So this cold is not my imagination

In Southern California, ever since I was a kid, we've typically had unusual late spring and early summer weather that would seem most atypical for Southern California: chilly temperatures owing to cloud cover from the ocean. There's no humidity and the clouds never release any rain. They sometimes, but by no means always, burn off by early afternoon, but when they don't, the chill lasts all day long and into the night. [photo source]

If they leave, the clouds almost always return sometime in the night, but even before then, the evening can be a little windy and even downright cold. Each of the past three summers, I've gone to a Major League Baseball game in Los Angeles, Anaheim (Orange County), or San Diego, and even with a hoodie, I felt uncomfortably cold by the seventh inning.

It is called June Gloom (as well as May Gray), and it starts in April or May and usually lasts until the very beginning of July (the Fourth of July is the day we declare independence from this tyrannical weather). When friends or relatives drop in from back east, they joke that they should demand a refund. It's too cold to go to the beach, or at least get in the water (although even on a hot day, the water off California is pretty danged chilly, which would explain the popularity of sunbathing).

[above: A graph of percent of possible sunshine each month (source)]

I was starting to wonder if it was all my imagination. I don't mind the cold winters of Seoul; in fact, I find them invigorating. But there's heat everywhere. By contrast, when it gets "cold" in Hawaii or California — prolonged temperatures in the 50s or lower — I feel it differently because there's no respite from it, particularly in Hawaii where buildings usually do not even have a heating system.

And the other day, I looked on my iPhone and the temperature in Barrow, Alaska, America's northernmost community, was only five degrees (Celsius) colder than Orange County.

But the Los Angeles Times assures me that it is not my imagination: Los Angeles (LAX, at least) is experiencing record cold high temperatures. And it seems it's been going on for a while. We actually saw snow on the upper reaches of the northern slope of the San Gabriel Mountains (Mt San Antonio, aka Mt Baldy, I think) from a stretch of Interstate 15 called the Mojave Freeway on the trip up to Las Vegas, and even Mt Charleston in Clark County, Nevada, still had some snow... an extreme rarity in June.

Ah, but it will eventually warm up, and then the scorching heat of summer will, in typical skewed-calendar fashion, last until October. Unfortunately, we don't have a nifty little name for that, like "June Gloom." Might I suggest Septemburn and Octoburn?

UPDATE: 
The sun did come out long enough for protestors activists really bored barflies to moon the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner down in Laguna Hills.

Washington's Swedish proxies in Pyongyang visit Aijalon Mahli Gomes

After news reports from North Korea's KCNA of a suicide attempt by Aijalon Mahli Gomes, a US citizen being held in the DPRK for following in the footsteps of fellow evangelist and friend Robert Park by traipsing into North Korea with a message of piece and that Kim Jong-il should get the hell out of Dodge, Washington decided it might be a good idea to check up on this guy.

And since we don't have an embassy or consulate in North Korea, we sent our representatives, the Swedes... er, the North Koreans sent the Swedes:

The United States on Friday disclosed that a diplomat from Sweden, representing U.S. interests in North Korea, was asked to visit a U.S. citizen jailed in North Korea, who reportedly tried to commit suicide.

U.S. State Department Spokesman Mark Toner told journalists at a briefing that the Swedish diplomat was requested by the North Korean regime to visit detained Aijalon Mahli Gomes.

“Today, on July 9th, at the request of the DPRK, Swedish diplomats in Pyongyang visited Mr. Gomes in their capacity as the U.S. protecting power in North Korea,” Toner said.

Asked to comment on the condition of Gomes and his whereabouts, Toner declined citing privacy considerations.

Toner said the United States is concerned about Gomes' welfare and reiterated call for his immediate release on humanitarian grounds, saying, “We reiterate our urge for the North Korean Government to release Mr. Gomes on humanitarian grounds.”

It's a good sign that Pyongyang not only allowed the visit, but they requested it. In fact, I think it's a sign that they're preparing to slough him off. Dead men may tell no tales, but they also make lousy bargaining chips. (Except for Korean War MIAs and KIAs, but I don't mean that in a derisive or mean-spirited way, even though it's clear that Pyongyang cynically uses the search for their remains as a ploy to extract hard currency from Washington.)

Over at ROK Drop, frequent commenter Chicken Head wonders why we've heard so little about Mr Gomes vis-à-vis others, like Mr Park or Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who have ended up in the North Korea:

I’m curious… Why the complete media blackout compared to Ling/Lee?

Aijalon Mahli Gomes went to North Korea with more open, honest and pure intentions… yet the MSM is as quiet as a nun’s fart.

It would almost seem that a track record of elitist-leftist support is more important than intentions based on silly concepts like freedom or human rights.

A fair question. While I'm not so certain we can automatically assume the "honest and pure intentions" of Mr Gomes (certainly his mentor seems to have a Messiah complex of sorts, and it's not at all implausible that either or both would seek book deals after their ordeal is over), I think it's reasonable to assume that Laura Ling's sister's political and media connections played a very big role in publicizing her plight and getting something done. She makes that point herself in the book they co-wrote.

But I don't think that's all there is to it. For starters, there isn't really a "complete media blackout," as Chicken Head describes it. I've written two stories in as many days about him because he has been in the media (the second is here). The media tends to report what comes down the pipeline, and a big part of the answer to that question is that Mr Gomes's people have not been as effective (and perhaps haven't been trying to be as effective) at publicizing Aijalon's case as Laura Ling's family had been.

Even in that particular case, if it had been just Euna Lee that was imprisoned, not Laura Ling, there may have been considerably less publicity, even though Ms Lee works for the same "elitist-leftist" news outlet.

Another factor is that Mr Gomes is not a first of any significant kind. He is not the first American in a long time to be imprisoned in the north, as were Evan Hunziker in 1996 and the Lee-Ling team in 2009. Nor is he the first American to voluntarily walk into North Korea to demand human rights from the DPRK; that would be Robert Park.

So his story is important enough to report on when new news comes down the wire, but not important enough to follow on a daily basis, à la the BP oil spill, where no news is also news. If you want to change this, you must convince his family or his church or some other related group to do news-making events.

Well, someone's pleased.

Apparently, North Korea is tickled pink about the UN Security Council condemnation.

From the New York Times:

The North Korean envoy to the United Nations, Sin Son-ho, called a statement condemning the sinking of a South Korean warship, which the Security Council passed unanimously Friday, “our great diplomatic victory.”

Getting your one single benefactor, who happens to be a permanent member of the UNSC, to go to bat for you... them's some mighty skilled diplomacy.

Oh, how I'm loathing China right now.

The one where Kushibo seesAvatar: The Last Airbender

So I go see Avatar: The Last Airbender with some wee ones the other day. And I mean wee, as in preschool and kindergarten, but they have been watching the cartoon series and they're up to speed on what's what, so they enjoyed themselves. So did my mother, who I had thought would think, "What the heck did I spend $9 on that for?"

It was an enjoyable enough film for me, someone who has only occasionally seen some snippets of the series here and there, just enough to know that it's centered around a kid who has the Target generic goods logo on his head. But it was made even more enjoyable because it produced what I hope will be a durable inside joke: As I headed for the restroom after the film was over, I told the adults in my group, "I'm going to do a little waterbending myself."

There were no protestors at the showing, even though we were in Los Angeles. Apparently some Asian-American actors and activists are upset because of unfair casting. In short, they're angry that the blue-eyed character from the TV series was played by an actual blue-eyed actress. (Also, the flying buffalo in the background was played by a horse in a fat suit.)

Okay, okay. I'm belittling the argument a bit, but I'll try to present it as objectively as possible. In a nutshell, this animated series with obvious Asian elements and Asian settings and Asian architecture and characters with Asian-sounding names (Sokka? Aang? Not actual names, but they do sound Asian) should have been transformed into a live-action movie only with Asian actors. Not people like Nicola Peltz, the aforementioned blue-eyed monster. There are precious few acting roles for Asian-Americans (or Asian-Canadians) and so M. Night Shyamalan really screwed the lemur on this one by casting so many non-Asian people.

Oh, that devilish M. Night Shyamalan. Perhaps they don't realize he himself was born in Asia (Pondicherry, India, to be precise) and they're of the mistaken belief he's just a guido from Jersey who spent way too much time at the tanning salon. What else could be the source of all this rage? It's only July. You can't be bored already?

But I have news for you... take a look at the characters in the cartoon. Do any of them have a compellingly East Asian look to them? They're standing on the Great Wall of, apparently, China, but anyone can do that. It doesn't make them East Asian. That's an external clue, the kind that makes people think they can tell ethnicity — like distinguishing Japanese from Korean — when what they're doing is not using facial structure but hairstyle, makeup, or clothing to make their decision.

In fact, I'd say they look more Hispanic or South Asian, which may be the reason the fire bender actors look so heavily, well, South Asian (though the actor playing the Lord Fire Bender, Cliff Curtis, is actually Maori, the Polynesians from New Zealand).

Look, these Last Airbender actors are not White people with tape over their eyelids starring as Chinese peasants. Or Mr Mikiruni as Mr Yunioshi. Rather, they are an ethnically diverse set of actors playing ethnically vague characters from a fictitious land. (You show me Firebendia on the frickin' map and maybe I'll change my tune.)

Did I mention that Kushibo has the ability to travel to alternate universes to see how things might have panned out? Because that's what I did. I managed to get into a parallel reality where Mako was made director of this film and he nepotistically cast all his relatives. And the fine agitator folks at racebending.com instead called their site JapinFetchit.com and bemoaned something else entirely:

Oh, my God! Do we have to witness another film where Asian actors are cast into stereotypical roles where they're all mystical and do martial arts poses and live in temple-like settings?

Why is mainstream America afraid of putting Asian-American actors into normal roles playing everyday people that would demystify their existence as Americans, instead confining them to yin-yang spouting philosophers with lines like they work in a Chinese fortune cookie factory cribbing pages from the Dialects of Confucius?

But what else can we expect from an ostensibly Asian animated story created by two White guys?

By the way, it's Analects of Confucius, you doofuses (doofi?), but in that parallel universe, Kushibo doesn't give a rat's ass about saving people from making themselves look stupid.

Oh, did I mention that Airbender is the creation not of a Japanese animation studio, a Korean cinema company, or any other Asian entity? It's two White guys. Who created round-eyed characters. There is no ethnicity to them. In fact, put an arrow on Michael Dante DiMartino's head and he could be Aang.

All together now: There is no ethnicity to them.

Now put down your pickets and go watch Toy Story.

Our Lady of the Oranges: the Diocese of Orange selects an architect for the cathedral

Craig Hartman FAIA (frankly, not sure what that means) has been chosen to design the cathedral for the Diocese of Orange (that would be Orange County's local administration) that has been in the planning stage for quite some time.

Mr Hartman's other works include the very cool-looking US Embassy in Beijing [above]. He also designed the modern-looking glass structure that is the Cathedral of Christ the Light in Oakland [below].

I quite like the modern look of the new Cathedral of our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, but I hope Mr Hartman cools it a little with the glass. We already have one Crystal Cathedral in OC and we don't need another.

The new home of Orange County's 1.2 million Roman Catholics (!) is to be built in south Santa Ana, in a place that, I kid you not, was once known as Gospel Swamp.

UPDATE (November 2011):
Well, it's funny I should mention the Crystal Cathedral, since it turns out that the Diocese of Orange went and bought the bankrupt Crystal Cathedral. This may negate any need for a new cathedral to be built.

Chapman University, the top private college in Orange County, was in competition with the diocese, as they wanted to expand their campus. They had promised to let the Protestant-oriented Crystal Cathedral to keep operating for a few years, perhaps as long as two decades, but I believe the whole thing would have been secularized eventually.

The Catholic Church, by contrast, promised it will use the cathedral as a Christ-oriented house of worship, and that's something founder Reverend Robert Schuller had said he wants, whether Catholic or Protestant (in an interview he said he considers the Catholic Church the mother church).

The diocese also may be providing facilities, like nearby St. Callistus Church, in which the Crystal Cathedral congregants can continue to worship. I wonder, though, how many of the congregants will wish to continue attending there when (a) their beloved leader is no longer preaching and (b) they no longer have the inspiring environs of the Crystal Cathedral in which to worship. I'm guessing some might stick around and attend mass.

...

(UPDATED) North Korea says American prisoner Aijalon Mahli Gomes tried to commit suicide

The BBC quotes the KCNA:

"Driven by his strong guilty conscience, disappointment and despair at the US government that has not taken any measure for his freedom, he attempted to commit suicide," the North's KCNA news agency said.

"He is now given first-aid treatment at a hospital."

The New York Times is now also carrying the story. The announcement of Mr Gomes's hospitalization comes after news two weeks ago that North Korea was threatening that America's warlike rhetoric could mean a tougher penalty for this follower of Robert Park (there's a double meaning for you).

This turn of events is hardly surprising, though it is distressing. As foolish as I feel Mr Gomes was for doing what he's doing (and ditto Mr Park, his role model), I wish him no harm.

Robert Park himself is reportedly a suicidal person, though it's not clear if he was a troubled individual before he traipsed into the North and was captured or that came afterward. Ditto with Mr Gomes.

I finally found a picture of Mr Gomes that isn't of him at the demo. I like this one; it is, I believe, in a part of northern Seoul or the adjoining part of Kyŏnggi-do Province, along the Chungnang-ch'ŏn River. His warm smile certainly stands in stark contrast with the stern visage of someone protesting human rights abuses. I took it from here, a site that got it from here.

One thing is for sure, however, and that's that Mr Gomes has become a hot potato for the Pyongyang regime. Not only is he of no value as a bargaining chip if he's dead, but it could easily appear that his suicide may have been directly due to some bad acts by the regime, which would potentially hurt the image they're trying to cultivate on the international stage.

In the past I have surmised that Evan Hunziker, fished out of North Korea by Bill Richardson back in 1996, may have been released because his North Korean handlers recognized his suicidal tendencies (he actually killed himself not long afterward). [The eerie similarities now seen between Mr Gomes and Mr Hunziker are echoed in Bill Richardson's posthumous praise for the evangelizing Mr Hunziker in 1996: "Evan was a gentle young man who sought peace for all people."]

My prayers go out to him and his family, but can't we all recognize there is no good that comes from trips like Robert Park's or Mr Gomes's? (Which is not to say the same of Mr Son's).

UPDATE (August 24, 2010):
Jimmy Carter is reportedly headed for North Korea in a bid to release Mr Gomes.

UPDATE (August 27, 2010):
Mr Gomes has been released.

Public health reader (July 9, 2010 edition)

• South Korea has recorded highest smoking rate well above OECD average, with 42.6 percent of males listed as smokers.  

• With news like this of a teacher in Kwangju reportedly molesting five of his students, South Korean police are declaring another "all-out war" against sex offenders who victimize children. Meanwhile, the schools are "scrambling" to prevent sex crimes against children.

• One in six adults have reportedly considered suicide. 

Korea demography reader (July 9, 2010 edition)

• One out of seven unmarried women don't want a baby after they get married. Tell those babies, "Talk to the hand!"

• Number of foreign residents in Korea tops 1.2 million. 

• South Korea "far from prepared" for influx of North Korean defectors.

• Some 18,000 "entertainers" are barely eking out a living. 

• It's more economic news, but Monster Island doesn't have an economics reader and it affects demography as well, so South Korea remains the fifteenth largest economy measured in US dollars. 

WSJ on India's "new Detroit"

I hope the Wall Street Journal means Chennai in India's south is the nexus of many automakers, not a failed city descending into the depths of demographic hell.

Anyhoo, South Korean car companies are a big part of this "new Detroit":

The metropolis of about five million people is booming as scores of international car makers and suppliers have set up shop. Ford Motor Co., Hyundai Motor Co, Nissan Motor Co., Renault SA, Daimler AG and BMW AG all have converged here. ...

Hyundai has invested $2 billion here, and recently expanded to be able to produce 650,000 cars a year. It is not only cheap factory-floor labor that attracted the South Korean company, but also an abundance of low-wage engineers to program the robots that help churn out vehicles. ...

The influx of foreigners and foreign money is altering this historic city. In the largely vegetarian region there is little meat for sale. But the Seoul Restaurant is packed with Korean families grilling beef at their tables.

The student population at the Chennai American School has quadrupled to close to 800 as new pupils have arrived from the U.S., Japan, Europe and Korea. A sprawling amusement park across the street from the Hyundai factory, a French bakery, evangelical Korean churches and Japanese grocery stores have popped up in recent years.

Maybe it will inspired a few new English teachers to come to the ROK.

Daily Kor for July 9, 2010

I would prefer to focus on Russian strongman Vladimir Putin's pretty hot-looking daughter visiting Seoul for a Russian-Korean friendly powwow at Koryŏ (Korea) University, but there are more pressing matters in front of us, including my mortgage payment going up.

1. United Nations Security Council adopts watered-down statement condemning sinking of Chonan (Yonhap, Reuters, WaPo, WSJ, MIAP, Korea Herald)
• Seoul says it is satisfied with statement (Yonhap)
2. Seoul unexpectedly raises interest rate 25 points to 2.25 percent (WSJ, Yonhap, Bloomberg, AP via WaPo, AFP, Reuters via CNBC)
• Interest-rate gain leads to continued rise of KRW (Bloomberg)
• Kushibo says, "Crap!" (about the interest-rate rise, not the KRW rise)
3. Repeat of cyber attacks does little damage in South Korea and US (AP via WaPo)
4. Prosecutors raid Prime Minister's office in probe over allegations of illegal civilian surveillance (Yonhap) 
5. North Koreans pay respects to Kim Ilsung on sixteenth anniversary of Eternal President's death (AP via WaPo)
6. EU parliament passes resolution asking North Korea to improve human rights (Yonhap)
7. South Korea opts not to prosecute woman "forced" to spy for North Korea (AFP)
8. ROK Unification Minister blames North Korea for icy cross-DMZ ties (Yonhap)
• South Korea approves new humanitarian assistance to DPRK (Yonhap)
9. North Korean defectors "marooned" in Japanese consular offices in China (Asahi Shimbun)
10. US farmers' groups ask Congress to expedite ratification of KORUS FTA (Yonhap)
11. Seoul to strengthen rules against potential draft dodgers (Yonhap)
12. With South Korea eliminated from soccer's global championship, hundreds of thousands of Seoulites gather in City Hall Plaza to watch reruns of 2002 World Cup (Yonhap)

Holy watered-down statements, Banman!

Beijing and Washington have agreed on the wording of a condemnation of the late March sinking of South Korea's Chonan battleship. Great news, right?

Well, hold on, because if it involves China and its hegemonic relationship with North Korea, that necessitates a detour through Bizarro World, and what we have coming out the other end is this crap:

The U.S. and China have agreed to condemn the March 26 attack on a South Korean warship, without accusing North Korea, in a statement given today to the United Nations Security Council.

“The Security Council condemns the attack which led to the sinking of the Cheonan,” the statement, provided by the U.S. Mission to the UN, says. It “takes note’’ of North Korea’s denial of complicity.

Has sad it is that so little changes as time goes on. But if China is still peddling the fiction that the US and South Korea started the Korean War, why should we expect anything different on this score.

I'm really in the mood to stop buying Chinese products altogether.

Who owns the Korean Taco™?

Well, Kushibo does. Because I bothered to put the little ™ trademark thingee next to it. Duh. Next topic.

Seriously, though, this is a serious question, discussed by serious professors, like UCLA Law School's Kal Raustiala and the University of Virginia Law School's Chris Sprigman, who talk about it in the NYT's Freakanomics blog.

I know this is a serious discussion because Wangkon himself (HT!) emailed me a link of the OC Weekly blog article (blargicle™... er, barticle™) that highlighted this burning legal issue. And I'm glad he did, because I missed the NYT blarticle™ (that looks better) and I don't read the OC Weekly. Back in Hawaii, I pick up the Honolulu Weekly only to read this week's "Tom Tomorrow" (which they've stopped printing in color... the economy is that bad).

Anyhoo, this is has all got me to thinking that I now want a Korean taco. Ever since last year, I have been toying with the idea that when I'm in SoCal again (which I presently am), I would get myself on the Kogi Truck Twitter feed and find where they are that day. This could be exciting.

I may have to call Wangkon himself and suggest he join me when they next swing through OC. Usually I go on my food adventures with my Mom, because she pays, but this is what she'll say: "Why would we drive halfway across the OC and then wait in line like we're getting an iPhone for something we could put together ourselves by hitting two different restaurants at the same strip mall down on the corner?"

I then correct her, telling her it's a unique cross-cultural experience, and the synergy of mixing the two with intent is probably a better outcome than what we'd end up with by combining La Casa de Chang and El Coyote Naranjo. Also, don't use the definite article with "OC" unless you're doing so ironically, and please be reminded that since January 1, "strip malls" in Orange County are to be called "Lite Shopping Experience Centers." You're paying the fine next time, Mom.

So how 'bout it, WK? You pick me up at the Coffee Bean and we'll be on our way (unless you want to ride bikes).

In the meantime, there's a serious discussion for you, dear readers: Not unlike the notion of whether Korea "owns" kimchi, who gets to lay claim to the Korean taco. And since I withheld any adolescent to urge to make double entendres about Korean tacos, I expect you to do the same.

Jon Stewart (from two months ago) on the iPhone 4

I'm not ready with my review of my new iPhone 4 or the "eyePhone" parody of Apple fanboys on "Futurama," but I did run across this...

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Appholes
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

... and I find myself surprisingly close to Mr Stewart's thoughts on Apple (and Microsoft). Anyway, John from Taejŏn will have to be satisfied with this for the time being.