Open Thread #281

by Robert Koehler on February 2, 2013

in Open Thread

Hey, finally some nice weather!

{ 35 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Jakgani February 2, 2013 at 2:43 pm: A bit late today? I am finally moving OUT of Seoul. – Jamsil has been my home for the past 12 years – and in 2 weeks time I am relocating to live in Yeoncheon. I am looking forward to living in a small village, with the river, and friendly locals.
2 Jang February 2, 2013 at 3:06 pm: S. Korean men Top Customer of S.E. Asian CHILD prostitution. 축하 해요 . Why doesn’t Wangkon post this?
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2013/01/116_129743.html
“A 2008 report from the U.S. Department of State, “Trafficking in Persons
Report,” described South Korea as a significant source of demand for child sex
tourism in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. It also noted that a growing
number of South Korean women and girls are traded within the U.S., Japan, Hong
Kong and even Western Europe.
Many tourism agencies arrange
sex tours to Asian countries, but they have rarely been cracked down
on.
“On online community websites, you can easily find
information about prices for sex with minors and the best places to go,” said
Yun Hee-jun, head of a Seoul-based group campaigning against sex trafficking.
“If you visit any brothel in Vietnam or Cambodia, you can see fliers written in
Korean.”
3 wangkon936 February 2, 2013 at 3:46 pm: Well, I don’t post about prostitution. Look at the history of my posts:

http://www.rjkoehler.com/author/wangkon936/

My posts tend to be business, economic, pop culture and sometimes military themed.

Would you expect Neff to post it? He usually posts about historical themed topics. It hasn’t been his history to post about prostitution either.

Mr. Koehler is usually the one who posts about prostitution. You should ask him. It is his blog after all.

Now, another question is if I post any negative news on Korea in the topics I usually post on. Yes I do. My last post actually poked fun at Hyundai, did it not?
4 Jakgani February 2, 2013 at 4:22 pm: The sad thing about this is – many Korean companies pay for it – by sending their employees off once a year (as a bonus for another years hard work) to Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Philippines etc to participate in this kind of stuff.
5 Sinister February 2, 2013 at 6:35 pm: Nice day today, but a bit cold. I went out on the bike for an hour and my ears were stinging.
6 brier February 2, 2013 at 7:17 pm: Checked out the library located in the old city hall with jr today. The kids section was chaos but we found some dinosaur books and enjoyed some winter indoors. We also got to look around the old mayor’s office and reception room. Cool.
7 balli February 2, 2013 at 7:20 pm: Are you saying Koreans are out ” perverting” the Japanese? Is that even possible?
8 Robert Koehler February 2, 2013 at 8:45 pm: Listen to Wangkon, Jang—when there’s prostitution news to be posted, I’m the guy to talk to. While you’re at it, ask me why I didn’t post the cover story on prostitution in this week’s Weekly Kyunghyang.
9 Robert Koehler February 2, 2013 at 8:46 pm: They did a nice job with that restoration didn’t they? You see the exhibit on the top floor?
10 brier February 2, 2013 at 9:20 pm: Yes I liked how they made it into a bit of museum space about the construction of the building. I think the roof top garden will be worth a visit in warmer weather. Also like how the old city hall and new building contrast with each other. It works!
11 keyinjpop February 3, 2013 at 1:13 am: I came across something interesting on the Internet.

http://www.taekwondobible.com/korculture/spirit/myth.html

Can someone link me a more in-depth discussion on the bear and tiger story?
12 Kuiwon February 3, 2013 at 3:31 am: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323375204578270053387770718.html

All I see on American TV is sex, drugs, and violence. They aren’t doing a good job showing results with the first of those three.
13 Horace Jeffery Hodges February 3, 2013 at 5:51 am: You can find a bit of my discussion of Dangun with respect to this story here: Myth of Mixing.

Jeffery Hodges

* * *
14 Kuiwon February 3, 2013 at 7:00 am: You can find plenty of “mixed” ancestry Koreans in history. I think over a 100 Korean family clans can trace back their roots outside of Korea, mostly China. I wouldn’t stretch the Dangun legend that far.
15 pawikirogii February 3, 2013 at 7:01 am: the article said there were no statistics to prove what you rejoice. also, most of you treat korean newspapers as rags unless of course they say what you want to hear. btw, according to the korean press, white men are aids infested carriers of disease. did you know that?
16 keyinjpop February 3, 2013 at 8:43 am: I remember reading a survey saying Korea buys more porn then Japan so yeah, it’s possible.
17 Bob Bobbs February 3, 2013 at 10:11 am: That’s a bit of an exaggeration. They don’t pay them for it, although their work and/or training might take them away from their families for a while, during which many blind eyes might be turned.
18 Cloudfive February 3, 2013 at 11:01 am: For those planning on watching the Super Bowl, The Korean writes a heartfelt post on why an old video game called “Tecmo Bowl”, Dave Duerson and Junior Seau led him to boycott this game and all NFL games. http://askakorean.blogspot.kr/2013/01/i-am-not-watching-super-bowl-this-year.html#more
19 Jang February 3, 2013 at 4:12 pm: Didn’t your mama ever tell you to wear a hat in the winter or don’t Korean mothers do that thus the reason Koreans tend not to do so?
20 Jang February 3, 2013 at 4:22 pm: In sum, their trip is paid for. What they do when they get there(chicken ranch) is up to them(the lowly employee). The boss man gets all expenses paid and just might add a few others onto the company c.c.
21 Jang February 3, 2013 at 4:35 pm: Okay, why didn’t you? And why didn’t you link to it here?
22 Jakgani February 3, 2013 at 5:31 pm: Korea has 60 months left to clean up the dog/cat meat industry and close down the restaurants and meat markets – before they become an embarrassment (once again) in the international community during the 2018 Winter Olympics.
23 Kuiwon February 3, 2013 at 10:57 pm: Daniel Tudor gave an interview to CNN on Samsung: http://edition.cnn.com/video/?hpt=hp_c4#/video/business/2013/02/01/pkg-chance-samsung-expansion.cnn
24 pawikirogii February 4, 2013 at 2:50 am: currently, we have a 200+ thread regarding the comfort women. it’s the same old story with those who defend japan informing us that comfort women were willing whores sold into prostitution by their (korean) fathers. we’ve heard this all before and those who make such arguments are certain in their beleifs. that may be but there is one big problem for those who spout such tripe; you can get away with it here but in a public form, you are going to have serious problems making such arguments while maintaining credibility. that is because most reasonable people will understand that koreans were an occupied people, and that the need for comfort women should not have existed in the first place. in a similar fashion, that is why most people do not focus on the black hand of slaverey. most people understand the starting point is, there should not have been slaverly in the first place. i wish the gerry bevers of this world good luck. you are going to fail. japan is going to come across as inhuman as this story becomes more prominent in the west. sit back and watch the show.
25 weiguk February 4, 2013 at 8:32 am: disquss is really working out well for you. Can’t recall the last time pre-disquess that I saw an open thread with so few posts.
26 babotaengi February 4, 2013 at 1:49 pm: Yeah, disqus blows – too laggy.
27 Robert Koehler February 4, 2013 at 1:54 pm: Sorry to hear that. Generally works well on all my devices now, though.
28 weiguk February 4, 2013 at 7:34 pm: The numbers more or less speak for themselves. You can stick your fingers in your ears and mumble “clang clang here comes the trolley” all day long, it doesn’t make disquss a good choice.
29 Robert Koehler February 4, 2013 at 7:45 pm: Sorry you feel that way.
30 wangkon936 February 5, 2013 at 3:12 am: Well, lookie here:

http://www.forbes.com/powerful-people/#page:1_sort:0_direction:asc_search:_filter:All%20countries_filter:All%20categories

In terms of Koreans, the highest ranked is Ban-ki Moon (Secretary General of the UN) at #30. Guess who the next most powerful Korean is? Kim Jong-un at # 44. More powerful than Jim Yong Kim (President of the World Bank) at #45.

I guess having nukes means something, in terms of projecting power, even if your economy is sh*t.
31 Shelton Bumgarner February 5, 2013 at 4:52 am: I am well aware that no one cares anymore, given that it’s been six years and all, but I’ve written yet more about my time with ROKon Magazine. This time about my “final days” with my version of it. I only post this because it’s an open thread. http://migukin.wordpress.com/2013/01/24/an-end-and-a-beginning-the-final-days-of-rokon-magazine-for-me-at-least/
32 yangachibastardo February 5, 2013 at 7:53 am: http://www.bloomberg.com/slideshow/2013-02-01/50-most-innovative-countries.html#slide50
33 SomeguyinKorea February 5, 2013 at 9:33 am: One of the coolest news stories in a long time.

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/02/01/world/europe/search-for-richard-iii/index.html?hpt=hp_c1
34 SomeguyinKorea February 5, 2013 at 9:37 am: If you follow the link, the DNA is a match. It is indeed Richard III.
35 DC Musicfreak February 5, 2013 at 10:06 am: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-state-of-nova/post/annandale-gangster-sentenced-to-17-years-for-extortion-ring-that-terrorized-korean-merchants/2013/02/03/e6fd18c0-6cb5-11e2-8740-9b58f43c191a_blog.html