There’s a catchy song about train safety that takes me back in time, back to Professor Ted Wallin’s marketing class at Sejong University in Seoul. Professor Wallin taught in the Sejong-Syracuse MBA program for more than six years before retiring in 2016. His going-away party was streamed on social media, and that’s how I found…
Adam Czelusta and I first crossed paths around 2014, when we both did some work for Groove magazine’s 100th edition. I got to interview human rights champion Yiombi Thona, and Adam’s photography accompanied the article. Later, Adam graciously allowed me to use one of his photos with my follow-up blog post. More recently, when revamping…
It’s taken some time to put together this third post about Japanese military sexual slavery and the survivors at the House of Sharing in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province. A Korean friend helped me gather information for it, and I also got assistance from a bilingual personal assistant service. Ji Geunook, the friend who helped me, is knowledgeable…
On Wednesday, May 5, protesters gathered outside the former site of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul as they do every Wednesday. The turnout may have been higher because of the Children’s Day holiday. They were calling for justice for the survivors of Japanese military sexual slavery — for Japan to make a genuine apology, acknowledge…
“I was not paid when I was in the comfort station in China,” said Lee Ok-Seon Halmeoni. “That’s why I didn’t have any money to buy a train ticket in order to go home, or even I didn’t know which way I should go … to come back to Korea. … So in order to…
When Sonia Knapp set out for Korea in 1998, it was supposed to be short term. A New Orleans native, she was teaching at a high school in Moab, Utah, and getting tired of it. She didn’t fit in with the local community, “didn’t like living in a fishbowl,” and wanted to try something new….
Despite its increasing popularity as a humane, effective way of controlling feral cat populations, trap-neuter-release has its detractors. Cats get in people’s trash, said Kerri Burrows, who spearheaded the TNR project at Yongsan Garrison along with Nabiya and the Korean Veterinary Medical Association. “Cats that are unaltered get into fights. All that kind of stuff, right?”…
Kerri Burrows used to go hiking on Namsan every week. On one hike, she saw a poster about stray cats. She couldn’t read it very well, but one of her Korean friends translated. “And it essentially said, you know, the cats are part of our community, we want to take care of them, please don’t be…
Vegan Space, an all-vegan grocery store established in August 2018 in the mostly foreign neighborhood of Haebangchon within Seoul’s Yongsan district, was a welcome addition to the local landscape. Despite the convenience of online stores such as Coupang and iHerb, it’s nice to have a physical store where you can get all the basics —…
There’s a picture on my computer from 2009 that’s stayed with me: elderly women dancing in a circle, surrounded by drummers and dancers in traditional Korean garments. They were celebrating the first full moon of the Lunar New Year in an outdoor space at the House of Sharing in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, south of Seoul….
