RANTING/VENTING MEGATHREAD 3.0

Just got back yesterday from a much-needed extended R&R break in Sri Lanka... Glad to see that, while it is quite warm here, the humidity seems at least manageable...

 Anyhow, with regard to the Japan travel theme, here's some grist for the mill...

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwK5rJTxLdE&feature=youtu.be

and another:

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUX0pcUQOMs

  The bits on the Tennis courts, Baseball, and the Rowing venues were particularly disturbing...!

   There are actually quite a few articles/ videos on this subject if you look online (You Tube has some good ones...); they can't all be wrong!!

I was planning to head over for some RWC action, but will be cancelling next week; this video is a prime example of the lies, manipulation, complete lack of conscience, and the duplicity and amorality of Japan's government and corporate (esp. the Nuclear power industry...) sectors!

I need to get my last bit of ranting in before I go:

There are no stakes here, and there are no rules. And the rules that are established are just immediately broken and ignored.

My biggest problem though is that there's no purpose to anything here. No purpose that really matters anyways. I think the thing that makes me so disappointed is that I see so much more potential in Korea. Not to mention the luck of the draw with some of these schools. I'd gladly stay if things were only slightly different.

Prediction: More people visiting the Olympics will die of heat stroke OR transportation accidents OR "misadventure" than anything to do with Fukushima radiation.

Prediction: More people visiting the Olympics will die of heat stroke OR transportation accidents OR "misadventure" than anything to do with Fukushima radiation.

I agree.

I came back to Korea and am treated to a few banners in my small city with 'Don't go to Japan, Don't buy anything Japanese'.  So did some reading up and realised it was just another childish thing that the Koreans and Japanese have, but this time started by the Japanese.  It doesn't take much.

2018

Oct. 30 -- South Korea's Supreme Court orders a Japanese company, Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp., to compensate South Korean victims for forced labor and unpaid work during World War II.

Nov. 29 -- South Korea's top court orders a Japanese company, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., to compensate South Korean wartime forced labor victims.

2019

Jan. 9 -- Japan requests that Seoul and Tokyo begin government talks over the wartime forced labor issue.

May 20 -- Japan requests formation of an arbitration panel involving a third-country to address the wartime forced labor issue.

June 19 -- South Korea proposes to Japan that companies from both countries create a joint fund to compensate the wartime forced labor victims. Japan turns down the offer.

Korea wanted more compensation money from Japan. But they already paid. Many times.

Can European countries say to Germany and Italy, "Hey, you owe us money because of World War 2."? And expect to get it? For the rest of eternity?

The government officials who called the shots back then are all dead. It's long ago in the past. Long before the Koreans boycotting now were alive.

Don't state facts about Germany and their payments if you did not do your research properly!
They have been paying a monthly pension to any of their proud Belgian, German, Austrian and Polish Nazi SS-soldiers still alive for instance. 75 years x 1000 eurosx12= 900.000 per Nazi- granddad/grandma.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiVY5W2WEs8

To general surprise, South Korea announced late Thursday (Aug 22) that it would not renew a pact with Japan to share military intelligence, called the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA).

Under the pact, originally signed in 2016, the two US allies directly share military secrets, particularly over North Korea's nuclear and missile capacity.

Seoul said it was no longer in its national interest to continue sharing confidential information with its neighbour during a sharp deterioration in ties. Tokyo said it would "strongly" protest the move and urged South Korea to reconsider.

Japan's Defence Minister Takeshi Iwaya said the pact was vital for regional security, pointing in particular to the nuclear and missile threat from North Korea.

"During the series of North Korean missile launches, there was a thorough and careful exchange of information between both sides," Iwaya told reporters on Friday.

Scrapping the pact would only make bilateral defence cooperation harder, he said.

Without the agreement, both militaries may find it more difficult to track missile launches from the regime in Pyongyang, said Tobias Harris, an analyst at the Teneo consultancy.

Harris noted that Seoul's move came "just as North Korea has ramped up tests of short-range ballistic missiles."

So, you're just copy pasta-ing random 'news' articles? 
What for?  /end rant

Don't state facts about Germany and their payments if you did not do your research properly!
They have been paying a monthly pension to any of their proud Belgian, German, Austrian and Polish Nazi SS-soldiers still alive for instance. 75 years x 1000 eurosx12= 900.000 per Nazi- granddad/grandma.

   While it's true that Germany pays a livable pension for its veterans (unlike, say, the USA), Germany has also paid over 60 Billion dollars to its war crime victims. Not too many other countries have done anything even remotely similar.
For some context: https://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/10/world/germany-defends-pensions-for-ss-veterans.html

Also, while the video is a bit disturbing, I feel like that lady looks as though she might be a sandwich short of a picnic. 

There are some students who're begging to be skinned.

Don't state facts about Germany and their payments if you did not do your research properly!
They have been paying a monthly pension to any of their proud Belgian, German, Austrian and Polish Nazi SS-soldiers still alive for instance. 75 years x 1000 eurosx12= 900.000 per Nazi- granddad/grandma.

   While it's true that Germany pays a livable pension for its veterans (unlike, say, the USA), Germany has also paid over 60 Billion dollars to its war crime victims. Not too many other countries have done anything even remotely similar.
For some context: https://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/10/world/germany-defends-pensions-for-ss-veterans.html

Also, while the video is a bit disturbing, I feel like that lady looks as though she might be a sandwich short of a picnic. 

Most of these soldiers were young conscripts.
 
I think Germany is the gold standard for national contrition.

Paying pensions doesn’t put any tarnish on that.

Among international marriages between Korean men and foreign women, brides from Vietnam accounted for 73 percent, and it took an average 3.9 days from the couple’s first meeting to the walk down the aisle.

http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20190218000459

Marriage to someone you don't know? (And most likely can't communicate with.) That seems so strange.

Korean TV is utter sh*te.

I spent three lovely weeks back home in England and I couldn't get over how good the TV is there.  Is there anything like the BBC here?  Does that exist? 

As an example, I remember watching a TV program called "The Octopus in my House" about a professor of marine biology who lives at home with an octopus in his living room with a view to learning more about the animal and how it can react to humans.  It was stunning TV.  Beautifully shot, informative, funny, everything you want in a TV program.  It got me thinking that that sort of show doesn't exist here (does it?)

What do we have here?  Epilepsy inducing, eardrum bursting nonsense from what I've seen.  Incidentally I showed my brother a clip of Korean TV and he said something quite interesting.  He said Korean TV seems like what you would end up with if you asked a Westerner to come up with the most stereotypical, annoying and maybe racist depiction of what you think Asian TV is like.  It would be pretty close to reality!

Been here too long and very grouchy now I'm back after my summer holiday 

Korean TV is utter sh*te.

I spent three lovely weeks back home in England and I couldn't get over how good the TV is there.  Is there anything like the BBC here?  Does that exist? 

As an example, I remember watching a TV program called "The Octopus in my House" about a professor of marine biology who lives at home with an octopus in his living room with a view to learning more about the animal and how it can react to humans.  It was stunning TV.  Beautifully shot, informative, funny, everything you want in a TV program.  It got me thinking that that sort of show doesn't exist here (does it?)

What do we have here?  Epilepsy inducing, eardrum bursting nonsense from what I've seen.  Incidentally I showed my brother a clip of Korean TV and he said something quite interesting.  He said Korean TV seems like what you would end up with if you asked a Westerner to come up with the most stereotypical, annoying and maybe racist depiction of what you think Asian TV is like.  It would be pretty close to reality!

Been here too long and very grouchy now I'm back after my summer holiday 

I've heard before part of the reason TV here seems so random and crappy is because they don't take the time to make good content, they just make content and put it out.  I guess the networks expect a show to be planned, written, shot and edited in like a day or two. I remember also hearing about how back in the day dramas were still being written as they were being shot, so actors would be filming one scene and then have to wait for the next scene to be finished before they could continue their shoot for the day. But I also think there is this obsession with variety shows here that is insane! There are so many set-cast variety/talk style shows that are just filmed on a sound stage with like the same 5 comedians over and over. You can only be amazed XYZ idol group's secret hidden talents so many times, ya know?

daytime UK TV is better than prime time Korean TV. every single korean TV show ends up watching people eat, or doing mundane tasks. i mean, i don't want to hoover my house, and i certainly don't want to watch someone else do it on TV. i especially don't want to watch someone chew loudly and talk while doing so. actually, is it a rule for korean TV that you can only talk with your mouth full? jesus christ

my theory about why they put so many replays and sfx in & writing on the screen, is because the actual content is so vapid and mundane, that they need someway to make it seem more interesting.

i don't get it, at all. my wife will happily sit for an hour watching someone eat instant noodles. it's not like this is a one-off thing. the next episode will be exactly the same. nothing happens. but what's weirder is that you're not just watching someone eat ramyeon, you're watching a group of people in a studio watch people eat ramyeon, then they all comment on it. then they all make dumb overreactions about the most mundane, stupid shit ever. "what's he doing?! why's he putting an egg in his ramyeon? what a madman!" - yeah, what are you talking about? people do this all the time. stop overacting like you've never seen basic shit like this. korean tv is basic. it's shit. i hate it. ****

i mean, i don't want to hoover my house, and i certainly don't want to watch someone else do it on TV.

Yesssssssssssssssss, "Look at these 4 people set up a gas stove. Then they will make kimchi jjiage."

This is the same reason I don't play sports video games. (I do understand why people so, I'm not ragging on them).

I could go outside and throw a ball around. Yes, I know, I'm not playing in the huge field with a 30 000 strong crowd I get that, but I can play baseball. I can play golf.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided? I can't do that, that's the draw. I'm not a cyborg, I can't run around a warehouse, slaughtering 100s of baddies to save the world.

TV should be thought provoking and deep, at least sometimes. Broadchurch is realistic, sure, but it's not something I can do. I'm not a detective and I don't have the mind for that.

"Look! This man is driving his daughter to the daycare! Wanna watch a dashcam of him driving for 6 mins?"

Hell no, I get enough of that in real life.

i mean, i don't want to hoover my house, and i certainly don't want to watch someone else do it on TV.

Yesssssssssssssssss, "Look at these 4 people set up a gas stove. Then they will make kimchi jjiage."

This is the same reason I don't play sports video games. (I do understand why people so, I'm not ragging on them).

I could go outside and throw a ball around. Yes, I know, I'm not playing in the huge field with a 30 000 strong crowd I get that, but I can play baseball. I can play golf.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided? I can't do that, that's the draw. I'm not a cyborg, I can't run around a warehouse, slaughtering 100s of baddies to save the world.

TV should be thought provoking and deep, at least sometimes. Broadchurch is realistic, sure, but it's not something I can do. I'm not a detective and I don't have the mind for that.

"Look! This man is driving his daughter to the daycare! Wanna watch a dashcam of him driving for 6 mins?"

Hell no, I get enough of that in real life.

Not with that attitude you can't!
(And not yet because of technology limitations but, give it a couple years, and I'll be one of the cyborgs killings 100s of bad guys to save the world too! :d )

I agree that a lot of the programming is pretty bad, but I think a really large part of the appeal comes after you start to know and care about the people on the show, who are usually either regular hosts or guest celebrities. We don't really care because we don't care about the people on the show.

But like, if there was a show where I could watch Robert Smith eat a bowl of noodles, I would absolutely tune in to watch every little detail of him eating noodles. People doing dumb everyday stuff is boring, unless it's someone with whom you're familiar, and then it's interesting to the degree that you're interested in the person. 나 혼자 산다 (I Live Alone) is a lot less grating once you get kind of used to the hosts and what their individual character gimmicks are. People develop an affinity for the characters they like,

The programming generally isn't very good, but I can completely understand why people enjoy it. The only two Korean shows I ever watch of my own accord are 대한외국인 (the quiz show) and 어서와~ 한국은 처음이지? (the one where the foreigners visit). The former is fun because I can actually answer some of the questions, and it shows foreigners not being dumb, which is nice. The latter is super hit or miss, but if it's a good group of people on, it's pretty entertaining. And the production is a lot less annoying than most shows.

Anyways, yeah. I'm not a big fan of Korean TV at all. And the dramas are, for the most part, unwatchable, to me. But I get why people like it.

I've heard before part of the reason TV here seems so random and crappy is because they don't take the time to make good content, they just make content and put it out. 

What you wrote has a lot to do with this, also I'd always thought part of it was due to the secrecy and hierarchy of Korean society.  It's quite rare for people to go around to another person's house or have some such relationship that we have in the west, that's why it's eye-candy to watch other people doing boring as shit stuff at home that make me want to pull my hair out.  People don't really go around to someone else's house, so you are kind of unaware of someone else's life.  In all my time here, and with all my Korean friends, I've only been to three houses.  People just meet out at a restaurant or coffee shop.  No wonder it's a draw to watch some tw atty Korean celeb guy trying to do his laundry.   

and 어서와~ 한국은 처음이지? (the one where the foreigners visit).

this is probably the worst one, on all of tv. foreigners doing stuff that koreans do every day. "wow, look how much foreigners love korea!", "haha! look! a foreigners is eating spicy food. it's too spicy for him!", "omg the foreigners just said the subway is really efficient. look how great us koreans are". it only EVER shows things in a 100% positive light- gratingly so. it feels like the main purpose of the show is so the korean audience can give themselves a big ol' pat on the back. after all, judging from this tv show, korea is amazing and all foreigners love it so much that they have absolutely 0 negative things to say