China and Korea

Background of Relations

Relations between these two states, economic or otherwise have always been close. Korea was content to look up to China for centuries as the centre of world civilisation, this relationship meant that starting in 1637, three official embassies from Korea travelled to China every year. These travels occurred during the New Year, birthday of the emperor and the birthday of the crown prince. The inauguration of a new king in Korea or the death of an emperor in China required special missions. The Korean kings seeked and wanted the approval of the Chinese Emperor otherwise known as the “son of heaven”. These missions could be seen as early trade envoys, the Korean king would send gold and silver as well as skins of precious animals to Beijing whilst the emperor would send back the best quality silk, herbal medicines, pottery and libraries of books. Tribute trade was a cultural exchange as well as an economic exchange between the two states. Language wise, roughly 50% of Korean vocabulary have Chinese origins and could be written with traditional Chinese characters (Hanja).

When invading Japanese forces attacked Korea in the 1590s, Chinese troops were sent to help repel them. This relationship has lasted well into the 21^st century and played a strong part in the Korean War which resulted in the division of the peninsular. Chairman Mao personally refused to intervene to stop his eldest son to be sent to Korea and was subsequently killed in the Korean War as a Chinese volunteer.

In the beginnings of the last century, exiled Korean governments organized liberation movements and set up in the Chinese cities of Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuhan and Chongqing to fight against Japanese colonial invaders.

China (PRC) has risen above the depressions and atrocities (economic and otherwise) of the past two centuries and continued process of retaking its place in the world as a major power rivalling that of the United States, as of January 2009, China overtook Germany as the world’s 3^rd largest economy. Rising from the Asian financial crisis and the after-effects of the Korean War, South Korea (ROK) has also risen to a major economy in the world, being Asia’s third largest economy (after Japan and China). Today, PRC is ROK’s largest trading partner.

Political-Economic History of PRC and ROK (Post WWII – 1990)

The People’s Republic of China
(Five Year Plans, Great Leap Forward, Cultural Revolution and Market Reforms)

After defeating the Nationalist Party (Kuomintang), in October 1949, the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) proclaimed the establishment of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Wealthy landlords and peasants immediately had assets and land confiscated and redistributed to poorer peasants. Titles to roughly 45 percent of arable land were redistributed from wealthy owners to families that had previously owned little amounts to no land at all. The ultimate goal of the CPC was to transform the China into a powerful, industrialised and modern nation. This would mean industrialization, improvement of living standards, production of modern military equipment and narrowing the income gap. From 1949 to 1952, the chief concern of the government was to restore China’s economy to normal working order. The CPC quickly repaired infrastructure such has transportation and communication links to restore economic activity. A central banking system was also established.

In the 1953, the first 5 year plan begun. This policy aimed to achieve fast growth rates in heavy industry and was achieved. Soviet technicians, economists, scientists amongst other personnel helped the PRC develop this plan. Equipment for industry was also purchased from the USSR. State control over all forms of industry was increased during this time by introducing financial pressure and incentives to convince owners of private firms to sell them to the PRC. By 1956, privately owned firms had ceased to exist, 67.5 percent of modern industrial firms were state owned and the rest were joint public-private ventures. Agricultural sector also went through vast changes. From the mutual aid teams within communities, villages of farmers were to ascend into early forms of agricultural collectives. Economically the first Five-Year plan was largely successful, key industries such as iron and steel manufacturing, cement production, machine building and electricity generation expanded rapidly.
Whilst changes were happening, certain prominent members in the party such as Liu Shao Qi argued against Mao’s radical stance and expressed that change should be gradual and collectivization of the agriculture industry should wait until industrialization has occurred.

However, the extensive economic growth would come to a halt when the second Five-Year plan was introduced; it was dubbed “The Great Leap Forward (GLF)” by Chairman Mao. Ironically, this “great leap forward” was practically many leaps backwards in terms economic development and triggered various social upheavals which would haunt the economy and the society of China for many years to come. The GLF was intended to dramatically increase steel and agricultural production to twice the amount that was produced in 1957. As peasants were poorly educated and ill equipped, too much low quality steel had been produced. Local authorities quite often reported unrealistic and unreachable production statistics to hide the problem. Even though that steel production had indeed increased by almost 3 times as much, most of the steel produced was impure and useless and was unable to be used for its intended purposes: the production of machinery for industry and weaponry for the military.

The GLF has since been reviewed and approached as a huge economic disaster. Chairman Mao stood down as the State Chairman of the PRC in 1959 presuming he would take most of the blame and responsibility of this failure in policy. Economic recovery and progress seemed reachable under new leadership that aimed to make Mao a figurehead, realised this Mao initiated the “Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution” otherwise simply known as the Cultural Revolution to expel his political enemies who included Liu Shao Qi beand Deng Xiao Ping whom later succeeded as de facto leader after Mao’s death. This Cultural Revolution further crippled the Chinese economy and society with the abolition of tertiary education and persecution of senior academics, doctors, politicians amongst others by the youth league formed by Mao otherwise known as the “Red Guard”. Plans such as the “Down to the Countryside Movement” aimed at sending privileged urban youth to mountainous areas or countryside farms to learn from the workers and farmers increased the destructiveness of the Cultural Revolution as many high school graduates were forced out of cities and exiled to remote areas of China. Although Mao himself declared the revolution to be over in 1969, the period of unrest remained from the power struggles between factions within the party until the death of Mao in 1976.

Deng, who was previously purged from the party, slowly emerged as the de factor leader of the country in the few years after the death of Mao. Immediately policies that prevented “land lord class” citizens to join the communist party were removed. Though Deng provided the political support to allow economic reform to occur, Deng‘s economic were not originally conceived by him and only furthers those by previous party leaders such as Liu Shao Qi and Zhou Enlai. Deng’s proposed reforms included planned and centralized management of the macro-economy but management was unlike Mao’s model which included vast projects and campaigns to construct the economy, Deng’s management was indirect through market mechanisms that were free to an extent. Deng had also decided to advance modernization speed by stepping up the volume of foreign trade conducted with purchases of machinery from countries other than the USSR. There reforms were a complete u-turn of policies and philosophies of self reliance set by Mao himself. Under this new program, relations with foreign nations improved drastically. Deng travelled to meet with western leaders and became the first Chinese leader to visit the USA in 1979. The UN also switched recognition from the ROC (Taiwan) administered by Kuomintang to PRC.

The Republic of Korea
(Korean War, Political Instability and Five Year Plans)

Korea had been in a state of unrest for many years leading up to and after WWII. Japanese occupation before and during WWII crippled Korea in all ways possible. After being unified since the 6^th century, Korea was divided at the 38^th parallel by the USA (occupying the south) and the USSR (occupying the north). The USSR agreed to the 38^th parallel being the demarcation between the occupation zones in the Korean peninsula. In December 1945, the US and USSR agreed to administer the nation under the US-Soviet Join Commission. It was agreed that Korea would be allowed to govern itself independently after five years of international oversight. Both the US and USSR would proceed to endorse their own sponsored governments as the inheriting government of the peninsular and an agreement could not be reached. The majority of the South Korean population disapproved of further foreign rule and occupation within Korea as it had been occupied by the Japanese for almost 35 years prior. The US called for an election to be held in all of Korea but the USSR refused. During this time separate governments were established. Both these governments had the vision of uniting Korea under their respective system. Yi Seungman (aka. Rhee Syngman) was appointed the head of the Korean government with strong backing by the United States whilst Kim Il Sung was chosen by Stalin himself to lead. These de facto governments intended to run all of Korea became governments for their respective geographic associations on each side of the 38^th parallel. Initially Kim’s proposal for military aid from the USSR and PRC were refused by the USSER, but with the withdrawal of US troops from the south and the development of Soviet nuclear weapons, Stalin soon reconsidered Kim’s requests. Soon after receiving Mao’s support and promise to send troops to aid Kim, Stalin approved the invasion to reunite Korea by force under the communist structured government. On June 25, 1950 Kim escalated small battles into a committed offense and crossed the parallel with huge numbers of troops. The South Korean army were ill equipped, poorly trained, inexperienced and were caught by surprise. Kim quickly captured Seoul and Yi’s forces were forced into a pocket around Busan. Tides quickly changed as UN and US forces arrived and pushed Kim’s forces back into a small pocket along the Chinese/Soviet border, fortunes once again changed when Mao’s forces were sent in to repel the US troops, pushing them back close to where the original border was drawn. Since then a ceasefire was declared, however the two sides are technically still at war as an official peace treaty had never been signed.

A period of political instability followed the split of the peninsular; in 1960 a student uprising overthrew Yi’s government and established 2^nd Republic of Korea, Yi peacefully resigned. On May 16, 1961, a group of military officers supported a coup that overthrew the 2^nd Republic of Korea, lead by General Park Chung Hee. Though it was the government of the 2^nd republic to have originally conceived the plans, it was the military government (Supreme Council for National Reconstruction) that implemented the first five-year plan, which was inaugurated in 1962. This military rule was soon replaced by the 3^rd Republic with Park Chung-hee a former general as head of government; he ruled the country by authoritarian means. Park however has been credited as a turning point in developing the ROK economy by shifting goals to focus on export-orientated industrialization. Park was able to enforce his policies by declaring a state of emergency and tightening down on personal freedoms. In 1979, Park was assassinated by the KCIA director Kim Jaegyu. Kim believed that Park’s authoritarian rule was a threat to the long term development of Korea and its democracy. Park’s administration saw the establishment of POSCO, which is now the world’s second largest steel maker. Despite the unpopularity of his dictatorial rule, the economic growth during his years in office was unprecedented; it was during this time that another two 5 year plan had been implemented. The first 5 year plan under Park’s administration aimed to convert ROK into a heavy industry making nation competitive in the international marketplace. The second 5 year plan saw the government borrow heavily from foreign countries so it could direct its projects. The days of Park saw the passing of two new governments (4^th and 5^th republics of Korea) from the initial rule to the change in constitution which resulted in Authoritarian rule. After the assassination in 1979, another series of protests lead by students emerged. Another coup soon took place in December of that year and saw the establishment of the current government, the 6^th Republic of South Korea.

Economic developments (1990-2000)

Due to the cold war and other political reasons, for a long period of time, PRC and ROK had only little indirect trade carried out through Colonial Hong Kong. In 1991, PRC and ROK both established trade and economic representative offices in Seoul and Beijing respectively. Bilateral trade between two states was only at a rough US$5 billion in 1992. It had increased to nearly US$60 billion by 2000.

China’s economy regained its momentum after the beginning of economic reforms established by Deng. China’s key task as stated by Deng was to create a “socialist market economy”. In 1993, economic expansion had been growing rapidly with the induction of more than 2000 special economic zones (SEZs), this brought in foreign capital and investment far beyond the state budget. The Chinese economy continued to grow at a fast pace in 1996, the GDP growth rate was roughly 9.5%. A policy named “Grasping the large and letting the small go” was produced as part of a wave of industrial reforms in 1996. The concept was adopted in 1997; it aimed to corporatize state owned enterprises and to downsize the state sector by relinquishing state control over small state-owned enterprises whilst maintaining state control over the larger enterprises.

Larger enterprises were also nurtured by the Korean government in the form of “Chaebols” which are business conglomerates; they have accounted for almost 100% of the South Korea economy since the 1960s and experienced rapid growth since the late 80s. The largest 3 conglomerates include Samsung Group, Hyundai KIA Automotive Group and LG Group. These conglomerates have facilitated the growth of the Korean economy; by the 1990s South Korea was one of the largest Newly Industrialized Countries (NICs).

In 1997, the Asian financial crisis showed the weaknesses in all financial systems in Asia. Korea was hit especially hard, of the 30 largest conglomerates, 11 had collapsed between 1997 and 1999. Under President Kim Dae-Jung, the government made several reforms to the economy and business strategies of these conglomerates. Instead of competing in every market and industry, conglomerates were pressured to focus on a core competency and a core business. Accounting regulations were tightened to limit the ability of these businesses to hide financial losses.

China’s economy was also hit by the Asian financial crisis though the damage was not as severe as those of South Korea. Unlike most other Asian nations at the time, most of China’s FDI were physical assets such as factories rather than securities which shielded the country from sudden capital flight. Whilst it was left relatively unharmed compared to the collapse of major conglomerates in South Korea, GDP growth rates had dramatically declined in 1998 and 1999. China saw the weaknesses in other economies and corrected them within its own economy such as having too many non-performing loans and relying too heavily on trade with the United States.

Current Economic Situation and Relations (2000-present)

PRC is both ROK’s largest export partner and import partner. 27% of exports go to the PRC including its SARs whilst 17.7% of imports are from the PRC. Even though China’s total GDP is the 3^rd largest in the world it is still considered a developing nation as its average income and GDP per capita is still extremely low. In contrast Korea has the world’s 13^th largest economy but is classified as a high income economy by the World Bank and an advanced economy by both the IMF and CIA. In 1992, only 265 investment projects in China were approved by the Bank of Korea. According to the Ministry of Commerce of China, the Chinese government approved 5625 FDI projects from Korea in 2004 with a total value of US$13.911 billion. By the end of 2004, the Chinese government altogether approved 32,753 Korean investment projects with a total contract value of US$50.56 billion.

The growth of the industrial sector contributed heavily to both nations’ GDP. In 1987 manufacturing industries accounted for approximately 30% of the GDP and 25% of employment. In 1990, the ROK government decided to focus on high-technology industries such as robotics, micro-electronics, fine chemistry, aerospace etc. Industry and construction contributes to 48% of China’s total GDP. Roughly 8% of the total manufacturing output in the world comes from the PRC. Major state industries are iron, steel, coal, machinery construction, armaments, textiles and light industrial products. These industries survived the reforms of Deng with little management change.

Both the PRC and ROK have succeeded in the expansion of their automotive industries. The Hyundai Kia Automotive Group was formed by merging ROK’s largest car company with the second largest. It is the third largest automaker in Asia and one of the top five automakers in the world as of 2008. PRC’s automobile industry has also experienced rapid development since 2000. In 2008, over 9 million vehicles were manufactured in China, surpassing the USA as the second largest automobile maker in the world. China also has the world’s largest automobile market which has meant numerous foreign firms have entered the market. Some of these enter the market as joint ventures with local firms. Hyundai entered into the market as a joint venture with the Beijing Automotive Industry.

Hyundai has raised its sales growth forecast for China this year from 22 percent to 36 percent as economic stimulus measures increase demand in china. Hyundai’s forecast in China was raised from 360,000 to 400,000 units compared to the previous year of 294,508 units. This target also does not include imported cars from ROK which is expected to be at 30,000 this year. The success of Hyundai in China in recent years can be contrasted with toughening conditions for General Motors who entered in 1997 and Volkswagen who arrived 21 years ago. Hyundai Elantra compact cars have increases sales by 156% from this time last year. As GM fails in its own domestic market it is struggling to compete on price against Hyundai in the Chinese market. Market capacity is forecasted to grow roughly 30% this year and Hyundai plans to invest $1.1 billion USD to triple its annual production capacity.

At present, roughly 18000 Korean firms are operating in the PRC. President Lee Myung-bak urged Korean and Chinese companies to expand investments in each other’s countries, proposing to turn the Yellow Sea between the two nations into an “inland sea”. President Lee expressed a wish to help Korean firms to be included in large inland development projects in the north eastern and western parts of China. Shanghai Motor also bought a controlling stake of 48.9% in Ssangyong, becoming the first Chinese firm to own a major stake in Korea.

In terms of bilateral trade between ROK and PRC, China has always had a trade deficit which has been growing every year. China’s exports are mainly products from labour intensive industries such as textiles. Where as Korean exports are mostly capital/technology-intensive products such as integrated circuit components, micro electronics, communication instruments etc. It products, heavy industries and chemical industries dominated Korea’s exports to China, these products accounted for 57% of total exports from Korea. These included computers, wireless communication apparatus, steel sheets, petrochemical products, semiconductors, automobile components. Whilst 40% of China’s exports took form of commodities, such as garments, coal, aluminium, steel sheeting, crude chemical materials, acoustic equipment etc. The main difference between the economies is that China and Korea are in different stages of economic development and have different competitive/comparative advantages. According to the economic history of various other nations, the transformation and development of a nations industry generally follow the same route:

Agricultural Light and Textile industry - Heavy and chemical industry - High Tech IT industry - Service industry

The structure and characteristics of Chinese export show that China is in a transition stage from light textile industry to heavy chemical industry, where as Korea is in a transition stage from heavy chemical industry to high tech IT industry. Korea seems to be one stage ahead of China; this fact makes cooperation between China and Korea complimentary rather than competitive.

Rapid growth in sales of Korean products in China will accelerate future prospects for Korean firms in the Chinese market. Samsung entered into the market in 1992 and it has achieved significant success in the past decade. The total sales revenue in China was US$9.7 billion in 2003, which is roughly 26% of its total sales worldwide. LG Chem’s export to China makes up 50% of its total export amount. In 2004, it earned a profit of US$120 million from its operations in China. As the Chinese economy develops, its market will become more open and its domestic market will expand. This will stimulate the development and growth of Korean enterprises whilst their advanced technology and managerial experiences will bring more vitality and dynamics to the Chinese marketplace.

In 2006, a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is also being discussed by ROK and PRC. PRC’s Commerce and Industry Minister Bo Xilai met with his Korean counterpart Chung Sye-kyun to discuss issues such as the push for a FTA. Seoul however is treading carefully with the push for an FTA as it could mean a sudden surge in cheap agricultural products and light industry goods. Bo visited Korea 3 times as of 2006 and met not only with Chung but also the Trade Minister and other entrepreneurs during his visits. In contrast, Japan and ROK begun negotiations for a FTA in 2003 but negotiations came to a halt during 2006 when the Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koziumi was reported to visit Toyko’s Yasukuni Shrine regularly. This shrine honours Japan’s war dead including convicted war criminals who committed atrocities in Korea, China and other various Asian countries. Meanwhile, ROK and PRC have agreed to make efforts to double trade between the two states to US$200 billion per year by 2012.

There have been other indirect relations such as PRC and ROK’s interest and purchase of Australian iron ore. China has made strategic equity investments to secure Australian iron ore supplies. The Korean Trade Minister Kim Jong-Hoon expressed that his government had no concerns about China’s moves to secure supply.

Relations under current Economic Crisis

As the current crisis develops China is leveraging its position and trade surplus to achieve a new position in the world as a financial leader. Premier Wen Jiabao and other leaders of the party have blamed the West for the current economic crisis. Chinese officials are challenging the primacy of the dollar and warning other countries about the risks of using just the USD or EURO as their main reserve.
Much like the Asian Financial Crisis, Korea’s economy has been hit harder than the Chinese counterpart. The South Korean Won has been heavily depreciating against the USD. Unlike the crisis of 1997 which stemmed from domestic financial mismanagement, the current crisis stems from outside its borders. The shrinking of US and EU markets has heavily effects the export driven economy of ROK, this crisis has highlighted the need for its regional trade efforts. Even though the US and EU markets are driven into recession, Korean exports to China has expanded by almost 34% in the second quarter of 2008. China has been pressured to float its currency which will cut down its exports as a way of correcting the current global imbalance. However, the real solution is to increase domestic consumption so it does not need to heavily rely on export. China has been implementing economic stimulus to increase domestic demand. This includes RMB¥ 4 trillion to be invested into infrastructure and public welfare. Key areas including housing, transportation, environment, industry, income building, tax cuts and finance. These will not only help shield against the financial crisis but will increase consumption and demand as living standards increase, this is not only a good opportunity for Korea but also a lifeline out of the current financial turmoil. Korea has also proposed a joint fund of US$80 billion with China, Japan and ASEAN members to fight the current global economic crisis.

Future

As the Chinese and Korean economies develop well into the future and as the large Chinese population develops and matures into a well educated and consuming market, unlike the tainted relations between Korea/China and Japan, Korea will be in the perfect position to benefit from China’s economic developments with a history of good relations, geographic proximity to support and reinforce the relation between the nations. As both nations move out of the depressions and turmoils of the last century, both will look to each other for support economically and culturally.

South Korea’s Sunshine Policy and its ultimate and eventual goal of reuniting the ROK with the DPRK into a single Korea cannot be realised without China to provide a channel of dialogue as a friend of both sides of the peninsular. Though traditionally China was looked up to by Korea as a bigger brother, in this new world it resembles a relationship of two close friends who have been through hell together and on the road to recovery, both nations need each other and both have a lot to learn from each other.

The challenge issued now for both nations is to continue its streak of economic advancements in the wake of a global recession. Both nations need to decrease dependency on US and European markets as demand in those regions decrease. China will work towards not only continuing to increase its total GDP output but also improve average income levels. Being one step ahead of the Chinese economy, Korea will no doubt compliment China with its high tech and high capital industries whilst China supports it with what could be the largest consuming market in the world.

he's on a boat

props to my homie john low who received a scholarship to go home into the sea with other creatures like him.

hes gonna travel around on a boat for a week or so, so i should have photoshopped him onto a boat but no doubt he is also a gay fish.

so i went completely 미쳤어 looking at photos of snsd from before they were famous/got record deals and in some cases plastic surgery... stay tuned for next post...

soon

exactly one month from now i will be in the city of shanghai doing my internship with sagatem advertising.



i personally can not wait for it, i really wonder what kind of people i'm going to meet, what kind of things i'll get up to at work and outside of work.

at the moment still looking for a suitable apartment, apparently its still too early to settle on.

not sure what im looking for really, i'll be happy with any clean place near work with good water pressure in the shower. i would prefer 2 bedrooms but 1 is ok too if the place is nice.

i'm gonna start some work at roy morgan again for some extra cash to spend.

completeness 2.0

HAHA

music

the topic for today was asian music in comparison with the music from the anglo-sphere.

before i start, don't get me wrong im not some little tb asian music fanboy, (i maybe turning into one though haha), but i was a long term hater of asian music thinking it was plastic and had no real talent and that the people in the western community generally had better music taste

but i've come to discover thats not really the case, please read on:

i randomly picked some artists in my impression that have received a alot of radio play / club play within the last few months/years.

souljaboy
flo rida
kanye
lady gaga
p!nk
britney spears


i think out of all those, i only approve of kanye west. the general quality of the music is pretty poor to me. souljaboy has 0 talent. flo rida has minimal talent (though low was quite catchy).

britney spears in her prime didnt really write her songs, nor does she write her songs now, p!nk i think writes her own songs but meh...

lady gaga is quite unique of a character, im not too fond of her music but at least i can see why people like her.


special mention to kevin rudolf featuring lil wayne...let it rock = worst song out.

did people actually like that song? or was it just big coz of lil wayne (whom i think is overrated as an mc)

general perception for me and probably alot of other people was/is that asian music is generally alot more gimmicky and poorer in quality musically.

now if you havent noticed by now, my blog has had a sudden influx of girls' generation who i guess is quite gimmicky but i really rather listen to them than flo rida or kevin rudolf.

so by now i think its pretty clear that bad music is just bad music, and bad music in the western world is just as bad as music from anywhere else. unless you think the stuff i listed is actually good then in that case you have no reason to hate asian music and think its tb, coz this shit is just as bad really.

i downloaded girls' generation's mini album, i enjoyed 2/5 songs, the other 3 might grow on me, one is a soft piano song called dear mom, and the other two is i guess exactly what you would expect asian pop to be like, but then replace them with an english speaking person and it could just sound like any of your american songs these days.



so through my exploration in asian music today, i realised that jay chou is actually a really talented dude and when i heard alex (stolen script) by ghost face i realised i heard something familar, ghost sampled henry mancini - the theif who came to dinner:

skip to 0:21 to hear the part sampled, now listen to this jay chou song (which i think is pretty damn good)

intro is abit long, but skip to 1:20 if you cbf listening to the whole song, familiar? hrmm


its been a very exciting post, peace

new banner

ive been very bored, i should be doing homework and what not but ive decided to make a new banner. enjoy (i think its missing something, open to suggestions...REAL suggestions)

i've done some research into post grad options overseas, i can do an international studies post grad in Seoul National University OR i can do a MBA at Beijing University with one year in beijing and one year in seoul national uni, atm the second option sounds extremely good, i will apply next year.

king of the world here i come

소녀시대

oh and another long term goal, meet and pursue a romantic relationship with 김태연

fighting evil by moonlight, winning love by daylight, never running from a real fight, she is the one named 김태연 from 소녀시대


소녀시대 is the only thing that is keeping me alive right now, shit cures cancer
if you have not experienced the healing capacity of this girl group then you have not experienced life itself, here are some gifts:

you can watch that in HD

thats just an interview, watch from 0:20 seconds and when you get bored of the first girl skip to 1:28, that wink killed me and revived me 100 times in one go

peace

therapy

is the proud owner of a platinum visa card.
even though i'll never use it (its too powerful), coz i got another card that i use, but it still feels good lol. apparently i have my own concierge

park bu yoen sent me some photos today that i uploaded to facebook.


her and her brother, whom is very depressed because he has to go to the army for 2 years lol.



good times

democracy

the majority of the world's population is uneducated and easily exploited.
if majority wins all the time, then where is this world headed?

asbestos flaygon you too

so yo.

connex sucks balls, i dont understand how a city with only 4? million population cant have their trains run on time when shanghai, seoul and hongkong are all doing it greatly with alot more complex lines and alot more people.

1 billion dollars on this new nonaexistant ticketing system? i can't comprehend how a new ticketing system can cost 1 billion dollars when it hasnt even been implemented yet.

what kind of shit is this country on? is this what it means to be a developed country? everything just runs inefficiently? its like when you get dudes who work hard all their lives and get rich just to have a lazy spoilt kid who does shit all and watch tv all day inheriting their money.

on my mission to get my masterball back and use it. so far only got 2 pokeballs, and the pokemon is leveling up as we speak. not looking good.

and i wonder

i forgot why i left in the first place, but i remember now.

one day

"one day i will grow tired of this world and it will see an evil like never before" - anonymous

seoul search

well not much to say, i came back from seoul and it was a complete failure. kthanx

its not me, it's your intimacy

so its exam week next week here at KAIST, which means classes have temporarily finished. i've finished my homework for the time being which means i have some spare time laid upon me.

in that spare time, i've attempted to join some co-curricular activities such as taking up chinese classes and also i'm helping a korean guy learn english.

but even with that, i've still a handful of time so i've decided to take the time to listen to some albums i've wanted to listen to for a while in their entirety, (not an album review, just what i my impressions)

intimacy - bloc party
and
it's not me, its you - lily allen


intimacy -

i can't say im too much of a indie guy. but i relatively enjoyed this album. i dont enjoy the current trend of this rock electronica dance blend so thus i didnt really enjoy listening to the songs on this album with that element. my favourite two songs from the album is prob: ares and halo. when it comes to rock i enjoy the heavy hitting and fast paced drums that was present in both those songs and a hard and heavy riff which was more existant in halo. i'm still getting used to kele's voice on a song like ares, just feels it would be better if there was an angry white guy screaming on it (corey taylor or chester bennington or someone) so give me some time. but those two songs were enough to suggest i should check out their other stuff.

it's not me, it's you -

i quite enjoyed her first album, theres something about her bitchy attitutude that makes her songs that good. even though i enjoyed the "bitchy" songs on her first album i also enjoyed her reflective songs and emo songs. i don't think this album is better than her debut, but i think given time it will grow on me like the first album did. favourite songs on this album are: the fear and who'd have known. Even though i think katy perry is hotter, lily allen definitley has more attitude and that extra bitchiness that delivers her songs with perfection. so when shes singing emo songs its like: nawwww she has feelings too haha. now im just rambling.



another album that recently downloaded in it's entirety is...

Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde


i've heard lots of songs from this album prior to downloading this album, but i really enjoyed this whole album. it was such a shame that i couldn't see them live when they came down for good vibes. this for me is really what light hearted golden age hiphop is, its just so energetic and so chilled at the same time. can't really pick two songs i like the most, but if i had to it would be between a couple of songs haha: Otha Fish, Officer, Return of the B-boy and Oh Shit.
Return of the bboy really made me feel like it was 87 or someshit, or better yet, 2009 and hip-hop was back from the dead. they just dont make songs like these anymore.


thanks for reading, heres a present:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7tEtWUfUkY

gyeongju

so the ISO organised a trip for all the exchange students to gyeong ju on saturday, and we spent the night there.

i think the trip would have been alot better if we just skipped the temples and had a whole day of rest before the binge drinking at night.

i simply cant binge drink if i get no sleep the night before due to inconsiderate people talking extremely loudly in the corridoors of the dorm 3 in the morning, i was just about to go kick all their asses when the janitor kicked them all out, thank you.

must have sucked to visit gyeong ju if you were a japanese, in which there were a few i heard.

every relic you visit, is either incomplete due to japanese stealing apart of it, or it was restored or completely rebuilt because the japanese burnt the whole thing down.

damn japanese

oh fitzwilliams

fitzwilliam says:

*haha

*i've had to pee for like an hour

*just so you know

*lol

back from seoul city

so we went on club night which is the last friday of every month to a district named hongdei, basically you pay for one club and that gets you entry into about 5 or 6 different clubs.

it was a good night haha.


at the club, they played linkin park, i was extremely happy. i realised that the ppl in the electronic clubs are generally alittle bit more ugly than the ppl in the hiphop clubs. there are LOTS of american black guys everywhere that night, some with their trashy americankorean girlfriends.

i spent 20 bucks at kfc, seemed like a good idea at the time.



going back next month...this time without spending 200 bucks...


funny story:
a frenchman named yan, he had sooooooo much to drink apparently he caught a taxi from seoul to daejeon (where our uni is about 2 hours away), so thats like someone from bendigo coming to melbourne getting drunk and accidentally catching a cab back to bendigo. so basically when he got to daejeon, he realised he didnt have his wallet or any form of ID, so he sat in a police station for 1 hour before they contacted our uni. he then took the same cab back to where we all were in seoul just as we were waking up, so it was like nothing happened. i thought he was joking when he told me he went to daejeon, but yes, surprisingly the whole trip only costed him 40,000 won which is only about 45 bucks.

his wallet is still in seoul because he put it in a locker and he lost the key...gg

to seoul!

going to seoul this friday and coming back on sunday, shold be very exciting! keep y'all updated off what i get up to.

ive finally downloaded continuum in its entirety, very good album. gravity is working against me.

i failed miserably at the automatic baseball machines where they throw balls at you and you try to hit them, but i redeemed myself by playing the "kick the ball as hard as you can" game by breaking the machine with my awesome kick. go me.

and happy birthday to YOU!

1k

i will apply for travel grant for second semester which shall add another 1k to my netsaver!

my whole body is sore and ive got bruises on my knee and wrist cause ive found a place to train finally.

im starting to hate the ppl in my dorm, someone keeps opening the staircase door which keeps being banged by the wind at night, i closed it twice last night but someone kept opening it. :@

its raining outside, i don't like the rain.

im settling in, adding people to friends list (in real life, not facebook).

need to go seoul, daejeon is pretty boring. i also want to go drinking and go karaoke.

i would have killed to be in somewhere like rye for this week, im sick of winter. i need sun, i need sand and i need to sit somewhere and do nothing but stare at some water for a week.

ok, got korean class in 2 hours, enough rambling. bye now

window side

there is just something about being window side in a foreign country that makes you want to ...

scholarship

i received a 5500 dollar scholarship today. go me

also i visited the hiphop dance club... no comment.

Day ?

ken. says:

i was walking down the streets

ken. says:

and i saw this huge crowd of girls

ken. says:

gathered

ken. says:

and i heard music

ken. says:

so i walked up

ken. says:

and there were dudes breaking

ken. says:

so i broke in there

ken. says:

and no one spoke engglish

ken. says:

and then all the korean girls gasped

ken. says:

coz i was from overseas

ken. says:

and i wasnt ugly

ken. says:

coz 90% of korean bboys are pretty ugly

ken. says:

anyway

ken. says:

so like 2 hours later

ken. says:

im just walking down thee street

ken. says:

and then a group of girls

ken. says:

was wlaking past me

ken. says:

and then they just suddenly sotpped

ken. says:

and stared at me

ken. says:

for a good 5 seconds

ken. says:

before one of them was like

ken. says:

beebui?

ken. says:

me: ?

michelle ma belle (ap) says:

LOL

michelle ma belle (ap) says:

haha

ken. says:

them: beebui?

ken. says:

me: OH BBOY! yes that was me

ken. says:

and then they were all like: wooooowwww

ken. says:

and then they all hi fived me

ken. says:

and giggled

ken. says:

and stared at me for another 10 seconds

ken. says:

and then they said bye bye

Day 3.

well my day 3 in korea was no where near as filled as the other days.

first of all, friday night i went out with the europeans and man they are so full of energy. and plus they are white so they can do crazy shit and get away with it. eg dancing on the street and outside of a club, when they do that, koreans take photos with them. if i did that, i'd prob get arrested.

i took my saturday off, bummed around with mus, bought some more domestic stuff. also bought noodles and lunch boxes and what not coz we cant afford to eat out every night.

semester starts soon, gotta find out about my classes and what theyre all about.

i think from today i'm gonna stop posting every day...unless i get super bored of course, which is a high possibility.

peace

day 2.

i ended up getting that medical exam, man do i hate blood tests.

i have made some new friends, lucas (brazillian), laura (finnish), mus, sarah, mimi who are all french.

i have learnt how to say "i am tasty, i am crazy, i am crazy for you, i am tasty tonight, i am crazy tonight, i am crazy for you tonight, i am vulgar, i am vulgar for you tonight etc" in french, and i have also learnt how to say "i love pears" in finnish. i have a feeling im gonna know more useless french than i am korean this semester. 

today has been a huge day, from med exam in the morning,  to finding a place to eat, to buying groceries and what not and to opening a bank account. i have lost my passport photos so i gotta take some another day.

i really need this weekend to get some cleaning done. sooooo tired.

keep y'all updated.

day 1.5

so i am near the end of my first day in korea.

so far it has been disappointing and facinating at the same time.

its great to be able to experience the campus uni life that you see in the movies, its disappointing its not a 24 hour party like it is depicted in american movies.

i cant speak a single word of korean and everyone in my dorm seem to be local students. i dont have a dorm buddy so i have not spoken to anyone really.

i am asian so ppl assume im korean and speak korean to me and i have to say i dont speak korean in english.

my dorm is so bloody dusty and dirty, i really need to go and buy a vacum to clean this shit up. the broom just lifts all the dust into the air.

i have to walk about 50-100 meters to go to the toilets, not good coz i go like 2 -3 times a night.

my room is heated quite well, and by quite well i mean i have to walk around naked (not really) and i dont know how to turn it down.

my guide says i have to do a medical examination tommorow, but so far no scheduling according to my guide as been correct so maybe i will just pass on it.

hope korea gets better realllllll soon.

peace

Day 1.

So let me just start by saying i aboslutely hate china eastern airlines, partly coz the planes are so crap and partly coz it was delayed by 1.5 hours.

i got to shanghai 1.5 hours later than i should have and i checked into some really crappy hotel.
the bed was rock solid like all other beds in shanghai and the shower has no pressure so i cant take a shower. 3 star my arse.

in about 3 hours i will be on my flight to incheon airport, seoul and in another 2 hours i'll be at my university in daejeon. i dont know how its gonna go, i dont speak a single word of korean, actually i know how to say hello and sleep with me. but i dont think thats gonna do much in getting me to the university. great.

i forgot to buy a lan cable so im gonna steal this one at the hotel so i can use at the uni. keep y'all updated.

(ps: i miss you all, especially YOU, you know who you are)

peace

CNY

happy lunar new year everyone.

for those who dont know, i shall be departing for the republic of korea on wednesday. i will be there for about 4 months and then finally to shanghai again for my internship which will carry on til the end of the year.

anyway, i felt alittle inspiration last night and i decided to do some simple photoshopping to some photos i took at charley's. its amazing what simple tweaks and not so simple tweaks could do to photos.

these two are my favourites:




the rest is on my facebook, but these ones are prob the best ones.

now to learn how to take photos like that without photoshop

the dream

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." - MLK '63

"although it seems heaven sent, we ain't ready to have a black president" Tupac Shakur '95


history will decide.

burncity

ive taken some time to enjoy the little things of melbourne that i wont be able to enjoy whilst im in shanghai/ maybe korea:

watching alpha male seagulls fight off other seagulls for my attention

sitting on the grass (all greenery in shanghai is pretty much sealed off)

seeing nimbus clouds and a clear blue sky

enjoying golden sands with blue water

enjoy being able to walk around without people bumping into you everywhere

enjoy the fresh air

being able to drink water out of the tap

the high water pressure.

but there are things that i have gotten used to in asia:

public transport actually running on time (and trains coming every 5 minutes)

taxis being really cheap

food being really cheap (in shanghai, not hk)

being able to buy whatever i need

never being more than 5 minutes away from a metro station

completeness

i have nothing to say, i just wanted to see how it felt to update my blog outside of a nice cafe with a cup of warm coffee.

shai city.

today has been an extremely boring day.

well for everyone who hasnt spoken to me and is dying to read a blog (cissy) haha, i shall update.

i arrived in shanghai on the 23rd of december and its all been a big blur since then.

in short, i've had excessive amounts of beer almost every single night ive been here. and i have pretty much been moving from place to place every night, rarely do i sleep on the same bed two nights in a row.

nye didnt exactly go to plan (sorry ed and charley) but it was still ok. i spent it with jazel, her friend thu, tai gorilla and lucy. thankyou jazel for those shots haha.

i've met the bboys here too and ive been dancing a couple of times already with edward and once with charley.

but really, theres not much to say, its cold as hell here and dark as well...hell too. assuming hell is dark and...cold.

anyway i will be back in melbourne on the 13th of jan, i look forward to seeing everyone who is ever so eagerly waiting for the return of the king. (gone again by the 31st latest)

hk day 3

yes i hav enothing better to do at night in hongkong than to sit in the lobby of my hotel and update my blog. i took like 300 photos today
, went to visit the big buddah on the top of the hill and also the worlds most happiest place on earth.

by now i have realised mongkok aint the best neighbourhood in town haha. nothing much to write about today, really tired. update with photos when i cbf.

hk day 2

reasons why i hate traveling with my parents

1. my mum likes to ask random people things regardless of their nature of work or who they are.
eg. my mum likes to go to a security guard/cleaner etc and ask them if they have any more sizes or if they can get her a coat from the back.

2. my dad is over enthusiastic about anything i tell him eg. i tell him i need to get a back pack and he points out every single store with any sort of bag for sale

3. my dad likes to point out random things
eg. we get on the subway and he goes: we're underground
thanks dad
eg. we go into nike and he goes: this is a nike store

4. my mum is like a small child, when she walks she doesnt pay attention to anything.
eg. mum walks in front, me and my dad stop to take photos, she keeps walking for aboout 300 meters before my dad calls out to her to tell her to come back.

5. my dad is a fool
eg. he is trying to boycott france by refusing to go into any shop that is french such as louis vuitton etc.

6. my dad is paranoid about everything, so before we left the apartment he locked my laptop and everything else in a bag with a lock on the zip. we head out and i got extremely tired and decided to go home early to chill out on the computer/take photos with the slr of surroundings later.

i get back to the hotel and i realise that my laptop is in the bag with the lock...
i was really desperate so i told hotel maintenance to cut the lock for me with bolt cutters.

i reckon my dad will be angry when he gets back, but i couldnt call him (no sim cards/phones here for us) and i literally had nothing else to do.

end of day2

(oh yea, picked up somethings today, retail therapy is making me feel better about this place)

hk day 1

i have succesfully landed in hong kong and landed in my hotel with my parents. i am living in kowloon.

first thing i did when i got here was check out the neighbourhood and because ive been hearing all these good things about this infamous "sneaker street" i was curious to go check it out and since i was living quite near it, it was a good opportunity.

my verdict of hk thus far is that it is as good as it is bad. doesnt make much sense.

the "sneaker street" area of kowloon is like a little cbd full of sneaker stores as far as the eye can see. unfortunately, the price is pretty much the same or even more expensive than melbourne and it is essentially 1000 stores with the same stock. every store has the same shit except a couple of stores had vans whilst most didnt.

here i am thinking that i was gonna cop a pair of cheap van eras for like 40 bucks to beat up whils t im in asia, but no, they cost like 80 aud here too =[

plane trip wasnt bad, i had john legend to put me in a trance like state for about 30 minutes and i also watched a bit of possibly the worst movie ever made in the history of man kind, its called:

kung fu hiphop


i watched the first 10 minutes, i really couldnt bare anymore. it had chicken from YnD as the main character and omg, i have lost so much respect for him. that movie really really really sucked.


anyway, hopefully my hongkong experience gets better starting tommorow. see y'all soon

holdin down the block

almost exactly one more week til i leave for hongkong/shanghai. just for those who were not familiar with my plans, they are:

(in chronological order)
hongkong for 4 days
shanghai for 1 month
melbourne for 1 week
korea for 1 semester
shanghai for 1 semester


but its funny that i've been looking forward to leaving all year, i have been imagining jamming with chinese and korean bboys and living by myself in shanghai whilst doing internship with volkswagen and also been looking forward to making some new friends in korea.

but its funny because on the eve of my departure, i don't seem like i want to leave anymore.

disturbia

so i was on my way to the city this afternoon in hopes of getting some dance on and well a very "interesting" individual got on, and by interesting i mean extremely drunk or high.

he looked a lot like this guy:



a few girls in some nice summer dresses came on (they were like 4-5 maybe 6/10 at best) and sat down behind me, and then that bald guy who i shall refer to now as drunko, got on.

the drunko sat down next to them and started putting his arm around them, shaking their hands and trying to chat them up in a sexually harassing way. so one dude on the side started saying "hey mate, don't do that" and a i think maybe french or arabic guy also told him to stop.

eventually the first dude got the drunko to calm down and sit down and chatted to him whilst the girls ran to other seats, but the french/arab (farab) guy kept telling him to get off the tram, eventually other people got on and the farab guy started explaining to everyone else who didnt see the initial incident why he was telling this drunko to get off and then eventually he started bragging about how he made him stop harrassing those girls. at which point the drunko's girlfriend got on and started lip wrestling with him, the drunko also lit one up to smoke. at which point i decided to move because i dont want to die of asthma.

anyway so from another seat, i saw the drunko get up and get this

he took his pants off and got out his genitals and tried to make his girlfriend give him oral sex...on the tram.



end of story.

foh sale

I had my last exam today and wrote about the impacts that developing countries have on developed countries, and also the challenges that face the communist party of china has a result of rapid economic development and rise in average income levels.

and now i have some stuffs to sell. dont hesitate to buy ;)
need (extra) funds for china just in case i get scammed and need money to save my life. that sorta thing.



White/White Dunks
Condition: 7/10
Size: US 11
Price: $70 (hold)


Lakers New Balance 585 High
Condition: 9/10
Size: US 10.5
Price: $90


Provider New Balance 1500
Condition: DS
Size: 10
Price: $550


Melbourne Dunk Low
Condition: DS
Size: 11
Price: $210


Black/White Dunk High
Condition: 9/10
Size: US 10
Price: $80 (hold)


Black/Orange Ice Cream Boardflips 1
Condition: DS
Size: 10.5
Price: $80

out for black presidents to represent you

What’s the black pres. thinkin’ on election night
Is it how can I protect my life?
Protect my wife?
Protect my rights?
Every other president was nothin' less than white
Except Thomas Jefferson and mixed Indian blood
and Calvin coolers
KKK is like 'what the fuck', loadin' they guns up
loadin' mine too, Ready to ride
Cause im ridin with my crew
He dies - we die too
But on a positive side,
I think Obama provides Hope - and challenges minds
Of all races and colors to erase the hate
And try and love one another, so many political snakes
We in need of a break
Im thinkin' I can trust this brotha
But will he keep it way real?
Every innocent n!gga in jail - gets out on appeal
When he wins - will he really care still?

- nas

KAIST letter

Dear whom it may concern,

My name is Han, my friends know me as Ken. Ever since an early age, I have always had an adventurous nature and have been exposed to many worlds and cultures. I was born in Shanghai, China and I call 3 countries home. In 2009 I hope to be able to add Korea to China, New Zealand and Australia.

Korean culture and history has been closely connected with that of China, both nations have suffered and triumphed together in the last few decades. From the atrocities of World War Two to the Korean War and the recent economic boom in Asia. Economics aside, Korea has caught the eye of the world with its pop culture, but of course I do not want to see the Korea portrayed in the soap dramas or movies, I want to experience the real Korea, I want to meet Korean people, dine in Korean restaurants and learn the culture first hand. Studying at KAIST will give me a great insight into business conduct in Korea and Asia whilst also giving me access to the rich Korean culture.

KAIST has a high reputation in the field of research and development amongst other things and this was a main attraction for me as I like to experience new and fresh things first hand. KAIST also has a huge wealth of information from abroad accumulated by its staff and of course its students from all the corners of the world, I look forward to participating and adding to the wealth of knowledge by actively participating in school activities both apart of my curriculum and outside. I hope the exchange in knowledge happens both ways and I am able to leave a good mark on KAIST and its students.

The city of Daejeon itself is home to many R&D facilities of global businesses, which comes at no surprise. The “silicon valley of Korea” contains not only the research and development facilities of Samsung and LG, but also to the Yuseong-gu district known for its high tech industries. With new technologies comes new and innovating marketing and business structures which I definitely look forward to learning about and seeing first hand.

With that said I hope there is a position for me at KAIST and I look forward to studying in the Republic of Korea.

apologies

apologies to nick bracks, steve bracks and gary morgan for whatever grief i have caused. the information of van's dismissal was inaccurate and was sourced from a casual conversation and was misunderstood by me and possibly misrepresented by van at the time.

i should not have posted unverified information into the public domain, and my supervisors are not a trustworthy source of information.

let me say again, that everything i have stated in the previous post was completely untrue according to roy morgan management, and this present time there is no other reliable source so thus i will presume that this is truth, as far as i know.

as a result, my employment has been put on hiatus, there will be 24 hours before i am notified in regards to my future at roy morgan research.

i have explained myself to management and attempted to justify how and why i would genuinely believe such matters and had also genuinely believed that the matters were indeed fact due to my belief of the source's reliability, but as you should be aware by now, this was a mistake.

again, i would like to state that i do not want you to think negatively of gary morgan, steve bracks or nick bracks based on those events i described earlier as they are inaccurate and unreliable as far as i know at this present time.

what is wrong with the WTO?

EN-US X-NONE X-NONE

Synopsis

There are various criticisms of the WTO, ranging from certain policies and methods of enforcement to the decision making process and the structure of the organization itself. To what extent are these criticisms true and if so how much do they affect countries and economies? Various methods of reform have also been suggested through the years. This essay will identify a few particular problems with policies, principles and structure/decision making process of the WTO and give general solutions as to how those problems should be solved.

Background

On the first of January 1995, the World Trade Organisation succeeded the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade as the de facto international trade regulator. The general mission of the WTO and its forerunners were to improve the welfare of the people within its member countries by “ensuring that trade flows as smoothly, predictably and freely as possible”. Its predecessor had merely 23 countries and the first negotiation round in Geneva took only 7 months in starting April 1947. The difficulty in improving the welfare of all people within its member countries has significantly increased since 1947 which correlates with the number of member countries which again correlates with the amount of interests each nation has. The most recent round of negotiations in Doha, which started in November 2001 with 141 countries, has collapsed. This reflects on the conflict in interests between developed countries (lead by USA, EU and Japan) and developing countries (lead by India and China). The most common criticism of the WTO is through its operations, there has been a divergence instead of a convergence of income levels between the rich and poor nations and this effect will continue unless there is significant reform.

Discrimination

Even though one of the principles of the WTO is “trade without discrimination”, developed countries are still able to find a way around this. Under WTO agreements countries cannot discriminate between trading partners. If a country so wishes to establish a tariff on a particular good, that tariff must be the same across the board for all goods of the same type no matter which WTO member it is coming from. This principle is known as the most-favoured-nation (MFN) treatment. In theory this principle should provide poorer countries access to better trade agreements that richer countries have with each other. However the flaw in this rule is that it did not take into consideration that developing countries produce different things from developed countries. If a tariff were to be imposed on all textile, clothing and footwear coming into Australia, it would not affect countries such as Japan and USA as much as it would affect developing countries like China and India. The WTO also has a set of antidumping measures, when these measures are put into practice they also act against the development of developing countries. Another note is that countries may impose a ban on the import of all goods of a particular type such as Australia not importing bananas which is completely in line with the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), this has an even higher effect on the economies of other countries within the WTO, generally speaking bananas are grown in more tropical climates and the majority are grown in developing nation. Even though the supposed reason for ban is a due to industry standard, it in effect is a good excuse for protectionism to protect local industry, this translates to a heavy price for consumers as demonstrated by the effects of Cyclone Larry, the ban is on the grounds that imported bananas will bring exotic diseases and pests into Australia. This ban would have a lot more of an impact on the economy of the Philippines than it would on the economy of New Zealand or USA if any. An amount of the decisions to ban items that contain risk to the environment or wildlife when reviewed, have been overturned. In 1998 a dispute settlement panel ruled in favour of Canada against Australia, in 1994 Australia had imposed a ban of live salmon from Canada after a risk assessment report deemed it a threat to wild Australian as there were 20 types of bacteria present in Canadian salmon that was not found in Australian salmon. The conclusion of this assessment is the Canadian salmon posed a risk of spreading and infecting wild Australian salmon. The WTO found the Australian risk assessment was inadequate and not based on sound science. There could be parallels drawn between this case and the current situation of bananas in Australia and possibly many other cases where a ban is imposed based on proclaimed scientific risk assessment, only when a ban is appealed can the decision be reversed. Even though since the Salmon case between Australia and Canada set a new precedent had shifted the burden of proof from the exporting country proving that it is safe to the importing country having to prove the product is unsafe, questionable and debatable bans are still enforced in Australia and other importing nations. So thus it is still possible to discriminate against a particular group or a particular country when conducting trade as a member of the WTO.

Structure

Democracy is the general ideology the WTO is based on. One country gets only one vote, rather than a vote for every dollar. However decisions are rarely made on basis of votes and is made with a consensus, this in theory should give any country the right to veto any decision. However, poorer countries cannot afford permanent representation and constant economic legal advice, thus the decisions are usually made by the larger and richer countries such as USA and EU. Power does not only extend to the rich and powerful countries, it also stretches to rich and powerful international organizations, even though co-operations have no standing in the WTO, most advisory bodies in the WTO is filled with co-operate representation. The forming of the TRIPS agreement was done in close collaboration with a coalition of 12 of the biggest US transnational businesses, these include: General Electric, General Motors, IBM etc.
Even though that a coalition of corporations was allowed to participate and influences the agreements to a large degree, no NGOs were allowed to participate in negotiations or even comment on the agreement. So even though major corporations have no official standing in the WTO and will never receive membership, companies such as IBM wield much greater influence in the WTO and have more representation than a poor or developing member country. Policies such as TRIPS have also come under heavy scrutiny from developing countries as this policy in effect moves wealth from poorer developing countries to patent holders which are generally large corporations or certain wealthy individuals that are in countries that are already developed and wealthy. The TRIPS agreement also demonstrates how the WTO in principle discriminates against poorer countries as TRIPS was formed by richer countries and their corporations targeted against poorer developing countries, which also reinforces the criticism that the WTO simply increases the difference in wealth between developing countries and developed countries.

Solutions

In order to solve the problem of countries exploiting the MFN treatment, it must obviously be reformed. Instead of having to tax all goods of the same type from all countries, the tax instead has to be put on all goods of the same importance to the exporting country. For example, if clothing was China’s major export to Australia and Australia decides that it wants to put a tariff on clothing, then it must also put a tariff on oil coming from Saudi Arabia. This way, no nations may be able to exploit the treatment as tariffs are not imposed on goods based on type but on importance (measured either in volume or monetary value) to the exporting country. However the goal of this reform is not for countries to impose tax on all imports but to pressure on countries to remove tariffs on all imports, especially developed countries. Developing countries should be given a longer “grace period” to allow time for local industry to develop. Tariffs on all goods should slowly decrease, this promotes the idea that local industries should increase efficiency rather than depend on government to subsidise and tax cheaper imports, the initial tariff on the imported good should only be enough to level out the price so it is the same as locally produce goods, this is so that in the initial stages, imported products will be judged not on price but other qualities of the product. This gives an even playing field for the imported goods and would force local producers to compete with imported goods as they would another domestic company, they could choose to remain more expensive when the tariff is gone and use marketing to put emphasis on other attributes or they could compete on price alone. In terms of the TBT and countries imposing bans based on local policies, the shift of the burden of proof from the exporting country to the importing country is definitely a move in the right direction. However unreasonable bans and excuses for protectionism still happen, perhaps there has not been enough precedence ruling against importing countries but policies need to be changed with emphasis on scientific proof, also local trade laws and local trade authorities should not be able to impose a ban unless approved by the WTO. It is recognised that imported goods in certain cases may have negative effects on a particular country’s environment or population, to protect local environment and population, there should be a period where scientific review is conducted of products that are to be introduced to a country. If the scientific basis for ban is disputed, it may also be reviewed by a third party who is no affiliated with the related countries to decrease the chances of a unjustified ban that could potentially harm exporters. If the scientific basis for a ban is deemed incorrect/inaccurate/fraudulent, there should be compensation from the importing country to the exporting country; this would discourage the practice of using the TBT as an excuse for protectionism

The issue of the undemocratic nature of the WTO in terms of policy making is a hard issue to tackle head on. In terms of corporations having unofficial representation in the WTO, the WTO should either allow official corporate representation and introduce a democratic system where an equal amount of industry leaders from every country should have representation or it should eliminate advisors with current corporate affiliations completely. It seems to eliminate corporate representation completely is unrealistic and impractical. The best solution would be to introduce a new system of equal corporate representation from all countries rather than having a select few companies has influence on industry changing policies such as the TRIPS agreement. However not all countries have the same amount of companies in a particular field, to solve this issue industries in a country should group together and negotiate amongst themselves and select a representative at the WTO. Decisions should be made by votes more often than other methods to insure that all countries/businesses have an equal say in policies and decisions are not made on a “a dollar a vote” basis. If the corporate world have representation in the WTO it would only be reasonable that NGOs are also allowed to participate in negotiations or at least be able to officially review policies before they are enforced. This would decrease the chances that policies that are particularly in favour or one side than others are formed.

Conclusion

The reforms suggested are all in consideration of the WTO’s main principles and all aim to improve the WTO so that these principles are seen as missions. They reform methods all suggest that there needs to be more transparency on all levels of administration and membership within the WTO. Only through transparency can democratic decisions be made that reflect the interest or approval of all member states and more importantly the people represented. Arbitrary decisions should be avoided where possible and voting should be the predominant method of making decisions. Corporate representation should also be governed rather than be ignored officially so that all corporations from different countries can have an equal say based on the “one country, one vote” policy and not the “one dollar, one vote” idea which seems more common within the WTO under the current system. Only through these reforms can the WTO truly be a organization that improves the wellbeing of all people within its member states no matter the wealth of the state or the individual.

love lockdown

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcjkkBtXgIc
what is with the recent explosion of rappers singing with autotune? i have had quite a lot of kanye west hating lately but i think this song is really too far. This follows in the footsteps of lil wayne and snoop, though i have to say i was a lot more entertained by snoop's sensual seduction aka. sexual eruption than young weezy and air yeezy. and kanye likes to think hes innovative and artistically beyond everyone. someone with minimum musical experience could have made something that sounded better on fruity loops trial version

on another note, theres this asian producer/mc (who actually looks real nerdy)named kero-one, he does real ill tracks. check out the great remix he did of common - the light

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FA6ByKBy8Ho (couldnt embed)

if you like chill-out hiphop, reccommend you give this guy a listen
kero one


peace

VIS/Tropic Storm

im pretty stoked on them at the moment.


so anyway, visvims aside.
tropic thunder is a way hilarious movie:


this is what parody/satires should be like in my opinion. great acting from robert downey jnr.
because its a comedy, i'll look past the bad chinese spoken by the villains in the film and the even more humorous chinese spoken by robert downey jnr.

for those who dont know what the film is about:

a washed up action star who was big in the 90s (think van dam, stalone, seagal), a comedian (think eddie murphy, jim carey back in the day), a 5x oscar winner (think hrmmm... not sure, think of a REALLY good actor in lots of good roles), a rapper wanting to get into the movie business (icecube, ice-t, andre3000, methodman etc)and a new comer get together for the most expensive war movie ever made. the 5x oscar winner has surgery to get his skin darkened so he can play a black sargent in the film. however filming goes horribly wrong and the stars get lost in the jungle of china dressed in army fatigues. they are discovered by local militants and are mistaken for an invading american military and thus the humour begins.


i went into this movie not expecting too much, but i certainly got more than i expected. There were actually times where my brain actually though robert downey jnr was a black guy.

if youre still not convinced to go watch it, maybe the trailer might do alittle help. not the greatest trailer though

til next time, peace

the home song stories

the home song stories what a brilliant australian film.
for me, it was comparable to romulus my father which was a book i heavily enjoyed (not so much the movie)

it follows, the events of a hongkong night club singer named rose and her two children.
she meets an australian sailor(bill) and follows him to melbourne. she leaves him after 1 week and travels to sydney going from job to job and boyfriend to boyfriend. soon however, she has no choice but to move back into bill's home back in melbourne. he however has to serve and leaves for 3 months. meanwhile she has an affair with a much younger male named joe, who is an illegal immgrant from hong kong, things get even more complicated when joe and rose's daughter begin feelings for eachother.

this is based on a true story.

the ending came close to making me shed a tear, which is pretty uncommon. the story's protagonist is rose's young son, tony or "di di". i guess i really liked the story because i could really relate to tony on certain levels but of course my life was certainly not as half as tragic.

i think all of the mhs dudes who had read romulous my father and enjoyed it, should really look into this film or the book.

for those who have read the book, its almost like seeing it from christine's perspective.



worth a look.

kick of an angel

last night i could not believe what i was seeing. i had to say it was the most funniest moment of the olympics i had ever witnessed.

in the video is angel matos from cuba, he is the gold medalist from the 2000 games.
so you get 60 seconds of injury time, if its not enough your coach or you may step into the middle of the ring and ask the ref for more time. however, angel matos and his coach probably forgot, the ref gave them a warning at about 40 seconds, and well angel matos lost the match by default because he didnt get up to ask for more time, which is fair enough.

BUT the humour as you just witnessed happened when angel matos lost his temper and kicked the ref in the face and punched an official that ran in. hes got a life ban from competing in taekwondo comps now, which is good game haha.

not so fresh (off boat) united

NSF united

top: pav, dam, sagar, alex, dolm
middle: andrea
bottom: kate, nysh, stella, ken


that was my team for sports last sunday, took a week to get the photo.
we got robbed in the netball. so heres the story

so the game the game is meant to be 14 minutes, but the ref tells us for this game its only going to be 7 minutes without half time and no substitutes, which turned out to be bullshit. we started about 3 minutes into the game. towards the end damilola injures himself and needs to be subbed off, but for some odd reason the ref ignores him, meanwhile the opposite team gets a 1 point lead and the game finishes.

so we're pissed off, and then one of the organizers tell us that we have a second half, by the time we got started again we only had about 3-4 minutes left on the clock already, and after some rest damilola could play again. we quickly evened the scores until the end where dam again tells us his leg is too screwed up for him to run so we're one player down whilst the ref watches damilola limp around and begging to be subbed. and then in the last 10 seconds they score the final point and won by a point, and that team took the finals too, so in turn we were absolutely robbed.


anyway so ive been sore for a whole week after playing that shit.

team sports are extremely fun and i plead to anyone who is apart of some sort of student or otherwise organization to organize more team sports days rather than shitty poker nights and shitty clubbing events.


peace

rivington club

beijing 2008

so i stayed up til like 2 last night to finish watching the entire opening ceremony.
thats right i watched all 203 countries walk around that track too.

i loved the idea of using the "great inventions" in the ceremony. but was it me or did i miss the gun powder? or was the gajillion dollars worth of fireworks enough to celebrate gunpowder?

i loved it, i thought it could have been longer. it was funny though right at the beginning of the ceremony there was a little girl lip syncing, she look like she was gonna pass out.

good stuff china.

ps: what was retarded was that every time someone spoke Chinese, the subtitles slowly displayed:

speaks in...



asian language.



i think anyone could have guessed they were speaking in chinese.

planet bboy

i watched the documentary: planet bboy today at the melbourne international film festival.

now prior to watching this docco i had seen a lot of trailers and really wanted to watch it, unfortunately it didnt come to melbourne when it was first released, however since then i had heard some negative things about the film according to other bboys, saying that it gives BOTY too much credit and too much importance as the "world cup" of bboying.


for people who have no idea what this film is. it is a docco about a couple of crews and their journey to the "biggest breaking competition" in the world, the battle of the year in hamburg germany. each crew represented their country, the documented ones were gamblerz: the defending champions from korea. Knuckle head zoo from usa. Ichigeki from japan and last4one the underdog crew. now other than potray their journey to this competition, it also gives an insight to the mentality of a bboy all across the world. why they dance, how they got into dance and how it affects the people around them. of course the results vary across the world. but it demonstrates that, even though we are very very far apart in language and our own ethnic culture, bboys still manage to communicate through hiphop.

i missed the first half hour of the docco, which i assume had an explanation of what bboying is from ken swift and a history of the dance from both him and trac2. also the segement on knuckle head zoo i missed too.

i came in just on time to watch last4one's segment, and having seen it, i have gained a lot more respect for last 4 one as bboys.

it was a bit of a biased docco, but still good none the less.

alot of things we can all relate to, and especially for me as a dancer.

i was really impressed by katsu's (ichigeki) mother, saying that he must not dance to win, but dance to dance, if winning is the only thing on his mind, it will show through his dance.

another great quote from the docco i cant remember who it was said by, but i think it was joe-t
he says

"i dance not to make money, i make money to continue dancing"



i encourage everyone who wants to learn more about hiphop culture, breakin/bboying as a dance, to go watch this film somehow.

8/10 for me

Eazy Eee

after many months of consideration i have finally purchased a laptop.

asus eee 1000

1.6 ghz
80 gb HDD
1gb Ram
10 inch monitor

not a bad price, the logo was hell ugly so i had to cover it haha.



a heads up though, if anyone plans on buying a laptop or screen of anysort, make sure to check at the store if there are any dead pixels/frozen pixels. because a lot of stores actually dont handle the warranty in store and tells you to refer to the warranty card/manufacturer. asus doesnt give you warranty unless you have more than 4 pixels malfunctioning. so could potentially mean, you buy a comp, go home turn it on discover it has a dead pixel within 30 minutes of purchase and having to send it to the manufacturer for repairs for a weeks.

watch out