Archive for April, 2007

Farewell, Korea

By
Cyrus Farivar
 – April 28, 2007, 11:54 pm UTCPosted in: South Korea, Travels

Well, my three weeks in South Korea has come to an end. I tried (seriously) to make it up to North Korea, but it was going to cost me too much money and there was a 50/50 shot that the paperwork wouldn’t come through anyway. Too bad. I did get to go to the DMZ and eat Pyongyang-style noodles, so that’ll have to be good enough.

I can’t thank everyone enough, who’s made my time here such a success. In particular:

Karla: for letting me stay with her in Daejeon on no less than three occasions, and most of all, for letting me borrow her extra cell phone! I don’t know what I would have done without you.

Loren, Rachel & Nathan, and Jen: My four new CouchSurfing buddies, who were kind and generally awesome about letting me in their homes and share their space. You guys have an open invitation (and you too, Karla!) at my home in Oakland.

Aaron & Soo Jin: Although I knew you a little bit from before, it was great to learn more about you and to see you in your “native” environment. Thanks for taking me to eat live octopus. It’s an experience I will never forget.

DeVika, Min, Curtis & Lea, and Katrina: These friends I met through the aforementioned five and added a new dimension to my time here. I hope to host you guys as well — your perspective and friendship made my time here that much richer.

Chon Kilnam, Jin Ho Hur, Heewon Kim, HJ Park, Chris Chung, MK Kang, Stuart Brooks and all the other people I interviewed: Thanks for taking time to help me make my research worthwhile. You’ll be hearing from me again soon!

I’ve had a wonderful time here and can easily see why being here is so attractive. It’s easy to make money as an English teacher here, and to save money for a trip/house, or to pay off college loans. I may be back to follow in your footsteps.

I hope to see all of you guys in California soon!

Korean Unification Commercial

By
Cyrus Farivar
 – April 28, 2007, 4:13 pm UTCPosted in: North Korea, South Korea

Aaron‘s wife, Soo Jin, first showed me this commercial in Busan last weekend.

IHT, February 9 2006:


SAN FRANCISCO – The Bush administration is drawing up plans to further tighten the noose around North Korea by barring financial firms investing in Pyongyang from conducting business in the United States. Washington is moving fast to capitalize on Pyongyang’s alleged counterfeit dealings, but so fast that it is omitting a major factor: Korea is reunifying.

At Incheon International Airport in South Korea, flat-screen televisions beam a Samsung cellphone commercial of a concert with South Korea’s pop icon, Lee Hyo Ri, and the North Korean dancer Jo Myung Ae. Korea’s most popular female stars, they sing a song about parted lovers with the lyrics, “Someday we will meet again, although no one knows where we’re going, someday we will meet again, in this very image of us separated.”

As they hold hands, the blue “One Korea” flag rolls down behind them, and as they turn to watch the flag, Lee Hyo Ri says, “That day I was so nervous because the story wasn’t just about the two of us.”

Here was Samsung, one of Korea’s most powerful corporations, popularizing reunification. And the South Korean government was also sending a clear message to all foreigners landing on Korean soil: Reunification is happening, slowly, but surely.

North Korea on the Net and in Movies

By
Cyrus Farivar
 – April 28, 2007, 2:08 am UTCPosted in: North Korea

After having visited the DMZ, I’ve been reading up on some of the weirder aspects and effects of a divided Korea.

Here’s one (Korean-speaking) American’s account of visiting North Korea as a tourist in 2002. Here’s his writings on visiting the same spot on the DMZ that I visited, only from the northern side.

Also these are a few films about North Korea, all of which have now been added to my Netflix queue.

Joint Security Area (2000, South Korea):

“The story begins a few days after two North Korean soldiers are killed in the DMZ. Due to the fragile relationship between the two Koreas a special investigation is conducted by investigators from the two neutral nations Sweden and Switzerland to ensure that this does not trigger a large conflict. The mission is led by Major Sophie (Lee Young Ae), the first female to go into the border area since 1953.”

Seoul Train (2005, US):

“Seoul Train is a 2005 award-winning documentary that deals with the dangerous journeys of North Korean defectors fleeing through or to China. These journeys are both dangerous and daring, since if caught, they face forced repatriation, torture and possible execution.”

A State of Mind (2004, UK):

“A State of Mind is a 2004 documentary film directed by Daniel Gordon. The film follows two North Korean child gymnasts and their families for over eight months during training for the 2003 Pyongyang mass games.”

The Game of Their Lives (2002, UK):

“The Game of Their Lives is a 2002 documentary film directed by Daniel Gordon about the seven surviving members of North Korean national soccer team who participated in the Football World Cup 1966. Its victory over the Italian team propelled the North Korean team into the quarterfinal: it was the first time an Asian squad had advanced so far in a World Cup.

Crossing the Line (2006, UK):

“The film is about US Army defector James Dresnok was directed and produced by British filmmakers Daniel Gordon and Nicholas Bonner, and was shown at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.”

Here (and here‘s part 2) are the 60 Minutes clips about “Crossing the Line”

Standing on Freedom’s Frontier

By
Cyrus Farivar
 – April 27, 2007, 8:26 pm UTCPosted in: South Korea, Travels

I’m not really sure what to make of my trip to the Korean DMZ (De-militarized Zone), and actually standing a few feet inside of North Korea for a few minutes. The best analogy that I can come up with is being taken to a zoo, and watching the lion cage.

You’re impressed at seeing these hulking fierce beasts that you’re led to believe are vicious killers who will stop at nothing to tear you limb from limb. They feed you stories of how the North Koreans kidnap people in the neighboring village of Pamunjon, of how South Korean border soldiers are black belts in taekwondo and wear big intimidating sunglasses, and can’t wear name badges for fear that the North Korean agents will threaten them and/or their family.

After being paraded around the MDL (Military Demarcation Line), you realize that it’s really not that dangerous, given that you rolled up in a giant tour bus, and that there are highly-trained soldiers all around, each armed with at least a pistol and probably a knife, and maybe other hidden weapons. Our US Army tour guide, Sgt. Naumenkov, repeatedly cited his marksmanship as one of the reasons why we’d be safe.

Read the rest of this entry »

Photos from Korea, Round 5 (DMZ Edition)

By
Cyrus Farivar
 – April 27, 2007, 9:55 am UTCPosted in: Photography, South Korea, Travels

Photos from Korea, Round 4

By
Cyrus Farivar
 – April 25, 2007, 6:39 pm UTCPosted in: Photography, South Korea, Travels

Live octopus tentacles!

By
Cyrus Farivar
 – April 25, 2007, 6:13 am UTCPosted in: Food, South Korea, WTF?

Remember those octopus tentacles I mentioned earlier?

I wasn’t kidding.

Ira Glass, on work

By
Cyrus Farivar
 – April 23, 2007, 12:53 am UTCPosted in: Journalism

Ira Glass, November 5th, 2003:

For me, pushing myself is way more about “It’s hard to make something that’s interesting.” It’s really, really hard, and I’m sure we don’t succeed with every story on every show. Basically, anything that anyone makes… It’s like a law of nature, a law of aerodynamics, that anything that’s written or anything that’s created wants to be mediocre. The natural state of all writing is mediocrity. It’s all tending toward mediocrity in the same way that all atoms are sort of dissipating out toward the expanse of the universe. Everything wants to be mediocre, so what it takes to make anything more than mediocre is such a fucking act of will. Anyone who makes something for a living, or even not for a living, if they’re really excited about it… You just have to exert so much will into something for it to be good. That feels exactly the same now as it did the first week of the show. That hasn’t changed at all. That’s the premise of what it takes to make something.

C’mon NYT, you can do better than that

By
Cyrus Farivar
 – April 22, 2007, 6:34 pm UTCPosted in: Journalism, New York City, WTF?

The Grey Lady has just published a piece, in the Fashion section no less, about how (shocker!) people in hipster Brooklyn drink Fair Trade (omg!) coffee! No freakin’ way!

Seriously guys, was it that much of a slow news day?

Amid the wine bars and boutiques that line Fifth Avenue in Park Slope, Jonathan Coulton, 36, a musician wearing black rectangular glasses, was hunched over a laptop at Gorilla Coffee, where a blackboard proclaims all its coffees are fair trade. It “makes you feel like you’re doing something good just by drinking a cup,” he said.

Please. Gag me with some free range non-dairy creamer.

Sunday Night in Daejeon: The Final Week Begins

By
Cyrus Farivar
 – April 22, 2007, 8:40 am UTCPosted in: South Korea, Travels

Well, it’s after midnight here in Daejeon (Slogan: It’s Daejeon) and I’m about to begin my final week here in Korea. I’m back in Daejeon for the third time in as many weeks to interview for at least a third (if not fourth) time, Kilnam Chon, the father of the Internet in Korea.

I don’t have the energy right now to write a whole narrative, so I’ll just give you some snippets of things that I’ve done in the last week:

- Did at least one interview every day
- Watched two baseball games (Lotte Giants [Busan] at Hanwha Eagles [Daejeon] ; Hanwha Eagles at LG Twins [Seoul])
- Ate tons of street food
- Stayed with Nathan and Rachel, who were awesome hosts
- Watched one soccer game (Ulsan at FC Seoul)
- Had dinner and drank way too much makoli with Gary Rector, a childhood friend of James Boyk (David‘s Dad)
- Watched a professional Starcraft match (“eSports“)
- Took the KTX, the Korean bullet train from Seoul to Busan
- Stayed with Aaron Tassano (Becky‘s cousin) and his wife Soo Jin in Busan
- Ate Pyongyang-style noodles
- Fought a giant bottle of makoli with a plastic sword that I found for sale at a Busan supermarket
- Ate more street food
- Watched the Lotte Giants destroy the Hyundai Unicorns [Suwon] in baseball, 9-2
- Ate freshly killed octopus tentacles while they were still squirming from their disembodied torso
- Bought a wooden, hand-carved stamp with my family name laser-etched in Korean on it for $10
- Took the KTX from Busan to Daejeon
- Rode the newly-opened Daejeon subway

I’ll be here in Daejeon until Tuesday, then I head back north to Seoul to finish up. On Friday, I’m doing a tour of the DMZ.

On Sunday, I head home.

Cops seek torturer of Ivy League grad student

By
Cyrus Farivar
 – April 19, 2007, 1:25 pm UTCPosted in: Columbia, New York City, WTF?

AP:

NEW YORK (AP) — It was an ordeal that lasted 19 hours. In that span, a man bound a Columbia University graduate student in her apartment, raped her, doused her with hot water and bleach, slit her eyelids and finally set a fire before fleeing, police said.

Police pressed a manhunt for the assailant in the April 13 attack, with investigators hoping any surviving DNA and a $12,000 reward for information leading to an arrest would produce fresh leads.

The victim, who managed to free herself before the fire spread, was still in the hospital Thursday, police said.

The woman was nearing her degree at the Graduate School of Journalism when the attack occurred at her apartment more than 20 blocks north of the Ivy League campus in upper Manhattan, classmates have said. Dozens paid tribute to her Monday with a candlelight vigil.

[via _wendybird_]

UC Hastings shut down, evacuated in copycat threat

By
Cyrus Farivar
 – April 18, 2007, 6:00 pm UTCPosted in: San Francisco, WTF?

My buddy Nate Cardozo just alerted me that UC Hastings has been evacuated and shut down due to an Internet posting, which might be this one (mirror here):

“Date: April 18th, 2007 1:35 PM

Author: Trustafarian

I went to bed all set for “Bloody Wednesday,” but when I woke — to sun, to flowers in bloom — I just couldn’t bring myself to suit up.

Maybe tomorrow; I hear rain’s in the forecast.”

Korean shooting tragedies: 2007 & 1982

By
Cyrus Farivar
 – April 18, 2007, 6:12 am UTCPosted in: South Korea

I think it goes without saying that this whole incident where the crazed South Korean kid who shot up Virginia Tech is incredibly tragic. My heart goes out to the affected families.

The most fascinating factoid (in a weird way) about this whole incident was pointed out by Michael Hurt, an American living in Seoul:

Then there’s the interesting fact that the record holder for the worst shooting in world history, Woo Bom-gon (우범근), is also Korean, this time a Korean national who lived in Korea. That’s not in the least bit interesting?

. . .

Sound familiar? So the top two spots for shooting sprees in history are now held by two Korean men. Hey – I just find this interesting. Is this information not somewhat relevant to the issue at hand? Don’t know why the Korean media isn’t picking up on this. Or maybe it will? This is another interesting fact to throw in with the others. Even The New York Times had a piece on it back in 1982.

Here’s that piece, in its entirety:

AROUND THE WORLD; South Korean Shootings Lead Minister to Resign
SPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK TIMES
Published: April 29, 1982

President Chun Doo Hwan appointed Ro Tae Woo, a close friend, Home Minister today after Suh Chung Hwa resigned.

Mr. Suh resigned after he took responsibility for the breakdown of security that permitted an eight-hour shooting rampage on Monday by a South Korean policeman, who killed 56 people and wounded 37.

Mr. Chun also named Lee Won Kyong to replace Mr. Roh as Minister of Sport. Park Shin Il, a Government information official, said the resignation of Mr. Suh was ”strictly for taking responsibility” for the killings at Uiryong, 170 miles from here. Woo Bom Kon, the policeman, killed himself after he went on his rampage.

The Government is offering up to $27,000 to each of the families of people killed.

Photos from Korea, Round 3

By
Cyrus Farivar
 – April 16, 2007, 11:14 am UTCPosted in: Photography, South Korea, Travels

Photos from Korea, Round 2

By
Cyrus Farivar
 – April 15, 2007, 8:49 am UTCPosted in: Photography, South Korea, Travels

Sorry I haven’t posted in a few days. I was down in Daejeon for the weekend and am now back in Seoul for the rest of the week. I’ll be here until Friday, when I head down to Busan. I hope to sate you with some photos until I get some writing in. As usual, all photos are here.

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