Jesus = Heaven. No Jesus = Hell

Today as I was walking in the Korea-town in Flushing, I was accosted by the missionary who asked me "if I believed in Jesus Christ" to be saved. He went on tell me I could not only be saved but healed of all my physical ills by the power of faith. Its hard to bear that in Friday night when, your back is hurting and your balance is often shot to hell due to a long week.

I am Catholic. I came to peace with God some time ago.

The Missionary was Korean.

This posting will not link to any articles, but will be a musing from depth of my heart. Korea has many evangelicals. When the Christianity was introduced it found fertile ground in which to grow. The reigning Chosun dynasty was visibly failing to meet the needs of the its people, and rebellions and riots were showing that the internal contradiction of 500 years of Confucian Feudalism was coming to boil. Christianity quickly spread into the population, and by the 1900s the faith was well integrated into the life of Koreans. Unlike the Japan, where Shinto reignes supreme even now, the Confucian faith was compatible with the already existing belief systems and found little to be supplemented.

Moreover, it cannot be denied that for majority of time, the Church did its part. It had its place of honor against the Japanese Occupational era and later it fought against the military regime. But since than, the Church, especially the evangelical community has changed, for worse. Since 2003 the Evangelical community has openly embraced missionary tactics which will yield in damaging Korean interest and image.

The kidnapping of Korean Missionaries in Afghanistan in 2007 was merely the most embarrassing of the these events. All they manged to do was fatten the war chest of Taliban and marked out the converts for death (when Americans leave Afghanistan, the converts are essentially doomed). And since than they have also showed their faces in Iraq (in 2004 onward) and several non Middle Eastern nations, including Indonesia. I doubt they have converted any one. Koreans struggle to display their distinctive nature from our neighbors. This is one image I can do without

Decline of Great Paper?

Article

When I was in Korea I liked Donga-ilbo considerably more than the alternatives. It was liberal without the militancy and it unlike other papers, did not engage in much of mudslinging (unless it was Chosun-ilbo). But for me, it has been two long month trying to find a article that was not merely repeating facts. Regrettably this article was only one I could find that dealt with Middle East in any depth. And this article was about the sensational story about honor killing.

Listing various reasons for honor killing across the globe, the long article end with exhortation to stop honor killing from happening and offers merely platitude that his was both situation that must stop, and that it was immensely complicated issue. I am well aware that this is delicate issue, but by presenting mere list of facts without context and analysis can only serve to draw readers into conclusions that will be deficient because he does not have the supporting pillars of information to understand and categorize it. I really expected more from the article.

Israel in Eyes of Liberials

Article

Today's article deals with the how the liberal left views the State of Israel though the eyes of the Hankyoreh, which deals with the practices of Israel's illegal detention of Palestine activists. Needless to say, the article is harshly negative about the practice, calling in both illegal in the context of the international law and immoral in context of state ethics, and lastly unwise in the consideration of Israel's many strategical weakness. The article and the commentary does not hesitate to draw negative comparison between the current Israel regime and the old military dictatorship in Korea.

While I can understand the discomfort that the newspaper feels about these illegal detention, since many of the editors today have experienced those detentions themselves, I found it difficult to equate that with the old military regime in Korea. After all, Israel is bi-racial state with at least some Jews viewing the arrests and interrogation as (sadly) necessarily undertaking in survival of Israel. Even considering the similarities between the two nations, it is overly-stretching the truth to argue overly on the linking the two regimes together. Israel is sill a functioning democracy unlike the 1970s Korea. Still, it was refreshing to read a article about something else than oil price, or pro-Israeli puff piece.

Turkey or Iran: If you put it that way...

Article

A reader of this blog might feel that by the looks of the Blog, I am a some sort of Conservative, or at least read only conservative materials. I am neither (like to think I'm a moderate), but simple truth is that the conservative outlets and materials outnumber the liberal outlets and they have thing to say.

The article linked to at the top of the blog is from the Wolgan Chosun, the monthly outlet of the Conservative Newspaper. The article argues that there are two political paths which the Middle East can take, the Turkish Model of secular development and the Iranian Model of working within the Islam to create the democracy. The author strongly favors the Turkish model, arguing that Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of Modern Turkish state was a visionary that enabled Turkey to recover from the fall of the Ottoman Empire and become the wealthy developed nation it is today. His only shortcoming was that he was too impatient in explaining and implementing his vision. Such is depth of author's favor toward the Ataturk's vision he explains away even the repeated Military Coup as unfortunate but necessarily needed intervention to ensure the idea of secular development.

What about the Iranian model then? Difficult to say, since the author devotes scant two paragraph in the article just for Iran and one of them was the difficulty for Koreans to visit Iran. The other paragraph is used in describing the unease many Arabian nations such as Saudi Arabia (Iran's Rivial) feel toward their "Follow Nation" (considering Iran's Persian origin this is something of a overestimation of fellowship). The reminders are devoted to contrasting the vibrant social and economic life of Istanbul where Women are free to dress what they desire and the drab, economically depressed Tehran where the returning Iranian women are in hurry to put their hajab back on before living the plane needs little additional explanation.

Despite ending his article with a platitude that both nations have valid model toward democracy. It is clear that he is disposed toward the Turkish model and are not particular fond of the current ruling AK party in Turkey, which he accuses of tinkering with the supporting pillars of the regime. No interview with leading Iranians were had, no interview with the average citizens in either nations were mentioned in the article. But, hey the author knows what he's talking about! Hurrah for Turkey, and to hell with nuanced understanding!

Israel and Korea

Looking at this Month's Wolgan Chosun, contained the interview with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. This laudatory interview can be divided into three segment. First is discussions about growing Israeli economy and his experiences on promoting Israeli export in his government career. Second was the ongoing discussion about Israel's security dilemma and lastly was the relationship between the two countries. Olmert noted that South Korea and Israel must remain friendly and that the two countries had long ties going back to the 1960s and that we shared many similarities.

Do we? True, both countries attained Independence in 1945 (de-facto)and 1948 (de-jure), and both countries endured war. it is true that the Talmud is among the fairly widely read books in Korea, where there was a fad for a while that the Talmud contained the "Secret to Success." And the evangelical Christians are highly disposed favorably toward the Jewish State, more during the recent decade.

Yet, embassies were not opened until 1992, and until very recently South Korea choose to focus on the Arab nations as the target markets. While the trade between two nations have increased significantly during the decade, with South Korea exporting US $1.1 Billion in 2011, it s a recent development. Looking back, there is little evidence that the two countries were close.

Olmert's word is the word of career politician, he can hardly say that the he does not want closer relationship between two countries. And it makes sense for the South Korea to be close to Israel considering America and Israel's relationship. But I have not been able to find prominent Palestinians giving interview to South Korean media in last 3 years. And its that lack of balance that worries me. Who gave up on who?

By the way, North Korea considers Hamas the legitimate government of the Israel.

KCIA: Be like the Mossad!

I have been meaning to work this article into this blog somehow.

This article Chosun Monthly's article profiling the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad. The article portrays Mossad as group of patriots unencumbered by political control and thus able to quickly gain results and protect Israel from its sea of enemies. The implication of the article was the the Korean Central Intelligence Agency should take Mossad as its role model. No other article could make feel the myriad emotions I felt today, incredulity, amusement, rage, and many others, few of them positive and none particularly agreeable.

Leaving aside the effectiveness of Mossad on the various current dilemma that Israel is in, or questions about its effectiveness. If I were to talk about this just as a Korean, it is not the right time and not the right way to say that intelligence agencies should be augmented.

KCIA, the main intelligence agency in South Korea in used be called K(GB)CIA. During the 1960s onward, it was famous the repression and torture of the political dissidents. Kim Dae Jung, the President of Korea from 1998-2003 was almost murdered in 1973 when he was kidnapped in Tokyo (he was exiled at the time). The KCIA's "black history" is famous and there are still thousands who have felt the hands of repression one way or another. That any respectable Korean paper could write about letting KCIA be free of political interference is not merely disturbing, but revealing about their view of the past in a way I cannot describe in words.

Oil and Business: Why Korea Went to War.

On the previous blog posting I wrote about the rather routine visit by the Iraqi Minister for Oil and his assurance that Korea will not lack for Oil when and if (and really in look at this issue from America, I doubt that the Sanctions will hold for long), there is to be a disruption in Iranian supply of oil. As noted beforehand the  Iraqi supply would be potentially just as essential as the Saudi Arabia's supply for Korea to endure this hardship.

But then I refer you to this article, written in February, by the Conservative Chosun-ilbo. It harshly criticizes the current government's failure secure future resources for South Korea around the world. Aside from 2008's Kirkuk fiasco, where Korean companies spent estimated US $40 Million in order to develop oil field only to strike water. Then the article goes on to show the various energy development project in Central Asia, South America and South East Asia,all with either resulting in below expectations or outright failure. According to the article since the current government has come to power it has signed 35 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) only one project seems to be on track.


Herein lies the dilemma of conservatives in the matter of Iranian oil. Compliance, in there view, is essential, because South Korea's destiny lies entwined with America's. Korea is the shrimp between some very aggressive sharks in, and to the Conservatives, alliance with the biggest shark of them all is the only surefire way to security. But looking at articles about energy development problems, or the English articles about the ongoing violence in Iraq and the sluggish pace of recovery even now, I doubt sincerely in event of disruption, there will be a Iraqi salvation. And without that salvation, there will be a recession again in Korea