Plagiarism

And we wonder why students cheat:

Yonsei professor admits plagiarism

The writer of the original poem, Kim I-won, published the poem in 1983 in the Hongik University newspaper, where Mr. Ma was her instructor and the paper’s editor at the time.
In April, Mr. Ma included the poem, “Mare Daehayo” (“About Words”) in a somewhat shortened form and with a somewhat different structure in a book of his poetry published last April.
Mr. Ma admitted the plagiarism. In an interview with the JoongAng Daily, he said he had asked the publisher of the book to recall all the copies. “It is clearly my fault,” he said, explaining that he tried but was not able to contact Ms. Kim before publishing the book.
“I borrowed the poem because I thought the idea was great,” he added.
He called Ms. Kim a “special friend,” saying he told her what he had done after the book was published last year, and thought she understood his motives because she had no reaction. He felt “betrayed,” he said, at Ms. Kim’s belated accusation.

"Borrowed the poem" - this is not like borrowing money and then returning it.

S.Korean education minister resigns amid scandal of thesis plagiarism

Kim's scandal of alleged thesis plagiarism broke out just three days after he took office on July 21, when a vernacular daily disclosed that he was suspected of plagiarizing his student's thesis in 1987 while serving as a political science professor at Seoul's Kookmin University.

Following the plagiarism scandal, local reports said Kim is in suspicion of multiple publications of a single thesis and embezzlement of state academic subsidies.

This is/was the MINISTER OF EDUCATION.

KU’s President Plagiarized

The fact-finding committee of the Korea University professors’ association, which has been investigating suspicions of plagiarism cast on its new president Lee Pil-sang, announced on January 24, “After investigating the president’s papers and books, we concluded that the two papers under dispute were plagiarized, and in addition, there were three more of his works that had been copied from his students.”

Korea University President in Plagiarism Charge

Korea University president Lee Pil-sang published 12 academic papers that are almost identical to those written by students he supervised between 1983 and 2005, either under his name alone or as co-author with the students. He is also suspected of plagiarizing content and graphs from foreign textbooks in three of his books. Lee denies plagiarizing his students’ work, saying it was his ideas that served as the basis of their work. He said the foreign textbooks are as good as public property, “and I believed it was acceptable to refer to graphs, tables and content.”

This is the President of the number 2 university in Korea. They even developed a software program at Korea University to catch plagiarism. Perhaps the president's work should have been used as a test.

Sanctions

Can it really make a difference?

According to the BBC, these are the things that North Korea is no longer allowed to import:

1) iPods
2) cognac
3) jet skis
4) jewellery
5) designer clothes

I've seen what Kim Jong Il wears. A ban on designer clothes is really gonna hurt.

Besame Mucho (Kiss Me Much)

I've had this DVD on my shelf for a long time, but I hadn't watched it until last night. This was an excellent look at a normal, happy family that faces losing everything after the father loses his job as a trader because he won't manipulate stocks, then finds out that the loan he co-signed for his best friend has come due because his "best friend" has skipped town. When they find out that the family has fallen on hard times, friends disappear and others offer money for "favors".

The movie was slow-paced but gentle and often very sad. The acting was excellent. Lee Mi-Suk (in addition to being incredibly hot), her husband (Jeon Kwang Ryeol) and the children were wonderful. The other characters in the movie were all believeable and important in fleshing out the story.

I understand that this movie didn't do well in Korea, and I can understand why. It is a realistic and often uncomfortable look at Korean society. I liked the movie because the director didn't over dramatize the story, and he didn't cop out and take the easy way out at the end as so many directors do. There were no tricky artistic camera shots. It was just a good, thoughtful story.

The movie title is a little odd, but it is named after the coffee shop where the husband and wife first met. Besame Mucho is Spanish and comes from a Mexican song that seems to have been covered by just about everyone (The Beatles, Dean Martin, Diana Krall, Elvis Presley, Nat "King" Cole...)

It was interesting to see that parts of the movie were shot on the old Chamsu Bridge.

Mellow Music

I've always liked Jim Brickman's music. His instrument of choice, the piano, dominates all of his music, but he does wonderful collaborations with other great musicians and singers. His lastest CD, Escape, is really nice. Perhaps, many think of this as pop piano lite, but I like it (I also like George Winston and Kenny G, so...). As background music to my computer studies, it has been very soothing.

The Host

I've been pretty lazy for the last three weeks. I've been watching too much tv, reading a bit, lying around, and napping a lot. I started to get a cold (or the flu) a couple of days ago, and, today, I decided that I needed to get up and out and do something instead of just lying around feeling sorry for myself. So, in the morning, I took a subway and bus out to an area south of where I'm living now thinking that I could find some peace and quiet and a bit of fresh air. If I stay in Korea much longer, I need to get out the the city where I'm living now. Unfortunately, I never found anything I liked. I don't know how far out of the city you have to go to get a nice setting.

On the way back home, I stopped at Yongsan electronics market and went to my regular DVD shop and bought The Host and The Wind that Shakes the Barley. The Host has been a really big hit here in Korea. It played at Cannes (didn't win anything) and they are thinking of distributing it abroad. I watched it and I liked it; however, I can't understand why they think it will do well outside of Korea. It got surprising good reviews at Rotten Tomatoes (88%), but it's not an art film, which is what I expect to show at movie festivals. Yes, I know that all of the movie festivals that used to show quirky, independent movies have gone pretty main stream. But, The Host is no Brokeback Mountain. Movies like Chihwasan, which has an interesting historical component and incredible cinematography, or Oasis, which is a love story of a mentally handicapped man and a woman with cerebral palsy, have a much better shot of selling in the foreign market.

The movie takes shots at the U.S. military (and the U.S. - but, hey, haven't we all?), the Korean police, medical people (both Korean and American), and the Korean military, but it doesn't say anything new.

The actors are quite good. I've always liked Song Kang-ho. His daughter in the movie(Ko Ah-sung) as well as the actor playing his father (Byun Hee-bong) were excellent. However, a lot of the stereotypical characters in the movie ring true IF YOU ARE FAMILIAR WITH KOREA, but I don't think anyone outside of Korea will get it.

There are some interesting characters, but there are no characters who develop in an interesting and believable way. Song's character seems a little different at the end, but that would be hard to believe since he is supposed to be mentally handicapped. The slap at the U.S. for using Agent Yellow to try to control a virus and the Korean government for rolling over was just too farcical to be taken seriously.

This is another movie like Typhoon, which Korea hopes will find an audience in the west, but I don't see it. The movie is worth watching because it's entertaining, but it's not worthy of a Palme D'or.
------------------------------------
After the movie, I went to the gym but my joints were aching so I had a pretty crappy workout. Then I went to the sauna and had a nice long soak in a hot tub. Now I'm going to lie down in front of the tv with a can of Pringles and watch another movie.

Bilingualism

If I needed another reason to study Korean

Bilingualism delays onset of dementia
People who are fully bilingual and speak both languages every day for most of their lives can delay the onset of dementia by up to four years compared with those who only know one language, Canadian scientists said on Friday.

I hope it's not too late for me.

Michelle Wie

This has to be a little galling for serious professional women golfers.

Wie is Top Female Golf Earner

Wikipedia has this to say about Michelle Wie.

By the end of 2006, her first full year as a professional, she had missed the cut in 11 out of 12 tries against men, and remained winless in all 33 professional women's tournaments she had entered, the last 9 as a professional...

Observers of golf have criticized Wie's efforts to play in PGA TOUR events through sponsors' exemptions. Wie has made only one cut in a men's tournament, and has made no cuts on the PGA TOUR.

And, still, she is the top earner. She hasn't even won anything as a professional.

I have nothing against her personally. She might even be a nice person. She has a nice smile. Numerous people have said that she has an incredible swing. Her father seems like a perfect asshole, but that says nothing about her.

But, from the BBC,

Australian Stuart Appleby has hit out at Michelle Wie's continued attempts to compete successfully on the men's tour.

But Appleby said: "She came five years too early to try to play the men's tour - she should just let it go for now.

"She's not ready for it. She's certainly not proving anything except that she can't play with the men at her level right now."

I just wish that she would win a few women's tournaments first. Annika Sorenstam deserved a shot. She didn't win, but she is the best the women's tour has to offer. She proved that by winning, and now she is back focussing on the women's tour.

Editorial control

Does no one watch over the journalists at the Chosun Ilbo. This story is disturbing enough: Juvenile Prostitution Moves Into Cyberspace, but the journalists choice of vocabulary leaves a lot to be desired.

The reason the sex trade is mushrooming online is because offline brothels are closing due to draconian new laws, forcing potential customers to seek alternative ways to buy sex, they added. (my emphasis)

"Draconian" - this implies that the laws are too strict. Let me remind you that this article is about juvenile prostitution. And, customers are being forced to find prostitutes through other than the normal room salons. Boo hoo. This too implies that the police are wrong in "forcing" the customers to go online. Perhaps none of this should be too surprising in a country where the government wants to pay people for not using prostitutes.

Korean Professional Volleyball League

I've always liked playing volleyball, so I have really enjoyed watching the Korean league this year on tv. I find it much more enjoyable than watching the Korean basketball league.

As I watch, though, I wonder about the effect of foreign players on the league. In Canada, I lost interest in the Canadian Football League because so many of the star players were Americans who couldn't make it in the NFL. What did that say about our game? Did we really need those players? Perhaps part of the problem was that ALL of the foreign players were American. It was a constant reminder of how much better they were, and they don't even grow up playing the same rules as in Canada.

I know that there is a constant struggle in Korea over the number of foreign players to be allowed on each team. I think that one of the reasons that I don't like the Korean basketball league is that each team is allowed two players, and, when both teams have two big foreign players on the floor, the rest of the team looks pretty pathetic.

With the volleyball league, each team can have only one foreign player and the men's military team has no foreigner (I always seem to be rooting for them as the underdogs). The foreign players seem to be involved in about 30% of the scores, but they don't seem to dominate the game quite as much as they do in the basketball league. Still, I wonder what the effect on the fans is. Do the fans realize that their own players aren't competive at the international level (Yes, I know that the Korean mens team won in Doha, but they got their butts kicked at the World Volleyball Championships in Japan)?

I like the level of good sportsmanship in volleyball, too. There doesn't seem to be much trash talking (except for Leandro Araujo da Silva and that was off the court - "I think Rooney is not all that great a player") and the amount of complaining to the referee that you see in football and basketball seems much less. And, for some odd reason, the entire volleyball league is composed of attractive, fit players - unlike the basketball league that seems entirely composed of pudgy, unattractive players. Does the volleyball league have a physical appearance policy?

I just wish that the teams would have better names and mascots (Yes, I realize that the Vancouver Canucks and the Memphis Grizzlies leave a lot to be desired namewise.); however:

Korean Airlines Jumbos (Is that named after a jumbo jet? Fast and graceful?)
Samsung Blue Fangs (Ooo...that's scary)
LIG Greaters (What's a "greater"?)









And on the women's side, what does a pink spider have to do with volleyball? It even looks cute, not scary.









And, I kind of wish that the KT&G Woman's Pro Volleyball Club was the "Women's" club. Am I the only one who notices things like this?









Where are the tigers, lions, and bears? Where are the Smashers and Hurricanes? Names to strike fear into the hearts of opponents.

Corruption Perceptions Index

A posting on The Asia Pages "A Different Point of View", suggesting that the average Korean's view of corruption was that the people who were caught deserved to get caught because they were not smart enough to get away with the crime, got me thinking because of one of the comments:

But isn't the observation quite meaningless unless it can be shown or at least legitimately hinted at that there is more corruption in Korea? (Jung's comment)

Over the years, I have heard many Koreans say that same thing that Jodi did, so I am quite willing to accept her comment. The most common attitude that I have come across is that inept crooks deserve to be caught and punished, more for their ineptness than for the crime. However, Jung's comment seemed reasonable to me, so I went looking for evidence.

With a score of 5.1 out of 10, I think that Korea has a problem (Canada has an 8.5 - we still have a ways to go obviously).

Looking at the map also makes me wonder why the yellow countries (with the exception of Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan) are all western countries. As the world's economies globalize and companies become multinational, I hope that corruption becomes less and less acceptable.

What are the costs of corruption? (from Transparency International)
The cost of corruption is four-fold: political, economic, social, and environmental.On the political front, corruption constitutes a major obstacle to democracy and the rule of law. In a democratic system, offices and institutions lose their legitimacy when they are misused for private advantage. Though this is harmful in the established democracies, it is even more so in newly emerging ones. Accountable political leadership can not develop in a corrupt climate.Economically, corruption leads to the depletion of national wealth. It is often responsible for the funnelling of scarce public resources to uneconomic high-profile projects, such as dams, power plants, pipelines and refineries, at the expense of less spectacular but more necessary infrastructure projects such as schools, hospitals and roads, or the supply of power and water to rural areas. Furthermore, it hinders the development of fair market structures and distorts competition, thereby deterring investment.The effect of corruption on the social fabric of society is the most damaging of all. It undermines people's trust in the political system, in its institutions and its leadership. Frustration and general apathy among a disillusioned public result in a weak civil society. That in turn clears the way for despots as well as democratically elected yet unscrupulous leaders to turn national assets into personal wealth. Demanding and paying bribes become the norm. Those unwilling to comply often emigrate, leaving the country drained of its most able and most honest citizens. Environmental degradation is yet another consequence of corrupt systems. The lack of, or non-enforcement of, environmental regulations and legislation has historically allowed the North to export its polluting industry to the South. At the same time, careless exploitation of natural resources, from timber and minerals to elephants, by both domestic and international agents has led to ravaged natural environments. Environmentally devastating projects are given preference in funding, because they are easy targets for siphoning off public money into private pockets.

Oooo - That's got to hurt

Ahn Expected to Sign with Suwon

Ahn Jung-hwan, a "hero" from Korea's 2002 World Cup team "...had sought to join a European or Japanese team but apparently gave up after receiving no offers."

I'm sure that the estimated US$1 million per year that he will get if he signs with the Suwon Samsung Blue Wings in the Korean league will go a long way to easing the pain, but, as a professional footballer who has actually played in Europe and Japan, this has to be a disappointment. There's no way to paint this as a patriotic return to his beloved Korea.

New Years Eve

I went to Seoul Plaza on New Years Eve. I had been wanting to see the Luce Vista lights for quite awhile, so last night seemed like a good time to do so. The temperature was quite mild. Even without gloves, I was very comfortable. There were lots of people out - mostly families and couples. Most people seemed very relaxed and happy.




















At Seoul Plaza, they have an outdoor skating rink, and it was packed. There were far more people on the ice than I would be comfortable with, but everyone seemed to be having a good time.















Cheonggyecheon was also packed and there were more of the Luce Vista lights.


































At Cheonggyecheon, there was a tree set up and people donated money and hung little balls on it.







































I didn't stay downtown for the actual ringing in of the new year. I got back to Itaewon around 11PM and was considering going to a favourite bar, but the streets in Itaewon were also packed - mostly with loud, noisy drunks. The crowd was very different from the one downtown. The Itaewon crowd was mostly 20-30 years old, and it felt very different. More frantic, sadder (maybe it just made me feel that way) - not happy - kind of a forced jolly.

I went home and watched a little TV.