Showing posts with label seoul. Show all posts
Showing posts with label seoul. Show all posts

Saturday, 8 June 2013

Korea and Apeurika are now friends

In korean Africa is pronounced Apeurika and is written this way 아프리카.
Photo credited to the Korean MOFA and KBS World Radio for tape in Arabic. You can see here, Mr. Houcine Sahraoui, ambassador of Algeria in Seoul and Mr. and Mr. Mohamed Ali Nafti, ambassador of Tunisia in Seoul.
Although Korea has established diplomatic relations with many African countries starting the 60s, it was not until recently decades that it started to enhance these relations with the Dark Continent. Well still better late than never no? For instance, Seoul has recently launched a new challenge in an essay to boost the relationship with the African continent. The name of the project is called “friends of Africa”. (a good start, not to mention democracy).  In a meeting held last 27th of May, which was attended by the honorary ambassadors of some of African countries in Korea, the Korean foreign minister Yun Byung Se conferred letters of appointment to a group of 12 individuals tasked to promote Africa for a period of two years.
Like its neighbor China, it is clear that Korea wantsa slice of the African pie.  I wish this story the success. Korea has the advantage of its trustworthy image that successfully positioned it as an alternative partner. Given the new circumstances the north of Africa is going through, I'll look forward to the results of this new partnership.

Saturday, 1 June 2013

The 6th edition of the Arab Cultural Fesival in Korea

Now, a culture is not only about giving, but also about taking. This extra cultural exchange is what I like the most about Korea. A new event linking Korea to the Arab world is taking place from the 5th to the 9th of June 2013. It is the Arab Cultural Festival in its 6th edition. The new about this session is the Film festival that will be included this year. In menu 9 between films and documentaries will be displayed in the Art 9 movie theater in Sadong-dong, in southern Seoul near Lsu Station.

I can recommend you the movie God’s Horses (신의 전사들) from Morocco to his director Nabil Ayouch. This was displayed during the last session of JCC (les journaux cinematographiqes de Carthage/ Carthage Film Festival) where it won the prize of International Criticism (2012) and two days ago I watched it as it came back to the Tunisian movie theaters for the European film festival taking place now in Tunisia. I liked it. It is about the 2003 Casablanca bombings. It won the 1st prize of Seminci (Valladolid International Film Festival) in 2012 and the prize François Chalais in the section “Un certain regard” (a certain glance) of the Cannes Film Festival, 2012.


At second level, I recommend the battle of Algeria (알제리 전투) which is a documentary and the Tunisian Militants (투사들) which is also a documentary. 
For more infos about the festival, you may drop by the official web site of the festival. (where everything is surprisingly in Korean o.O).
According to KBS World Radio Arabic, the festival will also be taking place in Busan where Arabic movies will be displayed starting the 25th to the 30th of June.