BALANCE of CULTURE

BoC Dérive: 30 March 2012

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MISSILE: Recent satellite images show North Korea prepping for its controversial long-range rocket launch next month.

BLACKBALLED: An ex-CIA spy is whistle-blowing her experience with the agency on Twitter.

POWER TRANSFER: Ex Maldivian president Mohamed Nasheed talks about the urgency of democracy.

REVENGE: The dramatic history behind the ouster of China's Bo Xilai.

HALLYU: Indonesia's most popular K-pop reality show will conclude filming in Seoul.

BBQ: Kpop music mogul Park Jin-young has opened up a Korean bbq restaurant in NYC that features a special grill he designed himself; plans to expand worldwide to cities where hallyu "has a big influence."

NATURE: Despite eco-tourism, any human contact with animals may increase their stress levels.

TRAYVON: George Zimmerman's brother states medical records will prove innocence.

BLOW: This wind map of the US is pretty cool.

In-n-Out pops up in Tokyo

This is the kind of "food diplomacy" that just drives people crazy sometimes, and I mean this in a good way. Not government-based, not forced-feeling…just a private endeavor gone global based upon people driving up demand via widespread information-sharing.

Everyone knows if you don't have In-n-Out around you, you're missing out on some good fast food. The Southern California-based burger chain just finished a pop-up shop in a Tokyo ZipZap restaurant space. The lines proved it was a popular event, but sadly it was only up for one day.

This isn't the chain's first international pop-up--both Sydney and Shanghai have been graced with their scrumptious presence as well.

Some items from the Tokyo menu:

Double-Double: ¥700 ($8.46)
Cheeseburger: ¥400 ($4.83)
Hamburger: ¥300 ($3.63)
Potato chips: ¥100 ($1.21)
Medium drink: ¥100 ($1.21)
T-shirt: ¥800 ($9.67)

 

French or South African Beach?

Pretty, isn't it? French beaches are so beautiful…the problem is, what you see isn't a beach in France--it's a South African beach! Oops...

Looks like the heads of France's tourism board hired a British advertising agency to create a £500,000 ad campaign to lure British vacationers to France during the next Olympic games (note the slogan). Unfortunately somehow a photo of oceanside Llandudno, a Cape Town suburb, was chosen for the campaign instead. Luckily, fashion photog Bradford Bird, a former South Africa resident, recognized the scenery and alerted those in charge.

One thing's for sure: Llandudno beach just got a pretty sweet--though temporary--free ad by its European neighbors!

From First Ladies to Bitter Bettys

As part of the Seoul Nuclear Security Summit yesterday, Korea's first lady Kim Yoon-ok hosted a slew of global leaders' wives to an official luncheon where the women enjoyed Korean hansik cuisine (kimchi pancake, japchae, noodles, etc.). Afterwards they relaxed and were treated to live performances of traditional hanbok and ballet as well as an intimate show by K-pop stars JYJ and Seong Si-kyung.

I can't emphasize how important it is for the spouses of world leaders to get together and develop their own discourse with one another, even if it is simply another way for their men to passively network and gather information. Surely these women do not agree on every issue, but they nevertheless are confident and successful enough to engage with each other through casual cultural experiences. Even if they cannot come to a consensus on every conversation, a symbolic stance of unity and support is exactly what civilized and educated women should strive for.

In a world where so many girls and women have little hope for a life beyond illiteracy to even sex-trafficking, I firmly believe that women need to support fellow women much, much more. It sounds simple, but to be honest, women have a tendency to shun other women who they deem as some kind of a threat, and often in ways much less slick than their male counterparts.

I'm particularly embarrassed for adult women who enjoy the luxuries of being a Western female today, only to use their privileged positions for bitter attempts at entitled social gatekeeping. This behavior is an archetype for a reason, and this behavior starts early. Remember the movie Mean Girls?

Luckily, there are plenty of women who don't feel the instantaneous need to become Bitter Bettys whenever they feel threatened--or if they do, they hide it well and recall what it means to truly be civilized adults.

There's always room for change, and women must start supporting each other if we want the world to improve beyond what our elite men have basically created--and some would even call this world a "mess."

Interview with Mali coup leader Amadou Sanogo

The next time anyone around here in Los Angeles (or pretty much anywhere in the US, for that matter) thinks they're "gangsta," I should just direct them to this interview by Martin Vogl with 39-year old Captain Amadou Sanogo, leader of the Mali coup who just ousted Amadou Toumani Toure. 

Interview with junta leader in Mali Cpt Sanogo by martinvogl

Coups are not foreign to Mali; the most recent ones happened in 1968 and 1991. The African Union, with support from neighboring countries, has temporarily suspended Mali's membership.

 

Industrial Espionage for the Color White

Paper, walls, iPads, lotions…even though China may be the world's manufacturing leader, Western manufacturers still dominate the production of the color white on objects through highly efficient titanium dioxide production. Thus far, China has not been able to perfect the process on their own, instead being forced to stick with a messier and inefficient plan of processing sulphate, which still results in a visibly inferior shade of white. As the world's main factory this must drive this Chinese industry nuts--or perhaps towards industrial espionage.

The Pangang Group, a Sichuan-based manufacturing firm, is believed to have stolen secret information from DuPont, at least enough in order to build a high tech factory. Overall, six individuals and five companies were charged in San Francisco last month in "a long-running effort to obtain US trade secrets for the benefit of companies controlled by the People's Republic of China (PRC)." The Chinese embassy in Washington has rejected these allegations.

This kind of espionage isn't new by any means, but the context of obtaining trade secrets now is perhaps the most high-stakes it has ever been, considering the advent of new technological products whetting the appetites of global consumers who recently find themselves with disposable income.

If China wants to remain the world's manufacturing hub, offering products in the "color" white--only in its purest, most Snow White hue--should be easy. Surely it will be only a matter of time before they conquer this shade, whether via their own research or through industrial spies in major US cities.

BoC Dérive: 23 March 2012

The Silver Lake ducks landed shortly after taking this photo...

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COUPS: With Mali and rumors in China, is there a pattern of coups taking place right now?

DISCONTENT: Tibetans are engaging in self-immolation at a rate that is alarming the international community as well as the Chinese government.

CASTAWAYS: The Maldivian government has yet to repatriate recent Somali castaways, adhering to UN conventions on refugees.

SHORTSIGHTED: Liberian president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Ellen Johnson Sirleaf supports gender equality yet defends her country's frightening laws against homosexuality.

PUBLIC ART: GhanaThinkTank responds to the recent "white savior" debate bought on by Kony 2012.

UPTIGHT: Predictably, ultra conservative US presidential candidate Rich Santorum's quips on pornography statistics are dismissed by researchers and scientists as inaccurate.

nkTUNES: If international politics don't "spoil the tour," the US could host a North Korean classical orchestra, which has just performed in France.

ODD: Apparently young Japanese men are dating and drinking less, thanks to porn and video games.

MAKAHA: Surfing is becoming increasingly popular among locals and government officials in Lima, Peru.

BRAINIER: Why bilingual people are smarter.

Hawai'i loses a species

Goodbye, little ones..

It's World Water Day today, a day to think about how we consume water in terms of global sustainability. I consider clean water access to be directly correlated to climate change so it was sad news to learn that the copper striped blue-tailed skink (Emoia impair), a native Hawaiian lizard species, has just been declared extinct by the United States Geological Survey.

"No other landscape in these United States has been more impacted by extinction events and species invasions in historic times than the Hawaiian Islands, with as yet unknown long-term cascading consequences to the ecosystem. Today we close the book on one more animal that is unlikely to ever be re-established in this fragile island home," states Marcia McNutt, a U.S. Geological Survey director.

The Emoia impair was last seen on Kauai about 40 years ago which means it may be a victim of "cryptic extinction," which is when a species is confused with another similar one so that their extinction isn't noticed until well after they have disappeared.

Related: My Huffington Post piece on climate change and clean water access in Tanzania.

United Nightmare Just a Symptom of a Larger Issue

My disdain for American-operated airlines is well known in our household--and widely agreed upon. This isn't just because I've easily had way more positive experiences flying on pretty much any major Asian or European airline (including those smaller domestic-only varieties), but mainly because of the heinous service and ancient facilities one encounters in US-based terminals and planes, in both economy and business class. The days of the American travel industry being the world's "cream of the crop" have long disappeared, if it was ever actually true.

So the news of this United Airlines nightmare struck me as just plain pathetic. 262 passengers on a flight from San Francisco to Shanghai were stranded for two days in Anchorage, Alaska due to an emergency landing. The cause? Several of the plane's restrooms were inoperable. Not only is this simply disgusting and clearly unhygienic, what is this plane doing on the runway, all ready to go? Who gave the green light for take off, and why? I can't help but suspect some obvious negligence was involved here.

Airlines are often symbols of development, stability, and success for countries. Think about it: most countries you consider to be first- or second- world all have their own airlines, and probably more than just one. But even fledgling economies have made room for creating their own air transportation systems. Even though they may not be as slick as others, I've been on shaky flights on tiny planes out of Male and Nairobi staffed with personnel who clearly take more pride in their work than the majority of entitled stewards on most American airlines.

I'm not saying this unfortunate UA incident is the fault of the on-board staff, but I am convinced it's a symptom of a larger problem in the American air industry. These kinds of situations seem to happen all the time (my sister who has just returned from Shanghai had her own American airlines rant, though much more minor in scope). And that is a shame. Those passengers will never get those two days of their lives back. Refunds aren't enough here; they will likely need to be further incentivized to ever use UA again--and that means vouchers for future flights, not just meals.

The US may be a world power, even the "most" powerful still, but parts of our infrastructure are crumbling quickly--and this is increasingly evident the more one utilizes our transportation systems.

Electronic Curtain

Such a crazy image to see, isn't it? As Afghans celebrate Persian New Year, or Nowruz, President Obama used the holiday to send some choice words to the Iranian government regarding attempts to curb information flow in and out of the regime's borders, and I don't mean some benign new year resolutions:

Like the iron curtain of the 20th century, an electronic curtain is descending as the Iranian regime attempts to control what its citizens see and hear. To the people of Iran, this holiday comes at a time of continued tension between our two countries.

But as people gather with their families, do good deeds, and welcome a new season, we are also reminded of the common humanity that we share. There is no reason for the United States and Iran to be divided from one another

Yet increasingly, the Iranian people are denied the basic freedom to access the information that they want. The Iranian government jams satellite signals to shut down television and radio broadcasts. It censors the Internet to control what the Iranian people can see and say. The regime monitors computers and cell phones for the sole purpose of protecting its own power. And in recent weeks, Internet restrictions have become so severe that Iranians cannot communicate freely with their loved ones.

The technological front is the next area of conflict, in terms of both "government(s) v. citizens" as well as "governments v. governments." But before this happens, it will take the older generations of world leaders to catch up on how most technology actually functions for everyday people now--particularly those in the Middle East.