By The Expat at Expat Hell I recently changed gyms. The gym that I used to frequent was fairly close to my house so it was quite convenient. Due to the relatively small size of the gym, I had to plan my workout times carefully to avoid the morning, noon and evening rushes. I also [...]
By Tom McGregor at China Daily
Some Westerners incorrectly assume that China should only be viewed according to its political doctrine. They raise fears over its rapid economic development by claiming Beijing is pursuing sinister motives. China seeks peace, not war; alliances, not enemies; so it seems apparent that the nation must promote “soft power” to overcome commonly held misperceptions.
The four great classics of Chinese literature – Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong, Outlaws of the Marsh by Shi Nai’an, Journey to the West by Wu Cheng’en and A Dream of Red Mansions by Cao Xueqin – hold the key to a more comprehensive understanding of the Chinese mindset. The characters and plot-settings were written centuries ago, but the themes of love, conflict, family, crime, business, justice and politics remain relevant even today.
By John M. Rodgers
Some 90 kilometers south of central Seoul in South Chungcheong Province not far off of Interstate 1 at the end of a narrow, winding road sits the Cheonan Correctional Institution surrounded by tree-covered hills and 3-meter-high concrete walls. Here is where foreigners convicted of crimes under Korean law—more than 700 of them from some 40 different nations—have resided since February 2010 when the South Korean government decided to put all the foreigners in one place to simplify procedures and assuage the loneliness felt by foreign prisoners locked up in far flung prisons among all-Korean populations.
And this is where Pvt. Andre Fisher now passes his days. For more than three months he has called the sprawling collection of 49 buildings on 4.5 million square feet of land home after the Supreme Court of Korea dismissed the appeal of his conviction for aggravated robbery and upheld his two-year sentence. Fisher was first handed over to the Republic of Korea’s Ministry of Justice (MOJ) for detention on June 21, 2011 and will soon be approaching the 10-month mark behind bars.
By John M. Rodgers
The fire that tore through a strip of bars on Hooker Hill in Itaewon on November 15, 2011 at approximately 2:30 a.m. was started in Tiger Tavern by a “big” candle that Army Pfc. Marcos Pedraza-Pascual, 21, took from a table, lit and placed on a bed to ward off the stench coming from a nearby bathroom, said Pedraza-Pascual during his March 21 hearing at the Seoul Central Distict Court.
Pedraza-Pascual also testified that he drank 10 beers during the course of the night, six of them from a six pack that he drank “quickly” in his barracks south of Seoul so he could get to and from Itaewon before the midnight curfew set by commanders in October and extended in November. The emphasis on alcohol consumed by the private appeared to play to his plea of not purposely starting the fire though the head judge’s skepticism was evident by his repeated questions: “So you drank over a spread out time so you weren’t very intoxicated?” asked the judge followed by, “So you were kind of drunk?”
By Manley C. Fatz
Now Vincent is a nerd, a nice nerd, a friendly nerd but a nerd nevertheless. When he got a new phone he knew what he was doing–the processor was the best and the fastest, the screen was the brightest and it had the most memory out of any phone on the market. He didn’t even mind that it was a Motorola. When he got the phone he rooted it (“Rooting” is what nerds do to their smart phones but then cannot explain to any non-nerd what the benefits are). Vincent loved his phone, hell, he loved it so much we all loved it on his behalf. That’s why we were so upset when it was stolen.
It went missing at Zion bar–for a long time a female bartender was under suspicion. That kind of adds to the bad feeling I suppose because you feel like you have done the girl a disservice and even though no accusations were made, accusations were thought. Next time you’re in Zion, buy the bar staff a drink will ya. Because the guilty have been caught, and in a suitably dramatic way
By Matt VanVolkenburg
It’s interesting that, according to that KBS article, the Ministry of Education plans to require foreign hagwon instructors to a take a “drug test when they are newly hired or when they renew their contracts, regardless of their visa status.” There’s nothing in the law (see above) that says anything about needing these documents when renewing their contracts – only when being hired. On the other hand, I’m not sure what the legal basis is for SMOE (and other offices of education) requiring drug and HIV tests when rehiring teachers. And, of course, with the most recent arrests, there have been editorials saying that “tests can only verify whether drugs have been used within the last two weeks,” which comes pretty close to suggesting random drug testing.
By Iwazaru
As the Nuclear Security Summit 2012 roars into action today, some might wonder what all the ado is about. COEX, according to one friend who had to teach there this morning, was a “clusterf*ck” given all the security gates, the closure of Samseong Station, and the general heightened level of security. The real buzz began on Sunday, March 25, when President Obama visited the DMZ for the first time and peered across the border into a rather barren North Korean landscape. Then came his speech Monday morning at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies where he spoke of the importance of the securing nuclear dangers around the globe and “a world without nuclear weapons.”
By Jesse Coy Nelson
One Drop East was supposed to start at 11. The band was already playing when we arrived. YM had made reservations for the show. We got a wristband, a token for a drink, and a neon thing that you could twist into a bracelet, only I had a neon disaster. Mine broke. Toxic neon fluid was spilling all over me. Is it toxic? Well, I certainly wouldn’t mix it into my drink.
One Drop East sounded like a gumbo of soul, reggae, ska, and blues. I recognized the godfather of soul, James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s World,” sung by their female singer, who has an awesome voice. The male’s vocals are quite good as well. They take turns on songs. He sang on Bob Marley’s “Exodus,” which the band jammed on through. They did a couple pure ska numbers, one which was an original of their own. They were very tight, and being a ten-piece band (that’s how many of them I counted at this show), that’s mighty impressive.
By John M. Rodgers
When Kang Wan Koo entered courtroom number five at the Seoul Eastern District Court at 10:40 a.m. on March 13 in an olive prison uniform with ropes around his wrists and ankles, he wore a contrite yet friendly look on his face. One judge sat at the head of the room with Kang’s private lawyer, Na Sung Tae, seated at a long table on the right side of the courtroom. Kang faces charges of fraud and embezzlement—the estimated amount of fraud read by the court was approximately 100 million won ($89,000) and the embezzlement 70 million won.
Kang pleaded guilty to all charges of fraud, his head bowed at times and at others his lips pierced producing deep dimples in his cheeks. Yet he will be fighting the embezzlement charge, said his attorney. Those charges stem from his dealings with Red Cap Tour, one of the largest travel agencies in Korea with a reported profit of 29 billion won last year. The details of the embezzlement were limited with the company mainly accusing Kang of taking money from transactions and keeping the profits for himself. Kang maintains that he “deserved” part of the fees.
By Marie Kulik
Walking the streets of Seoul, most people have had the experience of someone stepping in their path or stopping abruptly in front of them to fuck around with their iPod, or just plain walking straight into you for no reason other than the fact that the idiot in question isn’t looking where they’re off to.
Ever driven in Seoul? Not Korea. Seoul. Specifically, Gangnam.
For those outside of Seoul or Korea itself, Gangnam is the ritzy part of Seoul literally south (nam in Korean) of the Han river (gang). It is where the majority of the rich reside in the city and it is usually referred to in statistics relating to wealth and the affluent in Seoul. It is a good place to get a feeling for the superficial class system that exists on the roads of Korea.
By Mizaru
To take the stairs and walk down into the Nori bar was always a rush. When the scene was peaking, abandon all your form, turn on the bat radar and shuttle your way to any unoccupied place of wood and start to order a drink. The real wood bar and tables, the high ceilings with the sound and light rigging of a planetarium, the warm anti-perfume pro vinyl smells, the high fidelity of 4/4 beat pulsing music: this wasn’t a rock ‘n’ roll bar this was an incubator. You would swear the place had lungs: it was able to breathe. Yet, in fact, the weekends at Nori constituted a sporting event: The Bacchanal in the Basement. Repressed locals and foreigner scamps together coming down closer to sea level, to the one place in planet Korea where anything goes.
By SmurfyStew
Restaurant Pyongyang sits on busy Monivong Boulevard, in the heart of Phnom Penh. The building itself is nondescript and doesn’t really stand out unless you are looking for it. Aside from the lunch hours of 11:30 – 2:00, the only action you’re likely to see outside of the restaurant in the afternoon is some fancy SUV’s pulling up and leaving from time to time. I don’t even want to know what’s up with the SUVs. It’s been rumoured that managers at the restaurant pimp the waitresses out; most likely to North Korean officials visiting and working in Phnom Penh, to high-society Khmers, or to rich South Koreans, who want that North Korean experience but don’t want to brave the DMZ to get it.
North Korea Today ran a report that says prostitution is “widespread” at official government-run restaurants that cater to tourists in North Korea. If the report is true, it is likely that North Korean officials have absolutely no qualms pimping out waitresses at their establishments abroad as well.
By Jake Reed
There’s an old Chinese saying ,“it’s not how clever you are but how hard you work” and as an educator at an international school here, I can tell you that after studying all day and sleepwalking through their evening supplementary courses, there is very little time left in the day to do anything other than to eat and sleep for your average student. Stigler goes on to say that Chinese students “ not only work harder, but they attribute their academic success to their own work.” So, a student without a decent work ethic is rarely if at all championed. Associate Dean for Global Education at the University of Oregon, Yong Zhao, sized up China’s culture and their success by stating “That’s the secret: when you spend all your time preparing for tests, and when students are selected based on their test-taking abilities, you get outstanding test scores.”
By Donald Kirk
The Chinese by now must be getting the message. How long can they pretend not to hear the shouting and singing from all those people on the steps of the church across the street from their embassy around the corner from the Blue House and the Gyeongbuk Palace in central Seoul. Don’t tell me that row of police buses lining the street in front is blocking all the sound waves.
Ok, granted I didn’t see any windows opening in the beautiful modern building to which the Chinese moved their embassy from the historic Myeongdong site, now under construction as a much bigger, more modern establishment. Nor did I see any sign of movement in front of the embassy or inside the glass windows.
Still I’ve got to believe the Chinese are quite aware by now that sending poor bedraggled North Koreans, who’ve swum or walked or paddled across the Tumen or Yalu Rivers into China, back to North Korea is really a bad idea. It’s not just that the Chinese look like cruel collaborators with an oppressive regime. The problem is they look so dumb, so unhearing and downright inhuman.
By John M. Rodgers
On Tuesday, March 13 at 10:40 a.m., travel agent and serial scammer, Kang Wan Koo (aka Wystan Kang, aka Joseph Kim), will stand trial for fraud and embezzlement at the Seoul Eastern District Court. It has been a long time coming with scores of victims bamboozled out of more than a 170 million won ($150,000) over the period of at least a year according to the Prosecutors’ Office who finally arrested and detained Kang on February 13.
Prosecutors have since questioned him to build their case which is already thick due to the many victims–from places such as Pakistan, the U.S., Israel and France–who have come forward and evidence gathered by Kim Hyun-joo of the Korea Tourism Organization’s Tourism Complaint Center with 3WM and attorney Tae jin Jo of the Korea Legal Aid Company who is representing victims in a civil case. Mr. Jo expressed optimism about Kang finally facing charges and the effect it could have on the civil case: “If his crime turns out to be guilty in criminal court, we could win our civil trial easily without additional evidences. So, it could shorten the civil trial schedule.”
Yet, as before, Jo is rightly concerned about collecting the losses of the victims. “But, unfortunately, it doesn’t mean our clients could receive their money from him or his company without any difficulty,” he said. The prosecutors’ statement that Kang “has no money” certainly doesn’t assuage the concerns of those scammed. When news came that Kang had been detained, some victims weren’t so pleased: “Him being detained means none of us will ever see our money,” posted one. A few days later another commented, “Someone please make me feel better by telling me that this is actually going to help us get money back!”
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