The Chosun Bimbo

RSS Changes

noreply@blogger.com (Stafford) — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 08:17:00 +0000

Just a reminder to those of you who are reading The Chosun Bimbo in an RSS reader of some description.

CHANGE YOUR FEED!

Here it is here: http://stafford.squarespace.com/journal/rss.xml

Or bookmark www.stafford.net.nz.

Moving Day Here at The Bimbo

noreply@blogger.com (Stafford) — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 15:28:00 +0000

This is for those of you that

Saved www.stafford.net.nz/bimbo.html as a bookmark and come here directly
Are subscribing by RSS

The Bimbo is dead! Long Live The Bimbo!

I have changed hosts half way through the season, so you need to do a couple of things to keep up to date with developments at The Chosun Bimbo.

To subscribe by RSS use this link. (http://stafford.squarespace.com/journal/rss.xml)

If you want to bookmark The Chosun Bimbo use this link:
http://stafford.squarespace.com/journal/rss.xml

Using http://www.stafford.net.nz will send you to the new blog.

Sorry for the inconvenience, the upshot is that I have fixed ALL of the problems that have been plaguing The Bimbo over the last little while, and I did it all for You.

Everything That's Wrong with the Korean Internet

noreply@blogger.com (Stafford) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:36:00 +0000

And all in one relatively concise Korea Times article. Sarcastic comments in Italics:

The unveiling of 'Chrome,' Google's new Web browser, is one of the biggest stories to come out of the computer industry in years.
In Korea, the self-proclaimed capital of the digital world, however, the highly anticipated debut of Google��s latest product was met with relative indifference.

Self Proclaimed! Ha!

The beta version of Chrome, revealed Wednesday, certainly had a good share of innovations, such as its impressive quickness in loading pages and the independent functioning of tabs, which allows the browser to run when even one of the tabs crashes.
And it even works offline, making it a serious contender to challenge the dominance of Microsoft and its Internet Explorer browser.
However, all of this doesn��t matter much to Korean Internet users, who are so accustomed to IE, which comes packed and ready on their Window-based computers.
Most Korean Internet sites are reliant on Active -X , a program used to install software components on Web pages to enable particular functions, which can run on IE only.
This means that users of Chrome, or any other non-Microsoft browser like Firefox, would experience trouble logging in to email accounts, be prevented from online transactions like banking and credit-card purchases, and even stopped from downloading officials documents on the country's egovernment site, www.egov.go.kr, which only functions on IE.

Aaaaaaah!

When tested on popular portals such as Naver www.naver.com or Daum www.daum.net, Chrome was quick to load the main pages. However, the log-in security programs on the sties, which are installed through Active - X, didn��t function.

Double Aaaaaah!

The sites of major Korean banks such as Kookmin and Woori didn��t function normally on Chrome either. Accessing the e government site with the Google browser and the user is left with a message declaring 'install control for Macintosh user.'

Fucking typical!

However, Google is not intending to miss out on the Korean market and said it is planning to make Active - X operate on Chrome for a designated number of Korean sties.

Don't Encourage them!

The company is currently making a white list of major Korean sites that would be accessible on Chrome despite their reliance on Active - X, although that would certainly raise some eyebrows among supporters of the open-source movement.

Someone obviously doesn't understand Open Source...indeed, Google says you are more than welcome to tinker with the code. Doing so to make it possible to do my fucking online banking would be a welcome addition to the programme.

'We don��t intend to make Chrome inconvenient to Korean Internet users,' said Lois Kim, head of corporate communications and public affairs at Google Korea.

No! Make it inconvenient, then someone might actually get the point and dump Active - X because users are pissed off!

According to industry estimates, about 95 percent of Korean Internet sites are reliant on Active - X, which puts them in an awkward situation as Microsoft is moving to phase out the program over security concerns.

See - even Microsoft admits Active - X is shit.

As a result, Korean Internet users bite their fingernails whenever Microsoft releases a new product.

Bite their fingernails? Shit! I almost chucked my monitor out the window yesterday!

The release of Windows Vista, Microsoft's latest computer operating system, caused a massive disruption last year when Active - X programs used by online shopping malls and Internet banking sites didn't function properly. It took Microsoft and other companies nearly two months to adjust the problem.

You would have thought that might have been a clue - no?

Another worry is that Microsoft will reduce its support of Active - X in the soon-to-be released IE8, the latest version of its Internet browser.

Again, Microsoft gets half a clue. Shit! No one in Korea even uses IE 7 - they all still use IE 6 for God's sake!

ActiveX controls require full access to the Windows operating system,

which is why they are shit

which represents a serious security risk as malicious Web sites can direct the browser to download files that compromises the user's control of the computer.

Like spastic and ultimately useless "personal firewalls" and "Anti-keyboard logger" programmes from Ahn Labs and Hanabank that make (XP at any rate) into an unstable flying shit pile. (My computer blue screened twice today!?)

Die Active - X Die!

Ozzy Ozzy Ozzy!

noreply@blogger.com (Stafford) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 12:42:00 +0000

I firmed up my claim to Australian citezenship this afternoon after the silly buggers in Canberra decided to give me an Australian passport!
not too sure it was a smart decision on my part given a certain record breaking loss by the Wallabies to South Africa. And then of course, theres Andrew Symonds' fishing trip.

noreply@blogger.com (Stafford) — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 13:18:00 +0000

Fear not, dear reader. I just needed somewhere convenient to put this.

1.Using the list of sound spelling correspondences in Appendix 1 of Teaching Reading and Writing, analyze the relative regularity of these five words ? price, number, between, help, access.

Regularity refers to how often there is a correspondence between the spelling and the sound (pronunciation) of a word. English spelling is difficult. Although there are many rules, there are also many irregularities and decision points where competing rules need to be chosen (Nation 2005 : 16)
Overall there are a number of points of regularity in the words price, number, between, help, and access. The final e in price turning the c into /s/, (AC3) is frequent enough so as to be taught as a general rule rather than an exception, likewise the double c in access with the first c being /k/ (AC2) and the second also /s/.
Difficulty arises with the word number and to whether the last ~er in the final position is AV12 /?/ in the Received pronunciation or CV9 /?:/ in (the rhotic) General American English.

2. Explain how the different spellings of bath and bathe reflect the different pronunciations. In addition note which correspondences in Appendix 1 of Teaching Reading and Writing apply.

The pronunciation of bathe, as distinct from bath, is dependent on the speaker recognizing the influence of the silent ~e. (Sometimes referred to as the ��Magic ~e��) on the word. The addition of the silent ~e to bath causes the vowel sound /��/ (GA) or /?��/ (RP) to become /e?/.

In terms of teaching the spelling difference there are a number of fairly frequent instances of the ��Magic ~e�� that could be taught to learners as a general rule. for example hat ? hate, fat ? fate, rat ? rate etc. (Most do not have the ��trap ? bath�� split (Wells 1982 : 100) apparent in the bath / bathe example above which will need to be pointed out to learners as a further distinction).Table 1. below notes the spelling correspondences between bath and bathe as described in appendix 1 of Teaching Reading and Writing. Nation (2005)

Table 1. Spelling correspondences bath Vs. bathe

3.Briefly comment on five different kinds of item in the Limestone text in the set readings booklet that you could draw attention to in intensive reading....

Intensive reading involves the detailed reading of texts with the two goals of understanding the text and learning language features.... Typically the text chosen for intensive reading is one that learners would have difficulty in reading unassisted. (Nation 2004 : 20)Table 1. below looks at five items that could be focused on in the text Limestone in an intensive reading exercise. It describes the reason for the focus, possible strategies for the classroom and the value of the focus in learners' future learning.

1 Nation (2005:23)
2 The last portion of the text (p.19) could be used to set context though requires some preparation. Borrowing limestone samples from geography teaching colleagues and passing them around amongst learners is simple to do and makes the reading immediately relevant, engaging learners in the reading from the very beginning
3 Ibid.

4. Suggest two practical ways you can ensure learners are reading at the appropriate level in an extensive reading scheme, and suggest two ways a teacher can monitor learners' reading without compromising the sixth of the Day and Bamford (2002) principles.

Teachers can ensure that their learners are reading at the appropriate level in a number of
ways.

Firstly it is necessary to know the learner's present vocabulary level. For learners at the elementary, pre- and intermediate levels it is essential that they read graded readers that have been specifically prepared for learners of English (Nation 2001 : 2). This is because extensive reading, according to Hu and Nation (cited in Ibid.), can only occur if 95 ? 98% of running words in the text are already familiar to the learner. Teachers should thus choose materials suited to learner's vocabulary. This could be monitored by keeping a ��Running Record�� of learners' reading, perhaps at each graded reader level. Running Records could be administered prior to moving to a higher level (or moving to a higher level might be dependent on the running record result). In this author's experience running records have been used to motivate learners to improve vocabulary through reading. The second measure of level appropriateness is perhaps more anecdotal, but might be argued as valid by a number of teachers. Teachers, by-in-large, know their students, their students' habits and backgrounds. It would seem quite obvious that if a student is having difficulty with a series of texts at a given level, for whatever reason, then they are not reading at the appropriate level for an extensive reading programme.
A good way to monitor and combat this sort of difficulty would be to make sure learners read a large number of texts at one level before progressing to the next. Nation suggests learners should both read at least one book a week, allowing unknown vocabulary to be repeated before the immediately previous occurrence is forgotten, (2001 : 6) and that learners should have finished at least five texts at a level before moving on, providing a chance for most of the vocabulary introduced at that level to actually occur. (Ibid.)

Bibliography
Day, R., and Borman, J. (2002), Top Ten Principles for Teaching Extensive Reading. Reading in a Foreign Language 14, 2

Murdoch, G., (1986) A More Integrated Approach to the Teaching of Reading. English Teaching
Forum 24, 1 : 9 - 15

Nation, I. S. P., (2001) Planning and Running an Extensive Reading Program. NUCB Journal of
Language, Culture and Communication 3, 1 : 1 - 8

Nation, I. S. P., (2004) Vocabulary Learning and Intensive Reading. EA Journal 21, 2 : 20 - 29

Nation, I. S. P., (2005) Teaching Reading and Writing,

Palmer, D., (1982) Information Transfer for Listening and Reading. English Teaching Forum 20 1 : 29 - 33

Wells, J., (1982) Accents of English, Vol. 1, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

Maguiness, J., 1996, Limestone, School Journal pt. 2 no. 3, 1996

Unfortunate Olympian Names #1

noreply@blogger.com (Stafford) — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 05:20:00 +0000

TV Gods

noreply@blogger.com (Stafford) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 11:25:00 +0000

Bloggers Michael H. of Metropolitician fame and friend of The Bimbo, Joe McP. from Zen Kimchi and The Seoul Podcast feature in the opening segment of this week's Korea Now (Aug. 27) on Arirang TV. Go. Now. Watch. (Requires registration).

In a related note, and for reasons that will become apparent shortly, go and join The Seoul Podcast ~~MyFace~~ Facebook Group and take The Seoul Podcast survey.
Did I mention The Seoul Podcast!?

Updates

noreply@blogger.com (Stafford) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 11:22:00 +0000

One Free Korea has interesting updates on firstly The Spy, and secondly the Communist Prof. Go. Now. Read.

A Bit of A Worry

noreply@blogger.com (Stafford) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:10:00 +0000

I'm always keen for a bit of international espionage (along with heists). So it was with some interest that I saw the Twitter go mental with reports of a North Korean spy posing as a defector and then sleeping with Army captains to obtain classified information.
Goodtimes!
This is the stuff movies are made of. And ya know...whattaya gonna do. The two Koreas are after all still technically at war, and it's not the first time North Korean spies have been found in the South.
Ho-hum.
It's just that this comes amongst a couple of other things that I have been hearing and reading around the place. The first is something of a backlash over what people have been constantly referring to as "The last decade of left wing (mis)rule" here in South Korea.
Being sufficiently long in the tooth to have experienced at least half of that decade I thought things went reasonably well. Indeed the current ~~financial mess~~ fiscal down-turn has only occurred since the current right wing administration took office. By way of example, five years ago I got close to NZD$1700 for the million Won I sent home. Now I get closer to NZD$1200. (Well at least I would if I sent money home anymore.)
But I'll call a down turn a down turn. Korea, like any country that is an exporter of shit people want will weather the current "crisis" with annual growth around 2% and a weak currency. (Not so good for going on holiday, but super awesome for exporters. See above.)
Yes. Amongst other things I am an armchair economist.
~~What scared me shitless~~ What I found a bit of a worry earlier this evening was this story from The Korea Times detailing the arrest and questioning of Yonsei University Economics Professor Oh Se Cheol.
And why the arrest? Well you'd be forgiven for thinking he had plagiarised a paper or faked his credentials, but no. Oh was arrested for denouncing capitalism, an offense under the National Security law.
Let me say that another way.
An academic was arrested for saying that they disagreed with a certain academic theory.
Let me say that another way.
The dude was arrested for pretty much doing his job.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said Wednesday it had arrested Oh Se-cheol, honorary professor at Yonsei University, and seven other Socialist Workers League of Korea members on Tuesday. The eight are now being questioned in Ogin-dong, central Seoul, over whether they have criticized capitalism and praised socialism as well as other acts considered benefiting the enemy - the North Korea.

No that's not me being a smart ass, The Korea Times called it The North Korea
Hahahahahaha! Too funny!
What's not funny is arresting academics. Even if they are members of some ridiculous Socialist Workers group. (You know who they are if you went to ANY university in the Western World.)
Arresting University professors is not cool.

NOT COOL!

Even more scary, the invocation of South Korea's problematic adolescence

Some are worrying whether these new moves will bring back the 'public security' era when police used excessive force against people under the name of 'keeping the peace' in the authoritarian era of the 1970s and 1980s.

Scary. And adding to my worry it seems that Prof. Oh is something of an ANTI-North Korean academic.

[sic]academia and others are criticizing the police's moves since Oh is well known for denouncing North Korea. Roh Hoe-chan of the minor New Progressive Party said, 'Oh and his groups constantly said the North has been polluted with other ideas in socialism, which all socialists should "refrain from following". Shouldn't the group be defined as anti - North Korean?'

You'd think so. In addition

'Oh criticized capitalism even under the military junta in the 1970s but was never prosecuted for violating the law. I do not understand the government's ethics on the issue,' Prof. Han Sang-hee of Konkuk University said calling for the government's respect on a variety of social ideas.

And I'm thinking if Prof. Oh got away with this kinda shit under Messrs. Park and Chun, then the current administration shouldn't have that much of an issue with it. (cf. reference to security era in the first quote above.)
(Rare) Kudos to The Korea Times for chucking the spy thing into the last paragraph, where it belongs, in the face of this academic being shut down for doing what academic types do.
In actual fact, I put to you this: The nutters had a go at bringing down Lee Myung Bak and didn't win. Perhaps the thinkers - like Profs. Oh and Han, and this lot - might have more success?

Robocop Goes To China

noreply@blogger.com (Stafford) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 23:55:00 +0000

You have 5 seconds to comply....

A law enforcement officer displays body armor with reinforced protection for the arm and a gun that shoots out a net for use in catching dogs during a ceremony to highlight laws for keeping pets in Zhengzhou, central China's Henan province, Saturday, Oct. 27, 2007. In the past years, many local authorities in China have ordered mass dog killings to control the spread of rabies, blamed for more than 3,000 deaths last year in China. (AP Photo/EyePress)
(Via The Slug)

Explains a Few Things

noreply@blogger.com (Stafford) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 04:13:00 +0000

My humble abode is situated on the 7th floor of a very pleasant officetel in Gangnam. Such as it is, one often hears people coming and going at all hours of the day and night. Korea Beat explains why that might be:

Officetel Prostitution Flourishing in Seoul

Unintended effects from the Special Law on Prostitution continue to multiply. One Weekly Chosun writer decided to check out a new one for himself.

It is August 19th at 8 pm in officetel A near Seollung Station, on line 2 of the Seoul Subway. It is a mixed-use officetel just over 70 meters from Teheran Street. I've come here after calling a broker for 'officetel prostitution' whose contact information I found on an adult website.

I arrived at the officetel and called the broker again. The broker said, 'right now I only have two girls. One is 168 centimeters tall and size 55, the other is 160 centimeters and size 44, so choose one of them.'

After negotiations the broker said, 'take the elevator to the 11th floor.' I arrived at the 11th floor and after giving my money to a woman who looked to be in about her mid-thirties she said, 'go to room xx'. All of the regular rooms on the 11th floor are residences. The room the broker sent me to was 59.5m sq (18 pyeong), just a totally normal one-room apartment. There was a bed for two, desk, sofa, TV, refrigerator, and washing machine - and waiting for me, a woman in her twenties.

A new species of prostitution, 'officetel prostitution', is rapidly increasing at officetels in the downtown shopping and business districts of Seoul. Prostitution deals are flourishing in the offices and apartments of officetels near Gangnam Station and the Yeoksam, Seollung, Apgujeong, and Nonhyeon-dong neighborhoods north of the Han River. Johns learn about it through adult websites on the internet or through printed flyers. After the passage of the 'Special Law on Prostitution' in 2004 the number of brothels in red-light districts declined, but prostitution has changed into more sophisticated, hidden forms.

Ms. Kang, the 25-year old I met at officetel A, said, 'this room was rented by the 'section chief' (meaning the broker). since I communicate with the section chief directly, I don��t know how many other girls there are.'

According to the police and prostitution workers, brokers specializing in officetel prostitution often have 40 to 50 girls working for them. But they always communicate 'one on one', so it is difficult to know for certain.

Officetel prostution is flourishing because customers can come and go as naturally as if it were their own apartment or office. Ms. Kang, the prostitute, said, 'since they aren��t seen by strangers a lot of people come even during the day.'

In fact officetel prostition appears to be in boom times. At one famous adult internet site there are tens of ads from brokers for officetel prostitution. In one forum on the site, members can even make a reservation for the next day after looking at the women��s profiles.

On the 19th I called 12 brokers whose information I got from the site and all but one said, 'please wait a moment while I check if there are reservations tomorrow night.' Then they would say, 'call tomorrow' and hang up.

Police appear helpless to stop this form of prostitution. An investigator with the Gangnam Police Department said, 'the brokers and the prostitutes have things arranged in a way that makes it difficult to uncover them. Officetels are set up with individual apartments and offices so we are not allowed to just to go opening doors even if it��s to investigate.'

This appears to be the physical result of the 2004 'Special Law on Prostitution��' At the time there were an estimated 1696 red-light districts nationwide employing 5717 women as prostitutes. After the passage of the Law, police cracked down so that in September of 2007 there were 995 red-light districts employing 2508 prostitutes. So compared to before the Law was passed, there are 700 fewer red-light districts and half as many women working in them. The famous red-light districts Seoul 588, Busan Wanweol-dong, and Daegu Jagalmadang have nearly vanished.

But the number of people arrested for prostition continues to increase, from 12737 in 2003 to 29236 in 2007. Because of the Special Law and police crackdowns the number of red-light districts has decreased but hidden, unorthodox forms of prostitution are going on as before. This is the 'balloon effect' of crackdowns on prostitution - push it here, it moves over there, and nothing really changes.
The citizens organization Support Center for Victims of Sex Trafficking which helps victims of prostition to support themselves, said, 'with the Special Law and strengthened enforcement by police, prostitution has changed from being located in buildings, as if it were a business, to moving around and relying on the internet. To deal with this new species of prostitution the communications law should be updated and increased investigations carried out on the internet.'

See. Them Kowis Are All Good

noreply@blogger.com (Stafford) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 01:14:00 +0000

Danny Lee, Korean by birth, but definately a New Zealander when it comes to golf. Lee became the youngest player to win The US Amateur Championship yesterday, replacing Tiger Woods in the record books.
And he really wants to be a New Zealander.

Lee had been listed as a Korean in a professional tournament in his native land two years ago but [sic] that was down to the tournament organisers and Lee was upset by it.

The New Zealand Herald has coverage here, including a photo of a very happy Lee with a New Zealand flag, and the Radio New Zealand interview is here. (Mp3 3'10")

Auckland University Alumni Thing in Seoul

noreply@blogger.com (Stafford) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 06:32:00 +0000

For those of you who attended the prestigeous University of Auckland (Ranked 49th in the world by The Times Educational Supplement - one above Korea University) there is a bit of a thing at the New Zealand residence in Yongsan. (And oooooh! Free canap?s!):

The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stuart McCutcheon, has pleasure inviting you to join us at our Seoul Alumni and Friends Reception as we celebrate 125 years of excellence.
Date	Monday 13 October
Time	7.00pm ? 9.30pm
Venue	New Zealand Residence 1-33 Dongbinggo-dong, Yongsan-gu Seoul Republic of Korea
Alumni Speaker	Associate Professor Manying Ip
Cost	There is no cost to attend this event. Drinks and canap?s will be provided.
Dress Code	Smart Casual
RSVP	To www.alumni.auckland.ac.nz/rsvp By 30 September 2008
Queries	To Sunita Harenburg, Events Co-ordinator Email: alumni-events@auckland.ac.nz or Phone: +64 9 373 7599 ext. 88800

Eating Marmite and Kimchi: Being Korean New Zealanders

Associate Professor Manying Ip from The University of Auckland School of Asian Studies will share her passion about the importance of national identity, the tension between nationalism and globalisation, and the diversity as a strength.

Manying will also trace the profile of the Korean community with emphasis on the cultural adaptation of Korean New Zealanders. Who is entitled to be called a New Zealander? And can New Zealand get racial harmony and diversity right?

Manying came to New Zealand in 1974 from Hong Kong where her family lived for five generations. With her strong classical Chinese education at home and colonial English education at school, she grew up sharply aware of the challenges of being cross-cultural.

Monday Mystery Theatre

noreply@blogger.com (Stafford) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 03:09:00 +0000

Kim Jong Il - Dead!?

Is Kim Jong Il dead? Yes, North Korea��s ��Dear Leader�� is no more, having passed away in the fall of 2003, writes Waseda University professor Toshimitsu Shigemura in Shukan Gendai (Aug 23-30).
A one-time Mainichi Shimbun journalist posted in Seoul, Shigemura is introduced by the magazine as a leading authority on the Korean Peninsula. His latest book, released this month, is titled ��The True Character of Kim Jong Il.��
If true, the implications are potentially vast. Among them: former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi��s summit partner during one or both of his landmark visits to Pyongyang in 2002 and 2004 was not Kim himself but a dummy?the stand-in Shigemura claims has been fooling the world for at least five years.
A dictator having one or multiple doubles is a familiar notion since Iraq��s Saddam Hussein was shown to have deployed them. But Saddam was alive at the time. Kim, in Shigemura��s scenario, was not manipulating a look-alike; he was replaced by one.
Of course it��s fantastic?but in North Korea, says Shigemura, fantasy and reality are not mutually exclusive. ��Japanese common sense cannot take the measure of North Korea��s uniqueness,�� he writes. ��For example: Kim came to Tokyo six times in the 1980s.��
Then as now, North Korea and Japan had no diplomatic ties. Kim, then heir to the throne under his father, ��Great Leader�� Kim Il Sung, apparently traveled incognito by ship. His purpose: to take in the magic shows staged by magician Hikita Tenko at the upscale Cordon Bleu show pub in Akasaka.
Shigemura cites as sources (without naming them) several people close to Kim��s family. He hears from them that Kim��s diabetes took a turn for the worse early in 2000. From then until his supposed death three and a half years later he was confined to a wheelchair.
Was the flurry of diplomatic activity in which the world saw Kim engaged during those years mere sleight of hand? The ��hermit kingdom�� seemed all of a sudden to grow remarkably outgoing. In June 2000 Kim hosted the historic summit with South Korean President Kim Dae Jung. The following month, he received Russian President Vladimir Putin. In October his guest was U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. In January 2001 he visited China; in August, Russia. In September 2002 there occurred the first summit with Koizumi, culminating in Kim��s admission, after decades of denial from Pyongyang, that North Korean agents had kidnapped Japanese nationals. August 2003 saw the launch of the Six Party talks aimed at North Korea��s nuclear disarmament.
��Then suddenly,�� writes Shigemura in Shukan Gendai, ��the pace slows.��
The second Kim-Koizumi summit, in 2004, lasted all of 90 minutes. Scheduled meetings with other foreign dignitaries were abruptly canceled. Kim��s retreat from the public eye was almost total. State television in October 2003 showed him touring a collective farm, but mention of the date of the visit was conspicuously absent.
Kim��s family, meanwhile, was in a state of upheaval. His wife died?of breast cancer, said official reports; assassinated, according to persistent rumors. His favorite sister, a high-ranking Communist Party official, suddenly moved to Paris. Her husband lost his post. Clearly something was afoot.
In the spring of 2006, says Shigemura, American spy satellites succeeded in photographing Kim. An analysis of the photographs led to an astonishing conclusion: Kim had grown 2.5 cm!
��Recently,�� Shigemura proceeds, ��someone who was in contact with a Kim family member told me he heard the family member say, ��There��s been a promise not to decide on Kim��s successor so long as the current shogun is alive.��
��Shogun�� was Kim��s nickname,�� Shigemura explains ��If Kim were alive, the family member would simply have said, ��the shogun��?not ��the current shogun.�� The stress on ��current�� seems to suggest that the person in question is someone other than Kim Jong Il.��
Shukan Gendai asks a government official who helped plan Koizumi��s Pyongyang visits what he thinks of all this. His reply:
��Rumors of a dummy Kim began circulating after the summit. Some of us said we should have Kim��s voice prints analyzed. But if we did that and proved the prime minister had been conferring with a double, it could have destroyed the Koizumi administration. So we didn��t proceed.��

Via Japan Today

noreply@blogger.com (Stafford) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 07:08:00 +0000

One could write forever about the things that people (ex-pats) hate about Korea. By contrast one enjoys hating on said complaining ~~Canadians~~ ~~Americans~~ ex-pats as whining ethnocentric maggots. It's not often that I find something worth complaining about, and I have come to the realisation that my little quandary here is not that I am suffering from cultural difference, but rather a modicum of assimilation....
So on Sunday I felt like a steak, and I also felt like a bit of SK (No luck there, but I'm working on it.) So SK and I headed to that bastion of all things faux-Aussie, The Outback Steakhouse. Now I would assume that Outback has a lot of foreign clientele in Korea, hence the relative high level of English amongst the wait-staff and the English menus.
But God dammit! I'm in Korea so I want to speak (my quite passable) Korean. Plus God Dammit! I'm a male in Korea and I want to be paid the ~~reverence~~ courtesy that my gender ~~deserves~~ gets here in Korea! Alas the wait-person who took our order completely ignored me, despite my ordering in flawless Korean, instead favouring my (female!!!!!) Korean counterpart. Even when I correctly interjected into the little Korea-fest going on across the table from me, as to what side dishes I wanted, it was if I wasn't really there! (And it's not like you can miss the portly, bespectacled figure shouting Korean at you less than a foot away!)
Plus plus God Dammit! None of this looks good when you're trying to impress a girl!
I would like to put this down to the wait-person going for the path of least Resistance in an effort to accurately take our order, but I've managed to feed myself at Outback on numerous solo missions.
(And there 's a whole bunch of stuff I could say it was or allude to here, but that would be complaining.)
I dunno. I guess it's just another one of those wacky moments that keep you on your toes here in The Republic. Suffice to say that I'm one of the good foreign devils over here to teach English ~~(and take all your money / women)~~, it's just sometimes it feels like y'all (Korea / Koreans) are members of a really cool club that won't let me join, even though I do everything you ask of me (and get together the paper work and have a dirty foreigner HIV test).
Still, the Sirloin was fantastic. (Even if half of it had to be put in a doggie bag for breakfast the next day. cf. below).

Kowiana

noreply@blogger.com (Stafford) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 06:48:00 +0000

Radio New Zealand's Asia Report looks at the recent "Kimchi and Marmite" Conference discussing what it is to be a Korean - New Zealander.
Mp3 here . (10'58")
Worth a listen.

Ill, Pain etc.

noreply@blogger.com (Stafford) — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 05:06:00 +0000

Living alone is far superior to any other living arrangement ever. I am king of my domain, what I say in my house goes, and yes I occasionally do the housework in less than my pajamas. Because I can!
But ever so occasionally a week like the last comes along and it would be handy to have someone else around, if not to just check you're still alive. I alluded previously to the poor state of health I experienced last weekend. I went out drinking on Saturday night to celebrate the Deskbuddy's birthday. The slight twinge at the back of the throat that greeted me on Sunday afternoon I just put down to said drinking, but by Sunday evening, the dull throbbing on the side of my neck, the lower back pain, the nausea, the shallow breathing and the tear inducing pain when I tried to turn my head pointed to something else.
Not deterred, and with classes the next morning I went to bed with the hope that it would all pass and I would be fine.
Yeah, good one.
I struggled through both Monday and Tuesday like this, the symptoms getting more and more painful. Go to work for 9am class. Finish at 12. Be at home and back in bed by 1pm. Finally on Wednesday I managed to haul myself to a doctor - not my usual, rather the closest, a gruff old man who speaks no English whatsoever, but in whom I blindly placed my faith in through a haze of fever and upon sighting his Korea University degree. (Go the Tigers!)
The fistfulls of drugs he prescribed after I forlornly pointed to every spot on my body that was racked by pain took a while to do the trick, Thursday was just as horrible, but by Friday - a public holiday and thus free from classes - there was a bit of an upswing in how I was feeling. Finally having gobbled down all the medication I was given by Saturday night I was feeling a little better. At least I was able to stand up without bawling like a little child.
Last night I was finally feeling up to leaving the house for the first time in 3 days and had a spot of dinner with SK (aren't we getting on together swell at the moment!?). Nothing too adventurous, and indeed the first meal in a week was far too big and had to be put into a doggie bag and had for breakfast this morning. Today I managed to get through the morning's classes without too much hassle, finally got some homework done after a hiatus of 3 weeks, and am back at home without really needing to go to bed. (Though a little nap later in the afternoon might be in order). The lungs are still filled with crap and I think that has something to do with the lower back and shoulder pain I am experiencing.
But I'm alive.
Just.

I'm Alive

noreply@blogger.com (Stafford) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 00:20:00 +0000

Just.

After two days of some pretty intense (and mind bending) drugs I woke this morning able to:
1)breathe
2)not collapse in a whimpering heap in an attempt to get liquid from the fridge
3)move my head horizontally more than 15 degrees in either direction.

However I'm far from 100%. Will spend Liberation day continuing to rest and hopefully will be back on board for the coming week.

Best Olympic Promo...Ever!

noreply@blogger.com (Stafford) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 04:00:00 +0000

Courtesy of the BBC

(Via Hard News)

In other news: Leave me alone, I'm sick.

Choi Min Ho - Korea's First Gold

noreply@blogger.com (Stafford) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 06:34:00 +0000

No embedding of You Tube Olympic Content so here is the link of Min Ho quite literally giving Ludwig Paischar of Austria the smack down in the final of the Under 60kg Judo.

What a Day for The Chosun... Ilbo

noreply@blogger.com (Stafford) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 13:59:00 +0000

Good news to end the day, this time with The Chosun ~~Bimbo~~ Ilbo reporting from Beijing.
(Via Korea Beat)

'W' In Da Hizzle

noreply@blogger.com (Stafford) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 13:35:00 +0000

En route to the Olympic Games on Friday, The Pres stopped off in Korea. Jon Stewart reports:

Good News To Start The Day

noreply@blogger.com (Stafford) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 22:44:00 +0000

Beer at the Chosun ~~Bimbo~~ Ilbo

No Pain....

noreply@blogger.com (Stafford) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 12:50:00 +0000

So back from 2 weeks of 3 course breakfasts and dinners that never seemed to end I am on a mission to reduce my rather rotund self to something a little more portly.
To aid me in this quest I have undertaken a rather strict diet that means no more chocolate goodies, no more booze (Although I'm sure Vodka doesn't count) and keeping a good eye on my caloric intake.
In addition I bought a new pair of...ahem...running shoes from Nike, and the iPod/Nike+ wireless adapter thingie that keeps track of how far I...ahem...run. (OK, OK, nothing much more than a slow jog / brisk walk thus far). The advantage of the iPod/Nike+ system is that one can see one's progress against a proposed training regime or towards a predefined goal. (My own goal being walk/jog/run 50km this month). on the iPod end a voice comes in over the song playing to tell you distance, time or calories burned.

In addition I have been plotting my routes on Google Maps. It's unfortunate that unlike other large cities in Asia, Seoul doesn't have street maps on Google, just satellite images, but it suffices. (Hell even Penang has a map view!) So far I have completed just under 8km over two days and two routes:

View Larger MapThe routes marked in red and yellow respectively. There are a couple of goals too, for good measure. I would like to get to the Poi intersection in under 60 minutes and do a 6km return journey to COEX (although there is a large portion of that going up hill.)
Stay tuned for updates periodically.

Since I can't have an iPhone....

noreply@blogger.com (Stafford) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 03:06:00 +0000