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Korea's choice: Dirty deals, snappy slogans (the Election)

 
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Ya-ta Boy



Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994

PostPosted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 1:14 pm    Post subject: Korea's choice: Dirty deals, snappy slogans (the Election) Reply with quote

Here's a good summary of the election campaign:

Korea's choice: Dirty deals, snappy slogans

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/IK29Dg01.html


Hope everyone is enjoying the sound trucks with the blaring music and speeches. It will get worse before it's over. Very Happy
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lucas_p



Joined: 17 Sep 2007

PostPosted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 6:24 pm    Post subject: Re: Korea's choice: Dirty deals, snappy slogans (the Electio Reply with quote

Ya-ta Boy wrote:
Here's a good summary of the election campaign:

Korea's choice: Dirty deals, snappy slogans

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/IK29Dg01.html


Hope everyone is enjoying the sound trucks with the blaring music and speeches. It will get worse before it's over. Very Happy


At the university I work at, they recently had class elections. Everyone was shouting different numbers: "Vote 1!" or "2 is your choice!". I thought how silly that they vote with numbers, and just shout out the number as much as possible while singing catchy songs, ignoring the candidates and the issues.

Turns out that the Korean PRESIDENTIAL elections are the same way. Here we are just a few weeks before elections, heard a rip off of that one rock song replacing the words by shouting "Lee Myung Bak!" repeatedly with dancing girls and trucks showing "Number 2, number 2!".

And I thought the American election process was bad....
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Unposter



Joined: 04 Jun 2006

PostPosted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 6:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I read in yesterday's Korea Times that Chung (#1) wants to do away with the College Enterance Exam. He would turn it into a graduation test for High School students and not use it as a factor for university admission. Chung would also end the English section on the exam, instead students should get certificates of their English ability. The writer thought this would put less emphasis on grammar and more on communicative skills.

If this actually happened, I think it would have far reaching consequences on Korean society not just English teaching.
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Ya-ta Boy



Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994

PostPosted: Thu Nov 29, 2007 2:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
And I thought the American election process was bad....


I don't remember which election it was, but one year the GNP got caught sending a truckload--and I am not exaggerating--it was a literal truckload of money in plastic bags, somewhere to bribe someone during an election. Being an American, it kind of warmed the cockles of my heart. Very Happy
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Ilsanman



Joined: 15 Aug 2003
Location: Bucheon, Korea

PostPosted: Thu Nov 29, 2007 3:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The term for bribes is 'apple boxes'. They often put the money in apple boxes. 1 box is about $10,000.

Ya-ta Boy wrote:
Quote:
And I thought the American election process was bad....


I don't remember which election it was, but one year the GNP got caught sending a truckload--and I am not exaggerating--it was a literal truckload of money in plastic bags, somewhere to bribe someone during an election. Being an American, it kind of warmed the *beep* of my heart. Very Happy
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kat2



Joined: 25 Oct 2005
Location: Busan, South Korea

PostPosted: Thu Nov 29, 2007 6:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Has anyone noticed the poster for candiate #4? (can't remember his name)

It's a caricature (spelling??) picture of him with a giant head riding a bike. Nothing like a cartoon to get yourself elected....
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Col.Brandon



Joined: 09 Aug 2004
Location: Seoul

PostPosted: Thu Nov 29, 2007 7:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

If I were back in the West I'd have to be enduring a barrage of mindless commercial Christmas advertising and muzak. Same sh!t, different bucket.

I wish they'd be quiet around schools, though.
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Troll_Bait



Joined: 04 Jan 2006
Location: [T]eaching experience doesn't matter much. -Lee Young-chan (pictured)

PostPosted: Thu Nov 29, 2007 7:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

How can you not want to vote for Lee Myung-bak? He loves stew! We need that in a leader.
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kiwiduncan



Joined: 18 Jun 2007
Location: New Zealand

PostPosted: Thu Nov 29, 2007 7:32 pm    Post subject: Re: Korea's choice: Dirty deals, snappy slogans (the Electio Reply with quote

lucas_p wrote:
Ya-ta Boy wrote:
Here's a good summary of the election campaign:

Korea's choice: Dirty deals, snappy slogans

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/IK29Dg01.html


Hope everyone is enjoying the sound trucks with the blaring music and speeches. It will get worse before it's over. Very Happy


At the university I work at, they recently had class elections. Everyone was shouting different numbers: "Vote 1!" or "2 is your choice!". I thought how silly that they vote with numbers, and just shout out the number as much as possible while singing catchy songs, ignoring the candidates and the issues.

Turns out that the Korean PRESIDENTIAL elections are the same way. Here we are just a few weeks before elections, heard a rip off of that one rock song replacing the words by shouting "Lee Myung Bak!" repeatedly with dancing girls and trucks showing "Number 2, number 2!".

And I thought the American election process was bad....


I'm at a university too, and all I see in the student politicians here are a bunch of shallow, vacuous, scheming and weasley little turds-in-training. Like so much in mainstream Korean society it's all fluff and no substance. Reading the students' campaign posters it's just empty promises of 'happy togetherness', with the most concrete goals being the provision of new snack machines.

In New Zealand there are some politicians I like and some I don't particularly like. But I've got a grudging respect for all of them as they do in fact seem to have different ideologies and policies, and they tend to stick to their principles. Korean politicians on the other hand just seem like scum.
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The_Eyeball_Kid



Joined: 20 Jun 2007

PostPosted: Thu Nov 29, 2007 10:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The headline on the front of today's Herald was 'VOTERS BAFFLED BY BIZARRE CAMPAIGNS'. I was very disappointed that the story didn't go on to explain how Lee Myung-Bak had set up shop in front of City Hall and attempted to wow the voters by staring at a duck for five hours before lowering himself into a bath full of warm dubbin whilst Lee Hoi-Chang outlined his manifesto promises by fanning a burning shoe-tree with a Korea Times from 1978, pausing intermittently to move a hairbrush slowly across his outstretched tongue and grab aggressively at his genitals, but instead talked about how negative electioneering had taken the fore in lieu of issue-based campaigning.
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Ilsanman



Joined: 15 Aug 2003
Location: Bucheon, Korea

PostPosted: Fri Nov 30, 2007 1:29 am    Post subject: Re: Korea's choice: Dirty deals, snappy slogans (the Electio Reply with quote

I had a really brilliant Grade 12 history teacher. He taught me a word (sadly, I have forgotten) that means a political party that exists for no reason other than to win elections. For example, Canada's Liberal Party.

You have got to expect 1 or maybe 2 candidates here to be the same. But all of them?

kiwiduncan wrote:
lucas_p wrote:
Ya-ta Boy wrote:
Here's a good summary of the election campaign:

Korea's choice: Dirty deals, snappy slogans

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/IK29Dg01.html


Hope everyone is enjoying the sound trucks with the blaring music and speeches. It will get worse before it's over. Very Happy


At the university I work at, they recently had class elections. Everyone was shouting different numbers: "Vote 1!" or "2 is your choice!". I thought how silly that they vote with numbers, and just shout out the number as much as possible while singing catchy songs, ignoring the candidates and the issues.

Turns out that the Korean PRESIDENTIAL elections are the same way. Here we are just a few weeks before elections, heard a rip off of that one rock song replacing the words by shouting "Lee Myung Bak!" repeatedly with dancing girls and trucks showing "Number 2, number 2!".

And I thought the American election process was bad....


I'm at a university too, and all I see in the student politicians here are a bunch of shallow, vacuous, scheming and weasley little turds-in-training. Like so much in mainstream Korean society it's all fluff and no substance. Reading the students' campaign posters it's just empty promises of 'happy togetherness', with the most concrete goals being the provision of new snack machines.

In New Zealand there are some politicians I like and some I don't particularly like. But I've got a grudging respect for all of them as they do in fact seem to have different ideologies and policies, and they tend to stick to their principles. Korean politicians on the other hand just seem like scum.
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