Monster Island (actually a peninsula)*

Pearls of witticism from 'Bo the Blogger: Kushibo's Korea blog... Kushibo-e Kibun... Now with Less kimchi, more nunchi. Random thoughts and commentary (and indiscernibly opaque humor) about selected social, political, economic, and health-related issues of the day affecting "foreans," Koreans, Korea and East Asia, along with the US, especially Hawaii, Orange County and the rest of California, plus anything else that is deemed worthy of discussion. Forza Corea!

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Loose change for October 20, 2009

Political stuff:

North Koreans aware of transfer of power but forbidden to discuss it
New York Times opinion piece on the White House's newly found aggression toward ~~Faux~~ Fox ~~News~~ Propaganda Arm of the Republican Party's Right Wing (HT to The Korean)
The Journal of the American Enterprise Institute discusses how the EU-ROK free-trade agreement may be just the thing to get the US to get on the ball with the KORUS FTA
Allowing dual citizenship a hot topic again: Chosun Ilbo, Korea Herald,
PhDs in economics and business are in short supply in Korea
Latin American trading bloc plans to stop using US dollars for regional commerce and replace them with virtual 'sucre' (an acronym from the Spanish for Unified Regional Compensation System)

Non-Korea miscellany

South Koreans spend three to nine times more on education than other advanced nations
Chronology and interactive map on same-sex marriage in the United States
$1.1 billion "modernization" for LAX to allow it to handle Boeing 787 Dreamliners and giant Airbus A380

5 comments:

AnonymousWednesday, October 21, 2009 1:20:00 AM
Dude... you mixed up Latin America with Korean Education.
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kushiboWednesday, October 21, 2009 7:34:00 AM
Thanks. I was finishing that post at about 2 a.m. (despite the time stamp) and I was literally nodding off in front of the computer toward the end.

But now I can't find the original article I had intended for that link, so I just put in the Joongang Daily.
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AnonymousWednesday, October 21, 2009 1:54:00 PM
Dude... there are at least two HT you owe me there buddy!
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AnonymousWednesday, October 21, 2009 1:56:00 PM
Dude... you sleep? I thought you were some super advanced artificial intelligence computer... you don't need sleep and you are not suppose to be tired!
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kushiboWednesday, October 21, 2009 2:56:00 PM
What are the two HTs? Almost everything I put in the Loose Change posts is stuff I found either in news trolling or while looking for something else. Only occasionally does that call for an HT, so if I missed one, I'd be more than happy to provide the link back.

And while we're at it, I do appreciate the HT here, but it would be nice to have a link back (or whatever it's called) to the original post. I ask that because the daily Korea News Link posts are quite time consuming and I'd like to increase the traffic to them beyond my normal readership, if possible.
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Ask Kushibo.

My Google/Blogspot data shows that a lot of the 2 million people who have landed on my site (yes, that's the real number) are looking for cultural information on Korea (e.g., “When did Syngman Rhee die?” “What did the Indians bring to the first Chusŏk?’ etc., etc.), as well as practical or historical stuff.

That got me thinking that, hey, I have a master’s degree in Korean studies and a minor in Japanese studies, I’ve lived in Seoul far longer than most foreans my age (whether they're kyopo or non-kyopo), I teach introductory courses on Korea and its cultural trappings and history, so why not offer a free service where I attempt to answer people’s questions, point them in the direction of where they can get them answered, and/or offer my regulars (that’s you!) a chance to take a stab at some of this stuff, too.

So if there’s something you’d like to know from a “contrarian scourge,” click on ASK KUSHIBO and just ask a succinct question in the comments section below.

Oh, and play nice. Please don’t make me regret this.

九十五大怪獣란? 쿠시보의 몬스터 아일랜드란?

Pearls of witticism from 'Bo the Blogger: Kushibo's Korea blog... Kushibo-e Kibun...
Now with Less kimchi, more nunchi. Random thoughts and commentary (and indiscernibly opaque humor) about selected social, political, economic, and health-related issues of the day affecting "foreans" ("foreigners" in Korea be they kyopo or non-kyopo), Koreans, Korea and East Asia, along with the US, especially Hawaii, Orange County, and the rest of California, plus anything else that is deemed worthy of discussion. Forza Corea!

* Monster Island (actually a peninsula)

The name of this blog comes from a line in "Lisa on Ice," a beloved episode of The Simpsons, perhaps my all-time favorite television show (even though for several seasons there, it really did suck). Lisa is imagining being sworn in as president, but at the last minute, it is discovered that she failed P.E. (physical education) and she is thus "sentenced to a lifetime of horror" on Monster Island. "Don't worry," the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court confides in her, "It's just a name."

Fast forward to Lisa and other prisoners running in panic through a tropical jungle, chased by Godzilla-like creatures, including a monster turtle and a monster firefly.

"He said it was just a name!" Lisa screams to the man next to her. While he, too, runs for his life, the unidentified man calmly says, "What he meant is that Monster Island is actually a peninsula."

Anyway, I thought in some ways that punchline summed up modern-day Korea in a nutshell. For many people—foreigners and Koreans—the ups and downs and everyday travails of the Republic of Korea make it as precarious as a Monster Island would be (and with the DMZ being the only land border, it really is like an island). But it actually is a peninsula. Okay, it made sense in my head.

So as you can see, despite the hits I get from people looking for Japanese tentacle porn, it has nothing to do with anything salacious as that.