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!

Friday, April 9, 2010

In other blogs (April 9, 2010 edition)

Dear Reader, if you have a particularly interesting post you'd like me to highlight, feel free to email me with a link so I can take a look.

One Free Korea has an excellent roundup of the latest news on the sinking of the Chonan, following the interviews of the sailors who were on board.

Korean Rum Diary has a surprisingly substantive (and frank) discussion about the merits and demerits of legalized prostitution, triggered by a statistic that one in five South Korean men go to prostitutes four times a month. I was trying to find the cited survey from the Korean Institute of Criminology (where one of my former professors works), but no luck.

Asian Correspondent lists the top ten international universities in Northeast Asia (which includes tropical Hong Kong). It's nice to know that my graduate alma mater made the list, though I don't know the source of the list or its authority.

ROK Drop brings us the story of decorated Army flight surgeon Lt Col Terrence Lakin, who says he will not comply with orders to deploy to Afghanistan until President Obama releases his birth certificate.

3 comments:

DSWFriday, April 09, 2010 10:14:00 PM
Thanks for the link. I was a little surprised by the volume of comments that came along with it.

My shortest ever post = the most comments. There's a lesson there.
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UnknownSaturday, April 10, 2010 11:42:00 AM
Ive always wondered..isnt KAIST just a Korean "us too" version of JAIST?

dunno
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kushiboSaturday, April 10, 2010 12:08:00 PM
Given that KAIST was established in 1971 and JAIST was established in 1990, you may have it backwards.

If KAIST was an "us, too" for anything, it was MIT that they were trying to emulate.
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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.