Is this my fault? Did I piss them off with this, this, this, this, or even this?
Or was it free speech in general that got them nervous?
Or maybe it was this:
[I would amend this map to include at least a strip along North Korea as Occupied Korea , and maybe next to that Occupied Manchuria, but I'm not married to the idea.]
You forgot Occupied Goguryeo.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely need to include occupied Manchuria. What has been done to their culture and their language is sickening. Going further, large parts of the south are definitely not Han either....
ReplyDeleteSonagi, I was referring to Occupied Koguryŏ [since this is a Korean Studies-related issue, I am loath to spell it Goguryeo, which I've heard people pronounce as 꼬구리오 or 꼬굴예오] when I wrote "Occupied Korea."
ReplyDeleteSan Nakji, I am also loath to include too many things in the "occupied" territories. Stuff from the last 150 years are enough, methinks. Sure, there are other areas taken from other peoples, but that's why those areas are labeled "the Han Tyrrany."
Harry,
ReplyDeleteSince Korea is a democracy where free speech supposedly reigns, there shouldn't be any blogs inaccessible to South Koreans, with the exception of those that violate the National Security Law in relation to North Korea.
However, the ROK government under President Roh Moohyun did ask major ISPs to block allegedly "pro-Japanese" sites at the height of the Tokto/Takeshima controversy last year, when he declared "diplomatic war" on Koizumi.
From now on, when I bring that up, I will add that Roh's policies toward Tokyo are a direct contradiction to the forward-thinking, future-oriented policies of President Kim Daejung and Japanese PM Obuchi.
I agree with you for the most part, but I have to point out that blocking North Korea-supporting websites is probably out of Roh's hands. It's the National Security Law that is responsible for that.
ReplyDeleteBlocking "pro-Japanese" sites (and I put that in quotations because what is "pro-Japanese" is definitely a judgement call) was his own call and it was a political move designed to shore up his plummeting approval ratings. It didn't really work, though.
I hope a conservative or a pragmatic moderate gets elected in 2007.
I didn't notice your occupied Korea until after I posted. Ask an English speaker unfamiliar with the Korean language to pronounce "Koguryo," and they will use an aspirated /k/. I do prefer the diacritic marks to dipthongs like /eo/.
ReplyDeleteIn the past, the Korean government has also blocked Dave's ESL Cafe and websites with footage of the beheading of the Korean man in Iraq.
thought that some of the anti-NK sites were also banned in order to avoid offending KJI, I don't know whether that is true or not.
ReplyDeleteI have heard that, too, but I can't recall if it's true or not and it's too late at night for me to look it up.
But given the hush-hush mood prevalent in S.K. I think that it is very likely.
Fortunately the other side is speaking out a lot more than before.
I remeber 2002... World cup craze and then on Roh gets elected by the fervent support of 20 somethings...
I know that there are hundreds of bloggers who would disagree with me, but my contention is that it was not anti-American sentiment or Korean nationalism that won Roh that election. It was pandering to the residents of Chungchong, plain and simple. Roh won by a couple percentage points, which he got from his promise to the residents of Chungchong to move the capital there.
Soccer $ populism
= latin american banana republic.
Hadn't thought of it that way, but maybe.
I guess in the U.S., religious fervor guiding politics = talibanism?
Oh, I'm just kidding.
"Inconsistency" is what best describes President Rho himself and his policies. But horrible it is to see that turns out to tell about his insecurity as head of state...Hope it will never happen until the end of his terms.
ReplyDeleteIt's weird, but thanks to this post, my blog got more comments yesterday than Marmot's did.
ReplyDeleteThat's definitely a first.
What is the Gando issue?
ReplyDeleteI hope your blog doesn't get too popular, Kushibo. Your cybercrib and Oranckay's blog are a peaceful respite from the clatter over at the Marmot's.
As I said at Coming Anarchy, that blogspot was blocked has nothing to do with the content of English language political blogs and everything to do with Chinese language political blogs. It might be self-aggrandizing to think that you've come under the scrutiny of the evil chicom censors but the fact of the matter is, you are the victim of a blanket domain ban as was TDAXP
ReplyDeleteWhat is the Gando issue?
ReplyDeleteIt's a territorial land grab that China was able to pull off with Japan's help about a hundred years ago.
I hope your blog doesn't get too popular, Kushibo. Your cybercrib and Oranckay's blog are a peaceful respite from the clatter over at the Marmot's.
Well thanks a lot, Sonagi. I guess my raison d'être is just to be your blog-toy.
Don't worry. I will do my moderating best to make sure things don't get too out of hand.
Jing wrote:
ReplyDeleteAs I said at Coming Anarchy, that blogspot was blocked has nothing to do with the content of English language political blogs and everything to do with Chinese language political blogs.
Oh, I know. I was just having fun with the whole concept of being part of a system that is being censored out in its entirety.
It might be self-aggrandizing to think that you've come under the scrutiny of the evil chicom censors but the fact of the matter is, you are the victim of a blanket domain ban as was TDAXP
Don't worry, Jing. I have no illusions of blogging grandeur. I know there's no one sitting in China going, "Ooh, that pesky Kushibo really gets under my craw." Thailand or Australia, maybe, but not Beijing.
Yes, I know it's not Kushibo that is responsible for this, but a bunch of smaller (mostly Chinese-language blogging) kushibos that are being blocked.
But the point still stands: this blog is supposed to be unviewable in China. And this is important because people (Koreans, North Americans, Europeans, and also Japanese) need to be aware that China is NOT just another socio-political equivalent of Korea, Japan, Taiwan, New Zealand, Canada, Belgiu, or even Hong Kong.
They are an oppressive state that suppresses dissent in a way quite different from how Taiwan or South Korea did during the years before their complete democratization.
I think China is a fascinating country and my experience with Mainland Chinese individuals have been overwhelmingly positive, but as South Koreans take stock of their relationships, or as Americans look to their economic opportunities, for example, they need to realize that, AS THIS BLOGSPOT BAN EXEMPLIFIES, China is not a country that shares their values.
Not by a long shot.
I would like to see China change. I am hopeful that it will. Unlike people like Baduk, I don't see conflict between China and Japan or China and the US as an inevitability. China can be eased into the league of mostly democratic nations where the people's voice is seen as a guide to where the country should go, not something that is potentially subversive.
And so things like this need to be brought up as a reminder.
Hey Blogtoy, here is Gando? I've never heard of it.
ReplyDeleteHave you checked out the story about MSN dropping a Chinese blogger on Rebecca MacKinnon's blog?
ReplyDeletehttp://rconversation.blogs.com/rconversation/2006/01/microsoft_takes.html
san nakji, I would say that occupied Manchuria is really a total non issue- Manchuria doesn't exist anymore. And you can't really blame the Chinese for that, their language and culture was already on total life support by the end of the Qing dynasty, and when the Manchu imperial family stopped supporting the little bit that was left, the remaining few Manchurians became totally Sinicised.
ReplyDeleteThis is just part of the general creep effect of Han civilization. Genetic studies have showed that North Chinese are closer to Mongols/Koreans/Japanese and South Chinese are closer to SE Asians, but they all call themselves Han Chinese because they've joined the Han hegemonic cultural sphere.