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ReV VAdAUL posted:How is President Park doing as President (how powerful is the South Korean presidency for that matter?) and how bothered are people about her being a dictator's daughter? Is she trying to follow in his footsteps? This is pretty anecdotal but... I don't think she's going to be too ambitious beyond following in President Lee's footsteps of corporatism, whitewashing daddy's legacy and dealing with North Korea's poo poo. The administration seems to be spending a lot of time this year just making sure people don't blame the government too much for the Sewol ferry sinking fiasco. I live in Korea and witnessed a marching protest in Seoul last week (mostly in response to Sewol), but the police response, while numerically strong, is basically just huge lines of young guys in bright yellow uniforms holding plastic riot shields looking bored or marching around in a lite show of strength. My Korean boss told me Park had to fire one of her aides because he kept addressing her in public in a super-honorific (as if to royalty) manner, but her identity as the daughter of a strongman isn't all that significant to people anymore compared to Sewol happening on her watch. Stories relating to it are still front-page news. When she was elected, I had an early-30s Korean friend tell me "Now I know how you Americans feel when Bush was re-elected." Korea has a rapidly aging population (birth rate lower than Japan's! Wow!) and demographics played a big part in the election results. The political power gap between generations will probably only continue to widen as the elderly use their voting power to keep the conservative Saenuri party in power, so as long as they can find someone who can keep his eyes uncrossed long enough to make short addresses on the state-controlled news networks, I think there's no reason to double-down on an unpopular leader.
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Oct 6, 2014 17:06
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Femur posted:e: NK is now talking to the UN, admits slave camps. I hope the NK people can wipe out their oppressors before they become legitimate. "admits slave camps" doesn't really fit with what's in that linked article: "Official Choe Myong Nam told the briefing - which was open to reporters and foreign diplomats - that there were "no prison camps" operating in North Korea but there were "detention centres where people are improved through their mentality and look on their wrongdoings". Seems more like they're in hardcore spin mode. It sort of reminds one of how some Japanese politicians insist Korean sex slaves (or WERE they!?) were compensated or whatever and that their "service" wasn't as compulsory as alleged. The idea that the North is on a "charm offensive" from that article is pretty interesting; those N. Korean delegates are all smiles now, but it's hard to tell how much of it is nervous fawning vs. real confidence in their position. I really wonder if the UN is ever going to get the satisfaction of having the N. Korean government to come to terms with what it's done to its own people, or if it's going to be an endless cycle of whitewashing and blaming outside forces. Korea has a history of being kind of a pawn between big powers and they know how to play the victim card pretty well on a national level (especially w/their own media), not to mention "deflection of blame" is something of an artform over here in my experience. Will there be an Auschwitz Museum-like facility still standing 60 years from now (or at least something like the Koje-do POW camp historic park)? What will the Korean equivalent of Nuremberg trials look like? Ceramic Shot fucked around with this message at 15:23 on Oct 8, 2014 |
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Oct 8, 2014 15:16
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Cliff Racer posted:And, not that anyone noticed, but South Korea's ruling party just not only lost its legislative majority but actually (barely) came in second behind the main opposition group in their legislative elections. The government was blocking comments on news sites in the days leading up to the elections. Libel laws are seriously so bad here. Even if what you're saying is 100% true, if the other party can prove ("prove") damages resulted, you can be sued. I guess they have pretty different issues than the US as far as voting; my Korean boss told me that voting itself is very easy, so voter registration might be less of a hindrance. The Orwellian freedom of speech/information issues still really bother me a lot though. http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2016/apr/11/online-curbs-limit-south-korea-pre-election/ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/13/world/asia/critics-see-south-korea-internet-curbs-as-censorship.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 <-- older
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Apr 15, 2016 05:54
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Insurrectionist posted:This seems pretty crazy, I'm surprised the BBC headline just talks about pressure on the president to quit rather than the ridiculous (alleged) occult conspiracy poo poo causing said pressure in the first place. Is it ridiculous? Asking in earnest. The NY Times Article says: "In a 2007 diplomatic cable made public through WikiLeaks, the American Embassy in Seoul reported rumors that Mr. Choi “had complete control over Park’s body and soul during her formative years and that his children accumulated enormous wealth as a result.” I mean, that's a bona-fide cult leader with (apparently?) a huge amount of influence on the president of a country. edit: Man, Korea seems to have some big problems with cults. The Sewol ferry sinking where hundreds of children died was also linked to a cult leader.
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Oct 29, 2016 15:38
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Grouchio posted:Is the cult problem in South Korea linked to it's large Catholic minority? Or from traditional folk religions? Or neither? Choi Soon-sil, the sort of alleged evil vizier in question, is the daughter of this dude, a deceased former cult leader claiming to be the future Buddha --> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choi_Tae-min With half a dozen marriages and at least as many aliases, you can sort of bet the guy was a ruthless charismatic fuckhead. Soon-sil's daughter was also in Olympic dressage (lol go figure). I lived and worked in Korea for several years but I can only conjecture as to what the reason for powerful cults is. I'd venture that the Confucian hierarchical stuff has something to do with it. I think Korea is also classified as a high "power distance" country, meaning they're more accepting of power differences and authority figures. The US and UK are low power distance countries but obviously there are cults there too; but I still would guess there might be a connection there. Man, what a wave of vindication conspiracy theorists and paranoids must be having! edit: Also sorry, I didn't mean to imply that the connection between Sewol and the cult leader was causal, just that it was a thing. He also died under somewhat shady circumstances as I recall. Ceramic Shot fucked around with this message at 18:10 on Oct 29, 2016 |
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Oct 29, 2016 18:02
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Megillah Gorilla posted:It's not exactly politics, but yet another Kpop idol has committed suicide. You gotta love the fans who don’t seem to suspect anything more sinister than cyber-bullying is going on in an industry that produces poo poo like the Burning Sun club in Gangnam where there’s supposedly been women drugged and raped, all under the protection of a compromised police force. There’s tons of exploitation and rumor-mongering in the west too of course but stuff like grown women not being allowed to date by their companies or whatever kinda beggars belief for me sometimes.
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Nov 25, 2019 12:16
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