So you want to be a President?
Welcome back to the blog that formerly wrote frequently, and recently has come up with creative excuses. Now that I've run out of them, I'm back to writing about things more often. Thanks for tuning in. Now, onto today's news.
So recently in the news outside of Korea, the talk has been about the presidential elections in the United States that happen NEXT YEAR. I, for one, am happy to be living outside of the US, where I would rapidly get quick sick just from all of the debates, primaries talk, stumps, et all. Here in Korea, the next president will be elected on December 19. Now, just this past week, was the day when all of the presidential candidates had to announce they were running for the Presidency of Korea. 12, count 'em, 12 people are running for the office of the Presidency of Korea.
The government pays for all of these wonderful banners of all of the different candidates, and what number candidate they are - I guess they are hoping that by everyone seeing all of these banners all over Korea, they won't be able to forget what number they want to win.
12. The fact that so many people want to run for this country baffles me. Here in Korea, the presidency is a five year term. The problem's I see are those that the present President is facing now; people are tired of him. Current President Roh Moo-Hyun was elected five years ago, and he was elected primarily on the support of the middle-aged crowd. For a few years, his approval ratings were quite high, and overall, he had support across Korea. Now, in the past few years, he has lost the support of his own party, has contemplated stepping down early, and has changed political parties in order to continue trying to move things through the Korean government.
Now, the problem that I can see with having 12 presidential hopefuls is that, when all of the ballots are casted - if the winner does not manage to have a majority of the population backing him, he's guaranteed to have a rough go at things, because everyone's going to be saying "I didn't vote for you, so therefore I hate you!" Or something possibly a little more mild-mannered.
The ironic thing going through this whole election is that the front-runner is currently in the midst of a huge cross-country scandal that spans even into the United States. Presidential candidate Lee Myung-bak is currently being investigated for being in charge of a wide-spread financial fraud investigation spanning the US, Korea, and abroad. Lee Myung-bak's camp is denying the charges, and the investigation looking into the allegations has been given a deadline in order to come up with something in a few days time, or cancel the whole claim, at fear that the people could end up electing presidential candidate Lee Myung-bak, and then finding out after the election that he's been the mastermind behind the financial fraud case.
It's actually interesting reading, if you're into politics. The link can be found at both Chosun News Online and at JoongAng Daily two major online news sources for English news in Korea.
Lastly, the positive thing about having such a short candidacy period is that we don't have to hear all of this every-single-day.
And with 12 different candidates, that's twelve times the trucks, music, fun, dancing....
Have a great day, and God bless,
So recently in the news outside of Korea, the talk has been about the presidential elections in the United States that happen NEXT YEAR. I, for one, am happy to be living outside of the US, where I would rapidly get quick sick just from all of the debates, primaries talk, stumps, et all. Here in Korea, the next president will be elected on December 19. Now, just this past week, was the day when all of the presidential candidates had to announce they were running for the Presidency of Korea. 12, count 'em, 12 people are running for the office of the Presidency of Korea.
The government pays for all of these wonderful banners of all of the different candidates, and what number candidate they are - I guess they are hoping that by everyone seeing all of these banners all over Korea, they won't be able to forget what number they want to win.
12. The fact that so many people want to run for this country baffles me. Here in Korea, the presidency is a five year term. The problem's I see are those that the present President is facing now; people are tired of him. Current President Roh Moo-Hyun was elected five years ago, and he was elected primarily on the support of the middle-aged crowd. For a few years, his approval ratings were quite high, and overall, he had support across Korea. Now, in the past few years, he has lost the support of his own party, has contemplated stepping down early, and has changed political parties in order to continue trying to move things through the Korean government.
Now, the problem that I can see with having 12 presidential hopefuls is that, when all of the ballots are casted - if the winner does not manage to have a majority of the population backing him, he's guaranteed to have a rough go at things, because everyone's going to be saying "I didn't vote for you, so therefore I hate you!" Or something possibly a little more mild-mannered.
The ironic thing going through this whole election is that the front-runner is currently in the midst of a huge cross-country scandal that spans even into the United States. Presidential candidate Lee Myung-bak is currently being investigated for being in charge of a wide-spread financial fraud investigation spanning the US, Korea, and abroad. Lee Myung-bak's camp is denying the charges, and the investigation looking into the allegations has been given a deadline in order to come up with something in a few days time, or cancel the whole claim, at fear that the people could end up electing presidential candidate Lee Myung-bak, and then finding out after the election that he's been the mastermind behind the financial fraud case.
It's actually interesting reading, if you're into politics. The link can be found at both Chosun News Online and at JoongAng Daily two major online news sources for English news in Korea.
Lastly, the positive thing about having such a short candidacy period is that we don't have to hear all of this every-single-day.
Have a great day, and God bless,