Local Link Dump

Not much "local" happening, but I'll press on:

* A man in Seoul was found not guilty of inapporpriate conduct after touching his 11-year-old stepdaughter's breasts and backside. These actions were described as a "sign of affection," and were justifiable because (1) the man was drunk, and (2) the girl had not yet reached puberty. (The Korea Times) Over on Waygook.org---yes, I know, but I didn't name it---one guy mentions that perhaps it's more acceptable and affectionate for parents to touch their children in ways unheardof back home.

Oh, and the moral panic over unqualified, unmotivated, AIDS-carrying, pedophilic foreign teachers continues.

* Seoul will introduce Women-Only subway cars in 2008. (The Korea Times) There's a thread about it on Dave's here.

* A few days ago, a Jason Lim wrote a piece for The Korea Times entitled "Why Not Korean Americans?" Apparently he works at Harvard, though I'd like to have a look at his transcripts to see how on earth that was possible. I found it fairly inflammatory, and you can read his piece here. Today the Korea Times printed my short rebuttal, which you can read here.

* Here's an article from February talking about Vietnamese women who become mail-order brides in Korea. (I can't type "bride" without typing "bridge" first, dunno why.) From the International Herald Tribune, but I think it was originally printed in the New York Times.

* 34% of workers at the Ministry of Economy and Finance said "if I receive a phone call from a foreigner, if there no other person that I can ask to answer it, all I can do is hang up.” (Korea Beat)

* Here's an article about foreigners, ghosts, and foreign ghosts in Korea, and the ways their cultural significance. (Ohmynews)