Published by the Gwangju International Center since 2001
April is home to four beautiful holidays in Korea: April Fools’ Day, Arbor Day, Easter Sunday, and April Nineteenth Pro-Democracy Day. The month is almost like a ticker-tape parade of these holidays for throngs of curbside onlookers to feast their eyes on.
Gwangju’s wildly fluctuating house prices beg the question if buying a home in the city is a solid investment or just throwing good money after bad. By William Urbanski My … Read More
Spring is already in the pipeline. Avian messengers cum couriers of the season will soon appear in our skies. Among other birds of that ilk, swallows will be sighted here and there, almost always in pairs. As birds go, they are exceptionally smart. Smart enough to be able to fly across seemingly endless stretches of ferocious ocean.
As you may have noticed, Gwangju exhibits an extremely high level of permissiveness when it comes to allowing people to park on sidewalks. Apps that encourage citizens to snitch on such terribly parked cars do nothing. The police and tow truck drivers, it seems, are both powerless to fix this problem. In what seems like a hopeless situation, a lone hero has emerged to fight this chaos and lawlessness: a tall orange parking cone that is bolted into the ground. Truly, a tall orange parking cone that is bolted into the ground is the hero Gwangju needs but does not deserve.
By William Urbanski If you’ve tried to walk, take a bus, or drive anywhere in Gwangju over the last two years, you’ve no doubt noticed that there’s a massive construction … Read More
Far from being a time of utter despair, frigid winter is when we can look forward to a beautiful spring over the horizon. Incidentally, I like the saying that “No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn.” Alexander Pope (1688–1744) famously said, “Hope springs eternal in the human breast.” Deeply comforting is this inexhaustible capacity of ours to hope for better things down the road. No matter how dire the circumstances may be, this inborn optimistic streak in us will always come to our rescue and deliver us from the darkest abyss imaginable.
Far above the streets and suspended in midair like a guardian angel, there lies a timeless piece of technology that acts as a focal point between psychology, physics, and electrical engineering. Often disregarded or outright ignored by the populous at large, this silent sentinel does not judge, does not get tired, and asks for nothing in return while keeping a watchful eye over all of us like a fearless eagle protecting its young.
The simplest and most convenient place to park is, obviously, in the middle of a road, but doing so creates a dangerous problem. Other cars that are moving quickly (sometimes as fast as 50 km/h!), risk colliding into the non-moving car. Even in the best-case scenario, a car that parks on a road can prevent other cars from driving on the road.
