Do not protest in front!!

Almost ten years ago, an Iranian guy showed up on the cover of the Economist and it all changed his life from normal protesting student to a dissident whose body once was torn up by torture.

He was simply protesting against his government and one of his friends was bleeding next to him. He tried to stop the flood of blood and he wanted to warn other students by showing the blooding T-shirt not to proceed.

However, the photographer of the Economist got him at the moment and it was released in all around the world in July in 1999. The secret interrogator got him and put him in jail. He was forced to say the T-shirt was painted by him to spread propaganda and he was sentenced to death more than three times. He became so famous in the other countries and he brought lots of attention that the Iranian government did not want. Therefore they could not hang him up.

He was in prison for 8 years and managed to fly to Iraq and finally became dissident of U.S.A.

In that case, who would be in charge of his life?(the photographer? the interrogator? the government?)what would be as worthy as his lost youth in prison?

That really sucks even to imagine.

more detail,
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/13/mideast/dissident.php?page=2
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11707464

God Bless Working Moms!

God, Bless Working Moms

One thing that we are misguided about Europe(Not all of them) is that every country in Europe has different systems of women right from Asia. However, when it comes to working moms, most of working mothers in the world, apparently are facing similar difficulties; a choice between career and baby. Obviously, German working mothers usually have to quite their jobs to take care of the baby and still lots of old women in German think that women should stay at home when they have children.

Germany is one of the countries that have the low percentage of working mothers in EU and that lies on the traditional concept of women role in society. Even though it is changing since the new century came, to think of the general reputation of European countries, it is not long before that Europe countries achieved comparatively better women’s right.

“that pressure has consequences. Because of it, German women are more reluctant than most in Europe to have children. When they do, they take prolonged leave from work, damaging their careers. Women’s average hourly wages are 22% lower than men’s, a gap exceeded in the European Union only by Slovakia, Estonia and Cyprus. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s sex may encourage some women, but not mothers: she is childless.”

It is pretty similar with Korea nowdays. Working mothers in Korea can take a maternity leave but women in private sectors(usually public company is generous but not that much better) dare to take it. Even though Korea has a paid parent leave in some field, working parents do not give any second thought about using it.

Though globalization blooms all over the world and though some Europe countries have better system for working women, there are still far ways to go to make working moms happy and feel free from having babies!

http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displayStory.cfm?source=hptextfeature&story_id=11708457

The Republic of Korea Cooperation; does it have potentials?

Recently, I finished reading a book called "Diamond Dilemma".

The book simply compares Korea with diamond, unsophisticated yet but not sure if it will be refined in the future either.

Korea once was in extreme poverty after Korean War aganist North Korea in 1950s and successfully overcame the hunger in a short time with leadership of the former president Park Jung Hee and special spirit of the people, so called " we can do it".

The frame with strong leadership and government's leading economy worked really well but change was needed to make progress forward. Korea failed to change the frame work internally even though the new era demended another paradigm. Korea ended up being under control IMF.

Since IMF experiences, Korea is on the spot of diverge. One way leads to better future after some suffering and changes in society. The other way results in just so so future in the world, as a country lagging behind other successful countries like China. Of course, this way guarantees stability for the time being.

To analyze all those aspects affecting Korean society including China's threat, severe labour union movements, trained students(not educated), corruptions of governments, hostile people toward foreigner investment etc, this book covers lots of factors in the way that Korean people can not realized. This book makes me think of where my country is, what my country will be and what we all should do for the better future.

Change. do not stick to the past success. do not sit around till change comes to.

A true crazy story in Korea from someone who i know

Check this out.

It is so shocking that it's unbelievable.

One of my participants from the other country is staying in Korea for a master's degree supported by the Korean government.

She lives in one of suburb cities of Seoul for the school and one day she came to Seoul to meet her friend. On her way back to her dorm, she was listening to music and reading a book on the subway. She was sitting. The subway was pretty crowded.

All of sudden, while she was reading, she felt drops falling from her hair into the book she's reading. first, she thought it was raining outside so some passengers dropped some rain from their umbrella. But it was not. when she looked up, there was a guy pulling out his penis and peeing on her hair.

She was so stunned and couldn't even scream. the next stop came and he walked out without pulling his pants up. Every single person on the subway was shocked but didn't do anything.
after the pervert got off the train, some little young girls across her seat were giggling.

She was so embarrassed and asked someone next to her of tissue. The person said no.
Until she got back to dormitory and had a shower, nobody in the subway gave her hands or even asked if she was OK.

She said she was angrier at people on the subway doing nothing than the guy who peed on her in public. She said she couldn't understand how normal people on the subway let that happen.

I felt so sorry for her and I do not understand either. She said people might not have helped her because she's foreigner. Maybe, it's true. Maybe it's not. However, still even though people on the subway were racists, i think it's not related to what color your skin is and what country you come from either. It is about the human right.

Bad Samaritans-Ha Joon Chang

Ha Joon Chang, the author and a korean professor at university of cambridge talks about the world's free trade illusion in the book.

His point of view on free trade and economic development in the world community is controversial and opposite to all those famous international organazations such as the worldbank, IMF and etc.

Here is the classical theory in economic developemt;

A country(also industries and companies too) in this irregistable global world should open its market and its economy. The sooner is the better and the wider is the better because if it is revealed to all competitors, it can not help but to compete with all other countries. Naturally it would survive if it's strong enough. if it's not, what can we do? just sorry for that.

Here is the new and daring theory in economic development;

A country(also industries and companies too) in this various world should not open its market and it's economy IF IT IS NOT READY. The later is the better(because it earns time to get ready)and the more specific is the better. Survival in competition does not simply depend on luck. it should be carefully manipulated.

So, which one do you agree with?

I agree with the later one, the author's point, because it's fair to start all over again at the same(or at least simillar) level. Of course, in reality, there is a remote possiblity that richer countries yeild its interest to poorer countries however, at least people in poorer countries need to be awake from the myth of Free Trade and all the economic theories. In that point, this book blows my mind. It is also fun to keep the track of all the references in the book.

hope you enjoy too if you are interested!

A thousand splendid suns

Along with "the kite runner", the new book "A thousand splendid suns" is also interesting and seems popular too.

This book is written by an afghanistan immirant of U.S.A , Khaled Husseini whoes current job is a doctor.

I very much enjoyed this book not only becuase it is interesting but also becuase it tells one nation's story through a novel. This is one of magnificant powers that literature has over people. For example, Amy Tan, a chinese-american author, became popular by a novel "the joy luck club" that tells about chinese departed family from a war. After this book, people in the world who read the book paid attention on china's history. Likewise, this book " A thousand splendid suns" gives people in the world a concept about Afghanistan after Russia invasion and Taliban regime.

Even though the authot implies something specific on "a thousand splendid suns", I think of it as every single book translated in other launguage, read by all other people in the world to help people understand the tragedy of Afgahanistan.

The synopsis is following ;

The novel opens with the introduction of Mariam, a girl growing up in a small village on the outskirts of Herat in western Afghanistan. She lives with her mother, Nana, an embittered woman who is frequently resentful of her daughter whom she bore out of wedlock. Mariam busies herself with lessons in reading and writing from Mullah Faizullah, an elderly, kind-hearted cleric, and weekly visits from her wealthy father, Jalil. Mariam has heard of her father's other wives and children, who live with him at his lavish home in Herat, but has never visited them due to the stigma of her being an illegitimate child.
On her fifteenth birthday in 1974, Mariam asks her father to take her to see Pinocchio at the movie theater that he owns. When Jalil fails to show up, Mariam decides to travel to Herat for the first time in her life and go to her father's house in person. Jalil refuses to see her, and she ends up sleeping outdoors on the porch.
In the morning, Mariam returns home to find that her mother has hanged herself out of fear that her daughter has deserted her.
Mariam goes to live in her father's house, where she feels isolated and spends most of her time alone in her room. Jalil and his wives quickly arrange for her to be married to an older widower named Rasheed, who is a middle-class shoemaker in Kabul.
In Kabul, Mariam begins adjusting to her new life as the wife of a man she barely knows. Mariam soon becomes pregnant, and Rasheed, having lost his own son in a drowning accident years earlier, hopes for a boy. When Mariam suffers a miscarriage, her marriage takes a turn for the worse; Rasheed is no longer cordial to her, and verbally and physically abuses her.
Down the street lives Laila, the beautiful, bright young daughter of ethnic Tajik parents - a progressive-minded high school teacher and a mother who mourns the loss of her two sons, who were mujahideen fighting the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. After a long friendship, Laila has a discreet romance with Tariq, a boy from the neighborhood who lost a leg as a small child to a land mine explosion.
After the victory of the mujahedeen, civil war comes to Afghanistan, and Kabul is bombarded by rocket attacks. Tariq's family decides to leave the city. The emotional farewell between Laila and Tariq culminates in a clandestine tryst on the living room rug.
During this time, Mariam has suffered several miscarriages, after each of which Rasheed has become more and more distant, abusive and cruel. He begins to find fault with everything she does.
Laila's family also decides to leave Kabul, but as they are packing, a rocket destroys the house and kills her parents. Laila is taken in by Rasheed and Mariam.
While recovering in Rasheed's and Mariam's home, a man comes to tell Laila that he met Tariq at a hospital, and that Tariq was now dead. After recovering from her injuries, including slight deafness in one ear, Laila discovers she is pregnant with Tariq's child. To avoid the stigma of being an unwed mother, Laila agrees to marry Rasheed, who is only too eager to have a young and attractive second wife, and immediately consummates the marriage in hopes that she can pass the child off as his.
Laila gives birth to Aziza, a daughter. Rasheed is unhappy and suspicious, and he becomes more abusive.
After an initially rancorous relationship, Mariam and Laila eventually become confidantes. They plan to run away from Rasheed and leave Kabul for Peshawar, Pakistan, but they are betrayed at the bus station by a man they thought they could trust, arrested and returned to Rasheed. Rasheed beats the two women and deprives them of water for several days, almost killing Aziza.
A few years later, Laila gives birth to Zalmai, Rasheed's son. By this time, the Taliban has risen to power in Afghanistan. They have banned television, movies and books other than the Koran, and women are not allowed to work. A drought comes, which eventually leads to widespread hunger and food shortages. When Rasheed's shop burns down, the family is thrust into destitution. There is little food and Rasheed finds himself reduced to working as a porter at a hotel. As their financial situation worsens, Aziza is sent to an orphanage several kilometers away.
Then one day, Tariq appears outside the house (it is realized that Rasheed paid the man who told Laila that Tariq was dead). He and Laila are reunited, and their passions flare anew. Tariq explains how he and his parents became refugees in Pakistan, his parents dying from disease and Tariq sentenced to seven years' imprisonment for drug smuggling. He further tells Laila of how he has found a home and employment at a hotel near Rawalpindi. Later, when Rasheed returns home from work, young Zalmai tells his father about the visitor. Rasheed starts to savagely beat Laila with his belt and strangle her, but Mariam comes to Laila's defense by killing Rasheed with a shovel.
Laila and Tariq leave for Pakistan with the children. Mariam confesses to killing her husband and is executed.
In 2003 (almost two years after the fall of the Taliban to US forces), Laila and Tariq decide to return to Afghanistan. They stop in the village near Herat where Mariam was raised, and discover a package that Mariam's father had left behind for her: a videotape of Pinocchio, her share of the family inheritance, and a note from Jalil explaining how much regret he felt in marrying her off just to save face. They return to Kabul and fix up the orphanage. The book ends with a reference to them deciding new names for Laila's new baby, but they're only debating male names, because Laila already knows the name if it's a girl. It is implied that the name would be Mariam.

Hunting U.S citizens?

Real TV shows are sometimes triggering unrealistic dreams.
An American reality TV show plans a program about women out of U.S.A seduce American guys who have U.S.A citizens.

The problem here is that this kind of show implies that women from other countries pursue visas by getting married. Of course, some women do in reality and some guys do too. However, this mass reality show helps the idea and stereotypes of women from the other countries spread over the world.

The program producer just siad,
"We're just out to play matchmaker," said the show's host, Angelo Gonzales. "There are thousands of U.S. citizens seeking a spouse, and just as many immigrants seeking the same. So we want to make it a win-win situation for all involved."