Roh Moo-Hyun Commits Sucaide

The last president of South Korea killed himself yesterday by jumping off a cliff in his hometown. News are blaming the suicide on pressure from the indictments over 2 bribes totaling over $6 million USD.

But don't worry, all police work has been called off the corruption case. Because apparently, if the receiver of the money is dead, then the family which possesses and has used the money, as well as the individual who has a history of evading taxes and bribery, no longer need to be questioned either.

A few thousand people gathered to "mourn" the man which quickly turned into a anti Lee Myung-bak demonstration with riot police being assaulted.

But it gets worse. When he transitioned out of office he did a bit of house cleaning. An aide of the new president said "We have some trouble doing our job because many of the former president's records were classified as confidential."Those files are sealed for the next 15-30 years. The other files were on computers which were wiped or on the 238 hard drives (72 terabyts) which were swapped out and no one knows where the originals are. Only 25% of all records of that administration remained.

But he was a good enough man that he had the first state funeral in 23 years.

I wish the current president has more morals but his line about ugly prostitutes giving better massages leave a lot to be desired. Then again he seems to be in line with law enforcement which has, multiple times, announced the dates for future prostitution crackdowns even mentioning specific areas by name, again ahead of time.

Past presidents haven't fared much better:
The prior president, Kim Dae-jung was soft on organized crime, didn't take good care of the economy, and his sons stole billions of dollars. And he was also kidnapped before his presidency, then put in jail, and finally reinstated after the current leader was assassinated. In good news he was given the Nobel Peace Prize for the Sunshine Policy, which meant South Korean turned a blind eye to everything bad North Korea and actually supported the Northern Regime in more ways than one. And actually that summit was found to have been a bribe to the North of several hundred million dollars which led to the suicide of one individual invovled.

Before him was Kim Young-sam who ran a sucessful anti-corruption campaign which includign arresting of two of his predecessors. Only drawback was his son was also implicated in corruption.

Before him was Roh Tae-woo who was the the country's first democratically elected president and led a number of reforms and tried to better relations with North Korea, China, and the Solviet Union. He was later on trial for bribery, treason, and mutany for his role in the Gwangju massacre. He was given a 22 1/2 year jail sentence.

Chun Doo-hwan came before him. He was former military who retired only after promotign himself to a four star general and ousting the 4th president in a coup. He centeralized the government and led to great economic growth. He was nearly killed by a bomb blast in Burma which killed 21 other people. After his reign his family was accused of embezzling $4 billion USD. He spent two years in a Buddhist temple as a sign of repentance for the excesses of his regime. Despite this he was sentenced to death for treason and mutany connected with his takeover for power. He was pardoned by the man he had sentenced to death 20 years prior.

Choi Kyu-hah assumed power due to an assassination of the previous leader. He made a new constitution and held elections which he won. He lost control by the next year to a coup which left him with no power. With Chun Doo-hwan in charge, martial law was declared which leading to multiple uprisings the most notable of which was the Gwangju Massacre which left 987 civilians dead. Choi resigned soon afterwards.

Park Chung-hee was the 3rd 'president' despite actually being a dictator. He served in Manchuria with the Japanese army during the Japanese occupation of Korea. After Korea gained it's independence he joined the army but was kicked out for membership in a Communist cell. He took power in a coup in 1961 but officially took power in an election in 1963. He normalized relations with Japan, and had an upward fight as North Korea was stronger and had more finances than the Souths meager $72 per capita income. He stopped freedom of speech and of the press, rigged the electoral system, and changed the Constitution so he could "run for office" a third time.

After his third electrion he declared a state of emergency which suspended the Constitution and dissolved Parliament. He had two assassination attempts, both involving the North, the second which killed his wife later in the day. Despite his wife having been shot in the second attemt, he continued his speech while aides carried his wife out of the room. He was finally assassinated by a group of Southern men. A movie which I highly recommend, was made about the events of that day. He was officially in office 16 years and on TIME magazines list of top 100 Asians of the Century.

Yun Bo-seon was the third president of South Korea. He came to power since the former leader was ousted by a student-led pro-democracy uprising. He officially lasted less than two years in office but reality was less than a year in power due to a coup by Park Chung-hee.

Rhee Syngman was the first president of South Korea. He was arrested for demonstrations against Japan which lead to him going to the USA and obtained several degrees. He was the first "president" from 1919 - 1925 of the Provisional Government which was located in Shanghai. Despite being impeached he was annointed provisional leader of South Korea by the Allies after WWII. Three years later he gained a seat at the First Assembly of South Korea by a parliamentary vote after left-wing parties boycotted the election. He won a landslide vote against an opponent who did not know he was on the ballet. In less than two years Rhee assumed a dictatorship position overseeing several massacres.

After the Korean War broke out, Rhee encouraged the citizens of Seoul to remain in the city while he himself was already on his way to refuge. He destroyed the bridges over the Han River which trapped civilians (I've heard this is one of the main reasons why Koreans don't trust their politicians). He did everything he could to twart ceasefires for he wanted to rule a united Korea, not a divided one. He was also mad at the US for not bombing China despite Chinese soldiers joining on the side of the North. He also imprisoned Empress Sunjeong of the Joseon Dynasty as a bid for himself to keep power.

His fourth term in office won by a 90% vote (his main opponent died several days prior). However during elections for vice president the public claimed the election was rigged. A student uprising happened soon after which resulted in the CIA whisked him out of Korea in a DC-10 as protestors converged on the Blue House. During his exhile in Hawaii it was discovered he embezelled $20 million USD. He died of a stroke 5 years later.

So after our not-so-brief history lesson, which one of you wants to become president?

Korean Class -> New Movie?

Due to a lot of self study I was able to skip Level 1 Korean and was able to go into Level 2. Our teacher was amazing, the co-students were wonderful. And since I had studied so much on my own before I got there, half of the vocab and a number of the grammar forms were review.

I studied on the bus to and from work, occasionally went to a coffee shop to study, and found it was sufficient. Now in Level 3 we don't have vocab lists (we need to make them ourselves) and most of the vocab is new as are the grammar forms. I know that studying on the bus everyday won't be sufficient. I know I am missing more pieces as I have missed part of the skipped Level 1.

My ideas has been to pass Level 3 and get through Level 4 best I can and then take a term off and let it all sink in.

Our Level 3 teacher was horrible. I was considering swapping to the other class but didn't want to leave the other students. Thankfully she went on maternity leave and the class chipped in and got her a "going away present" which some students did not want to participate in. They had to be sold on the idea of a "good riddance present". The replacement teacher is much better but we only have her for a few more weeks before the term is over (middle of next month).

The sad part is our class is breaking up. One student's job called him to another country 3 years early. Another student has missed so many classes (as we all have full time jobs outside of Korean class) that he won't pass. Several other students are going back to their home countries for summer and another student is thinking about going to a university where speaking is more emphasized.

That was Thursday night. On Friday morning I got a phone call from the producer I worked with in the past. He said they are working on a new movie and production starts next month. He asked if I would like to meet next week for dinner and discuss it. It looks like I'll be taking my term off a little earlier than I was expecting...

Hanyang Universities 70th Anniversary

Through a friend at who works at Hanyang University and another school, we got tickets to Hanyang's 70th Anniversary. Today was the first of two nights of musical performances; the first being traditional Korean music and the second, tomorrow, being more modern music.

We heard his ten students would be in the performance and so I was surprised to see such a large group on stage. It was also interesting to note how the conductor would lead the group by a single clap of his wooden board to signal the start; much as how a drummer would start the timing of a song by tapping his drum sticks together three times. Unlike Western conductors who are constantly giving hand motions and waving their conductor's stick, the conductors I've seen at these performances always stand by the side not intervening except for a single wooden clap to start each song and then three claps to note the end of the music.

We later joined some of his students and sat around drinking tea and coffee until 11 pm. Everyone seemed to click really well and so we swapped some phone numbers and made plans to meet again.