Yelena Shin of Kazakhstan speaks during a Korean speech contest organized by Ewha Woman’s University in Seoul on Oct. 6, 2014. Shin won the grand prize. (Photo courtesy of Ewha Woman’s University) (Yonhap)
Did anyone in Korea get any good pictures of the eclipse?
Total Eclipse begins: Oct 8 at 7:27 PM Total moon eclipse starts – completely red moon.
Maximum Eclipse: Oct 8 at 7:55 PM Moon is closest to the center of the shadow.
Total Eclipse ends: Oct 8 at 8:22 PM [Via Korea Noodles]
If this guy wants to see real racism he should travel to North Korea:
A U.N. special rapporteur on racism and discrimination on Monday recommended that South Korea ratify the international convention on protecting rights of migrant workers, saying that there are “serious problems” of racial discrimination in the country.
Mutuma Ruteere, U.N. special rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, is in Seoul to do research on situations involving racial discrimination, marking his first visit to South Korea. He has met with officials from the government and civic groups during his eight-day stay.
Ruteere said that South Korea has made “important progress” in addressing the issue of racism and xenophobia, given its history of ethnic and cultural homogeneity.
The country, however, now confronts “emerging challenges” due to an influx of foreigners and migrant workers who are contributing to social change and a shift from a migrant-sending country to a migration destination. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but there is going to be incidents where migrant workers are going to exploited especially if they are illegal immigrants. Fortunately conditions are much better for immigrants in Korea compared to a decade ago. For example the conditions the juicy girls in the villes used to live in were horrible compared to today. If the UN is so concerned about racism in Korea than the best thing they could do is advocate against illegal immigration which allows unscrupulous employers to exploit workers.
Via a reader tip comes this story about a man in Korea trying to commit insurance fraud by running at a car and bashing his head into the windshield. Unfortunately for him the driver had a dashcam installed:
When he reaches the car, he leaps onto the hood in a superhero-esque dive and bashes his head into the windscreen.
The glass smashes and the man collapses onto the road.
It appears the opportunist was attempting to get some sort of payout for his efforts, earning him the label of an ‘insurance scammer’ in the video description.
The bizarre act was caught on a video camera mounted on the dashboard of the car.
Insurance fraud is a growing problem in South Korea. According to a recent study from the Insurance Research Centre, an average of 156 people are caught in car insurance fraud schemes in South Korea every day, with the amount of money involved totalling KRW1.18 trillion (AU$1.8 billion) over the last five years. [Daily Mail]
You can read more and see the video of this incident at the link. According to this Insurance Research Center link on average 156 people are caught a day trying to commit insurance fraud in South Korea. For those driving in South Korea it appears installing a dashcam is a good idea.
Foreigners compete in a Hangul (Korean alphabet) writing contest organized by Yonsei University Korean Language Institute at the private university in western Seoul on Oct. 6, 2014. (Yonhap)
Unless the Korean government wants to become like China and start banning foreign websites cracking down on Internet rumor mongers will never work:
South Korea’s president is cracking down on rumors in cyberspace in a campaign that threatens the popularity of Kakao Talk, the leading social media service in a country with ambitions to become a global technology leader.
Prosecutors announced the crackdown two weeks ago after President Park Geun-hye complained about insults directed at her and said false rumors “divided the society.”
That rattled users of Kakao Talk, a smartphone-based messaging app used by 35 million of South Korea’s 50 million people. It prompted a surge of interest in a previously little-known German competitor, Telegram.
Rankey.com, a research firm, said an estimated 610,000 South Korean smartphone users visited Telegram on Wednesday, a 40-fold increase over Sept. 14, before the crackdown was announced. The company said its estimate was based on a randomly selected group of 60,000 people it follows regularly.
On Friday, Telegram was the most downloaded free app in Apple’s App Store in South Korea. On Google Inc.’s store, Telegram was the No. 2 downloaded free communications app, behind only Kakao Talk.
South Korean users left reviews on Telegram saying they left Kakao Talk to seek “asylum.” They asked Telegram to add a Korean language service. [Associated Press]
You can read more at the link.
It appears that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) are reaching deep into their playbook to put down the Hong Kong protests. Instead of the world media seeing pictures of protesters being beaten by security forces the CCP has instead outsourced the beat down to organized crime syndicates:
Pro-democracy demonstrations in two of Hong Kong’s most crowded shopping districts came under attack on Friday from unidentified men who assaulted protesters and tore down their encampments, after a week of erratic and unsuccessful attempts by the Beijing-backed government to end the protests.
The protesters said the attackers were pro-government gangs, and several protest groups called off planned negotiations with the government in response.
Crowds of residents, fed up with the inconveniences of the protests, had cheered on the attacks on the camps.
On Saturday morning, a police spokesman said 19 men, including eight with links to organized crime syndicates, or triads, had been arrested in connection with the violence in one of the districts, Mong Kok, according to Radio Television Hong Kong.
The police also said that at least 18 people had been injured in the violence, including six police officers…….
They shoved and punched protesters, sometimes kicking them after they fell. Others grabbed the scaffolding of canopies and pulled them down until the tents collapsed . Residents said the police were outnumbered and slow to react, and hours passed before reinforcements arrived to protect the protesters from a hostile crowd.
Some threw cans and plastic bottles at the protesters; others spit at them. One protester was led away bleeding from his head as angry residents pressed forward, hurling insults and threats. Another was rushed out on a stretcher, an oxygen mask on his face. Several protesters said the attackers groped and sexually harassed female protesters, and Amnesty International alleged that police officers watched and did nothing. [New York Times]
You can read more at the link, but long time ROK Drop readers may remember that the Chinese government used this same tactic in Korea when the Chinese Embassy organized and bussed in Chinese students in Korea to attack and beat Free Tibet activists who showed up to protest the 2008 Olympic Torch Relay in Seoul. The Chinese government sponsored mob attacked Koreans and other foreigners at the protest:
Some of the Free Tibet activists tried to run into the Plaza Hotel in downtown Seoul to escape the mob and the Chinese thugs followed them and beat them in the middle of the hotel:
Could you imagine what the reaction in Korea would be if a bunch of GIs ran amok in Seoul beat down Koreans like this? Well the reaction from the Korean government was to deport some of the Chinese thugs and tighten visa rules. There was no demands for an official apology from the Chinese government or removal of the Chinese ambassador from Korea.
Since this strategy worked so well in Seoul the CCP probably thinks it will work in Hong Kong as well which they are probably right about. I do not see the CCP backing down from their decision to remove democracy from Hong Kong and will use their hired thugs to wear down the protesters.
Via a reader tip comes news that many nations are unhappy with what they believe is cheating that is going on at the Asian Games in favor of host South Korea:
The 2014 Asian Games ends Oct. 4, Saturday in Incheon, South Korea and it appears to close on a low as rampant cheating allegations have been levied against hosts. Fans of different athletes and teams from other Asian nations are up in arms online and elsewhere for questionable and controversial results in the quadrennial event with most outcomes favouring South Korea.
The most blatant alleged cheating happened in the sport of boxing involving women fighters from India (Sarita Devi) and South Korea (Park Jina).
The South Korean won the semifinal match in the lightweight division despite the Indian boxer dominating the fight. Devi made his stand during the medal awarding ceremony refusing to receive the bronze medal and even giving it to the Korean.
“It was a protest for all the sportsmen and women of the world against injustice in sport. There should be fair play in sport,” the Indian boxer Devi said to the press about her actions at the podium.
Aside from the India vs. South Korea controversy, other countries like Mongolia, Philippines, Thailand and a few other countries felt slighted by the results in some other matches although there were no formal protests filed. [International Business Times]
You can read more at the link, but it seems hosts being able to cheat during international competitions has become standard practice now a days.
You would think that Koreans would have learned from the US housing market crash where eased mortgage lending was a major factor in the crisis and not to replicate the same conditions in Korea. However, just like in the US it appears political expediency is more important than sound financial judgment:
South Korea recently relaxed restrictions on mortgage lending to jump-start its housing market. While it’s too early to judge the impact, there have been some initial signs that sales are picking up.
The move has also made some economists nervous about already high household debt levels turning critical. South Korea’s household debt has more than doubled over the last decade to almost $1 trillion. The debt-to-disposable-income ratio in South Korea of over 160% is much higher than that of the U.S., Germany, France and the U.K.
Among those worried about the ever increasing amount of borrowing is South Korean lawmaker Park Won-seok of the opposition Justice Party. Mr. Park recently released data from the Financial Supervisory Service showing how Koreans use money they have borrowed in the form of mortgage loans.
Out of the total 67 trillion won ($63 billion) in mortgage loans made during the first seven months of this year, 32 trillion won, or just under half was used for purposes other than home buying.
According to Mr. Park, the pattern of mortgage loan usage is a concern because eased lending rules will encourage Koreans to take on more borrowing for things like living expenses, business costs and education. That will likely make those living on borrowed money even more vulnerable to falling into a debt trap of borrowing to keep repaying debt in an unsustainable way. [Wall Street Journal]
You can read more at the link, but it is pretty amazing that almost half of the mortgages are not even for home purchases.
