One of us must know which way the wind blows, right? So I launch Twitter on my phone, and see this: Hey, someone followed me! I wonder who that is? Er…
Which Way the Wind Blows
Tag: internet idiots
Kate J. Sim on Foreign Men and Sexual Violence in Korea (Or, What Happens When You Study Critical Theory But Not Statistics)
Update (31 March 2017): Matt over at Gusts of Popular Feeling of course beat me to the punch on this, though I didn’t see his post until just now. His numbers are different from mine: he remembers to include numbers for U.S. servicemen (which I didn’t: they’re probably about 20,000 in the Seoul area, but that’s an estimate he gives, and makes a marginal difference), and he’s using a different source and criteria for tourist data (I went with all Europeans, Oceanians, and Canadians/Americans, since Koreans tend to assume anyone white is “American.”) Despite these differences, Sim’s argument still looks ridiculous. But Matt …
Blaming the Internet
If you’re looking at an interesting argument against the trade sanctions to which the DPRK (North Korea) is currently subject, this article is worth a read. It’s an interview with Felix Abt. Naturally, when I hear a businessman claiming his for-profit venture in North Korea is really a way of helping bring about reform there, I’m suspicious: it’s also a way of profiting off some of the most vulnerable people on Earth, and I’m somewhat uncomfortable with the idea of business leading reform because business will (first and foremost, necessarily) always jigger things to benefit itself. It doubtless will bring reforms, but will …
The Fullness or Emptiness of the Glass
I’ve mostly backed off “serious” discussions on Facebook, with the exception of an occasional comment here and there. It’s not just because Noeul keeps me busy: It’s because while I like being able to say hi to friends occasionally, and get a whiff of news in the SFF world, share pictures and tidbits of news, and that kind of thing—and because some of my friends seem to prefer to use Facebook Messenger to email—I find that almost anything else is just a black hole sucking away my energy and time.
Surviving in Trollworld
So, Facebook’s buzzing over some idiotic opinion piece (don’t click on that link: trust me, you don’t need to read it) by one Choi Shi-yong that mostly amounts to “Korea=civilized; foreigner=uncivilized” as the theme that runs through the stream-of-consciousness drivel. There’s some particularly patronizing garbage about how sometimes they do after all… when they’re taught respect by Korean society: On the other hand, I saw a Canadian friend in a bus who has lived in Gwangju for over 10 years. He was willing to give his seat to the old lady after finding that she was standing right behind his seat. I thought that …