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Friday, November 22, 2002
Wednesday 20th was a bleak and rainy day but that was not going to deter my friend and I from making our way out to the World Cup Stadium to catch Korea V Brasil in a friendly soccer match. Although I was cheering for Korea I had money riding on Brasil (practicality over emotion in betting). It was great match with a great atmosphere. That stadium really is a great venue. And of course the whole thing was made even better when Brasil scored the winning goal � making me a winner too! On Tuesday I met a boy for lunch. I kept this a secret from people at work as I didn�t want to have to explain but it turned out that some big group from the office saw me anyway. During this week I�ve had people teasing me that they saw me with a boy. Oh well, just goes to show that you shouldn�t keep secrets in the government. Anyway, now its in the paper and all the details of what me and the boy talked about over lunch are here. So the next big appearance during my fifteen minutes of fame is this coming Monday when you�ll be able to catch me having a Heart to Heart with Ahn Jung-Hyun. I�m a little bit worried about this one. I tend to get nervous when there are lights and cameras and people looking at me. I have visions of Patsy from AbFab when she was on TV and froze up. Please send all fan mail to the given email account in the left hand column. No hate mail, that would hurt my feelings. But enough of me. Lets take a look a brief glance at goings on in Korea. Society takes another progressive step for freedom of speech. I think its great to see this movie being accepted in Korea. Doesn�t particularly strike me as something I want to see but still its good to know that its available for anyone who does have an interest. And in economics there is news of the credit crunch in consume spending in Korea. Personally I tend to think comparisons with a pre-crisis situation are a little exaggerated. Korea became a victim of a crisis sparked in other countries I doubt very much Korea will be the trigger. The fundamentals are too strong and the reform momentum is still proceeding well.
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Wednesday, November 20, 2002
Found it here! But only in Korean, sorry about that for non-Korean readers but the article is not so fascinating. Saturday, November 16, 2002
Free Trade
As noted before, trade talks are becoming a hot issue in many countries these days. Moreso as WTO Doha negotiations look weaker everyday, threatening global efforts to achieve multilateral cooperation. But ever increasing evidence is arising that even bilateral talks are not making much progress The above picture depicts Korean farmers protesting at Yeoido last week over free trade with Chile. Certainly bodes ill for any future thoughts of pursuing bilateral or multilateral consensus on trade issues.
Wednesday, November 13, 2002
This weekend, despite the cold weather, two brave (or foolhardy) souls and me will be participating in the Baekje Marathon to be held this Sunday. We have opted to run in the 15km race, the longest long distance run I have ever attempted....do I feel lucky, well, do I? Not really, no. Feeling less than 100% confident in my ability to do this but I plan to give it my best shot. And in other exciting news here at "Kathreb". I got interviewed by the Chosun Ilbonewspaper today. They have a "Metro" section which apparently does profiles on foreigners living in Seoul. The photo shoot is tomorrow morning, so I'll have to make sure I'm dressed better than I am today. And of course, will provide a link to the profile if it comes out on the Internet version of the English edition of the paper. Thursday, November 07, 2002
Multilateral trade negotiations via the World Trade Organisation's Doha Development Round have gotten off to a weak start. As countries battle the hefty task of overcoming myriad differences in a plethora of trade issues they are also turning to bilateral trade deals. The reasoning behind this move is, at least for America, is to create an impetus for greater gain in multilateral talks by making headway in bilateral negotiations. Others argue that bilateral talks only make for more red tape and hard work for bureaucrats. Asia too has been the scene of much two-way talking. Korea too has recently signed its first bilateral trade deal with Chile albiet with little done toward freeing agricultural trade. What is most striking here though is that Korea, and Japan too for that matter, have allowed China to step in and make a very important trade deal with ASEAN. While in the early days this may not mean much, it does however have the potential to be a defining moment in determining which future geopolitical dominance. And India too seems to have realised the importance of aligning with ASEAN. This bloc, which may not be much now, could well be the basis upon which Asia develops a trading and economic to challenge the size and might of EU and NAFTA (or AFTA). Korea could well be leaving itself vulnerable to isolation and at a disadvantage in future trade negotiations if it fails to mobilise now and make concessions (particularly in agriculture) to ensure that it too becomes a central player in future regional trade units. Saturday, November 02, 2002
 This picture has absolutely no relevance to Korea, my life in Korea or my ambition to know more about Korea, but I thought I'd put it here anyway as I think its cool. However in keeping with the main theme of the blog page, let me comment about Korea. Not the nuke issue as I believe it is being analysed to death in all major and sundry papers and websites. But instead I'd like to revisit briefly the corruption scandal sorrounding incumbent President DJ Kim. His son has been sentenced for bribery.Further emphasising the lame duckness (is that a word?) of the ruling party. Unfortunately, I see that this kind of scandal has already sealed the defeat of candidate Roh. But on a lighter note, here are some stories of lee well-known candidates. The one who wants to beat up other politicians reminded me of Assassination Politics, a must-read for everyone, but on a much less scary note.
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