Occidentalism

The Supreme Court of Korea (appointed by Park Chung-hee) ruled in 1970 that legal remedies for physical violence against wives are inadmissible in Korean law courts and that even wife rape cannot be considered to be abuse in Korean law courts.

“You cannot rape your wife” is the headline for the Korea Times article. This is because forced sexual intercourse of a wife has not been regarded as rape by the Korean Supreme Court since 1970. Is the Korean Supreme Court thereby protecting the conjugal right of Korean men to engage in forced, violent sex with their wives?

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family in an effort to address this issue of conjugal rights announced on Monday (26 November) its 4th basic policy program involving women’s affairs for 2013-2017,  the program is designed to prevent sexual and domestic violence and strengthen the punishment of violators.

The United Nations has long called on Korea to recognize wife rape.

“There has been opposition from legal circles but there is a need for serious discussion on the issue. Even among married couples, people have a right to choose and this should be part of the law,” said a female official from the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family .

Korea Times, 27 November 2012

“The International Finance Center (IFC) in Yeouido is struggling to attract tenants for its two newly-opened office towers, denting Seoul City’s ambitious plan to make it Northeast Asia’s financial hub.

Seoul City signed a contract with AIG Real Estate allowing the latter to use the IFC site for 99 years in return for paying annual rent. From 2006 to 2010, AIG did not pay rent but from 2011 through 2017, it is required to pay 1 percent of the site’s appraised value.”

If Asia is a bicycle wheel, then the Hub of Asia is presumably Hong Kong.

Korea is on the rim.

Lee Hyo-sik, Korea Times, 26 November 2012

A Korean woman had more success in the Korean courts than Lone Star in dealing with Korean financial products, as is related in the following story.

A 35-year-old Korean woman met a 33 year old Korean man through a friendly movie-going group in May 2010.

They dated until March 2011 then married in July 2011, after the Korean man artfully pretended that he had graduated from the economics departments of a leading private university in Seoul, was working for a trading company and had an apartment in Sillim-dong in southern Seoul.

After demanding a divorce the woman took the case to court and was awarded compensation of 67 million won ($60,000), including money spent on the wedding.

Korea Times, 26 November 2012

“A Korean court recently denied the request of the Korean Medical Association (KMA) to ban the Oriental Medicine Doctors Union from changing its name to the Association of Korean Medicine.

Oriental medicine doctors had been using the name the Association of Korean Oriental Medicine, but they changed the name to the Association of Korean Medicine in March … the KMA is adamant that the names are easily confused.”

Yoon Ja-young, Korea Times, 23 November 2012

People all over the Korean Peninsula laughed this off saying: “Do you think Koreans are so gullible? What next? You think people can be conned into believing that Starpreya is the same as Starbucks? Or that BMW Room Salon is Bavarian Motor Werke Room Salon? Totally, laughable. Everyone knows that this is just a marketing gimmick. Like saying a Hyundai has lower fuel consumption than a Honda.”

Ahn Cheol-soo

Naver News 23 November 2012

Later Tom found that it was lying everywhere and all the time.

“When I was a Peace Corps volunteer in the Korean countryside in the 1970s, virtually everyone lived in poverty by U.S. standards. Some lived in squalor, but the overwhelming majority lived simply and frugally. Those who were considered well-off at that time and place would nonetheless have been considered to be poor by American standards.

At the other end of the scale, Korean public servants were paid ridiculously low wages, as is the case in many developing countries. They actually needed outside income to live relatively comfortably and send their children to schools and universities. Often, the only plausible means for this large societal segment was to receive “gratuities.” One could normally count on having to pretty consistently pay 10 percent to get various matters handled.

The relatively well off (including “gratuity-boosted” public servants) often had an attitude that could be haughty given that their well-being was measured in the context of their villages and towns.

Social power, as defined within one’s social context, is the real corrupting influence. And the corruption is not limited to government officials and business tycoons.”

Tom Coyner, Joongang Ilbo, 19 November 2012

I remember a joke told by a Peace Corps volunteer that encapsulates the choleric envy of other bucolics who possess higher-level social status symbols.

What was the worst day in the Korean farmer’s life?

The day he heard his neighbour bought a cow.

What was the best day in the Korean farmer’s life?

The day he heard his neighbour’s cow died … poisoned by his wife … who then went to prison.

Two cows for the price of none!

In prison the wife died from loneliness, as her family never visited her … her husband was doing Korean man things … her son was too busy studying for the public service exam … and her daughter was on a “working holiday” in Australia.

With the money he received from his wife’s death benefit the farmer went out and bought a new suit … but not a new pair of shoes.

He then called at the local international marriage bureau and ordered a teenage bride from Vietnam.

His neighbour died from the unbearable heaviness of hwabyeong.

So endeth this tale of alcoholic, choleric bucolics.

Vietnamese Wives in the Korean countryside

“South Korea’s unique certificate system, driven by the government, has led to the isolation of South Korea’s IT,” Ahn wrote in his policy pledge book released earlier this week. “Excessive use of Active X is making web browsing less convenient.”

Sydeny Morning Herald, 15 November 2012

“Almost 60 percent of (the 111 actresses who responded to a survey by the Korean Women’s Development Institute) said they believed rejecting sexual advances would disadvantage their careers, and 48.4 percent said they had in fact lost out on appearances on shows because they refused.”

That means approximately 20% (11.6% of 60%) always provided sexual favours for Korean bosses to get jobs, and the other 40% sometimes didn’t provide sexual favours for some chaebol bosses and thereby sometimes lost jobs but got jobs at other times?

“Chaebol bosses were cited as the most common group of people seeking sex with the stars, cited by 43.9 percent of respondents, followed by TV producers and directors with 38.6 percent.

Among aspiring actresses surveyed, 72.3 percent were forced to go on a diet and 58.7 percent said they were told to have plastic surgery.

“Each year, 48,000 aspiring actresses graduate from various acting schools in major cities, and there is no way of telling how many more women are hired by small talent agencies,” a National Human Rights Commission official said.”

Chosun Ilbo, 5 November 2012

Korean Presidential Election

Latest Korean presidential opinion poll shows Ahn Cheol-soo at 49.4% and Park Geun-hye at 43.6% in a 2 horse race.

That leaves 7% undecided.

Assuming the 7% don’t turn up to the polling booths it’s a win to Ahn. If the 7% do turn up to the polling booths Park will need 6.4 percentage points of undecided voters. i.e. 92.9% of undecided voters … not going to happen.

Alternatively, Park Geun-hye at 46.4% and Moon Jae-in at 45.4%.

That leaves 8.2% undecided.

Assuming the 8.2% don’t turn up to the polling booths it’s a win to Park. If the 8.2% do turn up to the polling booths Moon will need 4.7 percentage points of undecided voters. i.e. 57.3% of undecided voters … not going to happen.

Kookjae News 25 October 2012

Time for Moon to decide to be a statesman as Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea, or to run for Mayor of Busan.

“Korea has a nasty habit of denying the existence of a problem, which actually feeds the problem and makes it bigger. Only when the problem bloats to a point where it could blow up for everyone to see will bureaucrats budge and throw an enormous amount of taxpayer money at it to extinguish the threat. I think this is happening with the household debt situation,’’ said Gongpil Choi, senior economist at the state-run Korea Institute of Finance (KIF), in a recent telephone conversation.

The core of the problem, he says, is that around 80 percent of Korea’s private-owned assets are in real estate.

To restore the health in consumer activity, it is critical to convert real estate assets into buying power, Choi said. However, property market fragility and precarious family finances suggest that households may not have the mettle to withstand a process of deleveraging.

“The deleveraging could trigger a dramatic fall in asset values, which then may paralyze the country’s financial system and batter the real economy into a long-term recession. The negative feedback on asset holders will be significant and the implosion could result in a wealth polarization much worse than the actual difference in income,’’ Choi said.

To combat the disastrous vortex of softening economic activity and spiraling debt, Korea is in desperate need of political honesty.

Korea Times, 14 October 2012

http://koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2012/10/123_122230.html

In 2005, 752 minors were booked on charges of rape, which surged 180 percent to 2,107 in 2010.

As the male population aged between 13-19 in Korea in 2010 was 2.187 million then about 0.96% of Korean teenage males were charged with rape in 2010. Thus approximately 1 in 100 Korean male teenagers are rapists.

“As sex crimes or other violent crimes committed by youngsters increase, more teens are being tried in criminal courts rather than family courts and being sent to prison,” a court official said.

If the Korean male teenagers charged in 2009 were sentenced to more than 12 months detention, then the number of male teenagers charged with rape in 2009 and 2010 are mutually exclusive sets, and the total number is approximately 4000 teenage male rapists or about 1 in 50. 1 per middle or high school class, or one per bus, or one per subway carriage.

The real figure is likely to be much higher, as most rapes are not reported in Korea, which places a premium on female chastity before marriage.

Chosun Ilbo, 15 October 2012

http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2012/10/15/2012101500503.html