The Turtle House

Wednesday, 2 December 2015

Cairns today, fishing, & comparative apartment prices etc

It's a very hot blinding day here today, maybe 33 degrees Celsius, 80% humidity,2pm now...I went fishing early this morning before sunrise, with squid and pilchards for bait, but as soon as the sun came shattering-jangling silver across the deep jade sea you could feel the heat instantly rising, and coming in to shore, riding the breeze, much like a form of nausea.

The Coral Sea is really hotting up early this year. El Nino, that wild boy, is rising early and is highly likely to cause a lot of mischief here.

Whilst fishing,I almost caught a stingray, which was good because I didn't want to catch him, and I'm sure he didn't want to be caught. Almost was good enough for both of us predators.

The apartment here, as I mentioned before, is very good and the coolest place I've ever lived in in Cairns due to the central atria...so air is always rising up about 40 ft from the cool and shaded underground car park, up past the front door. Excellent design for the tropics, and we don't get the afternoon sun at all, which is the real killer.

To cool down a house here, even with a fully insulated roof and whirly-birds on top, can take about an hour...but this apartment takes about 5 minutes. The buildings are a modern Chinese design and altogether hold about 140 apartments. There's 6 buildings in the grounds and they go up about 4 floors above the car parks. Very similar to thousands of new apartment blocks we saw in Xiamen in China, except they went up about 30 floors.

Interestingly, apartment prices here in Cairns are pretty much exactly the same as something similar in Xiamen...a Chinese provincial city. 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, modern fancy stuff...similar lay-out..and about 12 sq metres. The overall size of the apartments is very similar...the main difference is that in the Chinese apartments the floors are marble and the fixtures and the heavy doors are all very good teak and oak wood.

Mind you, Xiamen prices are going up a dependable 10% every year, but ours are kind of, well, not going up at all really. Such is the fate of the West I think for a long time to come. I think it will be 2025 before the deep cost ramifications of the 2008 financial crisis are addressed, let alone resolved. Big corrections take at least two and sometimes three decades.

Anyway, that's neither here nor there because we bought the place to live in, not as an investment, and it's lovely and cool indeed. Our neighbours are mostly Chinese...many bought when we did, when the prices bottomed out $100,000 below cost.

I'd still like a house...somewhere to put a big dog and a meth lab etc as some of the house-neighbours here do. Mind you, if terrorists were smart, they'd just bomb a suburban meth lab in Cairns. The connective trigger- explosions as they all went up would take the city off the world map entirely....a ring of vicious poisonous fire spreading all the way through Manunda, Manoora, Bayview heights, Earlville, Edmonton, Brinsmead, Whitfield, and deeply into Edge Hill, all the way to the Botanic Gardens and up the Red Arrow track.

I'd like either a retired greyhound or a poodle...but not a small poodle...rather the full-sized big black hunting poodle...taller than a German Shepherd. All poodles are pretty smart, it's just that the full sized proper ones aren't so fucking psychotic or needful...because they are a real, proper dog...and quite well balanced of mind and disposition. Retired Greyhounds are good too, especially in apartments. They've done all their running and suffering for many years and just want to chill out.

My favourite dog remains the Egyptian/African Basenji but they would be really unhappy here unless they were jumping the fence and off in search of prey and bursting with their wondrous genetic wander-lust. I used to be a bit like that. My imaginary dog remains Phil, the Basenji, and he features in the one-day-to-be-finished quite short book, a ghost story, I'm going to spend some time editing over Christmas.

I hope we all have a good Christmas and don't allow our reasonably decent young men and women to kill remarkably innocent foreign men women and children; and harm themselves profoundly, although not as profoundly as their harm their victims... in Syria or Iraq. That would be my Christmas Wish...to let the Middle East work out the problems of the Middle East without us OR ANYONE ELSE involved AT ALL.
I reckon I should run this world...it'd be a lot better.
For me...although I probably wouldn't want to be you in that scenario.

Tuesday, 1 December 2015

Do North Koreans gamble?

North Koreans like to pass the time playing cards, often because there's not much else to do

Je Son Lee

November 25th, 2015

Every week we ask a North Korean your questions, giving you the chance to learn more about the country we know so little about.

This week’s question is:

Do North Koreans like to gamble?

Yes, we do gamble in North Korea – at least some people do. Card games such as Go–Stop (which is played in Korea and Japan) and billiards are the most commonly played games. Personally, I’ve heard of people in my hometown who forfeited their houses or ended up in jail as a consequence of their gambling addiction. But obviously I wasn’t there gambling along with these people, so I can’t tell you how people in North Korea gamble in exact detail. But the rules for how people gamble with cards were the same as when I played cards with them for fun.

Since there isn’t an overflowing number of entertainment facilities or amenities in North Korea, playing cards came in handy

Even when they’re not exactly gambling, both grownups and children like to play cards in North Korea for fun. I can’t be 100 percent certain about other areas of North Korea, but playing cards was the most popular form of entertainment in my hometown. Since there isn’t an overflowing number of entertainment facilities or amenities in North Korea, playing cards came in handy. It was common for North Koreans to play cards with their relatives on holidays and weekends.

(By the way, one thing I’ve noticed after moving to South Korea was that they use different term for card games. South Koreans have adopted the English term “card game” into their language. But we used to call it joo-pay in North Korea.)

There isn’t just one kind of card game in North Korea. There are multiple kinds and ways to play them. But the most popular and widely played card game was sasaki. After the cards are shuffled and distributed among the players, whoever has three hearts begins and the game progresses in a clockwise direction. Each player is given 13 cards at the beginning of the game and whoever gets rid of all 13 first wins.

HIGH STAKES

The rules of North Korean card games aren’t complicated at all. Anyone can learn to play cards very easily in North Korea. But the competition gets fierce once people bet money on the game. People will do their best to win money and not lose it. That’s what makes the game more intense and attractive, after all. For this reason, both men and women loved to play cards in my hometown. On New Year’s, Chuseok and other holiday weekends, grownups play cards during lunch and dinner. The person who wins the most points need not pay while the others pay for food and drinks. The one who finishes second pays the least and the person with the fewest points pays the most.

Then, you may wonder, “How much money do North Koreans bet on their card games?” When people play cards for fun and entertainment at home, it is usually petty money such as 100 won per each point earned. But when you’re talking about gambling – for real – they bet 1,000-10,000 won per point. While in North Korea, I heard that some people blew all of their money gambling. But I haven’t met anyone like that in person.

It is not only adults that play cards. Oftentimes, students also play card games in North Korea. Schools in North Korea employ janitors, too. However, it is thought that one janitor cannot watch over the school by himself all day and all night. Therefore, students take turns in standing guard. As they watch over the security of their school from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. the next day, these students are to stay all night with their teachers. However, mind you, students are not obligated to do this against their will. Only those who volunteer take turns watching over the school. Most students volunteer to do so in order to have a sleepover with their classmates. There they play card games together during this “sleepover.” Since students don’t have enough money to gamble, whichever team loses the game pays for the snack.

Apart from card games, people also relished playing billiards and Go-Stop. I’ve noticed that South Koreans seem to play Go-Stop a lot during family gatherings at New Year’s and Chuseok. However, Go-Stop wasn’t as popular in North Korea. North Koreans didn’t seem to like the rules of Go-Stop. That’s why they played other kinds of card games. In South Korea, people with low income often play billiards. But only rich people play billiards in North Korea.

Rumors have reached the North Korean government that people were gambling at billiards. But so long as I know, they haven’t come up with any tactics or policies to control it. I guess there are some things even the North Korean government can’t control.

The above is the perspective of the author, and may not be representative of all North Korean defectors.

Got A Question?

Email it to ask@nknews.org with your name and city. We’ll be publishing the best ones.

Editing by Rob York and translation by Elizabeth Jae

Artwork by Catherine Salkeld

Japan considers THAAD deployment

Japan considers THAAD deployment to counter N.Korea

Defense Minister tells reporters Japan wants to study U.S. technology and equipment

Leo Byrne

November 25th, 2015

Japan is considering deploying the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system to defend against possible attacks from North Korea, local media reported Tuesday.

Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani made the announcement during a state visit to Hawaii where he met with numerous high ranking U.S. military officials.

“We want to speed up our study of advanced activities and equipment of the United States,” Nakatani told reporters in comments carried by Japan’s Mainichi news outlet.

North Korean state media often mentions Japan, with threats and insults over potential defense agreements with the U.S. and South Korea a common theme.

“The Japanese reactionaries would be well advised to stop acting rashly, bearing in mind that reinvasion of Korea is entirely a final ruin,” an article from the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) entitled “Japanese Defense Minister’s Anti-DPRK Remarks under Fire” published earlier this month reads.

KCNA mentions of Japan over the last 60 days

The DPRK already has the capability to hit the Japanese mainland with its ballistic missiles, according toNK News intelligence director John Grisafi.

“(North Korean missiles) are definitely something Japan should take seriously. They likelihood of them ever being used or even how many North Korea could launch at Japan is questionable, but they would appear to have the capability to reach Japan with at least some of their missile designs and Japan should be capable of defending against them just in case.”

The installation of the missile defense systems has been controversial in neighboring South Korea, with China and the DPRK also criticizing the proposal at every turn.

Beijing views the plans as a U.S. cover for building defenses against Chinese missiles, despite the technical limitations of the THAAD systems.

On November 15 North Korea declared a no sail zone over its eastern sea, a move which many thought would be the precursor to a missile test. The restriction will be in place until December 7, an anonymous source told South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency.

Featured Image: THAAD_2010_June_c by U.S. Missile Defense Agency on 2010-06-29 07:37:12

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Leo Byrne

Leo Byrne is the Data and Analytic Director at NK News and is based in Seoul, South Korea. Follow him on twitter @LeoPByrne

Coming of Age in North Korea

N. Korean defectors start work as S.Korean civil servants
North Korean defectors officially started work on Monday as 7th grade civil servants for the Ministry of Unification.
Visit NK News for more

Incheon city invites N. Korean scholars to island conference
The government of Incheon, South Korea has invited North Korean scholars to participate in an academic conference next year about Ganghwa Island.
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Coming of age in North Korea, By Fyodor Tertitskiy
The main task in life for an adult North Korean is joining the party. However, the irony is that people join it to not become a worker – and if one is fortunate, to avoid physical labor entirely.
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A remedy for head-in-the-sand thinking on N.Korea, By Robert E. McCoy
Robert E. McCoy argues in favour of thinking outside the box when it comes to inter-Korean relations, and more specifically, in favour of president Park Geun-hye's Northeast Asia Peace and Cooperation Initiative (NAPCI).
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N. Korea conducts failed SLBM launch
North Korea made a failed attempt to launch a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) in the East Sea (Sea of Japan) Saturday afternoon, a South Korean government source said.
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Monday, 30 November 2015

Car review 2015 Nissan STR 2.5 Common Rail Turbo Diesel Crew Cab 4WD ute

Car Review: 

2015 Nissan Navara D22 2.5 litre common rail turbo diesel 4 wheel drive, high+low range etc, white crew-cab/ute. Extras: tow bar, steel bull bar, deep river snorkel, roof racks, tonneau cover, Lightforce spotlights, ultra-sonic 'deflectors' for cattle and kangaroos on the road, 16 inch Goodrich hybrid tyres on alloy rims. The last of the D22 range.

Distance travelled 4,000km from new.

The D22s have been around for over a decade as basic workhorse crew-cab utes and from what I can tell haven't changed much at all, if at all. Like all Nissans, they are made in Thailand, as are the Toyota and Mitsubishi competitors in the range.

My one, brand new, came also with 4 ashtrays and an actual cigarette lighter, something you just don't get anymore.

It seats 5 people at a squeeze but is much more conducive for 4 people of normal human size.

It is the last of the D22 range. The NP Model replacements are all about at least $10, 000 dollars more and feature some internal comfort improvements, but alas, no ashtrays or lighters.

The fuel consumption is about 9L/100kms.

I bought it because I liked the look of it, I live in a place where 4WD capacity is useful and even, in cyclone season and for long trips West or North,is essential, and because it was at least $10-15,000 cheaper at last model run-out than anything similar made in 2015 or even back to 2010.

There is nothing hi-tech about it, but it does work very well and it's smooth enough for highways and will deal with rough-as-guts terrain very capably.

Switching to Hi-range 4WD you do get a giant improvement in road-holding and not much of a bump in terms of fuel costs.

In many ways it doesn't steer very well, nor does it speed very well....being not actually a 'car' per se, but if you like small trucks, well I doubt it can be bettered for the price, or by paying $10,000 more. It is a good vehicle, tried, proven, simple and long lasting with spare parts always available due to its long history. The air-conditioner is brilliant and can bring the heat down from an inside temp of 60 degrees all day in the sun, to about 12 degrees in 5 minutes, which is just the way I like it. All in all, after still only 4000 kilometres, it's a fine long time keeper car-truck and you sit up high in it, and so the view is good, it's comfortable enough, you can stack furniture in the tray, and fishing gear, and it's much more fuel efficient and will last much longer than my last car, a very sophisticated and savvy 2010 Volvo C30 SSRI sports coupe, and at half the new price.  

Saturday, 28 November 2015

Is Kim Jong Un’s plan working?

The week that was: Five North Korea articles you don't want to miss
To ensure you never miss out on the best NK News content, we highlight the top five most-read features and interviews of the week

Is Kim Jong Un’s plan working? - Expert Survey
By Ha-young Choi

As has been said many, many times, Kim Jong Un is young, with little political experience prior to his father’s death. His actions, whether raising tensions after South Korea inaugurated President Park Geun-hye in early 2013, to purging his uncle later that year, are consistently portrayed as meant to solidify his rule. It’s not asked often enough, however, whether his gambit is working.

NK News surveyed a number of South Korean observers to ask that question. Most of those surveyed suggested that Kim’s domestic solidification process is not over, and he will not show much of an interest in inter-Korean ties until that process is over. Though South Korea’s president regularly comes in for criticism for failing to break the impasse, the experts suggested until the process is over, Kim’s priorities will remain on economic growth and domestic security – both from domestic challenges, and through nuclear deterrence.

In part 23 of a major new NK News expert interview series, established and rising Pyongyang watchers from the Republic of Korea outlined their thoughts on the state of inter-Korean relations in 2015.

Click here to read the full article at NK News

Can we expect an anti-unification political fringe to emerge in S. Korea?

By Ha-young Choi

As young South Koreans grow skeptical of unification’s promises, is there the chance of such a movement coming to power?

A panel of experts told NK News that, as the quest for unification has been an overarching part of Korean identity for so long – it’s even enshrined in South Korea’s constitution – an anti-unification party is not all that likely. And if were to come to power, and the desire to unify no longer underpinned inter-Korean relations, North Korea’s reaction would also change – and not for the better.

In part 22 of a major new NK News expert interview series, established and rising Pyongyang watchers from the Republic of Korea outlined their thoughts on the prospects anti-unification sentiment emerging in the South.

Click here for the full article at NK News

North Korea: Stuck in the past or poised for the future?
By Felix Abt

2015 has been a record year for the publication of books about North Korea. Many of these deal with the horrific crisis years of the ’90s, characterized by mass famine, poverty and oppression. North Korea is portrayed as a country stuck in the past; laboring under brutal repression, poverty and hunger.

North Korean political activists also claim that North Korea’s government still rigidly and violently suppresses all foreign ideas and information, saying citizens found watching foreign films are summarily executed and their close family members shamed and demoted in the social hierarchy. Vociferous defectors like Jang Jin-Sung categorically state that North Korea cannot be reformed and assert that change can only emerge bottom up, but never top down.

Yeonmi Park, another famous defector and author, talked about an ongoing “gulag with dead bodies floating in North Korea’s rivers and piling up in the streets.” If these horrific depictions are accepted as truly representative of contemporary North Korea, it would seem there is no possible alternative to systematically isolating it and imposing strangulating sanctions until it collapses.

Click here for the full article at NK News

Who really speaks for North Korea’s abduction victims?
By Ji-young Song

Among the issues raised by the 2014 report by the United Nations Commission of Inquiry (UN COI) on human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) was the kidnapping of foreign nationals by North Korean spies under the direct order of Kim Jong Il, father of current leader Kim Jong Un.

The 2014 COI report found that since 1950, the DPRK government has systematically kidnapped nationals from South Korea, Japan, China, Thailand, Europe and the Middle East. Pyongyang forces them to stay in North Korea, where the commission found that gross human rights violations had taken place – including public executions, enslavement, torture, rape, forced abortions and other sexual violence. After the release of the UN COI report, North Korea agreed in May 2014 to launch a new probe into the abductions.

In exchange, Japan agreed to ease some unilateral sanctions on North Korea, though it continues to enforce sanctions backed by the UN over North Korea’s nuclear and long-range missile programs. The Japanese delegation, led by Junichi Ihara, head of the Asia and Oceania affairs bureau at Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, met with his North Korean counterpart, Song Il Ho in October 2014 as progress in the DPRK investigation had been very slow.

Click here for the full article at NK News

For Chinese students learning North Korean, Pyongyang is far away
By Our Investigative Reporter

Chinese students of Korean at Yanbian University are enrolled on a major called ‘North Korean language’ and receive extensive instruction in socialism. But few have chosen degrees in Korean out of any interest in the subject, which they in fact learn from Chinese Korean teachers and textbooks preferring the Southern variety of the language.

As a result the DPRK, only 20 miles away, could not be further from their minds. “Wait a minute everyone,” shouted newly-appointed banzhang, or class monitor, Jianye as the Korean grammar lesson ended and Group 14 stood up to leave with a bone-jarring scraping of chairs.

“There’s an essay from that class when the teacher didn’t show up,” he says, fumbling through a dog-eared bundle of papers. “The title is: How do we account for the last 500 years of the history of socialism?” There was a collective groan. “Five-hundred years?” Hongyao who was sitting behind him exclaimed in dismay. “Has socialism even existed that long?”

DPRK North Korea Criticises USA

N. Korea criticizes U.S. for worsening refugee problem
In an apparent effort to engage Arab and North African countries, North Korea on Thursday raised the issue of refugees’ human rights, asserting that the problem originated from U.S. foreign policy.
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North Korean tankers return to Russia, By Leo Byrne
North Korea’s oil tankers have returned to more regular routes in recent weeks after a surge of activity in October, coinciding with the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Workers’ Party of Korea.
Visit NK News for more

For Chinese students learning North Korean, Pyongyang is far away, By Our Investigative Journalist
Chinese students of Korean at Yanbian University are enrolled on a major called ‘North Korean language’ and receive extensive instruction in socialism.
Visit NK News for more

Is Kim Jong Un’s plan working? - Expert Survey
Is Kim Jong Un any good at his job? NK News surveyed a number of South Korean observers to ask that question.
Visit NK News for more

Researchers: Predictions of N.Korean collapse 'wishful thinking'
Researchers on Thursday warned that “wishful thinking on the fall of North Korea” would becloud the process of making pragmatic inter-Korean policies.
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