THEN:

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

NOW:

Here is downtown Seoul today viewed from Namsan mountain.

This crap in the Chosun Ilbo is incredible. Anybody think this is true:

No U.S. Soldiers Held in Hundreds of Crimes

U.S. troops stationed in Korea were reportedly involved in 780 criminal acts, three of them homicides, between 2000 and August 2005, yet not a single one of them has been brought to book here, Seoul Metropolitan Police data show. Statistics announced on Monday by Democratic Labor Party lawmaker Lee Young-soon during an audit of the police show U.S. Forces Korea personnel implicated in three murders, 19 robberies, 149 thefts and other illegal activities, but none were in police custody.

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“Police do not even start questioning suspects before they are officially handed over to the U.S. because they claim there are no interpreters, while U.S. representatives are only concerned with taking custody of the suspect rather than to cooperating with the investigation,” Lee said. She urged police to be aware of SOFA guidelines on dealing with suspects and take a more active part in the initial investigation. Lee proposed creating a department that would handle all USFK-related business and boost police personnel in areas where U.S. forces are concentrated and crimes are frequent.

Where do I begin on this one? First of all, if the Korean police have custody of a soldier especially for homicide why do they hand the soldier over to the MPs to begin with? Secondly, I would like to see proof of these alleged homicides that were never prosecuted because there are plenty of soldiers in ROK jail now for homicides and manslaughter. Maybe they were handed over because there was not enough evidence and they were innocent? GI’s aren’t guilty for all the murders in Korea despite what some would like you to believe.

Thirdly, in regards to all the thefts, often if a GI for examples steals a laptop out of some juicy club in the ville and gets reported, the Korean police will contact the MPs to handle the case. The MPs will then find the soldier, locate the property, and return the property to the owner. The Korean police than let the military keep jurisdiction on the case and conduct military justice on the soldier because it is less work for the Korean police to do. They got more important things to do like sleep in their cars.

This is the same procedure the Korean police use for many low level crimes that GIs commit. Here is another example for you I have seen happen in the past, a soldier getting picked up for urinating on the side of a building. The Korean police let the US military handle these things. However the Korean police have initial jurisdiction to handle these cases due to the SOFA agreement. This is getting to the point that maybe USFK should make the police do their jobs so crap like this doesn’t get printed. Make them write up every soldier caught urinating on a building instead of sleeping in their patrol cars.

In regards to parking tickets I have no experience with this since I’m in 2ID and we can’t drive maybe Mark can provide some insight into that, but it is probably BS like the rest of this article.

Maybe I should start tallying a list of unreported Korean crimes and demand a change to the SOFA agreement to allow the MPs to take custody of these people. Just imagine how large my list would be if we reported every taxi driver that tries to rip off soldiers. A criminal activity that would really make the statistics go through the roof would be to tally every time a soldier is offered a prostitute. That’s a crime right? What about selling alcohol to minors? I could easily manipulate a statistic to push an agenda and that is what this whole article is about, pushing an agenda that GI’s are criminals. I’m not buying it, but unfortunately many Korean people are.

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.

Well known Hollywood stars are quickly losing their appeal in Japan:

A Hollywood in-house secret, Japanese TV commercials were once talked about with a wink and a shake of the head. Piles of cash were paid to stars willing to peddle anything from whiskey to cigarettes, cars to coffee, instant noodles to cafe latte — as long as nobody told the fans back home. Hey, did you know Dennis Hopper did one for bath products? How much do you figure Leonardo DiCaprio got for that SUV spot? A million? Three?

Sadly, the days of seeing, say, Harrison Ford guzzling Kirin beer may be over. American stars have not vanished from the Japanese advertising landscape, but their numbers have dropped dramatically since the heyday of the 1990s, when even Mickey Rourke was considered bankable here.

So who is taking the business from the Hollywood stars? Asian film stars are, led by the remarkable success of Korean film star Bae Yong-joon or otherwise known in Japan as Yon-soma:

“The Hollywood brand isn’t the best anymore, and Hollywood actors aren’t effective enough anymore,” said Yukio Mori, president of Systrat Corp., a marketing and promotion consultancy in Tokyo. “Consumers are in favor of singers or artists who are familiar, rather than foreign movie stars.”

It’s a demographic that makes marketers swoon, too. Yon-sama is now the biggest foreign star in Japan. Bigger than Brad. Bigger than Leo. Dozens of Japanese companies are desperate to attach their brand to Yon-sama, or at least to find the next great Korean star.

I don’t much care for Hollywood stars any more either, so I can’t blame the Japanese public getting turned off by them. Today’s Hollywood actors seem more concerned about promoting themselves and their politics than actually making good movies. Were there any good Hollywood movies this summer? The Fantastic Four was absolute crap.

They still love Nicolas Cage however:

Four years ago, a Japanese company that makes the machines for the wildly popular gambling game pachinko was looking for a way to add a little glamour to the industry’s less-than-savory image.

CAGE (screaming maniacally): “I love pachinko!”

I agree with the reporter, let’s see Yon-soma pull that off.

Popular South Korean news website, Oh My News has apparently been hacked:

The well-known Korean online news service OhmyNews, which is written by its readers, has reportedly been infected with a “Trojan Horse,” a malicious code that allows hackers to steal personal information. Internet security firm Geot (ww.geot.com) and Manian.com (manian.dreamwiz.com), a club of Internet users, said Sunday OhmyNews was hacked on Saturday afternoon.

The Trojan lurking on the website will install itself on the computers of readers logging on to the site, and will leak their ID and passwords when they log onto online game sites.

Apparently a Chinese hacker did this to get online game passwords. I wonder if this is going to start a cyber war?

Interesting article about Russia Town located in Pusan in the Korea Times:

Walking down the streets in that area, you will see many foreigners wandering among local shops selling clothes, shoes, bags, electronic appliances and international food.

However, the most striking distinction of Choryang is that Russians have begun appearing since the early 1990s, and their dominant presence has made the area become known as “Russia Town’’ in Pusan.

This area of Pusan has long been known by GI’s as Texas Street, but it has definitely been taken over by Russians in recent years, so Russia Town is a more fitting name. Anyone who has been there knows that the area is known more for it’s bars than its shopping:

Though Russia Town in Pusan is quiet in the daytime, nowadays, it still turns into a bustling town at night with the buzzing neon signs of bars and clubs.

If any man steps out in Russia Town at night whether he is Korean or Russian, he will soon find himself solicited by ladies from Russia and other CIS countries to have a drink in a bar.

For some reason I think they are soliciting more than a drink.

If you are in the Shinchon area and are looking for something interesting to do, besides head down to the Hongik University area, there is always the Erotic Art Musuem you can check out instead:

Nestled behind the Hyundai Department Store next to Sinchon subway station, the Erotic Art Museum would be easy to miss save for a shiny golden replica of Michelangelo’s David outside that evokes both the elegance of some exhibits and the tawdriness of others.

“A culture of sex has been lacking in this country,’’ he said, “and I want to contribute to increasing the level of sex education among Koreans.’’

I find it very ironic that Mr. Won thinks Korea lacks a culture of sex when you are literally surrounded by the sex industry here. Just about every US Army camp and Air Force Bases have clubs that offer prositution right outside the main gates. Than there are multiple red light districts in every city here, not to mention the barber shops, massage parlors, and tea shops that offer their own sex services.

He did have some interesting things to say in regards to sex within the Yangban class during the Chosun dynasty:

Under Korea’s obligations as a vassal of China, sons of Koryo monarchs were required to live in China for a time, during which they would both find a wife, and learn of the more liberal and sophisticated sexual mores of the Chinese court. By contrast, as Choson kings set about applying a rigorous form of Confucianism to Korea, beliefs about sex, especially as far as women were concerned, became suffocatingly straight-laced.

Elsewhere, there is a wide array of phalluses, used for everything from preventing disease to promoting fertility to fighting infidelity. Apparently, in Choson times it was believed that if women in the village were committing adultery, it was a sure-fire sign of too much “umgi,’’ the feminine form of “ki,’’ or the “life-force’’ which is central to much Eastern philosophy and medicine. The placement of a large wooden phallus in the village was considered the best way to deal with this problem.

Maybe we need to put some of these phalluses out on our military bases as well.

Mike Weisbart in the Korea Times has a good column on what VANK should be doing besides harrassing foreigners with their views of history:

I used to think the people from VANK had nothing better to do with their time. As you may know, VANK is the Volunteer Agency Network of Korea, the organization endearingly dedicated to promoting a positive image of the country. They’re the ones who started up that big sleuth campaign on the internet, asking people to hunt around looking for mistakes that foreigners make when referring to Korea

(…)

A better priority would be to convince your lawmakers to stop acting like a bunch of Neanderthals. Few things hurt the reputation of this country more than images beamed around the world of legislators slugging it out at the National Assembly.

Yes, that’s right, there was yet another nasty incident in the National Assembly the other day. This time it was the would-be champions of a closed rice market who did their best to make Korea look bad.

He is absolutely right. I talk to people back in the US and they don’t ask me about the East Sea or Dokto; they ask me about the fist fight in the Korean parliament or the violent anti-American riots they saw on the news. This is what is killing the country’s image, not someone calling the East Sea the Sea of Japan.