We've got G20 fever here in Seoul! You can't got anywhere in Seoul without being reminded of the summit or it's importance for Korea.
While Mike's been busy talking about the summit with scholars and diplomats for the last couple weeks, I wrote an article for The Christian Science Monitor this week on the role of developing countries in the G20 Summit. You can check out the article here.
Nearest train station to the DMZ. This line is part of the inter-Korean railway that was rebuilt in 2007.
I went up to the DMZ area again last Friday, this time for a piece for Radio Netherlands Worldwide. We were lucky enough to get pretty close to a family of white-naped cranes. The cranes are endangered in Asia, and symbolize longevity here in Korea.
Back in mid-January I went on a tour of the House of Sharing -- a museum and home for Korean "comfort women" survivors about an hour outside of Seoul. These brave 할머니 (grandmas) are spending their retirement telling their stories of sexual enslavement during World War II and fighting for an apology from the Japanese government.
Last week Radio Netherlands Worldwide's "The State We're In" aired the interview I helped put together with one of these grandmas. It was incredible hearing Yi Ok-seon 할머니's story and spending time with the other women. Not enough people know about their struggles, even here in South Korea.
A shrine at the House of Sharing museum. The garland on the right is a chain of tiny origami cranes made by Japanese visitors.
My tongue-in-cheek look at the flowery language of Korean newspaper columnists and politicians yesterday received some interesting responses.
One reader (you know who you are), suggests that the Koreans who use such language are merely trying to show off their knowledge of ancient Chinese proverbs and don't really care whether the reader understands the references. An older Korean editor at the JoongAng I work with is constantly telling me the same thing. It sounds a little ridiculous, but there's probably some truth in the idea of the indulgent author.
Another idea brought up was the influence of foreign languages in all of this. Korean students dedicate so much energy to learning English, the logic goes, that they no longer have time to properly learn the art of Korean writing.
It's interesting to note that writing in Korea has been a battleground for these sort of cross-cultural tensions for years: up until a few decades ago, after all, most high-level literature and academic books were written in Chinese. The rare book market here is nosediving because young people are learning English instead of Chinese and can no longer read older books.
Obviously, not everyone thinks that this move away from the old style of writing is a bad thing. This editorial is a harsher than usual look at the use of metaphors in political debates in Korea. It suggests that "in the battle of idioms, Korea loses."
Koreans love their metaphors. Pick up the JoongAng Daily on a given day and you'll find everything from politicians employing Confucian tales to discredit each other's positions to editorial writers brandishing folktales to admonish recent court rulings.
I'd say about half of the time I miss out on understanding something because of the cultural gap. But the rest of the time it seems like a generational gap that only older Koreans who grew up in a country influenced heavily by China and Japan understand these literary references.
When ancient allegories are not being employed, I've found that well-known Koreans enjoy stretching metaphors beyond any logical recognition. Take this passage written by the senior editor on intelligence at the JoongAng Sunday comparing democracy with standardized tests for students:
Many merits of multiple-choice tests should not be underestimated...
They have close affinity with democracy. Democracy is about making choices. Multiple-choice tests are all about making choices.
When we go into voting booths, we are given a ballot with a multiple choice box, requiring us to put a check mark next to the candidate of our choice.
History also reveals a correlation with democracy and multiple-choice tests. The test system was developed in the United States, who claims that it is a partner of democracy.
I can't believe I never saw the connection between SAT tests and having a protected voice in my government!
These kind of linguistic cultural differences really make you think about how understated English writing can be. No American, after all, can out do Korean teenagers in emoticon ingenuity. (^(oo)^)
But nothing makes you appreciate a modest use of metaphors more than mixed ones.
At the end of last year the Korean Ministry of Finance held a party with reporters to celebrate Korea's economic success in 2009. They showed a short film extolling just how well Korea did last year compared with other OECD countries, despite the recession. One ministry official, who declined to be named, summed the film up as thus:
“Last year was like a roller-coaster trip that started on a hell-bound train. And the video, I think, showed how Korea has transferred to a heaven-bound one.”
Me talking with Mr. Jung about his experience as a prisoner in a North Korean camp.
Back in July I received an e-mail from an old coworker, Dave McGuire, who at that time was working for Radio Netherlands. He was looking to do a story on North Korean prison camps and was wondering if I could help out. Of course, I said yes!
Five months and quite a bit of searching later, the show aired. You can listen to the interviews we did with a former prisoner and a former guard at a North Korean prison camp here.
I'm pretty happy with the way it came out and feel like it gives listeners a rare glimpse into what have been called modern concentration camps. I hope that before we leave here we can use our experience in journalism to tell more stories of North Koreans now living in the South, so stay tuned!
Yesterday, thousands of people turned out in downtown Seoul for a funeral that took nearly a year to happen. The story goes back to January 19, 2009, when a group of protesters took over a building set for demolition in the Yongsan district of Seoul. They were protesting the city's policy of redevelopment and the forced eviction of tenants, which had been (and still is) affecting people all over the city. Early the next morning, police raided the building to root out the protesters and somehow, during the clash, a fire broke out on the roof, killing five of the protesters and one SWAT officer. It's still not clear who or what caused the fire.
The families of the protesters who died vowed not to bury their loved ones until they received an apology from the government and proper compensation for the deaths. The bodies of the five men would remain in a hospital freezer until then. Meanwhile, as months went by, the families and their supporters created a kind of permanent protest vigil at the site of the tragedy. I visited the building a few days ago and found a kind of base camp of protesters -- they huddled around gas stoves for warmth, had piles of blankets and sleeping mats for spending the night, and even a kitchen (which was in full swing) to feed the coalition.
Finally, just before the end of the year, the families reached a settlement with the developer, and Korea's prime minister issued an official apology on behalf of the government. This paved the way for the funeral to be held, nearly a year after the protesters' deaths.
It's been interesting to see how yesterday's event has played out in the Korean media. The three major newspapers here form a triumverate that people refer to as the ChoJoongDong (조중동), short for the Chosun, Joongang, and Dong-a newspapers. They're often criticized for being stolidly conservative and government-friendly. This was plainly shown on their websites over the last 24 hours. While the more progressive newspapers here made the Yongsan funeral their top featured story -- complete with running coverage of the procession and editorials -- the ChoJoongDong gave the event very little play over the course of the day, sticking it on their front page maybe for a few hours only to bury it with the rest of their news soon after.
The Korean government has been trying hard to move past this event ever since it happened, and it looks as if they may have, if not already, succeeded. The public outcry, in spite of the large turnout at the funeral, seems to have dwindled to near indifference at this point, and redevelopment projects throughout the city, including in Yongsan, continue to be pushed forward. It'll be interesting to see how significant the one-year anniversary of the Yongsan tragedy turns out to be on January 20. It could either signal the real beginning, or the end, of the movement.
For anyone interested in learning more, a group of people put together a fantastic documentary about the Yongsan tragedy that I've posted below. This is part one. Full video can be downloaded here.
My piece on Korea's first "eco-city" aired this Tuesday on Chicago Public Radio's "Worldview" program. In case you missed it, you can listen to it here. Korea is building what they hope to be one of the greenest cities in the world, but ecologists say that they are destroying important wetlands and eco-systems in the process.
I definitely would like to do more stories about Korea's green growth in the future. 80 percent of Korea's stimulus package was devoted to green growth -- the highest percentage in the world. While Lee Myung-bak has gotten a lot of support for his green initiatives (he even rides his bike to work), some in the government are questioning just how eco-friendly some of his projects are.
Production credit: I couldn't have done this piece without the support (and constructive criticism) from my coach Mike.
My first "Feature" article was published in the JoongAng Daily today. It's about how crazy Koreans are for the "all-American" sport of baseball. I talked to Korea's star pitcher and he told me soccer is over-- baseball is now Korea's favorite sport.
This was my first big reporting assignment since coming here, and I felt I grew a lot in the process of writing it. I learned how to navigate the language barrier and find people who spoke English for the article (which is a real challenge here at times). And I pushed myself to cover something that is out of my comfort zone (ie, not wars, refugees, or massacres!).
Mike has also been leaving his comfort zone lately with his reporting and production work on TBS eFM. I hope that this laboratory called Korea will keep giving us opportunities to challenge and expand our abilities as journalists.
A Rwandan victim of Hutu-Tutsi conflict (James Nachtwey).
For the last three years, I have not been allowed to participate in any activist or political activities whatsoever. This was a requirement of my job as a public radio journalist. The management explained away any qualms we might have with this requirement through the noble goal of "unbiased journalism."
As a former student activist, I found giving up activism in the name of journalism a frightful idea. What is journalism, after all, but one of the oldest forms of consciousness raising and empowerment? What is journalism if we take out anything controversial -- anything with victims or perpetrators?
While I love journalism, I am frustrated by those who continue to deny any link between being an activist and being a journalist. That is why I was so excited to see this TED talk by renowned photojournalist James Nachtwey about his life as a war photographer. Nachtwey will receive an Internews Media Leadership Award on June 2nd.
We've got G20 fever here in Seoul! You can't got anywhere in Seoul without being reminded of the summit or it's importance for Korea.
My first piece in The Christian Science Monitor was published this week. You can read it here.
Nearest train station to the DMZ.
Yi Ok-seon with a photo of herself in her 20s.
A shrine at the House of Sharing museum. The garland on the right is a chain of tiny origami cranes made by Japanese visitors.
Me talking with Mr. Jung about his experience
SongdoIBD-5.JPG)
Artist rendition of Songdo, South Korea.
A Rwandan victim of Hutu-Tutsi conflict (James Nachtwey).
