At long, long last, here’s the second edition of what’s keeping Korea’s Twitterians atwitter this week:
- At five, it’s Twitter’s queen of the airwaves Kim Juha (@kimjuha), with this, itself an RT from one @Ledlip:
The link directs to the Korean website for Big Issue magazine, which residents here may have noticed has been on sale in Seoul since mid-2010. Apparently, the unfortunate fellow in the picture, a Big Issue vendor, has been diagnosed with a brain tumour, so Kim is urging her followers to donate to a fund to cover his medical expenses. This kind of Tweet charity is seemingly a growing trend on Twitter, with celebrities like Kim able to generate considerable funding with their online support.
- At four, the Dokdo hot potato lands on Twitter, with this contentious question from prominent leftie journalist Go Jae-yeol (@dogsul):
How, he asks, do we explain to foreigners why it’s “The East Sea,” not “The Sea of Japan”? In coming to a conclusion, Go says, he worked himself into a headache. Should you be of a mind to join him, feel free to follow the link.
- At three, it’s indie singer/songwriter jbell1 (@psychefool), a man I must confess I’d never heard of until coming across his highly popular Twitter account. Referring to an issue I’ve covered elsewhere, and that has generated tremendous public sympathy, jbell1 invites his followers to attend a series of tribute concerts to the recently deceased indie musician Lee Jin-won.
The concerts take place on the 27th of this month, and will see more than 90 groups perform across 23 venues in Hongdae. The tickets are 10,000 won. I’m not sure if there’s more info anywhere in English, but you can find more about it in Korean here.
- At two, we have @kimseongjoo, a popular techie guy, with some advice on how to get Korean public holidays registered on your iPhone:
To wit:
Via Safari on your iPhone, 1) Go to http://j.mp/khdays 2) Where it says, “Subscribe to Korean Holidays?” 3) Click on “Subscribe.” Korean public holidays will automatically register on your basic calendar.
- And this week’s top Korean Tweet — and the second most popular in the world! — is Lee Oi-soo, with a ruminative question to ring in the New Year.
If God gave you the ability to rid this world of one thing, what would it be?
The 4,067 (and counting) replies include: money, societal evil, idleness, body fat, God (rather ungratefully), stress and “our evil minds” — but not too many mentions of Lee Myung-bak. Happy New Year, Mr. President!
UPDATE: My blog post has been RTed by Go Jae-yeol himself!
Fame!
