Category: Korea-General Topics

Here is an interesting read from a doctor who survived being infected with MERS by the 68 year old Korean man who initially brought the virus to South Korea after traveling in the Middle East:

Q. What were your symptoms?

A. In terms of my personal symptoms, there really isn’t much [to talk about]: a bit of muscle pain, indigestion, some coughing and a meager fever just high enough to fall after taking a few pills. The muscle pain wasn’t severe enough to take any painkillers. It hurt a little for about three to four days, but I got a lot better from the fifth. After a week, I started reading.

What was the most difficult pain to endure?

I don’t know whether my case can be comparable with that of other MERS patients. I was pretty healthy before the disease and also diagnosed pretty early, so it wasn’t as tough [as people assume]. I didn’t have trouble breathing. I’ve had the flu before, and if I were to grade the pain that ensued up to a 7, I’d say MERS was a 3 or a 4.

What was your daily schedule?

I had no sense of life during the first several days of treatment, but when I settled down later on I felt like my world was in tragedy. The television was one of my very few tools of connection with the outer world. I saw endless false rumors about MERS on the Internet, and being unable to speak up about the truth was what suffocated me the most. I was also worried about my own patients, and the false rumors that I treated them even after hearing the news I had MERS.

How are you feeling now?

I’m completely fine. I have a small cough, but I feel the same as I did before I had MERS.

As a doctor and former MERS patient, do you have anything to say about the current spread of the virus in Korea?

Fundamentally, I think doctors generally have to reflect upon their [lack of professionalism], because they were ignorant of MERS to begin with. In that sense, I think the outbreak may have been our [Korean doctors’] fault.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

Korean city where MERS spread struggles: “Business was pretty bad before. Now it’s worse.” http://t.co/THMj9Y2M5Z pic.twitter.com/JNjiXTUh6m

— Alastair Gale (@AlastairGale) June 11, 2015

It looks like this is a pretty impressive robot that KAIST won this recent competition with:

On Saturday, Team KAIST from South Korea emerged as the winner of the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) in Pomona, Calif., after its robot, an adaptable humanoid called DRC-HUBO, beat out 22 other robots from five different countries, winning the US $2 million grand prize. The robot’s “transformer” ability to switch back and forth from a walking biped to a wheeled machine proved key to its victory. Many robots lost their balance and collapsed to the ground while trying to perform tasks such as opening a door or operating a drill. Not DRC-HUBO. Its unique design allowed it to perform tasks faster and, perhaps more important, stay on its feet—and wheels.

“Bipedal walking [for robots] is not very stable yet,” Jun Ho Oh, a professor of mechanical engineering at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology who led the KAIST Team, told IEEE Spectrum. “One single thing goes wrong, the result is catastrophic.” He said a robot with a humanoid form has advantages when operating in a human environment, but he wanted to find a design that could minimize the risk of falls. “I thought about different things, and the simplest was wheels on the knees.”

DARPA decided to organize the DRC after the Fukushima accident in Japan, hoping to advance the field of disaster robotics. The DRC Finals called for teams of semi-autonomous robots and human operators to work together in a simulated disaster environment. The robots created by universities and companies for the competition varied widely in size and shape and include legged robots, wheeled robots, and hybrids as well.  [IEEE.org]

You can read more at the link, but basically KAIST won the competition because this robot completed all the tasks that the organizers outlined for this competition.

It will be interesting to see what kind of turn out this Christian group has against the queer festival:

Non-affirming Christian groups are circulating a text message requesting support for a protest against the opening ceremony of the Queer Cultural Festival to show the world how “moral” Korea is.

“By filling Chunggye Square and the pedestrian way with protestors we show our Korean morals to the world,“ Professor Gil Won-Pyoung said in text message that he is encouraging people to circulate on Kakao, Facebook and other social media channels.

“We have a duty as Koreans to do our utmost best to show our morals, as Korea is the only country to prevent the trending flow of homosexuality,” he said.

The Korea Observer translated this message in full for our readers:  [Korea Observer]

You can read the message at the link, but this guy is obviously delusional if he thinks Korea is stopping the trend of homosexuality.  The openness of gays in Korea has shifted dramatically for the positive in the past two decades.  Does this guy want Korea to be like Iran that hangs gays?  If the participants are not bothering anyone with their festival then this Christian group should show some respect and just leave them alone.

https://twitter.com/pearswick/status/608462820028641282

Here is an interesting chart that shows where the majority of the MERS infection are coming from in Korea:

A major worry about the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) outbreak is coming true: The disease is spreading to other regions as people who visited Samsung Medical Center move from Seoul not knowing that they’re infected.

Samsung, one of Korea’s biggest and best hospitals, accepts patients from every corner of the country. The Ministry of Health and Welfare is worrying about possible fourth-generation infections, although none have been reported.

The health authority announced nine more MERS cases on Tuesday, raising the total number of patients to 95, and reported one more fatality, Patient No. 47, the country’s seventh victim. Nine MERS patients, Patients No. 12, 23, 24, 28, 42, 58, 74, 81 and 83, are in critical condition.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read the rest at the link, but it looks like the infections are happening in the emergency rooms.  The lesson learned would appear to be to stay away from emergency rooms until this outbreak gets contained.

I think the lesson that Koreans traveling overseas on working holiday visas is to not work for other Koreans:

Most young Koreans participating in working holiday programs face a wide range of unfair labor practices and racial discrimination, according to the minor opposition Justice Party.

Six out of 10 working holiday visa holders experienced exploitation by employers, and four out of 10 suffered racial discrimination.

Alleged unfair practices include violation of the minimum wage rule, delayed payments, physical and verbal abuse, and sexual harassment, the party said in a report.

The party called on the government to monitor the situation and take measures swiftly, saying the victims complained of difficulty in seeking help through diplomatic channels.

 “Safety and labor rights of students working overseas are out of the authorities’ protection,” Justice Party floor leader Rep. Sim Sang-jeung said during a press conference at the Assembly, Monday.

“Among the victims, there was not a single person who sought help from the embassy or consulate to solve the problem,” she added, citing that distrust toward the government is prevalent among the visa holders.

The Justice Party conducted a 20-day survey of labor conditions related to working holiday programs from May 8 to 28, and publicized its report Monday. Of 100 respondents who experienced working holiday programs, 58 percent said they experienced unfair labor treatment.

About 65 percent reported violation of minimum wage rule, followed by delayed payments (39.7 percent); violation of contracts (29.3 percent); unfair dismissal (15.5 percent); physical and verbal abuse (6.9 percent); and sexual harassment (1.7 percent).

Of the four nations involved ― Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Japan ― Australia ranked tops in the percentage of unfair treatment of Korean workers, with 72.1 percent. Of all cases in Australia, 70.5 percent of illegal practices were found in businesses run by Koreans.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but how are these working holiday visa holder experiencing racism when they are being exploited by primarily other Koreans?

In Korea’s MERS outbreak, lessons from SARS highlighted http://t.co/YDuU3WkNvg pic.twitter.com/Q9AxXkLCdw

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) June 9, 2015

According to this CNN article people should not really be all that concerned because the virus is not as contagious as believed:

You can read more at the link.

Here is a unique soju commercial launched on YouTube featuring rhythmic gymnast Lee Su-rin which has gone viral in Korea:

A video ad for a recently introduced domestic soju Soonhari Chum Churum (meaning “soft, like first” in Korean) is going viral.

The video shows Korean gymnast Lee Su-rin, famous for being look-alike with idol singer Suzy from four-member girl band Miss A, performing her club event using two bottles of the product, introduced by Lotte Chilsung Beverage in March, as her clubs.

The 1:26 minute-long ad, with help of computer graphic effects, shows Lee managing a perfect performance, throwing and catching the bottles in collaboration with other gymnastic techniques. The ad’s fun is added by two TV commentators who slyly mimic real sports commentators and exaggerate their reaction to Lee.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link or just watch the video below:

https://youtu.be/laRZ1JjVX7U

I could not find out what Lee Su-rin’s age is, but if she is under the age of 24 she is not supposed to be doing alcohol commercials.  I wonder if that is why this commercial was released on YouTube as a work around to not be in violation of the new alcohol law?