Manhwa: Bride of The Water God by by Yun Mi-Kyung

A village suffering tom a severe drought, tries to appease the water god, Habaek by sacrificing the most beautiful girl in the village as Habaek's bride. Soah, a girl from the village is chosen to be that sacrifice. But instead of dying, she is unexpectedly rescued by Habaek and brought to his water kingdom. Soah was prophesized to love two men in her life when she was younger. She soon finds herself attracted to Mui, who she believes is Habaek's (adult version) cousin, unaware that Habaek (the child version) and Mui are the same person.

The reason why Habaek's powers diminish in the day, causing him to revert into his child
form, was due to the curse that Nakbin put on him. Nakbin was Habaek's first wife who died after placing the curse on him, in the hope that the Emperor would lose interest in Habaek since he could no longer use his powers during the day in the battle against the Sun Gods; Habaek's affinity with water...Read more>>

Manhwa: Miunohri to Swan by Hwang Mi-ri

This story revolves around Go Mi-oh, the youngest of three daughters , who desires to be beautiful and be accepted. Mi-oh's two elder sisters, as well as everyone else in her family is beautiful; with her being the only exception - she is over-weight, short, and has messy curly hair. Her father is the president of a company called Dark Hunters the story.

Due to her appearance, which differs so much from her family, Mi-oh is left out of all family gatherings and her sisters refuse to acknowledge her as their sibling. She resorts to living on her own in a studio apartment. As if her family life were not miserable enough, at school she is constantly bullied and humiliated by Kim Do-jin, simply because he deems her as ugly and cannot stand the sight of her...Read more>>

Manhwa: Hot Blooded Girl by Hwang Mi-ri

The story revolves around Kang Haji, a girl who was often bullied by her brothers when she was younger: being a guinea pig for her brothers, who use their newly acquired fencing and martial arts skills on her. In order to escape her brothers, she runs to her friend Te-hu for help. However, indeed of protection, he taunts herby telling her she is a coward who needs constant protection. He even insults her by calling her a puppy.

Instead of breaking down and crying at the lack of help and insult, she resolves to grow stronger. She decides to train vigorously everyday. After a couple of years, Haji goes from being a scared girl who cries for help to becoming the Jjang (boss of a gang) of the Doberman gang. Misfortune soon strikes Haji: she gets into an accident with a truck. As a result of the accident, Haji's body falls into a coma and her soul is accidentally relocated into the beautiful but frail body of Han Aram...Read more>>

Manhwa: Legend of Nereid by Hwang Mi-Ri

The manhwa is inspired from the Greek mythology, where the Nereids were sea nymphs. In the story, however, Nereids are known as people who are good swimmers, with many of them becoming ocean warriors. The story revolves around a young girl names Matia, who has always wanted to be one of the ocean warriors, and how a false prophecy changed her life, a respected general, a foreign prince, and even several kingdoms.

Learning swimming tactics from the respected Lord Muta himself, Matia is one of the best swimmers among her peers. Matia's people have a coming of age ceremony when they turn 15 years of age: they have a competition to see who will be to bring the sword of Poseidon back to the shores of Akaron Island, where Matia's people reside. Kulap, a fellow Nereid, is Matia's strongest competitor...Read more>>

Manhwa: Boarding House of Hunks by Hwang Mi-Ri

The story revolves around Shin Jae Yoo , a boy-crazy character who is often hot-headed and desperately wanted a beautiful guy for a boyfriend. She is willing to use any means possible just to get to stay in a boarding house full of hot guys; even if it means going on a blind date with the most nerdy guy in school. However, she pisses off the nerdy guy's best (and handsome) friend, Ji Hu, when she dumps the guy immediately after the "date".

Ever since the incident, Ji Hu and Jae Yoo are constantly at loggerheads. When Jae Yoo finally manages to accomplish her dream of entering the "boarding house of hunks," she thinks that nothing could go wrong: living in an amazing house with a kind landlady, and a cute guy (Oh Soo-bin) who seems to be interested in her... until she finds out that Ji Hu is the landlady's son..Read more>>

Accumulation of International Reserves in Middle East and East Asian Countries

Having realized the importance of increased liquidity as a form of (self) protection against crises, many developing countries (i.e. Middle East and East Asian) started to accelerate their accumulation of international reserves. Chart 1shows the increase of such accumulation.

Having international reserves enables economies to adopt slower speeds of adjustment when confronted with balance of payment crises, contributing to their perceived creditworthiness and hence reducing the occurrence of crises: higher reserves mean that future out may be avoided since future current account deficits can be better financed, and the effects of capital outflows can be neutralized by running down reserves... Read more>>

Economic Integration - Optimum Currency Area and ASEAN

According to Carbaugh (2009), optimum currency area is a region in which it would be more preferable economically to have a single official currency instead of multiple official currencies. For example, Malaysia can be considered an optimal currency area. Malaysia consists of 13 states: 11 states in the peninsula of Malaysia and two states on the northern part of Borneo states. It would be inconceivable that the current volume of commerce among its 13 states would occur efficiently in a monetary environment of 13 different currencies. (Malaysia Tourism 2010)

The gains of an optimum currency area would be more uniform prices, lower transaction costs with greater certainty for investors and enhanced competition. Having a common currency area eliminates the risks associated with exchange fluctuations as cost of currency are lessened, resulting in more uniform prices (e.g. predictability of exchange rates) and lower transaction costs. Also, with a common currency area, “the economies are insulated from monetary disturbances and speculation, and political pressures for trade protection are reduced... Read more>>