Still not muddy in Seoul

I can't believe I skipped this! I was invited to attend--or participate--in the Boryeong Mud Festival. I declined, preferring to stay clean in Seoul for the weekend. I may make the news one day while I'm in Seoul, but I guess this is not what I want to be known for...

The festival runs through July 19 so you still have time to hustle to the event...

I had a relatively quiet weekend, I guess the heavy rain slowed things down. Yesterday I participated in a language exchange group with about 30 people (2 Americans, 1 Chinese, 1 German, about 20 to 25 Koreans). After about 2+ hours, we had dinner, then went drinking for a few hours at a place called 70s Radio. It appeared to be all Beatles, I guess they put on the Best of the Beatles with subtitles in Spanish.

The Long Island Iced Tea was stronger than any I've ever had. I had wanted to try Cherry Soju or Lemon Soju but they didn't sell it there. 8,000 won or about 6 dollars for the Long Island Iced Tea.

I'm not wondering over here!!!

The Korea Times ran a piece from Dan Walters of the Sacramento Bee wondering about whether or not Californians are getting paid too much.

I'm not wondering over here! The tax rate in Korea is 3.3%. No sales tax. No tipping.

Koreans Curious about Secret Behind Jewish Education

Listening to Jewish friends talk over the years, they are also curious...

Anyway, there's an article in today's Korea Times featuring the Israeli ambassador to Korea pontificating about why Jews are so great at education.

The most noteworthy items:

"Children are taught to challenge everything, not to take things for granted,'' he said when it comes to education."

"A strict teacher is a bad teacher and a shy student is a bad student,'' which means teachers should not dictate to students, and students should not be shy about making mistakes and asking questions.

East meets West, on an exotic island

There's at least one way Korea reminds me of back home: organizations holding events in really nice places. The Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business on Jeju Island held a forum over the weekend on Jeju Island (which Koreans call the Hawaii of Korea). There's nothing like solving the world's problems after you've been sipping pina colada on the beach the day before.

Ohmae Kenichi gave out some tough love to Koreans and Americans at the event, suggesting that Korea and the U.S. are in for rough times, that Korean companies should focus on their core businesses rather than expanding into other sectors, that the rest of the world should stop relying on the U.S.

They almost got away with it!!!

My favorite section of the Washington Post has always been the Metro section. It is that slice of life not quite worthy of being front page news, but too hilarious to be left out of the paper.

In the Korean equivalent, the National page, we learn that two Korean "businessmen" attempted to buy a company with two forged checks. Checks forged in the amount of about $20 million.

According to the Korea Times: "The two, identified as Kim and Park, both 45, met when they were in prison in May and agreed to 'a big project.'"

Trying to pass a $20 million check is certainly a big project. But why didn't they just try to buy Seoul instead? A $20 trillion check might have at least gotten them in the door to talk with the mayor...

The funny part of the story...they almost got away with it!

According to the article: "They approached another man who was interested in taking over the target company and agreed to jointly invest in it. Providing the deposit certificates as collateral, they succeeded in signing a contract to buy management control of an unidentified Kosdaq firm for 16 billion won. However, at the last minute, the joint investor became suspicious during the process of confirming the validity and asked a legal documentation handling firm to verify the authenticity of the checks."

CJL

Common Sense on North Korea (Korea Times, April 2, 2012)

By Casey Lartigue, Jr. As interesting as Kookmin University professor Andrei Lankov’s writings are, there is nothing quite like attending one of his lectures. He can barely restrain himself behind the podium, often pointing and waving his arms. I also enjoy his unscripted speeches, but his answers in Q&A sessions are like the difference between watching Michael Jordan shoot baskets in warm-ups and an actual game. I have finally discovered the secret behind Lankov’s consistently solid analysis about North Korea: Use common sense. At an Asan Institute conference last summer, he argued that North Korea watchers should try to understand North Korea from its perspective. Don’t most people know that you must understand the mindset of others you are dealing with? Yet, common sense in theory gets ignored politically. From the North Korean perspective, nuclear weapons are the best thing they’ve got going. They will NOT give them up easily, even if President Obama ...

Rich talking back

The rich are talked about very often in negative terms, but how often do the rich respond in kind? Australian billionaire Gina Rinehart, who inherited most of her money but apparently has also done very well with it, recently railed against class warfare and had some advice for the non-rich : "There is no monopoly on becoming a millionaire," she writes. "If you're jealous of those with more money, don't just sit there and complain. Do something to make more money yourself - spend less time drinking, or smoking and socializing and more time working." She complained about politicians raising taxes, regulations that slow investment, and other anti-business policies that harm the poor. "If you want to help the poor and our next generation, make investment, reinvenstment and businesses welcome."

Random photos from today

I went walking around today. Whereas some people like to go walking in the mountains, I enjoy walking around in the city. Well, not D.C. or other cities with many homeless, crazy and/or armed people walking around... * * * Here's where I had lunch today. About $1.90 for a hamburger hamberger. * * * Ha-ha! Bet you never would have guessed that Batman is a drinking place in Korea! * * * Man Clinic? The Koreans walking by seemed to be very curious about why I was taking a photo of a "Man Clinic." They may know something I don't know...Actually, I wasn't curious enough to go in and find out what it was... * * * Right down the street from the Man Clinic...there's a Love Shop! I love the euphemism. "Love Shop" sounds much better than Sex Shop. I'm guessing that if you don't go to the "Love Shop" to buy condoms that you may need to visit the Man Clinic a short time later? * * * Nobo...

To be a good volunteer, use your brain (Korea Times, December 5, 2012)

By Casey Lartigue, Jr. There is probably an unwritten rule that a celebrity offering to do volunteer work for a good cause should immediately be embraced. Well, that’s not what happened to Jeong So-dam, the glamorous Korean cable TV announcer when our paths crossed on Nov. 29. Ms. Jeong was the MC of an event about American political philosophy hosted by the Association for Economic Evolution. During my speech about American libertarianism since 1940, I discussed my volunteer work for North Korean refugees. After the speech, Jeong approached me, asking how she could help. I gave her the same tough love I give to potential volunteers by asking: “Who are you?” After all, if you are Bill Gates, then open your wallet. If you speak four languages, then help with translation work. So I first stress to potential volunteers: Use your brain. Tell us about your skills and interests so together we can figure out your initial role. Jeong was good-natured about it, rather than c...

Last weekend: Suicide, Kim Young Ha, NK

Credit: Joanne Cho Event 1: Friday night I went to a talk given by Fulbright junior researcher Joanne Cho. She did a great job putting together statistics about some of the most commonly cited reasons that so many Koreans commit suicide. Probably the most provocative tidbit: Cho watched 86 dramas from the spring of 2012 to now, she says that 63 had "scenes depicting or discussing suicide" in a favorable light (as a way to solve problems, that troubled people can be forgiven for their sins and are even seen as sympathetic). Another interesting tidbit: While it is often cited that Korea is number one in the world in suicide (among countries reporting reliable statistics), what I had not realized or had forgotten is that Korean men are number 8 in the world compared to men in other countries with reliable statistics, Korean women are #1 in the world when compared to women in other countries. My questions for the speaker: 1) What was a finding in your research th...

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