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Friday, December 19, 2008
Is this the end of Kathreb? No, don't be so silly. It is however, the end of kathreb.blogspot.com. I have moved to a new site.
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Friday, November 07, 2008
The Good the Bad the Weird I went to the Barbicanto see The Good The Bad The Weird including a talk by the director Kim Ji-Woon (also directed the great movie "Tale of Two Sisters") and actor Lee Byung-hun. See trailer below but more importantly, see the movie - it was fantastic! The Director mentioned influence of Mad Max and there was clearly and Indiana Jones element as well. This is part of the Barbican Korean film festival that is currently on. Tomorrow I'll be catching some Korean anime and then a couple of more movies during the week.
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Thursday, October 23, 2008
Book banning - it never goes out of fashion The South Korean military is trying to prevent military types from reading certain books. by banning them. Even more strange is that they banned Bad Samaritans by Ha-joon Chang. I read that book earlier this year and found it to be quite excellent. The best part is that by getting the issue reported in the papers, these books are now going to be big hits and - as already noted by GI Korea - are probably easily available anyway. Thursday, October 09, 2008
Checking facts The Korea Times has an article about the Amnesty report which includes the following paragraph: This seems to be a correct observation, considering there have been controversies on the police's use of water cannons, liquefied tear gas and undue physical force, which led to the fractured bones and broken noses of demonstrators, including women. It is the first time the human rights body made an official report on specific issues involving Korea, showing how seriously it considers the issue.That last sentence struck me because it is obviously untrue. Even without checking the facts, it seems pretty inconceivable that in 50-odd years that Amnesty has been around, including the dictatorship years, that Amnesty has never done a report on South Korea. A simple search taking no longer than a minute reveals that Amnesty is no stranger to writing reports on South Korea. Indeed the search only goes back ten years so I suspect there are more reports than this search shows which are not available on line. Its great to discuss the report but we're starting from a pretty low point when we can't even establish basic context of Amnesty's track record of work in Korea. Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Remember the protests? It seems like only a short time ago that the blogs were full of the 'beef protests' and bloggers were keen to get their opinions on the record. Particularly their opinions on the controversial visit by Amnesty International. At the time everyone poured over the one page press release. But now that the actual Amnesty report of the 'beef protests' and police violence is out, there seems to be a lot of nothing. Monday, September 01, 2008
Is Aso Taro a gaffer? With the resignation of Yasuo Fukuda it looks like Aso Taro could be the next PM of Japan. This is understandably news amongst key bloggers on Japan. One Free Korea gives a short and entertaining history of things Aso Taro has said in the past which have upset people. He refers to these as gaffes. I guess that is true but I think there is more to it than that. The offensive comments made by Aso Taro are social blunders. They do upset people and he is then pushed to make flimsy, insincere, "apologies". But can they still be called gaffes if we think that what he says is genuinely what he believes? They are not 'mistakes' or 'blunders' in that sense. He does mean those things. They are only miscalculations because he's too far removed to see or care about those who are offended by what he says. In one of the examples given by Joshua, he apologises for hurting the feelings of the Koreans but he doesn't apologise for what he said. If we think of a gaffe as a mis-interpretation or what is said/or bad wording on the part of the speaker at an inappropriate time, does Aso Taros words which are not mis-interpretations or bad wording but are spoken at inappropriate times (ie: anytime) still a gaffe?
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Benefits for Bogus Information The North Koreans can strike deals like nobodies business. The Japanese have agreed to loosen some sanctions in return for North Korea's assurance of investigating further the issue of the Japanese abductees. I haven't heard if they are investigating further the cases they have already claimed are dead or those they claim never happened. Either way, any "findings" from an investigation that counters North Korea's current stance can only lead to further demands and anger on the part of the Japanese. And any "findings" that reveal what North Korea has already stated won't be accepted as credible. Unless the Japanese are being allowed to go in and investigate or observe the investigation I see that little will come of this new move. Except more tension when the unhappy results of any investigation become known. But kudos to the North Koreans for getting a do-over on this issue. They certainly botched it the first time. Monday, August 11, 2008
Good bye Japan I wanted the heading to be 'sainaro (spelling) Japan' but I'm sooo tired and couldn't be asked to walk the three steps to my bag to find my phrase book for figure out the right spelling. The most interesting things is the differences and similarities between Japan and Korea. I'm still trying to work out if there is any rhyme or reason behind them (are they along economic, political lines or some other type of category). We had dinner tonight to celebrate the end of a successful trip and the dinner could easily have been in Korea. Everyone sitting on the floor, drinks aplenty, moving around and talking to each other, ridiculous amounts of food (no rice!). Actually the type of food was a bit different (Japanese versus Korean food) and although we enjoyed some drinks, it wasn't as crazy as Koreans sometimes gets. Although that could be a feature of the group I was with tonight and not something to generalize. Watching Japanese tv coverage of the Olympics is great. In every country they focus on their own sports people (rightly so) so it is great to view some sports I don't usually follow and to see what the Japanese are interested in. Right now we are following fencing.
Thursday, August 07, 2008
Word on the street in Japan... How would I know, I don't speak Japanese. However, word over the dinner table is that elections aren't due just yet but are being eagerly anticipated due to Fukuda's low popularity. Its pretty steamy hot here in Tokyo. Thankfully, unlike London, the Japanese have heard of, and use, air-conditioning. Hooray for them. South Korea It seems like Bush's trip to Korea went pretty smoothly. No big headlines except for his statement on North Korea. Blah, blah, blah. Olympics - let the sports fest begin And now for the next couple of weeks we can get down to the important sporting matters of the Beijing Olympics.
Monday, August 04, 2008
World Tour - on the march again Three weeks after returning from the Americas (US & Canada) leg of the 2008 world tour, I am off again. This time to Japan (the third trip to that country this year!). I'll be visiting Tokyo, Osaka and Sapporo - first time for both Osaka and Sapporo My carbon footprint is now well and truly black. On the plus side I'm hoping that my frequent flyer points will be sufficient to allow for a shorter trip later this year. Japan Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has replaced 13 out of 17 ministers in a major cabinet re-vamp. Not that this is likely to do a great deal for his low popularity. More changes are afoot with Lower House elections due in the coming weeks. I don't usually comment on Japanese politics but I'm going guess that Fukuda hasn't got too long to go before he is replaced by an equally lack-lustre old dude who promises reform but does nada. Monday, June 30, 2008
Stand up and protest The candle light vigils have re-ignited (pun intended) and there has been more violence on both sides. The latest deal isn't going to quieten the fears over US beef. It looks like the government is going to keep cracking down on the protestors. I'm sure the protestors are going to keep up the pressure. And so it goes on and on and on and on.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Marmot disappoints Seems I wrote too soon. The Marmot has (again) re-arranged his site and put the post author back at the bottom of the post. PLEASE reconsider this ill-conceived policy - it makes no sense to put post author's name at the bottom of the post on a multi-author blog site. Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Marmot The good news is that the Marmot, although ignoring my demands, has listened to someone and FINALLY put the names of people posting at the top of the post rather than at the bottom. We are all saved from the tedious task of having to scroll down to see who wrote the post in order to know if it could be worth reading. Hooray.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Gardening The beef protests hurt democracy rather than support it The protests continue to branch out. The truckers have joined the fray to complain about petrol costs. They are being joined by construction workers. The mass of people, complaints and issues is now threatening the entire economy according to Times. Korea has a history of struggle against the ruling powers. But, unlike the protests that took place during the 1980s, which were a struggle for democracy, the issues dominating the current protests are much more trivial. Or at least they started off that way. Beef imports, unhappiness with policy, and high oil prices do not mean you are living in a dictatorship. And unlike the pro-democracy protests, these issues are not worth fighting for. In fact, to do so could be dangerous to the very thing they think they are supporting – democracy. The current agenda of complaints are certainly worth raising with government. UK has had a series of truckers’ strikes protesting the same as in Korea. Fears over beef exist in many countries, not just because of BSE but hormone use and whatever other artificial crap gets feed into them that is dangerous to humans but makes the beef cheaper to buy and more juicy to eat. And despite being elected to boost the economy the reality of policy measures that do that (increased competition is generally the done thing) is never going to be popular. These issues are best tackled through dialogue, union activities such as forming a united front to present valid alternatives to government, and by engaging the public to get them on board with the alternatives. Issues like these need a measured approach based on finding a middle ground. In the current protests, both sides have been deficient in their handling on the current set of complaints. On the one hand, hitting the streets should be a last resort form of democratic activity. Large groups people in one space can (and does) lead to negative consequences such as violence and death. On the other hand, the government should have been more open to let the people protest if that is what they felt like doing. By responding with a crackdown they have completely shifted the dynamic of the protest – from a bunch of poorly informed sheep, to fighters of free expression. The stakes got higher even thought the issues remained the same. Turning every policy disagreement into a battle of endurance between people and government ultimately weakens democracy. Protests limit the opportunity for engaging both sides in dialogue. It may even close the doors for future opportunities to work through issues between government and public. In this way, mistrust and contempt becomes the norm and democracy suffers. Another danger is that if/when South Koreans do find their democracy at risk, they may find that they have cried wolf already. And if/when democracy is actually threatened the world is not going to care. Before bothering to find out what the South Korean masses are protesting about, it will be dismissed as just another spring of protests in Korea. Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Template updates I have made a few minor changes on the side bar. I have some grander plans in mind but this is a start. I finally updated the currently reading and changed a few names. If I deleted you from my sidebar and this offends you, let me know and I'll put you back. World Tour - the Americas tour I am heading to Washington DC and up to Canada in July. A short trip to visit a friend in DC on my way to a wedding in Canada. A weekend trip for the wedding alone seemed a bit extravagant. More than beef The protests have been somewhat calmer since the main outburst on the weekend 31 May - 1 June. However, the situation remains tense with more and more people heading out on the street. The focus on beef has diminished (though not on the blogs it seems) and has expanded into criticism of other issues such as privatisation and the hare-brained canal scheme. Plus, of course the fears that the crackdown means a return to the bad old days of authoritarian rule. The June 10 anniversary has now passed but the numbers on the street are still high. Even after the anniversary this situation seems to not be over yet.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Korea For those wanting to know what is going on re human rights in Korea, North and South, look no further than the Amnesty International's annual report.There is also a link to the Utube channel with some video footage. Computer I just got a new computer. My last computer was purchased to get me through my last university degree. It was time to update - I've gone for a mac so I have a bit of learning to do. For example, where is the delete key? It is very lovely and apparently it has more than a few bells and whistles. Friday, May 23, 2008
why is it always so busy? Happily it is a long weekend. I came up with a plan of getting up early 2-3 mornings a week to try and get through the seemingly endless things I need to get done outside of work. This seems to have been fruitless - the list seems no shorter but I am way more tired. We haven't been shopping for food for three weeks. I hate junk food and packaged dinners. It was my birthday on Wednesday - another year gone, just gone! 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. 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? Thursday, February 14, 2008
Apology Australia apologised yesterday. You can watch the momentous event. It is a tear-jerker so be warned. It is one of the best speeches I've ever heard, not to mention long overdue. There is some speculation about how long the goodwill will last in the face of reality and the scale of the problems that need addressing. But you can't get anywhere until you take the first step. Monday, January 28, 2008
Tasers Apparently the President-elect is considering introducing tasersto bring down those pesky people who will insist on holding 'illegal' demonstrations. I don't want to advocate all the activities of trade unions and strikers in Korea, who have a tendency to be over-zealous. However, tasers to suppress people exercising their freedom of expression and right to assembly is altogether too much on the part of the police. It almost seems like LMB is purposefully being provocative to see what reactions he gets before he gets into office. Saturday, January 26, 2008
Australia Day Today is Australia Day. I understand that most Australians celebrate this having a BBQ (if they are in country). Australians the world over will usually tune into JJJ. I did but fell asleep before the countdown reached number one. In fact I didn't even make it to 50. The day itself involved making a disaster chocolate mousse (inedible). This was a bit strange as I have used the recipe with successful results before. We had champagne and pizza for dinner which was not quite 'traditional' but very enjoyable. We watched Dracula: Ascension followed by Dracula: Legacy (still on at time of writing). I didn't understand the rope netting used in the Ascension movie and particularly disliked the use of silver as a weapon against vampires. Jason London's orange t-shirt in Ascension was a lovely colour. Monday, January 14, 2008
Party Pooper As per the request, or threat as it were, I have updated the link accordingly. Welcome to blogger. New Books It may have passed some people's notice that lately, most of my 'currently reading' books have not had anything to do with Korea (or East Asia). I have been aware for sometime now that my reading of books on Korea/East Asia has been woefully lacking. I decided to remedy this on the weekend. As part of my 'spend more money' resolution, I went to the bookshop determined to stock up on books I should have already read. The trip, sadly, was not very successful. It would appear that the UK public is not very interested in Korea. The choice of books was dismal. I tried Foyles and Blackwells. In the end I only got 'Rogue Regime' by Jasper Becker. I also picked up 'The Rape of Nanking' by Iris Chang and 'Modern Mongolia' (can't remember the author). US, and Washington DC in particular, was great for the wide selection of books on Korea. Wednesday, January 09, 2008
London Underground is Unacceptable The London underground is a decrepit old system of tunnels. Occasionally some trains still run through it. As I noted earlier the tube system makes me nauseous every time I descend into any of the filthy stations. Sometimes the headache is caused by the poor air quality, other times its the excessive cost of the ticket that renders me physically ill. Mostly its a combination of both. This week, I thought I'd brave the cost and the tunnels by buying a weekly travel ticket (a gut-wrenching 30 pounds). Foolishly, I thought that this meant I could catch unlimited trains for a seven day period. This evening I left work around 6:45pm. When I arrived at King's Cross Station (note: KCS is no small station) it was "closed due to overcrowding". Police were blocking the entry. No-one could catch a train because the system couldn't handle a regular work day's going home crowd. I had to take the bus. In case you didn't catch that: the London underground system is unable to handle a regular day's traffic. The worst part was when I arrived home in a state of outrage only to find the standard response by my house share was surprise - surprise this hasn't happened to me earlier. Apparently the subway's systems inability to handle normal day traffic is not such a rare thing. Monday, January 07, 2008
Doing More for North Korean Human Rights This is based on the discussion over at One Free Korea. It started with a report by Anti-Slavery and the comment that this was a rare piece of work from the NGO Community. There has been some discussion on why there are not so many NGOs working on human rights in North Korea. I can't agree with the idea of anti-US leftist groups not wanting to denounce an anti-US regime. Any NGO as anti-US as that is probably not worth paying attention to. I suspect that there are diverse reasons for not taking up human rights in North Korea. The nuclear issue, lack of information (this is less of an excuse these days), and the fact that most NGOs focus on local issues come to mind as probable reasons. At the international level, Anti-Slavery, Human Rights Watch, Christian Solidarity Worldwide and Amnesty International all take up North Korea human rights issues. To suggest that the 'human rights industry' is backing away from this issue, is somewhat unfounded. Human rights in North Korea does not get the kind of media and public attention that it deserves, given the scale of the atrocities. But I would re-iterate the reasons given above and add lack of access to the list. Regions like Darfur where you have do-good celebs popping in like alcoholics to the pub is pretty effective in getting public attention. You can look also at the Congo and other regions in desperate need of worldwide attention and action to see that the scale of human rights atrocities does not guarantee public sympathy. Right-wing groups DO take the lead on human rights in North Korea. But I see little difference between what they do and what left-wing groups would be doing if they took the lead. There host conferences (on week days no less!), hold protests, write letters, lobby governments, etc. Human Rights in North Korea is (or should be) a concern for all of us. The recommendations for bringing about change is, and should be, a matter for debate and discussion. There is no reason why different groups can't be doing different things based on what they think is the right approach.
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