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Marmot’s Open Thread #14
This entry was written by Robert Koehler, posted on August 4, 2007 at 12:50 pm, filed under Blogging. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.
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65 Comments
1st place.
Sensitivity training:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=iMMKPRE4m3w
First! Mwahahahaha.
By the way, on a more serious matter, did anyone catch the little ruckus caused by Ban Ki-I-live-in-the-Moon when he turned down Taiwan’s Chen Shui-Bian’s application for membership at the UN?
I was in Taiwan then — a couple of weeks ago — and basically the outcry was about :
a/ the fact that Ban had no right to turn down an application — that’s the assembly’s privilege.
b/ he returned the application and Chen’s accompanying letter unopened, which is at best impolite.
and c/ some in Taiwan said Chen’s an ass because he knew what the result would be and make Taiwan look silly.
Although from the newspapers I gathered that people aghast with Chen were not in the majority…
Considering that Ban has an history of saying that the Taiwan dispute is an internal issue to China, and that he’s a politico from a country who decided one day that Taiwan was not good enough, and kicked their diplomatic mission out of Korea, and invited the ChiComs instead, this is indeed not a very surprising outcome, albeit a good demonstration of how much an asshole this guy can be.
French Quarter, damn you!
This is the life.
Why is it that only a Korean sneeze can be heard from a hundred yards away?
Why is it inevitably accompanied by a sort of anguished bellow?
Physiological reasons or cultural ones?
I gots ta know!
Well, of course it is. After all, Korea is the only divided country in the world.
…and I just had the privelege of visiting the northern half for a week. Pyongyang rocks (not really). About as interesting a trip as I’ve ever taken. I’ll field questions when i get back to korea in 3 days. peace!
brings to memory when South Korea was trying to gain UN membership.
he’s a politico from a country who decided one day that Taiwan was not good enough, and kicked their diplomatic mission out of Korea, and invited the ChiComs instead,
Is this different from other countries that switched diplomatic recognition? Or do you mean that Korea is holding up Taiwan’s acceptance on the world stage?
Herod, why is it that an ajossi has to not only hork up phlegm several times a day but do it three or four times in a row: spit, spit spit?
Ah, mysteries of the Orient….
My girlfriend, who is a Brazilian, is abruptly asking me to bring her to Korea next summer, but I don’t like summer in Korea. I don’t like hot weather generally.
The autumn is much nicer.
The autumn is much nicer. French Quarter, your girl can stay with me until it gets cool enough for you to come over.
That’s a brilliant offer.
#10 -
Now that I happen to know, michael. Apparently once someone starts hawking they constantly feel the need to do it. (I read this somewhere.)
But the combined bellow (RAH-OW!) and sneeze - which I heard again just five minutes ago, from the far side of the apartment building - what’s with that?
Don’t know, Herod, thanks for explaining the horking though
The men’s room in our office sounds like a tuberculosis ward sometimes….
What I don’t get is the need for Korean ajoshi’s to take a shower in every available public sink in the country. I can never find a sink that hasn’t had water splashed all over the place from some guy splashing water on his face, head, hands, the walls, floor, mirror, etc. I can never find a dry place to put my glasses down when I want to do the same (though I try to keep the water only on my face or in the sink). I guess that’s better than China, where the sinks are often dry because many people don’t seem to use them…
Koreans are a very clean people. In fact, I’ve often thought that they must be some of the best groomed people on the planet. And of course, that’s to the extent of extreme vanity, witnessed by the mirrors everywhere and people constantly checking themselves out.
About splashing everywhere… I hate it too. But what can you do? They learn how to wash their face from their parents and then the behaviour is reinforced by seeing their friends do it too. Bottom line for them is a clean face, not a clean and dry sink.
And having said that, if you’re newly arrived in the country, you may not be aware of how awful bathrooms in korea used to be (clearly you know something about china so maybe…). At the very least, the koreans have gone on a major toilet offensive. their public bathrooms are much nicer than the ones you can find in such “world class” cities as, say, Vancouver, BC. Don’t believe me? Try to find a public toilet in the downtown core there, and then try to find one here.
but did i mention that the water thing pisses me off, too? it’s interesting that in terms of water, their ashtrays have gone in the other direction. (ie. wet to dry)
True, the public toilets in Korea are far better now and there’s a lot of places (Starbucks) with clean ones.
The water splashing is really annoying when you’re trying to wash your hands and the guy next to you is throwing buckets of water everywhere.
And either I’m getting more oblivious to it, or the amount of apitting has gone down somewhat lately.
Uh…spitting…maybe “apitting” too
Vignettes illuminating bilateral trade, from my trip to Canada:
1) July 12: flying to Vancouver beside a cosmopolitan MILF ajumma, escorting her two daughters, one 5, one 12. She’s going to leave the 12 year-old with her husband in Van to start middle school, then return to Korea with the 5 year old.
2) July 15: My mother finally decides between a new Corolla (CDN$ 24,000) and a Hyundai Elantra (CDN$ 23,000), in favor of the Hyundai. Deciding factor was more interior space.
3) July 30, return flight: Announcement, 15 minutes after takeoff “Can we get a Korean cabin staff to the rear of the plane, please?” But the aisles are blocked, since they already started drinks service. 5 minutes later “Can we get a Korean-speaking cabin staff to the rear of the plane immediately, please?” 5 minutes later I overhear one flight attendant telling another “It was a Korean mom crying hysterically. She just left her kid in Canada to start school, and she already misses her.”
I forgot one: every public can I was in, I kept holding my hands under the tap, waiting for the water to come on automatically.
Well, if one of my complaints is the water all over the place, I’d say Korea is doing pretty good. I can’t remember going into too many public bathrooms in Vancouver, because, if they were outside (not in a restaurant) I was always worried about who might be lurking inside (drug addict looking to score money for drugs). One thing that amazes me about Korea is the flimy telephone boxes that look like toys and the fact that most of them actually work and haven’t been stolen or vandalized (though it’s getting harder to find a public phone what with all the cellphones in use). It was always a real hassle to find a public phone that actually worked in Vancouver. The addicts and panhandlers broke or stole anything that wasn’t nailed down. The safety of Korea is a truly wonderful thing about the place.
I appreciate the public safety aspect of living here, too. Enjoy it while it lasts.
The lack of a drug culture contributes significantly to Korean public safety. The bad news is, a lot of those future angry, jobless North Koreans who will stream into Seoul after Unification are apparently hooked on crank.
After Unification, I expect both street crime and AIDS to increase dramatically. It would not be a surprise at all to find out that North Korea has a significant AIDS problem now, but we won’t find out because both North Korea and South Korea actively suppress the truth about the place.
I’m pretty sure that a few months after unification many southerners will wonder, “What were we thinking?”
Next topic. What’s the status on the anti-Korean backlash all the gyopos were harping on about after Cho Seung-Hui shot up Virginia Tech? I haven’t heard anything, but that’s probably due to whitey’s conspiracy of silence. You guys still holed up in your bunkers? Need me to send you some ramyun?
Where do I start? First, there’s not too many countries who gave the boot to Taiwan to let the ChiComs in their Embassy instead. Then, Ban is letting his own, personal views on the Taiwan matter, based on his politics as a Korean-rabbit fearing the ChiCom wolf, interfere with his duties as UN SecGen. Even if he hands over the application to the Assembly, and reads Chen’s letter, and answers back with a nice little letter of his own, the result will be the same, but at least that shit would have stayed neutral, as he should have. That’s part of his job, but as a good Korean politico, he doesn’t let such things of no consequence interfere with his own agenda.
“The lack of a drug culture contributes significantly to Korean public safety. The bad news is, a lot of those future angry, jobless North Koreans who will stream into Seoul after Unification are apparently hooked on crank.”
Couldn’t agree more. Just imagine the nightmare that the general area around Seoul Station might resemble post-unification. The day that people start coming over the DMZ by the hundreds of thousands - and, contrary to what the supposed plan might be, that’s probably what will eventually happen - is the day I book my ticket and get out of Dodge.
I dunno about AIDS in NK. If it’s not an easily contagious airborne disease, I imagine it’d be too easy to quarantine an area to eradicate it (possibly even the people), assuming they diagnose it correctly. I’d lay better odds on AIDS moving from the South to the North than vice versa.
I agree with you about the street crime, though. It’s inevitable that if you bring in tens of thousands of folks who’ve been raised on handouts from the Dear Leader for unskilled labor, they won’t be able to adapt. It’ll all be blamed the U.S., of course.
Regarding the backlash. While talking about the Korean hostages in Afghanistan with a Korean coworker, he started to suggest the U.S. needed to apply pressure to resolve the situation. I explained that of course the U.S. was concerned about the possible loss of innocent lives, especially an ally’s, but we weren’t going to get so worked up over it that we’d change national policies, just like we didn’t get worked up towards Koreans when the guy at Virginia Tech shot all those Americans. Full stop, he didn’t say another word.
While this may not qualify as much of a backlash, I did feel a little pang of victory at having turned Koreans’ sense of ethnic nationalism back on them to my advantage. After thinking about it a little later, I started wondering if it made me a bad person for stooping to their level to use that sort of tactic against them. Then I had a beer and forgave myself.
“Regarding the backlash. While talking about the Korean hostages in Afghanistan with a Korean coworker, he started to suggest the U.S. needed to apply pressure to resolve the situation. I explained that of course the U.S. was concerned about the possible loss of innocent lives, especially an ally’s, but we weren’t going to get so worked up over it that we’d change national policies, just like we didn’t get worked up towards Koreans when the guy at Virginia Tech shot all those Americans. Full stop, he didn’t say another word. “
Q: What do a US college campus shooting rampage and an Middle East hostage situation have in common?
A: Both the shooter and the hostages are Korean nationals.
Uh, okay, I see the connection.
Somebody else on another thread evoked Cho’s ghost, too. Looks like Cho is becoming a stick to beat Koreans over the head with anytime they complain about the US.
It’s not hard to imagine. I live right behind the Seodaemun subway station on line five, about a kilometer due north from Seoul Station.
Anyhow else getting those “This site my harm your computer” messages from Google when a search turns up a Korea Herald site?
http://www.google.com/support/.....mp;ct=help
http://www.google.com/search?c.....p;oe=UTF-8
I would like to think that Google is making a qualitative judgment as much as a statement about coding, but I would probably be wrong…
The area around Seoul Station is already a nightmare. I’d imagine if unification happened (although it’s just as possible China will annex N.K.) the DMZ would stay mined and there would still be a border of sorts for a long time. No flood of refugees.
Damn, nice health blog Sonagi. Scared the crap out of me but I still like it.
Mr. Koehler,
Every night I would see illegal aliens hop from a train to freedom in southern New Mexico. My question is this; “Tequila or Makoli?”.
Am I paying for this?
“The area around Seoul Station is already a nightmare. I’d imagine if unification happened (although it’s just as possible China will annex N.K.) the DMZ would stay mined and there would still be a border of sorts for a long time. No flood of refugees.”
Michael, I hope you’re right. I think that South Korea is hoping for the “united yet divided” scenario, but whenever our favorite pygmy dictator finally passes on to the next realm (in his case, assuming it exists, hell), all bets are off. Assuming that hundreds of thousands (if not more) northerners might try fleeing south, it just may come down to whether the South Koreans are willing to shoot their northern brothers and sisters streaming over the border. My guess would be that South Korean soldiers would be unwilling to use lethal force to stop fellow Koreans, especially were they civilians moving en masse. (And, if the new escapees/refugees want to avoid the mines, there is the highway that heads up to Kaesong, plus the other road to Geumgangsan along the east coast.)
Agree fully about the present status of Seoul Station, in particular the area outside the station and underpasses beneath. Can’t think of a better place in Seoul to: a) savor the aroma of soju urine, b) contract TB or other diseases, or c) be on the receiving end of some verbal abuse - or flying soju bottle - courtesy of one of the many zombies staggering about the area.
Obviously it would take years to de-mine the DMZ and the inter-Korean roads/railways could be blocked easily. There would probably be a lot of N. Koreans coming down by boat but that too could mostly be controlled.
If unification happens with S.K. in charge, that is without China setting up a puppet regime or taking over N.K., China would also block its border. The wild card is what China has in mind for N.K.
The homeless in Seoul Station are sad — multiply that by 10,000 and you have the situation in downtown L.A. where I used to live.
Thank you, Sumo. I feel like I’m just starting to find my writing voice. I want to get people interested in health, but I don’t want to scare anybody. There’s not much out there that would kill right away - as far I know, nobody’s died from eating those botulism-tainted cans of chili sauce or green beans yet. I just want people to know that making smart choices pays off now and later.
Is it just me or do others sense that there is a blame America sentiment gathering steam over the hostage issue? It seems that on every nightly news, I see reports of how the US could and should be doing more to get them released, including a report tonight (sunday) that showed many examples of the US supposedly going against the principle of no negotiation to get hostages released. Every time I see the news recently, I cringe because it seems to be strongly pushing the idea that the US should and could do more, but refuses. I hope I’m wrong…
40. You may be right. It doesn’t help that the follow-up story a couple of nights running was “unsafe” US beef.
sorry to bring it up again, but sonagi, drinking raw milk is discouraged by the US FDA.
i bring this up because you are a woman.
http://google2.fda.gov/search?.....getfields=*&q=raw+milk&as=GO
“sorry to bring it up again, but sonagi, drinking raw milk is discouraged by the US FDA.”
Your link yielded nothing. FYI, I don’t drink raw milk, which must be handled very carefully in order to be consumed safetly. I do eat yogurt and aged cheese made from raw milk. The fermentation and aging processes kill harmful microbes, and thus ordinary refrigeration is sufficient.
“i bring this up because you are a woman.”
???
i find it interesting that sonagi brought up franken foods. all this franken food is a result of unfettered greed by big business. anything to increase profits. with that in mind, be aware that the candy industry here wants to change to the definition of chocolate to include any ‘chocolate’ made with vegetable oil(1.25/pound) instead of cocoa butter(2.75/pound).
of course, they could make such a product now but they just can’t call it chocolate. and they know nobody would buy it. so their answer is to fool people by getting the fda to change the definition of choclate. i wonder when people are going to wake up….
‘that showed many examples of the US supposedly going against the principle of no negotiation to get hostages released. Every time I see the news recently, I cringe because it seems to be strongly pushing the idea that the US should and could do more, but refuses. I hope I’m wrong…’ poster
have you considred whether the examples are true or do you interpret the story through your own nationalistic prism? the lesson for the koreans here is the us is an ungrateful ally. no matter how many times korea tries to help, the us won’t be satisfied unless korea has it’s nose firmly planted in it’s stinking asshole. perhaps, they should take lessons form japan.
you’re welcome to type in
raw milk, raw dairy and
see what the US FDA says.
Peace.
#45:
translation: I’m too fukn lazy to give you valid links.
The FDA and the USDA are shills for the food and beverage industry, big pharma, and the meat and dairy industries. I am aware that raw milk contains harmful bacteria that multiply rapidly if the milk is unrefrigerated even for a short period of time. Milk products are not essential to a healthy diet,and modern, processed dairy is, in fact, harmful. I do not drink milk at all and only treat myself to the occasional yogurt or cheese. Microbes do not like the acidic environments of fermented and aged milk products.
the same FDA that withdraws big name drugs when things go wrong?
the same FDA that recalls food when they find something wrong?
not entirely true regarding raw milk aged products.
you’re walking a dangerous line, advocating 3rd party non-FDA organizations who rate things, and saying the FDA is unreliable and untrust worthy.
how is this any different from taking the Han Woo farmer’s word over science?
“all this franken food is a result of unfettered greed by big business.”
The anti-corporate anti-business propoganda machine remains strong in the US and Korea.
“do you interpret the story through your own nationalistic prism?”
Not that Koreans would ever do such a thing, but Pawi, it’s funny how you say this and in the next breath write:
“the lesson for the koreans here is the us is an ungrateful ally.”
Yes, just as I was asking, was this the lesson being fed to Koreans on the nightly news? And sure enough, Pawi pops up, spouts off about seeing things through a nationalistic prism, then seems to confirm my suspicions that everything is being spun to make the US look bad.
“the same FDA that withdraws big name drugs when things go wrong?
the same FDA that recalls food when they find something wrong?”
“Go wrong” and “find something wrong” are not the same. The evidence from trial studies on diabetes drug Avandia showed increased risks of heart disease that the FDA overlooked. Recalling products after people start dying is closing the barn door after some horses have already gotten loose.
“you’re walking a dangerous line, advocating 3rd party non-FDA organizations who rate things”
It is wise to check the credentials of claimants. I trust the authority of published, nationally renowned experts with advanced degrees in medicine and nutrition, people like NYU Professor of Nutrition Marion Nestle, fats expert Dr. Mary Enig, an early whistleblower on trans-fats, retired Cleveland Clinic Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, cardiologist Dr. Dean Ornish, retired doctor and China Study author T. Colin Campbell, and Dr. Gerald Reaven, who discovered Syndrome X, a collection of markers for cardiovascular disease and diabetes. These experts differ in the role of animal foods and fats in the diet, but they are all independent experts who take no money from corporate interests.
There is a cozy relationship between businesses and the government agencies that regulate them. Employees often move back and forth between jobs in government agencies and related private industry. That is true for the FDA and and the USDA, and that is why these government regulatory agencies do not act purely in the interests of consumers.
This Boston Globe article explains the ties between the FDA and big pharma.
http://www.boston.com/yourlife.....k_the_fda/
http://www.fda.gov/fdac/featur....._milk.html
…
http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/fttmilk.html
http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~pregnant/safedai.html
Since there are people who choose not to get vaccinated because of religious reasons or personal beliefs and there are people who are at more risk due to older age or being pregnant, I think it’s irresponsible to promote raw dairy products.
Please compare what the FDA says with internet message groups who advise a pregnant female to do the following,
Kind of disturbing to me, anyway.
So, who are you gonna sue when something goes wrong with your pregnancy?
Mr. X on an internet message board?
content not made up. Names and links modified to protect privacy.
this is the United States Food and Drug Administration.
Not the Korean FDA nor the Chinese FDA.
ok?
#38:
“Obviously it would take years to de-mine the DMZ…
I sure wouldn’t assume this. I don’t know the DMZ minefields, but they were laid (and then maintained) by organized military forces on both sides (as opposed to the randomness of the plant-and-forget mine warfare used in guerrilla wars elsewhere in the world). So such minefields will be marked at least partially, and there will be planned “lanes” through them used by patrols.
In a likely scenario of DPRK collapse, one imagines an immediate business opportunity for entrepreneurial Koreans on both sides of the DMZ in rapidly burgeoning human smuggling — unless you foresee one (or both) sides summoning the political will to use force to stop it. Much like the US problem in stopping human smuggling across the Mexican border.
Would Chinese forces moving into the north to stabilize a chaotic situation amplify the pressure on northerners to flee southward? I don’t know, you guys that are there can tell me what you think. One thing for sure, I can’t imagine US forces getting involved up north in any way, except perhaps to send in a few special teams to try to disable/control any loose nukes or long-range missiles.
“There would probably be a lot of N. Koreans coming down by boat but that too could mostly be controlled…”
Exactly what do you think South Korean naval forces will be ordered to do? To get DPRK refugees back north they will first have to be taken ashore, then gotten back to the north in some fashion. Don’t tyou think the intense visibility of the world’s video cameras will weaken ROK poltical will to forcibly repatriate northerners?
They put bleach in my veg oils?! WTF! I was so disgusted I chucked my entire container of corn oil into the trash. I always wondered why it never went rancid.
Damn, Sonagi. You are right about coconut oil. I always been told it was unhealthy. 50% percent lauric acid-huh? Man, I am so mad!
#44 -
“the lesson for the koreans here is the us is an ungrateful ally.”
Wow, that’s rich.
No fries at all? I thought you could eat it in moderation. Like I should not eat a piece of fried chicken once in a while?
#46 -
To be fair to wjk, I think the comment system parsed the link incorrectly. If you look at it, part of the URL is not hyperlinked.
Paul H.–I’m not a military expert, but the landmines in the DMZ are not all marked, after 60 years a lot of the markers will be gone, and the floods on the Imjin River have shifted some of them.
Like I said, if S.K. is in control China will likely just secure its border, and if China is running the show they’ll just install a puppet regime and it’ll be Tibet all over again.
“Don’t you think the intense visibility of the world’s video cameras will weaken ROK poltical will to forcibly repatriate northerners?” Uh, no.
sumo, not everything she says is correct. Pick that back up from your trash can.
I don’t know about the bleach, but I’m sure it’s been substantially tested.
She’s basically saying cook everything in butter or lard.
Not what according to my knowledge. Although, I’m not willing to put myself out there writing health food stuff, PUFAs are good and Olive Oil is great and Canola is deemed a good quality oil. Good enough that fast food restaurants won’t use it.
WJK, just don’t know anymore, but I have a mistrust of govt. nutrition stemming from my bodybuilding days where they were dead wrong about protein intake. Now I need to adjust to a civilian style body and its pissing me off. So much easier when I all I did was drink MET/RX shakes. But man I love Korean fried chicken. Damn it!
‘and if China is running the show they’ll just install a puppet regime and it’ll be Tibet all over again….’ michael
uh, no, we won’t have tibet all over again. korea doesn’t have a religion that preaches non violence at all costs. what’s happening to the tibetens is their own fault since they won’t lift a finger to fight back. if you think koreans are just going to sit around watching china gobble up half of korea, you’re absolutely wrong. there will be war. and the chinese will lose.
‘would america assist korea?’ question from brenden
yes, it would. so would japan. they won’t send soldiers but they’ll send arms and intelligence. nothing better than a proxy war.
若中擊 中淚 中血 中死 詩人 石 鵝
____________
wjk, you’re wrong. the fda is owned by big business.
Liberal Japan has a scathing analysis of the Comfort Women Resolution, and makes some interesting points on the acceptance of forced prostitution in Asia, and equates US and South Korean military base prostitution with the comfort women system. He also thinks the US is a fascist state because of the resolution. Any interesting takes on this?
http://japan.shadowofiris.com/.....critiqued/
“She’s basically saying cook everything in butter or lard.”
Please go reread my post. I explained that nutrition expert George Mateljan, who founded the Health Valley company and ran it for thirty years before selling it off, recommends AGAINST cooking in oil. I then stated that I OCCASIONALLY cook or bake with butter, unrefined peanut oil, or coconut oil. I mentioned lard and tallow as examples of saturated fats that stand up well to cooking, but I do not cook with them. I am somewhat anonymous, and nobody who reads my blog should not take me as an authority. That’s why nearly every post has links to nationally recognized authoritative sources. I hope people will read the links and decide for themselves.
“but I have a mistrust of govt. nutrition stemming from my bodybuilding days where they were dead wrong about protein intake”
You were a body-builder? BTW, I see from your IP info that you don’t live too far from me, Sumo.
“I am somewhat anonymous, and nobody who reads my blog should not take me as an authority. “
Okay, that was a nice double negative. Nobody who reads my blog should take me as an authority.
I’m not convinced this is true. The choice to America would be Los Angeles, San Francisco or Seattle for Pyongyang. Are Americans really ready to risk a nuclear exchange with China in order to not Hurt Korean Pride™? I say not.
By the way, you’re much better when you’re not in shrill Race-Defender mode.