Rape isn't funny, Vlad.

I've spent a lot of time in Russia - enough to learn firsthand that the Russian's have a far different (possibly nonxistent) attitude towards the notion of what constitutes sexual harassment than we have in the States... although one would assume that the president of Russia would have the common sense not to joke about rape. Or perhaps one wouldn't assume that, considering what Vladimir Putin said regarding the rape charges facing President Moshe Katsav of Israel:

"What a mighty man he turns out to be! He raped 10 women - I would never have expected this from him. He surprised us all - we all envy him!"

[read the complete article]

Photo Contest - need advice!!

I'm entering a photo contest (information here, if you're interested), and I can select 16 pictures - eight from Korea and eight from anywhere else in the world. While I've been able to select most of the pictures, I'm having trouble deciding which ones should fill the final slots. Please take a look at the pictures below, and tell me which one you choose from each category! (The shots below are not my all-time best, but they are my runners up for the #8 slot in each category.)

Outside of Korea

Stable in the Sun


Monastery in Suzdal


Burkhan, Lake Baikal, Siberia


Dead Head in the Snow

*************

Photos of Korea


Korea: Rice Fields


Korea: Holy Water


Korea: Mountain View


Korea: Mountain River


Korea: Mountainside and Road

Please click on "comments" below to list your vote!

Human Trafficking in and from South Korea

Back in my pre-blogspot days (in other words, from the parts of the daily blah no longer online), this blog used to be a lot more activism-oriented. One of the topics that I wrote about quite frequently was human trafficking. For those of you who don't know, here's a concise and coherent definition I copied from the Polaris Project:

[Human Trafficking] is the modern practice of slavery. It is the third largest criminal industry in the world today, after arms and drug dealing, and is the fastest growing. Traffickers generate billions of dollars in profits every year while victimizing millions of people around the globe. Trafficked persons are forced or coerced into labor or sexual exploitation. Under international law, all children who are commercially sexually exploited are considered trafficking victims, even if no force or coercion is used. Sex trafficking is one of the most lucrative sectors of the trade in people, and involves sexual exploitation in prostitution or pornography, bride trafficking, and commercial sexual abuse of children.

You wouldn't believe the number of people I've encountered who, upon hearing about this topic, will insist that it isn't really a problem, or who will concede that while it might be a problem some places, it doesn't have an impact on the States in any way, shape or form. Well, it does. Yeah, okay, so this post is mainly regarding South Korea, not the United States.... but, as you'll see, there are definite ties between our countries with regards to this issue.

First, let me show you an interesting little snippet I found here on AmericaBlog:

Remember how just two years ago George Bush claimed he wanted to put a stop to human trafficking - i.e., women being forced into sexual slavery?Then why was the Bush administration's premiere advocate for stopping such sexual slavery forced out of his job a while back?According to the Sunday Los Angeles Times, he was fired because convicted criminal lobbyist Jack Abramoff was representing one of the countries that most profits from sexual slavery and human trafficking, the Northern Mariana Islands. Abramoff wanted this Bush administration official fired because the official's anti-human-trafficking agenda - now George Bush's agenda - posed a direct threat to Abramoff's pro-sex-slave client.But Jack Abramoff doesn't have the power to fire a Bush administration official - all he can do is ask. Someone inside the Bush administration had to do Abramoff's dirty work and fire the official on behalf of Abramoff and his client. According to the Los Angeles Times, that someone was former senior Bush White House official, and now head of the Republican party, Ken Mehlman. One of George Bush's top aides, the man who ran Bush's re-election campaign, and the man who thanks to George Bush now runs the Republican party, is also reportedly the man who fired a top Bush official in charge of stopping the international human sex slave trade because Jack Abramoff's clients like sex slaves.

Well that's just peachy. But what does it have to do with South Korea? Well, to be honest, why should I tell you, when others have done a far better job than I could? Let's start with a four-part series on sex trafficking in San Francisco, published recently by the San Francisco Cronicle:

Part 1: San Francisco Is A Major Center For International Crime Networks That Smuggle And Enslave
Part 2: A Youthful Mistake
Part 3: Diary of a [Korean] Sex Slave: Bought and Sold
Part 4: Diary of a [Korean] Sex Slave: Free but Trapped

The San Francisco Chronicle has also posted a series of photos, chronicling the lives of sex workers here in South Korea.

And last, the Metropolitician - and ex-pat in Korea blogger - has posted a substantial and interesting commentary in reference to the above articles. His posts can be found at the following links: Sex Trafficking, Visas and South Korea and South Korean Sex Trafficking Part 2.

Read. Now.

More Konglish!

In honor of the Most Ridiculous Konglish T-Shirt thread over at Dave's Cafe (check it out, some of the shirts they've found are incredibly hilarious!), I've got some not-quite-as-funny-but-very-cute-nontheless pictures of some of my youngest students (they're first graders) wearing some interesting shirts...

Coquette
whatever happen, try to feel more strongly about the issue.
Um, okay. (This is the same kid Gwen caught wearing the Surf Flirt shirt.)


Jason's shirt really isn't all that funny (unless TB stands for tuberculosis),
but when he saw me take Dragon's picture, he wanted one taken of him too.

Air Raid! (just kidding)

They tested the air-raid sirens nation-wide today. It was early in the afternoon and Gwen and I were sitting in the teachers' office at work, planning lessons when the first siren sounded. It rang for what seemed like forever, leaving in its wake an eerie silence when it shut off. They do test the things periodically, so we figured it would be best to simply assume it was a test. Then a couple of F-15s (F-16s? Hard to know.) flew past. That in itself is nothing new; we're located fairly close to a Korean Air Force base, and we get buzzed by these things all the time. But in addition to coming right on the heels of the air-raid siren, they were much lower (and thus much louder) than usual. I decided to get on the work computer and check the news sites... just to make sure we weren't actually under attack. While I was looking (and coming across nothing) there was a second (and much shorter) siren, which we deduced signalled the end of the air raid drill. Apparently we weren't the only ones a little freaked out by the air raid sirens.

Anti-Social Walking

As you may have noticed, I do a lot of walking. How else am I going to find new and interesting things to take pictures of, hmmm? Well, I intended to go to todays DAWG meeting, although I didn't make it. I had decided to got downtown about two hours early to do some more exploring... and explore I did. First, I wandered around the area just to the west of the downtown center that is home to the Daegu Herb Medicine Market. Sadly, I had neglected to look it up before setting out, and discovered a little too late that all the stores in the district are closed on Sundays. Whoops. I did, discover a cool little park with fountains shaped like giant tea kettles, although it was too small to occupy me for long. Since I had some time to kill, I decided to stroll down to Seomun Market. I ran across some middle aged white dudes who greeted me with strastvuite, but who seemed completely floored when I answered them in kind! Then I had a minor panicky feeling that they might try to actually talk to me (sometimes I'm pretty anti-social, and I've picked up some incredibly creepy Russian dudes in Daegu in the past), so I essentially dove into the most crowded section of the market I could find in order to lose them. I wandered around the market for a while (and saw at least three separate stands selling the Trouble Everyday shirt!), and was quite enjoying myself until I found myself in the section where they were selling chickens, other fowl, rabbits and puppies. For eating. That was really depressing, and I stood there for a little while looking at the cage of puppies thinking about trying to buy one. If their owner had tried to sell me one, I probably would have snapped one up, but he didn't. Instead he just stared at me, and I got the feeling that he knew I was judging him and that he was judging me in return. Not really a friendly vibe. I scurried off, although seeing those little puppies definitely put a damper on my mood. At that point, I had roughly enough time to make it to the DAWG meeting, but I was no longer remotely in the mood to hang out with people I barely know... so, I took the long way back to the subway and headed for home.

Entering the herbal market area


Park with the giant tea kettles


Entrance to Seomun Market


The market was crowded!


Inside Seomun Market


Gineseng? Inside Seomun Market.

Trouble Everyday!

I found another Konglish gem today, and I bought this one today... not because I love puffy sleeves (hate them with a passion, actually) but because as a Konglish souvenir, this one is hilarious. You can't really notice the hilarity from a distance:

But if you look a little closer, say, just below the collar:

A hip hop Lad Macbeth? (Not lady... lad) - and either way,
"she is very fucking angry indeed"

Next, take a look at a close-up of the fine print below the "trouble everyday":

Chunkily-penised boys? Slut literacy?
Have I mentioned how conservative people in Korea (especially Daegu) are?
There's no way this would be printed on a shirt in Korean...
Yet there was a whole rack for sale in "English"!

Of course, throughout the small-print of the shirt, there are so many Konglishisms: restautant, gossops, frunful, yeat, matterd, deflant, fernism, genuiney, neathy, etc.

I can't imagine I'll ever actually wear this in public or anything.

Banking in Korea

I transferred money to the States today. No, this wasn't in response to potential won devaluation or anything; it's something I do every month. Anyhow, in the past I've dealt with a very nice banker who speaks excellent English. He wasn't there today, so instead I worked with a different man: one who spoke very little English, but who was very nice and helpful and who got the job done. After transferring the money, I thanked him thoroughly and went upstairs to my school. (My school is located on the second floor of the bank building.) About five minutes later the bank called and talked to Simon... the banker had called to apologize for not having been able to help me better because of his poor English! He had no need to apologize whatsoever. Sometimes Korea is simply Awesome.

I wish I could blame this on someone:

I was trying to illustrate a story for my students.
What do you think that is in the tree?

And now for my daily updates on the goings on in North Korea and in Russia:

China comments on North Korea: The North Korean nuclear crisis settled into diplomatic debate Tuesday, with China agreeing to punishment but not the severe U.S.-backed sanctions that it said would be too crushing for its impoverished communist ally. [read story]

Meanwhile, North Korea stated that "If all out sanctions are implemented, we will take it as a declaration of war" [read story] [related]

There was another assassination in Moscow today, this one of a bank manager. [article] That makes the second assassination of a bank official in Moscow less than a month. [article] With another contract-style assassination following right on the heels of the assassination of Politkovskaya, one begins to wonder: did someone read the Russian Debutante's Handbook and take it seriously? Stop watching The Godfather, take off those sunglasses, stop pretending it's 1994, and above all... stop shooting people! Sheesh.

In general, I like Putin. He became the president of a state which had been wrecked by the inept leadership of Yeltsin and which had been overrun by the Russian mafia... no, he's far from perfect, but the country has improved a lot since he took the helm. But this statement of his angers me: "This murder has done more damage to Russia — and the current authorities of Russia and Chechnya, which she has been covering lately in her work — than Politkovskaya's articles." [read article]

Also, if you're interested in reading some of the things that Politkovskaya wrote, the BBC has some quality excerpts online here.

More on Nuclear North Korea and the assassination of Anna Politkovskaya

Nuclear North Korea:

Here's the latest roundup of info pertaining to the explosion up north of the border, as gathered by The Marmot. The first paragraph is definitely the most interesting:

The U.S. is floating around the Security Council a draft resolution that would place an embargo on anything North Korea could use for its nuclear and missile programs under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter. It would also call for inspecting cargo going in and out of North Korea—something the North Koreans are unlikely to willingly accept without at least a couple of shots fired.

Hmmm. And, then (of course) there are the skeptics. You know, the people who are debating whether or not KJI simply had a large stockpile of TNT ignited, and is now pulling the world's collective leg.

Assassination of Anna Politkovskaya:

Vilhelm Konnander had a good point:

The fact remains: When Russia's "first journalist" is silenced, Russia's "first person" stays silent. No word from Putin, no word from the Kremlin when the freedom of the press is trampled on by brutal suppression. The tacit message thus sent, resounds with piercing echo: Freedom of speech has no place in Putin's Russia. "Qui tacet, consentit" - silence implies consent - is regrettably the conclusion drawn from Kremlin reticence, thereby making power implicitly complicit to a crime against the inalienable rights of the Russian people. [read his entire post]

My friend Brooke S has written an incredibly touching post dedicated to Politkovskaya, Global Voices has a lengthy piece, and The Guardian is praising her as well.

Sadly, there are those out there maligning her as well, as Neeka's Backlog has reported.