Back in Seoul

I have just returned to Seoul, after one horrendous week in Los Angeles.

I want to discuss some afterthoughts from my return home in a separate post. But for now, the story of my return to Seoul.

I had a good flight. The aircraft used today was HL7428, the newer of Asiana's two all-passenger 747s, and the very plane which occasionally flies South Korea's President (it flew 2MB to Moscow a month ago). It had been retrofitted with video-on-demand and cutting-edge Rockwell air show, so I really enjoyed my experience, added by my particular seat which had plenty of legroom. I spent time watching the New York Philharmonic visit to Pyongyang all over again, as well as Celine Dion's A New Day, wrapping up with a few short subjects and hours and hours of music.

There was a mechanical delay of over an hour, however, and it was a frustrating wait. At least I had no connections; dozens of Southeast Asia-bound passengers ended up missing their connections.

The routing of the flight was quite unusual. When I cross the Pacific, usually I stay over water from San Francisco until hitting some part of Honshu, Japan; the only "land" I see, if ever, is southwestern Alaska. But today, I stayed much farther north, flying right over Anchorage and Nome, entering Russia over the Diomedes, then flying well north of Kamchatka and along the north shore of Sea of Okhotsk before cutting across Sakhalin to enter South Korea near Dokdo. My guess also is that the Japanese air traffic control never had my flight in its area today; all my flying today was done over US and Russian sectors (maybe except the Pacific coast of British Columbia), and over Sea of Japan, I was closer to North Korea and probably under North Korean air traffic control. (Yes, South Korean aircraft are allowed in North Korean control areas - while US aircraft are not.)

Here are a few photos from my journey today.

Very unusual sight. At Los Angeles, United uses its own terminal for international arrivals, not the common Tom Bradley international terminal that foreign airlines use. But somehow, this United 747, from Sydney, came into Bradley. Not only that, most of its containers are Qantas - and the two airlines are fierce competitors on the route, not alliance partners.

Next to it stands my Asiana flight. It sports Asiana's new corporate identity and paint job, alongside UNICEF and "Korea Sparkling" decals. Due to Asiana's alliance with United, and the resulting interline connecting passengers, a few United ground crewmembers were helping prepare this flight for departure, as evidenced by a United truck in front.

Tail detail of the Asiana plane, showing the color details as well as the registration number.

My first-ever look at an Airbus A380. It didn't look all that big, but that's because it's tall rather than long. It's only as long as a 747, but it has a full upper deck.

I will say this again: I had never imagined saying I'd rather be in Seoul than in Los Angeles, but that's how I feel tonight. More on this in the next post.

W gains another foreign ally

While losing Prime Minister John Howard of Australia was quite a blow for the W regime, he made up nicely in South Korea, with the election of Grand National candidate, Lee Myung-Bak, for president. In fact, W was so elated, that he was pretty much the first foreigner to call Lee to offer congratulations.

While Lee has had a stellar record of achievements both at Hyundai and as the mayor of Seoul, his party - a puppet of the Republicans, and one that provided Reverend Moon to the US - is suspect at best. What's even more notable is that the leftists were so badly splintered and disorganized, they never had much to offer to the South Korean voters (except mudslinging in a possible scandal for Lee).

I also draw many parallels to the French election earlier in the year, with center-right candidate (Sarkozy in France, Lee in South Korea) promising to cut unemployment for younger people, the leftist candidate (Royal in France, Chung in South Korea) not giving much of a challenge, and the strong showing of a far-right fascist candidate (Le Pen in France, Lee Hoi-Chang in South Korea).

The disorganization of the left is evident in the US and its Democratic Party as well, despite the Democrats holding better hands right now. The Democrats, if they are to continue to exist at all, must learn from both the success of Labor and Kevin Rudd in Australia, and the failure of the French Socialists and the South Korean left. But given that the Democrats are too busy screwing over their base, and too busy sucking up to unelectable Hillary, I won't hold my breath.

W at APEC in Australia (or was it OPEC in Austria?)

The annual Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit discusses various issues of interest to Pacific Rim nations (especially free trade), and is also a major security concern, given W's attendance and the world's increasing hatred of him. Two years ago, I had the misfortune of visiting Busan, South Korea, as it was hosting the APEC summit then - made for a lot of hassles and closed-down attractions not only in Busan, but even in faraway Seoul as well.

This year's talks are being held in Sydney, Australia, where entire city blocks and sections have been turned into fortresses and no-access zones. Based on what I am reading off of various news sites, it makes Busan look like a picnic. I am not surprised, as Prime Minister John Howard has been the world's most loyal puppet of the W regime.

W rewarded Howard by calling the summit an "OPEC" meeting, showing his true colors as a greedy oilman. He further thanked the presence of Austrian troops in Iraq - never mind that Austria never sent anyone to Iraq, and it was his puppet Howard and Australia that sent troops. It appears that Howard is sucking up to the W regime on every topic - from "war on terror" to immigration to gay marriage - but is proving to be futile, as W can't even remember the name of Howard's country.

The only silver lining in this is that the Australians are about to hold an election very soon, and most likely Howard and his Liberals will be gone, replaced by a Labor government. Overthrow of Howard has been long overdue. Australia, please do the right thing.

MSNBC

Australia meddles in US politics

John Howard, the bastardly Prime Minister of Australia, said that if he were Al-Qaeda, he would wish for Barack Obama to be elected the next President of the United States, because his withdrawal plan will encourage them.

Obama says he's flattered to be criticized by a W puppet.

This isn't the first time Australia has been caught meddling in US politics; Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation has been at it for a long time.

Despite this, I don't see any efforts to boycott Australia around me - because progressives realize that individual Australians are still good people, and conservatives love that rare ally. But if France can be boycotted just for not participating in the Iraq War, there is plenty of justification for boycotting Australia.

BBC