Take the money and run

Okay, so this is a little far fetched for our class, but there is a small reference to Korea. Basically, police are looking for a New Zealand couple who disappeared after a bank mistakenly put $10 million dollars into their account.
The couple, said to be from Korea, applied to the Westpac Bank for a 10,000-New Zealand-dollar overdraft for the auto service station they ran in Rotorua. The bank reportedly paid 10 million dollars in error.

I'm sure they sat around the table pondering to return the cash or run with it...and so they ran. Authorities aren't certain yet if they ran to South Korea, Hong Kong, or China.

Here is the link

There is a lot of discussion on this, particularly about the morals behind it. I was surprised to read that many people commended the bonnie and clyde type maneuver, saying that banks take in billions of dollars a year in charges and they are the ones that made the mistake. The "natural man" in my would definitely have been tempted to follow their actions...but after quick consideration, I realized I would never had even made a step towards the door. I was talking with my wife about it, and we decided that not only is it wrong, but it would be tough living in hiding the rest of your life, always being a bit jumpy when the phone rings or the door knocks. We'll see what the future holds for this audacious and swindling couple.

KAGM + DTOMWWSSDPSAKH

Just in case your wondering what 'kagm' means,no, it is not a korean word, it's an acronym that means Koreans are good merchants. The other one i'll tell you l ater. Maybe I should say awesome merchants. Then it would be Kaam. Anyway, being that we were talking about the Korean economy and things like that, I remeber where I grew up (the best city in the world) [El Paso], there used to be a big chinese population in the city, there used to be a chinatown but they have moved on to San Francisco or Mexico. My bishop in Juarez, Mexico was of Chinese origin. He only spoke Spanish and English, not Chinese:(. That's ok though, he was still a good man. Now there are a lot of Koreans in El Paso and a lot of them have businesses in downtown El Paso which is right on the border with Mexico. I remember I had some students who also agreed that Koreans are awesome merchants, so it's not just my imagination. What is neat is that most of them are trilingual: Spanish, English, Korean. You would have to be to work in that part of town. An example of a good (but tricky) merchant was when I lived in Korea. STORY TIME (get comfortable) as far back as I can remember, when I used to live in Korea, I spent 7 months alone then I brought my wife and son over to spend the remainder of my time with me. I lived in area 1 ,the area closest to the DMZ, and many of my superiors said that it would be impossible to bring my family over (this is an example of how God heard us and answered our prayers despite what big wigs said) but that's a story for another day. So my family came over but before that I went right off post to look for an apartment and I took a Korean friend with me to help me. I had asked soldiers who had married koreans and phillipinos for advice and it pretty much summed up to one thing: Don't trust Mister Kim!" So poor Mr. Kim was already notorious. I walked around and took down some addresses and later returned with my Korean friend. Lo and behold some of the addresses belonged to Mr. Kim, but I decided to go check him out, after all, you can't trust everything you hear from soldiers. We went down an alley and behind a big building was a black door that you could see your reflection on. We went in and it was just like the movies. It was pretty dark, cool, and a big desk in the center of the room. Behind that bik desk was a big chair. In that chair was a big Rottweiler. Not really, but in that chair was the man, the myth...Mr.Kim. He looked pretty hype, maybe the kind of mand who is into the B-Boys or rap. He was in his 60's, had a dark silk shirt (it may have been polyester) dark pilot shades that reflected images like his door and a Kangol hat. "This guy is a stud with the ladies' I thought and my friend started wheeling and dealing with him explaining my situation. He knew army policies, and was asking me through my friend several questions. He knew more than me about how the army overseas pay works and everything. "Hmm" I thought, "I can't pull the wool over this guys eyes," besides the fact that he was wearing sweet pilot shades and I didn't want to ruin those, I didn't want to rent from him. It was a gut feeling. Or maybe it was the cold noodles I had for lunch. I don't like cold noodles. I thought he would pull out a tommy gun and riddle me with bullets and make an escape in a private helicopter. But that didn't happen. My friend and I just walked out and I could feel his cold stare drilling a hole in my back. I should have gone in front of my friend so he wouldn't stare at me. But my friend was short so even if I was in front Mr. Kim would still be able to stare me down. It was too late though. So I went out looking for more apartments, pretty much groping in the dark. (I think that would be an awesome name for a rock band "groping in the dark") To make a long story short there was a nice lady, Mrs. Lee and I rented from her and my family came and we lived happily ever after. But really, Mr. Kim and my other Korean landlords knew policy, regulations, rules, everything much better than the soldiers did! That is how one can be a good con artist, knowledge is power. So my point is that Koreans have a knack for business, most of my Korean friends are majoring in Business Management, shocker huh? That could partly explain why a rubbled Korea could rise so quickly and be so prosperous when other countries are still lagging. One man in Korea also told me that Koreans since the Korean war have had to double time (work super hard) to catch up with the rest of the prospering countries, and ALL of my friends are always busy. They love to be busy and have that ingrained in their minds. Ok well enough story time, maybe more later!!! raul :)

(PS Don't trust old men who wear Silk shirts, dark pilot shades and kangol hats) ((PSS my personal rule of thumb for life))

Armistice Loophole...?

In this article that I just read concerning raised alert levels in South Korea it mentioned that the waters off of Korea's west coast are not covered under the armistice's cease fire agreement. Why in the world would that be the case? You'd think that the ceasefire would apply to all Korean territory including its coastal waters extending out at least until international waters begin (somewhere between 50 and 200 miles I believe). Is there some specific reason that these waters were not included?

Commercial Profit?

I heard a blurb on the radio yesterday labeling North Korea's reason for detonating a nuclear device was to prove to potential buyers that it did indeed have nuclear production capability. Personally, I think that that's a load of hogwash, but it is a possibility. The disturbing question is: who would they be selling nuclear devices to?

Who Would It Be?

In contemplating the events regarding North Korea's nuclear explosion and further missile tests, I began wondering who would be their first target? South Korea? Japan? A US air base? Russia? China? While North Korea obviously does not like South Korea it would be potential suicide to fire a nuclear weapon so close as any minute shift in the weather pattern could bring a huge cloud of nuclear fallout back onto itself, not to mention the destruction of viable economic profit generating infrastructures. This argument also rules out any strikes on US air bases in South Korea. Japan seems likes a likely target due to the deep-seated animosities that already exist between the two countries, and it is more isolated than either China or Russia. Militarily, it seems like Japan would be an easier target as well, given the huge size of Chinese and Russian armed forces. Interesting question...what do you think?

On a totally unrelated subject. I know that Korean's eat dog, and that we have discussed it previously in class. I was just wondering where they get the dogs for consumption. Do they go buy them from a specific vendor? Are there dog farms in Korea? Just a random thought?

Now even the Bear is rumbling...

Click here for the link

Now Russia has begun to take precautions against a possible war--of the nuclear kind--taking place on the Korean peninsula. Up until now, as I understand it, Russia has been a member in the international talks concerning North Korea's nuclear capabilities, but aside from that has been a silent spectator of the happenings. Until now. Officials say that "security measures" are being taken--I am not sure what that means exactly, but it is something Russia has not done--or mentioned doing before--in the past. The officials say, "We assume that a dangerous brinkmanship, a war of nerves, is under way, but it will not grow into a hot war,"and that "[r]estraint is needed." That is the sort of rhetoric I would use if I had to explain why I, all of a sudden, decided to make preparations against the effects of nuclear war, but did not want to start a panic. I do, however, sincerely hope that it will "not grow into a hot war."

S. Korea: Electronic Vanguard

I had no idea that Korea was making so many advances in the field of consumer mobile devices. I always seem to forget that "South Korea, because of its high-speed wireless networks and top technology companies like Samsung and LG, is the test case for the mobile future."
Here is the article
The most significant part is how they are the ones testing out new technology like cellphone credit cards and other such consolidations stored to their SIM cards. This is an amazing step and will quick be followed by the U.S. In 2005, South Korean began enjoying T.V. streams to their cell phones, whereas most of us barely enjoy it on our advanced iphones.

I always seem to forget to appreciate how advanced S. Korea is and the groundbreaking lifestyles they initiate and that we tend to follow.