Dokdo Is Ours has some bang-up ideas for the latest iteration of Korea's everchanging tourism promotion slogans. One sample:
In a recent "News in Focus" feature, you reported that a pair of Korean agencies charged with consumer protection are looking with suspicion upon the falling prices at local discount chains such as a E-Mart and HomePlus. Supposedly, any price fluctuations are confusing to consumers who, the thinking goes, are too simple-minded to know a good deal from a bad one ("How Low Can the Mega Mart Prices Go," 9 February, 2010).
Yet, contrary to the claims of the Korea Consumer Agency (KCA), the role of mega marts is not to "stabilize prices," but rather to meet the demands of their customers. To the degree that the store succeeds in doing this, it earns greater profits. Given the reported surge in sales since the recent price-slashing began, it's fair to say that these stores are providing exactly what customers want: lower prices.
Could it be that individual consumers are better positioned than the KCA or the Fair Trade Commission to know what is in each person's best interest? These agencies would do well to look at the sales figures and have a bit more trust in the public's judgement.
“We have now reached a state where [unions] have become uniquely privileged institutions to which the general rules of law do not apply”
The 77-day seizure of the automaker’s factory in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi cost Korea’s fourth largest automaker 316 billion won ($269 million) lost in production. Occupiers also injured riot police sent to control the situation. Protesters used slingshots, Molotov cocktails and burning tires to repel officers.
"...unlike most other rich nations, South Korea had recent experience with a major financial meltdown. Many of its current leaders are veterans of the Asian crisis that crippled the country's economy in 1998, and they knew how to manage a free fall. Lee's team immediately moved to save threatened banks and companies by setting up $200 billion in various funds to guarantee payment of their debts and for other forms of emergency aid. They struck currency-swap deals with major economies such as the U.S. to secure dwindling reserves of foreign currency and front-loaded public spending so that 65 percent of the country's $250 billion budget was spent during the first half of 2009, ensuring that the money got into the economy rapidly—but without adding new debts. A government focus on protecting jobs kept consumer sentiment relatively high, and the Bank of Korea cut interest rates by 3.25 percentage points to 2 percent, a historic low."
At Hyundai [Lee] led a company known for fearless forays into foreign markets, whether it was building huge bridges in Malaysia or selling cars with stunning success in the crowded U.S. market.
"I'm asking you to believe. Not just in my ability to bring about real change in Washington...I'm asking you to believe in yours."
"...we need to stand up to the special interests, bring Republicans and Democrats together, and pass the Farm Bill immediately.
I was 15 years old. I was looking for a system that represented my ideals of egalitarian society. It was the time of the disappearance of the Soviet Union, everybody turned his eyes towards social democracy and no longer wanted to call himself “communist”. Principles were on sale. I studied the patterns of Vietnam, China and Cuba. But North Korea was taboo even for the most radical left. It was in Madrid that I got in touch for the first time with three North Korean families who represented the country in the World Tourism Organization. I obtained material about North Korea and began to cultivate my interest.
An Englishman, a Frenchman and a North Korean are standing in an art gallery, looking at a painting of Adam and Eve holding an apple.
The Englishman says, "They are English, because the man shares delicious food with a woman."
The Frenchman disagrees: "No, they're French, because they are walking in the nude."
Finally, the North Korean speaks up, "They are North Korean. They have no clothes and little food, but they think they are in heaven."