See you again.

Well, Hines Ward is gone now. All we can do is wait and see how much the new-found enthusiasm toward diversity sticks, if at all.


In honor of his departure, here is my one Hines Ward encounter (sort of). While visiting Ewha University Tongdaemun Hospital, I encountered a banner that said this:

Hines Ward, This is the hospital where you had your beginning.
We are very proud of you.
하인즈 워드, 당신이 태어난 병원입니다. 당신이 자랑스럽습니다.

In fact, I saw the same banner in two different places. They were determined that he would see it. I wonder if St. Mary's Hospital in Long Beach will ever put up such banners if I make the big time.

While in Pusan, I did happen to catch a TV show focusing on Hines Ward. He seemed very friendly and nice, a really good guy. The man is a devoted son, a hard worker, a good father, and a genuine charmer. All things Koreans have been (indirectly) taught for so long were less likely in a child of mixed heritage, particularly those of Black parentage. As I said before, the problem is ignorance, not malice. And Hines Ward—and his outspoken mother—are shaking the unfounded beliefs of the ignorant to the core.

Koraegogi (whale meat)

One thing I forgot to mention in my Haeundae post... while down in Pusan at the Japanese eatery we went to last night, one of the items on the menu was koraegogi, whale meat. 20,000 won (about US$20) for I'm not sure how many pieces.

While I am always tempted to try new things for the sake of trying them (thus my horrific encounter with pŏndegi, or silkworm larvae, when I was a teen), social responsibility takes hold in cases like this and I give it a pass.

While I would love to be able to say I've tried the stuff so that I can include my own perceptions as part of an argument one way or the other, I know that consuming it will be creating demand for more whale meat down the road, even if just in small increments. And given how I feel about the unnecessary and cruel killing of God's intelligent creatures, that would be an inappropriate thing to do. "Trying it" creates demand; and the purveyors of whale meat are trying to jump-start demand by getting people to re-acquire this acquired taste.

I feel similarly about dog meat, a matter where The Marmot and I part company. Unless it can be demonstrated to me that the dogs were not treated cruelly during the time fo their death, transport, or being raised, I will not partake in any kaegogi. This point was underscored for me last month while on Expressway 25, between Kwangju (Gwangju) and Ch'ŏnan (Cheonan).

There I saw a typical flat-bed Porter-style small truck, the back filled with cages which were also piled three-high. Each cage was literally stuffed with live dogs, with so little room they could barely move. Many of the more than one hundred dogs had their faces and/or bodies pressed against the metal mesh of the cage they were in.

To make matters worse, these creatures were completely exposed to the elements as they were being whisked along at 120 kph in freezing weather. I only wish I had a working camera nearby so I could have documented this horrific treatment.

This is like the argument against eating veal: if this is what is required to bring the meat of these creatures to the table, then I want no part. And frankly, I think the current consumption of the animals themselves perpetuates such cruelty.


[above photo: The dogs here are in a situation much like I just described, except that there were three tiers of cages, not just two as in this photo. Also, the dogs were a little smaller than these, so most cages appeared to have three dogs in them, not just two.]

Thoughts on the KTX

As a postmortem to my recent trip to Pusan, here are some thoughts. 

1. Don't wait until the last minute on the last day of a weekend or holiday to buy a KTX ticket (or any other railway service) for a train headed back to Seoul.

2. If you do wait until the last minute, be prepared for the inevitability that they will tell you Maejin! (sold out). Anticipating this, go to a ticket counter staffed by a person of a different gender than yourself and ask with puppy dog eyes* if there isn't some way you can get back home. Look as desperate as possible (emphasis: desperate, not desperado, which will backfire). This can get the person not your gender to head to the backroom to get that one ticket that was cancelled and that they've been holding just for the right case**.

3. Avoid getting a seat facing backward (half the seat on the KTX face backward so that they won't have to turn the half-kilometer-long trains around, which would have required knocking down a lot of buildings in both downtown Seoul and downtown Pusan). In a few people susceptible to motion sickness, the backward-facing seats can trigger queasiness.

4. Right now the two-hour-and-fifty-minute ride from Seoul to Pusan or back is perfect for watching an entire movie on DVD, giving you enough time to settle in to your seat and also allow time for potty breaks. Once the Taegu-to-Pusan leg of the KTX is finally completed, allowing the breakneck 300-kph from Seoul to Taegu to continue all the way to the Korea Strait, travel time will be reduced enough that your movie options will be limited to Disney flicks and sequels to action films.

5. Each car on the train has a monitor in the middle which will tell you the train's speed when it's over at 250 kph. When it hits 300 kph, you will be tempted to look out the window and remark how it doesn't really look like you're going that fast, after which you will try to fixate on certain points and use some form of one-Mississippi, two-Mississippi to verify or refute the speed appearing on the monitor. This is a good way to get very dizzy. Instead, bring a portable GPS device and press it against the window to verify your velocity.

*If you've never utilized puppy dog eyes to get something you want, practice in the mirror first. If rather than looking endearingly desperate, you look you are heavily medicated and about to vomit, scrap the puppy dog look in favor of yelling loudly in a foreign language. A properly staged "scene" involving shouting in English has been known to be effective, even if it engenders residual resentment toward whatever nationality your are (American citizens: this is when you wear a Maple Leaf somewhere on your person), but that's the problem of whomever comes after you.

Also, try to avoid using words like "fuck" and "shit," since people with poor English skills might mistake these well-known obscenities as profanity directed at them. Example: you might say, "How could I be so fucking stupid?!" but it may be interpreted as, "Hakeidblo chrintikiho FUCK YOU!" Similarly, "Sometimes my brain is as worthless as shit" can be heard as, "Your country is so full of shit." This will not help you get a ticket.

**True story. Happens a lot.

Live from Haeundae

I'm here in Haeundae on the 239th leg of my Starbucks Korea Tour 2006. This time, I'm sipping a chai latte, having just downed a muffin-like entity called "coconut-green tea bread."

Unless I'm willing to take out a second mortgage or sign papers agreeing to donate a kidney, there's no restaurant serving a breakfasty-breakfast (i.e., a Western-style breakfast that includes eggs in some form other than a McDonald's "egg burger") that I can afford. The Marriot and the Westin have something, but I believe the cost is comparable to one year of an Ivy League education.

So I came for a caffeine infusion, saw the bread, and asked if it was any good. This is how the conversation (in Korean) went down:

ME: Does the coconut-green tea bread taste all right?

STARBUCKS PARTNER: It's part of the the well-being trend.

ME: Um...

STARBUCKS PARTNER: It contains green tea.

Now, anyone who has learned the Korean language knows that a lot of things are implicit, so some information is not spoken or stated directly. This can be confusing to the non-fluent Korean speaker as well as to native Korean speakers themselves. What I did not know is that "it's part of the well-being trend" implied anything about the deliciousness or a lack of deliciousness. Ditto with the information about it containing green tea.

Anyway, I bought it. And it was delicious. But it was probably the coconut that made it delicious, not the green tea or the well-being trend.

So now I am sitting on the second floor of Starbucks, admiring the view of the ocean. Space Nakji tells me that the capital is immersed in a thick cloud of yellow dust, but down here it is pretty clear. There's a little haze on the horizon, but I can see the outline of rocky islets (not Tokto or Taemado) and ships that are miles away. The horizon where the East Sea/Sea of Japan meets the sky is almost a clear line.

So, no, there is no hwangsa cloud that makes the air as thick as kyŏja.

My plans to visit Taemado/Tsushima have been foiled, primarily because if I had taken off for the island this morning, I wouldn't have been able to return to Pusan until tomorrow evening. A no-no if I intend to remain gainfully employed.

I will have to try again some other time, now that I know a 'day trip" is out. It's only 130,000 won, but a few of the locals here have told me it's a very nice place to visit.

So today I will be head off for Pŏmŏsa Temple (please, NAKL advocates, tell me how "Beomeosa" with its extraneous E's renders "범어사" better than "Pŏmŏsa"), with its inviting bamboo groves up on the cool hill. I've been advised not to head out to Chinhae, since half of Pusan will be doing the same.

I had copious amounts of fruity-flavored "traditional" alcohol last night with past co-workers who also came down for the wedding. We were in a Japanese-style drinking establishment, of which it seems there are even more in Pusan than up in Seoul. Pusan in general always seems to me to more Japan-oriented than Seoul, with the hair styles, the eclectic clothing styles, the bouncy dialect, and some other things. The typical Pusanite even seems closer in height to the typical Japanese than to the typical Seoulite.

As I was also telling Space Nakji, a day of doing nothing in Pusan is still a day well spent. If I lived in Pusan, I could sit in this Starbucks all day staring at the ocean, typing away doing my work, blogging, or emailing people back in California or somewhere else. I think it's the California boy in me: I am drawn to the ocean. And Haeundae has been getting nicer and nicer. There is a veritable boardwalk of sorts, the buildings around it have gotten nicer, and there's fun stuff to do around here even when the water is too cold for swimming. Just a walk along the sand is pleasant enough.

I have a love-hate relationship with Seoul (mostly love, but some things frustrate me), but I think Pusan is my favorite of Korea's big cities. All told, though, I would rather live on Cheju-do, or at least somewhere along the East Sea somewhere between Kangnŭng (Gangneung) and P'ohang.

So be jealous for me that I'm here and you're not. It won't last long, though: I'll take the last KTX* back up tonight, then walk past a few homeless on my way from Seoul Station to my apartment, from which, if reports are correct, I won't be able to see Seoul Tower on Namsan, just outside my window.

* The KTX never ceases to amaze me: sit down for a few hours and you end up on the other end of the country. It's really exhilarating. It is also very cool (for me) that at any time I can just walk to Seoul Station (five to ten minutes) and just go up and get a ticket "for the next train, whatever time that is") and be zipped away to faraway provinces.

(not in) the Da Vinci mode

The Chosun Ilbo reports that conservative Christians in Korea are teaming up to block the release of Ron Howard's film version of Dan Brown's controversial (but admittedly, highly entertaining) the DaVinci Code.

The Christian Council of Korea (CCK) went so far as to formally ask the Seoul District Court for a provisional disposition to bar Sony Pictures, the film's Korean distributor, from releasing the film, which is scheduled for a worldwide release in May. In a press release, they the CCK had this to say:

We cannot help but have deep concern that the film may disparage and insult the divinity of Jesus Christ and the truths told in the Bible...
The movie will severely infringe on individual's religious beliefs and will be an obstacle to the Christian Church's missionary work...
The film is based on a conspiracy that the church attempted to hide the fact that Jesus Christ's children are alive, and did not hesitate to kill people to protect their disclosure...
The film will incite even greater conflict and chaos than the novel -- to Christians and non-Christians alike -- as it makes people believe that a fictional tale is historical fact.

Unlike, I guess, most of the people supporting the ban, I have actually read the book. First off, "the church" that is being criticized is not a Protestant entity but rather the Roman Catholic Church. The Protestants come off squeaky clean. I suppose the Catholic Church might be represented by the CCK, but I suspect it is mostly an evangelical Protestant entity.

Second, the divinity of Christ (or anyone sharing his blood) is not called into question. In fact, it is in some ways a celebration of the holiness of Jesus. Certainly no one is going to watch the movie and think they need to resist missionaries bringing medical care, building schools, digging wells, or offering counseling.

Of course, it might be easier for me to accept the movie as a film because I already have unconventional attitudes about my own Christian faith. To be blunt, I reject the teachings of Paul as, at best, mere dictates for the church's of his day, or at worst, an attempt to subvert the holy teachings of Christ about love, forgiveness, and tolerance as a way to understanding the nature of God.

And gosh darnit, you should listen to me, because I'm an ordained minister. I should start my own church or something, focusing on the gospels and the books written by people who knew Jesus in person; none of Paul's letters.

Then again, maybe the problem is also that some of the CCK members are closeted gays. I mean, how could they not just adore Audrey Tautou, who is eminently adorable (when I start my own Girl Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday series, she will probably be the inaugural pin-up). I have it on good authority that Tom Hanks, Alfred Molina, and Ian McKellan just don't do it for homosexual men the way Audrey Tautou does it for heterosexual men.

At any rate, I think the freedom of speech (of those who made the film and want to distribute it) should trump the rights not to be offended (by those with a narrow idea of what it means to be Christian). Unless they can prove that Christ did none of the things said in the book (which are not bad things, incidentally, just not things that keep with the Roman Catholic Church's sex-hating theory of His life), the movie about a fictional interpretation of Jesus and the Church should be shown.

If the CCK is as successful as similar groups have been in the past, that means "The DaVinci Code" will hit Korean theaters in 2020: back in 1988 conservative Christians prevented the release of the controversial Martin Scorsese film "The Last Temptation of Christ," but it was eventually rleased fourteen years later, in 2002.

UPDATE:
It appears the attempts to bar release of the film have been unsuccessful. The movie is scheduled to open on the same date as elsewhere in the civilized world. At the COEX, in fact, the movie is being widely promoted, along the lines of the last Star Wars release.

Thinking really different

Back when Windows95 came out, there was a joke floating around among Mac users:

Windows95 = Macintosh87

For years Apple has stood as an alternative to Microsoft. But Macs rarely rose to more than the high single digits among PC users, with fears that essential programs couldn't be run on a Mac holding back would-be buyers.

Only belatedly did Apple, taking advantage of the fact that Microsoft itself started making software capable of producing cross-format files at the behest of Steve Jobs, start pointing out to prospective Mac users how easy it would be to make the switch.

Well, that just got even easier: Apple said Wednesday that it would offer users of its latest models a simple way to run the Microsoft Windows operating system as well as Mac OS, a free program called "BootCamp" to be distributed with Panther, version 10.5 of Mac OS.

As the New York Times reports, that means a single Apple computer will run programs written for either the Mac or Windows, though it will have to shut down one system to start the other. Apple says it is not planning to sell or service Windows, but is offering this as an enhancement to Mac users and an enticement to would-be Mac buyers currently using Windows.

BootCamp is now available as a download, provided you are running 10.4.6 or later and have 10 GB of space to use. My nearly five-year-old Mac is running 10.3, though my recently upgraded hard drive (now 80 GB) could handle the new software.

This all works because Steve Jobs broke away from his alliance with IBM and reworked Macintoshes to run on advanced Intel* microprocessors. And thus ended another long-time favorite Mac user joke about PCs: while pointing to the "Intel Inside" written on most PCs, say: "Warning label."

For me, there are very few reasons to run Windows. Well, only one, really: HWP, Hangul Word Processor. There is a Mac version, but it is from 1997 and goes painfully slow. The Windows versions are from last year, and zippy on a PC. A lot of the Korean side of the work I do is with HWP files sent by Korean writers who don't realize that Microsoft Word is just as good—if not better—than HWP for most Korean and English writing.

In fact, at this apartment-cum-office, I broke down and added a PC to the array of three Macintoshes already here just to use HWP.

And of course, this isn't just advantageous to Mac users who need one or two PC programs; now Windows users can realize the joy of owning a computer that doesn't break down and crash all the time.

Yeah, I still have Macintosh religion.

* The same Intel that uses images hinting at soft interracial lesbian librarian porn to hock its wares.

"Bush authorized leaks"

According to former aide to VP Dick Cheney I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who is facing charges related to the disclosure of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity, President Bush peronally authorized the leaking of classified information to deflect Iraq war critics at a time when declining public support for the invasion threatened his reelection campaign. This is the first time Bush has been connected to this scandal that has mostly hurt Cheney.

To be fair, Libby is not the most credible of sources, and the Los Angeles Times reports that such a leak is probably legal:

Experts in national security law say a decision by President Bush to authorize the leak of classified information to a reporter probably would not be illegal.

But if Bush did so — as a former top White House aide has testified he did — there could be significant damage to the credibility of a president who has repeatedly and publicly expressed his abhorrence of leaks.

The LAT reminds us that Bush repeatedly has deplored leaks and has maintained an appearance of distance throughout the CIA leak investigation, telling reporters in 2003: "I don't know of anybody in my administration who leaked classified information. If somebody did leak classified information, I'd like to know it, and we'll take the appropriate action."

The court filings suggest that Bush and Cheney were intimately involved in the decision to selectively leak classified information to reporters, without the knowledge of even then-national security advisor Condoleezza Rice.

Make of this what you will. If you listen, you can hear Al Franken typing the a new chapter for his next book right now.

North Koreans bring South Korea and Japan together (sort of)

A Japanese government report has concluded that the husband of Megumi Yokota, a Japanese national kidnapped by North Korean agents in 1977 when she was just thirteen, was not a North Korean agent as Pyongyang had claimed.

Rather, her husband was a South Korean who was also abducted by the North [update to story found here]. Megumi Yokota's tragic life reportedly ended when she committed suicide in 1994. Identification of her remains turned into a major sore point in Japan after Pyongyang admitted having kidnapped her and said they were sending back her remains, but a lab in Japan said they were not Ms. Yokota's. Her now elderly parents and her two adult younger brothers, not to mention millions in Japan, hold out hope that Ms. Yokota might actually still be alive.

The Japanese government obtained DNA samples from Kim Hyegyong, Ms. Yokota's daughter, during an interview in Pyongyang in 2002. Japan also collected DNA samples from the relatives of five South Korean men allegedly abducted by North Korea to see if any of them matched the DNA of Yokota's daughter.

The Japanese government reportedly is discussing with South Korea when they will make a formal announcement of their findings. I wouldn't be surprised in the least if the Roh administration tries to downplay this or ignore it, for fear of upsetting Pyongyang. However, to be fair, previous administrations and regimes in Seoul really were no more proactive on the issue of abducted ROK citizens either.

우리끼리 우리 아닌 사람들 (Alternate title: Sounds better than Plan A)

I don't know if "Foreigners Day" was Plan A, a mistranslation, or what, but if the Dong-a Ilbo is correct, the new name is a lot better.

"Cultural Diversity Day."

With Korean-African-American NFL football star Hines Ward's visit, the Korean media is abuzz with how shitty life can be for people in Korea with a mixed heritage. This has morphed into a larger discussion of how the hundreds of thousands of "foreigners" living in Korea are often treated in a less than stellar way.

Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward has sparked great interest in biracial people among Koreans. But not every biracial person is as lucky as Ward. Korea has more than 700,000 registered non-Korean residents.

Reflecting this reality, the Korean government is considering designating a "Cultural Diversity Day"� to encourage the nation to be more embracing of non-Korean residents.

The Ministry of Justice began work on establishing such a day and intends to announce the day in May or June, after the appropriate consultations.

The intentions sounds good. Immigration Bureau Director Kang Myeong-deuk says the day, according to the article, "is an opportunity to raise people's awareness of issues regarding foreign residents living in Korea, whose number is expected to surpass one million by 2010."

I have never been comfortable with the "foreigner" designation, and one might notice I usually write the word in quotes if I use it at all. "Foreign" implies strangeness. The words in Korean and Japanese, oegugin and gaijin, respectively, imply outsider status. Maybe not just imply such a status, but reinforce it. I seem to recall that, back in the 1990s, CNN even decided to do away with that term in favor of constructions with "international" in them.

Is someone a stranger or an outsider after being in Korea for twenty years or more, like Father Norbert Tracy and the late John Harvey of Sogang University? Is someone a foreigner after learning the language, buying a home, establishing a career, and starting a family with a local national? Are kyopo less "foreign" than non-Asians, just because of their appearance? Are mixed people who were born in Korea, raised in Korea, speak Korean fluently or near fluently, somehow "foreign"?

I would submit, not really at all. The absence of a green card-type designation for so long only served to artifically enforce a distinction that had ceased to exist long ago—or never actually existed in the first place.

At any rate, "cultural diversity" has a much better ring. It is inclusive. The average Korean might not think he or she has anything to do with "foreigners," but dammit, we're ALL a part of this increasingly diverse culture. "Cultural diversity" is for everyone here.

And I find this encouraging. In a country of 50 million people, there are assholes to be found for sure. But I have faith that the average Korean who holds negative views toward "foreigners" or toward diversity is doing so out of ignorance, not malice or animosity (with notable exceptions to be sure, often involving misogynistic attitudes of "our women").

The average Korean does not know of the immigration woes most foreign nationals face. Because of deliberate or accidental misinformation in the ignorant or agenda-driven media, many Koreans think that English-speaking nationals have a cake-walk when it comes to immigration issues. That contrasts sharply with what they've heard or experienced with getting into countries like the United States for a visit to Disneyland.

The problem is that what they hear is so often wrong, distorted, or only half the picture. And for this, I blame not the media consumer but the media producers. I've said this many times before, but if only half of what the agenda-driven media outlets said was true, it would still be reason for outrage. Fortunately there is greater and greater savvy among many (but certainly not all) media consumers, and the attempts to demonize "others" often falls flat on its face, or at the very least doesn't resonate quite so well as the agenda-planners had hoped.

Koreans learn that diversity equals serious social problems. Many fail to grasp that it is often the rejection and marginalizing of those who are bringing the diversity that is what brings the serious social problems.

Hines Ward's mother speaking out is only the latest in a string of incidents where the average Korean's cognitive dissonance is rattled. I have faith that it will lead to better things. My faith is based on all the changes I've seen since living in Korea as a teenager in the 1980s. Of course, that faith is coupled with the realization that there's still so far to go.

The Ministry of Justice has cited Australia's National Harmony Day� as a good example for Korea to model its day after.

In Australia, not only the government but also private organizations and educational institutions are active in holding various academic forum and events to promote harmony between the locals and foreign residents. We hope the same thing will happen in Korea with the introduction of foreigners� day.

Koreans need education on the matter. There are numerous outlets willing to provide it, once they get religion themselves.

"Cultural Diversity Day" in Korea...ten years ago if I had predicted this, I would have been laughed of Kexpat.

Off to Pusan, and possibly Taemado/Tsushima

But before I go, I want to say that I admire Hines Ward and especially his mother, Mayor Lee Myungbak looks greasy there with them, and I think calling any holiday "Foreigner's Day" is a bad idea from the start.

When I get back, I shall report on whether or not Korean cell phones really do work on Taemado/Tsushima Island (I think whoever told me that might have been thinking of Tokto/Takeshima).

I do have some other thoughts on the Hines Ward discussion, both within Korean circles and within the English-speaking Korea-related blogosphere, but I would offend too many people with what I have to say, and then the rest of what I have to say would end up alienating many of those I didn't manage to offend.

You can't please everyone, but here is a case where I would probably please no one.

Though not necessarily what I was going to say, I do like what Space Nakji had to say here and here.

Extradition now

UPDATE (September 18, 2010):
Hyundai settled with the Cook family.


UPDATE (January 30, 2009)
The Los Angeles Times reports that 41-year-old Lee Youn-bum is being extradited to California from Seoul for causing the death of Cook and then fleeing the country to escape charges. He is to be escorted today by US Marshals to face felony charges in Orange County. (hat tip to Wangkon936)

UPDATE (May 23, 2007)

It was reported today that authorities in California have issued an arrest warrant for Hyundai executive Lee Youn Bum, who is apparently now in South Korea with his family. Last month, Orange County prosecutors charged Lee in absentia with three felonies in the Ryan Dallas Cook's death: gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated; driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs with injuray; and hit-and-run with injury or death.

Furthermore, Cook's relatives, perhaps taking my advice, plan to file a wrongful-death lawsuit today against Hyundai America and several employees (including Lee) for what they consider to have been a cover-up and attempts to thwart the investigation.

More power to them.

UPDATE/CORRECTION TO ORIGINAL POST (April 2006):
After following KNBC's link to the original story, I realized that the accident did not occur in Los Angeles, as the recent KNBC link suggests and as The Marmot wrote. Rather, it occurred some fifty miles away in Orange County, not far from my alma mater UCI on a stretch of highway I have driven over hundreds of times.

The accident occurred along the Costa Mesa Freeway (California Highway 55), southbound north of MacArthur Boulevard, close to Orange County Airport and South Coast Plaza. This is, even without any traffic, a good hour from LAX.

This makes a difference to me because, when I thought the accident had occurred in Los Angeles, I could see (though certainly not excuse) someone flying out in a panic, but that long drive from Orange County out to LAX adds lends more time for the perpetrator and his aider(s) and abettor(s) of crime to think about this. In other words, this makes it even more atrocious.

In hindsight, it makes more sense that this would have occurred in Orange County, since Hyundai America's headquarters are there, not Los Angeles, and there are plenty of drinking establishments in Garden Grove, where OC's well-established but unofficial Koreatown is located.

ORIGINAL POST (April 2006):
The Marmot has written up a post about a Hyundai employee who, last October, drank himself into a stupor while in Los Angeles, drove his car onto the freeway, apparently started heading toward the center divider at a 45-degree angle, and slowed or stopped there—late at night with no lights on—long enough for a motorcyclist who didn't see the black-colored vehicle to crash into it. According to local news, the motorcylist fell onto the roadway and was run over by three other vehicles, and the driver of the dark-color Hyundai SUV continued south. The motorcyclist, or course, was killed in the process. An Orange County Register report says that the Hyundai SUV involved in the accident "fled the scene" and was found later.

At left is a picture of the victim, a musician named Ryan Dallas Cook who was part of a ska revivalist band called "Surburban Legend." He was twenty-three years old when he died.

The Hyundai employee then, apparently with the help of some other employee(s) of Hyundai America, fled to South Korea. It is in the news right now because the victim's family only recently discovered the person's identiy.

The identity is clear from the local NBC affiliate station's piece The Marmot linked to, but The Marmot did the Korean journalist thing and only included the alleged perpetrator's family name, Lee.

Well, since I'm a Californian, I read about this in a California news site, the crime was committed in California, and since I'm thoroughly disgusted that someone would drink eight shots of soju and then drive, and THEN his colleague(s) would help him evade responsibility for the death of a person, I will include his name.

He is Lee Youn Bum (이연범). I don't know if this is the same person, but there is an 이연범 who apparently is/was the 과장 for the 총괄인사팀. This is a matter of public record easily obtainable from a simple Google search. Maybe someone can email him at bumlee@hyundai-motor.com and see if he knows anything about this (there very well could be several 이연범-named people at Hyundai, so it wouldn't be prudent to jump the gun about this).

I'm going to contact some of my barrister relations in California to see if they could help the family of this victim find justice. The appropriate Mr. Lee of Hyundai should be extradited (vehicular manslaughter, felony hit-and-run, and driving under the influence, all pending charges against him, are jailable offenses on both sides of the Pacific) and brought to justice.

As someone mentioned at Marmot's Hole, maybe threatening to sue Hyundai America might get the ball rolling. Besides using a lawsuit as leverage, Hyundai America deserves to be sued if its drinking culture led to this incident. Come on, EIGHT shots of soju and then getting in a car? Whiskey, tango, fuck!

While we're at it, let's sue Seoul-Oak Restaurant, which let the guy get into a car after serving him the soju. Surely they bear some legal responsibility.

It is abominable that the drinking culture in Korea—already a hazard to lives in the ROK—is being brought over to the streets of North America (or other places). I have no sympathy for drunk drivers, none at all. I have been hit twice by drunk drivers in Seoul, while driving of course. In at least one case, had the guy not hit my car, it's very likely he would have hit a pedestrian, quite possibly a child.

A KoKo friend of mine worked as a CPA for a major American firm in Los Angeles that happened to hire a lot of Korean CPAs (those on H-1 visas supposedly worked harder and cheaper than people with green cards or citizenship). Every now and then they would go out drinking, and they would engage in the drink-until-you can't-see-straight behavior common in Korean colleges and corporations.

Well, one other woman began to pass out while they were all at a noraebang in L.A. Koreatown. My friend noticed what seemed like shallow breathing, but she wasn't sure. She asked some of her sŏnbae ('senior') if the passed-out hubae ('junior') seemed all right. She actually got barked at that she was ruining the punwigi (mood/atmosphere) of the party. After a couple minutes, still nagged by concern for the passed-out friend, she decided to call 911.

According to my accountant friend, the call saved the woman's life. She was rushed to a nearby hospital and her stomach was pumped. The E/R doctor told them that if they had waited another twenty minutes, the friend might have died of alcohol poisoning. Her blood alcohol level was stratospheric, having downed all these "one-shot" drinks, egged on (without any real choice without being ostracized) by her supposed friends.

It's tragic that so many people in Korea really can't feel like they're having a good time unless they're shit-faced. Okay, fine, some people have to go and drink, but when it adversely affects others, it goes beyond being a personal choice. And when people who wish to abstain or just have that one beer or only one shot are brow-beaten and coerced into drinking more and more and more, then it borders on being criminal.

Find Mr. Lee. Extradite him now. Teach corporate Korea a lesson that deadly drunken behavior will be dealt with harshly. In Korea, inebriation may be a get-out-of-jail card, but in California it sure as hell is not.

구미호 가족, now filming in Kushibo's hood

This movie, entitled "구미호 가족" (Kumiho Kajok, the sly old fox's family?) and scheduled for release in October 2006, is right now filming on the street just outside my apartment building. It stars the people you see above.

The Korean movie sites list the film as "comedy and horror," which is pretty much the way I feel about this neighborhood.

One thing that is (usually) cool about living in Seoul is how easy it is to encounter famous people. Not just here in central Seoul, but even in outlying areas, where I've also seen movies and TV shows being filmed/taped from time to time. I've also seen some rather famous people just walking about in Insa-dong, Itaewon, and of course Kangnam.

I've also had a greater chance to meet certain Americans, as well, including former President Bill Clinton and former superstar Britney Spears. The latter is dumb as dirt, but I still wouldn't push her out of bed.

Pirates and poachers?

The Somali clan that captured a South Korean tuna-fishing vessel off the coast of Somalia has denied they are pirates, saying instead that they are protecting Somalia's coast (something the dissolved Somali government, lacking a coast guard and navy since 1991, has not been able to do) from illegal fishing.

A spokesman for the militia group that captured the boat said this by two-way radio:

We are not pirates, but we are patriots who stood up to defend our sea resources from those taking advantage of their country's lack of central government and coastal guards.

According to South Korea's Foreign Ministry, the 361-ton 628 Dongwon was seized Tuesday afternoon by eight armed men who approached in two speedboats firing guns. It has twenty-five crew members: eight South Koreans, nine Indonesians, five Vietnamese, and three Chinese, all currently being held captive.

South Korean authorities dispute the militants' contentions, saying the boat was in international waters and was taken to Somalia's waters after it was seized.

Piracy off the coast of Somalia increased from two cases in 2004 to thirty-five cases in 2005. In an incident on March 18, two U.S. Navy ships exchanged gunfire with suspected pirates, killing one and wounding five. At that time as well, Somalis involved in that incident claimed they were patrolling Somali waters to stop illegal fishing when the U.S. ships fired on them.

A spokesman for the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet in Bahrain, said U.S. and Dutch ships, responding to pleas from two other South Korean vessels nearby, tried to intercept the ship as it headed toward Somalian waters, firing warning shots in its direction. However, the spokesman said the Americans called off the operation when some of the South Korean crew were seen on deck with guns pointed at them.

UPDATE:
In a long overdue update tothis story, all twenty-five crew members of the Dongwon-ho #628, a 351-ton Korean tuna ship, have been released after 117 days in captivity.

Amazingly little was heard about this story during the captivity, with people I know — both Korean and otherwise — occasionally wondering if these men had been released and they had simply missed it.

Seoul has essentially given in to hostage-taker demands, to the tune of $800,000, according to Somali elders. In return they got their ship and their crew in tact. The group — eight Koreans, five Vietnamese, nine Indonesians, and three Chinese — are now getting medical checks in Kenya.

The Foreign Ministry confirmed late yesterday that the ROK ship was escorted by a US warship (our alliance at work) from Somali waters to Kenya. They also condemned the piracy going on off the coast of Somali, one of the three worst places in the world for piracy (along with the coastlines of Indonesia and Bangladesh).