The documentary film “63 Years On” will be shown at a FREE screening at Jogyesa Temple Theatre on April 11, 2010 from 3:00pm – 5:00pm. The film is in multiple languages with English subtitles only. Speaker and discussion after the film (The film itself is 63 min long).

This is an opportunity for both the Korean and International communities to further engage with the ‘Comfort women’ issue and to support the continuing fight for justice.

In this film, award-winning Korean director Kim Dong Won presents the harrowing experiences of 5 international survivors of Japanese Military Sexual Slavery. The very personal telling of their experiences is matched with excellent research and archival footage to create a powerfully honest, determined, and often heartbreaking documentary. While this gripping film may evoke great sadness and anger, the bravery displayed will truly inspire all who see it.

The House of Sharing International Outreach Team works to raise awareness of the issue of Japanese military sexual slavery and to support the Halmoni in their on-going struggle for historical reconciliation and justice. The team is composed of both foreign and local volunteers who lead visits at the House of Sharing in English, and work to highlight the continuing crimes against humanity in the form of sexual violence during war, experienced to this day by women and children across the world.

This screening provides a window to an episode of Asian and International history which has been willfully ignored by so many for more than 63 years. You are invited to join the House of Sharing and show your support to the survivors who continue the fight for justice.

After the screening, volunteers will lead small group discussions about the film. You will have the opportunity to ask questions, express your opinions or just share your thoughts. Please join us if you can!

***DIRECTIONS TO JOGYESA TEMPLE***
Jogyesa Temple is located in Jongno, on the street behind Insa-dong. You can walk there in a short time from Jonggak Station, or it’s also accessible from Anguk Station (Exit 6).

From Anguk station Exit 6, walk straight & pass the main street to Insadong. Cross the street to reach the temple structure in front of you. The theatre is in the new museum building behind the main temple structure.

CS Lee, the main editor of The Korea Times, and his lackey, Kang Shin-who, are once again using outright fictions to try and stir up trouble for Native English Teachers.

Popular Gusts reports, and includes where and who to call and complain. And complain we should. When Korea Times claims to be a news source, brags about its online success, and all they’re doing is dishing out yellow journalism and tabloid muckracking, we ought to be mad as hell.

To Korea Herald, English Chosun Digital, and especially Joongang Daily (hell, even you, Hani): hey guys.  I’m looking for a new number one to replace The Times, which has been offending and re-offending and annoying me more and more for about two years now… we are waiting for one of you to come up with a layout as easy to navigate as The Times.  Come up with a consistently updated events page and seriously, I’ll never look back!

You may know that ATEK can’t legally fund-raise above a certain limit; however, they can get word out when people need help.

Teachers in need

In this weeks issue we would like to present a special case for your consideration.

Kenneth Hash is an American from Bloomington, Indiana. He is 46 years old and has been in Korea for almost 12 years now. Ken is currently a middle school teacher in Namdae.

I first came to know Ken in August/September of this year while he was hospitalized for a massive leg infection. Ken was unfortunate enough to get an insect bite in August. Within days Ken was in the hospital with a massive leg infection that required several surgeries and still to this day requires weekly treatments. Ken’s hospitalization lasted for almost a month. It should have been longer.

While Ken was hospitalized his school informed him that he: 1) Would be fired if he did not return to work no later than September 11th, 2009; and 2) That he would not be paid for part or all of the time he was hospitalized. The doctors wanted Ken to remain in the hospital until September 18th, 2009 at the earliest. His school then convinced the doctors to release him early so they could put him back to work. Due to this early release Ken’s illness and treatment are still ongoing and he has endured several complications due to not receiving proper levels of care and treatment.

Because of the seriousness of his illness and the treatment methods required Ken’s out of pocket (after insurance) medical bills have surpassed 3,000,000KRW. This has placed a huge burden on him both mentally and financially, which has only been exacerbated by the actions of his school. To pay the expenses for his treatment Ken has been forced to sell everything he owns and to borrow money from his co-teachers just to be allowed to leave the hospital.

Since first becoming acquainted with Ken I have reflected many times on how easily this could have been me, my wife, or one of our friends. It could just as easily have happened to any one of you.
I am asking our membership to reflect on this story and to consider if it were you. I personally think it is incumbent upon us in the foreigner community to support each other when needed. Who else is there! With this in mind I am asking the members of our province to consider donating some funds to assist Ken. Small contributions of 25,000w-50,000w-75,000w-100,000w would go a long way to alleviating this situation for him. Contributions are very easy to do and can be made directly to Ken via direct deposit to his bank account at NongHyup Bank. The account number is 23508952006259. To contribute simply take this information (the name and bank account number) to your bank and ask them to transfer whatever amount you wish to contribute. I did.

I think we all realize that if you expect to receive help in life you must be willing to also give it. I thank you in advance for your consideration. Any inquiries on this matter may be made directly to John Wurth, Gyeonggido Council Chair, at wurthjt. I would like to personally handle any contacts to Ken to avoid unnecessary stress and burden during this time. Thank you for your understanding.

To make things a bit easier, this time, I’d like to get a head start, but I need your help, dear readers.

While last year, we had about a million categories, and it ended up being kind of like a little-league soccer game: “Everybody’s a winner for playing!” this year, we’d like a little more focus — the point is still to find out about the great blogging going on all over the K-blogosphere, but we’re hoping that we don’t end up with those ambiguous or overlapping categories.  And plus, now that the entire Korean blog list got an MP3 player from VANK, it’s sorta been done.  (Though they STILL haven’t sent me my player!  Those fiends!)

So this isn’t the nomination stage, but it IS the suggestion stage and my ears are wide open: which bloggers might I not have heard about?  Which ones should I follow, and know about, in the lead-up to the second Golden Klogs.  Which worthy bloggers deserve more attention in KBlogland than they’ve been getting?  New or veteran blogger suggestions are welcome.

Here are the slimmed-down categories: eleven, down from twenty last year.

The “Best”s

Best news blog

Best analysis blog

Best pop-culture blog

Best food blog

Best travel blog

Best photography blog

Best regional (non-Seoul) blog

Best comedy blog

Best post or series

Best family-based blog

Best newcomer

and, like last year, we’ll have “Story of the year” but since the year isn’t finished yet, we’ll be taking nominations on that later.

So please, weigh in with your nominations, so I can keep an eye on whomever I’ve missed up until now.  Thanks.

As before: feel free to nominate yourself, and the point of this query is to find out the good blogs, not to disparage blogs mentioned by others.  If you don’t like someone’s suggestion, kindly suggest a better alternative, rather than talking smack about someone’s blog.

So here’s what’s reading over at Roboseyo’s house: a lot of interesting stuff, actually.

I have my own thoughts about the numbers focus in Korean megachurches… here’s a BBC write-up on the world’s largest church: Yeouido Full Gospel Church.  I have a friend who goes there — heck, everyone in Korea probably does — meanwhile, Not Dead Yet takes an interesting look at the shamanistic footprints that remain in modern Korean Christianity, as much as modern Korean Christians would deny it.

Winston Churchill once called Canada “The lynchpin of the English speaking world” because it bridged the differences between England and the USA.  Is Korea heading for a similar mediary role between China and US?  New world order coming?

Before taking that kind of a world-prominent role, Korea could bone up its soft power, for example, do something about the fact it ranks last in helping poor countries. Northern European countries topped the list. (more here)

Another reason to like Kim Yu-na.

In other news: Korea keeps talking about being committed to an “open society for foreigners” – bringing talented foreigners to Korea… while showing no commitment to making things better for many of the foreigners who are already living here.

However, 90% of Korean women have thought about plastic surgery…  I still find it unsettling how often I’ve been reading about medical tourism lately (it was in the previous link as well) Let’s not forget, “Beauty Industry Could Create the Next Korean Wave”

Travel

Where to find Fall colors in Korea.

A Geek In Korea has discovered the most gorgeous garden he’s seen in Korea.

If you’re considering a new line of work, cross traveling salesperson in China off your list.

Some countries have inaugurations for transfers of power. Others affect the transfer by writing songs.  (All hail Kim Jong-un.. being trained in brinkmanship, getting something for nothing, and holding his population hostage as we speak.)  The song’s called Footsteps.  If the final line is “It was then that I carried you,” I’m gonna throw up.

Culture

After a k-pop dry spell, is indie music in Korea finally gaining a new foothold?

On standardized testing in Korea: “The only skills that the students develop from studying are the skills to successfully take these tests.”

A look at the legacy of Park Chung-hee, who, as of Monday, has been dead for 30 years

Business

Backed by President Lee, Korea is a major player in the growing Car Battery technology race, pretty much neck-and-neck with Japan.

The conclusion:

Needless to say, a government that spouts rhetoric about becoming a multicultural society but through its inaction (and its action of crackdowns) keeps a quarter of its foreign population living in a terror of the police and immigration agents similar to that felt by citizens and student activists back in the days of Yushin and the fifth republic probably should drop that ‘multicultural’ rhetoric.

Plus, it includes a video from a rock band made of migrant workers who sing about their situation, called Stop Crackdown. Now go read it.

I’ve written before, and stand by it, that we E2 and English teachers ought to support the other migrant workers in Korea however we can: we have miles more in common than what separates us, and the more we can back each other up, the better things will be for all of us.

The little girl who was sickeningly violated, Na-yeong, has been the flashpoint for a lot of this discussion.

Meanwhile, Matt at Popular Gusts continues to do awesome research work about the actual rate of English teacher crime…and has appeared in The Korea Herald for it.

The Huffington Post has reported on Andrea Vandom’s story about refusing to take the HIV test for Korean Immigration.  “Infected, Detected and Rejected in South Korea”

Another nice editorial from the Joongang (doing a good job — if the website were better formatted, this would be a good time to try and take over The Korea Times’ place as an expat online news source) — let’s get the violence out of protests.

And finally, in the Irony section, The Korea Times’ oft-criticized reporter Kang Shin-who was tagged to write up ATEK’s refutation of Lee Gun-hyeon’s warnings about “Serious” English teacher crimes.  This article was based on the same ATEK press release published in full at The Chosun Bimbo.  It’s ironic, because Kang has been as guilty as anyone of promulgating distortions about English teachers, and now he’s reporting about similar distortions from other sources.

Last of all, I don’t know what to make of this article, except that its calculating tone as it discusses spreading Korea’s brand through plastic surgery and beauty culture — even establishing a “Korean wave” of Korean beauty ideals… is a weird and slightly disturbing mix of the typical Korea “World Domination” promotion we expats love to mock, a cynical breakdown of the money to be made by exploiting people’s dissatisfaction with their appearance, and a strange distancing from the intrusiveness and extremity of cosmetic surgery to improve looks, approaching procedures where surgeons take knives and move around parts of our bodies, as dryly as if we were just buying a more expensive handbag than the neighbor on the other side.

2S2 got off to a good start last weekend; more on that later.

Happy Reading, Hubsters.

(Seoul, South Korea)— The Association for Teachers of English in Korea (ATEK) is making an official statement regarding the allegedly serious issue of crimes committed by foreigner English teachers.

According to a Yonhap news story on September 24 Korean National Assembly member Lee Gun-hyeon stated, “Native speaking English teacher crime [is] serious’”1.  Lee Gun-hyeon is a member of the National Assembly’s Council of Education, Science and Technology.

Representative Lee also claimed the issue was escalating and that,”recent crimes by foreign English teachers are causing the anxiety of students and parents to grow”.

However, with the same statistics Lee Gun-hyeon himself use, Dann Gaymer, Atek’s new communications director, debunks that increasing threat (with an assist from Matt, of Popular Gusts:

according to the figures presented by representative Lee the crime rate for foreign English teachers was 0.50% in 2008, with the 99 arrests being a mere fraction of the 34,108 arrests made throughout the whole foreign community. While the crime rate for the foreign teaching community was only a tiny part of the crimes committed by the whole foreign population of Korea, in turn they were responsible for an even more miniscule fraction of the total crimes committed, by both foreigners and Koreans. To put it in perspective in the case of 2007 the foreign English teacher crime rate (0.64%) was more than five times less than the crime rate among Koreans (3.5%) in 20074 and half the rate of other foreigners.

The full press release can be read at The Chosun Bimbo. Thanks, ATEK, Dann, and Matt, for your work in putting this out there.

Seriously?  “Ask a Korean friend or colleague” for help if you want to order tickets over the phone?  Seriously?

More at FeetmanSeoul, who reported last year as well that Seoul Fashion Week is making a weak effort at creating a fashion week worthy to run with the big boys in Milan, Paris and ButWe’reComparingOurselvesToTokyo.

Weak sauce, Seoul Fashion Weak.  Pun intended.