Where The Hell Am I?

Thursday, August 17, 2006

An MP3 Player Suit or Jacket?

“Smart” clothes equipped with MP3 players expected to be hit the market later this year. The clothes are part of the Commerce, Industry and Energy Ministry’s project to develop future “smart” outfits that started in August 2004./Yonhap (Photo and caption from MP3 Outfit Heralds the Era of ‘Smart’ Clothes on the Chosun Ilbo online)

This is pretty cool.

It seems that South Korea has officially decided to take the lead in the production of “smart clothes.” Smart clothes are clothes with built in digital music players. That would be nice because I have to say running around with my PDA which is also an MP3 player can sometimes be a pain.

I would ideally like not smart clothes but something that I could just snap onto various clothes and not have to worry about dropping it while I’m out and about during the day. I have to say that for my last formal event I had my gown custom made so that it had a pocket to hold my insulin pump. I won’t hold my breath for research and development on insulin pump clothing, but it’s nice that they’re realizing that it would be nice to have a better way to incorporate technology into our daily lives.

This is great because South Korea already has a nice chuck of the electronics market. However, what’s funny about it is that most folks outside of Korea don’t know Japanese brands from Korean brands. There have been a few times I’ve gone home and discussed a product with a friend and pointed out to them that their beloved cell phone or whatever was made by a Korean company.

SEOUL, South Korea -- Technology-savvy South Korea isn't happy making only MP3 players and the memory chips that go inside many of the more popular models It also wants people wearing South Korean "smart" clothes with built-in digital music players.

The government is backing efforts to launch the digitized apparel by the end of the year, hoping to win a top position for the country as an exporter of such clothing.

"The research and development of smart clothing can't be left up to the market only, because of its high risk. The government has taken the role of offsetting this risk," Hwang Kyu-yearn, an official at the Commerce and Industry Ministry, said Wednesday, declining to elaborate on the government's support to the industry.

The clothing would let people enjoy the gamut of an MP3 player's functions while avoiding the hassles of carrying the units separately. Some devices would have to be unplugged from the clothes for washing.

Since 2004, smart-apparel development has involved a range of research institutes, universities and conglomerates with the active support of the South Korean government. The government even has estimated that the global market for digital clothing could be $7 billion by 2014. South Korea wants more than 20 percent of it. (From BusinessWeek.com online S.Korea wants people in 'smart' clothes)

More articles:
MP3 Outfit Heralds Era of 'Smart' Clothes
Coming soon: 'smart' clothes with MP3 players

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Busted: 31 Korean Nationals Arrested for Human Trafficking for the Sex Trade

Picture taken from Scribblings of the Metropolitician's photo essay on sex work in South Korea

This is an interesting story that the mainstream news services aren’t really picking up on. I found some smaller news sources that had it. However, after searching the Associated Press and Reuters website I finally found the story. I was alerted to it when it scrolled past on CNN International's TV broadcast. However, this isn’t the first time that I’ve been unable to find the story on the CNN website. I suspect that the scrolling bit at the bottom of the screen is due to a newsfeed of some sort because I have tried searching on CNN before

This is the summary. 31 Korean nationals and two New York City police officers were arrested for the interstate trafficking of women, illegal aliens, for the purpose of prostitution.

Prosecutors said ring members gave South Korean women who wanted to work in the United States false immigration documents to enter the United States, or smuggled them into the country through Canada or Mexico.

By the time the women arrived in the United States they owed the traffickers tens of thousands of dollars, which they were forced to pay off by working as prostitutes.

"Human traffickers profit by turning dreams into nightmares. These women sought a better life in America and found instead forced prostitution and misery," U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia told a news conference in New York.

"This exploitation is not a back alley business -- it happens on Main Street in Stamford, Connecticut, it happens in residential areas of our nation's capital, it happens in the West 20s (streets) of New York City," he said. (full Reuters article here)

This is just crazy. In these situations, the brothel owners would take their identification so they couldn't leave even if they wanted. They and the families they left behind in South Korea were also threatened. I know this happens right under our noses. While some of us are truly ignorant others of us just turn a blind eye and others patronize these businesses. How could anyone sit back and allow this to happen? Officers that took an oath to protect actually were bribed and we all know this isn't something new. I hope that these women get to testify and then are able to come back home safe and sound. However, that remains to be seen. What a horrible thing to have to suffer through.

In South Korea prostitution is pretty much out in the open. Officially, yes, it's illegal. However, there are certain businesses, areas and districts for it. That’s where men go if they’re interested in that sort of activity. Here is a photo essay and article about Korean sex workers here in Korea from my friend at the Scribblings of the Metropolitician.

Now I’m probably going to get slammed for my view on this, but I think if prostitution were legal, regulated and taxed the temptation to hustle women like this wouldn’t be there. Or, even if the temptation were there, it just wouldn’t make sense financially to take the risk. I’ll admit maybe I’m naïve, but, then again, maybe I’m not.

More articles:

Feds Nab 31 Koreans and Two NYPD Cops for Human Trafficking

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Death Cab for Cutie's - I Will Follow You Into the Dark

The name of this band totally trips me out, but I really like their stuff. Initially, I chose Soul Meets Body but I though it would be better to pick something newer.

So here is the updated current video pick: I Will Follow You Into the Dark

Enjoy and remember that if you don't enjoy it you have bad taste in music.

Here is their popular single Soul Meets Body too if you want to check it out too:

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France Dismisses Bribe Taking Trio from Moscow's French Embassy

Visitors' papers are checked in front of the French embassy in Moscow (picture and caption from the BBC news website).

This wouldn’t be funny but for the fact that this gives the Russians two huge blunders this week. Granted, if I were to count the American blunders I’d probably be blogging 24/7, but I’ll admit my bias.

Granted, the first Russian blunder of this week isn’t funny at all. In fact, it's more than a blunder as someone lost his life. That’s yesterday’s shooting death of a Japanese fisherman in the disputed Kuril/Northern Territories region at the hands of the Russian border patrol.

However, when I read the headline for this one today I couldn’t help but shake my head and chuckle.

This is because the one time I was in Russia everyone was crying poor, and anytime I speak to a Russian they claim they’re one step shy of absolute poverty. Now I realize that Russia is poor right now. The Russian Federation is dealing with the growing pains of emerging from communism to a market economy and a democracy. In the meantime they’re dealing with a lot of change and the corruption that comes with it. However, it seems to be used as an excuse for the high amount of corruption that is there. I mean it's like making the argument that the drug dealer in the neighborhood where I grew up was poor and thus "forced" to deal drugs rather than stay in school. Yes, I know that people do make that argument, but I've angered more than a few people with the personal responsibility angle I take on these issues.

When I was running through the streets of Vladivostok, I saw most of the young women dressed up like they’d just stepped out of a music video complete with bling, great shoes and beautiful outfits. In fact, one of the people I was with observed that it’s a phenomenon that comes with the newly moneyed and newly liberated. He said they were “wearing their paychecks and savings.” That’s what it seemed like because, at the time, I was on a cruise ship with people who are eons more better off than me on my salary and we all thought the dress we saw on our day in Vladivostok was pretty extravagant.

So, in some cases, that might be true that they’re very poor, but these were French Embassy employees. I’m going to take a chance here and assume that France will pay their employees at least a fair living wage. Since taking kickbacks is pure greed, I got a chuckle out of this story: France fires Moscow visa workers. Another reason I find it amusing is because since I’ve been abroad I’ve acquired quite a few visas. It’s never fun standing in line or giving up your passport for a few days to get a stamp even if that stamp lets you travel somewhere new and exotic. I love it when my passport can get turned around in less than 24 hours. I just wouldn't pay someone under the table to do it.

French media allege that officials at the consulate were taking bribes 10 to 20 times higher than the standard fee of 35 euro (£23.70) in order to speed up the delivery of visas.

French foreign ministry spokesman Denis Simonneau said the dismissed employees were not suspected of visa trafficking but that "funds were in certain cases misappropriated due to anomalies in the handling of some applications". (click here for the full BBC article)

More articles on this story:
Visa-Free Procedures Led to Corruption Scandal
Visa scam at French consulate in Moscow

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