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Sunday, November 27, 2005
Update: The Marmot has more information about the protests against MBC over the whole incident and gives more information about developments on that front. Hwang Woo Suk
From the beginning things have not gone well for Professor Hwang Woo Suk. The first bad omen, in my opinion, was calling a dog "Snuppy". As if that wasn't bad enough, it turned out to be only a minor mistake compared to what was to come. Shortly after cloning the world's first human embryos Prof Hwang found himself in all sorts of ethical trouble. Acquisition of the eggs used for the research was found to be in breach of ethical standards - an event which has led to worldwide bad press for him and his research team. To give him a break, it seems that Prof Hwang was not aware of how the eggs were acquired at the time. It is also true that the means of acquirement was made illegal after it was done. His decision to not use them then, if he had known, would've relied on his own ethical conscious. The ethical breach in question is an important one. Gaining eggs from employees who may be coerced or coaxed against their will to do so is a valid concern. In a country like Korea where subordination and obedience to hierarchy is the norm the threat of such occurences is heightened. Even with legal backing such research should have to undergo sufficient auditing to ensure honesty is maintained by any country. The Korean's running to donate eggs (like they did gold in the economic crisis) completely misinterprets the matter. It is not about countries racing to be the first and best in research but about creating the right framework and standards to allow research to be conducted in an ethical manner no matter which country is doing the research. However in the wake of the revelations, things, as so often happens in Korea, have gone awry. It might be expected that Prof Hwang would apologise and resign as he did (and possibly continue research still but less high profile which I believe he has indicated he will do). Next, you would expect official investigations to clear up the matter and recommend ways to prevent a repeat of events and this too seems to happening. You may even expect that a local tv station may run a story on it. So far, so normal.
What you may not expect to find is a bunch of Koreans holding a memorial service. Afterall, nobody has died. Why you would hold a candle vigil when nobody's dead is, for all wants and purposes, absurd. Now, some may say that certain Koreans are not fully familiar with the purpose of a candle vigil and that to them a protest = molotov cocktail or candle depending on level of anger. By this account, the candle vigil is supposed to be a protest. The memorial service is against MBC and alleged bias. I have not watched it but am told that the show, while not possibly bearing much good news, was in essence truthful. Two things: if you have a pre-set opinion it is easy for something stated against your opinion to appear as bias. Second, I sincerely doubt that the concern of the protestors is "concern of accuracy in news reporting" so much as "making Hwang look bad when he is the hero". If I am mistaken and it is the former, I expect to see a great many more vigils against all Korean tv stations and applaude their demonstrable concern for information accuracy in the media. The protests and public attention which makes the case so odd seems to emanate from the Korean's strong desire, at a personal level, to be so well respected and recognised on the world's stage. The difference is one of seeing him as an scientist who happens to be Korean and whose achievements and errors alike are his own, as opposed to seeing him as a Korean who happens to be a scientist and whose failings also show poorly on Korean people. It is a little sad because, yet again, the Korean's end up making themselves look worse on the international stage thanks to their behaviour which foreigners usually view with confusion and sometimes derision.
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Saturday, November 26, 2005
Pride and Prejudice This book really needs no review; we all know it. The new Pride and Prejudice movie is what prompted the reading of the book. The movies was pretty true to the book and was as to be expected. Kiera Knightly truly has a long neck. Monday, November 21, 2005
China Hands: Nine Decades of Adventure, Espionage, and Diplomacy in Asia ? by James Lilley with Jeffrey Lilley China Hands is the memoirs of Ambassador James Lilley written with the assistance of his journalist son. James Lilley begins his life tale with a brief background of his Father and how he came to be a worker for Standard Oil in China in the early 1900s. The family grew up in China and James himself was born in Tsingtao, China. Of course the events of WWII and specifically Japan’s savage war in China had a direct impact on the Lilley family. In following these events we mostly view the family and the war through the eyes of James’ older brother Frank since James was still very young during those days. His brother Frank on the other hand, as we learn, was very much affected and involved in events and left a treasure of letters and diaries which bring events to life. It is to his brother Frank, who committed suicide while in Japan stationed in a suburb of Hiroshima, that the book is dedicated. Lilley proceeds neatly through his youth and education at Exeter and Yale to explain the events that led him to join the CIA ? along with many other from Yale and his class. From there we progress through the career of a CIA operative in notably in Japan, Hong Kong, and Laos during the CIA secret efforts to support anti-Viet cong guerrillas Laotian tribes. He becomes the first CIA officer to legally enter China to join the original American diplomatic mission in Communist China. It was during this tenure that he met and became friends with future president George Bush. It is always beneficial to make friends with the rich and powerful. By the time George Bush became Vice President for Ronald Reagan, Lilley had retired from the CIA and was ripe for the picking to join the new administration. First as a staffer in the NSC but then he was quickly promoted up to become the Director of the American Institute in Taiwan which served in lieu of an embassy after relation with mainland China had thawed. Lilley’ next appointment ? and the role for which I knew him best ? was Ambassador to South Korea. James was present in Korea during the 1987-88 democratic transition and his key accomplishment during his tenure was to push for an appointment in which he personally handed a letter from the US president and urged Chun Doo Hwan to not announce martial law to quash the demonstrations; an act which is believed to have influenced Chun’s decision positively to that end. His final appointment, and one that gets a lot of coverage, is his tenure as US Ambassador to China. He arrives just in time for the Tiananmen massacre. The personal account of what was going on is detailed and includes the kind of little stories and heroes that make personal accounts by those who were there so worthwhile. Lilley doesn’t try to steal the spotlight of his own actions during this time but outlines the efforts and struggles faced by the Embassy and gives credit to those who shone during such difficult times to exceed in their job and their duty to American citizens. This is a thoughtful, well-written book. Despite being a bit slow in some parts, its strength lying in personal accounts of tumultuous events in Asian history to which he was not only witness but an actor. I met James Lilley in 2004 where he gave the opening speech for the Human Rights in North Korea Awareness Week at Stanford. As part of the organising committee I presented him with a ‘thank-you’ gift. I didn’t really have a chance to speak to him but I was impressed that he is still actively working in areas that concerned him during his career and that he has long been a supporter of promoting human rights in China and elsewhere in the world. Wednesday, November 16, 2005
An update on National Treasure No.1 The Chosun Ilbo is reporting that the National Treasure No. 1 will remain as Namdaemun. The Bureau of Audit and Inspection which held the debate on whether or not to give the number one position to Hangul also noted that they would soon scrap the number system "saying it was a misunderstanding to assume the designation implied a kind of grade". While I agree that the numbering should be done away with, I am curious about why they would debate over whether to change which treasure got the number one status when it was a "misunderstanding" that the numbers meant anything. Saturday, November 12, 2005
Bachelor Kisses by Nick Earls Mr. Earls is a Brisbane-based author, the town/city where I went to university. I received three of his novels from my friend and Bachelor Kisses is the first of those three that I've read. The protagonist is one Dr. J Marshall, a hospital intern at an otherwise uninteresting hospital in Bris Vegas. Like most students/young singles in Brissy he lives in a share house. In this case a post-grad English lit gal and Rick who is unlucky in love and coincidently owns a porky pig doona (ie: comforter). There didn't appear to be any real plot to this story. We join John Marshall one morning on his way to work and take it from there. However, despite the lack of plot things seem to move smoothly along as we simply become observers to the day to day life of a stereotypical aussie lad in a boring town with a boring job. Hapless and shallow he somehow manages to have an active sex life and points out (accurately I think) that it is because the other options are usually worse that he has sees so much action. This is in lieu of having any quality of his own that is attractive to the opposite sex. He is immature, he dumps a girl who wants to plan a holiday in two months because he isn't sure if he will be dating her in two months. He is lazy, when funding is short on his research plan he doesn't argue and is relieved that he avoids the possibility of looking stupid if the research didn't work out. He is gutless, it takes him weeks to break with a girl he doesn't like and then lies about being gay to do it. But despite being someone I would never like to meet in my life he does manage to be a character of wit and humour and someone that you don't mind spending time with as you proceed through the book. And I think that is a tribute to the humourous writing style of Nick Earls himself. The jam fucking incident is a great case in point as it is both gross and horribly funny at the same time. I laughed heartily over that, especially as the main character contemplated that among the members of the Ethics Committee he was probably the only condiment fucker. Sports Roundup I went for my first golf lesson last Friday. I have played golf before and gotten tips and lessons from my ever-patient father but this was the first time to seek professional help. It went smashingly and one of the other instructors threw out the phrase "natural talent" though maybe he was just trying to be encouraging. We are playing a round tomorrow and have another lesson on Monday. In field hockey I had my best game of the season with three goals. I have found time to get in some practice in the last couple of weeks and I think this has made a big difference. Especially the whole hitting the ball to go inside a not-so-large box while running at top speed which is not an easy thing to do. I've been playing tennis as well but nothing to boast of in this game. Friday, November 11, 2005
Overcoming the Culture Gap I had a very pleasant lunch today with the author of one of today's Joongang Ilbo Columnists. She has conducted many interviews with North Korean defectors in Seoul as part of her Fulbright Research and she touches on the not often discussed issue of how South Koreans treat their "brothers" from the North when they arrive in South Korea as well as how North Koreans might perceive that they are being treated. Obviously coming from such different backgrounds there is a lot of room for misunderstanding between these two. Even though South Korea may be the country with the most in common with North Korea, its not so much a matter as the two having much in common as the rest of the world having virtually nothing in common with the North. Even the former and current Communist states. Citizenship is over-rated anyway It makes a difference to the sheep has a link to a US citizens test. I figured that, though I am not American, I've been here two years so I should do okay. I was wrong.
I'm not sure which questions I got right or wrong but since I'm not planning to become a US citizen I'm not going to bother studying up on this. I remember when I was coming to the US and someone showed me a sample citizen test and I was stunned to learn that US presidents could only be there for two terms. I like to think I've learnt a lot about the US and its whacky ol' style of democracy since then. For example, I learnt just yesterday that in Virginia a governor only gets one term and it seems that they vote on the second Tuesday of November of the election year and have done so since around 1894 - bizarre! I'm not sure where you can vote on a weekday since its a schoolday but I'm guessing it must be churches (like I saw happen in DC for the Presidential elections) - also bizarre! Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Which is more important: an inanimate object or a sound? The Korean government, for reasons unfathomable to me, is engaging in a debate about whether or not to change the ranking of National Treasure No.1. It appears that "large old gate" otherwise known as Namdaemun may be pushed out in favour of "proper pronunciation of words" otherwise known as Hangul. Lets get one point clear, I am all in favour of looking after and being proud of a nation's national treasures be they living, man-made, natural or whatever. I see less point in ranking them by importance. Afterall, comparing hangul against Namdaemun is your classic oranges and apples conundrum - and at least those two are fruits. The article mentions no criteria indicating this is a purely subjective issue which inevitably means there is no right answer. What a mind-boggling waste of time and even more so when you consider that as public servants, taxpayers are likely funding this debate. I'm also curious as to which other countries bother with such a ranking system. Google attempts at "National Treasure No.1", and "National Treasure ranking system" seemed to show only Korean and one Chinese site. Which leads me to believe that Korea and China are the only ones fool enough to waste their time on such things. Let the Party Begin The next round of six-party talks are due to begin next Wednesday. North Korea is complaining about something Bush supposedly said against an unnamed "Tyrant in North Korea" and blaming US for not acting in the spirit of the Agreed Principles. It is mostly expected that not much will happen at these talks and then Japan, China, South Korea and US will all act buddy-buddy during the APEC meeting as if they are making good progress. Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Book Review x 2 A Short History of Canada Canadian history is by no means famous for being interesting. Rather it is probably more notorious for being, for the most part, boring. The problem is that Canadian history is mostly peaceful with most issues of concern being industrial development, creating a national self-identity and freeing itself from its British colonial past. The exception being the history of struggle with Quebec which is quite interesting. Having said that, Desmond Morton does manage to make a rather dull history into an interesting enough tale of colourful political characters and social tensions. The similarity between Canadian and Australian history in the matters of creating national self-identity and freeing itself from its British colonial past also made it much easier to empathise and appreciate the story all the more. However unless you have a specific interest in Canada, history or preferably both this may not make for a riveting read. Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea by Guy Delisle
I stumbled onto this book just recently. It only came out last month and is a cartoon of North Korea written by a French-Canadian animator who spent two months in North Korea overseeing an animation production. He did the cartoons of his stay in North Korea in his spare time. It covers all the standard experiences of expats that we have come to hear about - visits to statues and shows of robot-esque kids that make you feel sad rather than impressed, and jaw-dropping comments from apparently brainwashed guides. The best jaw droppers were the explanation that people doing hard labour jobs on Sundays and in their 'spare' time were "volunteers" and that North Koreans have no handicapped people because they don' t breed with foreigners. But the medium of cartoon and his insights into daily life of the tiny expat community in Pyongyang are what make this book totally enjoyable and amusing. As a cartoon it is also very quick and only takes a short time to read. Shenandoah National Park On Sunday past my friend and I decided to hire a car and hit the road. We arrived at the rental place and the guy liked the look of us and instead of our "cheapest crap you have" booking he gave us a nice sporty mustang to cruise around in. So we headed out to see the Fall leaves at Shenandoah.
Next question. Next guy was some crazed old white man who was so angry that his hands were visibly shaking who stood there and loudly accused SW of incompetency etc for not having sources or knowing the real story of who killed the heretics in Lisbon, who authorised their killing and by what means they were killed. Despite several pleas that he ask a question the audience, and in particular a burly man, become quite vocal and started chanting that the crazy man either "ask a question or shut up". Fortunately he was eventually shouted down. The problem here, as I see, is not that the man had a grievance with the research of the book, it was his means of raising the issue. Surely an email or polite chat to SW after the signings would be more appropriate and certainly could not have been less effective. As it was he came across as nothing but a screaming nutter who tainted an otherwise very pleasant event.
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