Bright, better future is not given but gained.   

For additional information about Arbor Day click the link below.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbor_Day

Anti vs Co

 If I divide KMLA family into two distinct groups, that can only be 'groups against student council(anti-council)' and the 'group that stands for student council(co-council)'. And if I need to choose a side, I'll belong to the first group, anti-council. The biggest difference between the two groups is how they look at student council. For my view, same as my group's view, I believe the student council is useless enough to perfectly mess school up. There is nothing similar to dogma or faith which binds our group members, but only awful behavior as student council make us to tightly join with each other. We don't make certain united opinions for political movements. We don't discuss how to take over the council. The anti-council group is not a terrorist community or mobs want to rebel, instead, we try our best to avoid any interactions with student councils. We don't care what they speak, especially what they murmur during the Monday morning ceremony. What anti-council only interested is kinds of unveiled problems from student council, like head executive impeachment scandal, imposing incentives on student departments, and unfair penalty point rule. Those unlogical and both ridiculous actions unite us and make us fight against the council. In other words, we are just an alarm of student council's fault, that only reacts without voluntary movements. Every member of anti-council is fine students who seek peaceful and calm school days, without experiencing any troublesome turbulence. Anti-council doesn't believe a 'few' selected students to disrupt school's regime only based on their own will. We dislike tyranny and solo-playing of the student council.

 However, the other group, co-council, is pretty dominant all over the KMLA family. They support and encourage student council. Whenever the problem advent, they rise to advocate the council. Co-council is a downrght bulldog of the student council. Maybe they believe the student council can only 'change' our school. For their point of view, teachers and school administration are too old and refractory to change the school. For the sake of students, student council should be head of students. Whenever co-council notice the others mock or criticize the student council, they become outraged and strike back with their weapons like 'students' responsibility' or 'necessary interests'. Once, a Facebook page called 'KMLA Bamboo Forest' uploaded mild criticism to student council.  Then, every co-council members became social justice warriors who pressed 3~40 'angry icons' and replied counter criticisms to the anonymous uploader. At that moment, they weren't different with gangsters who rob supermarkets in a pack. 

 I'd never thought how co-student council group thinks anti-council. But it is possible to surmise based on their words and actions left in KMLA Bamboo forest. As I wrote above, whenever the student council attacked, vigilance committee composed with co-council literally lynch anonymous uploader. Last semester, there was a criticism to the legislative council, one part of council's triumvirate system. According to that post, the legislative council did nothing during entire semester, but enlarge conflicts between each department and teachers. Unfortunately, what mentioned in criticism is all correct. The legislative council failed to accomplish their commitment since they spent entire semester fighting each other. However, what co-council replied to the post was shocking. Starting from bad manners, lack of leadership, ill-tempered, problems in own personalities... and etc. Some replies are a just personal attack. Next Monday morning ceremony, the legislative council had brazen cheek to reproached as 'before you criticize us, you need to pay great interests to us.' Really. Despite all kinds of irony and sophisms they protest, it is possible to know how co-council thinks anti-council. They believe we are just complaining mobs who only want fine GPA, what we called 'Nae-mi'. But in fact, we aren't. They don't have proper logic. They're just political hooligans. 

 Then, what is the problem? When it came from? I believe this problem always exist unless the student council itself is eliminated. Whenever the student council born, students divided into two sides. One doesn't put an intense value on the council itself. They believe council itself is just a title. On the other hand, another side worships the council. While anti-council expects the student council is another form of volunteer, co-council deifies the council as a pioneer who resists for equality and freedom for an entire student. Anti-council believes themselves as supervisor of the council since they vote for council, while co-council believes themselves as apostles. In short, causes of difference is just 'who values what'. And for the last, can this two group face each other eye-to-eye? Well, in fact, students in KMLA study together, eat together and rest together with their nemesis. As the cause is simple, a solution is also simple enough. The end of the student council or student council try their best to accomplish what they promised.    

Arctic safari

 August 2nd, 2017, I successfully escaped from GLPS. After two days, I finally arrived in Ny-Alesund, Svalbard. The place where people commonly called 'the Arctic'. It was cold and foggy, but no snow. Mountains with small pebble stones are everywhere, but there were no coniferous. The entire views were quite different from the white and pure sanctuary that I dreamed inside air plane. I soon became worried. "Is this Arctic? No snows, no ice... What if they tricked me and left me somewhere like island Seymour in Antarctic peninsula?" After I noticed a huge glacier far away, I corrected my ludicrous thought. I was, in Arctic.

Here I am. Facing glacier.

 Team leader explained us(including me and other researchers) about our tasks. Even though my ear was opened, and my head kept nodding, my attention was already focused to Arctic terns gliding above my head. Sharp and stylish V-shaped wings, fiery scarlet beak, and deep black head are breathtaking. Terns soar up into the sky and hover for a few seconds. After a blink, they dive down the blue sea and pick up small silvery fishes. One shot, one fish. No failure to Arctic terns. They were truly amazing creatures.

Arctic Terns.

 Before the research team leaves Korea, we gathered around and choose who will conduct what in Svalbard. And my given task was to observe and documents every animal I met there. That was what I exactly want to do! I was so pleased that I can achieve my interests and curiosities by conducting 'official' research. On the other hand, I was relieved that I wasn't allotted to some ridiculous research topics. What if I was caught in 'collecting micro organism data from sea ice' or 'preserving Arctic lichen near institution'? Maybe I can't bear putting green and red lichens to plastic bags. Anyway, my research topic perfectly fits into my interests, so I was satisfied.

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 Unlike its barren view, Svalbard was full of different animals. Some of them were similar to species in Korea, but the majority of them were pretty different. To adapt the harsh conditions in Arctic, many of them look so fuzzy and fluffy. In other words, most of them were very cute. Among 10 different birds and 3 different mammals that I met in Arctic, the most impressive one was Arctic fox.
 

Arctic fox. But brown. Such a tragedy!

The first one appeared during lunch time. I was eating the salmon sandwich the cafeteria. All in sudden, a fox with a transmitter on its neck approached to the cafeteria. The wall of the building is made up of transparent glass so we can see fox through the wall. The fox seems to have interests to human. It came closer, and sniff like a dog and run away. It was a short moment, but enough to take enough photo for my topic. What if I didn't bring my camera at that moment! That's a nightmare.

While I'm looking my photos, I realized what I believed was totally wrong. I always dreamed the 'White' Arctic fox. White like canvas. But Instead, the truth was much browner and darker. It looks more similar to one hungry coyote.

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 At first, I was bit worried. 'What if I failed to see the variety of animals in Arctic? I don't have the second chance!'. But after 3 days, I figured out that was just an apprehension. I saw fox, reindeer, seal, puffins, guillemots, Fulmar and so many species that I can't even remember. But one thing, the most primitive and ultimate goal was not completed. I never saw a polar bear. What's the difference between Arctic with no polar bear and Paris with no Eiffel's tower? It's nonsense. Until today, I often dream about 'What if I met polar bear there?' My imaginary flaps its wings and soar around the sky. How spectacular? How amazing to see white, furious beast through my eyes?

 And as always, my ration makes clear answers. "What if you met polar bear? If it was, you are not here then. It's a beast. B-E-A-S-T."

This is a polar bear. And he never drinks Coca-cola.

Writing Junyeobland

'I always know that I'm not close to fairy tales.'

That is what popped into my head when I have a chance to write a 'Junyeobland' .

Snow White? Cinderella? Sleeping beauty? According to my memory, they had never been my troops. It's not only because they are 'extremely' boring to me. But maybe I don't like its stereotyped synopsis. Why always good versus evil? Why always good defeats evil with ridiculous gambit? Maybe I was sick of too 'Disney-like' characters and stories. 

'I'll never build my own fiction like that. I swear I'll never.' 

After a short brainstorm, the first sentence of the entire story was complete.

Once upon a time, there existed Juneyeobland.... 

'Fine. Mundane start. Be a bit sadistic to the storyline. Little dystopiatic, but not too much.'

....the country without day but only night. 

'Great. I like this setting. Isn't it sounds more interesting than a bright, shiny kingdom with a beautiful princess?' 

Since it was always dark, people were all gloomy, and crimes occurred every day. Crops wouldn't grow, and rivers were stained with blood. The country itself was a nightmare.

'Perfect. Now I constructed a concrete plot of the Junyeobland. I can assure that this dark and gloomy setting will lead to serious events. And this serious plots will fascinate readers! So... now, I need a character who begins the story.'  

I spun my pen twice, right and left, and start thinking again. Soon, marvelous ideas about story flourished from my brain. I garnered every one of them and polished with refined thought.  

One day, a lady with glittering dress came to the country and said, "Let's have festival every day! It shall bring light and happiness to this land." Since that day, there was music, glittering lights, and party in every part of the country. Many visitors came to see this exquisite place. One of the visitors was a young princess from a distant country. She lived on a dark, stormy land where the sun never shined. Since the princess had never seen a sun, she was also dark and gloomy. 

'So now is the time that the villain should advent.' 

But stereotyped villain, which represents the pure evil is not appropriate in my story. Who believes Cinderella's stepmother is attractive to readers? This is my personal opinion, but villain should leave the intense impression to readers as main characters. 

'Villain is also a trend.' I murmured. 

Then, what kinds of incarnation of evil should villain be? Jealous? Avarice? Abomination? Seven different sins of mankind?Or madness of human who wants to destroys the world for fun?  Since I knew that my head was full of miscellaneous thoughts, I need to calm down and filter my thoughts. 

'Great Idea. I like that.'

When the princess saw people enjoying the festival, she was so annoyed. She wanted to break the peace and joy. So she made up a plan. One day, she stood up upon the festival, dressed like......

But I was little worried about the appearance of the princess. I always want to escape from the stereotype. But if she is the main villain, then there should be proper descriptions of her in order to represent her 'evilness' to readers. After a short thought, I finished this sentence with a single description. 

....a witch. 

Sorry to my conviction. But I can't imagine a more appropriate word than the 'witch' in this context. However, I soon realized that Junyeobland had also becoming archetypical. Full of cliche, cliche, and cliche. And that is 100% antipodal to what I have sworn before.  

'Okay... to break some cliche, it need some small reversal.' 

With the handful of apples on her hands. She screamed, and threw one apple in the middle of the crowd. One man picked up the apple, and everyone was astonished. The apple was shining gold. Princess said to the crowd with screeching voice, "The most beautiful shall own this apple." Then she disappeared, with giggling laughter. 

'The most beautiful shall own this apple.' Just like a witch inside story, I also giggled and keep writing. 


The storyline of Iliad overlaps with Junyeobland. Princess acts just as Eris, the goddess of strife and discord. 'Aren't they ridiculous?' 
'But I always want to break such boring and archetypical development in my story.' 
'If I do, some kinds of reversals are imperative!' 

From that moment, my logic had nearly lost its control. I grabbed my pen straight and scribbled.    

There in the festival were three beautiful women. Staring at the golden apple, one woman picked it up. She smirked at other two women and said, "Because I am the most beautiful women in Juneyeobland, I deserve to own this apple." Then another woman, who wore a frilly dress snatched the apple from her. "What are you talking about? Look at your face in the mirror before you dare to speak! I am so much prettier than you! Look at my splendid face!" The other woman laughed. "You guys are just a two long....

'A word that means both ugliness and ridicule. Does it actually exists?' 

For more than a minutes, I cogitated and cogitated like philosophers in the school of Athens. But I couldn't find the optimal word in this sentence. 

...squids," she quoted. "Can't you see the real jewel in front of you?" 

The three women were about to fight when a man stopped them. "This isn't something that you women can solve by yourselves. Since this is a very difficult conundrum, let's open a contest to decide the prettiest women in Juneyeobland." Three women agreed. 

'But Junyeobland doesn't need Prince Paris to judge who is the most beautiful. Instead, it should be more democratic.'

And the only word popped in my brain was 'Beauty contest'.    

They had a week to decide their outfit. Finally, it was the day of the beauty contest. People from all over the world visited to watch the contest with great anticipation. Even the princess who threw the apple came to see, disguised. The contest was about to start. Every people's attention were on three women. 

Okay. Now it's time to burst every reversal at once! Cliche should be broken. Archetypes should be abandoned. Boring and stereotypical Disney-like story should be over! Now is the climax. Junyeobland should be different, as I sworn.

But bell ring was much faster than my handwriting. I recognized that chain writing should be over right now. But my story isn't done yet. Anyway, it needs ending

What I had to do is end Junyeobland as possible. Leaving every plots and event as MacGuggin, ignoring the logical sequence of each plots, I barely wrote the last part of Junyeobland. 

Suddenly, lights went out, and a scream pierced through the darkness. And then there was none.

Thanks, Agatha Christie. 

In the status quo....

In the status quo, Korean Minjok Leadership Academy(KMLA) is one of the most brilliant, famous, and innovative high school in Korea. Not only in qualities of educations held in KMLA but also the other external factors like club activities prove the fame of KMLA. But, there are no doubt that KMLA always has some sloppy and nasty problems inside, which sounds ridiculous and minor to others, but crucial enough to students in the campus. Today, this house reveals the hidden problems of KMLA one by one.

<other students>

The first incident happened last year. The news was wild about president Park. Most of the people in Seoul held the endless protest for impeaching the president. KMLA should participate the protest since KMLA's main purpose is to grow true leader. However, our school headmaster had a different viewpoint. Despite the continuous request of students, he continuously refused to permit students to join the protest. He argued that the school must be politically neutral; students argued that such dogma wasn't political neutrality. Matters became greater when the questioning against school authority propped the challenging of an others case, seemingly irrelevant-school policies and decisions. Soon, the discussion shifted towards evaluating the capacity of the incumbent headmaster. As the discussion heated up, numerous accounts on the headmaster's unfit qualities were made. One of the most significant was the issue of misogyny. The president of the student legislative council at the time spoke up on a post-incident about the headmaster's use of sexist profanity against her. This sparked a series of outrages entailing much more relevant accounts. Hypocratic views were also problematic. Always insisted on the refusal of social hierarchy that universities posses. However, he himself didn't stop. But that's not the only problem...even now after he's left.....

Paper was ended incompletely.

Biological perspective toward philanthropy

Philanthropy to university became an issue in Gladwell's podcast. Simple as beautiful, Gladwell's topic can be concluded in one sentence, I believe. 'Should philanthropists donate their money to prestigious universities like Harvard and Standford, or to less prestigious universities like Glassboro state university?' It is quite controversy debate topic, with some ironic dilemmas, which make hard to answer. But, according to my opinion, allocating philanthropy to the prestigious college is much beneficial than another choice. Through this post, I'll explain why based on 'biological perspective'. 

Before I start, I want to stress out that society itself is a fluid model, just like organic structure. Since society is run by with humans and their activities, we can't analyze and estimate society is purely run by economic principles, like cause and effect or supply and demand. So I believe only insisting 'social equalities' doesn't work at all. We should concede some inequalities, especially in the status of each university. Gladwell should concede Stanford or Harvard is much successful and potential than colleges like Glassboro or Vassar(But I don't mean such universities are more inferior than others).That is why we should vision society with a fluid model, and focus our topic through biological perspective. Anyway, what I wrote on this blog is purely my 'own' opinion, so it is your choice to accept or not. 

Many animals, especially mammals, tends to pursuit benefits but avoid risks. Maximizing merits but minimizing de-merits is one of the most frequent strategies in the ecosystem. Term 'optimal foraging model' can be a good example for this phenomenon. Optimal foraging model means that natural selection would prefer species that maximize benefits but minimize the costs, and animals will evolve to satisfy this status. Whenever animals face certain situations, they naturally choose choice with 'higher success rate' than others. WHY? Simple. There are no creatures on Earth wants to work more and earn less. If there is, it will perish. This can be a selfishness, but anyway, it is a principle in nature. The reason why I'm mentioning biological principle in this post is, public, sponsors, or philanthropists are mankind. They can't free from this principle at all, I believe.

For philanthropists, donating fees for universities is one kind of selection. I don't believe it purely derived from altruism. Most of the philanthropists wish their philanthropy effectively aid students. In other words, they are investing in student's potential. So it is natural that philanthropists are focusing more toward famous universities like Stanford, Yale, and Harvard. As I mentioned before, this is purely based on their biological choices. It can't be criticized, it can't be blamed. It is 'natural'. Without a doubt, prestigious universities graduate more potential students than other universities. Compare the influence between Stanford and Glassboro in society. Even though Stanford already have the tremendous of money, but Stanford will not disappoint philanthropists in results. It is trust. It is obvious that prestigious universities have trust to public. Philanthropists will not regret their donations since they know they money were used for well. No one regrets when their choices are stable and potential enough.

I'm not blaming Glassboro. I'm not criticizing 'un'-prestigious universities are not compatible for philanthropies. It's just a choice, but I'm just disagreeing Gladwell. 

Korean Carlos doesn't remember

'Carlos doesn't remember' is about educational inequality due to the economic gap. Though in this podcast, Gladwell depicts the same problem in the current educational system in the U.S.A. The capitalization. Providing some chances of higher education to brilliant students despite their economical status. It sounds fair and equal, but Gladwell rebutted this by statistical evidence. Numbers of Carlos, means students who don't have enough money but are smarter than usual, in prestigious universities like Harvard, are much lower than expected. And this means capitalization doesn't really work in the current educational system. Another point that Gladwell used is 'unequal chances of education' according to my opinion. In his podcast, Gladwell insisted the gap between Carlos and other wealthy students. According to Gladwell, students like Carlos already have lots of burdens to consider before they start education. For instance, householding, securing own and family's safety, and some should even consider the distance between home to school. Moreover, for Carlos, it is tough enough to find a counseling teacher in order to prepare for college and the future career.

'Students like Carlos in Korea' similar to 'Carlos in U.S.A' overall, but I believe there are some differences between this two cases. In fact, I believe Korean students usually have less burden until they graduate middle school. Different with U.S.A, Korea shows balanced distributions of school all over the country(except some 'Korean Carlos' who live in the countryside). Also, education until 9th grade is mandatory, and tuitions for high school are not that expensive. There can be some differences between each student, but normally, Korean students suffer less from external hindrances of educations. However, I don't believe the current Korean education systems take care 'Carlos in Korea' well. Instead, 'Carlos in Korea' have to face other types of hardships after they enter the high school.

First, the economical gap becomes a crucial factor. In Korea, without any external assistant, it is hard to follow school's education curriculums by students own efforts. Even if that student haves brilliant brain just like Carlos, Korean education is tough and complex enough to make student miserable. Normally, Korean students get some assistances from Academy(what we called '학원'). It provides students great care, like preparing standard tests or managing student's GPA and extracurricular activities. I believe it is not difficult to catch up the schools' original educations with academies efforts(plus student's own effort, of course). However, things are different for 'Carlos in Korea'. They don't have enough time and money to get assistances from academies. And most of those Carlos failed to achieve chances of higher education in school. Moreover, some teachers in high school teach students based on 'what students previously learned frim academies before the class'. This is a vicious circle, that larger the gap between 'gifted(economically gifted)' students and 'Carlos in Korea'.  

The other problem is, unlike middle or high school, colleges and universities are not balance distributed in Korea. Most of the prestigious universities in Korea like 'SKY' are clumped near capital state. And they usually require expensive tuitions to students. Those factors became one of the biggest reason why 'Carlos in Korea' hesitates to enter universities. Despite their desires or visions, students have to deal with realities. Things are not changed even those students abandoned universities but purchase jobs right after graduating high school. Korean use the term 'In-Seoul(the capital of Korea)', which means entering to the universities located 'in' Seoul would determine the student's future. Even though the college entering is already unequal enough, society doesn't care about it. After graduation, Korean students are usually evaluated by their universities level, not by students talents and passions.

I believe the situations of 'Carlos in Korea' are not really different to 'Carlos in U.S.A'. I often believe Korea could be worse in some cases. Determining student's educations, careers, and even futures by students' 'gifted' wealth, is now in Korea. As Korean students, this is quite bitter to say, but Korea is no country for Carlos.

Underhand Free Throw and Dual Blade Kumdo

Maybe no one disagrees that the most 'efficient' way is the wisest way. It is absolutely true. 'Efficiency' leads people to easier and faster success. That's why we invented vehicles, telephones, computers, Smart phones, and etc.... Despite the fact that such efficiency guarantees quicker success, but sometimes, people tends to evade such efficiency. Moreover, they even return to original states, with full of inefficiency and failure. It doesn't make sense at all. If it's true, there must be a factor that overwhelms all I mentioned above.

The first 'underhand' free throw from Rick Barry, was 'remarkable'. Before Rick, nobody had ever expected to shot free throw underhand. Free throwing should be done in perfect pose and balance. Consequences of nice and smooth shooting are one stereotype of basketball. What Rick tried was unbelievable. His half-sitting pose with ridiculous shooting is literally 'antipodal' from what people had believed.

              
Normal style free throwing                                   Rick Barry's style

But Rick successfully proved this new method is more effective than previous way of shooting. His method changed many awkward giants players to professional scorers. Like Wilt Chamberlain. However, soon later, most of the scorers returns to awkward giants again. Since they were so conscious to others' ridiculous attention, they abandoned what they learned. 

I had a similar experience with the story above. I love playing Kumdo. In fact, Kumdo is an only sport that I trained before. In Kumdo, we hold 'one' wooden sword. Through the sword, we assault enemies and measure each other's ability and skills. But, there also some outsiders. Some players hold 'two' sword in each hand, which called 'Dual blade'.


Dual Blade Kumdo. It is hard to find weak spots.

I only saw them through videos, but it was enough to shock me for a moment. I was astonished not because of their abnormality. But because of the tactical merits derived from dual blade formation. One sword strikes the opponent, while the auxiliary blade blocks enemy's blade. Whenever the opponent tries to attack, one blocks and another strikes right back. Simple but effective.

After the video, I was so eager to learn dual blade Kumdo and tried to look for gyms to learn this. But I failed to. All the gyms that I visited refuse to teach dual blade style. They insisted dual blade style is insolent and superficial than original style of Kumdo. They were so strangled in traditions and attentions from others, they are losing the chances to upgrade themselves. Moreover, most of the official competitions in Korea 'ban' to perform dual blade style. Anyway, after that, I gave up learning dual blade kumdo. 

Maybe it because people are highly developed 'social' animals. In other words, we consider not only merits that can be earned from the action, but also attentions from others. If the fear derived from attentions full of askance, people usually get rid of new behaviors without any hesitation. Efficient and innovative actions can also seem bizarre to others at first. So despite the efficiency and advantages, people usually give up maintaining what they achieved. In this case, such merits are not a big deal. Attention and prejudice from other are big deal.