When I saw the title to this article, which is the title of this post as well, I gaped. Why? A theme in an old, abandoned novel was the life of a WTO-UN soldier who was policing economic-development zones: a Chinese soldier, one of the many “extra” men who could not marry in Chinese due to shortages of women, who was serving in Africa. But he was literally “policing” the development of the economy in whichever country I plopped him into. I think this character needs to make another appearance, as the idea is pretty cool. But maybe it’d be …
Tag: politics
Dear Mr. President
I’m not a big fan of protest songs, or pop songs in general, but I have to admit Pink’s Dear Mr. President was pretty interesting to me. I think I’ll look at it with my Media English, if the studio track is clear like the sound of the YouTube video linked above at Crooks and Liars.
North Korean slaves in Russia
North Korean slaves is an interesting article by Alain Devalpo about North Korean workers exported into Russia. “There were three waves of North Korean worker immigration during the 20th century,�? explained Larisa Zabrovskaya, a historian who is based in Vladivostok. The first started with the end of the second world war and the liberation of Korea, when Soviet fish-treatment factories called on North Korean manpower. In the 1950s there were about 25,000 of these workers and their families living in the Soviet Union. “The second wave took place after a secret meeting between Leonid Brezhnev and Kim Il-sung (3) in Vladivostok …
Repeat after me:
P2P is not hurting the music industry. P2P is not hurting the music industry. P2P is not hurting the music industry. Got it? Here’s yet another study that demonstrates it. (via Sivacracy)
The People’s Mario
Check out hilarious little flash animation, in which Mario is almost the perfect Soviet-style hero.
George Bush Giving Peace a Chant
Amusing Mashup of George Bush rapping (sort of) John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’. (via The Chutry Experiment)
In Defense of Anger
Interesting post over at Pandagon on anger. I’m not big on slamdancing, but whatever. (via Making Light)
Single? Unemployed? Need Someone to Take Care of Mom?
What disturbs me about this article Digital Chosunilbo (English Edition) is the mater-of-factness by which the whole “buy-a-bride-in-Vietnam” thing is handled. This guy picks a couple of possibles from a room full of women, all there basically to sell themselves off as brides in the hope of living in, as one girl describes, a “concrete house”. He all but admits to the women he interviews that he needs someone to take care of his mom, and then, after an AIDS test and a quick Vietnamese ceremony, they’re married. And it’s only then that he realizes body language isn’t going to …
The Asia Pages: In Defense of the White Boy
Jodi’s recent banning from some kind of alleged racist message board is discussed at great length in her post (and the comments appended to it) titled In Defense of the White Boy. I’m not going to get into my opinions of the specific case, but just say that I’ve been frustrated with the kind of thinking that runs behind this. Young guys, mostly, who like to think themselves political, strong, militant, and so they get all vocal about racial issues without thinking, without reasoning, without seeing that what they themselves have adopted is racism. I think people have a right …
Simon World :: It’s Not Easy Eating Greens
A recent study in Hong Kong showed that vegetables imported from China had ridiculous amounts of pesticides, deadly amounts, in fact. I wonder how stringently the vegetable imports are checked when coming into Korea? And, I wonder about pesticide levels on Korean-grown foodstuffs. Anyone know? Because I for one know that horribly deadly pesticides are widely available here… stuff that’s banned in North America, for example. Via Simon World