Left Flank

One of the reasons this site was down was, because I was celebrating my mother-in-law's birthday at a Korean-style sashimi place down the hill from our house. BTW, it's my favorite meal (and, obviously my mother-in-law likes it, too!) A few photos were lost to the...ahem! drunkenness of photographer, including the last hour at a nearby pub with family and friends. A big messy table full of side dishes, soju and beer, and raucous conversation-that's a Korean-style birthday!

(click here to view)

Monte Wolverton Cagle Cartoons, Inc. Apr 28, 2008 EditorialCartoonists.com

And, those old women at the Busan market need the cash, too!

Actually, this was an active day trip. with frequent stops and tight schedules. All that was missing was the sun for most of the day and an airplane to bypass the evening traffic returning to Busan.

Starting from Boseong to breathe in the tea-scented air and climb the terraced hill, we bought green tea. Oddly enough, my wife and I were only one of two customers for tea. Mostly, mothers bought tea-flavored candy, treats, and ice cream for the kids. The green tea is excellent, BTW. Then it was on to an organic farm to pick strawberries. After lunch at Nakan Folk Village we toured what my wife called «Korea's Williamsburg». Laypeople can sleep for a night within this actual village where the venue workers actually live. Note: the brown stuff is bondaegi (boiled silkworm larvae). They're quite good, but very rich-flavored.

Lastly, we went to Sonam Temple, one of the oldest-standing Buddhist temples to survive the Japanese invasion of the 17th Century.

I told my wife, instead of planning trips around battlefields (obviously not my appealing to my wife) we should tour tea plantations. And, if there's a battlefield nearby, so much the better!

Image via Wikipedia

A tiny dog threatened to delay the transit of the South Korean president's motorcade to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) venue at Haeundae Beach in Busan in November 2005. The comic spectacle unfolded within a scripted display of authority, where two columns of police conscripts bused from the far corners of the country faced each at attention across one of the busiest thoroughfares in the city center. Where no bus, taxi, or car dared enter, one little dog advanced unhindered in its daily routine. Finally, inevitably, almost as a farcical denouement, the most senior officer commanded a subordinate to chase down the unwitting canine on the next crossing, or else the motorcade might be halted. Captured after some difficulty, the little dog was imprisoned within his master's store, yelping as people applauded the motorcade zooming through the honor guard unimpeded. Meanwhile a barrier separated the APEC venue from the general public, who were required to produce special identification loaded with biometric technology, to gain access. On the streets farming lobbies orchestrated protests rebuffed by the deployment of water cannon and parked trailers, effectively blocking transit through the coastal road. The dog, the barrier, and the protests symbolize the character of globalization more fully than the evangelic faith in a politically and economically integrated world. When Jagdish Bhagwati advocates, that reason deserves as much of a place as the passions, he overestimates the opposition between the two human forces. «Reason and analysis require that we abandon the conviction that globalization lacks a human face, an assertion that is tantamount to a false alarm, and embrace the view that it has one.» Accepting Bhagwati's singular «conviction», though, is as unappealing as championing the dog, the barrier, or the protests. As Stuart Hampshire argues,

Rationality, prudential and moral, as a common human possession or potentiality, is most plausibly identified, as argument and counter-argument, with the just and fair weighing of conflicts of evidence, and of conflicts of desires. Every individual person has used procedures for resolving contrary pulls and contrary impulses: political conflicts and their resolution are strictly analogous.

The Dog, the Wall, and the Protesters: A Critique of Jagdish Bhagwati's Defense of Economic Globalization - Get more documents

Busan can surprise!

I've been out of sorts lately because my Palm PDA unexpectedly became senseless last Thursday. It's not as if I need to schedule every minute of my day. I need something to read on buses and subways, and I need an mp3 player for classes, since my university department doesn't even provide cassette players. Then, the touchscreen became a stone. All the little taps turning pages in the last 15 months finally took their toll.

Good news, though! An enterprising group of geeks in Busan fixed it for the rough equivalent of $60. Considering that the warranty has run, a new one costs $199, and Singapore is the nearest service center, I was lucky! Well, perhaps the parts were cheap.

But, now I can read again!

It's not spring without the blooming of the cherry blossoms in Busan! A friend snapped these delightful signs of hope and beauty!

Really, I've had computer problems! Again!

About a week ago, my Firefox 2 browser started acted peculiarly. So, I actually flirted with Flock, which has advanced through a few more upgrades since I last encountered it. I gave Flock a decent courtship, but I missed Firefox. I have finally now corrected whatever went haywire, and all is well again.

Classes at Dong-A University also started two weeks ago, and it took a few days to adjust to that. I have a heavier teaching schedule compared to the last four years, including 3 classes marked as OT.

Finally, my own graduate classes start tomorrow. I've been excited before, but this is the last term. I honestly expect good things to come, even considering the past Internet problems. I'm taking IR 6601, Research Methods, in which I hope I can complete a project on the relationship between environmental catastrophes and civil war. Also, I'm taking IR 6633, Developed and Developing Nations. I'm excited because we're reading Immanuel Wallerstein, and discussing world-systems analysis. One of the IR traits I've picked up since my undergrad days was a a predilection for systemic perspectives over cultural and social ones. It's all very fitting, linking undergraduate IR to graduate IR.

So, my book reading will bloat considerably over periodicals. Fortunately, my PDA is well-stocked with e-books, so I still read most of my "pleasurable" reading on buses and subways to and from work, and between classes.

I have a feeling this term will affect this blog immeasurably.