“Going Nuclear” & “Imminent Collapse”

"We Are The Happiest Children In The World!" Photo by Eric Lafforgue.

Just dipped into my blogroll very briefly before getting to work. Barely got through the first five sites and already found heaps of seriously informed and interesting stuff well worth reading, so thought I’d share!

Over at Arms Control Wonk Joshua Pollack offers some “Straight Talk About Iran“, or rather some straight talk about reporting on Iran’s nuclear programme; specifically just what 1) “To go nuclear” 2) “To break out” 3) ”To achieve breakout capability” and 4) “Playing for Time” might mean in the real world… top stuff.

The excellent 38 North reminds readers that the conventional wisdom on North Korea — i.e. that “A few more turns of the screw and the North Korean system will collapse or, at the very least, become grudgingly cooperative” was bollocks then and remains bollocks now.

The incomparably dedicated Andy Worthington parses the story on Poland’s hosting of secret CIA prisons, for those who missed the release (and ensuing row) last week of documents in Poland confirming that planes chartered by the CIA flew to the site of a secret prison in north eastern Poland in 2002 and 2003.

Agencia Prensa Rural brings us the news that a report released by U.S. NGO the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) finds an “alarming link” between Colombian military units that received U.S. funding and cases of extrajudicial killings or “false positives” — in which civilians were murdered and presented as guerrillas killed in combat — committed by those units.

As if the U.S.’s involvement there wasn’t dirty enough already. Check out my old post “Dyncorp vs. the Flowers” if you want to get a rough picture.

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Endnote. The above picture is copyright to Eric Lafforgue. Please check out his site and buy one of his prints! They are utterly mind-blowing.

A Heavily Mined Eco-Park

The DMZ: Rich in rare flora and fauna; poor in idiots. A good thing...

You’ve got to love the South Korean government: their rabid fervour to make everything turn a profit makes for some unwittingly black humour that could make you cry if it wasn’t so bleakly hilarious.

A case in point:  the de-militarised zone (DMZ) that bisects the two Koreas is a heavily mined but verdant strip of land  248-kilometer-long and 4-kilometer-wide that has been proven to be rich in rare species, untouched as it is by human hand.

What do the tossers in Seoul want to do?  Turn the region into an “ecological peace belt” with attendant eco-tours and build an international peace park slap in the middle.

“The area is rich in unusual wetlands and forests, creating perfect living condition for rare foxes and deer,” an environment ministry official said.

“There is a need for us to consider working on full restoration of the area for species now extinct in South Korea.”

No, there is a need for you to shut the fuck up and leave well alone. “International peace belt” indeed. It’s doing just fine as an international war belt thank you very much…

Corporatism and Korean Baseball

Hanwha Eagles

I don’t like baseball. It’s probably just lack of familiarity; the sport is hardly followed in England, let alone played much. But like American football, the high-fiving, steroid-pumped, gum-chewing crotch-grabbing bullshit just doesn’t quite sit right.

When I first arrived in South Korea I was mildly surprised to find baseball is everywhere and a major national pastime. My father-in-law, for example, spends most evenings in front of his giant TV muttering in rapid-fire Korean at some bat-swinging twerp with a testosterone overload and an ego clearly bigger than the stadium.

Now I don’t like TV much to start with either. It kills conversation, numbs the brain, feeds you bullshit and is an entirely one-way medium: it batters you over the head with superficial crap, hype and adverts; you sit there and take it like a sucker. And when it’s showing baseball, I like it even less.

Cheerleaders at a baseball game in Seoul: "working for the man".

Not content to just gripe though, I’ve been thinking (superficially) about Korean baseball and why I find it quite so irritating and have discovered something: it perfectly exemplifies the corporate capture of South Korean cultural life. Allow me to explain:

The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) has eight teams. They are named as follows:  Doosan Bears; Hanhwa Eagles; Kia Tigers; Lotte Giants; LG Twins; Samsung Lions; SK Wyverns; Woori Heroes.

What do these wild beasts of the stadia have in common? Each is owned by and named for a major South Korean conglomerate, or chaebol. People are essentially cheering for one wing of a corporation….

Picture, if you will, a premier league football match between Pizza Hut Cows and the Dunkin Donut Sparrows. And a stadium full of supporters wildly shouting “Glory, Glory Dunkin Doooonuts!” “Pizza Hut, are the champions, of the world!”. It’s fodder for an Aldous Huxley novel.

Now lest I be accused of some expat bitterness or the like, allow me to acknowledge the following facts: yes, I know that major sports teams the world over are business in themselves, usually sponsored and owned by various corporate giants, and such ownership is clearly marked on their uniforms; they treat their players like commodities and flog crap merchandise willy-nilly.

But… But… But… they have a certain culture and genuine identity. Take Manchester United: the team was born in 1878 as the works team of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway depot at Newton Heath.  They played on a small, dilapidated field for fifteen years. In 1892 they became an independent company, appointed a club secretary, and after various financial travails they officially came into existence as Manchester United on 26 April 1902.

Until recently Man United were owned by a motley crew of shareholder including two Irish racehorse owners. It’s since been bought by an American tycoon, Malcolm Glazer. (Note that he hasn’t seen fit to change the club’s name to The Malcolm Glazers). The team is far from the representative face of a corporation. And any attempt by a new owner to make it such would fail spectacularly.

By contrast, the first game under the aegis of the Korea Baseball Organization was played on March 27, 1982 between Samsung Lions and the MBC Chungyong (now the LG Twins) in Dongdaemun Stadium, Seoul. Then-president Chun Doo-hwan — a murderous goon who would be in prison if he hadn’t been pardoned by the exceedingly generous Nobel Peace prize laureate Kim Dae-jung in 1997 — threw the first pitch.

So what you had basically was two toy things of  major conglomerates facing off, with the first ball being thrown by a man best known for sending special forces in to rape and murder his own citizens in the city of Kwangju. Hardly an auspicious start for a sporting body. But we cannot deny history (or the South Korean people their baseball games) so lets leave that there…

No… I can’t! Take Hanwha. It has 26 subsidiaries, tentacles throughout the whole economy. It sells weapons to dubious regimes. Its chairman personally took a crowbar to some bar workers who beat up his son.  Can you really stand there chanting “Go Hanwha!” at a sports event and feel good about yourself? It ain’t right…

By all means, buy these company’s products if you need them, but don’t emotionally affiliate yourself with what is just one wing of a conglomerate whose corruption is legion. Please. At least Seoul FC has the decency to name itself after a city.

So the Premier League ain't perfect either... Image via Schnews