Conversations With History - John Mearsheimer & Steve Walt

Malala Inaugurates Europe's Biggest Library

The 16-year-old, flown from Pakistan to the UK for emergency treatment in October after being shot in the head by a Taliban gunman, told a 1,000-strong crowd outside the library that even "one book, one pen, one child and one teacher can change the world".
"We must speak up for the children of Pakistan, India and Afghanistan who are suffering from terrorism, poverty, child labour and child trafficking," she said. "Let us help them through our voice, action and charity. Lets us help them to read books and go to school."

Listen, watch, read more here.

List of "Korean Food" or HANSHIK that is HALAL in Korea

I thought I should put up a list of Korean food or Hanshik (한식) that Muslims in particular can eat at "any restaurant" across the length and breadth of South Korea. This list includes dishes that are served with seafood in it or are simply composed of rice and vegetables or noodles and vegetables. By the way, just to be on the safe side you can tell restaurant manager that: Gogi um-mou-go yeo! (I don't eat meat/ 저는 고기 안 먹어요).

You do not have to look around the halal food restaurants because it is obviously difficult. NOT all neighborhoods offers halal food . It's better that you stick to Korean food that falls within the confines of halal food and there is plenty to choose from. I've short-listed Zen Kimchi's list  here and have made some additions as well.

Korea Tourism website has a very informative page on Korean food so check that out here.

Main Dishes being served in a Korean Restaurant 

Buddhist Temple Cuisine (entirely vegetarian)
Jeon (Pancake) or  Pajeon (Green Onion Pancake)
Yachae Gimbap (Seaweed Rice Rolls)
Bibimbap (Mixed Rice and Vegetables)
O-jingo Bokkeum Bap (Spicy Squid Stew served with Rice)
Boribap (Mixed Barley Rice and Vegetables)
Sundubu Jjigae (Soft Tofu Stew)
Haemul Sundubu Jjigae
Juk (porridges of differnt kinds), Jeonbok Juk (Rice Porridge with Abalone)
Kimchi Jjim (Braised Kimchi with Tofu) 
Lotteria’s Shrimp Burger 
Lotteria's Squid Burger in spicy flavour 
Sae-u Kang (Shrimp Flavored “Fries”)
Doenjang Jjigae (Fermented Bean Paste Stew)
Ddeokbokki (Chewy Rice Cakes in Spicy Sauce)
Mae-eunTang (Spicy Fish Soup)
Nakji Bokkeum (Stir-fried Baby Octopus, I got very sick eating this and then never ate it again.)
Dolsot Yachae Bibimbap (Mixed Rice and Vegetables in a Sizzling Stone Pot)
Dolsot Chamchi Bibimbap (Mixed rice with tuna and vegetables in a stone pot)
Saengseon Gui (Korean-style Grilled Fish served with rice ad side dishes)
Hui Mul (Korean style Sashimi)
Haemultang (Seafood Soup)
Naengmyeon (Chilled Noodles)


Side Dishes (Banchan), Desserts, Snacks or Drinks

Myeolchi Bokkeum (Stir-fried Anchovies)
Odeng/Eomuk (Street-side Fish Noodles)
Hoddeok (Stuffed Street-side Pastries)
Beondegi (Silkworm Larvae)
Golbaengi (Sea Snails)
Jangeo Gui (Grilled Eel)
Sae-u Sogeum Gui (Salt Grilled Shrimp)
Deodeok Root
BindaeDdeok (Mung Bean Pancake)
Ttuekim
Dotorimuk (Acorn Jelly)
Patbingsu (Shaved Ice and Red Bean Treat)
Gyeran Jjim (Steamed Egg)
Corn Ice Cream
Songpyeon (Stuffed Chewy Rice Cakes)
Shikhye (Sweet Rice Punch)
Any product with Green Tea in it
Baek Kimchi (White Cabbage Kimchi)
Mul Kimchi (Water Kimchi)
Oi Sobaegi (Stuffed Cucumber Kimchi)
Ggakdugi (Cubed Radish Kimchi)
Sae-u Jeot (Salted Tiny Shrimp)
Myeongran Jeot (Salted Pollack Roe)
Ssamjang (Mixed Soybean and Pepper Paste)
Yachae Ramyeon (Vegetable Ramen Noodles)
BungeoBbang (Goldfish-shaped Stuffed Pastry)
GeJang (Raw Fermented Crabs)

Four Korean Women Scale Trango Tower in Skardu

Four Korean women have returned to Skardu after scaling the Trango Tower (6,239 metres high), also called Nameless Tower.
According to Hamid Hussain, a representative of the expedition organisers, Mi Sun Chae, Mi Sun Han and Jin Ah Lee led by Jum Sook Kim began to climb the Trango Tower, a very large, pointed and rather symmetrical rock spire, on July 26 but had to return to the base camp on August 4 due to bad weather.
They left the rock spire on August 8 after the weather cleared and succeeded in reaching the summit on the August 12 morning.
Earlier in 2006, 20 Slovenian women had climbed the peak.
“We used the German route, the most challenging, to reach the summit,” Ms Kim told Dawn.
On average, all four Korean women have the 20 years rock climbing experience.
Ms Kim, 47, is a noted climbing instructor in Korea.
She began to climb rocks in 1989 and surmounted several peaks in the Alps, the US, Canada and India.
Also, Ms Kim won the first prize at Korean Sport Climbing Games in 1993 and the second prize at X-Games in 1999.
Mi Chae, 41, works at a shop in Korea.
She won the first prize at the Korean Ice Climbing Games in 2000, 2001 and 2002, and second at the Korean Aid Climbing Festival in 2007.
Until now, Ms Chae has scaled El Capitan at Yosemite National Park in the US, Mt McKinley in Alaska, Grand Jorasse in the Alps and Mt Fitzroy in Argentina.
Ms Han, 41, is a freelancer and climbing instructor.
She has won the first prize at the Korean Aid Climbing Games in 2010 and second at the Korean Ice Climbing Games in 2009 and 2011.
Ms Han has surmounted rocks in the area of Blue Mountains in Australia, El Capitan at Yosemite National Park in America, the central Peak of Paine Chile Pantagonia and Mt. Fitzroy in Argentina in, Mount Blanc and Aiguille du Midi in the Alps until now.Ms Lee, 38, is the youngest member of the expedition.
A nurse by profession, she began her climbing career in 1998 and won the first prize at the Korean Summer Dry Tooling Games in 2011, second at Korean Ice Climbing Games in 2008 and Korean Summer Dry Tooling Games in 2012, third at Korean Bouldering Games in 2005 and Korean Ice Climbing Games in 2006, and fourth at the Korean Sport Climbing Games in 2005.
The four climbers are carrying out charity work in Baltistan for the poor people.
“We are planning to send some clothes, shoes and other relief items to Pakistani poor people once a year. We hope that our project continue for a long time,” Ms Kim said.

NSF: Rahat Kazmi, Alia Amirali

Rahat Kazmi, Alia Amirali, a photo by beenasarwar on Flickr.

Listen to Alia Amirali here!

Malala Receives Children's Peace Prize

Malala's speech is here.
She got  Tipperary International Peace Award.

Malala and Tawwakul at the Hague

America is about to bomb Syria...

I think that it's about time that they should stop thinking of themselves as world police.
We have seen the contribution of American forces in Iraq such as Abu Gharib and daily bombing till date and then Afghanistan, where the American are sitting on the same table with Taliban for dialogue after all these years and last but not the least, arming the rebels anywhere is dangerous such as in Libya or arming of Afghans during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in lste 70s...
Americans don't know how to unarm all these wild men.

Demonstrations are already being held all over the major US cities and in London. Two countries in favour of starting an all out war with syria.

Deadline for 2013 Video Contest about Korea Extended

 Ministry of Foreign Affairs the Republic of Korea has extended the deadline for '2013 Video Contest about Korea.' We will accept applications until October 7, 2013. This contest is open to anyone of any age who is not of Korean descent. The prizes for the contest include a Korean brand car, a laptop PC, a tablet PC, a digital camera and an external hard drive.

Of the two titles, which are “My best Korean friend is…” and “My favorite Korean food is…,” applicants may select one to make a video of less than 3 minutes. The video may be made with any device, such as cell phone, digital camera, video camera, etc. Applicants may post their completed video on YouTube or any other legal website. Lastly, applicants need to fill out a simple application form and send the form along with the link to their video to vcon.mofa@gmail.com. You can download the application form from the website of the ROK Foreign Ministry.
☞ Download application form
Source: MOFAT

World Rowing Championships in Chungju, Korea

source:google

The World Rowing Championships (WRC) will begin today,Sunday, in Chungju, a quiet town in Korea’s central region which hopes the event will help raise its international profile as a tourist destination. Chungju is famous for Martial Arts Festival which is held every  October.

The competition, which will continue through Sept. 1, will feature more than 2,000 athletes from 82 countries, making it the largest world championship ever.

Source

The North Chungcheong Province town is only the second Asian city to host the rowing tournament, which took place in Kaizu, Japan, in 2005. The rowing course built on Tangeum Lake will also be used as the competition venue in next year’s Incheon Asian Games.

Pre-sale tickets have sold out. The opening ceremony scheduled for Saturday is expected to be attended by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, a native of Chungju.

The municipal government spent around 67.2 billion won (about $60 million) to build state-of-the-art facilities at Tangeum Lake, including a 2.25-kilometer rowing course and a spectator stand capable of seating 1,100 people.

A floating, 1.4-kilometer concrete bridge was installed on the rowing course. The bridge is capable of holding broadcasting vans and other television equipment.

It remains to be seen whether the world championships will spark local interest in the sport, which barely registers with public consciousness.

Strong rowing nations include Britain, the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, and the Korean presence has been close to anonymous.

Korean athletes in recent months have shown flashes of improvement.

 The best thing about Chungju is its serene beauty, it's mountains, lake and rice peddys.
I loved to go to Chungju and witness the new hub of sports events in Korea, since I'm very keen in martial arts and Chungju is the World's Martial Arts mecca so what can you ask for more. Attractions that are worth a visit include Martial Arts Museum (MAM), Apple Museum and a couple of monastries. MAM show cast the history of all sorts of martial arts in Korea and beyond starting  from Taekyyeon to Taekwondo and to Hapkido.

Chungju is famous for its apricots and apples. I will strongly recommend people to add Chongju in their itinerary while in Korea.

Sgt Robert Bales Trial vs. Bradley Manning

Robert Bales

BBC reported that Staff Sgt Robert Bales was making a case for why he should some day be released, during his sentencing hearing at a Washington state military base and for detail click here.

If you do NOT remember Bales then his crime was that he massacred 16 Afghan civilians in Kandahar in two diferent villages, many of his victims were women and children.

Since we know that life of people in Asia is cheap hence, for all the 15 people killed by Bales, the American government paid a total of $980,000 in condolence money to families over the incident. An Afghan man, Wazir, whose 11 family members were shot dead by Bales received $550,000 in condolence payments out of that$980,000.

Sentence of Bales: If he is sentenced to life with the possibility of parole, Sgt Bales could be eligible for release in 20 years.

My view: Possibility of the release of this jerk just scares the crap right out of me. BBC also reported that it's disputed whether he actually does feel remorse, playing a recording of a phone call in which an incarcerated Sgt Bales and his wife laugh as they discuss the case.


Bradley Manning

Manning was working as an intelligence analyst in Baghdad in 2010 when he gave WikiLeaks a trove of diplomatic cables and battlefield accounts that included a 2007 gunsight video of a U.S. Apache helicopter firing at suspected insurgents in Iraq, killing a dozen people including two Reuters news staff and injuring two children. (I could NOT see this entire footage, it's graphic).

But 35 years is far too long a sentence by any standard. …

However, if you just kill a couple of dozen people and get away with 20 years like in Bales case is beyond my comprehension. Culpable homicide is seemingly a lesser crime than leaking official documents that does include the US policy of killing innocent citizens in the name of collateral damage.

Manning is treated much more harshly than Robert Bales....unbelievable!!

Interview of Susan Bradley(Bradley's mom) is here.

Thai PM in Pakistan: Wrong Focus in Pak Media

Dawn newspaper reported that Pakistan and Thailand have agreed to enhance defence cooperation, a joint statement issued by the two countries at the end of Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s visit to Islamabad said.

Lee Byung-hun got Married!

Source

Clash of Korean Culture with the Rest:Boiling Clothes in a Cooking Pan!

It's a weekend here already. This Saturday morning when I went to our grad school's kitchen preparing my breakfast, a girl, who is a  Chinese junior visiting researcher (of Korean ethnicity), came in. She took out the cooking pots and put her towels and started boiling them. I and another Russian student told her to stop, since we cook our food in those pots. She said: this is Korean culture that you boil clothes in a pot before washing them and there is nothing unusual.It's O.K!

I have lived with 2 Korean families and one of them used to boil clothes in a pot- but that pot was NOT USED for cooking.

The girl kept arguing and finally did what she wanted to do and left.

I do NOT mind boiling of clothes in a proper manner but I DO MIND IF the clothes are boiled in a pot, which is used for the prurpose of cooking in a communal kitchen. There are students from about 40 or 50 countries and all of them have their own cultural dos and don't s. If we are living together, there MUST BE  some respect for people from other cultures. It's not about: do in Rome as Romans did, especially in some cases where hygeine, cleaniliness is of utmost importance. A couple of years ago, in the grad school dorm,  SARS was reported.

We don't want people to boil their clothes in cooking utensils. It is disgusting and is morally wrong!!HIding behind "any" culture is even worst!

Korean Independence Day – 광복절 (Gwangbokjeol)

Korean Independence Day–광복절 (Gwangbokjeol)–is celebrated on Aug. 15 each year and it commemorates a couple of significant events in Korea’s history. The literal meaning of "광복절(光復節)" is "the restoration of the light". The entire city is decorated with the Korean flags and it looks quite pretty.

Some of the other events that unfolded include the liberation of Korea from 35 years of Japanese colonial rule when the Japanese army surrendered during WWII, thus ending the Japanese occupation of Korea.Three years later on October 1, 1948, the Republic of Korea was officially established. On Gwangbokjeol, all buildings and homes are encouraged to display the national flag, Taegukki, and most public museums and places are open free of charge. The official Gwangbokjeol song is sung at official ceremonies and the government also traditionally issues special pardons on this day.  During it’s time as a Japanese colony, Koreans were required to give up their culture and heritage. They were forced to take on Japanese names, speak Japanese, learn Japanese history, and eat Japanese foods. So when Japan surrendered the Koreans had much to rejoice over.

On Aug. 15, 1948, Syngman Rhee was sworn in as the first president of the Republic of Korea (South Korea). Gwangbokjeol was declared public holiday in South Korea on Oct. 1, 1949.

North Korea celebrates the liberation holiday on Aug. 15 as well. Their holiday is called Chogukhaebangui nal (조국해방의 날; literally “Liberation of Fatherland Day”).

Jashane Azadi Mubarak!

Northern Pakistan

Today is Pakistan's Independence Day so I congratulate all Pakistanis on that - Azadi Mubarak ho!

Looking at the newspapers including Dawn and the Express Tribune, I couldn't gte the feel of August 14th or Jashane Azadi. I remember, in Zia's era, it was a big event and then it slowly dies away!
My older post of the event are here and here.

Google has a very nice doodle for the independence of Pakistan featuring the Northern part of teh country with, Markhor ( Capra falconeri; Persian/Urdu: مارخور), K-2 and the flag!

Pakistanis who are living in Pakistan they must learn to live in harmony - they seem blood thrusty towards fellow Pakistanis. We do NOT need enemies anymore since we are our own enemy!

Students form chain at Nagasaki monument | The Japan Times

Students form chain at Nagasaki monument | The Japan Times

Japan's revolving-door immigration policy hard-wired to fail | The Japan Times

Japan's revolving-door immigration policy hard-wired to fail | The Japan Times

Blog About Karachi in Korean Language!

I was searching a word in Korean and came across this blog here. Check it put!

Mugunghwa (Rose of Sharon) Festival

Source

2013 National Mugunghwa (Rose of Sharon) Festival will be held from tomorrow through next Thursday in frontof Gwanghwamun! The major event took place in Busan

Eid Mubarak! (이드 무바락 여러분! )

Source

Eid Mubark everybody!
Eid-al Fitr 2013 USA, UAE, Saudi Arabia will be celebrated on 8th August that means that in South Korea we will be celebrating Eid tomorrow!

Eid in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh is on 9th. August!

Eid ul Fitr is celebrated for completion of the holy month of Ramadan and Muslims celebrate it after seeing the moon of the new month. The main aim of the festival of Eid ul Fitre is to thanks Almighty Allah (SWT). Eid Al Fitr is a day of joy and thanksgiving.  It is also a day of forgiveness and good feelings towards other fellow human beings.

Read more here.