The President and I

You might have guessed from my previous posts that I don't like Lee MB, the Korean president-elect. To be fair, he seems to be a good businessman and he is fairly popular since he was Seoul's mayor for several years and he did start the clean Seoul campaign. But, what I take issue with are the allegations of corruption (to reference a previous post, corruption would be quite natural) and the strange pledges made during the elections.

Prior to his winning of the election, there was a lot of news about BBK (stock manipulation/fraud) and the (now) president's involvement with key suspects. It comes as no surprise to me that the Korea Herald, an English language rag which is essentially badly translated Korean articles mixed with US editorials, has been strangely quiet about the upcoming investigation. Or that there is no mention of Lee MB's previous promise to donate a large majority of his wealth to charity regardless of the result of last year's election.

These things speak volumes about voters in Korea. Firstly, by winning the election by a comfortable margin either shows that Korean voters are very forgiving or that Lee MB's rivals had worse skeleton's in their collective closets or people just don't care anymore. I take door number 3 as voter turnout was about 62%, barely qualifying as 'rule by the people' in my books. N.B., Australia consistently has over 95% voter turnout helped in part by a nominal fine if one is registered to vote but does not.

While the first gem of the campaign was Lee renouncing his wealth, the second was the claim that Korea will achieve 7% economic growth under his leadership. Global average for 2007 was about 5% largely driven by China and India as the USA is having some serious issues. Korea in 2007 was at about 4.5% so for a huge jump to 7% Lee MB must be the David Copperfield of economics. Though, sometimes I wish I could just make things appear out of thin air. Scarcely a month after he was elected, Lee MB stated 7% might not be achievable and that maybe 6% is a more realistic target. Again, not a word about a back flip that would put Nadia to shame.

On the plus side, Lee Myung Bak was born in Japan which essentially means all that is needed to be Korea's president is citizenship and command of the language. Perhaps there is yet hope for me to change this country.

With that, on to the words for today. All the words come from Final Fantasy 12 which a friend kindly lent me. Not everyone that plays video games runs around in a darkened room listening to repetitive music and chomping pills.


ef·fi·ca·cious[ef-i-key-shuhs]
–adjective
1. capable of having the desired result or effect; effective as a means, measure, remedy, etc.: The medicine is efficacious in stopping a cough.
-adverb
2. ef·fi·ca·cious·ly
noun
3. ef·fi·ca·cious·ness



mod·i·cum[mod-i-kuhm]
–noun
1. a moderate or small amount



vap·id[vap-id]
–adjective
1. lacking or having lost life, sharpness, or flavor; insipid; flat: vapid tea.
2. without liveliness or spirit; dull or tedious: a vapid party; vapid conversation.
-noun
2. va·pid·i·ty
3. vap·id·ness
-adverb
5. vap·id·ly
*one stem for this word means 'stale wine'.



mum·mer[muhm-er]
–noun
1. a person who wears a mask or fantastic costume while merrymaking or taking part in a pantomime, esp. at Christmas and other festive seasons.
2. an actor, esp. a pantomimist.



quid·di·ty[kwid-i-tee]
–noun, plural -ties.
1. the quality that makes a thing what it is; the essential nature of a thing.
2. a trifling nicety of subtle distinction, as in argument.




cav·il[kav-uhl] -illed, -il·ling, noun
–verb (used without object)
1. to raise irritating and trivial objections; find fault with unnecessarily (usually fol. by at or about): He finds something to cavil at in everything I say.
–verb (used with object)
2. to oppose by inconsequential, frivolous, or sham objections: to cavil each item of a proposed agenda.
–noun
3. a trivial and annoying objection.
4. the raising of such objections.
*basically, a synonym of criticise but cooler.