Today’s Korean News summary 06.05.15
Summarized and translated from Joseon Daily Post.
Daily MERS situation in Korea!
Politicians
overact and demand that the president take charge of the situation to do … what?
Even though the government is operating a response task
force, voices are saying only the president can curve the public fear that is
vastly disproportionate to the actual medical threat. What actually do they
want the president to do? The Ebola example in the U.S. is used to basically say
that the president should go into full fledge emergency PR mode.
Politicians
exploit the situation with lies
The mayor of Seoul stated that a confirmed MERS infectee had
went around in public and met over 1500 people in a day at a public event.
However, he cannot provide any facts to support this claim as he says that he
overheard it or imagined it or something like it in a meeting.
The spread
of MERS after 15 days
The first confirmed infectee was located in Pyeongtaek,
Korea. It seems that this first infectee spread MERS to the people in the hospital
he was being treated in. One of these people then traveled to Daejeon where
this person was treated in two hospitals in separate occasions. The same thing
happened in these hospitals also.
At the present, MERS has been identified in the cities of Seoul,
Daejeon, Pyeongtaek, and in the South Chungcheong Province. There are currently about 50 confirmed
infectees and about 1600 are “self” quarantined for observation.
Even though
no teens were infected, mothers’ over act
As a result of angry parents’ complaints, many schools in
Korea have been shut down for the unforeseeable future. However, evidence has
shown that MERS tends to target populations over 45 years old with a low rate
of infection in teen populations. Even in Korea, the youngest infectee is 25
years old. Some specialists say that there is not enough evidence to say that “age”
is a factor with the disease at the moment. Other factors may be more
important.
Korea is
over reacting!
Specialists say that the virus, MERS, originating from camels is not a wide spread threat to the country because of its low rate of infection. The virus mostly infects the lower repertory system making it difficult to get out of the body. In case of Korea, it seems that the virus was release during a medical procedure to remove fluid from that region. This means it was a special case rather than the norm of the virus’ infection capabilities.
Specialists say that the virus, MERS, originating from camels is not a wide spread threat to the country because of its low rate of infection. The virus mostly infects the lower repertory system making it difficult to get out of the body. In case of Korea, it seems that the virus was release during a medical procedure to remove fluid from that region. This means it was a special case rather than the norm of the virus’ infection capabilities.
Defense News
North Korea released video of their Submarine-launched
ballistic missile (SLBM) firing test which formerly thought to be doctored.
Entertainment News
In a recent survey, evidence shows that Korean movie going audience
is changing their behaviors from watching movies as a social experiment to a
solitary one. About 44.5% of the responses state that they watch movies alone. They
are also selective in movie theaters depending on the genre of movie. In
addition, the current movie genre preference seems to prefer action and SF
genres over thrillers and romance melodramas.
Economic News
Elliott
management Takes a bite into the Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries’ merger
The shockwaves of the announcement, that the American based hedge
fund Elliott management owns 7.12% of Samsung C&T stock, has put a dent
into the merger of Samsung C&T and
Cheil Industries. The two companies are core companies in the Samsung
group with Cheil Industries being the de facto holding company of the entire
group.
The underlining motivation of the merger is to shift enough
stock to current vice chairmen Lee
Jae-yong in preparation for a transfer of the group’s controlling ownership in
the near future. Thus, this sudden unforeseen external incursion has become a wrench
in the works.
Elliott management is known for buying up high risk government
bonds and turning a profit via high exposure lawsuits. This has given the hedge
fund a notorious reputation. While the fund has said that it is against the
merger because it goes against their long term interest regarding their stakes
in the Samsung C&T, it is thought that Elliott management is trying to take
advantage of this merger’s importance to the controlling parties of the Samsung
Group. It is known that vice chairmen Lee
Jae-yong does not have enough shares to make the deal go through without a considerable
participation of foreign stockholders like Elliott management.
Korean
Stock Market news
In regards to cooperate Mergers in Korea, the saying in the
Korean Stock Market is to invest, among the companies involved in the merger,
in the company with the higher stock investment of the controlling party i.e.
Group chairman and his family. This is because the controlling party of the
merger always steers the merger settlement in favor of their own investment and
control of the resulting sole company.
The
changing currency values is hurting Korean exports
With the devaluating of the Yen and the decreasing value of
the Euro, many Korean industries are being put in a disadvantage. In the
automotive industry, Hyundai and Kia have dropped to the 10th and 11th
place in the global market. Korea’s
closest competition, Japan, has doing well out of the situation as their Ship Construction
and Steel making industries are able to take advantage of the low Yen value to
undercut Korean companies in price competitions.
While the big boys were hurt, the little “mid to small size”
companies were hit harder as their already thin profit margin does not make it
easy to deal with a situation where their products are now slightly more
expensive than Japanese products.
Chinese
investing massive amounts of cash in foreign markets in response to Japan’s
actions.
The currency devaluing war is heating up. Over the last
year, China has been investing, and loaning out massive amount of cash outside
of its boarders in order to reduce the visible amount of the country’s foreign
trade surplus balance. This is in support of the country’s effort to devalue their
currency since their high surplus would garner resistance to the effort to devalue
Chinese’s currency in the global market. However, the Chinese are not the only one is
this game. Japan has been doing a similar thing for even longer in order to
devalue their currency also.
In contrast, Korea has only been responding with minor
reduction in interest rates which has not helped the Korean economy fight this
war. The reliance on market forces alone is simply not enough as Korea’s global
trading surplus has been increasing with the decline in domestic spending over
the last few years. There are voices that Korea also has to reduce their
considerable foreign currency reserves in order to devalue its own currency.
Real estate
news
The asking price of smaller size apartments in Korea has
been increasing faster than larger size ones recently. This seems to be in
response to the increase in demand resulting from improvements in space management
made on the part of modern apartment designers.
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This is all horrible. But somehow I think (I could be wrong though) that the government is not doing enough to protect the citizens. How did they let so many people get infected? That is a giant procedural failure. They need to come up with very, very strict procedures to stop the virus from spreading.
ReplyDeleteThere are many problems in Korea, but the worst one is Confucianism. If not for his teaching, the society wouldn't be so hierarchical, and people would be more independent instead of relying on their superiors to show them the way. If Korea gets rid of this whole status thing, they will be much better off as a country and deal or possibly prevent disasters.
"They tend to less advanced in terms of TV show viewing tastes."
ReplyDeleteOh, Lord. Where do I start? The reason I watch Korean dramas is NOT because I am less advanced or have a poor taste. I am so educated, it is not even funny. So from my educated point of view I am going to prove to you - YOU ARE WRONG.
Name at least ONE more advanced art form than Korean drama. JUST ONE. Movies? Some movies are made so poorly, they are practically junk. Novels? There are very few novels that can achieve what dramas can. Music? You should listen to some pop music, it is beyond horrible.
So please do not take dramas lightly. They have their niche and they are not getting more and more popular for nothing.
SummAry... Please change ;-)
ReplyDeleteHey, I have many questions about Korea (not about drama). Would you be willing to answer them?