oiwan's blog

The whole world is celebrating Valentine's Day, news like million dollars chocolate diamond hit the most popular international news, and the blogosphere is resonating the Love packaging consumption day.

Not many are aware that today is also the V-day, V stands for Victory, Valentine and Vagina.

Last week(Feb 8, 2007), Kim Youngkon and Kim Donghae (husband and wife couple), visited Hong Kong to network with local worker organizations for consolidating East Asian workers solidarity.

I had not prepared for the chat as I had not heard of Mr and Mrs Kim's visit before and I had little background about their trip. After learning their critique of labour movement and their proposal for East Asia labour Union, I decided to develop the informal chat into this interview.

Kim Youngkon is now a lecturer in University. In 1972, he left his study and became an air conditioner worker (underground labour activist) until 1987, when the military government had given way to civil government. Since then, he worked in labour organization as activist for 10 years.

Gaijin Hanzai Ura File (Foreigner crime underground file)is an comic magazine full of distorted information and imagines about foreigners. And it promotes fear against foreigners (mainly Chinese and Korean) by reciting "everyone will become a target of ‘gaijin crime’ in 2007".

(caption: homeless tent in Osaka's public park by Elijah under CC)

The Osaka city government plans to evict squatters at Nagai Park (Feb 5) to prepare for the 2007 IAAF World Championships in Athletics. Earlier in Jan, the authories issued an order stating that if homeless did not leave by Jan 21 they would be forced to remove their tents.

5,000 Filipino migrants workers marched through Central in Hong Kong on Sunday (Jan 28) to protest the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration's (POEA) new guidelines on the deployment of domestic helpers.

Under the new guideline, applying domestic helpers must pass through several weeks of training to obtain the National Certificate for Household Service Workers, as the country-specific Language and Culture Certificate.

Last Sunday, we had around 100 people got into the boat and performing the ritual of landing at Queen's pier, this time by local people themselves, including of migrant workers, residents affected by urban renewal project, environmental group, professional architects, planners, teachers, activists, artists, grassroots democractic groups, youths, students, labour unions, writers, right of abode coalition, legislators, lawyers, etc.

The action was spontaneously organized by an ac hol citizen concern groups called "local-action".

After reading Jamie's link in mediascapes, I looked through all the links and found the arrest out of my imagination. Eventhough South Korea has been democratized for 20 years, the Cold War / Witch-hunting rationality is so predominant.

According to Korean Teacher Union (KTU), the two teachers merely quoted remarks made by North Korean officials and media (which was cited in KTU's website), saying that "Why does North Korea want to produce nuclear weapons?" from a North Korean perspective: "North Korea claims that to possess self-defensive nuclear deterrence is its justifiable right."

As one of the more progressive newspapers in South Korea, the Hankyoreh has organized a series of features on the so-called 386 generation that brought democracy to South Korea. 386 means a generation who were born in the ’60s, entered college in the ’80s, and were in their ’30s at the time the term was coined.

In Hong Kong, there is the anti-demolition of Star Ferry Pier and Queen's Pier; while in Macau, the campaign to protect Guia Lighthouse begins to emerge.

The Guia Complex, which includes a historical military fort, chapel and lighthouse, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The fort and chapel were constructed between 1622 and 1638. The lighthouse was constructed between 1864 and 1865, the first western style lighthouse in east Asia or on the China coast.

1.

The news on the TV reports
Young people mounting a bulldozer
banners waving: Star Ferry Pie stays
Mixed feelings pull my head down