From across the K-blogosphere comes news, views, and other information you might wish to intake.

The Joongang Daily (HT to ROKDrop for first post) tells us about how much police time is spent on drunk people:

According to the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency, officers at the city’s
58 police precincts handled 54,925 cases of drunk pedestrians between January
and May, or some 364 cases per day. Handling drunks can take up a third of the
task of an average officer. Police precincts that handle Busan’s most crowded
and busy areas - Seomyeon, Yeonil, Jeonpo - complain that there are so many
drunks that they completely clog up their daily tasks.

The Busan police department estimates that the nation’s police spends at
least 50 billion won ($41 million) annually on drunks.

I wonder what the percentages might be in Seoul, especially considering that during three different trips to Busan I didn't see as much of the drinking as I've seen here in Seoul.

From the Natural News (HT to ROK Sojourn for first post) comes ten lies about the swine flu told by the mainstream media. While the entire article is worth a look, you may find #3 through #5 particularly interesting:

Lie #3 – Vaccines protect you from swine flu

This is the biggest lie of all, and the media pushes it hard. Getting a vaccine, they insist, will protect you from the swine flu. But it’s just flat-out false. Even if the vaccine produces antibodies, that’s not the same thing as real-world immunity from a live virus, especially if the virus mutates (as they often do).

As I pointed out in a recent article, statistically speaking the average American is 40 times more likely to be struck by lightning than to have their life saved by a swine flu vaccine. (http://www.naturalnews.com/026955_s…)

Lie #4 – Vaccines are safe

And how would any journalists actually know this? None of the vaccines have been subjected to real-world testing for any meaningful duration. The “safety” of these vaccines is nothing more than wishful thinking.

The MSM also doesn’t want you to know what’s in the vaccines. Some vaccines are made from viral fragments grown in diseased African monkeys. If that sounds incredible, read the true story here: http://www.naturalnews.com/026779_s…

Lie #5 – The vaccine isn’t mandatory
You hear this lie all the time: The swine flu vaccine shot is voluntary, they say. But it’s not true if you’re an employee at a place where vaccines are being mandated. Millions of Americans are now being told by their employers that if they don’t get vaccine shots, they will be effectively fired from their jobs. It’s especially true with health care workers, day care employees and school teachers [emphasis added].

Whether it would be made mandatory in Korea is a different story; thus far I've yet to hear about any employers planning on making the upcoming vaccine available to their teachers.

Finally, from the ROK Drop again comes a story about people finding jobs (original story in the Chosun Ilbo):

According to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and the Korean Educational Development Institute on Sunday, 379,524 or 76.4 percent of 547,416 new university graduates found jobs after leaving school in February.

But only 48.3 percent landed permanent jobs, down 7.8 percent from 56.1 percent last year, whereas the percentage who found temporary jobs rose from 18.8 percent last year to 26.2 percent this year. In 2005, 56.7 percent of new university graduates found permanent employment and 15.7 percent temporary jobs.

This is good news for the military (even after they've served their mandatory two years):

According to a paper submitted by the Education Ministry to the National
Assembly for parliamentary audit, 5,461 or 3.7 percent of male graduates from
four-year universities joined the military last year. That is even higher than
3.38 percent during the 1997 economic crisis, and more than three times greater
than 1.07 percent in 2007.

We've seen the same thing happen in the US - a bad economy is good for military recruiters. For better or worse, the promise of a steady paycheck is more enticing than the fear of being shipped off to a war that may never end.



© Chris Backe - 2009