Seoulscapade

Hi, this site has stuff on my interests and life in Seoul.

Here’s a rotated image of our fellow resident/s. Panda is the hairy white one with black eyes and ears. She’s a girl. Monty, a boy, is the less hairy gray and white one. See under the Panda, Monty & Ricco category for more info, or see them on Rabbit Cam!

I couldn’t resist posting these flow charts, especially after finishing a course on astronomy, where the scientific method is absolutely everything. This charts speak for themselves.

I would point out that the first has been instrumental in establish humanity’s place in the universe as insignificant, but incredibly able to discover, for example, the age and vastness of the universe.

In contrast, the method below held us back from the above for some time, while it burned people at the stake for the impudence of suggesting there are other suns and planets out in the cosmos.  The method below embraced by Christians and Muslims alike is a dead end after a journey of delusion.

Sigh, goodbye Bongchun-Dong.

We moved out of our apartment above mid-October into a cheap place we bought in Ansan, south of Seoul. We needed somewhere cheaper and buying a place seem a much better move than renting again. I hate renting: you slave away at work for a landlord you’ve never met. It’s just throwing cash down a black hole.

Hello Ansan!

The view from our new place. Our new place will require low mortgage payments–a few hundred thousand won a month. Even if free lancing is slow one month, I can probably still manage it.

One great thing about our location is that Homeplus and Lotte Mart are a five minute drive away. There’s another Homeplus a bit further on, along with a couple of E-Marts, all easily accessible and painless to get to compared to the major operation it used to require in Seoul. And down the street is a restaurant serving what is probably the best Kimchi I’ve even tasted.

We found a quick way into Seoul via Shillim-Dong. It only takes us about 25 to 30 minutes to get to Seoul Natl. Uni. Station. That’s not bad at all.

So far it’s been great. One problem we are facing, however, is that we don’t have another tenant for the Woosung apartment yet! What this means is that we’re stuck paying rent there until someone is found.

The real-estate guy informed us that the economic climate is making people reluctant to rent. Most are seeking chonsae deals, which is paying a lump sum that is returned after 2 years.  We didn’t expect and we’ve never experience such a thing, so that caught us out. Fortunately, some people have been showing interests. It’s a wait and see situation.

Most of our stuff is still back there, making the place look homey for prospective tenants. We kind of living out of suitcase, but comfortably so.  I’m too busy with study and free lancing and other stuff to worry much.

Oh, and, um, I also discovered with great alarm that in this kind of small housing in Korean you are not allowed to put toilet paper down the toilet bowl. There are warning signs about it. It’s something to do with stopping processing costs from being passed onto tenants. I hope it does not cause me psychological damage. It’s just not an issue I want to deal with on a regular basis.

At this night meeting on site we heard the latest news in the fight against the deep corruption and stupidity that has been holding up the Sangdo construction project.  After the news there was a Q & A session that became rather heated and emotional.

The battle lines were drawn like this: the young generation–progressive, forward thinking, honest–against a peasant-like old generation–stupid, stuck in the past, easily corrupted.

The heroes in this long and protracted battle are turning out to be AMCO and the Sangdo Committee Board members, as will become apparent later.

The Snake Strikes Again

Because the snake, Mr. Yoon, refused to officially annul his leadership on a Gu office document, with one signature, other means are required to circumvent his intransigence.

a) The Gu office needs 80% of the community to sign up to attend a community meeting. At the meeting there should be a vote to get rid of the snake.  The result is given to the Gu office and everyone needs to register their official stamp by sending a document to the Gu office, i.e. about 1000 people must do this stupid procedure—very difficult to organize.

b) Another way: 20% of people have to sign to have a meeting and vote. That document then must go to the Gu office and then to court for a decision. This will take about a month.

The problem with the second option is this: the interest on a loan and the cost of guards at the front gate of the construction site is already costing about 40 million won a day!!! So let’s clarify. Because the snake will not give one single signature, he is costing the whole community a huge sum of money every day. The gives an idea of what scum he is.

But wait, there’s more! The snake has said he will certainly sign, no problem. Except all of his dirty deeds must be forgiven, no police are to be involved, and no further questions should asked. What a moron. It’s an admission of guilt. His offer was rejected, and rightly so.

Speaking of the snake, it seems that police discovered in his financial dealings record of a sum of money without any indication of where it came from, a big sum of money to the tune of 1.5 billion won. And what is suspected? Well, the snake did a land deal, an illegal one, that resulted in a 5 story building going up right near the front gate. The thing has been completed for some time. Everyone is guessing the 1.5 billion is a payment for his little favor of giving the land away.

The Council Office Crook

The court decision against the snake did little to convince the decision maker at the Gu office. This idiot said his mind was 70% made up that Mr. Yoon had been ousted, but 30% unsure about it. So since it was his decision he will do nothing. He said if the community wants to do anything about it, then they need to vote on it or take it to court. Another moron who is costing the community a lot of money because of incompetence and delays.

The Gu office has in fact insisted on more voting on things that have already been voted on and decided. It’s ludicrous. What this idiot does not know is that a lawsuit is being prepared against him. Hopefully his mind will then be 100% unhappy.

Community Board members will visit the Blue House of the president and hopefully get the message through to the President’s men about what has been going on.

The AMCO Promise

Hyundai AMCO has help to secure a Project Finance (PF) loan with the Shanghai Bank. This is essentially a standard construction loan. The amount was for 2400 billion won. AMCO employees helped secure this loan under the instruction of the AMCO boss so things could get moving.

The Community Board members were also a part of the loan negotiations, and get this: they have all put their homes up as collateral. They could not even borrow $10 from a bank now. What a contrast this is to the snake and his cronies.

The thing about AMCO is that it is a part of the Hyundai motor company, which is very committed to have a huge building arm to its business.  And I mean seriously committed. This construction deal at Sangdo has become central, critical to AMCOs success. If AMCO can make it a success at Sangdo, it’ll soar to maybe 4th place in building company rankings.

This is why AMCO is bending over backwards to help push things through. Not only that, rumor has it that model house will have the best of materials–in contrast to Hanjin’s effort. The construction of Sangdo, in other words, is to be an AMCO showcase. This is fantastic news.

The Village Idiots

So, the meeting got heated once all of the above information had been relayed. People were arguing and shouting out in the dark. I couldn’t understand a word but I knew who were the village idiots—the old community members—and who were all for getting things moving.

At one point a young woman took the microphone to tell her story of how the construction delay had cause a lot grief and hardship for her family. She broke down and was having trouble speaking. The old original community members in the area, let’s call them the village idiots, sat their stony faced, unmoved. Later my wife saw a rich looking village idiot talking to the young woman, but holding up her hand saying she would not sign anything.

So much for the older generation nurturing the young in this country of one blood. What a load of bullshit. All I’ve seen since coming here is Korean screwing over each other.

The village idiots needed to sign with us to get things moving but they kept saying the same old things. They want to negotiate, to pay less than everyone else, when the premium payments are due upon moving in. They won’t budge until they are assured of it. Meanwhile, younger people who are also part of the original residents were telling the old members to focus on getting the construction started.

We are talking here about the ones who have caused all the problems from the beginning. Then they were arguing among themselves like the village idiots they are. Some stormed off, others milled around, no solution was found.

The Big Picture

In the end, I think the idiots will be steamrolled by the process. It is unstoppable now with such committed Board members and with AMCO flexing it muscles ready to start work.

After Chosuk this weekend, the model house will be ready.  Looking forward to that.

It’s been a couple of months since I resigned from the Language Education Institute at SNU after 6 years on the job. I left with an overwhelming feeling of contempt for the place and how it is run.  My patience just ran out, and the most important thing to do then was to quit.

I’ve had to take a pay cut but that’s fine with me. I’m free lancing now and a hell of a lot happier. Admittedly, it was worry before some work came along but I’ve got some now that should last a while. Now I can work from home—an ideal situation that fits in well with my astronomy studies, independent temperament and inability to suffer any more clueless twits.

I won’t go into it to save myself some lawsuits, but I will describe a practice which it also done in Korea’s private companies. It’s truely ludicrous. This place had a system of temporary upper management. The Director’s term is 2 years or less and the Executive Director signs on for 2 years with a maximum 2 year extension. The institute was essentially a business run inside the university. However, it gets worse, only Humanties academics are given the top positions, not business people nor necessarily people with any experience.

The academic careerists are chosen according to the “network” and not by application. So, we had Humanities people who were clueless about business and about what we did, but they were in the position of running the business of the institute and our department! We used to joke that we should write a manual for these blow-ins so we didn’t have upheaval every 2 years or less. We’d have to adjust to the whims of whomever happened to .

So I ask the question, If you needed a manager for your business and you had the choice of employing for the long term businessperson with experience or a Humanities academic on a temporary basis whose main concern is their career, who would you choose? Or, let me put it another way. Which one of the two is the last person you would want running a business of any kind? . . . A reply isn’t necessay. I rest my case.

Yesterday evening, under overcast skies, a meeting was held at the Sangdo construction site to discuss the state of things. It had been hastily called the day before. We got there around 5 pm and it went on until it after dark, with people arriving steadily.

I told my wife before heading down there, not knowing who would be present, to put on old clothes in case there was a lot of blood spilled.

Here’s where things stand. I’ve got a lot of ground to cover because of the extent of corruption uncovered.

The Bad News First: the old snake, Mr. Yoon, that dithering bastard who was kicked out as the leader of the redevelopment community—by order of the court–and who has caused us monumental problems from day one, continues to wreak havoc through his incompetence and stupidity even when not around. The reach of his poison, everyone has discovered, extends to the local council office, or the Gu office as it is called here.

1) It has transpired that a document (or documents) at the Gu office was stamped by the snake on behalf of community members. We, the community members, had no idea of it. So, this would constitute a fraud in anyone’s book. However, the Gu office is recognizing the document as legal. How can they do that, even though the court has ruled against the old snake and effectively sacked him? Well, everything has been stamped and “looks” legal and rumour has it that certain individuals at the Gu office were paid incentives—bribery went on, in other words.

The person responsible for the fake document is Mr. Han, head of Han Management, the company supposed to manage the community’s development—let’s call him the leech. The leech prepared the document but the snake would have stamped his approval on everything. This document concerns bylaws on the community and future construction. An initial document of community laws was seen by members, and everyone signed off on that, but this second document was not seen by anyone. And yet, all the stamps of all community members appear on it—put there by the leech or the snake.

The importance of this document is that it states Hanjin is the builder. So, AMCO can’t move in with that still in the way.

2) The snake, Mr. Yoon, had said at a previous meeting that he would quit his position and sign a Gu office document stating his resignation. This would allow the newly elected leader, a young guy, to take over with full authority. It would also mean that AMCO could proceed. However, the snake has gone back on his word and said he will not sign anything to say he has quit. (He wasn’t at this meeting. I’ll get to why a little later.)

3) The leech, Mr. Han, reportedly bought land somewhere for 95 billion won.  Mr. Yoon has reputedly embezzled 20 billion won. The leech also took it upon himself to “create” 40 new apartments out of thin air. And he sold them! The money he would have made is anywhere between 15 billion and 30 billion won. But guess who would have stamped the documents to allow this to happen? Yes, the snake. Apparently, since the fabricated apartments have been sold, the deal cannot be undone and the purchases will have to be honored. But where is the money? No one knows yet.

4) The leech has been doing some creative accounting as well. While overspending, and as money was disappearing, he was fiddling the books to make it all look good. He also refused requests by community leaders to see his record. That’s understandable because there are very few records of transactions to see! The leech hasn’t really bothered to keep any. All the millions were managed—now get this—in an Excel file! Yes, hard to believe. Also, some deals were done in the form of land swaps.

5) It appears that different people might have been given different contracts. In addition, some were only given the size of the apartment on the contract but not the cost or what they paid. They were misled on prices. These mainly concern the old community members led by Mr. Yoon. So, it seems that the snake was ripping off his own gullible followers.

6) The leech lied to old community members about the new management company that is taking over from him, called CT Global. Daemyung, the other gangster builder, actually went to the home of AMCO’s CEO and told him that CT Global was ruining everything.

7) Hanjin is asking for money that is well beyond anything it did on the construction site.

8) The longer things are delayed the more it is costing the community because of bank loans that are already in place.

It is clear that we should have lynched these morons long ago. The list of scumbags is as follows: Mr. Yoon, Mr. Han, Hanjin, Daemyung and a handful of older community members—all out for themselves and all totally corrupt.

The Good News Section: the snake and the leech are in the hands of the police! That’s right, the police are now investigating all of their corrupt dealings.

1) CT Global, who has taken over from Han Management, has seen it all before, having cleaned up 6 previous mismanagement cases concerning reconstruction developments. They are investigating the money trails and will clean up our mess. They will be asking everyone to submit their documents and finally we will see transparency and record keeping. A guy from CT explained everything at the meeting, detailing how the snake and the leech were thieves and their documents where fakes.

2) The new community leaders are going to take Hanjin and Daemyung to court for compensation for all the delays and financial suffering they have caused.

3) It seems that Lee Myung-Bak, the president, has lifted height restrictions on apartment building heights. Our development was capped at 16 or 18 floors, from memory. Now AMCO will be able to go higher. That’s fortunate given that we now have an extra 40 apartments no one accounted for!

4) Because of the Gu office problem, guards have been stationed at the gate to deny access to any Hanjin gangsters. I think this is going to be a volunteer effort. Members will volunteer as their number comes up. That means we may have to go down and perhaps do an overnighter ourselves in the near future.

5) The community will be sending a petition to Lee Myung-Bak. This may have some sway because Lee used to head Hyundai and AMCO is of course Hyundai. In fact, to make this clearer to the public, AMCO has changed its name to Hyundai AMCO.

6) Old community members have been referring to us, the newer members, as whores. We don’t know why. However, now they are beginning to realize what a thief and betrayer the snake is and what a fraud and lier the leech is. The older community members are very dumb people and will find it hard to admit what old fools they have been.

See how deep the corruption, stupidity and greed goes? So, here we are, Korea in the twenty-first century, still weighed down by corruption and people with the mentality of village peasants.

I came to this country with an open mind, but given these events and my past experiences with management at SNU, I am beginning to think that incompetent and clueless management may be a cultural tradition in Korea. One almost expects it. And by the way, Mr. Yoon, the snake, is an SNU graduate.

No one seems to be doing much to stop dirty deeds like these from happening in the first place. Something similar happened with my brother-in-law’s housing, which is to be constructed next to ours. As well as crooked dealings with the Gu office, their community leader running away with a whole lot of money. The police are still looking for him. Thankfully that’s not our problem.

Nonetheless, slowly the forces of good are overcoming the forces of evil. Thus we edge closer to our apartment’s construction, millimetre by millimetre.

Now for a sad and poigniant tale told by the new community leader. He said a 75 year old man came up to him at the last meeting, took his hands, and said that at his age he probably would not live to see his apartment built. I know how he feels.