Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Adventurer]

It appears that Lee Myung Bak heard the protests of the people. Though I thought many of the Koreans protesting (not all) were protesting out of ignorance, I respect their right to protest. I also can appreciate the president responding to their will somewhat. He should have consulted people before simply accepting American beef. I do think American beef is relatively safe, but he could have accepted cows only younger than a certain age. Anyway, ignorance exists in all countries and Korea is not an exception.

[Bigfeet]

[Ya-ta Boy]

If your popularity plummeted to 22% in 100 days, you might reassess the way you are governing, too.

Can God Save Mr. Bulldozer?
What did Lee do wrong? Some say it was his signing of a beef import deal with the US that poses, in the minds of some South Koreans, a health hazard. In fact, that was the most immediate and pressing motivation behind Lee's public apology. Yet many also indicate his insensitivity to the needs of his people. Also, it was his unwillingness to give more political room for his intra-party rival, Park Geun-hye. It was also his inconsistency on putting conditions over North Korea's food aid. It was also his "English immersion" educational initiative that went against national sentiment. It was also his selecting wrong aides, many of them turned out to belong to the richest 1% in the nation.

Essentially, however, all of these - even the US beef import deal - are only on the sidelines of the real issue: Lee's much-celebrated "bulldozer" leadership style that was so successful in his business career. Now, as president, he wants to run the country as its chief executive officer (CEO). In a meeting in Washington, Lee actually proclaimed he is the "CEO of South Korea". This attitude is his real problem.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/JE29Dg01.html

[Adventurer]

I will admit, I don't like how he side-lined so many people from his own party just because they were Park Chung-Hee's daughter's people. You can't afford to burn your bridges like that. He also should have consulted properly on the beef issue. Even if people on Dave's want to say there is so much ignorance out there, we also have tons of ignorance in our countries but in different areas. People here are more likely to buy into conspiracy theories, but the fact that Lee handled things improperly made it easy for the conspiracy theorists to gain ground, and he embarassed his own political party. However, I believe he can redeem himself.

[Bigfeet]

That's a problem with democracies, it's more about mob rule. We don't really want to elect leaders, we want to elect lackeys.

[Otherside]

On the other hand, Presidents in Korea are only allowed to serve a single term. So provided it doesn't lead to out right revolution, he can push his agendas through without having to worry about re-election...

[pkang0202]

10,000 koreans protest with a population of 50,000,000.

Sounds like a minority opinion to me.

The Netizens of Korea remind me of the MoveOn.org group in the US. Sure, they make a lot of noise but the majority of people think they are crazy.

[endo]

[Ya-ta Boy]

[endo]

[Bryan]

[Adventurer]

[Cotal Tunt]

[Ya-ta Boy]