I can see the appeal of Ahn Chul-soo as a potential presidential candidate. So far as I have gathered, he is a self-made man, someone who had an idea to invent something (anti-virus software), using cutting-edge technology—i.e. Information Technology —and then having become a billionaire (or is that millionaire?) decided to put what he had learnt into the most prestigious job in the country (professor at Seoul National University, the nation’s Harvard or Oxford).
He is therefore a shining light for the young and a good example the old would like to see their offspring following. A solid moral background, a lot of money (earned in a both exciting and non-criminal way), and forward looking—the money was made through the revolution of our times, micro-processors. This means the man is both very popular and unsullied. He is also very anti-right, which makes a nice change from most of the billionaires I have seen with supposed political ambitions (I suppose we can make an exception for Mr Buffet).
On October 20, Professor Yuji Hosaka of Sejong University’s Dokdo Research Institute launched an English language Web site to inform netizens that the Dokdo islets are Korean territory.
The project was jointly launched with singer Kim Jang-hoon, a staunch advocate of Korea’s claim to the islets who has held a concert on the main island of Suhdo.
The site, truthofdokdo.com, has Korean, Japanese and English versions and provides ancient documents and maps to prove Korea’s claim to the islets.
By Iwazaru Doctor, software mogul, professor and dean of the Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology of Seoul National University, Ahn Cheol-soo, has stepped down from his post as president of the Advanced Institute of Convergence Science and Technology today due to scrutiny over his public support of then candidate and now mayor of Seoul, Park Won-soon.
The man who whipped the Korean populous into a frenzy when rumors emerged in early September that he would run for mayor, faced intense criticism from the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) over his support for Park. According to breaking news reports this afternoon, he was no longer able to maintain his post at Seoul National University given its status as a public university.
By Peter Ward Elections have been a passion of mine since I was eight and Tony Blair was coasting to a certain victory of unimaginable scale in the 1997 British General Election. It was a time of great fear in my house—my father and mother foresaw the Britain’s entry into the Euro and the rise of a European super state. This state would envelope our lives and proscribe everything, from our milk bottle sizes to our religion (we would be forcibly converted to Catholicism). As a young boy, I was terrified and transfixed.
By Iwazaru Below is part 2 of my interview with Prof. Hosaka during which he talks about his visits to the island, events surrounding Dokdo during and after the Korean War, the Korean populus’ emotional reactions to the dispute, how the Korean government should proceed and the reaction of Japanese citizens to Prof. Hosaka’s stance on the issue.
Bush may have talked tough about a “war on terror,” but he was only playing a game. How could it be otherwise for one who’d avoided Vietnam, barely bothered with his obligations as a pilot in the National Guard and had as his vice president for two terms that notorious draft-dodger, Richard Cheney, whose avoidance of military service during Vietnam did not stop the first President Bush from naming him defense secretary. These guys didn’t know what war was all about. They were too frightened to think of sacrificing political popularity by making people join the army whether they wanted to or not. They preferred to engage in torturing terrorists at Guantanamo . No downside there.
By Iwazaru “What do you think about Dokdo? Who does it belong to?” one Korean student asked Professor Yuji Hosaka during a Japanese Culture and Language course he was teaching in 1995. Little did he know that this one question would change the course of his life. How did he respond to the student’s question? “I couldn’t say because I didn’t know,” says Hosaka. Thus, what began as a simple bit of curiosity developed into a deep desire to objectively uncover the truth of whether Korea or Japan had the historical right to claim the 35 islets off the eastern coast of Korea. His fifteen years of research in Korea and Japan resulted in three books about the subject—“Dokdo, Our History,” “Dokdo of Korea” and “On Old Japanese Maps there is No Dokdo”—he attained the post of professor in the College of Liberal Arts and Graduate School of Policies Studies at Sejong University in Seoul and he is the head of the Dokdo Research Institute, also at Sejong.
A Statement by the Asian Human Rights CommissionThe long struggle of a female worker has drawn the attention of both the local and international community. Ms. Kim Jin-suk, a member of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) has been occupying the cabin of Crane No. 85, which is 35 metres high, in the shipyard of Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction (HHIC) in Busan for six months. Ms. Kim is demanding that the company reconsider the dismissal of dozens of employees and is refusing to leave the cabin despite being sentenced for trespass in January. The sentence carried a find of KRW One Million (approximately US$ 1,000) for each day she has occupied and continues to occupy the crane cabin. Her struggle casts doubts as to the society’s interest in matters of labour and also the role of the government in respecting, protecting and fulfilling the human rights of a third party when business enterprises are involved.
“Centerpiece or centerfold,” Dane facetiously responds, uncharacteristically so in dealing with a book whose theme deals with the cross currents of Korean peninsular history during and after the war. We are enjoying a light-hearted moment talking about a possible cookbook spliced in between Dane’s political narrative. “The next chapter ends with a good picture of a yummy sushi. They’ll laugh at me, no one has ever done that before, because they’re so academic or political.” Dane is also privy to ambassadorial functions that have the best foods: French, Tunisian and Algerian (the couscous naturally). If you press him long enough he’ll also tell you one of his, “I was the first…” stories: the first heterosexual Asian to go to a gay bar in Detroit called Backstage in the early 80s and so on. It is hard to tell how much of his experience Dane has mythologized, but like all great storytellers we are captivated by the magnetic pull of a good yarn, even if some of it seems like the stuff of tall tales.
By John Kay How can the Government of Orissa with one hand help ease environmental clearances for POSCO’s project while at the same time be responsible under the law to enforce POSCO’s compliance with environmental regulations? Is that not like being both the prosecuting and defense attorney? We can see that the Government of Orissa represented and embodied by the Nodal officer is quite literally working not for the best interests of the people of Orissa State but instead is working for POSCO. The Government of Orissa has, using the wording of one of the quotes above, made its best efforts (by hook or by crook; by fair means or foul) to move any obstacles, whether legitimate, legal or moral, to one side to let its pay master’s project trundle on regardless.
Toward the end of last year I signed up to receive a regular news letter from the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC). Pretty soon after emails started to arrive I reached the conclusion that human rights violations must be a daily event in Asia, if these emails were any indication. Soon though I was suffering from a form of news fatigue as I read about the massacres of people on their way to vote in The Philippines, death threats and disappearances of journalists, human rights activists and whistle-blowers in Sri Lanka, and the abuses suffered by refugees at the hands of the authorities in Thailand; all seemingly without hope or an end in sight.
On January 28 of this year, I received an email from civil society groups in South Korea condemning POSCO’s planned steel mill/captive port and iron ore mines project in the eastern state of Orissa in India. An alarm went off within me and I was no longer fatigued but indignant and alert.
I think everyone has heard the phrase, If a tree falls in the forest but no one sees, does it make a sound? The eastern Indian state of Orissa is not located in the media fashionable Middle East and North Africa (MENA); it has no strategic significance nor does it have any deposits of oil. But the issues of corruption, inequality, human rights, democracy and dignity that have brought people out on to the streets of Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Libya and Syria are the very same issues that have driven the inhabitants of Sundergarth, Keonjhar and Jagatsinghpur districts to oppose POSCO’s proposed captive port/plant and mine project continually over the last six years. The only difference being that India is supposed to be the world’s largest democracy, whereas the MENA are for the most part still ruled by monarchs or autocrats. The local fight against the amassed might and wealth of POSCO-India, the government of Orissa and the government of India, and their attempt to illegally push through this proposed port/plant and mine project is like the proverbial Zen tree in the forest.
It is my belief that a tree, whether or not anyone hears it, does make a considerable noise when it falls in the forest. Just because you haven’t heard of Orissa, Jagatsinghpur district, the Adivasis and their righteous opposition doesn’t mean that they don’t exist. If POSCO and the corrupt government of Orissa get their way, it is very probable that the Adivasis, their culture and way of life, not to mention the forest that they help sustain and that sustains them will be totally destroyed. This is one of the main reasons I’m bringing this injustice, this unfinished David and Goliath story, from unfashionable and underdeveloped Orissa in Eastern India to your attention.
Editors’ Note: Ambassador Uden gave 3WM permission to run his 3-part series about last Friday’s Royal Wedding.
Part 3: This is the third in a series of blogs about the Royal Wedding this week, looking at what significance the event has in the UK and in Korea, as well as what we are doing here in Seoul to celebrate on the day.
Just how to celebrate the Royal Wedding has been left up to each UK diplomatic mission around the world, but since the 11 o’clock start time in London and the time difference of eight hours mean that the ceremony will start at 7 o’clock in the evening, it seemed natural to hold a reception in my Residence in Seoul on 29 April. We shall also mark Her Majesty’s Birthday at the same time.
As I write this, we don’t know how the weather will be in Seoul that evening. We will have something like 400 people attending, and even though we’ve moved most of the furniture from the ground floor of the Residence, it’s going to be very crowded if the rain comes and we all have to stay inside! We shall have three large TV screens, generously lent by Samsung, to show the wedding on BBC World, and in keeping with the fashion strengths of the UK, Cambridge Members are putting some suitably British-dressed mannequins around the house to lend a party mood.
By Mizaru
It’s the new again Phillies opening night Saturday, April 2 and I have plans to show the place to John Thang. John’s a political refugee from Myanmar living on the fringes of Seoul. I have known him for about six months and we’ll meet tonight at a place I have been coming to for about six years.
The new again Phillies prides itself that it is an OB bar– “We don’t serve no stinkin’ Cass,” was the first thing I heard and wrote down in my notebook that night. And next:, Gin and tonics for 3500 won and Vodka juice for 4000. There are subtleties to Phillies now like there is no absurd propaganda, paraphernalia, or pamphleteering on the clean walls.
Nearly two months after the sinking of the Cheonan warship in the Yellow Sea that left 46 South Korean seamen dead, the government came forward on last Thursday morning with detailed evidence (including recently recovered parts of the torpedo used with written Korean characters and an accompanying blueprint of the torpedo taken from a weapons brochure the North offers to potential customers) presented in a lengthy press conference…
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I can see the appeal of Ahn Chul-soo as a potential presidential candidate. So far as I have gathered, he is a self-made man, someone who had an idea to invent something (anti-virus software), using cutting-edge technology—i.e. Information Technology —and then having become a billionaire (or is that millionaire?) decided to put what he had learnt into the most prestigious job in the country (professor at Seoul National University, the nation’s Harvard or Oxford).
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