boston progress radio

As an American, I don’t really pay a whole lot of attention to news going on in East Asia. When I’m not being a full-time student, maintaining BPR or just living life—you know eating, breathing, and sleeping, I’m just trying to chill. Last night, as I was headed to bed, I was listening to the BBC and heard some news about what’s going on over in East Asian.

The first news item I heard about concerned the gifting of pandas from the Chinese government to the Taiwanese government. Apparently, these pandas were offered as gifts before, but were rejected by the previous government leaders, headed by that one badass Chen Shui-Bien. And believe me, he is one badass. He was arrested recently on charges of corruption. He apparently stole millions of NT dollars while in power. Here’s a view on the Chen Shui-Bien scandal from a Taiwanese American.

Now, Mr. Chen claims that he is the target of a witch hunt, that he is being targeted by the current president, who apparently hates him more than he hates clogged toilets. Moreover, Mr. Chen claims that Ma Ying-jeou is being cheered on by the Chinese government. Wow, talk about conspiracy theory. It is no secret that the former president was not well-liked by the Chinese government, so it is possible.

This news is pretty messed up, but in some ways is comforting in light of the recent news about Senator Stevens of Alaska, Senator Wilkerson of Massachusetts, Governor Blagojevich of Illinois—politicians in the rest of the world love scandal and corruption just as much ours do. Isn’t that comforting?

The other piece of news that I heard about concerns the situation involving actress Ok So-ri. Apparently, about a year ago or so, she was accused by her hubby of committing adultery with his friend. (Ouch! Bet they aren’t friends anymore.) I would guess that their relationship was not doing well when the extramarital dalliance took place. She admitted to the affair and then he turned around and reported it to the police. You see, in South Korea, there are laws that make adultery a crime. Now prosecutors are trying to get her thrown into jail. [A Canadian blogger's viewpoint is here.]

The original intent of this law was to protect women from adulterous men, because back in the day, women depended on their husbands for support and such, so to “deter” men from straying, they made adultery a crime. Clearly, this law is outdated. It is a shock to me that one could prosecute this kind of personal matter. I suppose what also troubles me is that when a woman commits a adultery, it becomes such big news… what happens when a man commits adultery in South Korea? Imagine if committing adultery were a crime in the United States.

Last 5 posts by eugene

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• Recap: East Meets Words, Jan 2010 - January 12th, 2010
• East Meets Words Featuring Fatimah Asghar and Jamilla Woods - November 11th, 2009
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Tags: News.