5112개의 게시물을 찾았습니다.
Oops... a protest ('press conference') in front of the Israeli embassy on Shabbat???
Well, it's just a "great idea" - at least it ensures that the recipient of the protest (the Israeli ambassador and his staff) isn't "at home"!!
Anyway, here some articles, related to the protest's subject:
☞ Hamas refuses flotilla aid delivered by Israel (Guardian, 6.03)
☞ The day the world became Gaza (al-Jazeera, 6.03)
☞ We are all Gazans now (Asia Times, 6.02)
☞ 'A war for world’s future' (Yedioth Ahronoth, 5.31)
Yesterday's regional/local elections in S.Korea
AND THE WINNER IS... (surprise, surprise!) THE RULING CLASS
But (unfortunately) the ruling class in S.K. isn't the working class...
According to K. Herald out of the total 228 electoral districts picking lower-level administrative chiefs, the DP scored victories in 92 districts while the GNP secured 82 posts. Independent candidates won 36 posts while the LFP and the minority Democratic Labor Party garnered 17 posts and three posts, respectively.
Related articles:
☞ Opposition parties secure significant victory in elections (Hankyoreh)
☞ Voters Fire Warning Shot at Government (Chosun Ilbo)
☞ DP basks in election victory; GNP grapples with debacle (K. Herald)
☞ GNP leaders to resign after election defeat (Yonhap)
☞ Followers of late former President Roh return to politics (K. Times)
Rev. Moonsu, a Buddhist monk burnt himself to death Monday to protest the so-called "Four Major Rivers Restoration Project"!!
Yesterday's (conservative/reactionary) JoongAng Ilbo reported the following:
Monk immolates himself in rivers protest
Locals found the 47-year-old monk Moonsu of the Jogye Order, Korea’s largest Buddhist sect, dead near a stream in Gunwi County, North Gyeongsang, at around 3 p.m. on Monday. He left a suicide note inside his clothes that read, “The Lee Myung-bak administration must stop its four rivers restoration project immediately, eradicate corruption and do its best for poor and underprivileged people instead of the rich.” The note also stated that the monk felt sorry for his family as well as fellow Buddhists.
Last year, president’s administration started the four rivers project to restore the nation’s major rivers - the Han, Geum, Nakdong and Yeongsan. The project has met fierce criticism from opposition parties and civic groups, which protest that ecosystems in and around the rivers will be ruined by this project. They also insist that the government is wasting valuable tax money on a futile effort.
Police said they confirmed that Moonsu bought gasoline from a gas station at around 7:20 a.m. on Monday and seemed to have set fired to himself. “Looking at various evidence, we suspect that he burnt himself to death.”
The monk entered the Buddhist priesthood in 1986 and went on to practice in temples including Haein and Tongdo. From 2006 to 2007, he was the head monk at Daesan Temple in North Gyeongsang.
The local Buddhist community mourned their loss as the Jogye Order sent monks to North Gyeongsang, where Moonsu was found. The Jogye Order announced its official stance on the monk’s death yesterday, stating, “We are truly mourning the loss of monk Moonsu and wish him a peaceful passage to death.”
Around 20 Buddhists from various groups including the Buddhist Ecology Federation held a press conference at Jogye Temple in central Seoul yesterday.
“Monk Moonsu’s self-immolation threw an important question toward us as religious people concerning the value of life,” said monk Sugyeong, head of the Buddhist Economy Federation during the press conference.
Meanwhile, voices of opposition toward the government’s four rivers project became stronger yesterday. The Busan citizens’ group against the four rivers project held an emergency press conference in front of Busan’s city hall urging a halt to the restoration. The civic association Geumganggwon, composed of 45 different groups from the Daejeon, North and South Chungcheong and North Jeolla areas, also held a press conference in front of South Chungcheong provincial office to state their opposition to the project.
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2921282
FIRST RESPONSE ENGLISH EDUCATORS
Press Release (May 30, 2010)
FREED (First Response English Educators) is a first response support network for teachers and it has particular concern for the newest newcomers among teachers in South Korea. It provides information and consultation regarding settlement and employment. FREED is also an affiliate of TEA-KOR, an anti-imperialist network for teachers established in 2007.
FREED upholds the values of human rights and peace. We enjoy the support of the Busan Human Rights Counseling Center (Busan Ingwan Sangdam Center) .
With this press release, we want to address some current issues related to human rights and peace. Many education issues have come to our attention lately. Also, we wish to communicate a message of concern for peace in the region.
The crackdown against migrant workers
Many migrant workers from poor countries come to work in Korea at the invitation of employers and many employers take advantage of them by not properly documenting them. FREED discourages undocumented employment. However, we object to methods of enforcement that violate human rights and democratic practice. South Korea companies have accepted migrant workers without the regular monitoring of employers over the years but initiates periodic crackdowns unjustly. We think that employers and faulty government regulations are largely responsible for the lack of documentation. We express solidarity with all workers, including teachers and all migrants. Workers without documentation should be documented and amnesty granted until documentation is completed.
The MEST dismissals
FREED upholds the civil rights of all, including the political freedoms of freedom of association and the freedom to organize. How can an election be legitimate if the incumbent candidates use the mechanisms and power of the state to persecute the supporters and members of opposing parties? We support democratic participation in the political process. We support the calls for the reinstatement of the public school teachers dismissed for political involvements.
The arrests of labor leaders
Furthermore, we strongly object to the arrests of legitimate union staff and representatives in the KTU and other unions. This is profoundly undemocratic and hypocritical of the state officials responsible for ordering these dismissals. We demand their release and an end to such persecution of labor organizers. We urge freely negotiated settlements to all outstanding collective agreements in the public and private sectors.
The dismissed university lecturers
FREED joins in the call for the reinstatement of the thousands of laid-off university lecturers. We object to the mass lay-off of all the part-time and casual employees in multiple sectors, which was done so that employers could avoid the expenses of newly implemented employment regulations pertaining to part-time and casual workers with over two years of continuous employment. We sympathize with other teachers working in deplorable and stressful working conditions with over-work and under-payment. As foreign teachers, we often experience such hardship ourselves and we see no reason or justification for such poor conditions and hardship. Overwork is rampant in Korea and more work could be spread around by limiting full-time workers to five-day work weeks and eight-hour work days. It would serve the economy and employment relations to ensure that employees are all compensated fairly with proper benefits.
Corruption in education institutions
Our condolences go out to the family and colleagues of Seo, the hourly lecturer who committed suicide on May 25th. His suicide note told of extensive corruption and abuse at his institution. He was paid a very low salary and was forced to pay a price to obtain employment and described his work relationship to a professor as that of a slave. He reported participating in fraudulent practices and then committed suicide out of shame and stress. His case speaks to abhorrent and corrupt conditions in the education system. The government needs to address this problem squarely and thoroughly. FREED would actively support such efforts.
Peace (*)
Finally, we would like to echo the calls for calmness and a peaceful resolution to the conflict between North and South Korea without military action and foreign interference. There should be a careful investigation of the Cheonan disaster by a credible third party. With concern for the welfare of all, we look forward to a reunited Korea and a region without nuclear weapons.
http://www.freedteachers.org/content/freed-press-release-teachers-and-all-workers-rights
* Somehow related:
☞ S. Korea: migrant workers and the anti-war movement (PeaceNews, 2003)
Today's (bourgeois) Korea Times reports the following:
Yongsan protesters get 4-5 year jail sentence
An appellate court in Seoul Monday sentenced nine protesters who had demonstrated against a redevelopment plan in Yongsan, Seoul to four to five years in prison on charges of killing a riot policeman and injuring dozens in a blaze set off during a clash in January last year.
The high court sentenced Lee Choon-yeon, the leader of the association of evictees, and another protester to five years in prison, a reduction from the six year sentence at a lower court.
The five other protesters received four-year jail sentences, down from the previous five years. The other two received suspended jail terms, the Seoul High Court ruled.
"It was legitimate for riot police to take part in the operation given that the situation was extremely risky for ordinary police officers to handle," said presiding Judge Kim In-wook, dismissing the defense team's allegation that the police abused their power. "In addition, the evidence, testimony and on-site inspection shows the fire was started by the protesters."
The nine were indicted after six people including a police officer were killed and more than 20 were injured in a blaze started during a pre-dawn clash on January 20 on the rooftop of a commercial building in Yongsan, central Seoul.
The conflict was between a group of protesters whose houses in the area were designated for demolition in a city redevelopment plan ― allegedly without sufficient compensation ― and the police who were dispatched to evict them.
The police caught 27 protesters at the scene and the nine were prosecuted after it was confirmed by the prosecution that they had led the illegal occupation.
Following the ruling, distraught family members expressed their despondency from the guilty verdict in a statement, saying "It is a day of extreme disappointment."
They plan to appeal to the Supreme Court.
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/05/113_66821.html
Related articles:
☞ 용산참사 항소심도 중형선고... (참세상, 5.31)
☞ 용산..철거민 항소심, 정치적 판결 규탄한다! (Press release, 5.31)
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao stressed Sunday that it is "most urgent" for the two Koreas to defuse tensions and avoid conflict as Seoul seeks a host of punitive measures against the North for its deadly March naval attack, Joong Ang Ilbo wrote today.
"The most urgent thing for us to do is to address security risks on the Korean Peninsula, which have been growing since the naval incident occurred," Wen told reporters. "In particular, we have to focus on preventing any possible armed clashes between the two Koreas."
And S.K. surprisingly draw the first conclusions, as Yonhap reported few hours ago:
South Korea's military has deferred a plan to fly anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets to North Korea, a defense ministry official said Sunday...
Seoul has resumed FM radio propaganda broadcasts into the North while preparing to launch loudspeaker broadcasts on the heavily armed border. The loudspeaker campaign, which had been expected to begin in mid-June, is also likely to be to put on hold....
Related articles:
☞ Deadly silence at the DMZ (Asia Times, 5.29)
☞ China urges efforts to ease tensions (Yonhap, 5.30)
☞ Torpedo attack gives leverage to US, China (K. Times, 5.30)
Enjoy the weekend reading!!
With the License to Deal
Engaged in "Business" with NK's Diplomatic Mission in Berlin
By Johannes Schönherr
Part 1:
The Odd Couple
East Berlin, late 1990s. Across the street from a block of run-down 1970s East German housing projects sits a decrepit-looking factory building from the turn of the 20th century; a former backyard building to be correct, since the front building was destroyed by bombing in the Second World War. The site of that former front building is now a flattened, debris-strewn parking lot with several car wrecks rusting away. There is no trace left of what kind of factory that former back building might have housed, and from the outside it looks fairly abandoned. The door is wide open and the hallway full of garbage. The staircase walls are covered with punk graffiti and, up to the 4th floor, the steps are littered with thousands of techno party flyers – apparently, somebody just opened big boxes of them and threw them down the stairs. A stairway to hell for anybody used to clean and orderly environs.
And yet, U Kun-chol, Secretary of Economic Affairs at the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s Berlin diplomatic mission, climbs these stairs several times a week, always accompanied by whatever translator he can fetch from his diplomatic outlet as he doesn’t speak a word of either English or German. The stairs lead him to a freshly painted white door and behind it, a spacious former factory hall, now all painted white and converted into a big, sleek office space with brand-new iMacs on the desks. It houses the headquarters of an independent movie theater operation that started out as a punk / squatter movie den in the rebellious Kreuzberg area of West Berlin in the early 1980s and which by now has grown into a cinema enterprise that runs several theaters across town.
U Kun-chol always politely knocks on that white door and, expecting no answer, opens it himself. One of a number of guys working in the office, all of them skinny like junkies, dressed in black leader and sporting disheveled post-punk haircuts eventually looks up from his computer screen and grunts: “We’re busy. You gotta wait a bit.”
U and his translator sit down and simply wait for somebody to have time for their business, helping themselves to a cup of instant coffee over at the small kitchen table. He is in his late 40s and his temples are graying, but he has a friendly face always ready to smile and wears decidedly Western clothes – a German army parka over a light gray business suit. He doesn’t fit into these environs of post-punk cool at all.
But he has good reasons to be patient: his predecessor contacted all the Berlin movie theaters listed in the Yellow Pages and all of them answered straight into his face with typical Berlin bluntness: “Get outta here,” once he had introduced himself and his business proposal. These punk guys here however seem to need the money offered and have agreed to work with that representative of the “Office for the Protection of the Interests of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea” – the diplomatic mission North Korea maintains in Berlin at the time. The predecessor has returned home to Pyongyang and now U carries on with the business.
After a while, one of the young Germans comes over and sits next to U, asking “Whassup?” This is U’s moment. He produces a long type-written list of film titles from his parka pocket and demands: “I need these films. As soon as possible. Can you manage?” “Huh, difficult, that might involve a lot of work and won’t be cheap.” the reply invariably comes, to which U says: “Doesn’t matter. I need the films.” None of the theater managers asks any questions about what U needs the films for.
http://www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?cataId=nk03000&num=6181
Part 2: The North Korean Diplomatic Time Warp
Part 3: Cigarettes and Katharina die Grosse
Part 4: Kim Turns to Japanese Gangster Flicks
Part 5: Who Are U? What Do U Do?
Part 6.The End: Films for the Great Leader?
First of all, here's the quotation of the week (my top favorite... well, I really, really like it!!): If the south Korean puppet forces show any sign of the slightest provocation, political, military and economic, against the DPRK, backed by the U.S. imperialists, we will immediately react to them by the just tactics of wiping out one by one, eliminate all rubbish of the nation from the Korean Peninsula and build on it rich and powerful reunified Korea where all Koreans enjoy prosperity (source: "A military commentator" via KCNA, 5.25).
Yesterday's KCNA "reported" the following:
KPA to Destroy Means of S. Side's Psychological Warfare
As already reported, the south Korean puppet military gangsters have carved slogans for anti-DPRK psychological warfare on walls of MP posts in the Demilitarized Zone along the Military Demarcation Line and are busy resuming the loudspeaker propaganda as part of the said warfare.
The head of the north side delegation to the north-south general-level military talks Wednesday sent the following notice to the south side as regards the reckless moves of the bellicose forces of the puppet military to resume the psychological warfare against the DPRK:
Recently the south side frantically conducted the operation to distribute anti-DPRK leaflets despite our side's repeated warnings and, not content with this, is going reckless to resume even the said anti-DPRK broadcasting in the frontline area.
Such act is nothing but a deliberate and premeditated provocation aimed to push the daily aggravating inter-Korean relations to the brink of war.
If the south side persists in scattering leaflets and resumes even the above-said broadcasting, the Korean People's Army will be compelled to promptly take its strong counter-actions including physical actions.
If the south side sets up even loudspeakers in the frontline area to resume the broadcasting, in particular, the KPA will take military steps to blow up one by one the moment they appear by firing sighting shots because such action will be tantamount to a blatant abrogation of the north-south military agreement and a military provocation against the DPRK.
Moreover, measures will be taken to totally ban the passage of personnel and vehicles of the south side in the zone under the north-south control in the western coastal area.
The south Korean puppet war-like forces would be well advised to act with discretion, bearing deep in mind that such measures of the KPA will not end in an empty talk.
http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2010/201005/news26/20100526-15ee.html
Related articles:
☞ North Korea Likely to Attack Broadcasting (DailyNK, 5.27)
☞ N. Korea wary of Seoul’s psychological campaign (K. Herald, 5.26)
☞ CPRK Declares Resolute Actions against S. Korea (KCNA, 5.25)
Today's 'top stories' in the int'l media:
Seoul resumes psychological warfare with Pyongyang
North Korea 'on combat alert'
Already y'day Korea Times reported the following:
NK threatens to fire at loudspeakers
North Korea threatened to fire at South Korean loudspeakers along the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and destroy them, Monday, if Seoul resumes propaganda broadcasting...
"If South Korea installs new speakers for psychological warfare, we will directly aim at them and open fire to destroy them," an unnamed North Korean military commander said in a statement, carried by Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency.
"If the South Korean traitors challenge our rightful response, we will counter with mightier physical strikes to eliminate the root cause of their provocation," the statement said...
Defense Minister Kim Tae-young said, along with other measures, the South would restart psychological operations against the communist North, including loud broadcasts of propaganda along the DMZ.
Kim warned of counter attacks if the North fires at the speakers: "If the North disrupts our psychological warfare by opening fire at loudspeakers, we will counterattack immediately,"...
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/05/116_66406.html
Meanwhile, North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity (NKIS) reported today, “On the 20th when the announcement of the results of the Cheonan incident investigation were revealed, Oh Keuk-ryul, the Vice-chairman of the National Defense Commission stated on the Third Broadcast, cable radio for North Korean residents, ‘Chairman Kim Jong Il has ordered the entire army, the People’s Safety Ministry, the National Security Agency, Worker and Peasant Red Guard and the Young Red Guard to move to a war footing.’” (source: DailyNK, 5.25)
Well, it seems that we're approaching f*cking "interesting times"!!
Related articles (just as examples):
☞ S Korea resumes border broadcasts (al-Jazeera, 5.25)
☞ Kim Jong-Il Orders Military to Prepare for Combat (Bloomberg, 5.25)
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