hat tip to Gord Sellar.
wow!
Read the transcript here.
Righteous outrage is fun to watch, and share.
Another interesting site my friend got me onto: Project Censored, a site devoted to publicizing, or at least noting, all the stories that governments and big businesses use their influence to bury. Yaaaay fifth column!
one expat's life in Korea
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Message to Coreana: how to make Hitler References (funny)
Brian from Jeollanamdo earned April's Blogger of the Month award from Blogoseyo, for breaking the story about Coreana, a Korean cosmetics company, using a woman dressed like a sexy femme-nazi to sell face cream, which eventually attracted the attention of the Simon Weisenthal center and CNN, but for which Coreana, to my knowledge, has never apologized, another bit of extreme dis ingenuousness, given the way Korea has vociferously demanded apologies for references to their own wartime humiliations.
(Update: On the comment board, LiveWithPassion tells me that Coreana apologized, but does not feel sorry enough to actually pull the ads and stop glamourizing Nazis and pissing on the graves of all the Jews, Gypsies, Gays, and others killed in concentration camps and otherwise, during World War II. Thanks for the info, Livewithpassion, but sorry to say, this remains indefensible. I'm sticking to my guns, apology or none.)
Metropolitician also writes about the startlingly blase manner of hitler and nazi references here in Korea (and it's a bit of a puzzle, given the war atrocities Japan committed over here in East Asia, that Korea would be so insensitive about using Nazi imagery in Bars, and TV ads.)
Here's my own message to Coreana:
there are only three ways it is appropriate to refer to Nazis in the world today:
1. As a documentarian (see: Disovery Channel)
2. If they're the bad guys in a movie, and you get to kill lots of them. (see also Hellboy, and many, many more) (or if they're portrayed as tragic, inhuman monsters - see Schindler's List.)
3. If you make fun of them, and DON'T GLAMOURIZE THEM OR TRY TO MAKE MONEY OFF OF REFERRING TO THEM.
(from Youtube, via collegehumor)
(oops: posted Indy twice at first. Here's the right clip.)
That's my piece. Thanks for listening.
(Update: On the comment board, LiveWithPassion tells me that Coreana apologized, but does not feel sorry enough to actually pull the ads and stop glamourizing Nazis and pissing on the graves of all the Jews, Gypsies, Gays, and others killed in concentration camps and otherwise, during World War II. Thanks for the info, Livewithpassion, but sorry to say, this remains indefensible. I'm sticking to my guns, apology or none.)
Metropolitician also writes about the startlingly blase manner of hitler and nazi references here in Korea (and it's a bit of a puzzle, given the war atrocities Japan committed over here in East Asia, that Korea would be so insensitive about using Nazi imagery in Bars, and TV ads.)
Here's my own message to Coreana:
there are only three ways it is appropriate to refer to Nazis in the world today:
1. As a documentarian (see: Disovery Channel)
2. If they're the bad guys in a movie, and you get to kill lots of them. (see also Hellboy, and many, many more) (or if they're portrayed as tragic, inhuman monsters - see Schindler's List.)
3. If you make fun of them, and DON'T GLAMOURIZE THEM OR TRY TO MAKE MONEY OFF OF REFERRING TO THEM.
(from Youtube, via collegehumor)
(oops: posted Indy twice at first. Here's the right clip.)
That's my piece. Thanks for listening.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Mike White: everybody warm up your prayer engines.
First heard of this from Brian, and then over at Marmot:
A fourteen-year-old named Mike White died in a Korean sauna in Daegu last Saturday; he coughed and retched in the sauna, and then passed out; the sauna owners neglected to call his mother (who was highly trained in first aid), phoned the ambulance and reported him as already dead (so they came slowly instead of quickly, and ill-equipped to resuscitate him), and basically bungled the situation so badly that a fourteen-year-old kid died needlessly.
It's a tragedy, and maybe also a travesty, that staff at a sauna -- where pools of water, powerful water-pumps, running kids, slippery surfaces, hard edges, old men, high temperatures, and sometimes alcohol, mix, were so ill prepared for such a scenario, and responded so half-heartedly, and I hope there is a thorough investigation into this poor kid's death, and that those to blame are held responsible. His mother, Stephannie, is devastated (of course).
Police in Korea are getting a reputation for needing their arms twisted before they try to get to the bottom of things, as evidenced here, and it seems, for trying to wiggle out of doing their due diligence on the "sounds too much like work" defense when they can: when Bill Kapoun died in a suspicious fire not long ago, according to the Save Bill Kapoun facebook page,"[Bill's family] had to sign papers terminating the investigation in order to have Billy’s body released,” so it remains unknown whether Bill's death was caused by accident or arson. Easier to close the file than to ensure justice is served if was arson.
You can read more about Michael and the White family's situation here, here , here (on facebook), and here.
There are compassion vigils planned in Seoul, and by the sauna where he died. If you live nearby, think about going. Let's not have this one buried and forgotten, too.
A fourteen-year-old named Mike White died in a Korean sauna in Daegu last Saturday; he coughed and retched in the sauna, and then passed out; the sauna owners neglected to call his mother (who was highly trained in first aid), phoned the ambulance and reported him as already dead (so they came slowly instead of quickly, and ill-equipped to resuscitate him), and basically bungled the situation so badly that a fourteen-year-old kid died needlessly.
It's a tragedy, and maybe also a travesty, that staff at a sauna -- where pools of water, powerful water-pumps, running kids, slippery surfaces, hard edges, old men, high temperatures, and sometimes alcohol, mix, were so ill prepared for such a scenario, and responded so half-heartedly, and I hope there is a thorough investigation into this poor kid's death, and that those to blame are held responsible. His mother, Stephannie, is devastated (of course).
Police in Korea are getting a reputation for needing their arms twisted before they try to get to the bottom of things, as evidenced here, and it seems, for trying to wiggle out of doing their due diligence on the "sounds too much like work" defense when they can: when Bill Kapoun died in a suspicious fire not long ago, according to the Save Bill Kapoun facebook page,"[Bill's family] had to sign papers terminating the investigation in order to have Billy’s body released,” so it remains unknown whether Bill's death was caused by accident or arson. Easier to close the file than to ensure justice is served if was arson.
You can read more about Michael and the White family's situation here, here , here (on facebook), and here.
There are compassion vigils planned in Seoul, and by the sauna where he died. If you live nearby, think about going. Let's not have this one buried and forgotten, too.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
for all the alienated weiguks living in Korea: Hail Nathan, defender of English Teachers!
I found this on Foreign/er, a random find from the Korean blog list, and found it very interesting to watch.
them cultural lines just keep blurring everywhere.
I really liked the part where, even though you can still hear the hurt in her voice when she talks about the discrimination she experienced when she came to America, she still explains how she doesn't see a racist in the old man shouting at immigrants in his neighbourhood; she sees a man having an identity crisis as the America he knew for sixty years suddenly changes completely. What an amazingly compassionate way to think of these people, kicking powerlessly against a changing world that just won't stop rolling, no matter what they do, and all that remains for them is to slowly watch themselves become irrelevant in the new society that sprouts up around them.
They must feel kind of like this guy:
Also: (cackle of glee) JoongAng Daily gets theirs:
Hail to Nathan Van, who stuck it to them for their sloppy write-up of the American pedophiles, which I mentioned in my rant here.
Once again, I raise my glass to Nathan Van from Seoul.
We'll see if my letter to the Korea Herald gets printed. . . it was a little longer than his, and used words like "shame" "racist" "irresponsible" and "duty to the truth". . . even if it doesn't get in the paper, they read it, and it'll go up on this blog, regardless.
them cultural lines just keep blurring everywhere.
I really liked the part where, even though you can still hear the hurt in her voice when she talks about the discrimination she experienced when she came to America, she still explains how she doesn't see a racist in the old man shouting at immigrants in his neighbourhood; she sees a man having an identity crisis as the America he knew for sixty years suddenly changes completely. What an amazingly compassionate way to think of these people, kicking powerlessly against a changing world that just won't stop rolling, no matter what they do, and all that remains for them is to slowly watch themselves become irrelevant in the new society that sprouts up around them.
They must feel kind of like this guy:
Also: (cackle of glee) JoongAng Daily gets theirs:
Hail to Nathan Van, who stuck it to them for their sloppy write-up of the American pedophiles, which I mentioned in my rant here.
[LETTERS to the editor]Wrong example
May 12, 2008
Ser Myo-ja's May 9 front page article, "American pedophiles banned by authorities," should raise concerns among Americans, fact-checkers, and anyone else at all concerned with the truth. Ser Myo-ja reports on the Ministry of Justice's ban on convicted American pedophiles from entering Korea.
Ser Myo-ja goes on to mention Christopher Paul Neil [who was arrested in Thailand as a suspected pedophile who preyed on young Asian victims] as if he were American. He's not. He's Canadian. Why wouldn't the article mention that?
The Ministry's ban doesn't affect Canadians.
You should get your facts straight lest you add to the miseducation of Korean citizens, poisoning the minds of a society already tainted by isolationist ignorance and prejudgment.
Your misleading article poorly informs Koreans.
Nathan Van, Seoul
Once again, I raise my glass to Nathan Van from Seoul.
We'll see if my letter to the Korea Herald gets printed. . . it was a little longer than his, and used words like "shame" "racist" "irresponsible" and "duty to the truth". . . even if it doesn't get in the paper, they read it, and it'll go up on this blog, regardless.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Belated Happy Mother's Day
It's been on the blog before, but it still makes me miss my mom, and my brother, every time.
From online comedians Barats and Bareta.
Four of my favourite pictures of my mom:
Jane Oprivacyhand (1952-2005)
From online comedians Barats and Bareta.
Four of my favourite pictures of my mom:
Jane Oprivacyhand (1952-2005)
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