For those of you who share past times similar to my own, you may want to look at this Chosun feature on Yoon Young-im part of the security detail a Seven Luck casino:
Switching from a KTO employee to a monitoring agent wasn’t easy. Working with an American expert, she underwent intensive one-on-one training in Baccarat, blackjack and poker, and ways to detect sharpers. She reviewed videos of cheaters discovered in real casinos countless times. She continues to hone her skills by watching gambling movies like “Tajja (The War of Flower)”, “21″, and “Rounders.” She also meets regularly with fellow casino experts in Las Vegas and Macau to swap information on new tricks and blacklisted gamblers.
Anybody know this Tajja movie? Sounds interesting. However if it is anything like Rounders or 21 on showing cheats, I am not sure. Personally I recommend Yonkers Joe to her, but then there are NO FREAKING CRAPS TABLES IN KOREA. Sorry had to get that off my chest.
Meanwhile, it’s too bad she is not running the security for those above her.
The KT reports that there is a new immigration office in Ansan. That will make me and the 300,000 or so foreign factory workers here happy. The folks in the Incheon office will also be glad. The last time I was there two years ago, the place was wall-to-wall with applicants.
Gordon G. Chang has a fun read in the Wall Street Journal. Here is the conclusion:
Yet, as much as the international community would like to avoid a confrontation, the world cannot let Kim Jong Il continue to proliferate weapons. Moreover, it is unlikely that he will carry through on his blustery threats. The North Koreans did not in fact start a war when, at America’s request, Spain’s special forces intercepted an unflagged North Korean freighter carrying Scud missiles bound for Yemen in December 2002. Even though the Spanish risked their lives to board the vessel, Washington soon asked Madrid to release it. At the time, the Bush administration explained there was no legal justification to seize the missiles.
Now, the Obama administration has no such excuse. There is definitely a legal justification to seize the Kang Nam. North Korea, after all, has resumed the Korean War.
That bit at the end is Chang’s central point, which I think is too cute to apply if for no other reason than you would have to believe that the word of North Koreans has any value. After going through the agreed framework and agreed framework 2.0, it should be pretty clear that it does not and I do not see much point in pretending otherwise.
by Robert Koehler on June 30, 2009
in Gaming
Epic Games — the developer of “Gears of War” and Unreal engine — is opening a subsidiary in Korea.
This is nice, I guess. I liked “Gears of War” — normally, I prefer shooters with human enemies from countries I both know and dislike, but the graphics were good and the chainsaw bayonet was pretty fun to use (even if my wife wasn’t so keen on it).
All I’m going to say about Gov. Mark Sanford is this:
It’s nice to see Republicans are getting laid, and at least he’s literate.
Being a Gangbuk sort of guy, I’ve always disliked Gangnam.
If this Yonhap report (via the Kyunghyang) is anything to go by, though, it’s clearly not all bad.
Apparently, social controversy surrounds the appearance of a club in Gangnam where couples go to freely and openly engage in lewd behavior.
Shockingly, clubs guests at this club engage in group sex and swapping while others voyeuristically sit back and watch.
There are calls to crack down on the place, but police say there’s no legal basis to do so, and criminologists are split as to whether the club has violated the law or whether there’s a need to create regulations to shut it down.
According to the boys in blue, a “couple theme” club opened up in a busy street in Gangnam-gu on June 19. Only members who join after passing an online adult verification check are let in. The club homepage promotes the club as a place where “any sex-related taboo is taboo.”
Inside, simulated sex acts (read: handjobs and blowjobs), group sex and swapping are going on openly.
On the club homepage, several posts praising the club experience have been posted.
Club management said legal experts have told them that since it’s all happening behind closed doors and involve real couples and not hired professionals, there’s no legal basis to shut the place down.
Management says police can’t crack down on them for public lewdness or prostitution, and they plan to promote themselves from July. In fact, their homepage already has an advertiser.
The poor police, meanwhile, are at a loss, since as far as positive law is concerned, they have nothing to go after the club with, despite the great social stir it is causing.
A police official said it seems there’s a need to crack down on the place, considering the effect it is having on social morals, but as long as there’s no prostitution, drug dealing or illegal permits, it wouldn’t be easy applying the law if it’s real couples going there.
Criminologists are divided as to whether you could punish the club’s management or visitors.
Jo Guk (cool name), a law professor at SNU, said it’s a tough matter to call and could be quite controversial. He said if everything is consensual, it would be tough to punish them for public lewdness. You might be able to get them for the minor offense of “overexposure” (”indecent exposure”?).
All Jo pointed out was that there could be a need to create a new legal article separate from current law that would punish the business owner who provided the space.
Law professor Jeon Ji-yeon of Yonsei University, however, said that even if it’s a closed space, if 10 people can see what’s happening, it should be seen as public, and even if the other guests consented to the sexual acts, the crime of public lewdness still stands, since it’s a crime that has nothing to do with the consent of the viewer.
Killjoy.
Jeon did say, however, that it’s not legally settled whether you could punish a person for aiding and abetting public lewdness, so punishing the club owner might be difficult.
The Korea Times reports on a Korean social phenomenon in the wake of more young women striking it out on their own:
For 27-year-old Lim Ji-ae, battling cockroaches in her studio apartment has been a constant nightmare… Until she recently hired someone to be her personal pest control agent for 5,000 won per occasion.
He arrives at her house within 10 minutes of her call, and sometimes even picks up toilet paper, toothpaste and other urgent grocery items on his way. In fact, whatever Lim needs, he does ― most of the time.
“He’s my new best friend,” says Lim,… The so-called substitute men, an emerging beck-and-call squad.
The article simply cites the things they do is mainly deliver things around town. It sounds a lot more prosaic than Ms. Lim’s anecdote would indicate. Then again, Ms. Lim gives some interesting advice in the end:
Experienced customers like Lim says the cost is “friendly,” but advised users to be cautious and not to expose too much personal information to the substitutes.
Advice from experience Ms. Lim?
(PS: Am I the only getting a hilarious picture in my head of some flimsy Korean boy band’s music video of them rushing around on matching scooters to save young women from cockroaches, only to find they squeal like school girls when they see one?)
A proposed prison for foreigners is drawing fire for possibly giving non-Korean inmates “favorable treatment”:
A prison for foreigners will open in Cheonan, North Chungcheong Province, as early as next month, the Ministry of Justice said Monday.
But experts have raised concerns it could attract complaints from Korean prisoners over “favorable” treatment given to non-Korean inmates.
The ministry said the exclusive prison is designed to efficiently manage the growing number of foreign convicts and prevent any trouble between Korean and non-Korean inmates caused by differences in culture, language and lifestyle.
A correction center currently used for juvenile delinquents will be transformed into the prison, the ministry added.
A total of 23 prison officers fluent in English, Chinese and Russian will be assigned to the facility.
As of January, 1,423 foreigners were behind bars here, compared with 698 in 2005.
Sit down for this:
According to a recent survey, trouble in a multi-racial cells takes place more frequently than in racially homogeneous cells, suggesting the necessity of a foreigner-only prison.
Apparently, foreign criminals don’t seem to play nice with one another:
Human rights activist Hwang Myeong-ho, who conducted the survey on prisoners at Daejeon Correctional Center, said, “Each racial group showed antagonism to others groups. In particular, disputes between hot-tempered Russian and Chinese prisoners, forming the largest racial group, were frequent.”
Oh, the humanity.
I must ask, though, that if foreign and Korean prisoners are kept separate, whence will come the Cullen Thomas’s of the future?
by Sonagi on June 29, 2009
in China
Literally. Fortunately, this newly built apartment building was still unoccupied when the entire structure tumbled over onto its side. One worker was killed.
I appear to have earned the ire of an apparently angry English teacher at Dave’s ESL.
Not that I really care, mind you, but would “wylies99″ care to explain this?
MilwaukeeDave and others- Gladly. Give me some time. They both REGULARLY post their hatred for E2 teachers in both the regular posts and the comments. Koehler regular posts that ALL E2 teachers do drugs or have drugs mailed to them. Wanna back that up with facts, Koehler?
Carr posts some things that would make any sensible person nauseous. I don’t expect either one to respond on here because they both know they are scumbags. Yeah, I said it. MANY others have seen what they’ve posted and have responded to them on the comments section of the “Marmot’s Hole.
Koehler has even flamed Michael Breen simply for being involved with education in Korea. Who they are trying to please with these comments? It’s anybody’s guess.
I regularly post that ALL E-2s do drugs and have drugs mailed to them? I’ve flamed Mike Breen for being involved with education in Korea? Interesting.
Death threats, threats of legal action, now possibly the target of online defamation… it’s hard to be a blogger sometimes.
It’s also hard to keep straight whom I hate — depending on who you ask, I’m either anti-Korean, anti-Japanese, anti-gyopo or anti-English teacher. For the record, I’ve never hated anyone. OK, that’s not true — I used to hate the New York Rangers, although I thought James Patrick was OK and never got enough credit playing next to Brian Leetch.*
The most hurtful comment, however, was by a “benji1422″:
LOL. someone with a blog roll of a few hundred daily visitors — how does that effect you? Thank about it.
Hey, that’s a few thousand daily visitors, tough guy 
(HT to reader)
* UPDATE: I just remembered I used to hate Jim Boeheim, too.
