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North Korea this week decided to shaft its citizens this week by devaluing its currency.
If you had $100 at the beginning of the day, after the devaluation your $100 is now worth $1.

This is apparently a move by North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong-Il to deal with the free-market economy that is burgeoning in North Korea and to help ease transition
for his son who is expected to take over the reins of North Korea.

They are capping the maximum amount of money that people are allowed to trade in of 150,000 WON, which works out to roughly $1000.
Can you imagine, having life savings wiped out in one day with no warning?

Awful.

Here’s an excellent documentary that was secretly filmed while in North Korea. I found it highly entertaining, and it’s well worth taking a half hour of your day to watch it.

www.vbs.tv/watch/the-vice-guide-to-travel/vice-guide-to-north-korea-1-of-3

One of French Polynesia’s big secrets is the amount of corruption that occurs in this country.

On one of the remote islands, the fellow running the post office suddenly quit his job after a large amount of funds went missing.

The funny thing is is that after he quit his job and suddenly started making improvements to his property which was no secret to anybody on the island.

The OPT employee soon after returned to his job as head of the post office for the small island.

French police now are investigating former President Gaston Flosse for his possible role in corruption with the  OPT.

For the uninitiated the capital OPT is the French Polynesia equivalent of the post office.

This is a fact of daily life in French Polynesia, there is so much nepotism that it’s amazing anything actually gets accomplished by anybody in government.

I once witnessed government trucks full of gravel drop off loads of stolen gravel to a residential area.

I know that some watermelon farmers were having issues with their watermelon going missing when they went on the government ship to be taken to market.

Corruption is a fact of life in French Polynesia and until action is taken it will always continue to be this way.

Recently, I’ve been listening to podcasts on the Internet. You would be amazed by some of the high quality programming that is actually out there!

Shows like the Bitterest Pill with Dan Klass & Film Flim Flam.

I’ve been following the Bitterest Pill, and having a blast listening to some of the stories that Dan relates. My current favorite is episode #180, which is entitled "I played this game with you before."

Continue reading "The New Radio -Yes I’m Sorry I Wasn’t Paying Attention" »

(Tahitipresse) – Assembly members passed Tuesday new measures aimed at protecting jobs. A minimum five-year residency will be required for persons wishing to work in public or private companies in French Polynesia.

The two bills were passed by 56 votes out of French Polynesia’s 57 Assembly members.

The majority coalition including Oscar Temaru’s UPLD and Gaston Tong Sang’s To Tatou Ai’a said the text was just right.

But the opposition party, Gaston Flosse’s Tahoeraa huiraatira, argued that a minimum ten-year residency would be even better.

Tahoeraa huiraatira Assembly members, however, finally chose to vote for the new measures with only a minimum five-year residency.

To get the authorization to work in French Polynesia, husbands or spouses of Tahitians will have to prove that they have been married for at least two years.

Some Assembly members said the new measures should also include persons who were born in Tahiti and went overseas to study and work.

But this point has not been kept in the final version of the two bills passed Tuesday.

Employers who would not abide the law could have to pay a US$ 2,000 fine (€ 1,500).

Minister of Labor and Employment Pierre Frébault said these new measures are not a way to cut ties with the outside world.

He claimed these measures are, in a way, the “first step” towards the creation of a Tahitian “citizenship”.

I am a documentary fanatic, I just can’t get enough of watching documentaries I’d rather watch a documentary over anything else! Every now and then I come across a documentary that I feel I have to share.

This is one of those documentaries. Sean McAllister, the filmmaker, had difficulty with this documentary and almost quit. Japan is a very private and closed society, people don’t really talk about what they’re feeling and this was the case with Sean for the first few years.

He ran across an older Japanese man (Naoki 56) who was living with a girlfriend half his age. Naoki, was a prime example of a victim of the economic fallout that happened in Japan. Working at the post office for low-wages, he had become dependent on his girlfriend  who worked as a hostess at nighttime club.

If you get a chance to watch a documentary this year let this be one of them. You can google the title of this article and it will give you a webpage for more information on this documentary.

Simply fascinating, is all I can reiterate. This is one of those documentaries, that sits with you because it is so good at exposing the human condition.