nanoomi

A new post from a vigilant Korean blogger has once again focused attention on alleged sharp practices by Naver, and other Korean portals, regarding their search results. Worse for domestic portals, the post has started a Twitter firestorm, with a growing number of Korean netizens urging their countryfolk to abandon Naver in favour of Google.

As the Newsface piece points out, a major recent example concerned Shin Jeong-ah, the shamed former Dongguk University art professor who was found to have lied about her academic credentials. In her autobiography, Shin claimed that “C”, a former journalist at the Chosun Ilbo and later a member of the National Assembly, had sexually harassed her in a taxi.

Articles about the incident surged up search rankings until said assemblyman, claiming that the story was defamatory, demanded that Naver remove the results. However, Daum, Naver’s biggest domestic rival, left its results as they were.

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On Monday the press, the diplomatic corps, hundreds of young volunteers and the president were present on the Blue House lawn to celebrate the anniversary of the founding of World Friends Korea.

While I was aware of Korea having a volunteer program inspired by the American Peace Corps, I hadn’t realized that volunteers had been dispatched overseas by agencies like the Korea Overseas Volunteers (KOV) Program and the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) since 1990 – only nine years after the Peace Corps left Korea. The number of volunteers sent overseas each year has grown quite a bit since then:

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SELCA is when people take a picture of themselves, while holding the camera. It’s a Konglish contraction of self-camera.  I took two pretty legendary selcas on Monday… but you have to read the post to find out with whom.

OK then.

World Friends Korea is the name of a group of government-run volunteer programs. There used to be overseas volunteer programs run by three government ministries, but they’ve been combined as “World Friends Korea” to provide a more coherent image of Korean overseas volunteers. It includes some internet volunteer programs, some Peace Corps volunteer programs, some expert adviser-type programs, and Taekwondo Peace Corps. (Event coverage at Korea.net)

Now, volunteering is great, and volunteering overseas or outside one’s home country can be a life-changing, horizon-expanding experience: I’m glad there are Korean programs doing this.

Well, on Monday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Presidential Council on Nation Branding, and the Korea International Cooperation Agency organized an event on the Blue House lawn… because, I suppose, I write about Korea in English, and almost half of my readership is international, I fit into the “Branding Korea” box, and my buddy Mike, who’s on the Presidential Council on Nation Branding, recommended me for an invitation.

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In order to prevent the ‘humiliating diplomacy’ of holding a conference to open diplomatic ties with Japan (20 years after Japan’s occupation ended), students protested against the conference in 1964. Unless otherwise mentioned, the photos are from Seoul Through Pictures 4: Seoul, to Rise Again (1961-1970).

Students at SNU called for protests, burned effigies of ‘imperialist and nationalist traitors,’ and held a protest against the upcoming Korea-Japanese conference on Jongno on March 24, 1964.
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If it’s not too late, here’s a chance to go see the 4 Rivers Restoration Project – President Lee’s hotly contested big project – in person.

To get an idea of what the 4 Rivers Project seems to be doing to the river ecosystems, look at this earlier Nanoomi post.  (Photo from link)

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Mediatossi (미디어토시) is a Korean power-blogger who writes on Korean politics and current affairs. He writes a daily round-up of news here.

Rewriting History?

During the last Cabinet meeting, President Lee Myung-bak said that, “It has been two years since the Candlelight demonstrations. Even though it has been proven that many speculations that led to the demonstrations have been proven false, none of the intellectuals and medical experts have showed remorse.” He ordered that, “This type of violent disruption should be written into our history and so the Prime Minister’s office, Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Ministry of Knowledge Economy and all related ministries should produce objective and scientific reports.” Hae-jin Cho, spokesperson for the Grand National Party also asserted that “2008’s MadCow upheaval was an episode of a great fraudulent play, planned by Korea’s anti-state subversives, incited by a few media outlets, using the Internet as a tool of conspiracy, and blindly followed by opposition parties.  Cho added, “The forces behind MadCow, should get down on their knees at Cheongyae Square and raise candlelight for apology to the Korean people.” Read article.

Rewriting history only after two years? And look who’s writing.
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JayKay is a Korean power-blogger who writes about “Life in Daegu”. You can find the original post here.

JK’s post is another commentary on the continuing political controversy over the Korean government’s policy to “revitalize” the four major rivers that run through South Korea.

The debate continues whether the Four Rivers Restoration Project will save or kill the four rivers, and Jiyul Sunim, the renown Buddhist environmentalist, took photos of the Nakdong River to preserve it at least in the image format.

The photos below were introduced via the blog of Apsangokji who’s been to the Nakdong River to produce field reports on the Four Rivers Restoration Project. Jiyul Sunim has also visited the Nakdong River numerous times even before the Four Rivers Project began, and now she writes about her visits.

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President Lee went down to Gunsan to celebrate the opening of he Saemangeum Seawall, the longest in the world (which likely explains the flags, not that you need an excuse to wrap yourself in a flag, mind you). I’ve covered this white elephant before here and here, and as Birds Korea’s site notes, the tidal flats were once an important feeding area for migratory birds (some endangered) and complaints by environmentalists managed to stall the project (to some degree) for five years (they weren’t allowed to lengthen the walls, but could widen them). The original plan was to reclaim land for farming (this was spoken of even a few years ago – even that the food could be sent to North Korea) but it has since changed to creating a ‘tourism hub’ and other soju-bender- influenced ideas. Anything to justify the 2.9 trillion won handed out to construction companies to build something that’s essentially useless (other than for getting rid of foreign birds and connecting Gunsan and Buan), I suppose.
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