Proof as to why Korea will continue to prosper despite recent manipulations in the markets

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Koreas Exports

A lot of short term minded people are shaking in their boots recently due to currency shocks and the Korean stock indexes dropping almost as fast as the Nikkei dropped & rose in the past few days.  However, this little story may show why it’s hard to doubt the Koreans in business:

“…there was no shipbuilding industry in South Korea until the 1960s. When the country’s dictator, Park Chung-hee, summoned Chong [Hyundai’s founder] and told him to produce oil tankers, for which there was a sudden demand, Chong went straight to Greece and scooped up two contracts to build 260,000-tonne tankers, promising his customers delivery within two years, sooner than anyone else. He had neglected to mention that at that moment he lacked even a shipyard. He then waved the order in front of Barclays Bank, which lent him enough money to build a modern yard. No one in South Korea knew how to do that, so Chong dispatched 60 engineers to Scotland to learn. The ships were delivered before the deadline. This famous story, concedes Bruce Cumings of the University of Chicago in a refreshingly revisionist modern history, “Korea’s Place in the Sun”, may be apocryphal in its details, yet it has a strong whiff of truth about it.”

Appreciating “being healthy”

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I’m barely able to type today needing my left hand to support my right arm whenever I need to move it more than a few inches.  This past weekend at a recreational event for my company, people were jumping on my scooter to ride around the courtyard.  I jump on and go a little faster than most and find out that the gravel/dirt on the playground is too loose to go too quickly and “Wham!”, I land on my right shoulder not knowing what had just happened.

Simply one of the better told stories through a movie (possible repost)

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Periodically, I come back to this movie titled “Il Mare” (which according to the movie translates into “Sea”) to get a sense of good story telling and simply a good movie.  The scenes, the amount dedicated to each scene, the soundtrack, the acting all make it a very strong flick.  I don’t know if I’ll ever be lucky enough to retell another story like this, but I envision myself to have achieved one of my my life’s ultimate goals to have potentially done this through a book or a movie.  We’ll see…

Facebook can be painful at times…

Trying to just say “Happy birthday” on someone’s wall today, I was told “You are not permitted to do …”  WTF?  Can’t write on a wall?  Does Facebook now give people the power to prevent others from writing on their wall?

I was doing something else on the website & was given the same message of not being able to do something or not having the permissions.  I wonder if this is part of their new “redesign”.  Interesting…o.k. it’s not.

Reviews & thoughts of the PIFF films I saw

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Well, this year was a bit disappointing for a number of reasons at PIFF:

1) Some random gal from Hong Kong emailed me prior to the festival starting and asked me to buy her tickets.  After a bit of initial concern that I would never get paid, I decided to take a chance and buy her 4 tickets and make several trips to the bank on her behalf.  She communicated a bit via email (albeit inconsistently) which made it appear she would come, but then ended up cancelling last minute before I could get a refund on the tickets.  I ended up out of the money for the tickets.  She had the gall to ask about tickets for next year in the same delinquent email. 

AMERICAN CITIZEN SERVICES NEWSLETTER (in Seoul, Korea) OCTOBER 2008

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U.S. State Department, U.S. Embassy Seoul
Consular Section, American Citizen Services (ACS) Newsletter
October 2008

The U.S. Embassy is transmitting the following monthly newsletter via its warden system as a public service to U.S. citizens in the Republic of Korea.  Please feel free to disseminate this message to U.S. citizens in your organizations or to other Americans you know.

In this issue:

1. Absentee Voting in the November Elections
2. October 15 Deadline for Economic Stimulus Payment
3. Website for Expatriates in South Korea
4. On-Line Records Checks No Longer Allowed for Teaching Visas
5. Recent Travel Warnings and Alerts
6. Upcoming Holidays: October 3 and 13
7. Embassy Contact Information

My 2nd PIFF (Pusan International Film Festival) in Busan (2008)

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This year, I thought I would try to make up for last year’s mistake in not buying tickets in advance.  So, I did as much homework as I could with the Pusan International Film Festival guide available for free at Pusan Banks throughout the city before the tickets went on sale online & in the banks on the 24th of September (Opening/Closing Day went on sale on the 22nd).