Monday, June 7
Uri and the Korean people humiliated
The huge defeat suffered by the Uri Party over the weekend is a humiliation for the party supporting the President. The honeymoon is well and truly over the Uri.
Roh would do well to reconsider his plan to join the new party.
The terrible voter turnout is a humiliating defeat for democracy in Korea. After just 3 free and fair presidential and National Assembly elections, only 28% of voters even bothered to turn up to vote for their provincial and city leaders. The voters should be ashamed of this poor turn out. The National Election Commission should look at bringing the provincial and National Assembly elections together, so as to require the voters to make only one trip to the polling station- perhaps the fact that National polling days are a national holiday, while provincial elections aren't had an effect in turnout. An the fact that the weather on Saturday was clear- the first fine weekend in over a month.
The GNP are celebrating, as they should be. It was a mandate for Party Chairwoman Park Gyuen-hee.
The GNP retained the Mayoralty of Pusan- vacant after the suicide of the sitting mayor, while in jail awaiting a corruption trial!( See Sunday's posting on Korean suicide rates.)
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Roh would do well to reconsider his plan to join the new party.
The terrible voter turnout is a humiliating defeat for democracy in Korea. After just 3 free and fair presidential and National Assembly elections, only 28% of voters even bothered to turn up to vote for their provincial and city leaders. The voters should be ashamed of this poor turn out. The National Election Commission should look at bringing the provincial and National Assembly elections together, so as to require the voters to make only one trip to the polling station- perhaps the fact that National polling days are a national holiday, while provincial elections aren't had an effect in turnout. An the fact that the weather on Saturday was clear- the first fine weekend in over a month.
The GNP are celebrating, as they should be. It was a mandate for Party Chairwoman Park Gyuen-hee.
The GNP retained the Mayoralty of Pusan- vacant after the suicide of the sitting mayor, while in jail awaiting a corruption trial!( See Sunday's posting on Korean suicide rates.)
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Anit-Americanism returns to Korea (did it ever leave?)
Following the stabbing of a taxi driver in Seoul by an American GI, bars and nightclubs around the capital are reporting "No Americans" or 'GI's not welcome" signs.
The signs first appeared in 2002, after the death of two school girls, who were crushed to death by an armoured personnel carrier, and had largely disappeared.
Club managers say that because the American soldiers are drunks who harass Korean women, they don't want them in their bars- as opposed to the drunk Korean men who harass Korean women.
Even though Korean and Military police have only recorded one arrest this year, and 2 in 2003 of GI's, the clubs claim they are a major problem, but conveniently for their claims, they usually don't call the police.
This is just the latest peak of the anti-American wave in Korea. Those who have been here a while may remember the song a couple of years back 'F*ukin' USA', or the huge carry one after a Korean skater lost the gold medal to an American in Salt Lake City.
After the fury from this latest issue dies down, the signs will again come down, the clubs will welcome the GI's and their dollars, and all will be well- until the next headline grabbing GI attack, and then it will start all over again. Such is the cycle here.
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The signs first appeared in 2002, after the death of two school girls, who were crushed to death by an armoured personnel carrier, and had largely disappeared.
Club managers say that because the American soldiers are drunks who harass Korean women, they don't want them in their bars- as opposed to the drunk Korean men who harass Korean women.
Even though Korean and Military police have only recorded one arrest this year, and 2 in 2003 of GI's, the clubs claim they are a major problem, but conveniently for their claims, they usually don't call the police.
This is just the latest peak of the anti-American wave in Korea. Those who have been here a while may remember the song a couple of years back 'F*ukin' USA', or the huge carry one after a Korean skater lost the gold medal to an American in Salt Lake City.
After the fury from this latest issue dies down, the signs will again come down, the clubs will welcome the GI's and their dollars, and all will be well- until the next headline grabbing GI attack, and then it will start all over again. Such is the cycle here.
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Sunday, June 6
Suicide rates in the OECD and a Mayoral suicide on one page
The Korea Times likes to link stories in a strange way.
In Saturday's online edition there was an interesting story about the rise in Korean suicide rates, in relation to those in other OECD countries. Korea now has the 4th highest rate in the world, but had the largest increase since the last survey, jumping over 10% in the last decade to 18.1 per 100,000. The highest rate was in Hungary, with 24.3.
Following that story was the unfortunate announcement of the suicide of the mayor of Paju, a city near Seoul. Lee Joon-won jumped off a bridge into the Han river on Friday afternoon. His driver jumped in to save him and also drowned.
Lee was being investigated for taking bribed during the construction of a university in Paju.
Once again there is the sad story of a high official committing suicide after a bribery scandal- just a few months ago the former head of Daewoo Construction,Nam Sang-guk, jumped off a bridge into the Han River to kill himself (this is obviously the new trend in killing yourself), after President Roh said that he tried to bribe the President's older brother to influence him, so as to ensue his reappointment as head of Daewoo Construction.
Employees at Daewoo said that Nam felt insulted by the President's accusation. Australian readers might not be able to help but feel that this puts the Carmen Lawrence-Penny Easton affair to shame.
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In Saturday's online edition there was an interesting story about the rise in Korean suicide rates, in relation to those in other OECD countries. Korea now has the 4th highest rate in the world, but had the largest increase since the last survey, jumping over 10% in the last decade to 18.1 per 100,000. The highest rate was in Hungary, with 24.3.
Following that story was the unfortunate announcement of the suicide of the mayor of Paju, a city near Seoul. Lee Joon-won jumped off a bridge into the Han river on Friday afternoon. His driver jumped in to save him and also drowned.
Lee was being investigated for taking bribed during the construction of a university in Paju.
Once again there is the sad story of a high official committing suicide after a bribery scandal- just a few months ago the former head of Daewoo Construction,Nam Sang-guk, jumped off a bridge into the Han River to kill himself (this is obviously the new trend in killing yourself), after President Roh said that he tried to bribe the President's older brother to influence him, so as to ensue his reappointment as head of Daewoo Construction.
Employees at Daewoo said that Nam felt insulted by the President's accusation. Australian readers might not be able to help but feel that this puts the Carmen Lawrence-Penny Easton affair to shame.
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Confirmation date for troops to Iraq
The National Security Council seems to playing politics in Korea. The long delayed decision on the deployment of Korean troops to Iraq is to be made on June 10th an anonymous Ministry of Defence source says.
This just happens to be 5 days after the Mayoral and Gubneratorial elections, which were held today.
It is obvious that President Roh didn't want to have the deployment announcement made during the campaign period- that's why it was delayed during March/April, even though a vote approving the deployment passed the Assembly in mid-February. He had his impeachment and the National Assembly elections to get through, and now elections that the Uri Party seems on the verge of losing.
This blatant politicization of the NSC should be worrying to the Korean media and people, but there seems to be little concern, at least in the english language press here.
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This just happens to be 5 days after the Mayoral and Gubneratorial elections, which were held today.
It is obvious that President Roh didn't want to have the deployment announcement made during the campaign period- that's why it was delayed during March/April, even though a vote approving the deployment passed the Assembly in mid-February. He had his impeachment and the National Assembly elections to get through, and now elections that the Uri Party seems on the verge of losing.
This blatant politicization of the NSC should be worrying to the Korean media and people, but there seems to be little concern, at least in the english language press here.
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