Last Two Weeks in Korea - Student Liberation, Euro-Image, & Chaebol Penetration

1. National
  1) Students in Seoul got liberation?
   Seoul Education Superintendent Kwak No-hyun proclaimed the controversial students’ human rights ordinance that bans any kind of corporal punishment, continuing his clash with the central government and many parents and teachers nationwide. It took effect immediately in all elementary, middle and high schools in Seoul. It prohibits discrimination against students based on gender, religion, age, race, whether they are pregnant or because of their sexual identity. The ordinance allows students to stage rallies and loosens dress and hair codes in schools. The most controversial part of the ordinance is the banning of corporal and verbal punishments, which many parents and teachers say will lessen teachers’ authority and lead to students getting out of control. Critics say that Kwak does not understand the realities in the class rooms. 
The leftist Mr.Kwak was released from four months in jail last week after being fined 30 million won for election bribery last year, and he is the head of education in Seoul. Paris Hilton preaching teenagers to keep virginity until marriage ……  
2) Europeans image on Korea
Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency(KOTRA) asked 1,208 young people from 18 to 30 in five major cities in Europe what would come up as the first image when they think of Korea. North Korea was the first image with 9.1%, followed by K-Pop(6.9%) and Seoul (6.5%). Korean War was the fourth with 5.4% followed by Samsung(5.1%), Kimchi(2.7%), 2002 World Cup (2.4%), Taekwaondo (2.0%), science & technology (1.4%) and automobiles (1.4%).
 
What if the same question was asked to Americans who have not been to Korea?  Not sure, but M*A*S*H would be one of the top 3 answers.
 
2. Economy
1) Chaebol criticized over penetration into corner store business
It is like GE selling pan cakes and GM running coffee shops. While anti-corporate sentiment is brewing also in Korea due to widening wealth gap, President Lee Myungbak lashed out at third-generation scions of Chaebol owners for driving small business owners out of business, criticizing them for lacking business ethics. Lee added “If conglomerates keep invading into mom-and-pop stores, the public will harbor hatred against them.”  Big companies need act wisely.  Probably scared, Hotel Shilla announced it will walk away from its bakery and cafe brand Artisee just a day after Lee’s tough warning. Hotel Shilla is owned by Samsung Chairman’s first daughter.
While Korean conglomerates were the locomotive of Korean economy for over half a century, they have not been well respected as much by the public. An irony is that, while people accuse Samsung or Hyundai for being greedy and unethical, they want their kids get a job with Samsung or Hyundai.
 
3. Auto Industry
   HMC announced that its sister company Hyundai Powertech will supply its 6-speed transmission to Chrysler for its new Dodge Dart from 2012, with total volume of 770K to 2018. This will be 1.2 trillion won in sales. Hyundai worked together with Chrysler for the development of its World Engine produced in GEMA plant based on Hyundai’s Theta engine in 2005, so this will be the expansion of their cooperation in powertrain business.
  Hyundai Powertech was established in 2001 as the auto transmission company to supply to Hyundai and Kia. Located in Seosan city, one hour drive south west of Metaldyne Korea, Powertech celebrated its 10 million-th transmission on Dec 5 in 2011. Chung Myungcheol, the plant manager in Kia Slovakia plant until last month, is the new head of Hyundai Powertech. Mr.Chung, no relation to Chairman Chung Mongkoo, has spent most of his career in purchasing ever since he joined Hyundai 36 years ago. He has made the Slovakia plant a huge success, and Chairman Chung expects Mr.Chung repeat in Powertech what he did in Slovakia.
Regards,
H.S.

Comments

Re: Last Two Weeks in Korea - Student Liberation, ...

Wow, there will be many who will sing his praises but not being allowed to punish, not abuse, students does lead to out of control classrooms on down the road. The US has this problem.

 

There is a fine line between punishment and abuse and frustration and students should be punished when they do something wrong otherwise they don't learn consequences to actions.

Re: Last Two Weeks in Korea - Student Liberation, ...

Kudos for him for stopping abuse., but dicipline and punishment are murky areas. as for parents and teachers who complain about this move. my 12 years teaching experience in korea (and my western mindset). teachers placate kids with treats in hogwons to make parents happy, yet parents come down on teachers when students don't perform well in academics. parents come down on teachers who use aggressive behaviour for dicipline, and lets not forget the age old once upon a time tradition of white envelopes from parent to teacher to ensure good grades for the child. its the biggest hypocracy of the education system i think. (again, from my western mindset)

so yeah i hope he rocks the boat a little. its about F$#%^&& NG time.

KPOP should not be exported. I've just finished watching the letterman debut and i have to say. it looked like nine clones of brittany spears (spelling?) except that they didn't really look like they were very present. (maybe jetlag?) it looked literally like nine blank faces on the show. that said, KPOP is not needed in the wider world. let it sit in the ether on youtube and k-pop crazed interweb dwellers.

 

as for CHAEBOL. good for mr prez. although i was a fan of his mayoral attempt. and paid little attention to him in the captains chair of korea. i know he's got mixed lovers and haters. but yeah, tell the chaebol where to stick it. a driving force they once were, so much so that the combined stupidity and greed of gov't and business led the country to its financial pitfall. and yeah, they pulled themselves out of it, only to lead the individual citizen into housing and credi debt.  and i hope the davids of korea continue to the fight goliath chaebol all those presumably entitled offspring botch the job, and all their royal  patriarchs/matriarchs have passed on to the next world, thereby leaving the offspring with no bail out and at the whims of the common folk. bring on the revolution.

and i hope that this will break the trend of all high school university students  desire to work with the holy trinity of greed.(LOL)