South Korea's SBS leaks Olympics opening ceremony rehearsal footage.

As reported just about everywhere, South Korean network SBS has leaked some footage of the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony rehearsal. From the Reuters report:

Olympic organizers on Thursday slammed a South Korean TV station for an unauthorized broadcast of a dress rehearsal for the Games opening ceremony but the network said on Thursday it shot the footage legitimately.

The broadcast by the private SBS network has irked Chinese organizers who had, according to state media, made performers sign confidentiality agreements not to divulge details of the August 8 ceremony.

Read the whole article yourself, but here's another little excerpt:

"We went, and nobody stopped us. So we just shot," a staff reporter at SBS's sports desk said in Seoul.

Many people are rightly upset, to which SBS responded with:

SBS spokesman Park Jae-man said it was regrettable if Beijing Olympics organizers felt offended by the broadcast.

"The purpose of the broadcast was aimed at heightening enthusiasm toward the Beijing Olympics by showing South Korean viewers the magnificence of the opening ceremony, there was no other intention," Park said, adding that his company didn't secretly tape it.

The idiocy and arrogance are staggering. The video seems to have been taken off Youtube and Liveleak, but it just ran on Good Morning America, and is currently available in this article via ABC.

LPGA stars question Michelle Wie's judgement.

Teenage golfer Michelle Wie has decided to play with the men again, leaving some of the LPGA's top stars to question where her head's at. Annika Sorenstam said:

"I really don't know why Michelle continues to do this. We have a major this week and, if you can't qualify for a major, I don't see any reason why you should play with the men."

And Helen Alfredsson:

"I feel kind of sad for her. I think she's a very good person. I feel sad for the guidance that she seems to not have in the right direction."

The article points out that she is managed by her parents, a fact few of us will forget since her father went out of his way to score points with Korean nationalists back in 2006, telling the Chosun Ilbo:

“I’m well aware there that some say, since Michelle Wie is an American why is she making such a fuss. But you know what, the only thing about her that’s American is her passport, she is “definitely” Korean.”

As someone who is "definitely" American I don't take kindly to comments like that, and I can't decide which is worse: actually believing that, or having the gall to insult the US like that for the sake of a few bonus points among South Koreans. For a lengthier look at Wie's failures on the course, and her earlier run-ins with golf stars, take a look at ROK Drop's post on the topic from last year.

"Can We Afford to Stick to Our Aggressive Style?"

Interesting little column in the Chosun Ilbo today. An excerpt:

If we indulge in our style of doing things without regard for the international community, blocking traffic, lying down on the streets, demonstrating, shouting, destroying things, writing petitions in blood, shaving our heads and burning people in effigy in protest, we have to be prepared not to care how the Dokdo islets are described.

Like the author points out in the paragraph that immediately follows, and as Ask A Korean rightly reminds us every now and again, South Korea has advanced quite rapidly in the past two generations and has done, and is doing, a lot of things right. It just becomes real hard to stand up for the country and to look on the bright side when it's so prone to bouts of mass hysteria directed at outsiders. And I know I'm not the only one who is worried by how frequently people seem to fly off the handle at foreign countries, whether over disputed territory, or American beef, or soccer games, or wherever the Wheel Of Fury happened to land. In spite of what some especially defensive or sensitive South Koreans may say, protests and aggressive rhetoric toward foreign countries are not purely "domestic" matters, and taking interest in them are not the exclusive right of South Koreans. Moreover, following current events doesn't preclude one from also appreciating the good things about South Korea, and vice versa. Matter of fact there's no reason why following current events ought to be considered bad or contentious at all. That should go without saying, but it doesn't so I said it again.

Many foreigners.

South Korea's prime minister honoring the quote-unquote heroes who have died defending the Liancourt Rocks.

Not doing much blogging on summer vacation means I miss out on tons of delicious stories. I mean, this blog would write itself with all the sensational Liancourt Rocks garbage in the news. Not surprising if you browse the articles in my "Liancourt Rocks" category and consider all the over-the-top behavior we'd seen thus far. South Korea has recently conducted military exercises near the rocks, and has blamed its diplomats for failing to react to this crisis, a dispute some papers have said is evidence of the US's favoritism toward Japan. As I said before, half in jest, if you're the US, which East Asian nation would you rather annoy, Japan, or the one that has recently killed a Free Trade Agreement, has held two months of protests on American beef, and has done its best to alienate its strongest military, political, and economic ally? Not saying that the US is trying to piss anyone off, or taking one country's side here in choosing to remain neutral, although for some South Koreans, being "neutral" is the same thing as taking Japan's side, since South Korea believes it has an air-tight case and that this disputed territory is indisputably Korean. A lot of people are upset with the Library of Congress and its decision to refer to the disputed territory as the Liancourt Rocks, rather than the politically-charged Korean name "Dokdo," or the U.S. Board on Geographic Names' move to change the rocks to "undesignated sovereignty," but I would remind Koreans that what the United States decides to call something in English is an entirely domestic matter and foreigners should not get involved. *cough* I mean, that's what you tell me, right, about quote-unquote domestic matters like an FTA or like the American military presence? But, seriously, this Liancourt Rocks business is an embarrassing mess.



Lots of other interesting stories out there, too, such as AOL using North Korean flags next to the names of South Korean golfers, or some 600,000 people flocking to Busan's Haeundae Beach to beat the heat. Another story making headlines is that the number of foreign residents is up 23% from last year. According to the latest articles there are 891,341 foreigners residing in South Korea, but I'm really not sure why they're using that number or where they're getting this "2% of the population" figure, unless the latest articles are looking solely at foreign residents in relation to Korean adults, because we already saw the number of foreigners eclipse the one million mark last year. Whether an increase of foreigners is a good or bad thing for any nation is too heady an issue for this little post, but it's worth pointing out that some guy Michael Stevens doesn't seem to happy about it. Three things have lead to an increase in the number of "deadbeat dads," according to his latest Korea Times letter:

The first being the current economic difficulties, secondly the increasing number of underage adolescents having sex, and lastly an ever increasing foreign community of men coming to this country to live and work.

He continues:

The reasoning behind this article is because recently this problem has occurred to two young Korean women that I know. They both believed that their foreign boyfriends were in love with them and would one day get married, as did their parents and the church they were attending.

Yet, after the young ladies became pregnant the men realized that they didn't want to be tied down. One of them just disappeared one night while the other is still working as a teacher in a ``hagwon" and even though he begged the young lady not to have an abortion is now refusing to give her any form of financial support. It is also clear that after the young man finishes his contract that he, too, will be leaving Korea to go back to his home in America. Once he leaves there will be very little this young Korean woman will be able to do to force him to live up to his obligations.

I don't understand why he's so worked up about deadbeat dads when there are clearly more important issues to deal with. Also on the foreigner front, the National Police Agency has released "for Foreigners: Guide to Life and Law," available here as a .pdf file. You might be alarmed to know that, as per page 25 of the guide

Many traffic accidents are caused by foreign workers who do not have a complete understanding of the Korean traffic system or culture.

As most foreigners in Korea know, whenever something unfavorable happens---whether getting pushed on the subway, getting cheated out of money, or getting killed in a sauna---the excuse is always that the foreigner doesn't understand Korea's culture. It's a line used against foreigners any time they express displeasure at something or hold an opinion contrary to the national line, and it has even been used to chastise the U.S. Ambassador to South Korea. I don't think this guidebook was being malicious, especially when you see that quotation in context, but it's telling how quickly and naturally the culture line comes out, in all manner of situations, and that in a nation whose drivers rank among the world's worst the police couldn't go a few pages without bringing foreigners into it.

2008 Busan Sea Festival: August 1 through August 10.

Friday's the start of the Busan Sea Festival (부산바다축제), held on Haeundae Beach. Check the official site here, or the English site here, for a summary of events and attractions. Don't miss your chance to see all your favorite performers---like Girl's Generation, Hwang-bo, Battle, and Shinee---on Friday night starting at 8:00 pm. *cough*

And the livin's easy.

I'd like to call your attention to a post of mine on Roboseyo's blog that talks a little about some tourist attractions in Jeollanam-do. Rob charged me with creating a hypothetical three-day itinerary, although I didn't exactly do that. It does, though, give some information on local attractions that might be useful if people decide to spend some time down here. Samedi added his itinerary in the comment section, and I'd encourage others who have done some travelling around here to add theirs either on Rob's post or here.

Tomorrow I'll be heading home for a little summer vacation. From the time I leave Suncheon to the time I arrive in Pittsburgh almost 35 hours will have elapsed, so clearly while I enjoy being home I absolutely hate going home. I'm taking some comfort in having only one stop-over and in completely avoiding the hive of scum and villany that is New York City. During my time home I plan to study Korean for the upcoming TOPIK, do some work on my TEFL course, eat some Taco Bell, watch some Dark Knight, do some exercise, and try to get some sleep. What I don't plan to do is keep up with Korean events too much or blog. This month has set a number of personal records: most posts, most unique visits, and most page views. But I'm tuckered out, and a vacation just wouldn't be a vacation if I'm still worried about all the crap in the news.

But I know that if I go a few weeks without blogging all regular my visitors will go away, so I'm releasing a collection of "B sides" during the first couple weeks of August. They include some posts I've promised but hadn't gotten around to writing, or posts that I had written earlier but that weren't urgent enough to get posted earlier in the summer. We'll be learning about some attractions in Gangjin and some classy hotels, among other things, and will be revisiting the first time my name was mangled in the local papers. So . . . um, enjoy those and have a pleasent summer, wherever you are.

Suncheon love motel to be converted into dormitory.

Some people in town aren't happy about a love motel being turned into a dormitory for high school students because they don't think students should be living in that part of town. [Editor's note: Is there a part of town that doesn't have love motels?] I don't recognize the motel in the picture, but if it is 동외동 as mentioned in the article, that's the closest thing, I suppose, to Suncheon's red light district. There are motels and massage parlors all over town, but that neighborhood has the only street in Suncheon I know of where the women are on display in the windows and will call out to passersby. Anyway, this week the Suncheon News has been running this bizarre cartoon on the theme:



A longer article is available from NoCutNews.

* Update: Here's another article, this time with a picture. It's a year old, so I'm not exactly sure where this is, but I'll have to keep my eyes open.

Deutsch in Korea.

Some Deutsch written on a wall in Gangjin, inspired by a BMW slogan.

The Goethe-Institut Seoul is turning 40 this year, and as a recent Joongang Ilbo article tell us, a German film festival will begin on July 31st and run through September 2nd at the Seoul Namsan Culture Center (I think that link is right, but I don't know).

One of my bigger regrets is never following up on my adolescent interest in the German language, and nowadays it's only in moments of unblemished optimism that I think I'll ever sharpen my skills. In my favorites folder is a link to a "deutsche-koreanische Forum" with posts written in both languages that would be a good way to kill two birds with one stone. And I recently stumbled upon some German-language blogs, such as Madang and Swiss Kimchi, and the aggregator Korea Blog Presseschau, that are not only interesting but decent resources to practice reading comprehension. Remarkable that after three years in Korea, and three years away from university, I can still read German much better than I can Korean. I attribute that to a few factors: (1) my laziness in studying Korean and my lack of patience with my slow progress; (2) that German uses the Roman alphabet; and (3) the numerous lexical and grammatical similarities between German and English.

There is also a Facebook group called "Deutsch in Seoul." It's not what you think, because I'm actually still in Suncheon. Ha, High Five!

88 Topps.

If you're like me, you wonder why every kid in the class has a pencil case but only three have erasers. And like me, you collected sports cards as a kid, and will enjoy browsing 88 Topps Cards, a site showing its appreciation of the 1988 Topps baseball card set in an ambitious way.

We're celebrating the 20th anniversary of one of the great classic baseball card sets, 1988 Topps. We're going through all 792 cards one by one, posting bits about what makes the card awesome and cool stats about the player or team featured on the card. PLUS, we're giving away ALL the cards we post! Keep your eye out for new contests about once a week.

"Incheon, I-cheon! I've just started work in the wrong city!"

It would make me more comfortable if people from the Jeollanam-do Educational Information Institute weren't on my blog all the time. If you're a friendly face, feel free to drop me a line to put me at ease. If you're snooping around for ammunition, or if you're fellow Jeollanam-do teacher Phil Griffith trying to rat me out to my Korean colleagues at the JETI teachers' workshop again, um . . . well, stop.



I've got pretty much nothing else to write about today, but I did want to share this old gem. I've been cooking up a massive post on the recently-popular themes of "why do expats complain so much" and "why are Koreans so sensitive to outside criticism," but with vacation coming up I have no idea when I'll get around to finishing it. For the time being I've been reading through the starter posts (by Ask a Korean and Roboseyo) and the various responses including this interesting one from Gusts of Popular Feeling that looks at what foreigners in Korea were complaining about in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. Regarding that post let me just say that I was about to quote my favorite line, but realized that pretty much any quotation I imported from those early accounts would immediately become the most negative thing to ever appear on this blog, and I don't need that kind of heat.

Samedi brought up a point in a comment to another Roboseyo post, a point that has probably been made elsewhere: that too many foreign English teachers don't do their homework before coming to Korea, and so it's not surprising that teachers seem a maladjusted lot. I said foreign English teachers because I don't know how things are in other lines of work, but I do know that assessment is true of a lot of folks who come to Jeollanam-do. It's true that there's not a whole lot of information on this area easily available in English (I've been working on that), but that doesn't excuse the folks who don't even try to look for it.

His comment reminded me of a hilarous post on Dave's ESL Cafe from last September. Kid65 writes:

Basically, I thought I was working in Incheon. I was really looking forward to living in a large city, where there would be a good foreigner community and plenty of bars

After a rather confusing 2 and a half hour jouney I end up in rural, very small, I-cheon. If I wanted rural i'd have stayed at home.

I realise it's been my mistake all along, but I guess i thought I-cheon was just a typo for Incheon.

So I was really looking foward to living in a city, and i'm in the sticks. I don't know what to do. I'm their first foreign teacher so all the staff and students have been super excited to meet me, and my flat is full of new furniture and equipment.

Basically, i'm not happy with the situation at all, but everyone is so nice and i've just arrived, and feel I can't leave (never mind the contract!). I just don't know what to do...

LOL, and a month before he posted a question about Icheon and was told it's fifty minutes south of Seoul. Hell, the first two lines on the Wikipedia entry are:

Icheon is a city in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. It should not be confused with the much larger Incheon Metropolitan City.

One in four cities don't have childbirth facilities?

The Hankyoreh ran this article a few days ago, based on some findings by the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service. The first two paragraphs:

For one year, there were no childbirths at hospitals in one in every four cities or districts nationwide. According to data collected in 2007 by the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, 35 out of 132 local governments, excluding district governments in the Seoul metropolitan area, or 26.5 percent, reported no childbirths in 2006. None of these regions have hospitals equipped with the personnel or facilities necessary for cesarean sections or natural childbirth.

There are no maternity wards in more than a third of the cities and districts in South and North Jeolla Province and Gangwon Province. In addition, there are no such facilities in five cities or districts in South Gyeongnam Province, four in North Chungcheong Province, three in North Gyeongsang Province and two in North Chungcheong Province. In particular, there are no maternity wards in hospitals in Chilgok, North Gyeongsang Province, and Cheongwonm North Chungcheong Province, even though the annual number of newborn babies is more than 1,000 in the two districts, respectively.

Speaking of Korea and childbirth . . . well, not really, but google didn't turn up much else besides this cute series of pictures of a mother putting her baby in one of those backwraps (포대기). That second picture is adorable.

"Foreign Men Taking Advantage of Mentally Disabled Women"?

Korea Beat translated this article yesterday. A couple of excerpts:

To acquire citizenship foreign men have begun luring in physically or mentally disabled women. It is especially shocking that they do so in order to take advantage of the kindnesses offered to the disabled to obtain money in addition to citizenship.

The Research Insititute for the Differently Abled Person’s Right in Korea (장애우권익문제연구소) announced recently that it has learned of similar cases. “Foreign men maliciously incite passions in the women or make physical threats to or even sexually assault them, until they succeed in marrying them. By employing these acts of violence for two years they can obtain citizenship.”

Followed by:

According to the Institute, there have so far been two cases. But with an increasing number of foreign laborers and illegal immigrants, there are likely to be more.

Some solid journalism right there. I'm bold enough to go on record as saying it's wrong to take advantage of mentally disabled women. But is it necessary to make nasty generalizations about foreign men based on all of two cases?

Abusive elementary school teacher apologizes.

From the Korea Times:

An elementary school teacher made a public apology for his harsh beating of students.

The school stripped the teacher of his homeroom teacher post.

The male teacher, Oh Yong-su, of Seolbong Elementary School in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, posted a written apology on the school's Web site Tuesday. It comes four days after a video clip was spread online showing him striking a boy with a broomstick in the classroom.

Oh said in the apology, ``I beg forgiveness from parents and students who were shocked by my excessive corporal punishment and behavior that was unworthy of a teacher. I myself even cannot accept the scene that I caused.''

He said he led the class with his own standards, forcing students to follow rules beyond their capacity. ``I forgot my duty as a teacher who should educate children by respecting their ways. I deeply regret causing pain and torment to the students and their parents by losing my rationality and giving the boys physical punishment.'' Oh said.

. . .

The school stripped Oh of his homeroom teacher position and ordered him not to come to the school for a while, according to the headmaster.

The above video (이천 초등학교 체벌 동영상) was taken from here and preserved on youtube. Not to sound cold, because these are elementary school students after all, but I've witnessed worse attacks in person, and have seen and posted videos of even more brutal ones. Matter of fact, corporal punishment is routine according to pretty much every foreign teacher I've listened to, especially in public schools but also in after-school academies. I can't say I don't support some degree of corporal punishment in schools or as a punishment for certain crimes, but I do have to wonder how schools get off telling native speakers things like be more friendly or smile more when half the staff carries weapons to class. Hell, those kids are lucky the teacher only used a plastic broom.

* Update: I finally watched the video with the sound on, and the kid is wailing pretty good. Ugly. Good to see parents and other internet users coming out against this guy.

Truth and Reconciliation Commission wants compensation for wartime bombing.

The Marmot's Hole shared an article in yesterday's International Herald-Tribune on US bombing campaigns during the Korean War.

On Sept. 10, 1950, five days before the Incheon landing, 43 U.S. warplanes swarmed over Wolmi, dropping 93 napalm tanks to "burn out" its eastern slope, according to declassified U.S. military documents reviewed by South Korean government investigators.

Wolmi was not the only target. Starting last November, the government's Truth and Reconciliation Commission began releasing a series of reports on Wolmi and two other sites where residents said large numbers of unarmed civilians were killed in indiscriminate U.S. airstrikes. Calling the attacks violations of international conventions on war, the commission recommended that the government negotiate with the United States to compensate the victims.

This commission is old news and I blogged about it back in November. Nobody would deny that war is a terrible business and that deaths---military or civilian---are tragedies, made even more disgusting because cultures are so eager to allow them again and again. However, commissions like this strike me as very arrogant and forgetful. The easy rebuttal to demands for compensation would be the development and democratization of South Korea, which has gone from among the poorest to among the richest in half a century. And, as was written on The Marmot's Hole back in November:

I was thinking 36,000 dead, 92,000 wounded, 8,000 MIA and half a century of security guarantees backed up by US troops might be compensation enough. Apparently, I was wrong.

It's way more complicated than that, I know, but so is the business of wartime responsibility. But ROK Drop brings up a good point in his write-up: how can a committee hold its chief ally responsible for civilian deaths when the government no longer requires an apology from the North for starting the war in the first place? From a Yonhap piece back in October:

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said Friday that he has no intention to ask North Korea to apologize for its past wrongdoings, including the North's invasion of the South in 1950 and terrorist attacks on South Koreans.

Roh said inter-Korean relations should now change, and a South Korean request for an apology from the North would hinder the two countries' efforts to establish peace on the Korean Peninsula.

"There is a disparity between (the South) asking (the North) for an apology and inter-Korean reconciliation and cooperation. I want to ask advocates of a North Korean apology if they are opposed to inter-Korean peace," Roh was quoted by his spokesperson as saying in a meeting with foreign correspondents based in Seoul.

"North Korea's apology (for past wrongdoings) is a difficult question. In case of the end of a war, the loser is supposed to atone for the war damage and be liable for making an apology. But North Korea did not lose the war. It is not legally realistic to demand the North's apology," said Roh.

Again, I'm no US apologist and certainly am not a fan of war, violence, or aggression, but I think there are some serious historical issues that need to be addressed, and which are much more nuanced than simply blaming the US for helping divide the peninsula in the first place.

이효리 "유고걸."

Lee Hyori's new song and video, filled almost entirely with Engrish gibberish, including the title "U-Go-Girl," pronounced without the luxury of the "r." *sigh* Lyrics available here, and more information on the video's, um, "inspiration" here.



A previous Hyori hit "10 Minutes" is here, with the catchy refrain "Just One Ten Minutes." Yes, I know it's entertainment and not a test, and that pointing out their mistakes makes me look like a crotchety old English guy. But, if a singer---whether Hyori or the Wondergulls, or Jewelry, or whomever---wants to use English to market themselves and make themselves look sophisticated and hip, I don't think it's that out of line to point out that their efforts have the opposite effect on those who actually use the language. Language ownership is a heady issue, and one way over mine, but I don't see anything wrong with showing a little pride and being a little protective. It's wrong to shake your head and sigh at a student struggling with pronunciation, or to stubbornly insist there's one "right" way to use English, but when a singer or marketing team decides to push it into popular culture and shamelessly profit off it, they become fair game.

Well, she's still hot, and now that she's considered old she becomes a sympathetic figure and I think I have a better shot. But, she's so much hotter when she doesn't speak English.

More E-2 visa headaches in store for Americans.

From the Embassy's website:

Korean Immigration informed the Embassy on July 17, 2008, that they will no longer accept criminal records checks provided by an on-line service as some states and private companies are able to do. Korean Immigration will only accept an FBI criminal records check or a local police letter from your city or state of residence.

Remarkable. Checking around for a cached version of that page I came across this line in the opening paragraph from July 15th:

At this time, we do not have any further information about what specifically the Korean authorities will require of E-2 visa applicants.

Not reassuring at all that not even the Embassy knew what was up. You'll recall that I wrote about my visa process a couple of weeks ago. I took my online check to the Embassy, got an affidavit, and ran to Yeosu the next day, only to be told that I didn't need one since I'm employed by a public school and had already submitted one in 2006. This, of course, in contradiction to the information that had come out up until then from immigration, from my supervisors, and from other teachers going through the same process.

I wouldn't be surprised to eventually see local criminal checks prohibited as well in favor of mandatory FBI checks. I say that because I'm curious if Embassy employees and immigration officials even know what to do when given a background check to peruse. Perhaps they could be trained to simply recognize a single type of form, rather than fifty or so nuanced ones.

Regardless, a little organization----HAHAHAHAHA---would have been nice. As you remember this latest moral panic was stirred up rather quickly last fall, and implemented hastily in December. I don't recall how many changes we've seen to the visa regulations, but there have been at least a few, and there's plenty of misinformation out there and plenty of contradictory practices going on. Reading about this latest update via Zen Kimchi made me think of the comments some Ministry of Justice official said back in December:

“I just don’t understand why they cannot make some exceptions to accommodate the needs of their own nationals,” Choi [Nam-il] said. “In Korea, criminal records can be easily obtained online. But they don’t have a centralized system.”

Wow, in Pennsylvania records can be easily obtained online, too~! But since apparently nobody around here knows what to do with them, they're about as useful to a local immigration official as a Korean-language background check would be to a desk jockey in Pittsburgh. Moreover, I don't think there's any need to point out the hypocrisy of an official here bemoaning a perceived lack of organization in another country. After all, how many times have I had to show my diploma and transcripts? How many times do I need my ARC photocopied at the bank? And how many times will these visa regulations be changed on a whim with little regard to how they'll be carried out?

That quotation was printed in an article that talked about how these new regulations were announced without actually considering the feasibility of them. Here's Choi again, talking about a meeting he had with local consulates after the new regulations were announced and five days before they were to take effect:

“We had the meeting to explain some details of the policy to the consuls and we also wanted to get responses from them on whether embassies in Korea can set up some sort of centralized system to provide the additional documents,” said Choi Nam-il, visa policy coordinator at the ministry. “The gist of the meeting was they told us they respect the policy, but the embassies cannot provide those services.”

Then on December 26th, some guy from the Ministry of Justice wrote in to the Korea Times to go after two articles that mentioned these new regulations. He attempts to clarifjaofu08932u0jalsja wait wait wait hold up, this is what he actually said of David Louis Quick's piece:

When one makes arguments, it is very easy for people to fall into the trap of emotional feelings and become very illogical, unless he is well trained in logical reasoning. He was too farfetched in many ways.

Fu-hu-hu-huck. He attempts to clarify Quick's misguided notions in the repulsive manner only an arrogant, condescending, middle-aged Korean man can do:

He also argues that it may take up to seven months to get his criminal record if he uses the FBI services. Thanks to my personal experience as a member of the New York bar and with experience working at an American court and the Korean Ministry of Justice, I can say he was wrong or at least very misguided.

There are several ways he can get his criminal record from Korea. Other than using the FBI service, he can use the following options:

(1). If he contacts a local police station by fax or by mail, he can get the documents sooner and notarized at the U.S. Embassy in Korea.

(2). If he is uncomfortable with the local police station, he can use a privately-run criminal check system, for example an online site (http://www.criminalbackgroundrecords.com), although he may be charged up to $59.95.

He needs to have the documents notarized in his embassy. However, in the process of notarization, he can be charged if he commits perjury.

Then he put me on the map, pun sort of intended, by calling me Mr. Deutschland, obviously knowing I'd have traumatic flashbacks to sixth grade gym class. As far as this last excerpt, option number two was taken off the table long ago, and option number one isn't exactly speedy or feasible either. Moreover, as the U.S. Embassy has said over and over again, they don't notarize the background checks but rather provide affidavits that say the information the bearer is providing is truthful and accurate. But as Zen Kimchi speculated---on what grounds, I don't know because I didn't see any mention on the Embassy's site---the Embassy may no longer provide these affidavits, either, meaning this all is a lot of work for a visa that binds me to a single employer.

"Baby-short Korea unveils slew of incentives."

The Straits Times brought us an article a few days ago on incentives offered parents to help reverse Korea's declining birth rate, which now is ranked as the lowest in the world, according to some sources.

Visit this East-West Center article from a little while ago for more reactions to declining birth rates in Asian nations. An excerpt:

[East-West Center senior fellow] Choe notes that, according to survey data, “preferred family size expressed as (an) ideal number of children or intended number of children has changed little since 1980,” decreasing only slightly from 2.1 to 1.9. But, she points out, “the view that ‘it is necessary to have children’ has declined substantially.” A trend, Choe believes, “suggests that (an) increasing proportion of women will be evaluating costs and benefits of having children vis-à-vis other options in life such as having more time for employment and other non-familial activities.”

And perhaps, according to Choe, that is because “young men and women in their early thirties … grew up during the period when South Korea experienced its most rapid economic growth. It is likely they have formed a taste for a high level of consumption and high expectations of social and economic advances in their adult life.” Now experiencing slower economic growth and higher unemployment rates, many of those same young people as they become of marriage age may be taking pause. She notes, “The new and prospective parents are likely to have benefited from a high level of education,” and an improved standard of living, “and want to provide their children” similar advantages. Something they may not be able to do.

The Korean government is aware of the growing birth rate decline problem and has advanced numerous policies in the past few years to attempt a solution, including improved maternity leave, childcare subsidies, and baby bonuses. But, Choe says, “These measures may have some effect” on couples merely postponing childbearing, but they “are likely to be short lived at best.” She adds, for a sustained reversal in the falling birth rate, “More long-range policies on improving economic conditions of the young adults, reducing the cost of children’s education, and supporting egalitarian gender roles need to be established and implemented.”

The Marmot's Hole had a post a couple of years ago with some links to figures and editorials on the population crisis. The fuss over declining birth-rates seems ironic considering this is a part of the world that attracts Western attention to its crowded cities, bloated populations, and increasingly voracious appetites. I'd rather see creative solutions employed to deal with potential economic problems and with an aging population, rather than just irresponsibly dumping more people out onto the world. Hasn't worked too well for Africa or American high schools, has it?

A hole on the hole.

Photo of a Gangwon golf course's 18th hole, via the Joongang Ilbo.

Woman stabbed to death in Donghae City Hall.

Disturbing story from today's Joongang Ilbo. An excerpt:

A man walked into Donghae City Hall in the middle of the day yesterday and stabbed a female worker to death. Later, under police questioning, he said he did it because he didn’t like the world.

Donghae Police Precinct in Gangwon said yesterday that it arrested a 36-year-old man who killed a female civil servant and wounded another. The man was only identified by the last name Choi.

According to the police, Choi entered the first floor of the building at 1:10 p.m. and stabbed a 37-year-old female employee identified as Ms. Nam. Choi then stabbed a Ms. Lee, 37, who tried to stop him. Nam was taken to hospital but died during treatment.

It goes on to say that this Choi was arrested and spent a year in prison after he "dumped gasoline onto the floor of an electronics store in Busan and started a fire for no apparent reason" in November, 2006.



The source of the above photo is this Korean-language article. Gotta blur out handcuffs and protect the privacy and dignity of the guy who murdered a mother of two.

Korea Times assistant managing editor fantasizes about war over Liancourt Rocks.

A few days ago he wrote a piece called "Let's Get Even With Japan." Today he brings us something called "The Eagle (Obama) Has Landed" while apparently under the influence of LSD on loan from his colleague Kim Heung-sook:

DOKDO ― Five leaders stand together at a small landing area with a large banner behind reading, ``Victory of Peace,'' in three languages ― Korean, English and Japanese.

The five, from left, are Chinese President Hu Jintao; South Korean President Lee Myung-bak; U.S. President Barack Obama; new Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi; United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.

Their gathering comes six months after the bloody ``Battle of Dokdo'' between the ``accidental allies'' of South and North Korea on the one hand and Japan on the other. Today's ceremony is international confirmation of South Korea's territorial claim to Dokdo and is owed to U.S. Secretary of State Richard Holbrook's behind-the-scenes mediation efforts…

. . .

The United States may be too consumed by election fever in the run-up to the presidential poll in November to do more than ask its two allies to calm down. Moreover, the ongoing spat between Korea and Japan, two adversaries whose animosity dates back 1,000 years, is too familiar to take too seriously. After all, it is not the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's nuclear defiance or Iraq or Afghanistan. To many, Dokdo may have the same ring to it as Darfur or Chechnya. For those, read on.

Um . . . fuck you? Clearly a proponent of repugnant hyperbole in Korean media.

This scenario ends on a rather happy note, although the denouement is preceded by a bloody battle, which I would name the ``Battle of Dokdo,'' and of whose casualties and material damages I intentionally omit. This omission is due to the fictional nature of my column of which the purpose is to draw attention to military tensions that can flare up because of the oft-clashing interests of the countries in this region and the United States, the erstwhile protector of regional law and order. I am sure that I share with my readers the sincere hope that the Battle of Dokdo does not leave this column.

Whew, you had me worried. What a masterful piece of satire. Again, like I said in response to his earlier column, they ran a disclaimer under my piece, yet feel comfortable running inflammatory shit like this from the assistant managing editor?

Cyon channels Audrey Hepburn.

This commercials seems to be running pretty frequently now. They feature a clip of Audrey Hepburn from Breakfast at Tiffany's to advertise Cyon's Black Label line of cell phones. Haha, I mean Black La-Bell. Not as good as this Cyon campaign, though, but more persuasive than Kim Tae-hee, seen below channelling "mild discomfort":

Stuff at Incheon Airport.

Neat little write-up on stuff to do at Incheon Airport via this Korea.net promo from yesterday. Perhaps all the better since mercifully I'll be passing through there in, like, five days, and Incheon certainly trumps any of the other hellholes I've had to deal with stateside. There are also some tours organized through the airport that help deal with your extra time, although if I recall correctly they used to have better profiles online instead of what's up there now. Hey, I guess there's a golf course next door, too?

"Seoul's choice: Busan or Takeshima."

An interesting analysis of this latest diplomatic row between Japan and South Korea, via Ampontan.

CNN: "Japan's women go ga-ga over a cafe filled with Western servers."

CNN brings us a video news report of a "butlers cafe" in Japan that's staffed with Western men and aimed to please discerning Japanese princesses.

Mud festival in Shinan, August 1-4, 2008.

There's another mud festival coming up in Shinan county, Jeollanam-do, from August 1 through August 4. Called the "Mud Islands Festival" (섬갯벌축제) and also known as "Islands Mud Olympic Festival" (섬갯벌올림픽축제) it will take place on Jeung-do's Ujeon Beach (우전해수욕장). The official site is here, in Korean, and there's a Daum Cafe here which currently has a short video advertisement up. Drunk, dumbass foreigners who are gonna mess it up for everyone else need not attend.

Ministry of Education looking for volunteers to "teacher" summer camps.

Recently came across this article from the Korea Times last week. It reads in part:

Although it will not be pay-based work, Lee expects that many native English speakers will join the program as a way to contribute to the local community.

They will co-teach English classes with Korean teachers.

``The programs will run for four weeks and about 40,000 or 50,000 student are expected to benefit from the program annually,'' Lee said. ``We will expand the program depending on the results from this year.''

The education ministry is in discussion with U.S. army camps, expatriate communities and people from multi-national families for the recruitment of the volunteers.

Part of me really loves the idea of giving rural students opportunities to play English with foreigners, because they really don't get too many breaks in life. I've heard of some teachers having really great experiences holding classes and camps with biracial children, with orphans, and with other students in remote rural areas.

But I've grown understandably cynical of late, and am curious how many foreigners will be eager to "contribute to the local community" after that local community has spent so much time stoking moral panics against us. And, to name just one other example, how community-minded can you expect foreigners to be when there are so many bullshit banking restrictions on what we can do with our money, both in Korea and out? Nothing wrong with trying to give back to those who need it, but I always marvel at the naivete of people who can't imagine why we wouldn't jump at the chance. I'm not money-grubbing by any means, but I'll just point out that each camp season I get several offers a week in my inbox for paid opportunities, so somebody interested in trying out rural Jeollanam-do could go that route, although openings go pretty fast.

South Korean government to build hotel on Liancourt Rocks.

From today's Dong-A Ilbo:

In a bid to protect South Korea’s sovereignty over the Dokdo islets, the government and the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) decided to actively enhance habitability of the islets by, for example, building a marine hotel. They also decided to rebuild the communication network with North Korea in the wake of the recent shooting death of a South Korean tourist at the Mount Geumgang resort. They also decided to move away from its so-called “quiet diplomacy” with Japan to more active one.

The government and the GNP discussed and agreed upon these measures Sunday at a high-level meeting of officials from both sides including GNP leader Park Hee-tae and Prime Minister Han Seung-soo.

Measures to enhance habitability of the Dokdo islets include building a marine hotel and a comprehensive marine base, ensuring accessibility of citizens, creating a permanent residential village and a Dokdo experience center, and building a Dokdo museum in the Seoul metropolitan area.

They also agreed to develop diverse tourism projects and form a mineral research team. The ruling party also suggested dispatching the Marine Corps instead of the police to beef up security on the islets.

No word on how many barber poles will go up in front of it. The Korea Times has more in an article yesterday about turning the Liancourt Rocks into inhabited islets:

Seoul has stationed a 50-strong police contingent on Dokdo since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War to reinforce its ownership.

During the meeting presided over by the prime minister in Seoul, the government and the ruling party agreed to implement a package of measures to turn the islets into ``habitable'' ones, according to GNP spokesman Cha Myeong-jin.

Currently, there are two permanent residents and two Ulleung county officials on the islets which have no public infrastructure.

In addition, the two sides agreed to conduct investigations of undersea minerals near Dokdo, to allow freer public access to the islets and turn Dokdo into a resort area with hotels, he said.

It is also reported that the government is considering building infrastructure to provide tap water, establish an oceanic scientific base and to dispatch public officials to the area.

That KT article also brings us netizen reactions at the bottom of each and every article, of the quality we've come to expect.

Wasn't but a couple days ago that the government announced further measures to protect what it claims is biodiversity on the rocks. I can think of nothing better for a fragile ecosystem than hordes of maniacal tourists who have already largely depleted wildlife on the peninsula. Plus, we recall the disgusting behavior some Koreans have displayed in Tsushima, another island disputed by some, so encouraging more tourists to the Liancourt Rocks might not be the best idea.

"Where islanders are treated like lepers."

Yesterday the Joongang Ilbo had a little write-up on Goheung county's Sorok-do, an island that was used as a leper colony during Japanese Occupation. That article admittedly doesn't make much sense, but I recommend you check out James Card's lengthy article from 2005 here. An excerpt:

One of the buildings open to the public is the grim place where Japanese doctors performed experimental autopsies and they forced vasectomies on the male patients in order to "cull" the island's population. In the drab operation room, a bare light bulb dangles above a stone cutting table and on the wall hangs a poem by a former patient, mourning his fate and the fact he will never have children.

This is a sharp contrast to the nearby hospital. Organized like most modern hospitals across the country, the patients are getting the treatment that they deserve. Currently there are 750 patients on the island; some are active while others are hospitalized. Patients are free to leave the island with doctor's approval.

As for people coming to the island, a nurse said, "Ten years ago it was impossible to come to the island but now with increased awareness about Hansen's disease, the island is open to visitors."

The Korea Times had an article on the island back in 2005, on the topic of Japanese lawyers trying to get compensation for the patients exiled to the island during Occupation. An excerpt from the article, available today via Empas:

Under a court ruling in 2001 that concluded that the state wrongly maintained its isolation policy, the Japanese government was ordered to pay compensation to former Hansen's patients.

However, the Japanese government is maintaining that its compensation policy does not cover the people kept in sanitariums in Japan's former colonies.

According to Tokuda [the lawyer leading the fight], his Korean plaintiffs testified that they had been subjected to hard labor and forced to take sterilization operations, with Japanese authorities fearing their newborns may pass on the disease to others.

The Japanese lawyer criticized Tokyo’s stance of not recognizing former Hansen’s disease patients outside of Japan, saying it has little logical ground.

Japan’s compensation law does not limit the nationality or the current place of residence of the patients when they apply for compensation.

The article continues:

Activists such as Park and Chae are urging the government to set up a state-run panel to investigate the lives and experiences of Hansen’s disease patients and compensate for past human rights abuses.

In one of the better known incidents, 26 cured Hansen’s disease patients were killed by local residents of Bitori Island, South Kyongsang Province, in 1957 after they attempted to resettle there. However, the attackers received prison terms of less than three years or were released with a suspended sentence.

More recently in 1992, a resettlement village in Chilgok, North Kyongsang Province, was raided by police after a local newspaper wrongfully reported that Hansen’s disease patients kidnapped and murdered five Taegu school boys who were missing at that time.

Although the missing school boys were found dead and buried in a different location ten years later, neither the police or the media outlets that reported the incident issued an apology.

``The country’s 17,000 former Hansen’s disease patients and their 50,000 family members have suffered under various types of discrimination over the past years. It is time for the government to look beyond just the medical aspects of the issue and come up with comprehensive plans to improve the social conditions of these people,’’ said Chung Keun-shik, a sociology professor at Seoul National University.

The Dong-A Ilbo has the story from 2004:

Korean and Japanese legal circles have begun a full-scale legal motion regarding the compensation claim for the patients of leprosy or Hansen’s disease who suffered in Sorokdo concentration camps under the rule of Japanese imperialism.

The Korean Bar Association (KBA), led by President Park Jae-seung, and Japan’s Defense Counsel for State Reparation for Hansen’s Disease represented by Lawyer Tokuda Yasuyuki, announced on June 4 that the two organizations will jointly institute an action against the Japanese government to pay compensation for the Sorokdo patients with Hansen’s disease.

Other google news searches for the Japanese lawyer's name turn up articles from 2001, available with subscription, so this battle has apparently been going on for a while. In other stories, Pope John Paul II visited Sorok-do in 1984 and washed the feet of Hansen's Disease patients. You can find the text of his speech here. And, last fall a bridge opened up between the island and the mainland. An excerpt from a wire report on the opening:

Kim Myong-Ho, 58, leader of 645 surviving lepers in seven villages on the island, gave the bridge a cautious welcome.

"If our predecessors -- some of whom drowned trying to escape -- could hear about it, they would rejoice," said Kim, who has spent 14 years on the island.

"But on the other hand, we are concerned about a reckless influx of outsiders disturbing peace and order."

Visitors who come by ferry are currently banned from staying overnight and their access to the seven villages is restricted.

"Hopefully such restrictions will remain intact even after the bridge opens," Kim said, adding residents and authorities are discussing how to preserve peace and the environment.

For Park In-Suk, 84, who has lived on Sorok since 1936, the project is a cause for concern.

"What if thieves sneak in here across the bridge?" she told AFP in an interview in her one-room house.

She is almost blind and has lost both hands and both legs below the knees.

"With my flesh perishing, I just believe in going to heaven here," she said.

Japanese police forced Park to leave her home at the age of 13 and come to Sorok. The day she arrived, she wept for her lost family.

Worse was to come -- decades of meagre food, insufficient treatment and gruelling labour, with patients forced to make bricks, weave straw bags or labour in construction.

The New York Times had an article on the bridge and the island, too. Sorok-do seems worth a visit, in an educational not morbid way. Classes from my school and I imagine others take day trips to the island during their semester field trips. You can see a little more of the hospital via the official site, and can find some more pictures of the area via a Naver search.

Update to the "Ugly Dog Abuse Video from Mokpo."

You remember that disgusting video a foreign teacher in Mokpo took of the school's groundskeeper beating a dog on his farm? Well, that teacher brings us, um . . . more of the same from "Crazy Willie."


Dismembered dog in a basket.

And Christ, this is really an unfortunate headline from the Joongang Ilbo. Because, as you probably know, another dish historically considered good for one's health during the summer's hottest days has, of course, been dog soup.

Free chicken on rainy days.

Korea Kentucky Fried Chicken is offering free chicken when its raining outside. I'll be waiting.

Old pictures of Suncheon.

My coworkers discovered my blog earlier this week, and I have a feeling they'd be disappointed if I left you with unpleasant Liancourt Rocks news atop it this weekend, so for the second time today I'm going to try to stick something positive above the fold.






The pictures come from this blog, which also has images of Mokpo, Gwangju, and a bunch of other cities throughout the country. My favorite is the one of Suncheon Station, which presents a pretty different image from how it looks today, seeing how the station was rebuilt in 1960.


I took this in April, 2007.

I couldn't find a good shot of both the station and the large rotary in front of it, for comparison's purposes, but I did find a picture of a guy standing in front of it in 1991, as part of an interesting photo essay of his bike trip around the country. There are a few more old pictures of Suncheon, and links to old pictures of other Jeollanam-do cities, in a previous entry about the area's missionaries.

Cheongju cancels homestay program for Japanese students.

Okay, I tried to leave an interesting, positive story atop the page for the weekend, but Cheongju decided to override that. Seems the city in Chungcheongbuk-do---incorrectly written as Chongju in the following article---has cancelled the annual exchange program between it and Tottori because of the renewed interest in the Liancourt Rocks dispute. An excerpt from Japan Today, via Japan News Junkie.

The education board chief of Chongju said in a faxed message Tuesday that the decision was made in consideration to national sentiments in South Korea following the Japanese government’s move to mention the islets, known as Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea, for the first time in a teaching guideline for junior high schools. ‘‘It is regrettable that a political and diplomatic matter like Takeshima disrupts a friendly event between the two countries’ middle school students,’’ said Toshitaka Nakagawa, head of Tottori’s education board. Under the program, 33 students from Tottori city were supposed to visit Chongju from July 29 for five days to stay with South Korean host families.

While I still say that Japan ought to have known better than raise this issue again in the manner it did, that does not excuse this disgusting behavior on the part of Cheongju, or the other acts of cruelty and hatred we've seen carried out in these rocks' name. This story is also mentioned in this wire report. Browse the brand-new Liancourt Rocks category to see other news relating to this most recent diplomatic crisis.

Muan's "American Town."

Hmm, I need something a little more positive at the top of my page, so let's turn away from grotesque nationalism and instead look at something happening in my own backyard. Jeollanam-do's Muan county is working on developing an "American Town" intended for

overseas Koreans living in the U.S. who wish to spend the rest of their lives in their homeland.

The page is in kind of awkward English, but here's an excerpt:

The American Town faces a calm and beautiful ocean with a backdrop of serene mountains gently enveloping the site, providing a natural and peaceful residential living experience. The entire site will be enhanced with a variety of lifestyle amenities such as golf courses, tennis courts, cycling trails and arboretums including first class residential facilities such as neatly planned and landscaped sidewalks with ample street lighting and intelligent traffic management all surrounded by natural forestry and beautiful landscapes as basic elements.

Shopping and medical facilities will be conveniently planned and the unique historical, architectural and cultural identity of the region will all be masterfully incorporated into the over all design to create a wondrous, world-class living environment .

Conversational English lessons will be provided for regional residents through the services of an Integrated Community Center .

The creation of the American Town complex is currently underway, with basic infrastructure and building foundations being prepared in perfect order.
Lifestyle infrastructures that are difficult to find in existing country housing, such as reliable water works, natural gas, and high-speed communication networks are being prepared to perfection. The development is planned to become a city-styled country residence.

I know what they meant, but I still chuckled when I saw they're building a "welfare office" in American Town. According to the "execution status" page, since December, 2007

Completed registration of 68 overseas Koreans who wish to reside in the American Town

Interestingly there is also an American Town planned for Namhae county, Gyeongsangnam-do, and road signs in that pretty little area already point the way. I couldn't find much online about it, but there is a lot more information available on the German Village there. Take a look at this New York Times article, for starters. An excerpt:

German Village, South Korea, only three years old, is an improbable creation, the product of this nation's shifting needs. In the 1960's and 70's, South Korea, poor and overpopulated, sent thousands of its citizens to work as nurses or miners in West Germany. Today, they and their German spouses are being welcomed back, especially in rural areas whose populations have been decimated by urban migration and declining birthrates.

The authorities here, in Namhae County, took the invitation a step further by carving this village from a mountain facing the sea. They offered cheap land and construction subsidies to any Korean nurse or miner who had lived in Germany for at least 20 years, requiring that they build houses in one of five German architectural models. The village will eventually accommodate up to 75 houses.

So far, the village has drawn a small community of Koreans and some Germans, who may not have ever imagined whiling away their retirement days in a corner of South Korea that is visited by few Koreans, though it is famous for its garlic.

More pictures and information available here via Naver. When I visited with my friends last year they told me it was the filming location for some drama or other. I only found out later that people actually live there, and had I known that at the time I wouldn't have been so . . . gawky, at people's homes.


Deutsches Dorf, Oktober 2007.

Hier und hier sind zwei Artikeln auf einem deutsches Blog über dem Deutschen Dorf auf Namhae, und hier ist weitere Information über Namhae und das "Dogil Maul," der ein Star Wars Charakter ist.

Pheasants mutilated at Seoul protest.

Add this to your list of over-the-top Korean protests.

About 40 military veterans wearing army uniforms staged a gory protest outside Japan’s embassy yesterday.

They cut the heads off live pheasants, Japan’s national bird, and dripped the blood on Japanese flags and on pictures of Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and former Japanese leaders. Some battered birds to death with hammers. Others cut open bellies and ate the livers, shouting: “Dokdo is our territory!”

From It's Beyond Me via Japan Probe. Just as the earlier New York Times ad might have drawn positive international attention to Korea's claim of the Liancourt Rocks, ridiculous, vulgar acts like this will severely harm Korea's cause and Korea's image abroad. Let's hope other domestic groups come out against this right quick.

* Edit: Ooops, changed the title from "chickens" to "pheasants," because as Its Beyond Me pointed out, the pheasant is the national bird of Japan.

Don't let baby's health interfere with Dokdo's needs. Just put some Tussin on it.

A Korean librarian in Canada has been working to prevent the US Library of Congress from changing the way it catalogues material on the Liancourt Rocks, known in Korean as Dokdo and in Japanese as Takeshima. Here's an interesting bit from the Chosun Ilbo write-up:

Over the weekend, Kim collected materials on Dokdo and wrote an e-mail to the Library of Congress to remind it that changing the subject heading is inappropriate.

"My one-year-old son Ari had a fever during the weekend, but I couldn't take him to the hospital and only gave him a fever remedy, because I was busy reviewing materials on Dokdo and writing the e-mail,” she told the Chosun Ilbo.

To borrow a phrase used against me, clearly she does not understand Western culture and we must correct this foreigner's behavior. Since it's perfectly acceptable to threaten foreigners in Korea for writing on and taking interest in domestic issues, perhaps a call to child services over there would be in order. After all, if the KORUS FTA is somehow considered an exclusively domestic issue in Korea, and if American view points on the massive candlelight vigils all over South Korea are not welcome, then it's not unreasonable to say that how the United States Library of Congress decides to call disputed territory in English is a wholly domestic matter to them, and should not be meddled with by a foreigner. Heh, let's just see how far that logic flies.

Japanese condom advertisement removed from Seoul subway.

Must be a sensitivity issue, hahahaha! *cough* From the Korea Times:

The ads, 54 by 39 centimeters, were placed next to the train doors _ one of the most eye-catching spots. They did not have a picture related to a condom, but had phrases such as ``No. 1 in Japan.''

The subway operator, however, removed all the ads Tuesday even though the contract had not run out, saying they may be against ``public sentiment.''

``Apart from the inappropriateness of condom ads inside subway cars, we thought it could run counter to public sentiment following the eruption of a fresh dispute over Dokdo,'' a Seoul Metro official said.

The article is in Korean on the Chosun Ilbo site, from whence the above photograph was stolen. In other Liancourt Rocks news, some foreigners have been giving lessons on Dokdo to kindergarten children. These teachers were actually college students visiting Korea for a few weeks. No word yet on if these foreigners or their handlers know how hard some cities are working to keep white people out of kindergartens. As the Korea Times told us last month:

It's illegal for any foreign national, even those with an E-2 visa, to work at an institute registered as kindergarten. Under Korean law, kindergartens are banned from providing English classes.

Which is ambiguous on their end, I know, since lots of us work at kindergartens legally through our public schools. But still, an interesting juxtaposition.

Poll: "What's your favorite beach in Jeollanam-do?"

My apologies to those who read my page via google reader, because this is the third similar thread I've posted this morning. To my great annoyance my earlier two attempts to include a poll on this site haven't worked, so instead I'll direct your attention to the thread on Waygook.org, the messageboard mostly comprised of teachers in Jeollanam-do. If you're a member please vote, and if you're not a member go ahead and sign up if you have a favorite.

Library of Congress *gasp* decides to use neutral name for "Dokdo."

Cartoon from today's Joongang Ilbo.

The US Library of Congress has decided to call the Liancourt Rocks . . . the Liancourt Rocks, rather than showing bias to one side or other by using "Dokdo" or "Takeshima." The full story is here via the Chosun Ilbo. I'm shocked, but I guess I shouldn't be, that people actually think this is due to Japanese lobbying, or that adopting a neutral designation for the rocks will have drastic consequences.

With the decision, major libraries and organizations in North America as well as around the world are expected to follow suit.

Um, yeah, I guess, I dunno, but it's not as if anybody outside of Korea will actually care or notice. And, after various people have complained about the Japanese putting pressure on the US to change the name away from "Dok Island," the arrogance found among some public figures is astounding:

Lee Ki-suk, a professor emeritus of geography at Seoul National University who also serves as chairman of civic group the Society for East Sea, said, "If the U.S. Library of Congress changes the subject heading, the decision can have repercussions for other organizations. Korea should strongly protest, stressing the need to describe Dokdo in conformity with the resolution of the UN Conference on Standardization of Geographical Names."

I think that report can be found here, but I'm not completely sure. On page 36 we see that North Korea suggested the name be changed from the "Sea of Japan" to the "Sea of Korea." It continues on page 37:

The Committee encouraged the three countries to continue their efforts to find a solution acceptable to all of them, taking into account relevant resolutions, or else to agree to differ, and to report the outcome of their discussions to the next Conference. The Chairman stated in his summary that individual countries could not impose specific names on the international community and standardization could only be promoted when a consensus existed.

That last line is worth repeating again and again and again.

*edit: I will add that "Liancourt Rocks" isn't exactly neutral, being named after a French whaling ship. It would be a little like refering to Hawaii as the "Sandwich Islands," although that scenario is a little different since those islands are inhabited. However, given the apparent lack of interest in mutual understanding between the Koreas and Japan, Liancourt Rocks is perhaps the most neutral option in English. Should a resolution ever be made, I'm sure we'll begin to call them Dokdo, or Takeshima, or something, but for the time being no English-speakers care using one word or the other is too politically charged, and I think the Library of Congress has made the right choice. Besides, if given the choice to offend Japan or the country that has been having wall-to-wall protests about the FTA and American beef, who would you choose to annoy?

Lotus Festivals this month in Muan, Buyeo.

Buyeo is a county, not an exclamation, and there will be a lotus festival called "부여서동연꽃축제" from July 18th through August 3rd. Not a whole lot of information available, though you can check out the county's profile here .

Buyeo seems like a neat place to visit. The county seat of Buyeo-eup was the capital of the Baekje Kingdom from 530 to 660 AD, and there are a number of historical points of interest. The county has a shitty English website with tourist information here and a little better one in Korean here. VisitKorea has nothing about Buyeo, unfortunately, but Robert Koehler did a little write-up of Buyeo's history for Seoul magazine last year that is reprinted on the site here. You can probably glean more information through a Naver search. It doesn't look like buses go there from the Gwangju terminal, although you can catch one to Daejeon every thirty minutes, where it looks like you can catch buses to Buyeo.



Pictures of the Lotus Resivoir, taken from the Muan county homepage.

Muan has one in July, too, called the "Korea Lotus Industry Festival" (대한민국연꽃산업축제). It runs from July 24th through July 29th, although Muan has a lotus pond that is worth a visit at other times. There is a good profile on VisitKorea here, which tells us that it's the largest habitat of white lotus in Asia. It continues:

The highlight of Muan White Lotus Festival is of course a boat ride where you can get a nice view of the lotus flowers along the road. Exploring experience of lotus road on the water is totally magical just like a jungle adventure.

In addition to seeing and smelling white lotus flowers, there is another way to enjoy white lotuses, which is by tasting various foods made with white lotus. Not only traditional dishes of Muan but also various special fragrant foods with white lotus including lotus ice cream, lotus shakes, lotus sandwiches, lotus noodles, and lotus-wrapped rice can be enjoyed.

I kid, but it actually looks like a decent time. When I first started this entry I was more interested in the one in Buyeo, since it has lots of historical sites. But I'm pissed they suck at promoting themselves, and don't have much decent information available online, so instead I give the nod to Muan, at least for Jeollanam-do residents. Plus, the capital of Jeollanam-do is located in Muan, believe it or not, and they began a massive "New City" initiative in 2001 to grow the village of Namak-ri into a city of 150,000 by 2019. It got a new airport last year and has loads of development projects planned. Let's show a little civic pride and visit our glorious capital. *cough*

Anyway, buses run to Muan frequently from Gwangju and neighboring Mokpo.

Old pottery found by treasure hunter, confiscated by government.

I've said before that there is very little I find more boring than pottery. However, I wanted to mention this little story briefly because of something I saw on samedi's blog. Since I can't comment on LiveJournal blogs, I might as well do it here since it's related to Jeollanam-do.



As he mentions, after a tip-off from Korea Beat, a treasure hunter recently found some pieces of celadon pottery from the Goryeo Dynasty. They were, however, confiscated by the Korean government in the interest of preserving these cultural properties. The article quotes a man saying that the pieces are from Daegu, and saemdi mentions confusion about seeing both Jeollanam-do and Daegu named. I just wanted to point out that Daegu-myeon (대구면) is kind of like a township in Gangjin county, Jeollanam-do. 전라남도 강진군 대구면. Gangjin is regionally famous for being the origin of lots of celadon pottery, called 청자, and Daegu-myeon is the site of some 188 of Korea's 400 kilns. One source says the pottery came to Korea from China in the year 900, but I have no idea if that's true, and the Gangjin county official site says that 80% of Korea's celadon treasures are from Gangjin. Daegu-myeon is also where the Gangjin Celadon Museum is located, in front of which is the annual Gangjin Celadon Culture Festival.


The festival's mascots. Now that's what I call a pothead, HAHAHAHAHA!

Anyway, when we last heard from Gangjin celadon it was taking part in a 6-city, 65-day US tour, which finished up earlier in the week. Here's a little introduction to the region's representative art form, via the Korean Embassy:

Gangjin celadon porcelain, a national treasure of Korea, is world famous for its transcendent beauty. During the Goryeo era in Korea, (918-1382 AD) approximately 80% of the celadon ceramic objects were made in royal kilns located in Gangjin City. Today, the ceramic artists of Gangjin continue to use centuries-old technique of firing vessels with glazes containing traces of iron ore to produce the unique greenish and grayish colors that, while remaining true to the ancient techniques, appeal to the aesthetic values and sensibilities of today’s ceramic enthusiasts. Gangjin City has held a number of successful Goryeo Celadon Exhibitions, including the main office of the UNESCO in Paris, as well as a six-city tour of Japan in 2007.