Sunday, April 15, 2007

Gypsy Scholar's identity revealed!

Gypsy Scholar: The Ugly One
(Image from 매일경제)

Asia may be rising, but we all remained seated.

For those of you interested in who "we all" were, the scholars visible in the photo, from left to right, are Kisoo Kim (Discussant, Sejong Institute, Korea), Horace Jeffery Hodges (Presenter, Kyung Hee University, Korea), Myongsob Kim (Presenter, Yonsei University, Korea), Chong Wook Song (Chair, Seoul National University, Korea), Dong Zhiyong (Peking University, China), and Zhang Jian Ping (National Development and Reform Commission, China).

Partly visible, just behind my capped head, is the capless head of Richard P. Suttmeier (University of Oregon, USA). Invisible is Ha-Lyong Jung (Kyung Hee University, Korea).

The photo and accompanying article appear in the Korean paper 매일경제 (Maeil Kyung Jae / Maeil Business Newspaper). Here are the money quotes:
김명섭 연세대 교수와 함께 발표자로 나선 호레이스 제프리 호지스 경희대 교수는 "아시아를 `서방과 그 나머지(the West and the rest)`라는 도식으로 봐서는 세계화로 인한 문제를 푸는 데 도움이 되지 않는다"며 "아시아 스스로도 세계의 책임 있는 주체로 스스로 보편성을 찾아내고 서방이 지고 있는 무거운 짐도 분담해야 할 때가 됐다"고 운을 뗐다.

그는 단순히 넓은 형태로 협력을 추구하는 `스파게티 그릇`형 지역협력 차원에서 벗어나 이제는 `샐러드 그릇`형 국제협력에 나서야 한다고 강조했다.

Professor Kim Myongsob, of Yonsei University, and Professor Horace Jeffery Hodges, of Kyung Hee University, opened [the conference by] noting that "the sort of dichotomy [that is often conceptualized as one] between 'the West and the rest' is not helpful for solving the problems caused by globalization." Instead of being "the rest" after "the West," Asia should find its own universality not only for becoming a responsible subject of the world, but also for sharing the heavily-laden burden of the West.

They emphasized that [in Asian matters,] a salad-bowl-type process based on the nation-state should not be subordinated to a spaghetti-bowl-type process based on supranational networking.
I'm tempted to leave these quotes from our talk just as obscure as they appear to be, but I suppose that I ought to provide some clarifying remarks.

The "West and the rest" remark is an allusion to an observation made by Samuel P. Huntington (and also by Roger Scruton) that the 'rest' of the world is no longer satisfied with being second to the West. Our point was that if the non-West, specifically Asia, is rising, then it needs to assume the responsibility proper to great power and can't simply blame 'globalization' for the problems that it faces.

As for "salad bowl" versus "spaghetti bowl," these are metaphors -- borrowed from other scholars -- referring to a system of nation states versus a network of international organizations. Our point here was that international arrangements within Asia will have to come into being based upon the nation states, partly due to the passionate nationalism that we often find in Asia and partly by analogy to how the European Union developed through the decisions of nation states.

One might be tempted to look for more substance on which to subsist in these throw-away quotes, but don't attempt to mill too much flour from this grist.

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17 Comments:

At 7:22 AM, Blogger Conservative in Virginia said...

Wow. You don't look anything like your Blogger profile photo.

What's with the unusual cap? And why were you even wearing a hat inside? Isn't it considered rude?

 
At 7:56 AM, Blogger Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

Yeah, I don't, but that's because I'm no saint.

The cap is my trademark. I wear it to protect my head from cold, from heat, and from ridicule.

Not only do I wear my cap inside, I even wear it in church during the service! Despite Paul's admonitions in 1 Corinthians 11.2-16 (which I've never understood anyway).

Is wearing the cap inside rude? I don't intend it that way. People don't seem to react as if this is rude. Maybe everyone just thinks that I'm strange. Perhaps I am...

Jeffery Hodges

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At 8:31 AM, Blogger Hathor said...

I thought you would have dark an long hair. You do have those high cheek bones. Were you a carrot top?

 
At 1:12 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well if I were gonna post a "blogger pic" I think I'd make it sexy too. Except that I ain't, and would have the added difficulty of 'splaining it as you seem to be. But I do retain my hair. And I wear caps all the time.

The larger proportion of Asia, not constrained by agreements/pacts hopefully will avoid entanglements with the Western Powers. Insofar as pacts go. The Western conceptualization of pact, dare I say contract, is that it is a line to be crossed at times when it suits, and a line to be worshipped when it does not.

In the case of the US; there is the Monroe Doctrine, also the Roosevelt Corollary. Each addressing the same.Each an example, historically.

Asia, seeking to endure globalization will have to conform to certain environmental standards, so as to conform to Western expectations.But this is in Asia's own interest. Certain areas of Asia have been polluted by Powers outside themselves, others; polluted from within. Globalization will not, in the end, permit this. The EU has it's experience, the US has DDT.

The US had Marcos, the US had Saddam. The one shall not make it past footnote status the other will be footnoted out of existence.

Globalization is exactly what it portrays. Globalization does not mean that the context of what Adam Smith was purported to have meant stands; according to Western standards.

The Western Powers, US had it's own experience. Read Arthur M. Schlesinger; Jr., "The Age of Jackson" for a foretaste of Globalization.

And now the world finds itself destitute for lack of a "Cold War". It finds itself locked in a struggle for the ideology of the individual. The metaphor "salad" as opposed to "spaghetti" is accurate and easier for some to comprehend. Salad greens maintain their individuality, spaghetti mixes up like snakes.

China is key.

It is in the interest of the US defence industry to create a potential enemy. Would it not be also in their interest to, inviting a potential friend, invent a better mousetrap?

JK

 
At 2:16 PM, Blogger Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

Hathor, three of my brothers got the brown hair. My mother had black hair, but my father reddish blond. I had dark blond that got darker with age and turned gray as it also fell out.

I would have liked to have that Cherokee hair, but I didn't inherit it.

Jeffery Hodges

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At 3:01 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Had it been Kiowa or Osage, well Jackson did mess some things up.But you'd have kept your hair.

But I still think the hat cute.

JK

 
At 3:26 PM, Blogger Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

J.K., you must have read a lot of history, maybe taught some as well.

The contract thing is really, noticeably different here in Asia, where the rule of law is not yet the rule. Not that there's disorder, for emphasis is placed upon harmony (in the interestes of hierarchy).

But things are slowly changing from rule BY law to rule OF law. The Asian nations have to do this to develop stable, predictable relationships among themselves.

Then, of course, there's all that stuff that you mentioned.

As for my hair, well that -- as you implied -- is history.

Jeffery Hodges

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At 3:27 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

To avoid my previous mistake I'd best add: Marcos was an ally until "his" people voted otherwise. Saddam an ally until (and not the Kuwait invasion) he'd stoppered the Shia' overthrow of his Shangra La, and furthered his projection of "western saviour".

The one good. The other, bad. For Saddam.

JK

 
At 3:57 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's the "harmony thing".

Jackson's tenure did not at the time suggest harmony. Van Buren when the time was right, did. The US did not appreciate things as such. But when it was clear: the Federal Reserve was created.

Asia is in the middle of hindsight and foresight, Asia has the experience of dealing with far-flung Empire. Asia has the experience of, as it's known in the West, the "Boxer Rebellion". Asia has the wherewithal to insulate itself from the excesses experienced by the West.

I, as an individual, would be considered a "round-eyed-devil" but, if Globalization is to become, long term. This "devil" advocates harmony above all else. I realize this smacks of Confu'ism but an accommodation between W & E'strn sensibilities must at some point prevail.

Perhaps Asia can point to the US' "long view" of global warming and meet somehow in the middle.

I, am just muddling through. I'd like my grandchildren to inherit a better world.

JK

 
At 4:23 PM, Blogger A.H. said...

An interesting view of academic life! Roger Scruton...not salad, not spaghetti, just a gourmet Conservative breakfast. I don't know which I like least, his politics or his aesthetics. I find your cap far more interesting aesthetically than anything Scruton has written.

 
At 5:25 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yes esthuneuric, you have me pegged half right. I used to consider myself as you pen. And yes, I'm ambivalent. Asia has the power to reconstruct the nature of capitalism. Given what I've experienced, and having grandchildren, my experience is not likely to be repeated for them. Neither is my experience as a child brought up in far better circumstance than most of my peers growing up in my community. I was voting prior to '76 straight Republican.

I admit further as an Arkie I never voted Bill for governor. I did vote him in for President. Should I go back there I'll expect my proper lynching, my reasoning was that as gub, taxes went up; as Prez he was close to my age and "what the heck", he listened to Fleetwood Mac and blew sax. I knew his brother. I wish now I'd known Monica and Roger blew sax.
Post as your heart desires, but do not peg me now as "Conservative", in the strict sense. I have voted for a few decades. I tend to vote conservative but would've voted for Amos Kendell in 1832.
I intend to vote both my Arkie Senators for re-election. Now whine as I expect you feel. I have felt the concussions of real bom(b)last.

JK

 
At 8:23 PM, Blogger Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

Eshuneutics, good to hear from you again. Now, you see what I look like ... on one side, at least.

We'll have to discuss Scruton another time. Some of what he's written, such as on Islamism, has merit. On other issues, I know less about him and his politics, conservatism in Britain being something out of my realm of experience.

I'm glad that you like my cap, by the way ... well, that you liked it better than you like Scruton, at any rate.

Jeffery Hodges

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At 8:28 PM, Blogger Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

J.K., let me intervene before a misunderstanding grows.

Eshuneutics was referring to my post and to my mention of Roger Scruton rather than to your comments. Eshuneutics lives in England, as does Scruton, and the political comments were in that context.

The criticisms made by Eshuneutics were aimed solely at Scruton, definitely not at you.

Jeffery Hodges

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At 2:01 AM, Blogger A.H. said...

Hi, Gypsy Scholar. Sorry, I think my comment was a bit too cryptic.
Sorry, JK, I didn't mean to call you a Conservative: I was meaning Roger Scruton (who is a pet hate of mine). Actually, Scruton isn't so much a Conservative (in UK terms) as a high Tory! I find RS full of prejudice. You make lots of good points, JK: I regret, as a UK blogger, I often don't know all the ins and outs of USA history and politics! I found your points very informative. I feel it is a very important political issue this...well it would be, or you woudln't have blogged it Gypsy Scholar. I state the obvious.

 
At 5:42 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I've had the regrettable tendency for a long time of jumping before I looked. It has caused me some great and not so difficulties.

One thing should have jumped out at me from the beginning but to my embarrasment it did not. This site is above all, civil. The comments illustrative and edifying.

eshuneutics it is not necessary that you offer such kindness but I nonetheless very much appreciate your comment. Also, you increased my knowledge base. I had to do some reading but, that too is how it should be. I am appreciative.

JK

 
At 7:44 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well Mr. Hodges,
Apparently, you and I are the few who really get whats up with V-Tec student. Some things have been going on recently that I can only hope, are not what I think. I recently had the unfortunate experience of witnessing an ax these men were "chanting" to. In my journel I wrote Emil's Ax. I now know it to be Isma(i/e)l's Ax. The men worship the wrong god, and WANT TO BE THE PRIME SYMBOL OF EVIL. This happened on Feb. 24th Very close for such a coincidence (no such thing, right?)

 
At 8:18 AM, Blogger Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

Pennsylvania, you must have intended your comment for a different blog entry, one of the several that I posted on the Virginia Tech massacre -- probably the one on "Question Mark: Ismail Ax?"

Even so, I don't fully understand your comment.

Jeffery Hodges

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