Monthly Archives: November 2007

Template Changes

Made some slight changes to the blog template. No, it’s nothing major. Yes, I blatantly ripped off Andrew Sullivan, like I did earlier this year. Anyway, if something’s not showing up properly — IE 6 people, I’m talking to YOU — please let me know.

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Wonder Girls and Anti-Americanism

Yesterday, my coworkers and I were talking about a few things over coffee and the subject of the Wonder Girls came up.  I contributed to the conversation by mentioning this blog entry by the Metropolitician.
Some of the guys laughed, some looked puzzled, and some whom I know harbor strong anti-US feelings didn’t look too happy.   One female [...]

Presidential Poll: Conservative share of voter support at 64%

There she is.  She’s been sitting around since Goh Kun dropped out of the race a year ago and has been impatiently tapping her toe ever since the GNP convention in August.  Almost everyone (including yours truly) told her that her services were not needed just yet but it looks more and more like her [...]

Blowing the Whistle

In Bloomberg, William Pesek looks at recent cases of whistleblowing in Korea and Japan. I can only hope the Samsung probe doesn’t turn into Korea’s “Enron Moment,” because if Samsung goes the way of Enron, we are all truly fucked. (HT to reader)

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I Guess Having a Korean Wife Really DOES Help

The Fairfax Times looks at how the Korean-American vote help Democrat Chap Petersen win state senatorial elections in Virginia. Petersen has close ties to the Korean community through his wife, a Korean-American. Obviously something I need to remember should I ever run for public office in Arlington, Virginia (where — sit down for this — [...]

Korean Traditional Music Performance

UPDATE: Email corrected. If you sent an application, please send again.
ORIGINAL POST: In case you don’t subscribe to Seoul Selection’s newsletter.

Follow Music, Follow Elegance:FREE Korean Traditional Performance for Foreigners (Dec. 8,15 at 3pm)
Seoul Selection is back with another great Korean traditional music program. “Follow Music, Follow Elegance: Korean Traditional Performance for Foreigners” will be held [...]

Bear-ly Insane

A 54-year-old British elementary school teacher in Sudan has been charged with inciting religious hatred for allowing her class to name their classroom teddy bear “Muhammad”. 

Roh Thanks KJI for Yeosu Vote

Pres. Roh has sent a letter to Kim Jong-il, expressing his gratitude for North Korea’s Yeosu vote during the recent Bureau of International Exposition conference in Paris.   That’s nice, but one wonders how much that vote cost S. Korea.

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KoAms Get Election Fever

Ye Olde Chosun reports that Korean-Americans are getting into the Korean presidential election spirit.

I Like Yeosu as Much as the Next Guy…

But dude, put down the bong — the Expo will NOT turn the place into an “international city.”
And wait — looking into my crystal ball, I can see… an ugly piece of modern architecture and/or art blighting an up-till-now pleasant seaside town:
Officials are planning to create an eye-catching establishment, comparable to Paris’ Eiffel Tower that [...]

A Chicken in Every Pot

Or an native English speaker in every school — in the KT, our very own Andy Jackson discusses the election debate on English education. Personally, I think the very fact that English education is an issue in the election shows just how ludicrous Korea’s fixation on learning English has become.

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Censoring Korean Public Opinion — Freedom Is Not Free?

Kim Hye-jin from Global Voices online has an interesting thread on the National Election Commission (NEC) in Korea and their attempts to censor online discussion of the presidential candidates. According to some, this smacks of dictatorship (link to the Korean):
Frankly speaking, it is insulting people who died for democracy.
Why did citizens and students have [...]

KORAIL Unveils Luxury Train

KORAIL has unveiled the proposed interiors of the “luxury transcontinental trains”, which will be used to transport the joint North-South Korean cheerleading squad to the Beijing Olympics.  All this to haul a bunch of cheerleaders?  Out of all the looney things that the S. Korean government has done or is planning to do, this takes the [...]

Third World Sexual Exploitation: Not Just a Guy Thing

Apparently, it’s more than just fat, old white men who go to tropical locales in search of young and cheap sex — our older, melanin-deficient sisters are apparently heading to Kenya for the same thing.

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Hey, It That ZZ Top?

Israel’s top military rabbi is in town, and all I’ve got to say is, “Damn, that’s a cool beard.”

More Virginia Tech Stuff from the KT

Granted, I’m not an associate professor at the University of Maryland, but I must say, these attempts to link the Virginia Tech shooting to problems within the Korean-American community make me quite uncomfortable.

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Roh Accepts Samsung Special Prosecutor Bill

President Roh has accepted a bill to create a special prosecutor to look into alleged bribes from Samsung. He didn’t do it with a smile, however, saying the bill was “legally and politically very problematic” and calling it “parliamentary high-handedness and misuse of their position.”

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Park Fan Club Backs Lee Hoi-chang

Well, this could prove interesting… maybe — Paksamo, the fan club of former GNP chairwoman Park Geun-hye, has declared its support for presidential candidate Lee Hoi-chang. It also labeled GNP presidential candidate Lee Myung-bak an “encyclopedia of corruption.” Park herself, however, still backs LMB… at least for now.

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Yeosu Gets EXPO!

The pleasant Korean port city of Yeosu has won its bid to host International Expo 2012, beating out the Moroccan city of Tangiers and the Polish city of Wroclaw.

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More Samsung Allegations

Kim Young-chul held a press conference today where he made new allegations and disclosed documents to back up his claim.   First he detailed how Samsung affiliates created a 200 billion Won(about USD 200 million) slush fund.
According to Kim, Samsung Corporation, one of the group affiliates, made contracts with another subsidiary Samsung SDI’s offices in London, Taiwan and [...]

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