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Thursday, May 15, 2008
Gagging of the Press A bit late but, the Freedom of the Press 2008 notes that North Korea "remained the most repressive media environment in the world in 2007". Further stating that "Under the penal code, listening to foreign broadcasts and possessing dissident publications is a “crime against the state” and carries harsh punishments, including hard labor, prisons sentences and the death penalty."North Korea marginally beat the heavily repressive regime of Myanmar to secure the not-at-all coveted last place position on the list. A fully deserved ranking.
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Thursday, May 08, 2008
Beef The weirdest thing about the current frenzy in South Korea regarding mad cow is that it appears that Koreans believe that its contagious and/or airborne. If they are worried about contaminated meat, why don't they just stop eating beef until the matter is resolved? Surely that would be way simpler and more effective in getting the point across than candlelight vigil. Migrant Workers Trade Union As usual, Two Koreas has the latest information on the South Korean Government's crackdown against the Migrant Workers' Trade Union. Speaking of migrant workers, yesterday South Korea was reviewed by the new Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review process. These are being web cast live and I watched a bit. Migrant workers easily dominated the issues being raised. (Japan is being reviewed on Friday for those interested.) Wednesday, March 12, 2008
World Tour continues I am back in London but came home to find some high-intensity drama in the share house. The lease is up for renewal and one member of our little household is not being offered a space on the new lease. Deteriorating relations between the landlord and the house mate apparently happened quite quickly. We (sister and I) are off home to Australia (not Samoa) for three and a half weeks this Saturday. I doubt there will be any blogging during that time as I have important things to do such as sleeping, swimming and reading trashy romance novels. On the way back we'll also be spending four days in Tokyo for sightseeing, shopping and sake. Monday, March 10, 2008
Notes from a half-Samoan crack head I met Kevin (aka: big hominid) today. My first time to meet a fellow Korea blogger - how exciting. The events are hazy for me but he seems to remember more of the details of the afternoon. I don't know when that photo was taken but luckily I'm looking my best. Good times! That concludes my week visit to Seoul. I'm a bit brain dead, not only from my crack addiction, but also from the endless stream of work meetings that I had to attend during the week. I leave tomorrow morning. I'm not sure Kevin's underwear will make it through quarantine in UK so I may leave them for the cleaning lady. Thursday, February 28, 2008
Response to comment James at The Grand Narrative posted a comment. I went to comment on his site but I object to his pictures so I will respond here. Sadly, I won't be in Busan so there can be no beer drinking opportunities. Perhaps my objection to the pictures changed your mind on the offer anyway. I have not finished Bad Samaritans yet but I am enjoying it very much. While I'm sure proponents of free trade can argue some of the points he does make, he expresses himself well, makes good arguments and the book is very readable. I personally agree with much of what he says but not 100%. I read the post that you had made with the Economist review and I think they missed his argument (or misconstrued it?) in some instances. For example, he does not deny that some bad economic episodes happened during the period of protectionism (ie: during world war I and II) but he does show well that good things DID happen during periods of protectionism and bad things DID happen in times of free trade. Thereby making a very relevant argument that international financial institutions (the Bad Samaritans) should not be adopting a 'protection bad; free trade good' view of the world and forcing it on countries where that strategy is clearly not making helping long-term economic development. I heard Chang Ha-Joon speak at Chatham House a few months ago and heard a little of his 'lets not bag protectionism' talk. He is not the only Korean (or Westerner for that matter) who has pointed out the role of protectionism and government intervention in Korea's economic success and I think it is good to be reminded of it.
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Friday, February 22, 2008
How is the weather over there? I am heading over to to Japan and the land of the morning calm as of next week. This would be exciting except the anticipated cold weather is making it less so. It has been about 3 years since I've been to Korea and I've missed a lot of things in that time. I still haven't seen Cheongyecheon yet or the finished Seoul Station! But all that is about to change. The newly destroyed Namdaemun will also be worth a gander. Although I would've preferred to see it as I remember. Monday, February 18, 2008
It was really on a matter of time - The London tube is trying to kill me As I have noted earlier, I hate the London tube. It makes me nauseous and gives me a headache. This morning I fainted on the way into work. After several delays of being stopped inside the tunnels between stations, I started to feel nauseous and ver quickly became dizzy. Then it all went dark. I woke up on the platform with a kindly staffer helping me away from the crowd. I feel fine now but how on earth am I supposed to get to work if I keep getting sick on the public transport?
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