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Sinchon Station Old and New: The Korean curse of false monumentality
One of the saddest aspects of contemporary Korean culture is the emphasis on false monumentality.
The assumption among many Koreans, and especially city planners, that large and impressive structures create a modern, and therefore more enjoyable and more livable, environment.
Nowhere is this tragedy more apparent than at the Sinchon station near Yonsei University. The has been built up into an enormous shopping center, but there is almost no business and the building was so poorly constructed that it has been shut down for repairs. The assumption was that somehow through this massive over-development the neighborhood would be improved. But the simple original Shinchon Station remains as a contrast. This handsome building is more than sufficient as a station and with a bit of modification could still be employed today.
Seoul launches signage for smart phones
Clearly the increase in accidents due to the carelessness of smart phone users was behind the launch of this signage by the city of Seoul. I must say that it would have been better to include images of drivers using cell phones as well.
“기후변화 림팩 필요하다: 아시아 군대간 긍정적 경쟁 유도” (아시아투데이 2016년 5월 25일)
아시아투데이
“기후변화 림팩 필요하다: 아시아 군대간 긍정적 경쟁 유도”
2016년 5월 25일
동아시아 지역의 군사력 확대에 대한 공포는 지역의 안정성을 보장하는 견고한 제도적 구조를 구축하려는 노력에 찬물을 끼얹고 있다. 이는 미국으로 하여금 중국과 중요한 전략적 문제에 대해 협력을 반기도록 내부적으로 통합하려는 시도를 흐트러지도록 하고 있다.
이에 더해 중국과 일본 간 영유권 문제로 불거진 양국간의 긴장과 한국의 위안부 등 역사 문제에 대한 분쟁은 군사적 대응과 대립을 조장하는 정치적 환경을 만들어냈다. 최근 북한의 핵실험은 동북아시아 뿐만 아니라 어쩌면 동남아시아까지도 참여하는 대규모 군비 경쟁을 기대할 수준으로 불신을 고조시켰다.
이제 미국은 도적적 용기를 가져야 할 때이다. 미국, 정확하게 미 태평양 사령부는 앞장서서 안보문제에 대해 솔직하고 실질적인 대화에 나서야 한다. 태평양 사령부는 안보문제에 관해 이 지역의 모든 국가와 투명하게 소통하여 경쟁이 아닌 협동을 도모할 수 있는 혁신적이고 협력적인 접근방식을 제안해야 한다. 명심해야 할 것은 안보와 국방정책의 기반을 시대에 뒤떨어진 냉전의 개념인 제지와 견제에 두지 말고, 오히려 새로운 비전통적 위협에 대응하는 방식으로 해야 한다는 점이다.
최근의 파리기후총회(COP 21)는 저탄소 개발 모델로 빠르게 전환하기 위한 구체적인 요구사항을 규정했다. 이는 군사문제에 대해 미국, 일본, 한국, 중국 및 아세안 국가가 서로 더 긴밀한 협동을 위한 기반역할을 해야 할 것이다.
TV Chosun Broadcast error?
TV Chosun Broadcast error
TV Chosun broadcast the talk show “Gangjeok deul” 강적들 on May 11. The panelists turn the subject of how American presidential candidates make use of young people. They gave several examples of young people who played critical roles.
When they discussed how Bill Clinton had appointed Rahm Emanuel as the Assistant to the President for Political Affairs at the young age of 33, they showed this image.
But the photograph they used was not one of Rahm Emanuel, but rather one of Emanuel Pastreich. Perhaps a result of an image search on Naver?
Unlikely to be in any Clinton administration, you can be sure.
Korean Environment Seminar Series
The Korean Federation of Environmental Movements
&
The Asia Institute
June 26 (Sunday)
5-7 PM
“The nuclear question in Korea and in Northeast Asia”
Discussion led by Hyejeong Kim
Commissioner
Nuclear Safety and Security Commission
This series of seminars introduces critical issues for the environment in Korea and in East Asia for all concerned citizens. Korea is increasingly benchmarked by developing nations so that its policies and standards for environmental protection have far broader impact throughout the region. Moreover, environmental regulations have been much relaxed over the last decade with grave impact on air quality and water quality.
伯尼·桑德斯 Bernie Sanders 美国总统选举的候补者的演讲的一部分
伯尼·桑德斯 Bernie Sanders
美国总统选举的候补者的
演讲的一部分
“我们需要了解这一点: 极少的人有这么多, 极多的人有这么少的这种社会里面, 算是一个没有正义的国家.
我们的国家, 富裕人民的美国人口的0.1%所有的财产几乎等于其下的90%人民的财产. 这种国家是没有正义的国家. 在我们国家美国， 有几百万人工作时间 非常长而收的工资可恶的低.
美国的儿童贫困率是比其他主要国家高. 像美国的国家是一个没有正义的国家.
如果我们是这样背心我们国家的小孩子,我们这么可以讲什么”道德” 什么“正义”？
好像我们国家有够的钱把比其他的国家更多人民管起来在刑务所，但是难怪我们国家没有钱给我们的年轻人好的工作，给他们好的教育。
上帝的小孩子， 贫穷的，可怜的， 所有的上帝的小孩子， 生病时都有权利看医生。“
“We have to understand that there is no justice when so few have so much and so many have so little. There is no justice when the top 0.1% owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90%. Millions of people are working long hours for abysmally low wages.
There is no justice when the United States has the highest level of childhood poverty of any major country on Earth.
How can we talk about morality, about justice, when we turn our backs on the children of our country. We have in this country sufficient amounts money to put more people in jail than any other country on Earth, but apparently we do not have enough money to provide jobs and education to our young people.
All of God’s children, the poor, the wretched, they have a right to see a doctor when they are sick.”
Obama’s visit to Hiroshima
United States President Barack Obama plans to visit Hiroshima next week, the first United States President to do so in the formal capacity of his office.
The New York Times published an editorial on April 12, 2016 entitled
“From Hiroshima to a Nuke-Free World”
Which seemed to imply that this symbolic act suggests the United States is moving towards the elimination of nuclear weapons.
The facts suggest the complete opposite and therefore the visit seems extremely dubious in its intention.
President Obama has overseen the beginning of a one trillion dollar program to develop a new generation of nuclear weapons in blatant violation of the Non Proliferation Treaty, a policy decision which can only encourage other nations to develop nuclear weapons as the United States is not adhering to the very rules under which it claims it can stop others from developing weapons.
These new nuclear weapons include compact nuclear devices that are tempting to use (intentionally) at the tactical level. Therefore they not only violate the Non Proliferation Treaty, they introduce the potential for the first time in history that the move from a gun to a howitzer to a conventional missile to a compact nuclear weapon to a multi-megaton warhead will be but a natural progression. There will no longer be a clear “line in the sand” between conventional and nuclear war. That makes nuclear war much easier. And in light of the the planned post-election squeeze on Russia, we are looking at the potential of nuclear war reaching the probability we saw in the 1950s and 1960s, and most likely the highest risk that mankind has ever seen.
For someone who is allowing this to happen to go to Hiroshima is so ridiculous as to be funny if it were not so very very sad.
Two Invitations to parties held at Jeff and Emanuel’s suite in Davenport College in 1987
My roommate at Davenport College, Yale, for three out of four years, was Jefferson Mays. Jeff has become a famous actor and I have not seen him since I went to see him in “I am my own Wife” in 2006 in Washington D.C.
Jeff and I engaged in any number of pranks and performance acts. I remember our salon gatherings of our classmates most vividly. Here are two invitations to those gatherings that I have preserved. I drew the lizard and Jeff did the rest for “The Lizard is Your Friend.”
“Save me from my paranoid room” is entirely my own work. I had drawn horrible ghosts on the walls of my room with glow-in-the-dark paint. The ghosts were so horrible they kept me up at night. So I painted over them. That did not make any difference, however. The ghosts shown through the paint, looking only the more eerie for the cover.
“Annuncio della mia candidatura alla presidenza di Facebook” (Geopolitica)
Geopolitica.info
Centro studi di geopoliticai e relazioni internazionali
“Annuncio della mia candidatura alla presidenza di Facebook”
di Emanuel Pastreich
13 maggio 2016
Cari cittadini di Facebook,
Facebook è molto più delle server farm di Mark Zuckerberg e del suo esercito di encoder. Per noi, oggi, Facebook costituisce il mezzo più efficace di comunicare e di formare reti di collaborazione al di là delle frontiere nazionali. Facebook è un network senza precedenti, costituito da persone che potrebbero fortemente contribuire a risolvere le sfide della nostra epoca se ciò fosse loro permesso. È per noi giunto il tempo di dichiarare la nostra indipendenza nei confronti dell’impero che ci controlla.
Internet è spesso concettualizzata come una serie di livelli distinti, che vanno dal livello 1, le connessioni materiali di fili e di cavi che sostengono le nostre comunicazioni, al livello 7, che rappresenta il funzionamento delle applicazioni in Internet. Ma la comunità globale di Facebook si situa ad un livello più elevato del livello 7, formato dall’applicazione della rete: costituisce il livello 8, di natura culturale, sociale e politica, solo indirettamente collegato ai sette livelli sottostanti.
Quando parlo della mia candidatura alla presidenza di Facebook, mi riferisco al livello più alto di Facebook: il livello 8, la Repubblica di Facebook, che noi, i suoi cittadini, abbiamo creato, e su cui Facebook, Incorporated non ha alcun impero. Ma Facebook, Incorporated tenta attivamente di minare i nostri sforzi per creare a tale livello una comunità democratica e costruttiva, rendendo impossibile il recupero dei vecchi post – privandoci così dell’accesso alle nostre proprie creazioni, privandoci di un significativo grafico sociale ricercabile per trovare nel mondo i partner idonei, e impedendoci di progettare le nostre proprie pagine. Facebook, Incorporated non ha nemmeno ascoltato le nostre proposte di miglioramento.
Mark Zuckerberg si concentra esclusivamente su profitti e non ha alcun interesse ad ascoltare le nostre richieste. Oserei dire che non lo farà mai di sua iniziativa. Dobbiamo dichiarare Facebook indipendente e dobbiamo pianificarlo ed amministrarlo in modo da rispondere ai bisogni dei suoi cittadini nel mondo intero.