A good month for Korean cars and Japanese cars not named Toyota

An article in the Orange County Register today was talking up the great month that the Orange County-based automakers had in March. Hmm... OC-based automakers... that would include Hyundai (in Fountain Valley) and Kia (in Irvine), I thought. But no, I had forgotten that Mazda (Irvine), Mitsubishi (Cypress), and Suzuki (Brea) are all based in the Big Orange. From the OCR:

Several automakers with U.S. headquarters in Orange County followed the upward sales trend led by Ford, GM and Toyota in March, with four out of five of the local companies reporting positive gains from the period a year ago.

Last month turned out to be the best March on record for Fountain Valley-based Hyundai Motor America, which reported strong sales of its new Sonata sedan and Tucson SUV. The automaker reported total sales of 47,002, a 15.4 percent increase compared with last year. The automaker also reported its best-ever first quarter, with year-to-date sales of 111,509 vehicles, an increase of 16.3 percent over last year.

Kia Motors America, based in Irvine, also announced its best March ever, with 30,522 car sales last month, a 23.5 percent increase from the same period a year ago. Like Hyundai, Kia also reported its best first-quarter ever, with 76,696 sales through March 31, an increase of 11.3 percent over last year.

Mazda North American Operations, also based in Irvine, reported March sales of 23,193, a 5.5 percent increase vs. March 2009, and its fifth straight month of sales increases. Its top selling car by far was the Mazda3, which accounted for 11,353 sales.

Mitsubishi Motors North America, in Cypress, reported March sales of 5,434, a 17.6 percent increase from a year ago. The March sales month was the automaker’s strongest since August.

American Suzuki Motor Corp., based in Brea, was the only major O.C.-based automaker to report a decline in March sales. Suzuki reported sales of 2,246 for the month, a 72 percent decrease from March 2009.

Isuzu Motors America also used to be headquartered in Orange County (Anaheim), but their car sales are now gone. Too bad, really, as they were pioneers in the SUV. My Honda Passport, in fact, is a Honda-branded Isuzu Trooper, I think. Made in Indiana.

[above: 여기 주차하면 안 돼!]

English teacher in Pusan reportedly commits suicide

The Korea Times is reporting that a thirty-five-year-old teacher, identified only by his family name of Kim, is believed to have killed himself in the southeastern city of Pusan:

A Korean-Canadian, who worked in Busan as a native English teacher, was found dead in an apparent suicide, police said Thursday.

Police said the teacher identified by his surname Kim, was found hanging at home near Haeundae, a scenic beach in the nation's second largest city, at 5:20 p.m. Wednesday. The head of a private language institute where the 35-year-old Canadian worked first reported it to police.

He told them that he found the teacher hanging in the living room when he visited the apartment, as the teacher missed work and did not respond to repeated phone calls, Wednesday.

"We believe it's a suicide because no signs of foul play were found on the body," a detective familiar with the case said. "But we will continue to investigate to find the exact cause of death."

I have no idea who this person is, but these kinds of stories always just break my heart. Of course, in the general population of South Koreans, suicide is at epidemic levels, with the notion of killing oneself as a means to escape having reached the status of normative behavior, even to the point of being considered brave and courageous.

While there certainly are personal hazards in South Korea for anglophones and other international residents, including actual deaths due to fires, drownings, car accidents, and other situations, suicide among the expatriate population is not so commonly heard. The death in China of Shawn Matthews, a well-known blogger who had once lived and blogged in Korea, is a case that sticks out in my mind. There may be others and we just simply don't hear about them.

And this brings up that age-old question of what we anglophones in South Korea can do if we ourselves are feeling depressed, suicidal, or just simply emotionally distraught over our lives or some event, or if we know someone else who is feeling this way. Back in 2006, I wrote this comment about that very topic:

I think you may be right, but whether the number is higher, about the same, or even lower than with the same group “back home,” I think getting help is not just a matter of stigma, but also of access to someone here (in Korea; perhaps in China and Japan, too) who can properly diagnose you and then properly treat you.

Even if an international resident might be able to cut through the stigma that Korean-Koreans often can’t, the question is: who can you go to who will know that it’s bipolar disorder that you’ve got? Among the things possibly in play, there’s a language barrier, a cultural barrier, plus a knowledge barrier (frankly, since psychiatric doctors have so few cases to work with — particularly non-native Korean-speaking patients — they might not always see the signs).

I really didn’t read Shawn’s blog more than once or twice, so I don’t know if he sought treatment or not, but I know of people with serious problems who sought help and were eventually told, “Oh, this is just the stress of being in a new culture,” or “Give it time, and you’ll get over him/her.” Needless to say, it didn’t always help, and it certainly wasn’t what was needed.

A lot of people assume that with so many suicides in South Korea that there must not be a lot of mental health resources. In my opinion, the opposite is true: there are loads of resources but they are underutilized. This is something even psychiatrists themselves (people I meet in my own public health research) have told me.

Simply put, the stigma is just too great; ironically, that shame is greater than suicide itself in all too many cases. And that disgrace and dishonor extends not just to the individual, but to the family as well. A new national narrative must be put out there that most problems people face are actually quite manageable.

I'm not sure how much the stigma extends to those living in Korea who did not grow up here. Many Koreans from overseas, especially 1.5 and second generation kyopo, hold some of the same dysfunctional views on mental health stigma that their Korea-born and -raised counterparts do. Some non-Koreans living in Korea may also find themselves subject to the same social strictures that prevent the majority population from getting help.

But even if one were to overcome such stigma, where are the resources? In Seoul there used to be a counseling center associated with the Lutheran Church in Hannam-dong, but it was a bit costly. I imagine the various international clinics can put patients in touch with Korean psychologists and psychiatrists, but will the language barrier prove a barrier to treatment? Are there English-fluent mental health professionals and other counselors who can help out anglophones and other foreign residents?

I encourage my readers to share their ideas here. Maybe at some point we can make a FAQ, if one does not already exist. And for the love of God, if you are feeling any kind of depression or suicidal feelings, please talk to someone, even if it's not a mental health professional. The expat community is full of caring individuals who will bend over backward to help someone in need, and there is no shortage of Koreans who are also willing to do the same. And please, if you suspect a friend, colleague, or relative of having such dark thoughts, please go talk to them.

Requiescat in pace, Mr Kim. It's too late for you to seek help and I'm very sorry you felt you could not escape whatever demons you faced, but I hope at least your own death can provide a wake-up call to others.

UPDATE (February 23, 2011):
In the wake of another English teacher's apparent suicide in Pusan, ATEK is putting the word out about how to get help.

Daily Kor for April 2, 2010

The public is getting antsy as we still don't know much more than we did one, two, three days ago. The sad news, of course, is that time and hope are running very out, and the chance of finding survivors is very low at this point. But it's good that the president and his advisors are trying to take this slow and careful, because when and if this turns out to have involved North Korea, we want to have all our i's dotted and our t's crossed.

1. President Lee says there must be "no suspicion or negligence" in investigation of sinking of Cheonan, saying country's credibility is at stake (BBC, AFP) 
• ROK government insists it did not detect North Korean submarine around time of explosion (Korea Herald, Joongang Daily)
• Impatience in South Korea deepens over slow progress (Christian Science Monitor)
• South Korea resumes search for missing sailors (Yonhap)
• Obama offers help to find cause of sinking (Korea Times, Joongang Daily)
• Chosun Ilbo says suspicion of North Korean involvement among military experts is mounting (Chosun Ilbo)
2. Police in Changwon arrest two suspected terrorists from Pakistan who entered country illegally (Yonhap)
3. North Korean economics professor tells Associated Press "no social disorder" followed currency revaluation which reportedly led to chaos across DPRK (AP via WaPo, AP video)
4. Hyundai Motor's March sales up 36 percent from a year earlier (Reuters via WaPo, Bloomberg)
5. KRW rises to ten-week high on exports (Bloomberg)
6. Government ethics committee reports President Lee's personal wealth dropped 30.7 billion won to 4.9 billion won year after he donated 90 percent of wealth to scholarship foundation (Yonhap)
7. South Korean housing prices up for the twelfth straight month (Reuters)
8. Education authorities in South Kyŏngsang Province admit Italian Village immersion program was abject failure (Yonhap)

Loose change for April 2, 2010

 Economic and business news 

• Hyundai is finally selling its hybrid Sonata in the US, and it gets better gas mileage than its Toyota and Ford counterparts.
• Taiwanese companies will launch some notepad computers to compete with the iPad.
• With government incentives, the Nissan Leaf may really be an affordable all-electric vehicle and not just a loss leader for the Japanese automaker.

 North Korea news and stuff 

• North Korea is threatening to freeze the inter-Korean reunion facility at Kŭmgangsan, saying it's part of the tourism resources there.
• Disgraced and executed DPRK technocrat Pak Namgi has been edited out of government newsreels in North Korea.

 Other Korea-related stuff 

• Reuters has a "factbox" on the political risks South Korea faces, and not just the ones from up north.

 Americana and miscellany 

• Some movers and shakers talk about whether the iPad — to be released tomorrow — will be da bomb or just bomb. 
• Joe Pak, a Korean-American immigrant from Orange County who had polio as a child, has been appointed to the fifteen-member National Council on Disability.
• An Audi is going to be raced up to the top of Pike's Peak, totally robotic and without a driver.
• Controversy over an Obama statue, in Indonesia.
• The Newport Beach Film Festival will feature a few Korean movies. 

Hyundai to sell $50,000 iPad, with a free Equus thrown in

The Detroit Free Press reports that when the Hyundai Equus (still not changing that name, eh?) is sold in the US later this, instead of an owner's manual, the buyers of this high-end Hyundai will get an iPad equipped with software that schedules regular maintenance.

Smirkily, this is what they say about the maker of the Accent's attempts to get into the luxury car biz:

For the past few years, the South Korean automaker has telegraphed that it was raring to take on the high end of the market, setting Korean-edition Equus on the New York show just to gauge reactions.

The rear-wheel-drive V8 sedan matches the dimensions and power outputs of the Lexus LS460 and Mercedes S550. The Mercedes costs $91,000, the Lexus about $65,000, while Hyundai promises a sticker for the Korean-built Equus somewhere between $50,000 and $60,000.

For that, Hyundai promises new horizons in luxotech geekery, including enough heated/cooled massaging seats that it might be illegal in some jurisdictions to park an Equus near a church. In place of an owner’s manual, Hyundai will instead give each Equus owner an Apple iPad with software to schedule dealer pickup and dropoff for service calls.

It’s a bit of a reach for an automaker that offers the compact Accent for under $10,000, and other automakers have failed in similar attempts to get luxury prices for a mainstream brand.

But U.S. sales chief John Krafcik said Hyundai would only seek to sell 1,000 to 3,000 Equus sedans in the first year, a number that he said would allow Hyundai to pamper the Equus owners – a way to separate them from the folks shopping cheap Accents or Elantra.

“It will allow us to do things for Equus owners that Lexus can’t do, just because there are too many,” Krafcik said, adding “it’s a whole different customer experience where you never have to show up at a dealer.”

If this works, the Chungs may end up being a household name.

Korea demography reader (April 1, 2010 edition)

• The ROK government is eyeing helping 4500 South Koreans get jobs overseas.

• How the average Korean spends their twenty-four hours each day.

• Though on average they earn slightly more, nearly two-thirds of all teen workers — a group composed of 195,000 young people — are receiving less than the minimum wage of 4000 won per hour. 

• The government has announced a third batch of "sweet homes" for lower-income families to be built in and around Seoul.

• Back in the US of A, native-born Californians (that would include me) have regained majority status.

Kick-Ass won't kick any ass in South Korea

It looks like the profanity-filled and comically violent adaptation of "Kick-Ass" has been banned in South Korea because it's just too offensive:

Matthew Vaughn’s comic book adaptation has come under much criticism for its profanities, specifically the c word from the 11 year old hit-girl character played by Chloe Mortez. However Vaughn defended the film from such criticism by saying he has yet to receive a single complaint, but it now appears that the films stream of bad language and particularly the violence of Hit-Girl has caused South Korean officials to ban the film from its cinema screens.

South Korea has a history of banning offensive films – only last year the poster for Park Chan-wook’s Thirst was banned, and they have previously banned films including Kubricks A Clockwork Orange, horror thriller Scream and Apocalypse Now.

A Clockwork Orange? Apocalypse Now? When someone says someone "has a history" of doing something (like banning offensive films), I'm imagining that they do it a lot or regularly; I'm not imagining that you have to actually go back into history to find an example. Orange and Now were from the Park Chunghee era (the latter just barely), some three or four decades ago.

Anyway, as one of those prudes who thinks movies and TV have pushed the envelope too far when it comes to pushing envelopes, I'm glad the authorities are still willing to say "Whoa!" to a film every now and then.

Korea public health reader (April 1, 2010 edition)

• Kangbuk Samsung Hospital, in conjunction with Johns Hopkins Hospital of the United States, will open South Korea's largest medical examination center, capable of seeing three hundred patients a day.

• The Seoul Metropolitan government has selected fifty hospitals that will be used in the promotion of health tourism.

• Sex offenders convicted before 2008 will retroactively be required to wear ankle monitors.

• The Seoul Metropolitan government will step up inspections of all eateries — including restaurants, bars, and I think street vendors — to at least once a year.

• As new H1N1 infections fade, South Korea has reduced the flu alert warning system to its lowest level.

• Democrats are saying that universal mandates for healthcare coverage were a Republican idea, some two decades ago, even though they now call it "government overreach."

• At the same time, however, many of the arguments of the past, including cries of socialism and loss of freedom, were offered up back when Medicare was first proposed. And expect the Tea Partyers to keep saying that over and over again, like this past weekend.

• Most people — 97.5 percent in fact — can't safely drive while talking on the phone. Of course, many will think they are in the top 2.5 percent.

• Extra padding around the middle can hurt, not help, during traffic accidents.

• India's own problem with suicides.

Daily Kor for April 1, 2010

I did not know, but I guess I'm not surprised, that no South Korean president has ever visited the waters around South Korea's northwestern islands, including Paengnyŏngdo. As I've written before, North Korea does not recognize the Northern Limit Line, even as South Korea enforces the de facto maritime border, and so a national leader venturing outside North Korea's defined corridors to get to those islands (which North Korea does not dispute, insofar as it recognizes South Korean control over any part of Korea) is asking for trouble. The beaches and sea cliffs on Paengnyŏngdo are reportedly quite beautiful, but not worth the risk.

And now we're wondering if Kim Jong-il will finally head to Beijing, as was speculated early in March. I wonder what Beijing would say to the Dear Leader in regards to the sinking of the Chonan. If North Korea was behind this, it was an act of war, and if South Korea can make a convincing case, Beijing will be placed in an awkward position.

1. President Lee goes to site of Chonan sinking, making him first ROK head-of-state to visit disputed West Coast waters near North Korea (NYT)
• Poor weather conditions halt search operations (Yonhap, BBC, Xinhua, Korea Herald)
• Intelligence reportedly shows that North Korean submarine left base before Chonan sank (Chosun Ilbo)
2. Blue House says North Korean leader Kim Jong-il likely to visit Beijing soon (AFP, Yonhap, Bloomberg, Korea Times, Joongang Daily)
• US State Department hopes visit will revive six-party nuclear talks (Yonhap)
• Vice Unification Minister implores North Korea to "act rationally" to improve North-South relations and to improve investment (Yonhap)
3. Chairman for South Korea's 2022 World Cup bid offers to hold some matches in North Korea (Reuters)
4. South Korea's industrial output grows 19.1 percent in February (Yonhap)
5. Samsung Life seeks $4.5 billion in South Korea's record largest IPO (Reuters)
6. Gregorian refuseniks celebrate New Years Day (AFP)

Loose change for April 1, 2010

 Economic and business news 

• The US Trade Representative said that lopsided beef and automobile imports will somehow have to be addressed before KORUS FTA ratification.
• South Korean factory output was more than double previous estimates in February, thanks to improved orders of computer chips and automobiles. 
• Air Canada and Asiana Airlines are going to build a strategic alliance.

 North Korea news and stuff 

• Global markets will likely ignore any regime change in North Korea.
• Bloomberg has a nice article on the use of illegal cell phones in North Korea.
• The Guardian says that North Korea is a dangerous anachronism that can only be reformed at China's bidding.

 Other Korea-related stuff 

• Kang Shinwho of the Korea Times goes after grade inflation at SKY universities (Seoul National, Korea, and Yonsei). I wonder if any disgruntled English teachers who loathe Mr Kang for his articles on their cohorts and profession will cite his work now that it's critical of South Koreans.
• The government is going to exclude blood donation and financial contributions from consideration as "volunteer work," a move that is likely to affect high schoolers needing to meet volunteer work requirements.
• The Jeonju International Film Festival (JIFF) in Chŏnju has announced its lineup, opening with the romantic comedy Should Have Kissed and focusing on up-and-coming South American directors.
• KBS1 has garnered a prestigious Peabody Award for the documentary "Noodle Road" about that staple of Asian cuisine.
• South Korea's FIFA ranking moves up four notches to #49.
• Foreign investors will be able to fast-track their way through Immigration at South Korea's airports.

 Americana and miscellany 

• The Korea Times reports that Korean brands are descending on the US "in droves." I've already seen this with Kyochon, but I wonder if Americans will recognize that Tous Les Jours is Korean, not French. 

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Big changes on Monster Island

As you may have noticed, this blog is now automatically redirected to its new name domain, monster-island.net. This is one of several major changes coming into effect at the beginning of the 2010-11 fiscal year. Allow me to explain.

As some of you already know, the Ministry of Culture & Information and the Korea Tourism Organization have been jointly subsidizing my blogging efforts for the past five years, part of an effort by the Korean government to offset the generally negative impression generated about South Korea elsewhere in the K-blogosphere.

This has been a wonderful gig: I got paid a decent amount of money to trawl the Internet for happy, fuzzy stories about which to blog while taking my online persona to other blogs and countering false, misleading, or overly negative writings about Korea. This pay — 95만원 per week, hence the handle kushibo — helped pay for my education, my mortgage, and a brand-new Mini Cooper when I arrived in Hawaii.

But now the gig is up. For a variety of reasons, the MoCI and the KTO have decided not to renew my five-year contract, citing three major reasons in particular. First, the weakened economy means less money for experimental projects, and I have lost out to a promotional campaign that brings Nobel Peace laureates and Pulitzer Prize winners to Tokto. Second, there was a growing perception that most of the viewers of K-blogs were English teachers who were going to form negative views of Korea no matter what rosy things were written on blogs like mine, so the effort was "inefficacious."

And finally, it didn't help that my post ridiculing uber-patriots who want to scrap the Korea spelling in favor of Corea — written solely to throw off those people who might suspect a clandestine financial arrangement like the one I had made — has been the second most viewed post in the entire English-language K-blogosphere for the past three years.

So it was abruptly last week, after several emails sent from my end inquiring about contract renewal, that I received the call that the funding wouldn't be there for the coming year. But then they added insult to injury: the KNTO felt that they might be able to find someone else to do my job more quickly and cheaply in the future, so they forced me to relinquish the Kushibo name, a brand I had developed on my own. Indeed, before even telling me I was fired, they'd already posted a job listing on Dave's ESL for a cultural blogger to replace me, and they've threatened a lawsuit if I keep using that handle.

Fortunately I never signed any documents related to the Monster Island name, which was actually added as a joke in 2006, hence the new domain. And since I still control the passwords for the kushibo. blogspot.com address, I've been able to redirect traffic to here, at least for the time being. But in the future if you encounter a blog at kushibo.co.kr or kushibo.go.kr, please realize it's a fake and treat it as such. Anybody posting as "kushibo" will also be fake, as from now on I plan to use my actual name, Spot Miller, in all my blogging.

But now there is the problem of payment. A sudden deficit of W950K per week is a gaping hole to fill in tough times like these, but I have some ideas. There will be more ads, of course, but I'm also planning to make this a by-subscription site. I have an average of about 400 to 420 daily readers, and 950K won works out to W4.1 million won per month, so if each of my regular readers paid 10,000 won per month, then there'll be no loss of income and I can continue to provide information and humor without interruption.

In fact, it would be even better humor because I wouldn't have to kiss anyone's pasty arse by saying nice things about the Ministry of Knowledge Economy (who the fu¢k's drinking binge churned out that name?!). I can promise more posts, more information, more cutting-edge humor, and yes, Tokto porn.

Oh yeah, you read that last one right. I had suggested in 2007 that risqué pictures featuring Tokto as a backdrop or a theme would lead to numerous hits, but I was shot down by Lee Hanu himself, that prudish Moonie who was the real force behind my ouster.

But now I'm free! Free-falling, as it were.

For now the blog will remain subscription-free for the next thirty days, but starting on May 1, it will look a lot like the Wall Street Journal site, where most of the items will have one line only. And it won't be the best line, I'll tell you that.

In the meantime, however, please feel free to donate money to the cause. Here's the link. I don't really buy lattes with it: I buy groceries, gasoline, and plane tickets to see my ailing uncle. I don't even have enough money for beer or gambling. And if it weren't for a steady supply of girls whose low self-esteem is constantly triggered by all the half-naked women running around Oahu, I wouldn't even be able to afford to date.

I'm sorry things have worked out this way, but come on, isn't it worth just 333 won per day — less than the cost of buying a Nigerian orphan a cup of coffee — to keep viewing the Daily Kor, Loose Change, Person on the Street, and the occasional K-pop celebrity soft-core? Wouldn't your life be a miserable hell hole without it? I know mine would.

"Strange Japan"

"M" from Kansai sent me this. It's kinda interesting. One wonders what a Korean version might include. One thing's for sure, it would include a lot more Japanese references than this one included Korean references.