5112개의 게시물을 찾았습니다.
Some days ago I'd to read following: “In general, U.S. cities frighten me, after 7 p.m. all the white people go home, and black people and beggars take to the streets.”
Well, sounds like a quotation of an American racist or German neo-nazi/fascist...
But actually it's just a part of an interview (*) with the president of the Korean Friendship Association (KFA).
His name is Alejandro Cao de Benos de Les y Pérez, he comes from a family of the Catalan aristocracy and is, today, the only Western official in the North Korean government. In his capacity as special representative of the Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, the thirty-five years old native of Tarragona travels the world as an ambassador, receives foreign delegations in Pyongyang and takes charge of businesses with companies of the advanced capitalism. As president of the KFA('조선우호협회'), which he founded in 2000, he proudly exports Kim Jong-il’s words and introduces the 'DPR'K to politicians and onlookers.
* Cao gave the interview to the Italian freelance journalist Enzo Reale, who translated the full four-part interview (**) into English and allowed OFK to publish the whole thing...
** MUST READ!!:
☞ Alejandro Cao de Benós Interview – Part 1
☞ Alejandro Cao de Benós Interview – Part 2
☞ Alejandro Cao de Benós Interview – Part 3
☞ Alejandro Cao de Benós Interview – Part 4
Related BS:
☞ Kim Jong Il Praised by KFA Chairman (KCNA, 3.03)
Only few days after N. Korea "Vows to Buildup Nuclear Deterrent" today's Korea Times counters with the following main headline:
Allies Ready to Remove N. Korean Nukes
Well, that's exactly the same what the Dear Leader has in his mind when he "Vows to Buildup Nuclear Deterrent"...
But possibly only after he shares Ceausescu's (Romania's dictator, toppled and executed in Dec. 1989) fate, as the current (reactionary) Monthly Chosun predicts...
Related article (MUST READ!!):
☞ Is the Dear Leader losing his grip? (Asia Times, 3.05)
Well, there are still some folks among us who feel obliged to promote N.K. stuff in the "progressive"/independent media, such as IMC S.K.
The latest hype produced in the the Dear Leader's kingdom and promoted by some writers: "N.Korea's brandnew linux operating system: Red Star"
"Not only does North Korea have 'its own Internet' – a national information network independent from the US-based Internet regulator – it also has an operating system, developed under by order of Kim Jong-il.", the IMC S.K. piece (actually it's just a copy of a report published in the Russian RT) says.
"Russian student Mikhail, who studies in the Kim Il-sung University... bought his copy for about $5 in an information center 5 minutes walk from the university dorm."
Wow, ONLY $5??!!
But - surprise, surprise!! - "The OS is not popular (yet?)", according to the article.
The possible reason - IMO - why it's "not popular (yet?)":
- The average N.Korean worker making 2,500 (NK)won a month
- Last week's exchange rate USD-won: 1 : 2,500
- The current price of 1 kg rice: 1,300 won in Pyongyang (in other parts of the country: up to 1,500 won)
Ultimately I'm sure that the average worker - as a citizen of the "Paradise of the Working Class"(!) - doesn't cares about "Red Star OS", because he/she can't even dream about an own computer...
Somehow related article:
☞ 2 thousand N.Koreans have starved to death... (Hankyoreh, 3.06)
Impressions from Seoul's Cheonggyecheon (1965):
For more fascinating(?) pics from "pre-modern" Seoul/S. Korea please check out:
☞ Korea during early 20th century up to 1970s (SkyscraperCity)
"Good News" from Pyongyang, resp. the (North)Korean "People's" Army (via today's KCNA):
KPA Panmunjom Mission Vows to Buildup Nuclear Deterrent
A spokesman for the Panmunjom Mission of the Korean People's Army issued a statement Sunday in connection with the fact that the U.S. and the south Korean authorities finally set about the DPRK-targeted Key Resolve and Foal Eagle joint military maneuvers.
The maneuvers clearly indicate once again that the U.S. and the south Korean authorities are the harassers of peace and warmongers keen to bring a war to this land.
Under the prevailing situation the Panmunjom Mission of the KPA is authorized to state as follows:
The revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK will no longer be bound to the Armistice Agreement and the north-south agreement on non-aggression (*).
There is no reason whatsoever for the DPRK to remain bounded to the AA and the non-aggression agreement now that the other belligerent party scrapped the AA and the other dialogue partner reneged on the non-aggression agreement.
The revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK will, therefore, legitimately exercise their force for self-defence, unhindered, just as they had determined to do.
The process for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula will naturally come to a standstill and the DPRK bolster its nuclear deterrent for self-defence given that the saber-rattling is proven to be nuclear war exercises and maneuvers for a war of aggression against the DPRK in its nature.
It is an inviolable right of the revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK for self-defence to counter with powerful nuclear deterrent the U.S. nuclear offensive means threatening the territorial waters and air and land of the DPRK on account of exercises.
The revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK will be left with no option but to exercise merciless physical force as the rival is set to do harm to the DPRK no matter how dear peace, national reconciliation and cooperation are to it.
It is their stand to settle accounts with the rival by actual use of military force if it does not wish neither to conclude a peace treaty nor have reconciliation and cooperation.
All DPRK-U.S. and the inter-Korean military dialogues will be suspended as long as the DPRK-targeted war exercises go on.
It is illogical to sit face to face with the dialogue partner, who brings dark clouds of a nuclear war while leveling its gun at the other party, and discuss "peace" and "cooperation" with him.
The U.S. and the south Korean authorities should bear in mind that their reckless military acts will bring them nothing but bitter disgrace and destruction.
http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2010/201003/news07/20100307-04ee.html
* Sounds like a f*cking great idea (and a lot of fun)!!
Finally this begs the question: If NK (once again) "vows to buildup nuclear deterrent", about what TFH they wanna talk in Beijing ("6-party-talks")???
Related article:
☞ N. Korea puts forces on combat alert... (Yonhap, 3.08)
Yesterday in downtown Seoul: Hundreds of activists, mainly female members of different labour unions(organized in the KCTU), progressive civic groups and resistance organisations gathered to mark tomorrow's Int'l Women's Day...
(Source of the pics: KCTU)
Related:
☞ No progress in bridging gender gap (K. Herald, 3.03)
☞ Gender equality in S.Korea remains in a plateau (Hankyoreh, 3.04)
Hong Kong, last Sunday(2.28): IMWU's solidarity rally to support MTU(*):
* For more info please check out:
☞ 反이주탄압(국제연대) #6
Yesterday's Los Angeles Times published following piece:
Farmer Kang Ki-kab is one of South Korea's few working-class politicians (*). He says he's "tired of watching politicians ignore the lower classes and cater to the rich."
What South Korea's unlikeliest politician brings to the table
Farmer-turned-National Assembly member Kang Ki-kab went from obscure to infamous. His mission is to make the little guy heard, even if that means stomping around on top of an assembly leader's furniture.
Kang Ki-kab in action (2009.1.05, Nat'l Assembly)
Reporting from Seoul - Kang Ki-kab sighs. Life in Seoul, away from his family and the homestead he calls the Farm That Loves Soil, has proved a lonely existence for South Korea's unlikeliest politician.
He misses the simple chores, like milking his 90 cows, harvesting his sweet Korean plums...
...and tangerines.
He sits in his legislative office, hands clasped calmly on his lap, a monk-like anachronism with a wispy white beard and a flowing cream-colored robe tied with a large bow.
"Our ancestors wore these, why can't I?" he asks.
He strikes a pose.
"Isn't it elegant?" he says. "When I tie these strings, I have a moment to myself. It's good for my mental health."
Kang, 56, seems the very image of earnest serenity, a kind of "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" meets David Carradine circa "Kung Fu."
But then you ask about the Table Dance.
After a member of the legislature's security detail accidentally broke Kang's finger while dispersing a January 2009 sit-in, Kang threw a very public tantrum. He jumped onto a table in front of one of the National Assembly's top administrators and, depending on who's telling the story, hopped about apelike or stamped like a child.
Then he overturned the table and stormed away to kick at the barricaded office door of another political opponent, and later chained himself to the entry of the legislature's main chamber.
"My critics may call it a show, but I desperately wanted to make a point about the country's wrongheaded direction," he says."When people refused to listen, I was angry -- I was outraged."
Kang, one of South Korea's first politicians to rise to national office from the working classes, symbolizes voters' growing resentment of business as usual in the capital. Many are disenchanted with a government run by male-dominated intellectual elites and hyper-successful entrepreneurs with little sense of what it's like for middle-class families coping with rising prices and stubborn unemployment.
Like former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Kang emerged on the national political scene as an unknown from the hinterlands. Like Palin, his plain-spoken approach has charmed many voters.
He envisions a South Korea less dependent on U.S. military power, and he is against sending troops to Iraq and Afghanistan. He also wants to create a wider social safety net. He revels in his status as the consummate outsider, a politician who survives nicely, thank you, without the campaign contributions and old-boy connections most of his peers rely on.
"People like him as this unrepentant anti-modernist," says David Kang, director of the Korean Studies Institute at USC. "He represents this folksy Norman Rockwell view of politicians. He represents a Korean history that probably never existed, but still has its appeal."
Even as comics and the media lampoon him and colleagues privately wince, Kang Ki-kab insists on being himself, a fiercely independent country soul who says he entered politics to help protect the nation's farmers, a social outsider who feels trapped in the big city.
But before going home, he says, he has a mission to complete.
"I'm tired of watching politicians ignore the lower classes and cater to the rich, and I want to do something about it," he says. "In that way, I'm walking with the cross on my shoulder, like Jesus did."
Nobody expected Kang to win a second term in 2008 when he faced off against a ruling-party big shot and close friend of President Lee Myung-bak.
But the peasant's son from rural South Gyeongsang province, about as far as you can get from South Korea's seat of power, pulled off an election day stunner for his Democratic Labor Party.
Kang refers to himself as a political David prevailing amid Goliath-sized odds.
"I threw eggs and broke rocks," he says. "I always think I can win."
After his reelection, Kang was investigated on accusations of campaign irregularities, including defaming a rival candidate, but a judge imposed a fine rather than pursue criminal charges, preserving Kang's hard-won victory.
The former protest organizer for the Korean Peasant League first ran for the legislature in 2004, promising to aid the nation's lower classes -- the peasants, fishermen and farmers. In a national arena full of scrappy fighters, the father of four quickly stood out for his parliamentary antics and thirst for publicity.
Kang has waged at least six hunger strikes; the longest lasted 31 days. Most were attempts to focus attention on the plight of rural South Korea. Lacking subsidies, more than a third of farmers and their families have left the countryside for the city, he said.
To help fund his causes, Kang says, he returns nearly two-thirds of his $7,000 monthly salary to his party.
"He really is a true believer. It's clear that he's not in politics for the money," says Andy Jackson, a columnist for the Korea Times. "He is sincere. His problem is that he is a little too sincere.
"He seems to believe the people he's fighting really are evil. And if you believe that, it justifies the things that you do."
For Kang, the biggest villain is the United States. He is the chief opponent of the U.S.-South Korean free trade agreement and went on a fast to oppose the opening of local markets to U.S. rice.
South Korea already imports more than 70% of its food, Kang notes. Farmers simply cannot compete with cheap imports.
In 2008, protests he led against U.S. beef swept South Korea. He also opposes the American military presence here.
"The U.S. troops are unnecessary," he says. "The Korean War ended 50 years ago. If our nation goes to war, our own troops can do the fighting. The Americans should go home."
Detractors dismiss Kang as a political opportunist.
"He's not qualified to be a lawmaker in South Korea," says Seo Seok-gu, a lawyer and a member of the Assn. of U.S.-Korea Friendship. "He's too radical."
Kang doesn't like talking about the Table Dance, saying that events that day seemed to slip from his grasp.
As he was being dragged by security personnel seeking to end a sit-in by his party, a guard stepped on Kang's hand, breaking his finger.
That, and what he calls the ruling party's arrogance, set him off.
"I really want to work very gently, but my responsibility is to the people I represent."
He stormed into the office of Assembly Secretary-General Park Kye-dong. "He was sitting there, doing nothing," Kang recalls. "I couldn't hit him, but I wanted him to pay attention to me."
Park refused, calmly flipping through a newspaper, Kang says.
"I got up on the table. I jumped off and flipped it over," he says. "I was saying: 'Look at me! Pay attention to me!' But he wouldn't."
Kang was later sued by government officials for obstructing justice and public duties; a judge dismissed the lawsuit.
"I know I crossed a line," Kang says. "I was too angry, too extreme."
He gazes out the window.
"In the spring, that farm seduces me to return to it," he says. "I'd rather farm than do politics any day."
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-korea-outsider2-2010mar02,0,5114262,full.story
* "Working-class politician"? Sorry, but (for me) he's looking more like an ancient feudal landowner/aristocrat...
(photo source: LAT, 3.03)
Last Sunday(2.28) in Hong Kong: Activists of the Indonesian Migrants Worker Union, an affiliated member of the HKCTU, protested in front of the S. Korean consulate against the ongoing repression against MTU and demanded its immediate official recognition (as a labour union) by the S.K. gov't.
The activists later handed over following protest letter to the consulate's staff:
Legal status and recognition for MTU!
Stop crackdown on MTU!
Crackdown on Migrant Trade Union (MTU) in South Korea is a shame act that has been shown by South Korea governments. This brutal act is denied the contribution of working class in South Korea, including migrant workers. Indonesian Migrant Workers Union also condemn South Korea Government which committed to union busting act by arrested and deported MTU officers and members on this several years also.
MTU it’s founded in 2005. At that time the Ministry of Labor rejected MTUs official union status, claiming that undocumented migrant workers do not have the right to freedom of association and union activities. MTU carried out a legal battle against this decision and eventually won in the Seoul High Court on 1 February 2007. However this verdict was appealed to the Supreme Court, where a decision is expected to be reached by the middle to end of this year. The Ministry of Labor bases its appeal on the claims that the right of undocumented migrant workers to freedom of association is not protected in the South Korean Constitution or stated clearly in international law. However, we know that workers are workers, entitled to the same labor rights, no matter what country they reside in under what visa status. This was clearly shown in the High Court decision, which ruled that undocumented migrant workers are the subjects of equal labor rights under South Korean law and in rulings of the ILO Committee on Freedom of Association (UGT [2001], AFL-CTM [2002]) and the Inter-America Court of Human Rights (17 Sept. 2003), which show that international law protects the union rights of undocumented migrant workers.
International law to which South Korea is party including the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) all protect the rights of workers, regardless of social status, to freedom of association. In particular, the CERD General Recommendation No. 30(2004) states that “guarantees against racial discrimination apply to non-citizens regardless of their immigration status” and that “all individuals are entitled to the enjoyment of labor and employment rights, including the freedom of assembly and association, once an employment relationship has been initiated until it is terminated.” In addition, ILO Convention No. 87, which South Korea is bound t! o uphold as a member of the ILO, protects the right to freedom of association for all workers, “without distinction whatsoever” and has been shown to apply to undocumented migrant workers through CFA recommendations (UGT, 2001 and AFL-CIO/CTM, 2002).
We are concerned that the Ministry of Labor’s denial of MTU’s union status is in contradiction to these international conventions and to South Korean domestic law. It is our position that countries that adhere to international human and labor rights standards must protect the right of migrant workers, regardless of visa status, to freedom of association. As such, it is our position that the denial of MTU’s legal union status should be reversed and MTU should be granted recognition.
Therefore we, Indonesian Migrant Workers Union (IMWU) demand to South Korea government as follow:
Legal status and recognition for MTU;
Stop Crackdown on MTU;
Legalize all undocumented migrant workers;
Hong Kong, 28 February 2010
Sringatin, IMWU Chairperson
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