Comments on: “Defeat of Roh’s Policies”

By: Brendon Carr (Korea Law Blog)

Brendon Carr (Korea Law Blog) — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 03:48:44 +0000

I’ve played hockey. Where I grew up, the non-cage masks were hockey faceplates to the Dads and older guys. A faceplate was held onto the face by straps which went back to the “skull plate” — nice bit of symmetry, that.

We kids all called them masks, though, since we had no appreciation for history or tradition, and thought anyone who had gone bald was a loser. God is of course having a laugh at our expense over that last part.

Anyway, one thing we all agreed on was that the Canadiens and their fans were annoying as hell. Worse than even the Red Wings!

By: Sperwer

Sperwer — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 03:31:25 +0000

Well, nimrod, they were called faceplates when they first came in, although mask later became the convention. I remember seeing Terry Sawchuck’s in the locker room at the old Olympia after the first game in which he wore one. It was a big improvement over Terry’s face which had more stitching scars than you could count. My Dad knew him from AAA, which is how we got in.

By: globalvillageidiot

globalvillageidiot — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 01:52:07 +0000

Did you play hockey before the days of helmets and faceplates, even for goalies?

No, I didn’t. And, goalies wear “masks” not “faceplates.”

By: Sperwer

Sperwer — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 11:46:35 +0000

This election has very little to do with ideology.

Did you play hockey before the days of helmets and faceplates, even for goalies?

By: globalvillageidiot

globalvillageidiot — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 11:31:03 +0000

This election has very little to do with ideology. (In this respect, Korea is much like the rest of the other democratic nations in the world.) The other guys were in for two terms - ten years, and not all of it bad - and it was time to kick their asses out. Well done!

By: Janus

Janus — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 03:47:39 +0000

Scholarly articles on trade discuss the ‘gravity theory’ of international trade that posits the amount of trade that will take place between two countries is a function of distance and size. Chile and Korea are rather distant from each other, and neither is an economic juggernaut.

It makes sense that the Korea-Chile FTA hasn’t been very earth-shattering. It was just a symbolic opportunity to show support for free trade at low cost to both domestic constituencies.

By: mjw

mjw — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 01:36:29 +0000

when you think about imports from chile, don’t just think wine. Think pork. The cheap prices from those do benefit Korea.

The study that I saw two years ago about the trade relationship with Chile was that there were gains on both sides. But clearly the real gainer is the Korean electronics exporters from lower tariffs. I think they might also benefit from the import of some raw materials but those escape me at the moment.

By: knickerbocker

knickerbocker — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 21:51:42 +0000

I always saw Roh as extremely pragmatic and not ideology-driven in the slightest. This is the man who overlooked human rights abuses in North Korea when the UN wanted to pass multiple resolutions, the man who returned refugees to their certain death without a second thought, who allows workers at Kaesong to make as little as $3 per month, and who calls North Korea a “workers’ paradise.” Doesn’t sound too ideological to me.

I’d prefer to call Lee a realist.

By: SomeguyinKorea

SomeguyinKorea — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 18:22:08 +0000

#8,

They have reason to be cynical. I can’t remember how many years ago this was, I remember that taxes were reduced on gasoline (it was supposed to reduce prices by either 1/2 a percent or 2 percent, can’t remember exactly, but, in any case, it was small enough that most consumers wouldn’t notice). Some of the cheabols didn’t adjust their prices at the pump and pocketed the difference when the tax was reduced. It took months for the government to get to raising the issue, and then little or nothing was done.

By: slim

slim — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 16:55:43 +0000

Are consumers in Korea realizing any benefits from the Chile FTA? Just asking — it excluded many of the agricultural products Chile is competitive in, even though Southern hemisphere harvest times mean produce doesn’t go head-to-head with Korean goods. When I left Seoul in late 2004 there was a fear among consumers that any tariff cuts on Chilean wine would be captured by the chaebol-related importers.