US Chamber of Commerce head says American credibility could be hurt by rejecting FTAs with South Korea and Colombia

In a follow-up to this story, the president of AmCham (short name of the United States Chamber of Commerce), Thomas Donohue, says that American credibility would be damaged if Congress rejects the free-trade deals that the Bush administration has negotiated with countries such as South Korea and Colombia. 

From the article:

"I think if we started putting up free trade agreements and voting them down we would lose a lot of our credibility in trying to open markets around the world," Thomas Donohue, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, told reporters after a speech.

Donohue said he is convinced the landmark agreement with South Korea will pass —no such accord ever put up for a vote in Congress has failed — though may take time and will require some tweaking of issues in the sensitive auto sector.

I must say I like his optimism.

"This agreement is going to get done," Donohue said, referring to ratification, which is required by lawmakers in both countries for the pact to take effect.

Korea news links for Thursday, January 15, 2009

1. Former South Korean president Kim Daejung urges Obama to make North Korea a priority. Kushibo's take: As Kim suggests, direct dialogue with North Korea might be a good way to reduce tension between Washington and Pyongyang. This was the basis of Kim's so-called "Sunshine Policy" (which his predecessor completely botched). On the other hand, it also provides Kim Jong-il's regime a chance to squeeze more concessions out of Washington.
2. Kim Jong-il has picked his third (and youngest) son to be his heir. Kushibo's take: Let's see how long this lasts. North Korea should learn something from the drop in quality from Bush-41 to Bush-43. 
3. YTN reports that a Canadian teacher of English has been accused of molesting three first-grade girls in Seoul's Sŏng-dong neighborhood (Korea Times link). Kushibo's take: With its relatively lax rules and lingering lack of awareness of the signs of sexual molestation among the general public, South Korea is an easy place for English-speaking pedophiles to hide in plain sight; it wouldn't be the first time this has happened. However, like with any other issue, just because a "foreigner" is arrested for something doesn't mean he/she's automatically guilty; it wouldn't be the first time a foreign national has been railroaded by the police and the judicial system.
4. Moody's considers downgrading the ratings of several South Korean banks as they struggle to get dollars to pay off their debts. Kushibo's take: I'd give them dollars if I had any. 
5. Property values in Kangnam rise on optimism generated by deregulation and cheaper lending. Kushibo's take: Everyone keeps talking about a real estate bubble, but things just keep going up and up. No kidding, Kangnam seems to defy gravity and economic law. It's a lot like Honolulu, which is also holding on to its value despite the collapse of values elsewhere. 
6. Handbags are the most commonly lost item on the Seoul subway system. Kushibo's take: It's a really, really, really slow news day. 

Canadian geese attack US airliner

A US Airways passenger jet thankfully avoided any death toll when it petered into the chilly Hudson River just three minutes after takeoff. Passengers could be seen standing on the wings of the plane as boats came to the rescue. 

As it turns out, the plane was taken down by a flock of Canadian geese. There are two unmistakable conclusions that could be drawn from this. The first is that we should all go back paying attention to the flight attendants when they talk about what to do when a plane lands on water.

The second is that it's become very clear that we need to invade Canada. The list of grievances is long. Our "neighbors" to the north have tried to undermine our economy with their cheap pharmaceuticals, forcing seniors into lawless behavior as they fill up the Chrysler with cheap versions of Lipitor and Plavix that they'll sneak back across the border. They've failed to support our search for al Qaeda in Iraq. They've tried to suck us into a socialist trap by offering up their health-care scam scheme ad nauseum as a model for us self-reliant Americans to follow. 

No, thanks! With this outright attack by Canadians on an American airliner, it's clear we have no choice but to invade the Great White North and put an end to the corrupt and criminal regime in Ottawa. 

I know that may sound harsh, and I won't bore you with the IR explanations of how this is not dangerous unilateralism or some ill-advised attempt at domination of the Western Hemisphere. I'll leave that to the academics, just as I leave the smoking guns to the CIA and the FBI. I have faith they'll find them. That this is the path we must take will be made clear in the last days of the current administration. 

After that, it's on to Mexico!

Democrats say they will go through with Bush's free-trade agreements

Democrats are saying that they will push for passage of FTAs (free-trade agreements) negotiated by the Bush Administration, but that they want some assurances or changes. 

Regarding the Colombia-US FTA, it's a matter of ensuring protection of labor leaders. As for the Korea-US FTA, of which I am a supporter, the big sticking point is cars. That's no surprise if you've listened to Obama's campaign speeches, where he counts American-made Hyundai and Kia vehicles as "Korean" cars, but also counts Korea-made GM vehicles as "Korean."

From the article:

In the case of South Korea, the main roadblock was the Bush administration's unwillingness to change auto provisions that many Democrats believe favor South Korea's automakers, Rangel said.

"If they fought as hard for cars, as they did for beef, we wouldn't have that problem," Rangel said, referring to the strong pressure the Bush administration has put on South Korea to open its market to U.S. beef.

Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton has answered Senate Foreign Relations Committee questions by stating that she sees a need to "renegotiate provisions of the pacts covering trade in autos and other manufactured goods." I can't help but wonder how much the expat peanut gallery would howl if it were the Korean side trying to renegotiate. 

Again, from the article:

"Because the FTA (free trade agreement) gives South Korean auto exports essentially untrammeled access to the U.S. market, ratification of the agreement in its present form would mean the United States would lose its remaining leverage to counteract" South Korea's non-tariff barriers that keep out U.S. automobiles, Clinton said.

I wonder which non-tariff barriers she means? Detroit's lobbyists seem to keep harping on things such as audits of people who buy foreign cars, something that the government threatened fifteen years ago but hasn't been an issue since the Clinton administration. Is that what they're referring to?

Obama and the Democratic congress should realize that Japanese and German automakers are doing much better. It is the Americans who are languishing, and that's because they are producing oversized cars that don't fit very well with a population that drives on narrow roads where gasoline is some $7/gallon. 

Maybe, just maybe, the problem lies with Detroit, not Seoul. Or is the public's unwillingness to buy Hummers an example of a non-tariff trade barrier. 

Korea news links for Wednesday, January 14, 2009

1. Bush aide warns incoming administration that North Korea will try to test President Obama. Kushibo's take: Pyongyang would surprise only if it didn't try to mess with a new administration in Washington.
2. South Korea's jobless rate jumps from 3.1 percent to 3.3 percent in December. Kushibo's take: It's still hella lower than in the United States, but there are a lot of people out there in the South Korean economy who would like a full-time regular 9-to-6 job but haven't been able to find one for years.
3. Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton says she and the Obama administration will support the six-party talks aimed at dismantling North Korea's nuclear program. Kushibo's take: Well, duh. At least Obama is providing some continuity, unlike the Bush administration in 2001 which stopped doing what Clinton was doing, took several months to decide what their North Korea policy would be, then after letting years of (meager) progress erode, went back to doing exactly what Clinton had been doing.
4. Eight people in Pusan are dead as a fire breaks out in a Korean karaoke (called a noraebang in Korean). Kushibo's take: Too many small businesses in Korean are too small. Too small to have proper fire exits. If you feel compelled to get drunk and belt out a few BoA tunes or oldies from the Eagles, get a room close to the front door. It's survival of the quickest.
5. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il urges the Obama administration to normalize ties with Pyongyang. Kushibo's take: North Korea may sound schizophrenic and/or bipolar, but you must understand there is news that's for popular domestic consumption, political domestic consumption, South Korean consumption, global consumption, Japanese consumption, and American consumption. Pyongyang wants normalized relations for two reasons: it makes any military attack by Washington less likely (though news for domestic consumption won't reflect that) and it opens up the doors to aid and trade. Aid and trade is what will save Pyongyang from imminent meltdown if they ever hope to get out from under Beijing's thumb. 
6. Baseballer Chanho Park quits South Korean team to focus on effort to join the Philadelphia Phillies. Kushibo's take: Is "baseballer" a real word?

NYT on conflicts of interest at the FDA

At some point I am going to have to split up my blog into several other blogs, maybe one on Korea, one on Hawaii and US issues, maybe an entire one on US politics, one on my lame photos, and especially one on medical sociology and public health. 

Until then, I'll just do short blurbs on things like this: two stories adding up to concern over how well the FDA is doing its job and protecting the public. 

The first is about a report from none other than the inspector general of  the Department of Health & Human Services warning that the FDA has been rather lax on the issue of oversight during its trials. From the article:

The Food and Drug Administration does almost nothing to police the financial conflicts of doctors who conduct clinical trials of drugs and medical devices in human subjects, government investigators are reporting.

Moreover, the investigators say, agency officials told them that trying to protect patients from such conflicts was not worth the effort.

In 42 percent of clinical trials, the agency did not receive forms disclosing doctors’ financial conflicts and did nothing about the problem...

Lovely, just lovely. The second story describes a rush to approve devices despite a lack of scientific consensus about their efficacy and appropriateness. From the article:

An official at the Food and Drug Administration overruled front-line agency scientists and approved the sale of an imaging device for breast cancer after receiving a phone call from a Connecticut congressman, according to internal agency documents.

The legislator’s call and its effect on what is supposed to be a science-based approval process is only one of many of accusations in a trove of documents regarding disputes within the agency’s office of device evaluation.

Nine agency scientists complained in May to Andrew C. von Eschenbach, the F.D.A. commissioner, and the agency began an internal review. Dissatisfied with the pace and results of that review, the scientists wrote a letter to Congress in October pleading for an investigation, and the House Committee on Energy and Commerce announced in November that it would begin one.

The FDA is supposed to be protecting the public, but a popular complaint among itchy-finger deregulationists is that the FDA takes too danged long to approve things they seem to know (before the FDA has done its work) should be approved. (I joked about that here.)

What those folks don't seem to understand (or just don't care about) is that the FDA is tasked with watching out for the health interests of the people, not the financial interests of the constituents of powerful people. Political influence should not play a role in whether or not something gets approved. (I still wonder sometimes if Donald Rumsfeld's connections with government led to an allegedly inappropriate approval of aspartame—that's NutraSweet for those of you in Rio Linda.)

I don't know if the FDA has become lax and overly business-friendly as a direct result of policies set up by the Bush administration or if this problem was a longer time in coming. The second story may indicate the former, but the first story is about HHS's own investigation; in other words, a Bush administration department checking up on another Bush administration agency. 

Finally, this story is not directly Korea-related, but I can't help imagining that if these same news items had been about the Republic of Korea instead of the United States, there would be oh-so-many in the Marmot's Hole whine cellar moaning how this was yet another sign of how backward and messed up Korea compared with, say, the rest of the first world. 

Spidey sense

While on the Mainland, I had a chance to see in person Peter the Prognosticator, a stroller-bound two-year-old who has the eerie ability to predict the future, many of them quite ominous.  

This toddler is credited with predicting the stock market crash and the credit crunch, gasoline reaching $4/gallon, Barack Obama's exact margin of victory, Illinois governor's senate-selling scandal and later impeachment, the Hyundai Grandeur winning "Car of the Year," Minnesota senator Norm Coleman losing his seat to former SNL writer and performer Al Franken "by about two hundwed votes," and the winner of the last two Superbowls. 

He was wrong, however, about how many Golden Globes Tina Fey would win for her role as Liz Lemon on 30 Rock. Apparently he got the show confused with Studio 60.

His famed ability attracts hundreds of cash-paying visitors each week from all over the globe, particularly East Asia. The woman in the photo came from Taiwan, seeking to learn the answers to the March 2009 administration of the TOEFL. Just as this photo was snapped by a writer from a local paper, the wee soothsayer was predicting that in forty-five seconds, a seagull would be run over by a Mazda at the other end of the parking lot. 

He was right. Cue spooky music. 

Oh, and I'm back. Happy New Year!

I just returned from an extended period of time on the Mainland, which included a heavy focus on academic and professional matters. No time for jogging, too little time to see friends and family, and way too much stress. I need a vacation from my vacation. 

WaPo on a Fairfax, Virginia Korean crime ring

The Washington Post has a story on how police in the capital-area community of Annandale broke up a crime ring run by Koreans. The group was heavily involved with counterfeit cigarette sales, among other things, and some of the people nabbed in the ATF-Fairfax operation were arrested for trying to hire someone to kill the head of the crime ring himself. The whole thing makes for an interesting read. 

The Fairfax police perpetuate that meme I mentioned in my CSI: Koreatown piece, about Koreans not trusting the police:

"We could not crack it because the Korean community was afraid of these individuals," Piper said of the crime ring. "And their culture back home is they don't trust police. We got lucky with one individual wanting to turn over some information."

Like I said, thanks for putting the targets on Korean immigrants' backs. I'm not even so sure it's really true. In South Korea, it's not so much that people distrust the police as think of them as ineffective. For a crime that's over with, what good does reporting it do?

Of course, I'm playing devil's advocate here, since I am a strong believer in informing the police of crimes so their crackerjack detectives can detect a pattern and put the puzzle pieces together. That is, assuming there are crackerjack detectives in your jurisdiction. Nowadays it seems you're just as likely to get a crackpot, or a racist cracker. 

Anyway, in Korea I think a lot of people just assume that telling the police of this break-in or that problem isn't going to result in any positive outcome, so why bother? Especially when someone's life is in danger by going to the police, as may have been the case in Annandale. But that's a very different thing from distrust. 

South Korean president and Japanese prime minister agree to disagree?

Actually, that title sounds a bit negative and off the mark. South Korea's Lee Myungbak and Japan's Aso Taro have agreed to cooperate on issues such as the reconstruction of Afghanistan and the denuclearization of North Korea, and to not let historical disagreements and "territorial rows" get in the way of that cooperation. 

Ah, where have we heard that before? Hopefully Lee and Aso can get their act together and behave like adults, unlike their respective predecessors, Roh Moohyun and Koizumi Junichiro. The Obuchi-Kim accords would be a good place to start.

In the face of a rising China that does not share their democratic interests, Japan and South Korea need each other, and they both need to cooperate a bit more with the United States to show that they are not just defense freeloaders, lest some piqued American politician(s) rashly decide to pick up all their marbles and go home in a huff, effectively putting an end to the Pax Americana that has probably saved so many lives and so much treasure (including those of America). Toward that end, helping out with the reconstruction of Afghanistan or even stepping up patrols where pirates threaten shipping might be a good idea (well, it is if South Korea does it). 

Anyway, the Japanese-born and conservative Lee may be the best person to repair relations with Tokyo, and it looks like this is an ongoing focus of his administration. Let's see how it pans out. 

Aso, Lee to cooperate, avoid rows
SEOUL (Kyodo) Prime Minister Taro Aso and South Korean President Lee Myung Bak agreed Monday to work closely to address the global financial turmoil, curb North Korea's nuclear ambitions and cooperate on the reconstruction of Afghanistan, leaving aside their historical and territorial rows.

To set the foundation for their shuttle diplomacy, the two leaders also agreed Lee would visit Japan this year "when the timing is right," Aso told a joint press conference after their summit held at the presidential Blue House in Seoul.


"The leaders of Japan and South Korea have never met so frequently and deepened cooperation on such a wide range of areas," Aso said.

On North Korea's nuclear threat, Aso and Lee confirmed their basic goal of Pyongyang dismantling the program and they will seek support from U.S. President-elect Barack Obama, who takes office Jan. 20, in ending the standoff.

"We agreed to make mutual efforts with patience toward the denuclearization of North Korea," Lee told the press conference.

In what they touted as a "new era" in bilateral relations, Aso and Lee agreed to jointly contribute to the international community, specifically to help reconstruct war-torn Afghanistan.

On the economic front, Aso and Lee agreed on the need to counter the global financial crunch that has dealt a blow to their economies, reaffirming their agreement made at a trilateral summit in Fukuoka Prefecture along with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in mid-December.

The two leaders also agreed to hold a forum bringing together heads of small and midsize businesses from the two countries.

Lee also said a Japanese delegation of investors and buyers will visit South Korea in April as part of efforts to further strengthen business ties, but did not elaborate on specific purposes or schedules.

The summit, which falls under the shuttle diplomacy framework and follows Lee's visit to Tokyo last April, marks the first visit by a Japanese leader to South Korea since the two countries agreed last February to resume reciprocal visits.

Auf wiedersehen, VHS.

T'is the end of an era. There will be no rewinding back to the days of VHS. The Los Angeles Times reports, with no small bit of nostalgia, that the era of VHS has come to an end, with the last load of VHS tapes being sent out from a Florida warehouse.

The story includes an interesting look at what the new format meant for home entertainment, with theater-going not only NOT dying, but with movies getting a second run as a VHS release and a third run as an addition to a home movie library. 

For about ten years in Korea I taught a very popular cross-cultural course that was a running commentary on comparisons between American and Korean culture, using news segments as the kernel of the course. Though that was only one of the things I did—and it was mostly a hobby because I loved teaching it—it was the thing that paid for all the other things, including the nascent media business I started. 

I religiously recorded all English-language news broadcasts on AFKN, which were usually ABC News with Peter Jennings (R.I.P.) and NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw. CNN, with its short and shallow clips, was usually not very useful, and CBS was rarely shown on AFKN (too liberal?). 

The videotape format meant that if something I wanted to use was, say, fifteen minutes into a thirty-minute broadcast, I couldn't record the next day's program before the first. That meant videotapes filled up fast. I always meant to go back and re-record the usable clips using two VCRs hooked together, but there was usually no time. It was always easier to get a fresh new tape, number it (they had codes like "9811C" or "0204D" for the third tape used in November 1998 or the fourth tape used in April 2002, respectively), and stick it in the VCR.

And that's how I ended up with literally hundreds of videotapes in my apartment-cum-office. I think at one point we used them as office furniture. A whole bunch of them, when a move had to be made, ended up being tossed, including the ones that had my old Simpsons recordings on them.

When I briefly resurrected the course in 2006, right before leaving for Hawaii, I had the news programs on Quicktime files, courtesy of BJIT (British James in Texas) who would record them and upload them for me. Much easier to deal with. 

VHS tapes made me rich (well, rich enough to buy an apartment and use it to start a small company). The Macs helped. So did my hard work, I suppose. 

Ah, VHS. There are still a lot of old VHS movies lying around my house, including the uncut version of Angel Heart, which I watched over and over and over again (well, parts of it at least). One by one I have "replaced" them with their DVD counterpart. It doesn't hurt that some DVDs are as cheap as $5 at WalMart and Borders sometimes has whole seasons of your favorite show for $15. 

I still remember, probably in the early 1980s, when my dad got us a membership at the local video store which had just opened up. It cost $50 or so for the annual membership, and then $2 or $3 for each video we rented. They often didn't have what we wanted. The proliferation of cable TV memberships and then video rental chains like Blockbuster magically turned the mom-and-pop video store into a Korean BBQ restaurant. 

My dad also paid to have his old Super-8 home movies converted into videotape, thinking that would make them more permanent. Much to his horror, he learned that videotape has a shelf life measured in a decade or so. He was also horrified that his "Married With Children" collection wouldn't last. Later he had the good sense to simply buy copies of "Desperate Housewives," his new must-see TV program. 

So, good-bye, VHS. It's been a lot of fun. But I have one question: With nothing but DVDs, can we still call them video stores? (Sure, if you accept that DVD stands for digital videodisc and not digital versatile disc.)

Breakfast and virginity

A recent Japanese study of 3000 people has found a correlation between not eating breakfast and losing one's virginity earlier. They speculate that the same lack of stability that would indicate a lesser likelihood of having a morning meal before heading off to school would promote the same type of conditions in which an underage person began engaging in sex.

People who skip breakfast tend to lose their virginity earlier, according to researchers in Japan.

In a study of 3000 people, those who did not regularly eat breakfast in their early teens said they lost their virginity at an average age of 17.5, versus an overall average age of 19 for all Japanese.

Those who had a morning meal when they were younger had their first sexual experience at 19.4 years.

The study, backed by Japan's health ministry, was aimed at finding ways to curb unwanted pregnancies. It concluded that a stable home life discouraged early sex.

"Those unhappy with their parents - such as for not preparing breakfast - may tend to find a way to release their frustration by having sex," said Kunio Kitamura, head of the Japan Family Planning Association who led the research.

"If children don't feel comfortable in their family environment, they tend to go out."

Young people who start having sex early tended to miss breakfast because they return home late, he said.

I'm just glad that clever headline writers didn't realize that Japanese breakfast is a lot like other meals of the day, possibly including soup rather than corn flakes, otherwise we'd have ended up with headlines like "Miso horny" or some such.

Oh, wait, there's more:

Japan has one of the world's lowest birthrates as more young people put off starting families, finding them a burden on their careers or lifestyles.

The survey also found that nearly 40 per cent of married couples had not had sex in more than a month.

Respondents said they were too tired because of work or found sex to be a pain, according to the study.

If sex is a pain, you're not doing it right.

Mele Kalikimaka!

That would be "Merry Christmas" in the local Hawaiian, bra. 

And here's to a Feliz Navidad, Buon Natale, 메리 크리스마스, メリクリスマス, and Joyeux Noel! That pretty much exhausts all the languages that I've ever spent any real amount of time trying to learn.

The photo below is the observatories of Mauna Kea, the highest point in Hawaii, on the Big Island. That's about as wintery/Christmasy a scene as you're going to find in the Aloha State. With an elevation of 13,796 feet (4205 meters), there is usually snow found on the upper reaches of this volcano, whose name in Hawaiian means "white mountain." And, yes, the intrepid really do attempt to ski there.