The Magical Beauty of Hanbok

There are many things that may represent Korea. One among them is the Korean traditional dress “hanbok.”

Although nowadays few people wear hanbok except on national holidays like New Year’s Day, the beauty and elegance of the garment is always amazing.

Stitch by stitch, making a beautiful hanbok takes great craftsmanship, effort, and passion. It depends on how you choose the right combination of colors among infinite possibilities; how you cut, fold, stitch up patches of cloth together; how you sew patterns onto it, etc.

Hanbok has some magical quality about its color and texture that even the modern digital technology can’t really simulate on the screen.

Patterns of flowers and butterflies sewn into the cloth radiate the artist’s craftsmanship and subtlety. Wearing hanbok, you can just feel the artist’s heart oozing out of it. There are no fixed set of rules or formula to follow in making hanbok. How the garment is rendered is solely at the discretion of the hanbok-maker.

Hanbok takes into account the wearer’s body shape, comfort, and beauty, all at the same time. It is one of Korea’s greatest assets containing its people’s indelible, age-long wisdom.

Despite the garment’s much fallen popularity among people nowadays, the passion and perseverance of hanbok artists endures.

Hats off to the hanbok makers – protectors of one of the most precious Korean assets.

Seoul and Its Happy City Project

According to the recent statistics of the Seoul Metropolitan Government, the number of foreign residents of Seoul is estimated at around 250,000, taking up 2.5% of Seoul’s total population.

This is an increase by 100,000 people within the last 3 years – a stupendous increase, indeed. This signifies just how fast Seoul is turning into a global and multicultural city.

Then how satisfied are the over 250,000 international residents living in Seoul?

According to the survey conducted in November 2009 on foreigners who had been living in Seoul for more than one year, their degree of satisfaction scored 3.8 out of 5 points, which is an increase for three consecutive years.

But of course, there are things to be improved. To that end, Seoul city has launched the “Happy City Project” which includes various support programs for foreigners in communication, multiculturalism, solving everyday problems and obstacles, and so on.

The project focuses on 15 foreigner-dense areas designated as “Global Zones” which include the Seoul City Hall area, Yeoksam, Samsung, Yeouido, Ichon, Itaewon, Hannam, Yeonnam, Seorae Village, Myeongdong, Insadong, Namdaemun, Dongdaemun, etc.

Also, the construction of the “Global Cluster Building” will begin in May, which will include a one-stop help center for foreigners and chamber of commerce offices of various countries.

The “Global Business Help Center” will open in mid-May in COEX with the aim to help foreigners set up small to medium-sized businesses in Korea. And the on-site consultation service, where a batch of staff visits areas with high concentrations of foreigners, will be further streamlined.

Last January, 14 additional multicultural family support centers opened in Seoul, which makes a total of 20 such centers. A web site (http://mcfamily.seoul.go.kr) designed to provide information on Seoul city and job vacancies for foreign spouses was launched in five languages including Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, English and Korean.

A support center for migrant workers has also been operating, providing Korean-language classes that put focus on industrial site-related vocabulary. There is also the International Student Forum, and the foreign students support desks at major universities that provide counseling and information on Korea for international students.

Various cultural performances will take place in Mugyo-dong “Global Street” near the Seoul City Hall, and flea markets for foreigners will be held at the Seoul Folk Flea Market in Sinseol-dong. Furthermore, the Seoul Help Center for Foreigners is going to sponsor 16 foreign community festivals including the Mongolian Naadam Festival and the Irish Folk Dance Festival.

For medical services, the current 11 medical centers for foreigners will be expanded to 17 by 2012, and a Global Open Health Center will be launched in Yeongdeungpo-gu and Geumcheon-gu districts in May, where treatments for pregnant women and infants from multicultural families will be provided.

In terms of public transportation, sign panels will be furnished in a number of foreign languages at every subway station, and so will the Seoul city subway map. Also, 26 administrative forms frequently filled out by foreigners will be translated into Chinese and Japanese in addition to English and Korean. Tax notices, too, will have its contents written in both Korean and English.

Likewise, Seoul city is making efforts to create a truly global Seoul that is a wonderful city not only for Koreans, but for all the foreign residents and visitors in it as well!

The Incheon International Design Awards (IIDA)

Major international design awards?

There is the International Design Awards (IDA), or the International Forum Design Awards.

But did you know Korea has one like that too?

It’s the Incheon International Design Awards (IIDA), now entering its 7th year. For the past 7 years IIDA has been receiving increasing attention from the design industry, academia, and enterprises both at home and abroad. In 2009, as many as 3,709 submissions from 97 countries were taken, and for this year IIDA is seeking submissions from May 1 until August 25, for 117 days.

The theme of IIDA 2010 is “Green Heart,” as it attempts to generate interest and participation from global designers in spreading more eco-friendly and sustainable life style in connection with design. Prizes worth of USD 43,000 will be awarded.

IIDA 2010 seeks entries in the following 3 categories:

1) “Green Design for Human” – daily goods, home appliances, lightings, furniture, stationery, home devices, cars, packaging, etc
2) “Green Design for City” – architecture, interior design, road, items for streets, public spaces and facilities, park, urban infrastructure, etc
3) “Green Design for Communication” – poster, video, advertisement, illustration, campaign, software, mass media, networking, etc

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The entries will be evaluated by a judging committee comprised of Korean and international experts in the relevant fields of design. There will also be special awards – “Netizens’ Choice Award” and “People’s Choice Award (chosen by the visitors of the Incheon International Design Fair).

Despite the relatively short history, IIDA has been rapidly garnering global attention and recognition. I’m sure this year’s IIDA will be seeing even more innovative items from all over the world :)

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Touring Seoul with iPhone

When we travel abroad, we usually research and gather information about those foreign places beforehand so we could be prepared.

But even so, when we’re actually there, more often than not we get encountered with situations where things aren’t quite as we expected them to be.

Providing foreign travelers with accurate, on-the-spot, easy-to-access information while they are on their tours – that’s the purpose of the web site “i Tour Seoul (www.visitseoul.net)” run by the Seoul Metropolitan Government.

It is a digital tour guide that offers a wide range of information regarding Seoul for foreign travelers who visit and tour around the city. The services are offered through the web site as well as at the kiosks installed at various spots in the city.

Starting late 2009, the services have also been being offered, on a tentative basis, via smartphones. And starting this month, it will be expanded for common usage.

Through iphone you can now access information contained in the “i Tour Seoul” homepage – information on tourist spots, making reservations for hotels, restaurants and performances, communication support etc.

Also, the “i Tour Seoul” mobile application can perform search around the area, putting you in the center, for popular tourist sites, restaurants, public transportations and others.

One other interesting application is the one where you can take pictures of the spots you visit using your iphone and send them to your account at “i Tour Seoul” web site. And then later on, after you are done with your travel, you can download the pictures to your computer at your leisure.

These applications can be downloaded free-of-charge at the Apple App Store. And for those travelers who do not own an iphone, they can rent one at Incheon and Gimpo Airports, and also at the City Airport, Logis & Travel sites.

Transferring the entire information and functions of a web site as a mobile phone application is said to be an unprecedented tourism service.

Korean NGOs Reach Out to the World

There are Korean NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) that aid the poor and the ill, give hope to the despaired around the world. Southeast Asia, Africa, Central America, South America….anywhere they are needed, Korean volunteers reach out their helping hands.

Many of the Korean NGOs work overseas, providing the recipient countries with charity funds. Some of those funds come from the ODA (Official Development Assistance) of the Korea Overseas Cooperation Agency (KOICA).

KOICA was founded as a government agency in 1991 to maximize the effectiveness of Korea’s grant aid programs for developing countries. The agency manages grant aid and technical cooperation programs, as well as the Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF) through which concessional loans for development projects are provided to the governments of developing countries.

And there is KCOC (Korea NGO Council for Overseas Cooperation), an association of 66 development NGOs. They engage in implementing development and aid projects with the aim to eradicate poverty around the world. The number of its members has doubled since 1999.

With the ultimate goal of meeting the suggested volume set by the OECD, Korea plans to expand its size of ODA first to 0.15% of its GDP by 2012 and to 0.25% by 2015. There isn’t a comprehensive statistics on the volume of aid and the number of members of Korean NGOs, but the volume of the government grants for NGOs is estimated to be USD 6.47 million. The NGOs also take donations from private companies, religious organizations, and individuals.

In May 2009, the Korean Government launched “World Friends Korea,” a consolidated brand of Korea’s overseas volunteer groups, to generate synergy and to facilitate the management of volunteer activities on a national level. This also was one of the 10 key projects undertaken by the Presidential Council on Nation Branding.

Notable NGOs of Korea

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Some of the most active Korean NGOs abroad include the World Vision, Good Neighbors, and Join Together Society.

The World Vision (https://www.worldvision.or.kr/eng/index.asp) is a relief, development and advocacy organization dedicated to working with children, families and their communities to address the causes of poverty and injustice. Their work includes educating children, emergency relief, agriculture and medical support among various others.

Good Neighbors International (http://www.gnint.org/eng/) is an international humanitarian and development organization originated in 1991 from Seoul, Korea. In the beginning it concentrated on projects such as helping orphans and handicapped children, finding homes for disadvantaged widows, rural community development, and assisting disadvantaged families of TB patients in Korea.

But over time it has become an organization offering assistance to anyone in need regardless of race, nationality, religion, ideology, or geographical constraints. For example, Good Neighbors International has been particularly involved in the Rwandan refugee situation. It has been providing several medical relief teams and the operation of two non-formal schools at the refugee camps since 1994.

In 1996, Good Neighbors International became the first international NGO from Korea to receive General Consultative Status, the highest status level, from the United Nations Economic and Social Council.

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The Join Together Society (JTS: http://www.jtsint.org) is an international relief agency established in 1993 for eradicating famine, disease, and illiteracy. Its work includes village development, emergency relief, providing primary education, medical clinics, and assistance to North Korea.

Some other Korean NGOs include the Korea Food for the Hungry International, the GCS Club, Korea International Volunteer International and others.

The efforts to help and share with those in need around the world – Keep it up, Korea!

Happy Life, Seoul!

Seoul, the largest city of the Republic of Korea with a population of over 10 million, became the capital of the country during the Joseon Dynasty (1394).

Since then it has become an undoubted global city where the 1986 Asian Games, the 1988 Summer Olympics, and the 2002 FIFA World Cup were held. And the city will host the G-20 Summit 2010 in November and the Nuclear Security Summit in 2012.

Let’s look into the quality of life of those living in Seoul.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government published the result of a survey on Seoul, conducted on 20,000 households (46,153 people aged over 15) and 2,500 foreign residents in October 2009. According to the survey, the degree of satisfaction the subjects felt for their “Health Condition” and “Financial Condition” was found out to be increasing year after year.

“Residential Environment” scored 5.90 points (out of 10.00), “Social Environment” 5.40, “Economic Environment” 5.08, and “Educational Environment” 4.95, indicating a bit of an increase compared to the previous year (2008). In terms of “Public Transportations,” too, there was an increase of satisfaction by 0.22 points, and the safety of the city was also found out to be rising annually.

The volume of donation from the Seoulites has been expanding since 2006 despite the tough financial conditions, and so has the participation rate in volunteer work, suggesting the culture of volunteerism is spreading in Seoul.

Preparation for seniorhood is also in better shape, compared to the previous year. Senior population’s engagement in social activities on a regular basis is increasing, and the number of seniors who wish to live in senior housings instead of living on their own is rising.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government will reflect these findings of the survey in its policy making.

Hope more and more people will come visit Seoul, a global city that doesn’t stop getting better!

Korea in the G-20: A new era of leadership

Korea will host a Group of 20 summit in November 2010 according to a decision reached at the third G-20 meeting held in Pittsburgh, President Lee Myung-bak said at a joint press conference in Pittsburgh on Sep. 25 (local time).

"The decision to have Korea host the November 2010 meeting was reached by the G-20 leaders unanimously, thanks to Korean people’s keen desire for it," Lee said at the conference, which was jointly held with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Canada will host the fourth meeting in June 2010, and Korea will host the fifth. The previous three rounds were held in Washington, D.C. (Nov. 2008), London (Apr. 2009), and Pittsburgh, in that order.

Meanwhile, Sakong Il, a special adviser to the President, who has led the efforts for Korea to host a G-20 meeting, said that Seoul’s hosting was a historic achievement. By hosting the meeting of the world’s most powerful economies, Korea will start playing a crucial role in the international economic spheres, he said.

source: www.korea.net