Korea's First Match in World Cup 2010

Date: 12 Jun 2010 (Sat)

Time: 2030 (Korean time); 2130 (Msian Time)

Venue: 1) Photos taken at Seoul
2) Host country: Msia's forefather, the former Land of Apartheid

Went to Seoul City Hall yesterday to watch the first 2010 world cup match for S. Korea. They played against Greece. The bet ratio is 50:50 (courtesy of my former form-6 class monitor, keke).

Although it is exam season now, i cant help but to get my ass out for some fresh air to kill off the drowsy mood of the rainy Saturday. Plus this match will be the best time for me to get a glimpse of how Koreans cheer for their country. It's a whole new experience for a kampung boy like me who only get to cheers for his beloved country at Thomas Cup and Olympic badminton in world arena at most.

This first match of S.Korea was placed at the best time on Saturday nite. The rest of the 2nd and 3rd game were scheduled to be in the midnite. So, not much for me to get out from the scenes and cheers during my sleeping time i guess. Did not dare to ask other friends to join me during this exam season except one who i tot was a football maniac. At the end, the maniac turned out to be wise enuff not to join me for the fear of not have enuff study and flunk 5 of the exams next week.

Travelling and doing things alone are always enjoyable as I get to go wherever i like, change my plan easily, get to meet new ppl and observe my surrounding more sharply (dont forget that i still have the instinct of being an agent; well trained since my previous job in CIA~~).

I was lucky enuff to see the crowd's responds during the first goal around 7 minutes before i left the City Hall field. Again, was lucky enuff to see S.Korea's 2nd goal in the school hall. The view of the match was better compared to the City Hall which were too crowded and messy. S.Korea won Greece with 2-0. Everyone was so happy as well as the pub owners. Yeah, the pub in Sinchon will have good business even in the exam season, thanks to the match.

I was happy for S, Korea too, but it would be better if Msia is competing in S.Africa too. Can you believe Msia was on par with S.Korea and even once defeated this Asian Football Giant to proceed to the 1972 Olympic in Munich, Germany? Too bad, S.Korea survived and last but Msia has been dropping in the world sport arena as well as its economy. FIFA released the latest Coca Cola World Rankings: S. Korea at 47th and Msia at 146th. My primary school mathematics apply here, 99 place behind. What a joke! All thanks to corruption and match-fixing scandals.

Alas, welcome to Msia, where corruption is well accepted and the Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has not been working for the ppl but they work side by side with the current corrupted-government covering their shit. My good friend during uni time was found dead under the MACC building last year, one day before his wedding. He worked for the opposition party and was summoned for an investigation by the MACC for a case accusing the party for misusing a very small amount of state fund, which amounted to RM2000 (OMG! less than 600 USD, not even a single tip of % of the amount received by some big fish in the ruling parties and their cronies). I certainly do not believe my friend will jump from the MACC building, suicided himself ; these must have something to do with the MACC who held the investigation on him till midnite. No CCTV was recorded. Funny!

Wow! Surprisingly, Msia's standing is not that bad in the world corruption perception index, ranking at 56th behind S. Korea (39th) and of course Singapore (3rd) in 2009. Am i wrong about my country being too corrupt? But what i know is my friends corrupted the traffic police. Once i was instructed to hand the monthly 'fee' to the KL city hall staff who came to my previous work site by his bike. If not paid, they have all sorts of power and excuses to summon you ranging from cleanliness and public hazards which are very subjective.

My Japanese friend was was requested bribery money from a custom officer when he came into Msia from Singapore. Eventually, he bribe the officer but jotted down the name of that officer. He reported the bribery case to the head quarter of MACC and so coincidently it was the same day that my politician friend mentioned above was found died under the MACC building! My uncle's truck have to pay 'protection fee' to the traffic police for not giving problem to them on some quibble matters. Believe me, you pay differently for different districts and federal route. The more rules the government setup, if not being study properly, will serve as a fertile ground for corruption during the execution.

I'm not sure if i will be charged under the sedition act or any other internal security act for this posting but if it is surfaced, my posting will have fulfill its mission ~~~

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index

Ok, time to watch football!

Petra Branca and Both Its Stupid and Smart Masters

Pedra Branca (formerly referred to by Malaysia as Pulau Batu Puteh and now as Batu Puteh) is an outlying island of Singapore. The name means "white rock" in Portuguese, and refers to whitish guano(bird droppings) deposited on the rock. On 21 December 1979 Malaysia published a map which showed the island to be within its territorial waters. This ignited a 29-year territorial dispute which, together with the issue of sovereignty over the nearby maritime features of Middle Rocks and South Ledge, was presented to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for resolution (wikipedia).

Attended a law conference held in Yonsei University in last April. I'm not a law major but i'm interested in international issues and dispute settlement. As a civil engineer, we need to know some dispute settlement knowledge in construction management too. Thats why i audit the class of International law in law faculty.

The culture of law lecture is totally different compared to engineering. The law professor is like a live history book who can tell you all sort of stories and history without a thought! Power point presentation is not common in the law lecture. The lecturer will sit in front of the class and do his talking. Sometimes the students might just sit at their own place, do their presentation giving their thoughts, summary and understanding of one of the chapter assigned to them.

Lets go back to the conference. I decided to write this post after reading a post from my good fren in facebook initially pertaining a group of Msian lawyers planning to bring Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). I think i better copy it here. Yeah, yeah.... i like to copy, but not plagiarism.

From facebook:

Cheong Chun Siong Good idea, but make sure not to include any of the lawyers from Attorney General. They can't even win a case over some rocks (Petra Blanc).

http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=%2F2010%2F6%2F6%2Fnation%2F20100606201627&sec=nation

12 hours ago · Comment ·

Marcus Mok

A Korean conference paper caught my attention last two months. Since then, only I realized that it was our own mistake by not able to oppose Spore's exercise of sovereignty for the islands between 1852 to 1952 (100 yrs man!!). The official reply from the Acting State Secretary of Johor to British in 1953 stating that Johor Gov does not claim ownership of Pedra Branca settled the case for the ICJ judges. (Kevin Tan, 2010). I think Msia could have gain back the control in 1963 before Spore left us in 1965. Did our local press informed us on all this? Perhaps just created hatred towards neighbouring country as wish by the BN government, which never admit its own faults as usual.

about an hour ago ·

Cheong Chun Siong

Doubt if the government are that smart to know they are at fault.. probably they didnt even realise this until the argument was brought up by Singapore lawyers. :)

54 minutes ago