Massive Typhoon Bolaven batters South Korea

In the US, the big weather news is Hurricane Isaac postponing the Republican National Convention in Tampa and possibly hitting Louisiana on the seventh anniversary of Hurricane Katrina hitting New Orleans (with damage to earthquake-reeling Haiti a secondary concern). The message is clear: Run as fast as you can from anything named Isaac.

But out in Asia, Typhoon Bolaven is wreaking havoc, first on Okinawa and now the Koreas (while Typhoon Tembin battered Taiwan). The above picture from BBC of a brick building having been felled on Wando Island by the typhoon has me scratching my head (not to mention that it turns the entire premise of The Three Little Pigs on its head).

The typhoon has reportedly ripped apart Chinese fishing boats off Korean waters near Cheju-do Island, leading to at least five deaths there and three deaths on the mainland. The above photo shows other Chinese vessels riding out the storm.

The capital region is apparently being spared the typhoon's hardest blows, but expect a lot of rain, wind, and slippery or flooded roads with idiot drivers. Ironically, bad weather like typhoons on Korean roads can actually reduce deaths because traffic jams force drivers to go slowly, whereas California drivers tend to speed up when conditions are bad so they can get out of the inclement weather more quickly.

So folks, stay dry and warm. Enjoy nature's display from your apartment window.

Large waves off Pusan

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CSM on ROK naval base on Chejudo

The Christian Science Monitor has a report on the major confrontations occurring on Cheju-do, over the ROK military's plans to build a naval base there that will allow South Korea to project its growing naval power to the region and perhaps strengthen its alliance with the US and even Japan.

If you're a regular reader, you already know my thoughts.

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Gloria Steinem wants to save Cheju-do

Kushibo's note: I'm not so sure if the graffiti goes hand in hand
with the idea of environmental preservation.

Gloria Steinem actually has visited subtropical Cheju-do, the southernmost province of South Korea and the only island province (insert "Korea's Hawaii" remarks here), and she is bent of preserving it by making the world aware of local residents' efforts to block construction of a ROK Navy base there:

Residents of Gangjeong [Kangjŏng], the village that is to be home to this base, have been living in tents along the endangered coastline, trying to stave off the dredging and bulldozing. In a vote several years ago at a village meeting, residents overwhelming opposed the base.

They’ve tried to block construction with lawsuits and pleas for a proper environmental impact study. They’ve been fined, beaten, arrested and imprisoned. They’ve gone on hunger strikes, chained themselves to anything available, invited tourists in to see what’s at stake, established Web sites and won support from global peace organizations. Members of the “no base” campaign, including children, camp out along the shore behind high walls erected around the site to conceal the protests. Police officers patrol outside. This has been going on for more than four years.

Okay, while she may have a legitimate argument about the environment and human rights involved, it was her laughable geopolitical reasoning that compelled me to write. She states simply — no, over-simplistically — that "China and South Korea have positive relations at the moment." Yup, as if peace for the moment means we can completely let down our guard.

China and South Korea have positive relations for now, but that doesn't mean that China is not slowly putting out its feelers for weak points where it can grab land, territorial waters, etc., etc., including on the Korean Peninsula. South Korea needs to be able to protect itself, with or without its strong US ally. It also needs, sometimes, to project itself, perhaps by sending out ROK Navy boats to protect South Korean ships and the ships of its allies (and sometimes its enemies, as its done against pirates off the coast of Africa).

In short, South Korea needs its naval base. Now, whether or not it should go right there is another question, and certainly one would hope for as little environmental impact as possible. But "things are hunky-dory with China" right now should not be part of the argument.

The rest of the article, by the way, is worth a read if you're not familiar with Cheju-do's horrible history in the years between liberation from Japan and the start of the Korean War. There's a reason why leftist former President Roh Moohyun was compelled to go to Cheju-do and apologize for past acts of the ROK government and declare Korea's Oahu (that's my description) an Island of Peace.

The Big Ko-tuna

Oh, look. He's waving at us.

Someone off Cheju-do caught a huge frickin'-ass tuna.

From the Joongang Daily:

Chefs yesterday lift a giant bluefin tuna to divide into pieces at a tuna restaurant in Chonggak, central Seoul. The tuna, which weighed 350 kilograms (772 pounds) and measured 270 centimeters (8 feet 10 inches) long, was caught off the shores of Cheju Island.

Frankly, I wouldn't want to eat any of that thing. Something that big has been around for a long time and has probably consumed high amounts of stuff you don't want in your system. In fact, if they don't nickname him "The Big Ko-Tuna," I vote they call him Freddie Mercury.

LAT on Chejudo's (actually Marado's) female divers

John Glionna of the Los Angeles Times has an article on a perennial favorite of the Western media (and South Korean tourism authorities): the haenyŏ (해녀/海女, literally sea women) of the southern island province of Chejudo and its outlying islands.

It is a familiar narrative of an almost matriarchal culture where women have enjoyed a much higher status than their mainland counterparts:

Like six generations of women before her on this treeless speck of land in the East China Sea, the young mother of two is preparing for a dangerous job no man here is allowed to perform: free-diving for minutes at a time to catch abalone and other shellfish.

Kim is learning to join the ranks of the haenyeo, or women of the sea, whose role as ocean hunter-gatherers has long given them special status in a Korean culture dominated by men. These women on a group of islands south of the South Korean mainland have turned tradition on its head.

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For decades, divers here have groomed their daughters for a life at sea. They teach them how to conserve oxygen to extend their dives and stress the importance of working in groups, like a herd of watchful seals, vigilant against shark attacks, rip currents and marauding motorboats that buzz the surface.

The diving, with its daily hazards and emphasis on teamwork, has molded the women into a cohesive group that has often gathered by the campfire with the day's catch to make decisions about village politics.

I haven't been to southern Chejudo in a few years, and I recall the women looking a bit older than Ms Kim pictured above. It would be nice to know that a younger generation is carrying on this iconic tradition (and making decent money off it).