Odds and Ends 11/9/09

by Robert Koehler on November 9, 2009

The Ministry of Environment has OK’ed the Four Rivers Restoration Project.
An Uzbek man was sentenced to life in prison for killing a taxi driver during a robbery. Interesting clemency argument, though — “Lawyers for the murder suspect appealed for leniency, arguing he committed the crime because he ran out of money in a foreign country.”
The anniversary of German reunification provides an opportunity to examine the costs if and when Korean reunifies. Not to make light of the social and economic costs of Korean reunification, but one thing Korea does have going for it is that the South Korean welfare state is much smaller than Germany’s, which means less money in entitlements to North Koreans.
Someone want to explain this cartoon?
Remember these North Korean TV ads? Well, KJI reportedly sacked the head of the Korea Central Broadcasting Committee after watching them. Said the Dear Leader about the ads, “They are as degrading as the ones that China had in its early reform.”
The government plans to blacklist firms paying salaries to full-time unionists.

{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Adams-awry November 9, 2009 at 1:20 pm: Cool cartoon. But is it highly offensive, or just meaningless?
2 rmeurant November 9, 2009 at 1:28 pm: Reptilian mind? Godzilla?
3 rmeurant November 9, 2009 at 1:36 pm: I wonder whether general expat opposition to the four rivers restoration / grand canal scheme should be reexamined. If the canal scheme is viewed in a several hundred year framework, or even longer, it might just make a great deal of ecosense, as do (to my eyes) the many road tunnels that Korea has engineered. Moving freight by water or by rail is a great deal more preferable than by road or by air. What are the real environmental costs of not developing a grand canal, and thus having to use alternatives?
4 Brendon Carr November 9, 2009 at 2:25 pm: The Uzbek man’s defense could not be accepted by the court, if only to preserve the lives of so many Korean hagwon owners.
5 Granfalloon November 9, 2009 at 5:00 pm: That cartoon is hilarious on multiple levels. However, is there actually a story attached to it? Or is this simply a depiction of the everyday life of an average US soldier?

For more hilarity, check out the ad on the KT website for stupid.co.kr. They sell a surprising variety of fake poop and quasi-racist black-guy masks.
6 setnaffa November 10, 2009 at 5:05 am: “…he committed the crime because he ran out of money in a foreign country…”

And besides he wasn’t an English Teacher…