7. Terrorism against South Korea.

    Before I start talking about the topic I just want to thank my classmates, the presenters who choose the subject of “Terrorism in Korea” for their presentation. It was nice and interesting listening to the presentation.

      When I first here about the word terrorism my mind goes directly to AlQaeda, Binladin, Israel, and what is known as the war against terrorism. Yes, we have heard about the “feud” between the two countries, North Korea and South Korea, but it was my first time to hear that north Koreans using terrorist acts against South Korea. What is really weird here is that North Korean government does not admit most of the attacks, as if they are doing this for no reason except provoking South Korea.

     It’s really interesting to know that North Korea has used most types of terrorist tactics that include bombing, shooting, hijacking, and kidnapping. Since the clash between the two countries still exist, we find that South Korea are working on promoting a anti-terrorist protecting program. This actually answers the question that was asked in the class that says “ what should the government of South Korea do to protect itself from any possible terrorist attack. Talking more about the program, it’s called USFK (United State Force in Korea). This is a counter-terrorist program supported by United State to protect both US service member and families stationed in the republic of Korea.

I strongly recommend every one interested in the issue of terrorism attacks against South Korea to read this article: “South Korea’s next challenge against terrorism” you can find it in the website I have attached below. It talks more in details about USFK and it has a valuable information about the subject.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/8397011/Homegrown-Terrorism-South-Koreas-Next-Challenge-Against-Terrorism

  

Fashion in Korea.

Luxury Look and Fashion in Korea

      One of the questions that have been in class by the presenters was “ Do you think fashion market will keep growing in Korea?” My personal answer is definitely yes when it comes to a country like Korea where appearance and facials are very important. Taking a look at plastic and cosmetic surgeries, last year the performed plastic surgeons in South Korea were nearly 700,000surgical and nonsurgical cosmetic procedures. It has become very common that 15-30 percentages of Korean women are said to have undergone a cosmetic procedure.
     Back to fashion, from what I have noticed, fashion are used to be the main concern for females. But now days you see teenagers from both genders are interested in fashion. A huge amount of money goes for fashion market. In that last decade, Korea has witness a big change in the world of fashion and incredible growing of the fashion market. I think Korean teenagers don’t care about the function, the quality or the usage of the item as much they care about how luxury it looks or what brand name it carries. The idea that they are seeking for the image of privilege that comes a long with it. If you have been once to a fashion show, I sure that you have noticed that more than 90 percent of attendants are women wearing the most fashionable clothes and the handbags are of the most known brands. They will not hesitate to pull out the credit card and pay hundreds of dollars to buy a pair of shoes or black strappy stilettos with a pointy toe. For them it is worth of sexy. As a boy you may spend too much money on an electronic gadgets trying to show off or be a technosexual person.

      I think these days, boys are very much concerned about fashion and appearance but one of the things that makes them not as uxorious as girls is the harabojie’s mind and the down look on those how tries to have the gay sense of fashion, get waxed or what is known as Metrosexual man or What ever became of the `man`s man`. Back to their days, they had war and they were fighting to survive and put food on the tables. Now all the boys have gone soft. Pretty soon they will be wearing makeup!

Review Yellow Sand

       Yellow sand is a natural phenomenon that causes lots of serious problems and damages over the places it covers. Specifically talking about Korea, the yellow sand that comes from china is very polluted. The storm contains harmful chemicals such as ulfur (an acid rain component), soot, ash, carbon monoxide, and other toxic pollutants including heavy metals. But actually this is not like the yellow windy storms that we have in Saudi Arabia. The one that comes over Saudi Arabia usually comes from Iraq or Kuwait. These two countries have wide big deserts similar to the ones in Saudi Arabia. Most of these deserts have pure sand. Many of Saudi people love to go camping in these deserts despite to this yellow sand wind. It could be only harmful if you suffer from serious cough or for those already with asthma or respiratory infections.

     Most of the natural disasters have no practical solutions. Thunder strikes, volcanoes, earthquakes or storm are all over humans’ ability to have a control on or to stop. We have created some techniques to help us to coexist with these natural phenomena. In some countries you may find building that observe and reduce the earthquake vibrations. The project of planting a desert so that we get rid of yellow sand sounds like a good idea to me. We have a similar project in Saudi Arabia where billions of palms were planted in order to be some kind of an obstacle are a wall that block the sand, it worked efficiently. The idea was to block the movement of the sand. It was not for the desiccation of the desert like what china trying to work on. 

    One of the graduating projects we are working on this semester is a yellow sand alarm system. The idea of the project is worn people when the wind is about it come by installing a device in Namsan tower that has a sensor sense the yellow sand.  Once the yellow sand is caught by the device, a yellow lamp will be blinking as an indicator or a warning.  

Holiday Working Visa

     Working holiday visa is such a great opportunity since it encourages the culture exchange and closer ties between arrangement countries. I envy my Korean friends for having such an opportunity because not all nationalities can have it. Unfortunately I have looked all the 13 countries that offer a working holiday visa but no one of them includes Saudi Arabia to the list. To have a chance to work, study and experience others’ culture is such a great opportunity that every person in theses days should have the chance. Thanks God that Saudi government has opened one of the biggest scholarship programs where student with good grads is granted a scholarship to study abroad and learn others culture.

     I have noticed that going abroad either as an exchange student or working holiday student is something that most of the Koreans do it before finishing their universities.   Like after high school or lets say after being admitted in one university each student works on three major projects: the military service, the school major and going abroad to study and may work at the same time.

     Experience living in foreign countries has it advantages and disadvantages. As it has been mentioned in the presentation, some people have to work in 3D jobs in order to escape from poverty or to be able to cover their funds. In addition to this, in most of the WHV offering countries there are placed where the traveler or the foreigner student who is not familiar to the place is subjected to some crimes like fraud or being abused which may result in a serious trouble.

     I think it is important in a country like Korea where a big number of students applying for such a visa to have a special program or conference to learn, warn and educate the going people about the country they are going to and to show some of the cases where people have faced difficulties and troubles. And teaching them a little about the culture and what they have to eschew in order not to be offended or cause troubles. 

Tuition Fees

  University tuition payment in Korea is quite different than it’s in Saudi Arabia, in the term where not all of university students have to pay for studying. Students are between regular students (full-time study) or part time students. For regular student the college gives each one a monthly allowance to cover one’s need like accommodation, transportation, meal or books cost. To receive money from the government during your university attending period is not always a positive thing. It has some advantage and disadvantage upon students.

When my Korean friend heard of this, the wish if the were like us but I don’t think they realize the negative impact.  Being studied at a college in Saudi Arabia, I would say that if all of your fees are paid by the government then you will not be as hard studying person as you should be, I mean when a person pays from his/her packet, we see them always trying to have the most of benefit or education they can get from school. In other words “no gain without pain”. Add to this, one a student do a part time job, he/she will get a good experience that in some case make that person better in his/ her filed. No deny that by doing a part time job you will get exhausted and tired but this pressure makes you make strong and responsible for tomorrows life. As I heard from my friends who graduated and being working in some companies that the school life is less stressing than job.

But what I think stress the Korean students the most is that they actually need to spend more time to study in order to challenge others who don’t do part time job. Studying in Korea is very tough specially when most of the students if not all fighting to get the best grades. So when a student got a chance to study more and spend more time in library preparing for exams while the other one is working to save money for the semester’s fees its not fair and it resulted people to protest and demonstrate against this issue.

 I have just read this news that I would like to share with my Korean friend. It says that the government said it would budget a total of 2 trillion won (US$1.8 billion) next year to lower fees by just over 15%. Further cuts will be made in 2013 and 2014 after pressure from opposition parties announcing they would introduce legislation to halve fees, support low-income students and reform private college foundations which back the majority of the country's higher education institutions.

Evaluate of Mr. Ahn

         Thanks to Lee Taejan and Ho Insu for bringing a political subject to talk about, Mr. Ahn candidacy. I like the issues related to politics and since we have a complete different rolling system in Saudi Arabia, it was very interesting to know some about the political situation in Korea.

      I have searched and read more about Mr. Ahn. Apparently he is very loved by lots of Koreans for his upright personality, social entrepreneurship and attitude. A smart person with a wide knowledge and experience fighting for the next elections to be the president of the republic of Korea.

      Briefly talking about him, he has been a medical doctor for 14 years. Also, during his graduating schools he was interested in computer. Later on he established a software company to make more than 10 billion won in annual sales. His name start getting famous and his fame start growing rapidly since he started to give lectures to the public on social affairs during 2009.

     Many of youths and even older people are influenced by the social evangelism of Ahn through his public lectures, books and TV talk shows. He concurs with President Lee on his call for a just society and win-win relations between large and small businesses but they deplore the leader’s inability to take practical steps to achieve these goals while the system continues to harbor conglomerates.

What kind of problems or obstacles disrupts him to reach presidency?

   Well, first of all, he does not have much experience about politics. His occupations as a professor, researcher, programmer, physician, entrepreneur and a doctor create kind of concern in his society because it is obvious that he does not have a political experience. So it’s controversial wither a smart person like him going to be a dynamic politician and a great president of Korea or not.

      It was in his hand to deal with big political parties in Korea but he rejected. He said earlier ” refused them all because I didn’t have confidence in myself to survive well in the political circle and I don’t enjoy exercising power. I want to contribute to the society in a practical way.”

      It’s a fact that he is losing the support of these big parties but at the same time his honesty, ambitions and his particular way brings him close to the people and keeps him on the list of the as a predictable coming president.

 

Audition Boom

        Reality TV shows are getting very popular all around the world. A successful idea will attract hundreds if not thousands of people to be either the competitor or audience. For example “korean’s got talent”. The idea of this program originally goes to the British version (Britain’s got talent) released in 2007, and has spawned over 30 countries. Got talent franchise is the fastest growing international franchise. I will be soon talking about some examples of those who jump and rise to the recognition they get around world through these programs.

These programs are all about proving yourself, challenging yourselves to achieve your dream. Lots of people turned from poor to rich, normal people sore to stardom like being under the spotlight. Few minutes on one of these shows could turn someone’s life completely and change their situation. Especially when we live in the world of technology and development where any event can be spread to people from all over the world in a very short time. Internet, TV, newspapers, mobile phones….. etc play a significant role in the world of media.

Back to the subject, here I would like to start talking about the young English girl Connie Talbot who rose to fame in 2007. This young girl never took singing lessons. She became very famous for her incredible and fascinating voice. She signed with Rainbow Company to release her debut album in 2007. Her album is being sold worldwide and the number of the viewers’ hitting her You tube video are increasing so rapidly to be one of the most viewed 15 videos of all time.

Children get confidence to be on similar shows and give spectacular and incredible performances. Take Faryl Smith, George Sampson, Aiden Davis and the list keeps going.

One of the interesting question given by the presenters in class was “ Do you think it’s fair to show the applicant’s private history or background?”, well, some of the applicants have lived a hard life for being very poor or  being orphans or any other case, I find it really unfair to be sympathetic and let them pass for their hard miserable life. I don’t deny that it’s extraordinary and spectacular to see a person with a difficult circumstances talented or doing something stunning with out learning or taking lessons or without being supported, but the point here is that it does not mean that you highly evaluate them and forget about the other competitors who also have dreams and have been working hard to be stars and proving themselves with their talents. To show one’s background is important for the program and for the audiences as well but it’s obvious that it effects the evaluation when it touches peoples’ hearts, which will result in an unfair polls.