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Thursday, June 26, 2003
The Cash-for-Summit results are out. And it is not altogether surprising to learn that, in fact, South Korea did pay for the summit. They paid $100 million dollars and one would guess that the cash was not spent on alleviating poverty and hunger for the nation's starving masses. The irony that South Korea probably paid North Korea hard cash that went toward it's clandestine nuclear program which has burgeoned to the current day crises is striking. Now, though the Chosun wants to tell us that Kim Dae-jung knew the money was being paid but didn't know it was illegal seems almost laughable. How the president of the nation, and progenitor of the Sunshine policy did not know what was going on is almost an insult to his intelligence. Especially given that his Chief of Staff and former tourism minister, Park Jie-won, was the organiser of the fund transfer. This matter should not be left where it is. The man recieved a Noble peace prize which should be taken away from him with all speed if he is found to be a guilty party in this treason. If the money has gone to propping up the regime which has a nuclear program, if the money was the deciding factor in making the summit happen rather than good will then he has done nothing to promote peace he should have the prize taken from him. If the money has only served to reduce trust and faith in the governing bodies of the country and shown that corruption still flourishes in this country at the highest level, then he should have the prize taken from him. And finally, if the man recieving the prize got it under false pretences and has tarnished the reputation of the prize (though I think this has happened in the past as well) then it should be taken from him. This scandal is not just national, it is international scandal and not just those few who made the transaction but all involved should be made accountable and should apologise publicly and sincerely.
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Monday, June 23, 2003
A few weeks back I was bragging to my friend about my temporary position at WBI (link at left). But I didn't get quite the reaction I was looking for. My friend, who holds many opinions the same as me, gave me the standard speal of how these instutions along with corporations and corrupt governments are supressing the people, and perpetuating poverty in pursuit of their own selfish and greedy amibitions. I pondered this matter. A week ago my flatmate returned from Canada and showed me a book he had purchased entitled, "The Myth of the Good Corporate Citizen". Although I have only read a little of it, you can well guess the gist. It talks about the linkages between profit seeking corporations and governments and the moral and ethical vacum they have created in order to bring about the policies and business environment that suits them and have abondoned the ideals of democracy and equal society as the pursue the mighty dollar. Last night I watched Bowling for Columbine, the documentary by Michael Moore. As many people probably already know, this film delved into the gun culture and fear mongering that occurs in modern USA. This documentary gave me less to think about than the other two mentioned events. Mostly because I already agreed with the premise of the film and think that the gun culture in America is absoute insanity. Culture note In Korea the room salon culture has been pretty much out of my area of expertise. The overarching reason being that, as a female, I am not taken to such places and therefore my knowledge of them has been almost all second hand. I did get to enter a room salon last year but the host of our group instructed the staff that no girls be brought in and that a male serve us. This lasted about an hour, at which time I was sent home so they could get the girls in. I had my second chance to visit a room salon just last weekend. This time, the girls were brought in. I have two observations on this. These prim looking, conservatively dressed girls didn't quite fit the image I had of room salon girls. Secondly, after getting a job in Korea it took me a while to get used to seeing my boss and other superiors get solvenly drunk and still respect them in their professional capacity. I have since managed this and am able to better distinguish the drinking events from work. But now I don't know how long it will take for me to make a similar distinction for my married co-workers who had their arms around girls they didn't know while their wives sat at home waiting for them. While they didn't really do anything 'wrong'. The didn't do anything 'right' either. I should add that the link I provided makes them sound a bit more sordid than the ones I went too. Because having said about my trip to the room salon I should clarify that the rooms were nice and tasteful and we did karaoke and drank whisky and we did have fun. Thursday, June 19, 2003
After my last blog denouncing self-opinionated prigs, I have decided to join their ranks. I was most offended at the myopic, ill-researched, lazy-journalism which resulted in the inadequate article on Korean blogs in the Joongang Ilbo - no links provided as the article failed to mention my blog. That article is a personal affront! In other news, the ASEAN forumhas been the scene for US officials to try and get more support on the crackdown in North Korean exports/imports. The US Secretary of Sate gave a speech that is very poltically correct but does give a bit of information on the North nuke issue. Needless to say, with 11 countries now in tow, the idea is gainging ground. While I can agree that the issue should not necessarily be a US-NK matter there is a basis for rejecting this kind of pressure. An article which I linked to a bit back analysed the effectiveness of sanctions in gaining poltical leverage to induce countries to do the will of sanctioning country/ies. The analysis found that in smaller matters sanctions had recorded some success but in larger issues, it was not found to be a feasible means of achieving poltical/economic goals. When I linked it, I was discussing the futility of sanctions against Iraq to deter their supposed secret weapons programme. And I beliee the same holds true for the North Korea case. The poltical goal is too large in this case as well. But of course, Korea is not Iraq and several other factors should be considered. Firslty, North Korea already has the wepaons which would make sanctions seem less likely to have an impact. Secondly, it is extremely difficult to tell how the sanctions will impact the country/economy. We can guess that the money from weapons and illegal matter is not going toward feeding the people and at stretch we may summise that if the monetary gains only go to military machinery, then the economy won't collapse either as it is separate from the military economy, and we can guess, that if they have already got the weapons, one or two more, though desirable, is not necessary, and we can guess that the North Koreans will still be able to get stuff out and make sales regardless of an ambitious (and illegal) blockade. Talks between North Korea, US and other sidelined nations, are admittedly not going very well. The disagreement between the allied countries opposed against the North Koreans is only detrimentally affecting any possible progress and no amicable solution is in sight. Indeed, they seem to be getting farther apart. The next round of talks, then, should be seen as extremely critical by all sides. Everyone is getting antsy, this issue has been going on too long and US is starting to get bored with Iraq the same way they did with Afghanistan which will probably rasie North Korea's stress level another notch. Meanwhile the North is getting more belligerent in its speech which is proably doing nothing for US stress levels either. After the failed previous talks, its imperative that these talks, at least lead to more talks with a definite date, schedule and list of participating nationS. Monday, June 16, 2003
This weekend was the anniversary of the two girls who were killed by a military vehicle last year. There were some protests around downtown, in front of the US Embassy and around the Yongsan Army base. Though I didn't actually see them but I did see traffic being redirected in front of Yongsan on Sunday afternoon. It seems that things were mostly peaceful and nothing like last year's protests. There have been some harsh articles coming out recently over the Korea issue which in some cases has reduced the debate to mud-slinging and insults directed at the authors of articles and reports. I find this a disappointing trend and reflects, I think, a low brow immaturity that does not need to be present ever in debating issues. My key complaint is those that see an author as being "stupid" simply because the opinions helds are different to their own. Surely one person giving more wieght to some factors in the North Korean nuclear crisis than someone else does not make them stupid, it just means they have a different perspective. Different perspectives should me addressed, considered and countered/refuted but never insulted. I think such mud-slinging is what distinguishes an intellectual from a self-opinionated prig. Sunday afternoon, I was fortunate enough to be invited to attend an art opening exhibition for my friend's father, Robert Liddicoat. The afternoon was very nice with free-flowing wine and beer and snacks, including salmon - yummy! Friday, June 13, 2003
I believe I posted an article from Nautilus or at least read an article from there which I couldn't re-find that expounded on how idiotic was the idea to set up a naval blockade to prevent suspicious North Korean trade and effectively strangle the country to death. I fully agreed with the sentiments of the author that such a strategy to deal with the North Korea nuclear weapons issue was not only unreasonable in terms of being able to effectively attain the desired goals of US foreign policy toward the North, but it was also highly unfeasible and downright illegal. In a nutshell, containing the North Koreans in this way would not deal with the currently existin nuclear capabilities within the country, nor would it encourage good behaviour on the part of the North, and more likely would breed further mistrust between the two parties and encourage more clandestine activity on the part of the North. In fact, I read several comments by Korean specialists, all of which noted how impractical and short-sighted a blockade strategy would be. Not to mention North Korea's comment that such action would be taken as an act of war, which may only be typical North Korean ruberic, but not really something you want to risk. This led me to mistakenly think that surely it would never come to fruition. However, I was not only disappointed to read that not only is the blockade notion gaining momentum but the Austrlian, tripping over themselves to impress the US, are thinking they could help out. And while the Australian paper may lead one to think that Australian boats wouldn't be involved, the Asia Times gives a slightly different angle. I'm more inclined to believe the Times since I wouldn't put it past the Aussies to think they are personally involved since they found the herion at Lorne. I often wonder why it is that US in particular has so many specialists and qualified people on topics that are called in to give advice and comments to politicians and presidents but in the end, they are seemingly ignored and the politicians do what they wanted in the first place. I even wonder who on this earth would have advised Australia's Foreign and Defense Ministers into thinking that supporting this would be a good idea, or even anything they needed to be involved in. Afterall Australia hardly needs, or should be, a key player in this issue. Monday, June 09, 2003
Roh and Kouzumi seem to have differences of opinion regarding how to deal with North Korea. Despite Roh's slightly more hard-line stance after his return from US he still is not on the level with Japan, which is pushing for greater efforts and is, indeed, taking them. All this is coming on the back of Roh's first 100 days in office. It would seem that is vacillating stance and recent troubles with labour unions and the weakening economy are not not making him popular. He will have a fair bit of work to do to pull up the opinin polls from their current lows. The weekend was a bit of a non-event with not too much happening. I did manage to go out on Saturday night to Geckos with some friends who came up to Seoul from Daegu. Sunday was spent lazing around followed by an early evening jog around Namsan. and of course I caught the Uruguay V Korea soccer match on tv though Korea didn't win. Saturday, June 07, 2003
Yesterday was Korea's Memorial Day meaning a public holiday. There is something not right about having Friday off only to have to go to work again Saturday morning. Not right at all. However, having a holiday was v nice. I had a few drinks with friends on Thursday night. A couple of places in Itaewon give free drinks for the ladies on Thursday so I dressed up lady-style to take advantage and then stood around very un-lady like quaffing down as much beer as I could. Actually I didn't drink too much, just a social amount. Friday morning I slept in and lazed about and then decided I better do something on my day off rather than sit around. So I headed over to Mount Pukhan to go for a small hike. However, before I could reach the top of the mountain it had started raining, was getting heavier and was somewhat cold. I aborted my plan and descended the mountain. In all though it was a two hour hike which isn't bad. I fell asleep on the bus ride home and was shivering cold. Not exactly how I had imagined my day but the sound or rain lightly tapping against the leaves and the fresh earth smell that comes with the rain made the trip worthwhile. And today Kathreb has a new link! WBI is the World Bank Institute and the wonderful people that work there have decided to hire me for a month so I am now a "World Bank Consultant" on top of my current job. My job is to do research for them during this time in preparation for a conference coming up that is jointly being done by WB and MPB (hence I can do two jobs at once) and then I will have to help out at the conference itself. The work seems to be quiet large in quantity but given my interest in this field and the fact that the job, though temporary, is a dream job for me, I am very excited. Wednesday, June 04, 2003
Blogging live from my hot-box office in Seoul. Why does everyone in the room have a fan except for me? Why does hot weather sap the energy out of a person and make them enormously drowsy regardless of the quantity of coffee consumed? Asia Times has provided space for comments about upcoming anniversaries in Korea. (The link re North Korea info at the bottom is v interesting). Memorial Day is this Friday but the article talks more of the June 2001 summit anniversary and the outbreak of the Korean war anniversary. I didn't notice mention of the death of the two school girls anniversary coming up June 13 (I think) which is also an important one for both countries as it should indicate the sentiment of the vocal minority regarding US-South Korea alliance and could strain the inchoate friendship between Bush and Roh when Roh agreed to be a tad more hard-line-ish regarding North Korea. Evidence of which is becoming apparent but may not actually translate into action. But the comment that caught my eye was one referring to the notion that US presence on the Korean peninsular is what justifies the existence of the North Korean state and its commitment to remaining a nation constantly ready for war. This may be so and in many ways it could be argued that if the US were to leave the threat of war may diminish to the point where inter-Korean relations, through the peace and prosperity policy may actually start to gain greater momentum. However, such ideas that support the removal of the US often need to go a step further to analyse the likelihood of an arms race developing, particularly between Japan, China and South Korea in the absence of a major power to deter these countries from striving to gain regional dominance. Indeed a key reason to eradicte the threat of North Korea's atomic arsenal is to avoid an arms race. Paradoxically, the removal of the US forces in Korea poses a similar threat. If US stays they threaten North Korea which in turn builds up nuclear weapons to protect itself thereby sparkin an arms race in the regions as Japan and others seek to block the threat of North Korea. If US leaves, they leave behind a power vacum which would induce Japan and others to build up weapons to gain dominance and protection from neighbouring countries all with long histories of rivalry and war. On the US-North Korea front the delegation of Congressmen to North Korea seems to have gone well from a political correctness point of view. But it seems like one of those politically-motivated-not-likely-to-lead-to-anything kind of events. The lack of press coverage would also indicate this. Monday, June 02, 2003
While the sun is shining outside I find myself, as always, shut in this office devoid of airconditioning. At least outside a cool breeze would be nicer than this stuffy hot-box of an office. The two Koreas are at their summer fun games again playing skirmish. Probably in part because they want access to the fishing grounds and partly cause of the G8 Summit being held in Evian, France. Accordingly, US put out aggression on the peninsular and sales of arms, etc. But for now I think things are still going quietly and slowly. One report came out that Japan had spoken to China about getting in on the next round of negotiations as well as South Korea and some rumors of North Korean acquiescence to such has been circulated. A couple months back I read a book about the progress of e-government. The book mostly gave examples around the world of how e-gov was being used to make our lives easier and government processes less complicated and confusing. It all sounded good but to my (mild) surprise, despite Korea's high broadband and computer penetration, it was not cited at all in a book on e-gov. I guessed it was because Korea has been behind the leaders in building its e-gov and despite some obvious advantages in this field has failed to become a pioneer in e-gov. And now it seems the criticism of Korea's e-gov program is about to become more vocal. This somehow seems typical of Korea, wherein often they lead in technology and development, they pick up new things quickly and easily, but when it comes to practical usage, they somehow seem to often start making things difficult and too much ad-hoc decision making and organising leaves people feeling lost and uncertain of how to apply these 'practical' things into their daily life. At least that is one explanation, I'm sure there is a great mix of factors of varying importance which has lead to the poor start of e-gov in Korea. I start Korean class again today after a two week spring break. I bought a Winnie the Pooh theme folder to start the new semester. This will be the last semester of study before I leave for US so I'm keen to make the most of it. Afterall, more study now means less study at Stanford.
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