The Globe and Mail: Canadian teachers caught in S. Korean crackdown

Here we go with another newspaper misrepresentation. But this time, it’s not the Dong-Ah or the Joongang or the Chosun Ilbo, or even the Korea Herald. It’s The Globe and Mail, a Canadian newspaper thant just ran a story titled: Canadian teachers caught in S. Korean crackdown. I got an email from my accountant in Montreal asking if I am okay. I got another email forwarded to me from a reporter in Saskatchewan who wants to talk to a Canadian in Korea about “the Canadian crackdown”. Well, as far as I know, it’s not a Canadian crackdown. It’s just a …

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Innovation, WMD, and the Pressure Cooker Effect

Sometimes people think I am idealistic. I think, actually, most human beings are just easily caught in inertia. Although most people attribute the quote to Plato, it apparently was Philo or Alexandria who urged us to be kind to everyone we meet, “because everyone is fighting a harder battle.” It might seem funny to some of you that I am thought idealistic, but remember that idealistic doesn’t mean the same as optimistic. The most diehard pessimists usually have a history of idealism which reality never managed to live up to. This, in fact, is not so far from the case …

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To My Readers in Korea…

Two questions for my readers in Korea: Do you know where I can get DAT tapes copied to CD? I have several Digital Audio Tapes which I was told could be converted at my University’s Audio/Visual services division, and I got excited about the prospect of hearing some of my old compositions from my undergrad days. It’s especially interesting to me since I’ve discovered the manuscripts were all lost in the post to my parents’ home. These are the only extant traces of my musical history, and I’d like the content copied to audio CD as soon as possible… but …

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And then went down to the ship…

That’s right, we got us an Ezra Pound study group going. It’s Chullsung, Jason, and me on Monday afternoons spelunking (and then trying to dig out way out of) his Bible-sized book of poems — or, you could say, his pagan-Biblical poem — The Cantos, starting 1:15pm weekly. Next week is Cantos 1-3, including earlier drafts if we can get our hands on ’em. I’m excited. (I think I’ll bring the relevant bit from The Odyssey as well, if I can find it among my books… but I think I left The Odyssey in Canada, and only have The Iliad …

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