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"1,031 foreigners in prison"

UPDATE: 9:02am 14 Sept 2009: Korea Beat has translated an article from the Chosun Ilbo, throwing a few more stats into the fire. Of the 1,031 prisoners, exactly 25 are Americans; other English-speaking countries are not mentioned. Additionally, the languages spoken are different, and would seem to reflect better on the people being sent to prison:
At the beginning of this month the Ministry, in consideration of the increasing number of foreign prisoners, hired 15 guards with foreign language abilities for Daejeon Prison and Cheonan Teenagers’ Prison.

Five speak Chinese, three speak Vietnamese, two each speak Russian, Spanish, or Mongolian, and one speaks Thai.

- Original article below -

Well this is certainly a head-scratcher:
The number of foreign inmates in Korea recently surpassed 1,000, with more than 60 percent of them having Chinese nationality, government records showed yesterday.

According to the Justice Ministry, 1,031 foreign nationals from 36 countries were in Korean prisons at the end of June. The largest group came from China, totaling 667, followed by Taiwan with 125 and Mongolia with 32.

An additional 681 foreigners were detained while awaiting trial.
Presuming these numbers are accurate, of course, English-speaking foreigners are either A: not committing crimes; B: not being caught for said crimes; or C: being deported / sent home.

Wish they could publish some more detailed data, although it seems like a cheap shot to end the article on the following note:

The ministry last week assigned 15 correctional officers with foreign language proficiency to prisons where the foreigners are jailed, officials said.

The officers were chosen for English, Chinese, Vietnamese and Russian, they said.

Creative Commons License © Chris Backe - 2009

 

It's something

It looks like I am going to get not one but two, count 'em, TWO days of work at the farm store! Everything's coming up Milhouse!

—John Dunphy

The Daily Grind

Lab experiments are fickle creatures. They are similar to cooking recipes in the fact that you have ingredients and instructions. But the similarities stop there. In cooking, if you make a small error, things usually turn out okay. Add a bit more salt, mix in a bit of mince meat and a questionable Neapolitana becomes your average Bolognaise. Lab experiments are not so forgiving. They're demonically vengeful and benignly indifferent to the desires of the humble and ill-prepared scientist. If something small goes wrong, expect the scientific equivalent of Akuma's Instant Hell Murder.

These days I'm trying to perform extractions from rice leaves. This involves grinding each individual leaf with a sterile mortar and pestle. The process takes around 8 hours per day and must be repeated, with the results plotted on a graph. I wouldn't normally mind such hard work if the fruits of labour were justly rewarded. But scientific inquiry has other plans for me, it seems.
My graph looks more like a car crash than a nice bell-curve and it only seems to be getting worse. There are a lot of variables involved, and I have a good idea of why things are going wrong. But the problem is that I won't be able to repeat the experiment until summer next year when the rice flowers bloom again. So if you happen to be in the fields of Suwon next summer, expect to see my ecstatic face, repeating all of the work I've been doing for the past 3 months. This is the reality of academic science these days. Long gone are the times when one added a viscous green liquid to a frothy blue one, and behold! Out popped a white rabbit.

Mmm, maybe I'm getting confused with a magic show.

But there is a bar near my dorm. And in this bar, beer flows freely, snacks are sold cheaply and grad students discuss their woes. Oft times I will trek this way with my trusty sidekick and fellow unlucky scientist, Chen Jing, and we attempt to drown our sorrows in fatty pork ribs and cold $4 per litre draft.

Beer is not the solution, but it helps you to admire the problem.

My Birthday in Korea

10 Sep 2009, So all the stress from the job and the culture shock just dissolves away and I realise that I'm happy to be here because some students really want to celebrate my birthday.

PIFF Asserts Itself as Asia’s Premiere Film Festival with 2009 Lineup


Piff 2009

PUSAN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Where: Haeundae, Nampo-Dong

When: October 8-16

The official selection for the 2009 Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF) was announced Tuesday morning and is now available to browse through on their website. This year’s lineup shows promise thanks to a solid amount of world-class submissions – a lot of the films that premiered at Cannes in May will make their way to town come fall. I’m writing a feature article on PIFF for the magazine “Busan Haps” that will cover what to see and what to skip in more detail, but here’s a preliminary list of the more exciting fare:

The White Ribbon (Michael Haneke, Austria) – Cannes 2009 Palme D’or Winner

Like You Know It All (Hong Sang Soo, Korea)

Mother (Bong Joon Ho, Korea) – Cannes 2009 Un Certain Regard

Tales From the Golden Age (Cristian Mungiu…, Romania) – Cannes 2009 Un Certain Regard

Face (Tsai Ming Liang, Taiwan) – Cannes 2009 Official Selection

Bright Star (Jane Campion, UK) – Cannes 2009 Official Selection

White Material (Claire Denis, France) – TIFF 2009, Venice Film Festival 2009

Looking for Eric (Ken Loach, UK) – Cannes 2009 Official Selection

Vengeance (Johnnie To, Hong Kong) – Cannes 2009 Official Selection

Vincere (Marco Bellocchio, Italy) – Cannes 2009 Official Selection

Kinatay (Brillante Mendoza, Philippines) – Cannes 2009 Official Selection, Award for Best Director

Dogtooth (Yorgos Lanthimos, Greece) – Cannes 2009 Un Certain Regard Prize

Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold, UK) – Cannes 2009 Jury Prize

Yatterman (Takashi Miike, Japan)

Thirst (Park Chan Wook, Korea) – Cannes 2009 Jury Prize

The Time That Remains (Elia Souleiman, UK/ITALY/BELGIUM/FRANCE) – Cannes 2009 Official Selection

PIFF is also running retrospectives on Hong Kong native Johnnie To, and two older Korean filmmakers, Yu Hyun Mok and Ha Kil-Chong.

For a full list of the films to be screened during PIFF, please visit http://piff.org/eng/html/program/prog_view.asp?idx=14001&c_idx=11

Back to School Time

It's back to school time here in Korea and that means back to normalcy for teachers at private academies like mine. The summer break (mid-July to the end of August) is a time of chaos as the tight schedules the children keep become jumbled. Piano lessons, computer class, Math, Science, Art, Tae Kwon Do...most kids maintain a grueling pace during the school year. With the summer break, all the extra-curriculars become jumbled. At many small private academies it becomes impossible to maintain a schedule with leveled classes...you might have 5th year English students in the classroom with beginners. Thankfully, during this period I was given a lot of leeway in lesson planning. I was usually able to find material that was both interesting to the older students and accessible to the less experienced. However, I have nearly used up my giant bottle of Advil.

Thankfully, as I said, things are now returning to normal. As the new classes form I have been making careful notes in regard to individual assessment and class maturity levels so as to begin selection of teaching materials. Unlike at my previous school, where my opinion was not solicited, here I am consulted and expected to have an informed opinion about the students and their needs. That is incredibly refreshing. I recently took a trip to the teacher store with our head teacher and we looked over all of the possibilities and found some good stuff. I am looking forward to teaching with the new supplies.

In other news, my finger is still healing. I have lost a lot of mobility but I am surprised at how adaptable the hand is. Things that I thought I would basically have to completely relearn, like typing, have kind of adapted themselves on their own. And things that I worried would be affected by the loss of strength, like sailing, have come along as well: the other fingers seem to have picked up the slack when I pull a jib sheet or the like.

All in all, things are going well. I recently purchased another scooter (number 3!) and got a huge lock to put on it. I am being careful and hope that this one won't get stolen. It is sure fun riding around on that thing.

The bill banning racial discrimination heats up

Not too long ago, I wrote about some proposed legislature that would ban racial discrimination in Korea. While fully in favor and supportive of the bill, I wonder just what it is that's getting the infamous Korean netizens riled up. From the Korea Herald:
Rep. Jun Byung-hun of the main opposition Democratic Party on Sunday posted the draft of his racial discrimination bill on his online blog [which of course isn't linked to!], which has led to heated debate among the online community.

Although the Justice Ministry had previously submitted an anti-discrimination bill, including clauses on racial issues, the bill was never passed before the National Assembly ended its term last April. Jun's bill, if legislated, would be the first law to officially ban racial discrimination in Korea.

At present, the prohibition of discrimination based on race is referenced only vaguely as a basic guiding principle in education or labor union law. The National Human Rights Commission forbids racial discrimination but its recommendation has no legal or binding authority.

In other words, it's morally wrong, but there's no law against it and no punishment for doing it - yet. If anyone can find and link to this particular blog, I'd love to have a look (even through Google Translate).

Since the blog posting, hundreds of citizens have left replies on the blog or made phone calls to the lawmaker's office - some in support of the plan and some against it - according to Jun's aides.

Those who are opposed are mostly concerned that the promotion of foreign workers' rights may offer privileges to foreigners to the detriment of Korean workers.

"I admit that it is high time that Korea introduced some legal restrictions about the abundant racial discrimination, especially as the number of foreign workers and immigrant wives is soaring," said Kim Han-hee, a 28-year-old graduate student majoring in international law.

"However, such anti-racial discrimination legislation should be followed by another law that could regulate crimes by foreigners."


What crimes by foreigners? There's barely been any mention of foreigner crimes in the news since this Korea Beat report came out months ago, yet this meme continues even to the younger generation I had placed such high hopes in?

This graduate student does have one possible point, however. Reverse discrimination fears, while almost wholly premature, are plausible. That foreigners might be given some sort of special treatment is nothing new, however. Also, foreigners don't generally compete with Koreans for jobs - the quantity of jobs is essentially chosen by the number of employers willing - or needing - to hire them. There's no 'quota' system at work here, and no Korean government will ever approach a Korean company and say you have to hire foreigners or face a fine. That's the case in the U.S. at times, where companies have been fined or told to hire X number of people of colors other than white or genders other than male - whether or not they're the most qualified candidate.

What 'privileges' might we foreigners be gaining, for the record? A presumption of innocence? Calling any person we don't like a racist whether it's true or not? In any argument that comes down to a 'he-said, she-said' sort of battle, will reverse discrimination lead a police officer to presume the Korean party as guilty? I doubt it.
Amid such controversy, Jun still plans to put forth the bill by the end of this month, according to his aides.

Jun's posting followed a recent case in which prosecutors indicted a man for allegedly calling an Indian professor "dirty and smelly." He was charged with contempt because the present criminal law system does not include provision to deal with discrimination based on race.

The cynical part of me thinks it smells like an opportunistic politician seeking media attention by rehashing something that's already been attempted. The optimistic part of me wants to encourage a foreign politician to pass a bill that might actually give foreigners a fairer shake.

To be brutally honest, my doubts - and hopes - are high. I want this country to become less racist. I want to be treated the same as any other person. I want to have a say and encourage this guy in his efforts. I even kind of want to see Korea on the world stage with the other major players. In the end, creating the law is only the start of the process. Looking at racial discrimination in the U.S., having the law is one step; having people enforce the law, prosecute the accused, and punish those found guilty with something more than a slap on the wrist are also big steps on the road to equality.


Creative Commons License © Chris Backe - 2009

Finding things to do during the day

It's been a while since I posted something on John Finds A Job. At the time, I had a job. Granted, it wasn't the job I wanted, not a job that paid much (though 20 percent off everything in the store and all the coffee you could drink was nice). Since my last posting, I quit working at Whole Earth Center in anticipation of going to South Korea.

Well, that didn't happen. And, once that didn't happen, I tried to go back to Whole Earth Center, you know, for all that free coffee. But, Whole Earth Center didn't take me back. And unemployment didn't take me back, either. Thank God for male modeling.

Last week, I had my inaugural turn as a male model, playing a nurse for a medical equipment company. I must thank my friend M. for his recommendation of me to be said nurse. $250 for a day's work? Yes, please. If only we could keep this going. Do you have a watch you would like me to model? Some gloves? Do you like my hands? "They are exquisite."

The day before, I worked a farmer's market in Seaside Park. Is it "farmer's" or "farmers"? We actually used to have conversations regarding such things when I was an editor with Packet Publications. Sometimes, AP style said one thing, other times another. Finicky bastards. I miss editing.

At this point, I am committed to going back to South Korea. Korea Three-point-oh, I am now officially calling it. Busan? Daegu? Doesn't really matter if I have never been to any of these cities and the new recruiter says a Korean city is a Korean city is a Korean city anyway. Is he right? Who knows.

The grass is always greener, etc. etc. When you have to wake up every weekday at 5 a.m., 6 a.m., whatever, you might think how wonderful it would be to be able to sleep as late as you want. Sure, it's nice, but when it happens pretty much every day because you have nowhere to go, it gets old. And then, once you're awake you wonder, "what do I do today?" There are plenty of things you can do, but you have to actually do them. Some personalities will think, "oh boy! I have all this free time! What will I do TODAY!?" But those people usually say these things with crazy bulged eyes. I am not one of those. I would like to be, maybe minus the crazy, would like to take every moment as the gift it is and squeeze all the fucking juice from it, but that just does not happen all the time.

So, we try to find things to do during the day. Like visit the State Museum of New Jersey in Trenton. I went there today with low expectations. Unfortunately, they were not exceeded. Though Mel Leipzig is a fantastic artist. It's free admission there, so if you're around, I recommend it for that alone.

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