Journal 9

Journal 9

 Internet Real Name System

Reference: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2011-08/11/content_13095102.htm\ 
                     (South Korea's online real name system)
                  http://socialwon.tistory.com/251 
                    (social commerce, a playground for liars)
                  http://boingboing.net/2011/08/12/south-korea-to-abandon-real-name-internet-policy.html
                    (South Korea to abandon "real name" internet policy)

From: Google Image

As you know, Internet real name system is being a national hot-button issue. As you can see from the references above, there are representative two different views about that system. Some people say that the system violates their freedom of speech and expression on the Internet. They also cocern that if the system is adopted in the online world, our personal information would be leaking out. 

   
But other people worry about irresponsible and false rumors and information, insulting comments and replies, etc. because many problems about those are arising rapidly in our society. Many celebrities decide to suicide themselves after seeing insolent accusations about them, and many consumers are sufferin from false tips and informations on social commerce, etc., so they insist that we should adopt the system for our society.
    
 Nowadays South Korean society has difficulties with hacking and leaking of personal information. For example, 'Nate' was hacked once, so members' personal information on NATE was leaked out, but the company just said 'sorry' to their members, and didn't give any compensation about the leaking. So, many people were furious about the company's irresponsible attitude. The sites just made us change our password-number. That was all. Nonghyup, a big bank in South Korea was also hacked, but the difference with Nate was that they compensated about their members' loses due to the hacking.
    
 Honestly, before noticing these kinds of arising problems, I didn't deeply care about my personal information. As we know, Korean online websites require many personal information such as real-name, phone number, cell-phone number, home address and e-mail address. But now, after using other nations' websites like Youtube or Facebook, I'm curious why they collect these kinds of personal information for their sites. In the case of Facebook they just require e-mail address, and there is no problem in using that with this simple information.
    
We know that if we adopt that real name system, many people would be precautious when they write something on the Internet, but we should also consider risks from hacking. So some poeple say that instead of the system, Korean sites should use filters or censors for preventing insulting and bad comments, and in the case of false information, they should get punishment and give penalty to government and victims.  
    
Personal information is spreading widely and rapidly on the Internet because there is no limitation on time and distance in the online world. If once our personal information leaks out, we couldn't prevent the leaking. South Korean government has already adopted that system, but not the government doubts the good effects of that system due to the arising hacking and leaking of information. What do you think? Is it good or bad, and are there any ways for preventing these kinds of problems?

Journal 8

Journal 8

Bi-cultural family

We are aware that South Korea was a monoculture, and many Koreans were proud of it. But development of flight, spread of using Internet, launch of satellites and vitalization of broadcast media, etc. produced much change such as globalization. Because of the that, nowadays, there are many multicultural families in the world, and even in South Korea. As you know, marriages of couples who have different nationality and the rearing of their multi-cultural children are called 'multi-cultural family'. They should go through hardships due to different language, culture, food, custom, etc. And their children should struggle with the cultural difference, difficulty of communication, isolation, prejudice, identity confusion, etc. in schools, and even in their families such as domestic violence, so they sometimes express their rage as drugs, violence, suicide, etc. Those cause many arising problems, and the number of the problems is recently increasing rapidly. So, what could our government and we, as individuals, do for them, and what could the multicultural families do for themselves?

 

Our government could make camps, programs and trips for having familiar relationship between children in multicultural families and Korean children. Those would make them feel familiar with Korean culture. And the government should support a department for migrants, and also provide and support education, movies, dramas, documentaries etc. for reducing prejudice about bi-cultural people.

 

And we, as individuals, could visit other countries, and experience various culture for having open-mind to people who have different background. We could do volunteer work as a camp-guide, or you can be a tutor for multicultural kids because some of these families would have financial difficulties. If you are owners of companies, you could hire these people.

 

And parents who are in bicultural families should learn both languages for communication, and teach their culture to their kids. They should have their kids participate camps, programs etc. for adaptation in South Korea. I'm sure that people could help them, but most of all, the parents could help their kids with sincere heart.

 

I certainly believe that these some efforts could be a great power and could make good changes for them and for Korean society, too. And these changes would kindle the increasing number of bicultural family. South Korea could also get the increasing marriage rate and birth rate, financial benefits, good relationship with other nations, etc. I think that, now monoculture is not a source of pride, and we should embrace all of people who have different nationality. We should socialize with others. Thank you for reading.

Journal 7

Journal 7

Power bloggers

     I really love visiting blogs for obtaining useful information. I love reading others' thoughts, opinions, interest, favor, etc. When I prepare presentations and do homeworks, at first I started to search others' blogs to get great point of views (perspects of others). Getting various people's thoughts is not easy, but thanks to blogs, we can easily get great infornatin with ease. Also before I purchase something on online (on the internet), at first I usually watch blogs and comments about products what I want to buy. 

     I usually trust the opinions of bloggers because they, the bloggers, are also normal people like us, so I love their honest opinions about products, movies, acts, etc. But many problems are arising nowadays. Some companies use the point that consumers usually tust bloggers, so they hire some bloggers to promote their things. I think that is also a great advertisement, but the problem is that the bloggers can't honestly express their thoughts about products because they get money and benefits from them. So nowadays, consumers started to doubt about their opinions. And one of other problems is that some bloggers have attempted to avoid paying taxes. So governments in most countries are being annoyed about these problems. Some governments gave a certain amount of penalty for the dark behaviors to some bloggers, but the problems are happening until now. 

     Are there any good ideas for protecting consumers from the false informations, and for blocking the violation? I think that to protect consumers from the false information, the blogs should have a mark to indicate that the blogs get money from companies as a reward of promoting their products on their blogs. I think that this mark would be useful to consumers. And for the bloggers who attempted to avoid paying taxes shoud get a punishment that they can't operate any blogs for ten years and an amount of penalty.

     All thing has a bright side and a dark side. If we use blogs with good reasons, those would be a great way to share information each other, but if we use those with bad purpose, those would make victims, and splatter social order of our nation. Thank you for your consideration and reading.   



Journal 6

Journal 6

                                     Post-Olympic Slump

I never heard about 'Valley effect', called as 'Post-Olympic Slump', 'Post-Olympic Economic Hangover', 'Post-Olympic Economic Depression', or 'v-low effect'. So when I heard about that effect in the presentation of this week, I was really surprised and wondered. When I think about 'Olympic' I simply thought that a host-country would be more famous and successful in their economy because the nation could get hundreds of direct & indirect effects like foreigners' (visitors') consumption, new job opportunities, improved nation-image (fame), etc., but I didn't consider about negative effects like debt, destruction of forest (forest protection area), valley effect, etc. So, I had many questions. 'Why does the valley effect happen? Why does the economic effect freeze after the hosting year except LA's Olympic? And I started to search many cases, and tried to find out why this effect happen in most countries who were hosts of Oympic.

The host country builds stadia, infrastructures like roads, accommondations, environmental cleanup, ect. for the succecssful Olympic-opening, and these support booming economy. But after the Olympic, the economy directly goes down because of the reduction of these investments. Olympic is usually famous for giving hundreds of economic benefits to the host country, but inflation, slowdown of economic growth, a dramastic plunge in asset, burden of public finance, etc, called as valley effect, actually happen.

For example, Beijing, the cipital city of China, invested huge money, about 23,000,000,000 dollars, which is seven times than Sidney and thirty-two times than LA. China put 17,000,000,000 dollars for reducing air-pollution, and the nation stoped operating 267 factories near Beijing. Chinese national statistic bureau was sure that the Olympic would cause economic benefits of 30,000,000,000 dollars, new job-opportunities of 30,000,000,000,000, advancement of economic structure, etc.

Montreal has also had this kind of case in 1976, and people in Montreal had paid  to pay back the debt due to Olympic by paying tax for thirty years. Canada had also paid back the debt  until 2007. Like other host nations, investment and consumption in Canada became lower, and maintenence and administration fee for sports-facilities became higher after the year of Olympic.

Chinese people did their best to acquire the Olympic opening. And the eighty percent of England people also did that despite the fact that they should pay more tax for London Olympic in 2012. Some people say that 'Never judge from appearance'. If so, why do most nations try to win in the competition despite the negative effects?

The Olympic host gets enourmous benefits, estimated about  5,000,000,000 dollars, especially in summer.  Construction of additional facilities, stadiums, roads, induction of employment, increased tourism revenue are direct and short-term effects. Invisible effects like   improvement of the host nation' public image, experience of holding big events, and Olympic marketing of businesses are long-term effects and couldn't be counted.  

I could learn various and useful things from the presentation and searching articles in person. I could know why the valley effect happens, and why most countries want to be the host country although there are also negative effects in opening Olympic. I enjoyed studying about this subject, so thank you for your interesting presentation, and thank you for your reading.  

Journal 5

Journal 5

Should be Amazon developed?

                                           http://blog.naver.com/PostView.nhn?blogId=sssakdlf&logNo=90107912284

: These pictures indicate a process of destruction of the Amazon forest. The green color means the forest, and the brown color means the developed land. As you can see above, the forest is disappearing more and more, and the developed land is becoming wider and wider. We can see the mass and heartless destruction of the forest. 

     

      Honestly, I'm worried about the development of Amazon because I'm sure that the development will cause the environmental disasters like huge earthquake and flood, global warming etc. that are occuring is this time of change. The whole world's human beings are suffered from those disasters, and they lose their families, houses, friends, their possesions etc. Our earth can's stand anymore about our ignorance and violence about the nature, so the earth is even with us for those rudery. To develop Amazon is not just the nation's matter, but it's the serious matter of all over the world. 

      I know we don't have a right to block the development because the Amazon is not our land, and there are also good impacts of the growth in the nation like the increase of amenities, public facilities etc. Should we just look at the progression vacantly, or is there anything that we can do about this matter?

     We know that whole nations in the world need that kind of development, and that's the necessary condition under a civilized state of society. Each nation has a right to develop their own country, but also to preserve the natural environment. No matter what the developed countries say, the developing countries couldn't agree with them because the deloveopled countries've enjoyed the growth until now, but the others couldn't. So it looks unfair to argue the developing countries should preserve the nature above all things. 

     Speaking for myself, the developed countries should offer enough compensation about the environmental and natural preservation of developing countries because the countries couldn't get the profits due to the growth. The advanced countries should share the profits of the growth with the developing countries. I think  it's fair. We need a long-range view, and it's also good for the advanced countries. As perserving the nature, they can save money because they would need more expence to reestablish the strucken nation due to the natural disasters than the cost for the protection of the environment of underdeveloped countries. I think it's a win-win approach to this matter, and the advanced countries should try to gain the trust of developing countires consistently.

   

Journal 4

Journal 4

Street vendor, is it a tradition, or an obstructor of the street?

From: Nate Image

     I've heard that some nations rearranged their society, and as a method, they first did clean the street. For example, South Korean government shunted the street vendors and small and poor neighborhoods sideways in Seoul for the Seoul 88' Olympic. The government forced the street vendors to leave for their urban (city) planning. Chinese government also did this kind of work for the Beijing Olympic. Until now street vendors are frightened when they would be caught, where they should go etc.

    We certainly know that selling products in the street without paying tax is illegal. Street vendors also know that, but most of them are poor and don't have an ability to pay tax for trade, so they sell their products illegally for their living. But there are also some vendors who are not poor. Some sellers have enough money to pay for tax, but they do not. Some sellers earned enough money through this work, but they don't want to pay. What is the best choice? Should the government just take away the street vendors because they look not good in the street and disturb pedestrians?, or keep the vendors because they are poor and it's a series of tradition?  

    Our government supports the poor by offering 'giro' and opportunities of job. For that, the government spends a substantial amount of money. But by offering these type of jobs like street vendor, the weak and poor would be financially independent, and our government also could save some money, and could invest other parts of our pending issue by using the saved money. And I think that the street vendor is a series of tradition. Also, our government should protect the weak and the vulnerable. If they could be financially independent through the job, street vendor, we should support them.

    Instead, the government should make some rules for them. For example, the government gets 5% or 10% of their sales, and the money that is gathered could be used for the urban environment. If they couldn't sell nothing, they don't have to pay for government. And the government blocks some vendors who have enough money to operate stores or shops by searching their wealth and property. The street vendors themselves should get some education for the job because sometimes they really disturb the pedestrians, and destroy the traffic order. After the education, they get certified for the job. Through this procedure, they could keep their work, and the government could also save money. 

    To sum up, I support the street vendors because street vendor is a tradition, and the street vendors, especially the poor and weak, could keep their living by themselves through this work. And government could also save money which was used for supporting the poor and the low-income bracket. If the government blocks the whole street vendors, it would be overwhelming and difficult to deal with, and most of all should need lots of money for supporting them. This way is too inefficient. To catch two pigeons with one bean, to keep street vendors with reasonable regulations will be better than others.      

Journal 3

Journal 3

Minimum Wage of Korea

                                                                                                                             From: Nate Image

                                                                          http://ecotary.egloos.com/3651095

    

     As you can see above, Korean minimum wage was the lowest among OECD-21. That was 3,770 won in 2008, and the price was increased 8.3% as compared with the price of 2007. This tendency is not different from now in 2011. After I read Jungwee-Cho's journal about the minimum wage of Korea, some doubts came into my mind. Why has the minimum wage to be mainly related to the inflation of price in Korea? Are there any important factors which directly impact on workers' lives? After considering deeply, I could have a idea. 

     The regulation of minimum wage was made to protect the poor workers, the people of low rank, from vicious enterprisers. The definition of minimum wage is the least wage that is needed for managing humanlike lives of workers. According to this definition, we should consider not only the inflation of price, but also the gap between the rich and the poor. The inflation, of course, directly influences workers' lives, but the gap impact more seriously into humanlike lives of workers. 

     When our congress enacts a new minimum wage for workers, the congress should consider the gap of social wealth because the gap makes our society destabilize, and even break the social order. If our government won't be an arbitrator for narrowing the gap, the poor workers couldn't receive satisfaction because they feel miserable when they compare their lives with the rich, the high income bracket. As you know and hear from news, hundreds of crimes are happening because of the dissatisfaction about the differential. These kinds of crimes are becoming frequent and more serious. 

      Korean government should work for the welfare of the poor workers and also preserve the order of society. To sum up, the government should determine the minimunm wage for workers by considering not only the inflation of price, but also the gap between rich and poor.  Thanks.                  

Journal 2

                                The Jeju Naval Base Project

                                                                                                      http://news.nate.com/view/20111015n04706

    

         What is more important between protecting Jeju’s wonderful environment and firming national security? Through the presentation about the Jeju naval base project, I wondered what is a better choice for us? Is it possible to get these two things at the same time? After searching various news and considering this subject from various angles, I had a conclusion at last.

Although the South Korea Navy doesn't have an appropriate naval station, the first duty that we have to do now is to protect our environment. Jeju island has abundant resources, especially marine resources and gorgeous nature. Many visitors, not just Koreans but also foreigners, are impressed being in touch with Jejudo's great nature. Jejudo achieved a self-sustaining economy through sight-seeing. The slogan of Jejudo is 'peace', so establishing the base means destroying the jeju's policy and economic viability.

Korean government tries to foil North Korean neclear experiment, but the US troop gains electricity by using miniature nuclear reactor. Is it righteous to depress North Korean Neclear system while using the neclear reactor for Korean navy? Could North Korea trust us and accept our opinion and demand? 

This issue is not just about the environment, economy, politics, but also fame. The world takes note of Korea because on October 3, UNESCO named nine places on Jeju as 'geoparks.' World acknowledges Korean Jeju island as a wonderful eco-tourism spot. Nowadays world pays attention to nature, and that means we can get money and fame by protecting nature. Especially, Korean has lack of resources of tourism. If we lose this natural tourist attraction, we could miss the fame and money, of course.  

We should also concern about near countries such as China and Japan. They worry about the US naval base and doubt the intention of the US. These countries say that the flag-out reason to build the base is that the US troop wants to control the Pacific Ocean, so they appeal to us sincerely that we do not allow the construction of Jeju Naval base. Is there any legitimacy to confront these nations for the base? 

Other nations pour their efforts and money to recover their environment and nature, but Korea goes against the general. I'm sure that protecting our natural resources is the fist duty that doesn't have any altenatives, but we can find other altenatives for our national security. For our far future, I choose to protect our environment most of all.    

Journal 1

Journal 1

08129313

 Park Seulgi

In our ‘current events class’ in Week 5, I learned about the latest issue of diseases of the imported pork. We debated for solutions about the problems, so I’m going to think out and share solutions. This week's presenters talked and warned about the hazardous imported-pork. I was a little sorry they did only advert to the imported pork, but not our domestic pork. But, anyway I have three ideas about the matter.

First, when government is in the conclusion of a treaty with other country like FTA, they have to be more transparent about the procedure and content to the public. We need a closer inspection, and we should ensure and tighten the system of compensation like ‘recall system’ due to the occurrence of diseases. Thereby, the exporting nation will be more precautious about the hygiene. Our officials must pay attention in securing the documentary evidence about the compensation of damages due to diseases.

Second, our nation should more carefully check the pre (post) - censorship. We have to regularly, unexpectedly and personally visit the exporter’s farms, and inspect the farm’s surroundings, health control, etc. As providing advantages like ‘tax cut’ when the nation receives a favorable evaluation, we can make the nation exert itself to manage their farms a-fond.

Lastly, I want to talk about hygiene education. The government’s efforts for people's health are important, but every individual’s efforts are also weighty. Through specific education in every school and home, we can prevent the risk of sicknesses in some degree. Schools have to care about public health and personal hygiene, too, so they should send questionnaires to their students’ homes and research on home health each month. The government should try to provide beneficial information which is about sanitation, hygiene and cleanliness every year.

By these efforts between nations and individuals, we can protect ourselves from lots of hazardous diseases in a big way. Thank you for giving me your time and consideration.