Category: Korean

Afraid to Breath Out

I love garlic but I love miniture garlic more.  What is miniture garlic?

I am not sure if they are really garlic but they are spicy and has that piercing and lingering taste similar to garlic.  In Korea, they are called Dal-lae.  They are sold at Korean markets but only for short period of time late spring/early summer.  They are hard to prepare too.  What you see above took my wife an hour.

Best way to eat them is raw with a touch of dressing made with soy sauce, vinegar, red pepper, sugar, and sesame oil.  Very very delicious if you like spicy food.  Only downside is that, as with garlic, breathing out calls for courage.

Hhhaaaa~ Y'aaaa~ll Dooo~ing? 🙂

Privacy, Decency, Creativity, Delusions

A Canadian judge ruled that sharing copyright works over P2P networks is legal in Canada.  His justifications make sense individually, but I am dismayed by the hillarity of the sum.  The judge wrote:

"The mere fact of placing a copy on a shared directory in a computer where that copy can be accessed via a P2P service does not amount to distribution.  Before it constitutes distribution, there must be a positive act by the owner of the shared directory, such as sending out the copies or advertising that they are available for copying."

which reads to me like:

"The mere fact of placing a switchblade inches from a person and holding out a hand in a dark alley does not amount to robbery.  Before it constitutes robbery, there must be either an injury or loss of property."

When I first played MUD games, I was having fun until I got PKed.  I was angry and confused so I made efforts to understand the PKers.  Their answer was that they didn't really kill me because a MUD character is not a person.  To them, killing a MUD character is no different from killing a monster in video games.  No one got hurt so what are you bitching about?

In Korea, there are millions of credit card abusers who ended up with inevitable mountain of debts.  Every five minutes, someone in Korea attempts suicide.  Every 45 minutes, someone succeeds.  Korean government is trying to help them with a new program that will restore their bad credit rating if they make some efforts to payback some of the money they owe to banks and credit card companies.

Unfortunately, the program is encouraging corrosion of decency and sense of financial responsibility in Korean.  Not only are people refusing to pay back, some of them are even asking for banks to return of the money they already paid.  They are also using the Internet to share information about ways to avoid paying back.  One way is to incite collectors into making verbal abuses and using recorded evidence to threaten the collectors.

Putting aside all the arguments and circumstances, I can't shake the feeling that we are losing something important.  Where the fuck are we going?  I have no answer, but I am certain that people who believe good arguments make better worlds don't know either.  Their visions are not a map of reality but a map one might find in a Fantasy novel.

<

p dir=”ltr”>Remember that movie with Tom Hanks where a kid, obsessed with D&D, ended up at the top of the World Trade Center thinking it was the Two Towers from Lord of the Ring?  How did you feel while watching the movie?  Well, that's how I feel as I watch the events unfold while sandwiched between assholes and dreamers.

Korean Election Law

A Korean student is arrested after posting satirical pictures.  It's the unusually uptight Korean election law that caused his arrest.  The election law turns Korea into a police state whenever there is an election.  Rights usually enjoyed by Korean citizens like free speech and freedom of the press are restricted to the point of absurdity.

President Roh Moo-hyun was impeached because two largest parties accused him of making a comment that violated the election law.  Even wearing cloths of certain color can be controversial because colors are often associated with political parties.  Han-nara Party use the blue color.  The yellow color, originally used by President Roh Moo-hyun because his last name is Korean word for yellow color, is claimed by two parties: Min-joo Party, which was spurned by Roh and subsequently helped Han-nara Party impeach Roh,  and Woo-ri Party which is pro-Roh.

Woo-ri Party, led by a young charismatic former TV news anchor, is expected to jump from #3 to #1 spot and the majority of the Korean Assembly in the upcoming election.  After the impeachment fiasco, Han-nara and Min-joo, the two largest parties, both put women into the leadership role to avoid complete defeat.

While Korean election laws are draconian, I have mixed feelings about whether it should be relaxed any time soon.  They exist because Korean voters, particularly the old voters, can be easily bought with free gifts, parties, travels, and money.  Even students can be bought to influence the Internet opinions.  People are changing for the better but they are not changing fast enough to cast aside the shackles around the election.

But the question is whether the impatient should be punished.  If he isn't punished, the message Korean people will hear is: if you are righteous, you are above the law.  Candle marches in Korea were also declared illegal recently yet people are still gathering in large numbers.  They know the marches will affect the election but they are feeling righteous.

So what I see in Korea right now is people marching in the right direction but a fog of anarchy stands between them and where they want to go.  I wish them luck for they'll need it and will keep my fingers crossed that some stupid general doesn't the idea that his country needs to be saved from communist sympathizers and corrupt politicians.

Candle Vigils in Korea

Korean citizens have been holding candle vigils since March 12th but it just keeps getting bigger.  Checkout these amazing pictures from OhmyNews.

Candle vigils like this were held at 43 locations
around the country on 20th

They were well organized too.
Look at the lines and blocks of people.

Wow.  That's a lot of candles.

Korean President Roh Impeached

While I was having dinner, Korean Assembly controlled by the corrupted opposition parties impeached President Roh.  This CNN article depicts the cause of his impeachment as if he has done something wrong.  He hasn't.  Corruption scandal mentioned in the article pales in comparison to the corruption scandals of the opposition parties.

By how much?  At one point, President Roh said he would resign if the total amount of illegal political funds he used in the last President Election was more than 1/10 of the opposition party's.  Controversial figure released last week was a little over 1/7th.  Yes, that is still a lot, but less is less and far better direction than more.

Supposed violation of the election law also mentioned in the article is no more than brief informal comment during a TV interview in which he mentioned that he would do everything allowed by law to help the budding pro-government party which has only a handful of seats in the Assembly.  He wasn't advocating anything illegal.  His plan to join the pro-government party was known by all before so which party he supported was never in doubt.  So this impeachment amounts to a coup de'tat by corrupt politicians.

President Roh's executive power is now suspended until the Korean Supreme Court decides whether the Assembly vote was legal or not.  Emotion is rising high in Korea at this moment.  In the last 48 hours, a former President of Dawoo jumped into Han river because President Roh implicated him in a bribery attempt and a citizen put himself on fire to protest the impeachment vote.

I wouldn't be surprised if million of Koreans showed up in front of the Assembly tommorrow calling for the blood of those voted to impeach the President.  Even more maddening is that most of those assemblymen were expected to be voted out of their seats within a few weeks.  My own blood is boiling at the moment.  I am tempted to fly over there and unleash my own cans of whupass on the crazy politicians.

Update 1:

All of the Korean news sites including OhmyNews and Korean Yahoo News are swamped at the moment.  Give it a few hours.

Update 2:

All assemblymen who are members of the pro-government party, Uri-dang, resigned to protest the impeachment vote.  President Roh continued his tour of a factory despite hearing of his impeachment.  He said he expects the Supreme Court to put things right.  When someone asked him how he could be smiling at a time like this, he said he can smile because he has a dream of a better Korea.  He also said that pain and suffering is necessary for rebirth.

Update 3:

A man drove through a gate leading to the Assembly building and, when stopped by security, set the car on fire.  Another man tried to set himself on fire on the roof of a police station in Choongbook, a state south of Seoul.  Koreans are, if anything, very passionate people.  I know I wouldn't be able to get any sleep tonight because I am too angry.  While I am not a citizen of Korea anymore, I still consider myself a Korean and all this makes me as mad as I was on 9/11.

Update 4:

Thanks to Dave for the link.  Here are some pictures of young Koreans protesting the impeachment in a candle march.

Update 5:

Some pictures from OhmyNews:

The guy in the back center is one of the two leaders who
orchestrated the impeachment.  His nick name is Choi-tler as in Hitler.

They forcefully removed all the pro-Roh assemblymen
and formed a wall to keep them out while voting was taking place.

Here is the Speaker of the House declaring successful passage of
the impeachment vote.  A 'Shoe of Justice' is what he got in return.
Dorks with their arms up are all yelling 'It's My Size!'

A citizen got so mad he attempted to drive into
the Assembly building.  Failing that, he torched his car.

Update 6:

Here is an OhmyNews article in English and another picture from OhmyNews.

The People's Candle March

Update 7:

Almost 75 percent of S. Koreans Oppose Roh's Impeachment - Yonhap News

7 Out of 10 Oppose Impeachment - Korea Times

In addition, polls taken by three major TV networks in Korea showed similar results.  Looks like Uri Party will win the lionshare of the National Assemly seats in the upcoming election.  I had no idea the opposition parties could be this stupid.

Update 8:

People are gathering for massive candle vigils in Seoul (English version) .  Below is picture from Jong-ro district at the heart of Old Seoul on the evening of March 13th.  Such events became popular recently to give visible mass to the voice of the people.  Pretty effective, I think because eventually the choice comes down to surrendering or doing stupid things that could turn the crowd violent.

Candle vigils are planned to be held every night
until at least the election on April 15th.

It's also a family event.  Cool.

Pictures from other Korean cities:

Photos of foreigners and canines protesting as well.

Korean President Facing Impeachment Vote

With general election just weeks away, two major opposition parties united to start an impeachment motion against President Roh because the President refused to appologize for openly declaring his support for the budding pro-government party.  Their silly excuse aside, the two parties control enough votes to impeach the President so this is a serious turn of events.

The largest party was expected to win the last Presidential election and still has control of the Assembly but, thanks to staggering corruption charges that has surfaced since the Presidential election, they are expected to lose much of their Assembly seats to the pro-government party.

The other party involved used to be the President's party but it turned nasty when the young bloods supporting the President formed their own party after the established party members refused to overhaul the party.  They are also fighting for their existance because they are losing votes to the new party.

If I seem biased, you bet.  I like President Roh.  In fact, he is the first Korean President I like because he is uncorrupted, unassuming, and determined to cleanup Korean politics.  In comparison, last one sent half a billion dollars to North Korea to get the Nobel Prize and the one before that funnelled covert KCIA fund to his political party, the same one that is trying to drive President Roh out of office.

I am expecting Korean citizens to storm the Assembly if the impeachment goes through.

Related Google News Query