FTA

Perhaps this will change in the near future, but so far the US media (cnn) has done a poor job of covering an outrageous story that occurred in S. Korea recently.  I assume most people have heard about the Free Trade Agreement that was finally agreed upon last month regarding a handful of countries; South Korea was one of the countries included in the FTA bill that passed through our Congress.  However, it still needed to go through the approval process in South Korea.  There has been fierce opposition to the bill in Korea by the minority party, or the Korean version of Democrats.  I had been shallowly following the korean news about it recently and misinterpreted many of the headlines when they read "opposition party prevents vote on FTA."  When they say they prevented the bill from being voted on, they meant the KDs (korean dems) physically blocked the vote... can't vote if you're not in the building!  So, for today's vote there were security forces to prevent the physical blockade of representatives. Today, the GNP (elephants) members called an unscheduled session to vote on the measure. The Repubs didn't even have the courtesy to even mention it to the KDs (sounds like a play straight out of the wisconsin republican party's play book).  When the KDs found out, they understandably went apeshit.  I'm assuming I'm missing a handful of facts on this because I don't speak Korean, but it also appears that a KD let off a tear gas canister next to the Speaker's podium.  In the end, the GNP, who have enough of a majority to pass the legislation without the dems, skipped the whole committee process, and brought it to a vote immediately.  It passed w/ 7 nay-votes.


Tip of the hat to you if you made it this far.

Recently there was a Mayoral election in Seoul, which is used as an indicator for the upcoming Presidential election.  If things continue the GNP is in for an ass whooping in 2012.

In Keith News, my schedule is again changing...  Really annoyed by this, and it started to show today.  Oh well, I suppose it's more likely to happen again if I don't let it be known that I don't appreciate the volatility in my schedule.  Starting in December I'll be teaching my littlest students only twice a week, not four times.  Kinda nice, but now that I've got the hang of it I'd like to have the extra income.

Well, it's feedin time here, and I'm about to devour a bowl of traditional korean porridge.  NOM NOM NOM.

-keith