Koreans are racist

I came to this conclusion a LONG time ago... my first year here.
They are nice to most people, yes, but for most of them, in their minds, they are better than everyone else. Koreans base a lot on race, nationality and looks. When foreign language schools are looking for teachers, they look for good looking white foreigners. My first year, when my school was hiring another teacher, they handed me two pictures and asked me which one I thought they should hire. I look at them with a bit of a WHAT? look and asked to see the resumes if they really wanted my opinion. Many schools advertise that they want North American's only (and imply white North American). I do know several African Americans that are working here, but many schools won't even consider hiring one. Also, at many schools, North Americans will be paid more than other westerners, because of where they are from and having nothing to do with experience or credentials.

Don't get me wrong. I am not saying that ALL Koreans are like this, but many are. I do have some Korean friends that are not and many that are generally not.

Koreans often think that all westerners are rude, overbearing and fat. Even the polite, quiet and thin ones. If you don't fall into what they expect you to be, they are quite surprised.

I remember the boss of one of my previous schools saying something along the lines of just because we can speak English doesn't mean we can teach it. He followed that by saying that he (and other Koreans that studied English) make much better teachers because they had to study the ins and outs of the language. Well, while giving this lecture, I don't think he spoke a single sentence that was without grammatical errors. He told us that if it were up to him, there would be no foreign teachers in Korea. I think that he chose the wrong career. Through others, I heard that he made a couple of other comments as well that were racist and prejudice. He said that any Korean woman that would date a foreigner was a hooker or a slut. And, one of the other foreign teachers at the time was a plus sized girl. He said something to her along the lines of because of her size, she had to work twice as hard to do as well as the others. How rude. He is not the norm, but neither is he an exception.

With the recent events in Afghanistan, the racism came out again. Koreans were storming the mosques and demanding that the hostages be released. Non-Korean Muslims here were harrassed elsewhere about the issue too, or at the very least given very unwelcoming looks. What do the Muslims her have to do with the Taliban?

If one foreign teacher does something wrong, they blame all foreign teachers and think that they are all doing or going to do something wrong. If one American soldier does something wrong, all of them are to be blamed and punished. A few months ago, a soldier raped a 50 some year old woman. Because of that, all American GIs and their familys are banned from certain areas (again - it had only recently been opened up after being closed to them from an incident long ago) such as Hongdae. Well, I suppose I do agree with it somewhat. Most times that I have been in any bar that GIs were in, there was some sort of fight going on between GIs or GIs and other foreigners or Koreans. They sort of have a reputation for things like that.

Because Koreans are racist, they also have the mindset that all others are as well. When the Korean student went on a shooting rampage at an American university, almost all Koreans were worried that the Americans were going to take it out on all Koreans in the US. (Well, to be fair, if it had been an Arab Muslim that had done the shooting the results would have been VERY different, I think.)

Anyway... this post seems to have no organization what-so-ever. Just me rambling.
Here a couple of articles that I had saved a while back but had never really gotten around to getting to until now (the reason for this post).

It's About Time Korea Became Colorblind
"The Korean word 'minjok' (race) doesn't include ethnic minorities such as white or black people who were born in Korea and have lived all their lives in Korean culture. Korean people indulge in black-or-white thinking. The idea that if you're not of 'our minjok' then you're a foreigner is racial discrimination," said a U.S. soldier in a Korean speech contest last month. "As long as Korea is an advanced nation, you can't excuse racial discrimination by blaming it on the ignorance of a few people."
▶The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family in March interviewed immigrants who had married Koreans and settled down in Korea. The survey found that these people resent expressions like "mixed blood," "Kosian" (a child born to a Korean and another Asian), and "half-Korean." A Philippines-born woman said, "My child speaks Korean fluently, so he's not half Korean but full Korean." A Japanese woman said, "The term 'mixed blood,' a derogatory expression that disparages and discriminates against children of international marriages, is already a dead term in Japan." Some 11.5 percent of children from such marriages said it was hard for them to go to school because they faced ostracism from their classmates.
▶One in eight marriages in Korea last year was international. There are some 720,000 foreign residents in the country, accounting for 1.5 percent of our entire population and up by 35 percent from last year. Of those, most were foreign workers (36 percent), followed by married immigrants (12 percent) and naturalized Koreans (7.5 percent). Foreign residents will likely exceed 9 percent of the population by 2050. Our society will soon turn into a multicultural one with one non-ethnic Korean for every 10 citizens.
▶A nationwide attitude survey was conducted in April. Asked what it means to be Korean, respondents said that simply believing oneself to be Korean is more important than nationality or blood. They said they could be on intimate terms with Southeast Asians as close neighbors (40 percent) or close friends (36 percent). This suggested that most people are fairly open-minded. But only seven percent said they would accept a foreigner as a spouse, and a mere three percent said they would accept a foreigner marrying their child. In reality, most Koreans are still narrow-minded.
▶Last weekend, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination urged Korea to end racial discrimination. "There was a genuine fear that overemphasis on and excessive pride in the ethnic homogeneity of the Republic of Korea might be an obstacle to the realization of equal treatment and respect for foreigners and people belonging to different races and cultures," UNCERD said in a report. The common concepts of "pure bloodedness" and "impure" blood came "very close to ideas of racial superiority." Ethnic homogeneity for many years gave us a strong identity which helped us to defend ourselves against outside forces. But this idea no longer holds water. Korea has achieved great prosperity in the global market and now must face up to its responsibilities as a member of the global community. Our eyes should be open not to the color of people's skin, but to their minds and hearts.

UN Concern at 'Ethnocentric' Korea
August 20, 2007 Chosun Ilbo
The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has expressed concern at persistent ethnocentric thinking in South Korea. "There was a genuine fear that overemphasis on and excessive pride in the ethnic homogeneity of Korea might be an obstacle to the realization of equal treatment and respect for foreigners and people belonging to different races and cultures,” it said. It urged the country to include a human rights awareness program “that stressed understanding of societies with multiple ethnic/cultural backgrounds” in the official education curriculum.
Meeting in Geneva from July 30 until Aug. 17, the 71st UNCERD reviewed national reports on Costa Rica, New Zealand, Mozambique, Indonesia, and South Korea and released recommendations for them. On Aug. 9-10, it looked into reports submitted by the South Korean government. In the recommendations, UNCERD expressed discomfort about a prevalent notion in Korean culture of "pure-bloodedness," saying, "The whole concept came very close to ideas of racial superiority."
The committee praised the Korean government for the National Action Plan for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights and the Basic Act on the Treatment of Foreigners adopted in May and establishing an Interpretation Support Centre for Foreign Migrant Workers last year. But it urged Korea work out better systematic devices and suggested the country legally guarantee equal rights for foreign workers and children born from international marriages in employment, marriage, residence, education, and interpersonal relations. It called for information about the history and culture of various ethnic groups and peoples to be included in elementary and secondary school textbooks.
UNCERD also expressed concern that foreign women are improperly protected from potential harassment from either their Korean husbands or international matchmaking agencies. It highlighted cases of abuse -- some international marriage agencies demand exorbitant fees for their services or confiscate passports and travel papers from foreign wives-to-be without giving them sufficient information about their future husbands. Foreign workers, it noted, “were allowed to change their place of employment four times during the course of their three-year stay. They gravitated to relatively low-paying jobs that were deemed difficult, dangerous or dirty by the Korean population.”

Number of Foreign Residents Surges 35%
August 2, 2007 Chosun Ilbo
The number of foreign residents in Korea has surged by 34.7 percent compared to last year. Some 722,686 foreigners lived in Korea as of the end of May, up 186,059 from 536,627 in 2006, the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs said Wednesday. The number of foreigners in Korea accounts for 1.5 percent of the 49.09 million population.
The ministry attributed the surge to increase in international marriages supported by local administrations and influx of foreign students and businesspeople. The ministry and local government tallied the number of foreigners who have been staying in Korea more than 90 days to help them settle in Korea. It comprises both legal expatriates and illegal aliens.
Some 35.9 percent or 259,805 were foreign workers, followed by 12.2 percent or 87,964 who married Koreans. By nationality, Chinese accounted for 52.4 percent of foreign residents, Southeast Asians for 23.7 percent, Americans for 3.4 percent, Japanese for 3.3 percent and Taiwanese for 2.9 percent. Some 64.4 percent lived in the metropolitan area including Gyeonggi Province, where 29.7 percent of foreigners were living. Seoul was home to 28.7 percent and Incheon to 6 percent.

Foreigners Have a Hard Time in Korea -- Report
January 30, 2007 Chosun Ilbo
Last April, "K", a 30-year-old Japanese graduate student in Korea, had an unpleasant experience trying to subscribe to a mobile phone service.
Because K is a foreigner, a clerk at the mobile phone company demanded that he either subscribe to the service under the name of a Korean national or pay a W200,000 (US$1=W941) deposit. He had a similar experience trying to subscribe to an Internet service. In the end, K paid the W200,000 deposit to the phone company and he found a Korean friend willing to sign him up for the Internet. But the episodes soured life in Korea for K. "There seem to be too many complicated procedures that foreigners have to go through to live here," he said.
Even the most basic of daily interactions can be stressful for foreigners. Some non-Koreans have reported food shop owners who browbeat them into buying dishes after they sampled a free snack. A visit to a Korean hospital can be a terrifying experience for foreigners who fear for their safety when medical staff don't understand their language.
Currently there are more than 530,000 foreign residents in Korea, more than three times the number in 2000. But many Koreans are still inconsiderate of their foreign guests.
According to a study on the daily lives of foreign consumers from the Korea Consumer Protection Board, 41.7 percent of 545 respondents said that they're "dissatisfied" with their life as consumers in Korea. When asked what the biggest problem is, 35.9 percent pointed to communication difficulties. Other reasons for unhappiness include a lack of consideration for foreigners on the part of Koreans, financial difficulties, a lack of public information, and cultural differences.
When it comes to consumer goods, 48.7 percent of those foreigners expressed dissatisfaction with their mobile phone companies. Other sources of frustration were credit cards, the Internet, and real estate transactions.
"D", a 36-year-old English teacher from Canada, recounted his difficulties in signing a lease for a residential officetel in Yeonhui-dong, Seoul. The landlord demanded an advance of W9 million, a full year's rent, claiming that he might have a hard time tracking down D if he skipped out on his rent. D decided to try a boarding house in the neighborhood instead. But even some boarding houses don't accept foreigners, and it took D several tries before he found one willing to take him in.
A 34-year-old American expat called "J" said that credit cards presented undue stress in Korea. "I have never had a problem using my credit card in any other country. But here in Korea, merchants rarely accept it. And just because I'm a foreigner, it's impossible to apply for a cash card to withdraw my deposits."
Kim Hyun-joo, a senior researcher at the Korea Consumer Protection Board, said that with the number of foreigners visiting Korea on the rise as a result of globalization and the open-door policy, how the Korean people treat them is becoming an important criterion for national competitiveness. "We need to work out a variety of support programs that assist foreigners in their daily life as consumers," Kim said. For more information or counseling, foreigners are advised to call (02) 3460-3393.

This article gives some hope, but from a combination of my own experience, friends' experiences and what I've read, they still have a long way to go: What Koreans Really Think About Ethnic Homogeneity.

Korea and the Taliban

'Secret terms' for Korea hostages
BBC News 2007/09/06 16:33:50 GMT
South Korea's intelligence chief has refused to deny that his government paid a ransom to the Taleban to release 19 hostages last week.
Kim Man-bok admitted to a parliamentary committee that there were undisclosed terms involved in the deal with the Afghan rebels.
He said the truth would be made public at some point.
South Korean officials had previously repeatedly denied reports that money was paid for the hostages' release.
'Not proper'
"It's not proper for you, intelligence committee members, to ask whether a ransom was paid. I think it will serve better to leave it there for a while," Mr Kim said, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.
HOSTAGE TIMELINE
19 July: 23 South Korean Christian volunteer aid workers seized on a bus between Kabul and Kandahar
26 July: One male hostage shot dead - identified as Bae Hyung-kyu, 42, a church pastor and leader of the group
31 July: Another male hostage, Shim Sung-min, a 29-year-old former IT worker, found dead
10 August: South Korean officials and Taleban start talks
14 August: Two female hostages handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross as a goodwill gesture - leaving 19
29 August: 12 more hostages released - leaving seven
30 August: All remaining hostages released
Sun Byung-ryul, a parliamentary committee secretary, told the Associated Press that when asked whether a ransom had been paid, Mr Kim replied: "I can't confirm that. Various things happened and they will be revealed as time passed."
Mr Kim travelled to Afghanistan to take part in negotiations with the Taleban.
As part of the deal, Seoul said it agreed to pull its troops out of Afghanistan as scheduled by the end of the year, and to stop missionaries travelling to Afghanistan.
But there have been persistent media reports alleging that a multi-million dollar ransom was paid.
A Taleban representative in Ghazni province, where the hostages were held, told the BBC the South Korean government paid $20m (£10m), but two other Taleban sources told the BBC no ransom was paid.
Afghan officials have said a sum slightly under $1m (£500,000) was handed over.
Two of the 23 Christian aid workers were murdered by their Taleban captors. Two others were then released because of their ill health, and the others were freed after six weeks in captivity.

old music video from India

Really, you have to watch the whole thing. ~Trust me!

Not AGAIN!!!

Egypt wades into Swedish cartoons row
Gwladys Fouché Monday September 3, 2007 MediaGuardian.co.uk
Egypt has added its voice to the chorus of protests against Sweden, following the publication of a cartoon of the prophet Muhammad in a local Swedish newspaper.
The Egyptian ministry of religious endowments yesterday denounced the Swedish cartoon, representing the prophet's head on a dog's body, as "irresponsible and offensive", according to the Kuwaiti news agency Kuna.
"Such an irresponsible act is not conducive to friendly ties between the Islamic world and the west," the Egyptian ministry said.
Jordan also today condemned the publication in the cartoon.
"The publication of this cartoon, which seeks to attack the character of the Prophet Muhammad, is unacceptable, rejected and condemned," government spokesman Nasser Jawdeh told reporters.
"Such cartoons do not serve inter-faith dialogue and co-existence, in which Jordan believes."
Egypt and Jordan are the latest countries to protest against the publication last month of a Muhammad cartoon in Nerikes Allehanda, a local newspaper in Örebro, a city in southern central Sweden.
Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan protested against the cartoon's publication last week, together with the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, an international body representing 57 nations.
Nerikes Allehanda published the hand-drawn sketch, made by Swedish artist Lars Vilks, following a row in the Nordic country this summer over Mr Vilks' attempt to exhibit his series of drawings about Muhammad.
At least two galleries declined to show the pictures, citing security fears. Alongside the picture, Nerikes Allehanda printed a leader regretting the galleries' "self-censorship".
The row is now developing into an international crisis, with the Swedish prime minister having to intervene.
"We are eager to ensure that Sweden remains a country in which Muslims and Christians ... can live side by side in a spirit of mutual respect," the prime minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt, told news agency TT last week.
However, Mr Reinfeldt added that Sweden would defend freedom of expression.
"We are also eager to stand up for freedom of expression, which is enshrined in the constitution ... which ensures that we do not make political decisions about what gets published in newspapers," he said.
At the weekend, top Swedish national daily Dagens Nyheter said in a leader that "[Sweden] has a duty from now on to defend its principles and present an open dialogue".
Mr Vilks has said he has begun receiving death threats. At least two demonstrations have taken place in front of Nerikes Allehanda's office to protest against the cartoon's publication.

To see more information and a photo of the offending cartoon, see Newspaper refuses to apologize for Muhammed-as-dog cartoon.

working hours

This doesn't surprise me at all.

Koreans Work Longest Hours in the World
Korean workers put in the longest hours in the world yet their productivity remains just 68 percent of that of U.S. workers, the International Labor Organization said on Monday.
That means it takes a Korean worker an hour and a half to do what an American needs just one hour to do.
According to the ILO's "Key Indicators of the Labor Market" report, the average Korean worker toils 2,305 hours per year. That's the most of 54 surveyed countries.
Six Asian nations have annual work hours per person of greater than 2,200 hours -- Korea, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand.
However, the report said Korea's annual work hours are shrinking at the fastest pace in the world. The largest decrease in annual labor hours was found in Korea, followed by Ireland, Japan, France and Spain.
Meanwhile, the productivity gap between the U.S. and Korea is still wide, though it has been closing steadily.
The ILO said Korean productivity, which is the country's GDP divided by the number of people employed, increased from 28 percent of that of American workers in 1980 to 68 percent in 2005.
The annual average productivity growth rate in Korea was 4.7 percent, the third fastest of 122 countries, following Bosnia and Herzegovina with 7.8 percent and China with 5.7 percent.
When it comes to productivity, the U.S. ranked first. U.S. workers produced US$63,885 of wealth per person in 2006, followed by Ireland with $55,986, Luxembourg with $55,641, Belgium with $55,235 and France with $54,609.
However, Americans work longer hours than workers in other advanced nations. When productivity is measured by wealth produced per hour, Norway ranked first with $37.99. Also on the list were the U.S. with $35.63 and France with $35.08.
(englishnews@chosun.com )

What have they done???

I don't know if this is true or not, but... if it is... It helped those that were released but not anyone else in the world!

Korea 'Paid US$20 Million to Taliban'
The Korean government paid more than US$20 million in ransom to Taliban kidnappers for the release of 19 Korean hostages in Afghanistan, Reuters and Japan’s Kyodo News said Saturday quoting a senior Taliban figure.
Both news agencies cited remarks by a member of the 10-man leadership council of the Taliban, which are headed by the elusive Mullah Omar. “With it we will purchase arms, get our communication network renewed and buy vehicles to carry out more suicide attacks,” the senior militant figure told Reuters. “The money will also address to some extent the financial difficulties we have had.”
Meanwhile, in an indirect phone conversation with Yonhap News on Sunday, a purported Taliban spokesman calling himself Qari Yousuf Ahmadi threatened to attack the Korean embassy or other Korean facilities in Afghanistan if the country does not keep its promise to withdraw all Korean Christian missionaries from the country by the end of August. Ahmadi said he had information that some Koreans remain in the war-torn country.
(englishnews@chosun.com )

What the Afghan Hostage Crisis has Cost Korea
Digital Chosun Ilbo English Editorial September 4, 2007
The Afghan hostage crisis has ended, but the aftermath lingers. Germany, Canada and other countries are openly criticizing the Korean government for having negotiated directly with a terrorist group. Even though one of its citizens is in captivity by the Taliban, Germany’s chancellor made it clear that her country will not handle the situation as Korea did. The U.S. government drew the line early on, saying it will not participate in talks between the Korean government and the Taliban. It had no intention of violating their principle. Rumors that the Korean government paid a ransom for the release of the hostages are tremendously embarrassing for Korea. Amid all this, the actions by the chief of Korea’s intelligence agency were more suited for a cheesy spy movie.
Korea lost a lot through this incident. Its status has tumbled to that of a nation that openly cuts deals with terrorists. Now, terrorist groups from all corners of the globe will put Koreans on the top of their list as potential kidnap targets, for political or financial gain. With 12 million Koreans traveling abroad each year, this is not an ungrounded concern. The scheduled withdrawal of the Dasan engineering unit and the Dong-eui medical unit ended up looking as if it came in response to the Taliban’s demands. The sweat and sacrifice that our troops gave in Afghanistan over the past five years has gone to waste.
Korea is responsible for punching a gaping hole in the global line of defense drawn against terrorism, giving the Taliban an international stage for its propaganda warfare. Now the militants plan to abduct and kill more nationals from foreign countries whose troops serve under NATO and the U.S. military in the country, a spokesman for the movement warned Monday. With the Taliban in high spirits, the trust the international community had in Korea crashed and burned. For a very long time, Korea will have to live with the disgrace of having pleaded with the government of Afghanistan to free Taliban prisoners and the fact that the whole world found out about it.
Our biggest loss is that Korea has been imprinted in the minds of the international community as a country without principle. Regardless of its size, if a country gains a reputation for protecting principles despite external pressure, then no group will take it lightly. There are many small countries in the world that fit that description and exercise significant influence on the international community. This is the road Korea should take, stuck as it is between the world’s superpowers. But we strayed significantly from this path.
If there is anything we can gain from this incident, it is the realization that whether our country can live up to its principles depends on the actions and character of our citizens. No government or country can endure the challenge posed by 23 people who are kidnapped after disobeying fundamental rules.
The reason why small but respected countries in the world stick to their principles despite unbearable hardships is because they have learned that it is more economical and effective in the long term. Only when its citizens obey fundamental rules can a country gain more respect, and that in turn reduces the cost of living in a rough world.

by the end of the year...

South Korea will withdraw its troops from Afghanistan, and North Korea will disarm its nuclear program.

Peace Dam

[photo from Ibike Korea People-to-People Program at www.ibike.org]

'Peace Dam' symbolizes divide between North, South Korea
By Choe Sang-hun NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE, HWACHEON, SOUTH KOREA Sunday, Sep 02, 2007, Page 9
'After South Korea rushed to complete the first phase of the Peace Dam in time for the 1988 Olympics, it became clear that Seoul had misjudged the North's intention.'
In 1986, as South Korea was busy preparing for its largest ever international event -- the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul -- North Korean soldiers broke ground on a gigantic dam just above the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).
As South Koreans wondered what their unpredictable communist neighbors were up to, the military dictator of South Korea, Chun Doo-hwan, offered his own terrifying possibility: a killer flood.
In response to the so-called water-bomb scare, South Korean television networks broadcast artists' conceptions of monstrous walls of water unleashed by the North Korean dam, wiping out most of Seoul, 190km downstream, with the impact of a nuclear explosion during the Olympics.
So South Korea built a dam of its own. Even schoolchildren joined the fundraising campaign to construct a protective bulwark against the threat.
Today, South Korea's "Peace Dam" -- begun in 1987, abandoned halfway through as a misguided Cold War scheme, then revived and completed in 2005 -- stands here, a 125m-high, 1,970m-wide rock and concrete hulk. There is no reservoir; the dam's only function is to contain a possible deluge, by accident or design, from North Korea's Imnam Dam, 35km up the northern tributary of the Han River.
"Like the two Koreas, the two dams are twin brothers, born at the same time, facing each other across the DMZ," said Lee Tae-ik, an official at Korea Water Resources, which maintains the South Korean dam.
"The Peace Dam is an inevitable child of a divided nation," he said.
The Peace Dam is a US$429 million monument to the politics on the divided peninsula -- its massive wall evocative of the challenge South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun faces at a three-day summit meeting between the nations' leaders from Oct.2 to Oct. 4 in Pyongyang. At the meeting, Roh plans to urge North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to scale down the tension and mistrust along the 240km border in return for economic incentives.
In few places is the South Korean desire for peace, and the sometimes surreal manifestations of inter-Korean hostility, on better display than here in Hwacheon.
"With 24,000 civilians versus 36,000 soldiers, we are the most `military intensive' county in South Korea," said Choi Moon-soon, a Hwacheon official. "People here are very anti-communist."
Here in Hwacheon, suspicion of North Korea is etched both into the landscape, which is dotted with minefields and tank traps and monuments built at some of the Korean War's bloodiest battle sites, and in the minds of residents, who remember when North Korean commandos crossed the border in 1992, killing three South Korean soldiers and eluding manhunts before escaping back to the North.
A few kilometers northwest of the Peace Dam, an asphalt road, hacked into hillsides so remote that local residents claim to have sighted supposedly extinct tigers, winds past military outposts carrying slogans like "If we fight, we will win" before coming to a dead end at the southern boundary of the DMZ.
There, the South Korean army's Seven Star Guard Post looms atop a mist-shrouded hill, part of the nearly 2-million-strong military forces on both sides of the border prepared to resume the war that was suspended with a cease-fire in 1953.
When the war halted, the two sides agreed to create a demilitarized zone 4km wide. But at Seven Star, the DMZ is only one-fifth that, the result of the armies inching in over the years to get a better vantage point against their adversaries.
"If the enemy comes within 50 meters of the borderline at the center of DMZ, we broadcast a warning three times," Captain Kwon Seong-ho said. "The moment the enemy steps on the borderline, we fire warning shots. The moment the enemy crosses it, we are licensed to kill."
Here the temperature soars to 36℃ in summer and plunges to minus 36℃ in winter. Off-duty soldiers play a form of soccer with a ball attached to a rope.
As Kwon explained, they don't want to wade into a minefield to retrieve a ball.
Even along this time-frozen frontier, there are abundant signs of how the two sides have diverged after decades of pursuing different ideologies and policies. The South Korean barracks are outfitted with satellite TV, karaoke machines and showers. At night, the fence on South Korea's side is lighted, while the energy-starved North Korean side sinks into darkness.
After the first summit meeting between the Koreas, in 2000, former South Korean president Kim Dae-jung declared that there would be "no more war" in Korea, beginning an unprecedented mood of reconciliation.
But two years later, in the middle of the World Cup soccer finals, which took place in South Korea and Japan, the North and South Korean navies engaged in a bloody skirmish on their disputed western sea border.
After South Korea rushed to complete the first phase of the Peace Dam in time for the 1988 Olympics, it became clear that Seoul had misjudged the North's intentions.
The so-called water offensive never came. North Korea used the Imnam Dam to reroute water to a hydroelectric power plant on its east coast.
In 1993, government auditors concluded that Chun had exaggerated the dam's threat to mute political discontent at home.
The Peace Dam became a symbol of Cold War hysteria.
Then, in early 2002, only months before the World Cup finals, satellite pictures showed cracks in the clumsily built North Korean dam.
"It was terrifying when, out of the blue, a huge wall of muddy water and chunks of ice tumbled down from the North," Choi said.
The North repaired its dam. But South Korea resumed construction on its own dam and finished it in 2005.
When the North-South summit meeting was announced, the mayor of Hwacheon, Chung Kap-chol, wrote to Kim urging that the two sides address a growing water dispute between the two Koreas.
Imnam Dam has reduced water inflow in the Han River by 12 percent, threatening its ecosystem and contributing to water shortages in the Seoul metropolitan area.
Some suggest that South Korea shut the Peace Dam's four sluice gates, to fill up a reservoir for drinking water. But this could cause flooding on the North Korean side. The Peace Dam, like its Northern counterpart, could be a potent weapon.
"Once peace finally comes to Korea, the Peace Dam will function like a normal dam," a public relations video at a Peace Dam museum says. "Until then, the Peace Dam stands here, silently suffering the burden of national division."

Peace Dam Protects South Korea (you can see a Google sattelite images of the dam at this site or here)
S. Korea completes 'Peace Dam' to block flood attack from North (Special to World Tribune.com Thursday, October 27, 2005)

Marwan Khory - kil al qasayid

This is such a beautiful song, whether you understand the language or not. I love it. But, it sort of makes me sad. I'm not sure why. I don't think the video is the greatest. If you want, watch the video and listen, or listen to the song with your eyes closed.

another of his songs, sung with Carole Samaha (a Lebanese singer) - Ya Rab (with English subtitles)

or go here for Ya Rab without English subtitles.

the Froggy Cafe

Today the weather sucked. It was rainy and kinda cold. Too cold for what it should be here. I went back to the doctor early this afternoon to see about my throat. When I was finished there, I stopped by Sergejas for a bit to chat. We decided to go out for a walk around our area - we live in the Sukmyung Women's University area. The best places to go, which we have only recently discovered, are closer to the uni. After walking for a bit around the area, we went to the Froggy Cafe that we had noticed the other day. It was such a great idea. It made the whole day seem not so glum. It is an earthy little place. Very little, actually, with only 4 tables inside and a couple outside (not used in the rain, of course). It has a nice menu of coffee, lattes, mochachinos, and such, a HUGE list of different kinds of teas, some food items such as pizza (3 kinds), bagels and the like, and desserts such as pie, home made ice-cream, sherbets, brownies, etc. I had a mochacchino and Sergeja had a Frappe. The drinks came with an always present kwaja (snack). Here it was an unusual kwaja in that it was a mix of Jelly Belly jelly beans, coffee peanuts, M&Ms, almonds, with a little Winnie the Pooh cracker on top. How cute. We shared a "Froggy Pizza" - a thin crust with pesto, avocado, artichoke hearts, green pepper, black olives and onions. We had to wait around 20 minutes for our pizza, but we were okay with that. The owner made it on the little counter and it was baked in a little toaster oven in the corner (to the left of the pastel colored cups on the bottom shelf). We weren't sure about it when we ordered it but wanted to try. SO good! We both enjoyed it very much. It would be too much for on person (the pesto? too much of a good thing?) but it is a great snacky-meal to be shared. At first glance, the cafe just looks very cluttered, but it is quite cozy. The walls are covered in hand made jewelery (12 different designers) that is for sale.

After looking around a bit and contemplating quite a bit, I got 3 necklaces.
I know, I know, it's not like I really NEED more necklaces, but I fell in love with them. And Sergeja helped me to justify it by reminding me that because I am sick, I didn't go out drinking and clubbing tonight like I had originally planned. So I spent the money that I would have otherwise spent on drinks and such. We were quite happy with the place when we got up to pay. It was even BETTER when the owner gave me a 10,000 won discount (about $10) on the necklaces (I paid 41,000 instead of 51,000), and she gave us each a little piece of dessert that she had made - a brownie for Sergeja and cinnamon cake for me. She must have read our minds as she gave us each what we would have actually chosen.
We had already decided that we would return to the Froggy Cafe, but the owner's great attitude and generosity made us feel even better about that decision, and about our day.