Category: Uncategorized

There is a very interesting interview in the Chosun Ilbo featuring Seoul Mayor Lee Myung-bak, who was the man responsible for the vision that made the extremely popular Cheonggye Stream project in downtown Seoul a reality. The interview featured a number of interesting questions but a couple of them stood out to me. Here is the first question I found the response to quite interesting:

Have you had difficulties being Seoul mayor as a member of the opposition party?

“There were major traffic problems with construction going on in the heart of the city. Authority over traffic rests with the central government and police, but there were difficulties owing to poor cooperation. When we had to remove 1,500 stalls, not one policeman helped.

This just doesn’t sound right, that the police did not do their jobs. Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the mayor in charge of the local police in Korea? Mayor Lee should of fired all those policemen that would not have helped.

Here is the second question I found the response interesting to. The question was about what he would do if he was the President of Korea:

“The biggest problem facing our society at the moment is employment; the most basic thing to make the people happy is to create jobs. One cannot create jobs through cutting-edge IT and BT industries alone. In a country of 50 million people, you can create jobs only by appropriately endowing the country with high-tech industries, financial services and manufacturing. In order to foster national competitiveness, we must cut prime costs by decreasing distribution costs. Transport costs from Seoul to Busan are similar or greater than those between Busan and Los Angeles. The Seoul-Busan Canal plan I announced during the 14th National Assembly is a comprehensive plan to foster national competitiveness and create jobs. A leader is someone who endlessly gives the people vision and hope.”

Building a canal from Seoul to Pusan would have to be one of the greatest engineering feats ever. It is hard enough to make highways here in Korea due to the mountainous terrain much less a canal. I don’t know if I was him if I would run for President based on this idea alone because this would be highly controversial. However, the recently completed Cheonggye Stream project was also controversial initially and now is considered a widely popular accomplishment. What I like about Mayor Lee is that he is a visionary and a leader. Isn’t it refreshing to hear a politician in Korea talk about doing great things in the future instead of focusing on rewriting past history?

Anyway, with all the fan fare over the opening of the stream I had to take a trip down to Seoul and see what all the excitement was all about. I was pleasantly surprised that the Cheonggye Stream project really has beautified this once dingy part of Seoul. I really hope that this will be a continuing trend to beautify Seoul and create a better international image for the city.

I do have some concerns about the Cheonggye Stream project, however. The stream is very clean and beautiful right now, but will the city authorities be willing to take the necessary measures to keep it that way? Will this stream after a few months have garbage lieing in it from picnickers, and cigarette butts & soju bottles scattered around from pedestrians? Will people walking along the stream have to dodge moped drivers using the stream as a shortcut to beat traffic?

Judging by the current performance of the Korean police force in upholding traffic and littering laws, I really have my doubts that the stream will remain in it’s current state. I am willing to bet that in the future the entire stream will have to be shut down for periodic cleaning and maintenance due to visitors polluting the stream. I really hope I’m wrong on this and that Mayor Lee does everything possible to keep the area beautiful but I have seen to many times before, while hiking in Korea, how people here pollute their own natural streams in the mountains, why should people treat an artificial stream in the middle of the city any differently?

I was reading Nomad’s post about Army recruiters not making this year’s recruitment goals and I began to think that the Army was the only branch of the military that was tasked to expand by 30,000-50,000 soldiers so not meeting the recruitment goals is not at all that surprising. All the other branches of the military that were not required to expand, met their recruitment goals. If the Army was not tasked to expand it would have met it’s recruitment goals as well.

Then I read this post from Greyhawk that tipped me off to this great post from the Big Lizard that explains that the Army is not yet in a recruiting crisis much more elegantly than I ever could:

So let’s review the betting: among people who have never been in the service, and who therefore probably get nearly all their knowledge of the military from news and entertainment shows on TV and in the movies, recruitment is slightly down from expectations, though probably enough to maintain the level of troops we have now.

But among soldiers who have actually fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, and who therefore know what is really happening on the ground from personal experience, re-enlistment rates were met. In fact, since the goal is to retain more people than normal (to meet the goal of increasing troop strength by 30,000 — right?), it’s safe to bet that the re-enlistment goals were higher than in previous years… which means there are more veteran troops in the Army than before, which would partially mitigate the lower numbers of raw recruits.

Since one experienced soldier is worth several kids straight out of boot camp, I’d say we got a bargain.

I agree that combat veterans are worth much more to our Army than just raw recruits and the Army is keeping their veterans in the service.

Let me give this issue some ancient historical perspective to better understand the importance of combat veterans. In 331 B.C., Alexander the Great brought 45,000 seasoned combat troops into battle against roughly 250,000 Persian soldiers during the Battle of Gaugamela located ironically in Northern Iraq near Mosul. This battle would decide who would rule all of the vast Persian Empire. The Persian King Darius was over confident that his vastly, numerically superior force would crush Alexander’s army. He let his numbers deceive him because many of his soldiers were peasants given a spear and little armor and put out on the battlefield against a harden Greek army with the best armor, weapons, and tactics available during those times.

To make a long story short, Alexander’s army outnumbered 5-1 crushed the Persian Army using their experience, weapons, and tactics. This allowed the Greeks to rule the greatest empire of the time, Persia unopposed. Alexander’s army would continue to roll up victories based on the fact that he was able to keep his hardened warriors and not rely heavily on raw recruits. Alexander never lost a battle because of this .

Although today’s American Army may not be able quickly expand it’s overall numbers, it is succeeding in keeping it’s combat veterans. This fact along with arming our soldiers with the best weapons, protecting them with the best armor and equipment, plus continuing to develop innovative combat tactics will ensure that America’s military remains the strongest in the world.

A few years ago I would never would have imagined that the old 2nd Infantry Division commander, General Russel Honore’ would one day have his own clothing line based off of one of his trademark statements, Don’t Get Stuck On Stupid:

Though the comments were directed at lazy, biased reporters who keep framing things in terms of former events like Vietnam or Watergate, Don’t Get Stuck On Stupid is a powerful statement about not repeating old mistakes. It can be a political statement or an expression of personal self-growth. To celibrate Lt. General Honore’s simple truth, we are offering apparel embroidered with Don’t Get Stuck On Stupid in a military stencil font.

General Honore’ has many other trademark phrases they can make T-shirts of as well. The only problem is that many of his best phrases involve 4 letter words you probably wouldn’t want to repeat in front of your kids.

Most people that follow the whole North Korea nuclear crisis know that North Korea won’t give up their nuclear weapons just like we know the US won’t build a light water reactor for the North Koreans as well. However, for those that remain unconvinced here is an interesting article in Time Magazine by Henry Solkolski that lays out why the light water reactor proposal is doomed to failure:

Second, respecting the peaceful nuclear rights of such an egregious cheater as Pyongyang can hardly help the international campaign to dissuade Iran from building nuclear weapons under the cover of an energy program. As one Indian security analyst put it, “Why should India back Washington’s effort to refer Iran’s nuclear misbehavior to the United Nations?” North Korea withdrew from the NPT, made bombs, and has a covert uranium enrichment program it denies exists—yet Washington has affirmed its right to nuclear power plants. Why not treat Iran—an NPT member with an internationally inspected, overt enrichment program—the same?

Consider his enriched-uranium-bomb project. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf testified to Pyongyang’s receipt of assistance from Pakistan’s uranium-enrichment guru, A.Q. Khan. But Pyongyang denies having a program, and U.S. intelligence agencies don’t know where or how many enrichment plants exist. It’s unlikely inspectors could operate any more freely in North Korea than they did in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. There’s no good way to locate Kim’s nukes using special technology. Inspectors will have to ask the regime to learn more, and Kim is sure to demand that the U.S. make concessions for every answer. In this game, Pyongyang’s deck will always be larger than ours.

Make sure you read the rest on your own.

Looks like the PATRIOT guys in Suwon are in trouble again. I don’t know much about Suwon Airbase but it sure knows how to air it’s dirty laundry:

The Army in South Korea is investigating an allegation that a male soldier carried out or attempted a sexual assault on a female soldier in a barracks at Suwon Air Base last week, Stars and Stripes has learned.

According to a unit member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, an incident occurred last week and led to the woman accusing the soldier of sexual misconduct toward her.

The issue of sexual assault is not just a Suwon Airbase thing but a problem throughout the Army and USFK as well. Just for whatever reason the PATRIOT guys seem to be taking the brunt of the publicity surrounding sexual assaults in USFK. I guess we will see how this turns out. I know one thing, if this guy is guilty no one will tear his rank off in court this time.

The Mayor of Seoul, Lee Myung Bak is reporting that the city government is in negotiations with the Walt Disney company to build a theme park here in Korea:

Seoul, South Korea, Mayor Lee Myung Bak says the city is in talks with The Walt Disney Co. about opening a theme park there, according to media reports Tuesday.
The park would be Disney’s third in Asia. It opened one in Tokyo Disneyland in 1983, and the company’s newest park, Hong Kong Disneyland, opened Sept. 12.

According to reports, a theme park in South Korea could boost the economy by nearly doubling tourist visits. Hong Kong Disneyland officials have said they expect the park to generate $19 billion in benefits to Hong Kong over a 40-year period. It is expected to attract 5.6 million visitors each year.

I doubt Disney will build a theme park in Korea because it would dilute the two theme parks they already have here in Asia. However, if Disney does build a theme park in Seoul it would be a major coup for Mayor Lee and would probably solidify him as a front runner for the next Korean presidential election.

THEN:

The skyline in downtown Seoul in 1971 viewed from Namsan mountain.

NOW:

Here is downtown Seoul today viewed from Namsan mountain.

Some of you may remember last month’s controversy surrounding the Hollywood Bar and Grill in Itaewon after a patron made the claim in the Korea Times that the bar was racist in it’s reasons for denying service to three of his Nigerian friends. The manager of the bar has now responded with his own article in the Korea Times disputing the racism allegations:

Finally, the owner never asked for ID until he was provoked to do so. A man ordered what the owner thought was “two draft beers.” When the owner brought the two beers, the man got irritated and replied that he really wanted “two screwdrivers.” When the owner brought two screwdrivers, the man laughed and said he only wanted one. The man’s friend, realizing he was being difficult, offered to pay for both drinks anyway. It was then and only then that the owner requested to see the man’s ID. As it so happened, the man was a Nigerian citizen. The owner then warned the man that if he continued to act in this way, he would be asked to leave. The man then responded with gross profanity and threatened the owner. At this point, the owner and manager told the man that he would have to leave. The man and a few of his friends continued to curse and threaten them as they left. Yet, how did the owner respond to all this? He completely refunded them for everything. That’s right, everything.

This is a good example of why it is important to get both sides of the story because if the above narrative is true I would have to say the owner did in fact have good reason to deny service to the three men. Read the rest of the response where the manager brings up some more good points and draw your own conclusions.

Here is another example that Americans are in fact the world’s biggest anti-Americans. Sorry South Korea protesters but you are not as nearly as repulsive as these people.

This week’s picture is a little bit harder than last week’s but should still be pretty easy.