From my buddy Tom, a link to a Hani article about the hoops a foreigner will have to go through starting in 2009 if he wants to marry a Korean wife and become a citizen through marriage.
Personally, I wouldn't want to become a Korean citizen, but I wouldn't mind the privileges that come with a spouse visa.
From the Maven, a link to a site displaying Flash animations by those "South Park" partners in crime, Trey Parker and Matt Stone. The topic? The Eastern-tinged teachings of Alan Watts! Pretty cool.
I loved Alan Watts when I was younger, but I've soured on him a bit since then, largely because I discovered he was happily dropping acid at Buddhist temples and fucking around on his first wife (possibly on his next two wives as well). Wishing to avoid the genetic fallacy, though, I admit I still find his insights clear and provocative, and while many modern scholars shy away from some of his views, I think Watts's The Way of Zen and The Spirit of Zen remain good, solid intros to Zen Buddhism.
Watts videos are all over the place on YouTube, by the way. Just type "alan watts" into the YouTube search window. In the meantime, I think the Maven's link is quite a find. The first video in her link is, in my opinion, the best, as it deals with the just-this of this moment. The next two might be a bit more controversial, especially if you're scientifically inclined.
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To be perfectly honest, I wouldn't describe the new marriage-based immigration requirements as "going through hoops." Immigrants who want to naturalize in the United States, be they married to U.S. citizens or not, have to take a test that presumes knowledge of the English language and more knowledge of the nation than perhaps many of its citizens possess. I think it is completely reasonable that people who want to naturalize in Korea should be able to speak at least basic Korean and know something about the nation. In fact, I think it's kind of odd that it's taken them so long to get around to implementing something like this.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I have to say that the headline for that article sucks balls. It makes it sound like you need to take a test to get married, which is obviously not the case.