Monday, June 30, 2008
Finally hopped in nice slate green one
We finally purchased a 2008 Honda Odyssey and it sure looks and feels nice. Now time to pay next 3 years with egregious amount of monthly payment. Dang!!!
Thursday, June 26, 2008
N. Korea's dear leader gets a boat load of money from Mr. Bush
Bush getting hammered by his own party and gets praise from Obama. Who is really leading the country right now?
Supreme Court hammers DC gun control
Many details:
Supreme Court Blog
Handgun companies rally on Supreme Court decision: Mo money, Mo guns.
Dissing Kobe?
Yeah, the big boy has 4 and Kobe with 3 and none is on his own. Still, he is one of the top two best players out of 60 Billion wannabes.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Looking to buy Honda Odyssey 2008 by .....
Please vote when I can get this done. A Jamba Juice treat.
Nell - Time that walks memories
Nice easy going one if you can understand the lyrics...... The song is about remembering fond memories of the past relationship.
Mr. McCain and Internet
Okay, I understand he is a bit old but can he get with some flow?
Some improvement. At least he is aware of internet now. Good progress!!!
Profits thump safety any time…..
Meat wars: Why are those wacky Koreans dissin’ our beef?
By Mike Whitney
Online Journal Contributing Writer
Jun 23, 2008, 00:13
Email this article
Printer friendly page
You wouldn’t know it from reading the newspapers, but the streets of Seoul are packed with tens of thousands of angry protesters who’ve brought business and government to a grinding halt. The demonstrations have dragged on for more than a month and show no sign of ending anytime soon. President Lee Myung-Bak’s decision to lift the ban on US beef imports has set off a political firestorm that is likely to bring down the government and put the kibosh on free trade agreements for years to come.
Last Tuesday, the powerful Korean Confederation of Trade Unions threatened to call a general strike if the meat-deal with Washington was not rescinded. If the unions strike, the whole capital will shut down. That’s why the politicians are scrambling for solutions.
South Korea suspended the purchase of US beef in 2003 after an incident of mad cow was reported in Washington state. Many Koreans still don’t believe the government’s assurances that the meat is safe and they may have a point. According to the LA Times the USDA tests less than 1 percent of cattle. (USDA Mad Cow Madness” LA Times) In contrast, Japan tests every cow that enters the food chain.
Also, according to the Associated Press, “Restricted imports of U.S. beef reached South Korean supermarkets last year, but further shipments were put on hold in October after banned parts, such as bones, were found in a shipment.
Scientists believe mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), spreads when farmers feed cattle recycled meat and bones from infected animals. In humans, eating meat products contaminated with the illness is linked to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare and fatal malady.”
The Myung-Bak administration is being strong-armed by the Bush team to ignore the massive protests and honor the terms of the trade agreement. It’s a “lose-lose” situation for the Korean president who can either incur the wrath of the corporate oligarchs by caving in or commit political seppuku by shrugging off the demands of his people. Either way, Lee’s career is kaput; he’ll never survive the fallout.
According to AFP, “Seoul insists it cannot meet protesters’ demands to renegotiate the beef deal, saying it would jeopardize a separate, wider free trade agreement and cast doubt on South Korea’s good faith as a negotiator. . . . The US apparently fears any official endorsement would breach World Trade Organization rules.”
Right; “a deal is a deal;” what were they thinking? How could they expect to bend the rules for something as trivial as public safety? So on with the protests, on with the strike. The whole issue of free trade is now precariously balanced on a few pounds of sketchy brisket.
The media has done a first-rate job of diverting attention from the the central issue of whether meat is safe or not by characterizing the protests as “frustration with President Lee”. This is just more nonsense to protect the beef industry. In reality, people everywhere want to be sure that what they put in their mouths is safe to eat. The lack of confidence in US beef imports has struck a nerve in the publics consciousness, sending thousands of Koreans into the streets shouting slogans and waving fists. But is their rage is justified?
According to Martha Rosenberg, “Seven people have died from probable Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease in the US in the last nine months . . . Do trade officials know something we don’t know?”
She reported, “In May, the Bush administration urged a federal appeals court to reverse a lower court ruling that allowed Arkansas City, KS-based Creekstone Farms Premium Beef to conduct advanced mad cow testing on its animals–presumably because it would raise consumer questions and make other packers look bad.
“This is the government telling the consumers, ‘You’re not entitled to this information,’” protested Creekstone attorney Russell Frye, according to the AP, a charge also heard in March when USDA refused to name companies selling 143 million pounds of recalled Westland/Hallmark beef because the information was “proprietary.” [Meat Wars with South Korea, Martha Rosenberg]
Hmmmm. So, why is the Bush administration so surprised that foreigners don’t want our beef if it isn’t properly tested? What were they expecting?
In 2003, Dave Louthan wrote an article for CounterPunch where he identified himself as one of the crew that was working at Vern’s Moses Lake Meats when tests came back on a cow that had BSE.(Mad cow) The USDA swooped in and tried to hush the whole thing up, but Louthan blew the whistle.
He said, “They asked me ‘was the cow in the food chain?’ I told them of course it was, it’s meat. Where else would it be? They asked me if the cow was a downer. I told them no, it was just an old cow. . . . How many other walkers have BSE? We will never know. The USDA only tested the downers and cripples and only at our plant.”
(Now here’s the kicker) “When the USDA said no more downers would be slaughtered, they essentially said no more BSE testing would be done. Vern’s and every other slaughterhouse kept right on killing and selling Holstein meat from the same area as the mad cow with no BSE testing whatsoever. This is true and easily verifiable.” (Dave Louthan, They are Lying about your Food, CounterPunch, 2003)
Yikes! So the USDA deliberately put the public at risk just to save a few bucks for the industry?
Apparently so.
But what’s the big deal, anyway; you get a bad steak and maybe you get a fever for a few days and throw up, right?
Wrong. As Louthan says: “BSE is 100 percent fatal — if you or your kids get it, you die a very painful death. It’s a slow, wasting disease. It’s terrible.”
Huh, it’s fatal?
According to Louthan, “If you eat mad cow, you are going to get sick and you are going to die.”
Louthan estimates that “there are over a million mad cows in this country” but we’ll never know for sure because the government is determined to limit testing to a very small percentage of the cows. The Bush administration would rather bully our trading partners into taking dodgy beef then do what’s necessary to keep the public safe.
There have been very few updates on the mad cow story with one exception that appeared in USA Today, titled “US on Mad Cow: Don’t Test all cattle” (5-29-07) Here’s an excerpt:
“WASHINGTON (AP) — The Bush administration said Tuesday it will fight to keep meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease. . . . The Agriculture Department tests less than 1% of slaughtered cows for the disease, which can be fatal to humans who eat tainted beef. But Kansas-based Creekstone Farms Premium Beef wants to test all of its cows. Larger meat companies feared that move because, if Creekstone tested its meat and advertised it as safe, they might have to perform the expensive test, too. A federal judge ruled in March that such tests must be allowed. The ruling was to take effect June 1, but the Agriculture Department said Tuesday it would appeal — effectively delaying the testing until the court challenge plays out. . . . Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is linked to more than 150 human deaths worldwide, mostly in Britain.”
Great. So the Bush administration is spearheading the effort to stop additional testing because it might cost too much. There’s something to mull over before biting into that next juicy hamburger.
An editorial in the South Korea newspaper “The Hankyoreh” summed up the real reasons behind the “meat wars” like this: “If the United States is going to be selling beef on the international market, IT SHOULD MAKE SURE THAT IT IS SAFE. The thing is, there are doubts about the safety of American beef even within the United States. The New York Times has reported that in 2005, when there was a second confirmed case of mad cow disease, the U.S. Agriculture Department hid the fact for seven months. The Times also reported that of the 30 million cows slaughtered in the United States annually, only 650,000, or about 2 percent, are tested for mad cow disease. . . . Fixing the problems quickly and making it possible to market safety-assured beef would be helping American farmers.” (”The “U.S. role in the beef issue”, The Hankyoreh, South Korea)
BSE is serious business. As Louthan says, “If you eat mad cow, you are going to get sick and you are going to die.” It’s no joke. The Bush administration needs to stop making excuses and fix the damn system.
Mike Whitney lives in Washington state. He can be reached at fergiewhitney@msn.com.
Copyright © 1998-2007 Online Journal
Email Online Journal Editor
Top of Page
Source: http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_3402.shtml
By Mike Whitney
Online Journal Contributing Writer
Jun 23, 2008, 00:13
Email this article
Printer friendly page
You wouldn’t know it from reading the newspapers, but the streets of Seoul are packed with tens of thousands of angry protesters who’ve brought business and government to a grinding halt. The demonstrations have dragged on for more than a month and show no sign of ending anytime soon. President Lee Myung-Bak’s decision to lift the ban on US beef imports has set off a political firestorm that is likely to bring down the government and put the kibosh on free trade agreements for years to come.
Last Tuesday, the powerful Korean Confederation of Trade Unions threatened to call a general strike if the meat-deal with Washington was not rescinded. If the unions strike, the whole capital will shut down. That’s why the politicians are scrambling for solutions.
South Korea suspended the purchase of US beef in 2003 after an incident of mad cow was reported in Washington state. Many Koreans still don’t believe the government’s assurances that the meat is safe and they may have a point. According to the LA Times the USDA tests less than 1 percent of cattle. (USDA Mad Cow Madness” LA Times) In contrast, Japan tests every cow that enters the food chain.
Also, according to the Associated Press, “Restricted imports of U.S. beef reached South Korean supermarkets last year, but further shipments were put on hold in October after banned parts, such as bones, were found in a shipment.
Scientists believe mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), spreads when farmers feed cattle recycled meat and bones from infected animals. In humans, eating meat products contaminated with the illness is linked to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare and fatal malady.”
The Myung-Bak administration is being strong-armed by the Bush team to ignore the massive protests and honor the terms of the trade agreement. It’s a “lose-lose” situation for the Korean president who can either incur the wrath of the corporate oligarchs by caving in or commit political seppuku by shrugging off the demands of his people. Either way, Lee’s career is kaput; he’ll never survive the fallout.
According to AFP, “Seoul insists it cannot meet protesters’ demands to renegotiate the beef deal, saying it would jeopardize a separate, wider free trade agreement and cast doubt on South Korea’s good faith as a negotiator. . . . The US apparently fears any official endorsement would breach World Trade Organization rules.”
Right; “a deal is a deal;” what were they thinking? How could they expect to bend the rules for something as trivial as public safety? So on with the protests, on with the strike. The whole issue of free trade is now precariously balanced on a few pounds of sketchy brisket.
The media has done a first-rate job of diverting attention from the the central issue of whether meat is safe or not by characterizing the protests as “frustration with President Lee”. This is just more nonsense to protect the beef industry. In reality, people everywhere want to be sure that what they put in their mouths is safe to eat. The lack of confidence in US beef imports has struck a nerve in the publics consciousness, sending thousands of Koreans into the streets shouting slogans and waving fists. But is their rage is justified?
According to Martha Rosenberg, “Seven people have died from probable Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease in the US in the last nine months . . . Do trade officials know something we don’t know?”
She reported, “In May, the Bush administration urged a federal appeals court to reverse a lower court ruling that allowed Arkansas City, KS-based Creekstone Farms Premium Beef to conduct advanced mad cow testing on its animals–presumably because it would raise consumer questions and make other packers look bad.
“This is the government telling the consumers, ‘You’re not entitled to this information,’” protested Creekstone attorney Russell Frye, according to the AP, a charge also heard in March when USDA refused to name companies selling 143 million pounds of recalled Westland/Hallmark beef because the information was “proprietary.” [Meat Wars with South Korea, Martha Rosenberg]
Hmmmm. So, why is the Bush administration so surprised that foreigners don’t want our beef if it isn’t properly tested? What were they expecting?
In 2003, Dave Louthan wrote an article for CounterPunch where he identified himself as one of the crew that was working at Vern’s Moses Lake Meats when tests came back on a cow that had BSE.(Mad cow) The USDA swooped in and tried to hush the whole thing up, but Louthan blew the whistle.
He said, “They asked me ‘was the cow in the food chain?’ I told them of course it was, it’s meat. Where else would it be? They asked me if the cow was a downer. I told them no, it was just an old cow. . . . How many other walkers have BSE? We will never know. The USDA only tested the downers and cripples and only at our plant.”
(Now here’s the kicker) “When the USDA said no more downers would be slaughtered, they essentially said no more BSE testing would be done. Vern’s and every other slaughterhouse kept right on killing and selling Holstein meat from the same area as the mad cow with no BSE testing whatsoever. This is true and easily verifiable.” (Dave Louthan, They are Lying about your Food, CounterPunch, 2003)
Yikes! So the USDA deliberately put the public at risk just to save a few bucks for the industry?
Apparently so.
But what’s the big deal, anyway; you get a bad steak and maybe you get a fever for a few days and throw up, right?
Wrong. As Louthan says: “BSE is 100 percent fatal — if you or your kids get it, you die a very painful death. It’s a slow, wasting disease. It’s terrible.”
Huh, it’s fatal?
According to Louthan, “If you eat mad cow, you are going to get sick and you are going to die.”
Louthan estimates that “there are over a million mad cows in this country” but we’ll never know for sure because the government is determined to limit testing to a very small percentage of the cows. The Bush administration would rather bully our trading partners into taking dodgy beef then do what’s necessary to keep the public safe.
There have been very few updates on the mad cow story with one exception that appeared in USA Today, titled “US on Mad Cow: Don’t Test all cattle” (5-29-07) Here’s an excerpt:
“WASHINGTON (AP) — The Bush administration said Tuesday it will fight to keep meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease. . . . The Agriculture Department tests less than 1% of slaughtered cows for the disease, which can be fatal to humans who eat tainted beef. But Kansas-based Creekstone Farms Premium Beef wants to test all of its cows. Larger meat companies feared that move because, if Creekstone tested its meat and advertised it as safe, they might have to perform the expensive test, too. A federal judge ruled in March that such tests must be allowed. The ruling was to take effect June 1, but the Agriculture Department said Tuesday it would appeal — effectively delaying the testing until the court challenge plays out. . . . Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is linked to more than 150 human deaths worldwide, mostly in Britain.”
Great. So the Bush administration is spearheading the effort to stop additional testing because it might cost too much. There’s something to mull over before biting into that next juicy hamburger.
An editorial in the South Korea newspaper “The Hankyoreh” summed up the real reasons behind the “meat wars” like this: “If the United States is going to be selling beef on the international market, IT SHOULD MAKE SURE THAT IT IS SAFE. The thing is, there are doubts about the safety of American beef even within the United States. The New York Times has reported that in 2005, when there was a second confirmed case of mad cow disease, the U.S. Agriculture Department hid the fact for seven months. The Times also reported that of the 30 million cows slaughtered in the United States annually, only 650,000, or about 2 percent, are tested for mad cow disease. . . . Fixing the problems quickly and making it possible to market safety-assured beef would be helping American farmers.” (”The “U.S. role in the beef issue”, The Hankyoreh, South Korea)
BSE is serious business. As Louthan says, “If you eat mad cow, you are going to get sick and you are going to die.” It’s no joke. The Bush administration needs to stop making excuses and fix the damn system.
Mike Whitney lives in Washington state. He can be reached at fergiewhitney@msn.com.
Copyright © 1998-2007 Online Journal
Email Online Journal Editor
Top of Page
Source: http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_3402.shtml
32'd3735928559 ???
Source: http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/postglobal/shim_jae_hoon/2008/06/south_koreas_real_beef.html#comments
SEOUL - By apologizing for mishandling the beef import issue with the United States, South Korean President Lee Myung Bak has averted a major political crisis that threatened to undermine the stability of his young administration. In a nationally televised speech on Thursday, he promised to ban imports of American beef from cattle older than 30 months of age, accepting the argument that younger cattle are less prone to mad cow disease, and therefore safer for Korean consumers.
But whether this new import rule, subject to agreement with the U.S., will end many weeks of street protests in Seoul remains doubtful. Underlying the recent political unrest are a variety of factors, including Lee’s controversial leadership style. The concern over mad cow disease may certainly be genuine, but as demonstrators freely concede, it has also been useful as a cover for expressing other discontents.
One of them is President Lee’s propensity to make decisions based on consultation among his narrow circle of advisors. He lifted the ban on American beef imports in April, imposed since the 2003 outbreak of the mad cow disease in the U.S., on the spur of the moment, his critics say, on the eve of visit to Washington for a highly publicized meeting with US President George W. Bush. That speedy decision, reportedly made without much consultation outside the government (the strong farm lobby, for example) triggered the feeling that he was pushing his political agenda by risking consumer safety. With his judgment now in doubt, his leadership as president has been considerably weakened.
Next was the quality of people he picked for his first cabinet, which critics promptly labeled a “rich men’s club” of officials holding a large sum of assets in land and housing, reportedly acquired through speculation. Their image as members of the privileged establishment, rich and well-connected (some were attacked for dodging Korea’s compulsory military service,) provoked particular resentment in the center-left constituency of the underprivileged and unionized workers.
Faced with mounting attacks, Lee has promised to replace some senior officials, severely damaging their reputations. President Lee has been so shaken by the backlash against his appointees that he has pledged to choose cabinet members from among those holding less than a billion won (US$1 million) in assets. Judging people by this standard of wealth, his cabinet could very well be empty.
Public resentment against rich officials –- especially the perception that their wealth could have been built via illegitimate, if not illegal, means — clouds the outlook on Lee’s otherwise legitimate policy goals, such as his campaign pledge to boost the sagging economy through tax cuts and deregulation. And yet, Lee’s business-friendly policy has been roundly denounced as a pro-chaebol policy favoring big business conglomerates at the expense of workers and small businesses. The center-left views this as a ploy to roll back its own reform plank achieved under the previous regime, such as equity-based distribution and egalitarian educational benefits.
How all this plays out in the months ahead should be of more crucial concern than the issue of American beef, which at most amounts to US$800 million a year. With so much passion pouring out on the street, and the opposition United Democratic Party fanning the flame, South Korean exporters must now risk a potential trade backlash from the U.S., which imported 700,000 Korean cars last year against exports of 5,000 U.S. cars to Korea, (along with electronics and other manufactures.) Emotions on the Capitol Hill have been so fired up, too, that Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama, House speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Hillary Clinton have all attacked Korea’s closed market, vowing to oppose the congressional passage of the U.S.-Korea Free Trade agreement signed last year.
Thus the beef issue throws a long shadow onto the future of bilateral trade. With President Lee now appearing to put his reform program on the back burner to recover his political peace, he is facing another wave of criticism, this time from the conservative business community, on his faltering leadership. His political compromise on reform, as well as on beef imports, presage a rough ride for the next five years under his government.
My comment:
There are so many factors in play here.
Korean side:
1) President Lee played a dumb game. Even though he calculated numbers (profits FTA can bring, # of jobs, etc) well as he built his career out of doing that, he misjudged the dynamics of trade and international politics, not to mention his own domestic politics. This is an election year in U.S. with a majority of Democrats in Congress. Democrats are not going to risk the election by ratifying dubious FTA’s with Korea and Columbia. The waning Bush Administration in the last year of 2nd term will have no power over putting the bill on the Congress floor. We have seen bills such as farm bill are overwhelming Bush’s vetoes. There is a clear power shift in U.S. Mr. Lee did not even consider. Maybe he thought he could rush things as he has done just as in his mayoral time but this is the major league of the world, not single-A semi-pros.
2) Mr. Lee’s domestic policies are planned for efficiencies, adopting American business models. He views government entities are wasteful at best and by privatizing them the country would be better off. He is correct in economical term but again he is blind to the human side of governing. Those government entities such as medicare, utilities, etc in Korea are highly unionized as well as provide secure jobs for the employees. No one is willing to give up their safe and high paying jobs and with a highly military labor union it’s nearly impossible to break them. America has those powerful unions everywhere (UAW, Teacher’s, Nurses, etc) as well. Mr. Lee’s policies make a lot of sense as Korea wants to focus on the growth but his timing and political maneuvering are really horrible. Privatizations will get started some time later in the administration if Mr. Lee can handle the beef situation. If not, he can kiss his task goodbye to Mars. The beef situation is a perfect vehicle for those people can ride along without putting their face on the front pages.
3) Koreans have this sense of pride/inferior complex/defensiveness. They have a history of being hounded by big guys like China, Japan, U.S., Russia, etc. The sense of pride kept them being acquired by bigger guys. Some Koreans compare the situation to Israel (maybe the reason why Christianity is so popular?? although I know Judaism is totally different from Christianity) So they are often very hostile against the pressure or disrespect however you can call it from outside or above. Now Mr. Lee’s government executes the style of the boss who jams the tasks down to the throats of poor employees. There is nothing more offensive to Koreans than being disrespectful. The disrespect, a.k.a hurt the ego, factor pops up in people’s daily conversation. No wonder people are extremely unhappy to have the boss telling them what to do. So there goes why political pandering is not so bad.
U.S. side:
1) Read above Korean side 1). It’s an election year. The focus is in Michigan.
2) How is this Korean beef thing in terms of priorities in U.S? After election, after Iraq, after Afghanistan, after oil, after Israel, after racism, after sexism, after flag pin, after patriotism, after old age, after hummer chevy cadillar SUV’s etc etc… Okay no wonder most Americans don’t have capacity to care this thing unless you are from Cargill, Tyson Foods, or Mr. “you-know-who-got-your-back” Bush.
3) FDA is a crap. Many experts in U.S. agree that FDA is stretched very thin. All the new food outbreaks as well as drug fatalities are bogging down FDA. How likely is that FDA can effectively monitor this situation while Salonella is running wild out there? And informed Americans also know that the U.S. government blocked the attempt by the private company to voluntarily inspect the beef. Why? I don’t know what is cooking inside but it’s not hard to figure out what is at stake, PROFITS.
So there goes a one page term paper on where they are. I see that Koreans are more willing to engage as they think it’s more vital to their life while Americans have a laid back attitude on this issue due to more urgent issues out there. It sure sounds like a lot got done in the past week but if someone is not happy (likely those meat packers in U.S.), this will bring a stalemate and may kill the FTA down the road.
SEOUL - By apologizing for mishandling the beef import issue with the United States, South Korean President Lee Myung Bak has averted a major political crisis that threatened to undermine the stability of his young administration. In a nationally televised speech on Thursday, he promised to ban imports of American beef from cattle older than 30 months of age, accepting the argument that younger cattle are less prone to mad cow disease, and therefore safer for Korean consumers.
But whether this new import rule, subject to agreement with the U.S., will end many weeks of street protests in Seoul remains doubtful. Underlying the recent political unrest are a variety of factors, including Lee’s controversial leadership style. The concern over mad cow disease may certainly be genuine, but as demonstrators freely concede, it has also been useful as a cover for expressing other discontents.
One of them is President Lee’s propensity to make decisions based on consultation among his narrow circle of advisors. He lifted the ban on American beef imports in April, imposed since the 2003 outbreak of the mad cow disease in the U.S., on the spur of the moment, his critics say, on the eve of visit to Washington for a highly publicized meeting with US President George W. Bush. That speedy decision, reportedly made without much consultation outside the government (the strong farm lobby, for example) triggered the feeling that he was pushing his political agenda by risking consumer safety. With his judgment now in doubt, his leadership as president has been considerably weakened.
Next was the quality of people he picked for his first cabinet, which critics promptly labeled a “rich men’s club” of officials holding a large sum of assets in land and housing, reportedly acquired through speculation. Their image as members of the privileged establishment, rich and well-connected (some were attacked for dodging Korea’s compulsory military service,) provoked particular resentment in the center-left constituency of the underprivileged and unionized workers.
Faced with mounting attacks, Lee has promised to replace some senior officials, severely damaging their reputations. President Lee has been so shaken by the backlash against his appointees that he has pledged to choose cabinet members from among those holding less than a billion won (US$1 million) in assets. Judging people by this standard of wealth, his cabinet could very well be empty.
Public resentment against rich officials –- especially the perception that their wealth could have been built via illegitimate, if not illegal, means — clouds the outlook on Lee’s otherwise legitimate policy goals, such as his campaign pledge to boost the sagging economy through tax cuts and deregulation. And yet, Lee’s business-friendly policy has been roundly denounced as a pro-chaebol policy favoring big business conglomerates at the expense of workers and small businesses. The center-left views this as a ploy to roll back its own reform plank achieved under the previous regime, such as equity-based distribution and egalitarian educational benefits.
How all this plays out in the months ahead should be of more crucial concern than the issue of American beef, which at most amounts to US$800 million a year. With so much passion pouring out on the street, and the opposition United Democratic Party fanning the flame, South Korean exporters must now risk a potential trade backlash from the U.S., which imported 700,000 Korean cars last year against exports of 5,000 U.S. cars to Korea, (along with electronics and other manufactures.) Emotions on the Capitol Hill have been so fired up, too, that Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama, House speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Hillary Clinton have all attacked Korea’s closed market, vowing to oppose the congressional passage of the U.S.-Korea Free Trade agreement signed last year.
Thus the beef issue throws a long shadow onto the future of bilateral trade. With President Lee now appearing to put his reform program on the back burner to recover his political peace, he is facing another wave of criticism, this time from the conservative business community, on his faltering leadership. His political compromise on reform, as well as on beef imports, presage a rough ride for the next five years under his government.
My comment:
There are so many factors in play here.
Korean side:
1) President Lee played a dumb game. Even though he calculated numbers (profits FTA can bring, # of jobs, etc) well as he built his career out of doing that, he misjudged the dynamics of trade and international politics, not to mention his own domestic politics. This is an election year in U.S. with a majority of Democrats in Congress. Democrats are not going to risk the election by ratifying dubious FTA’s with Korea and Columbia. The waning Bush Administration in the last year of 2nd term will have no power over putting the bill on the Congress floor. We have seen bills such as farm bill are overwhelming Bush’s vetoes. There is a clear power shift in U.S. Mr. Lee did not even consider. Maybe he thought he could rush things as he has done just as in his mayoral time but this is the major league of the world, not single-A semi-pros.
2) Mr. Lee’s domestic policies are planned for efficiencies, adopting American business models. He views government entities are wasteful at best and by privatizing them the country would be better off. He is correct in economical term but again he is blind to the human side of governing. Those government entities such as medicare, utilities, etc in Korea are highly unionized as well as provide secure jobs for the employees. No one is willing to give up their safe and high paying jobs and with a highly military labor union it’s nearly impossible to break them. America has those powerful unions everywhere (UAW, Teacher’s, Nurses, etc) as well. Mr. Lee’s policies make a lot of sense as Korea wants to focus on the growth but his timing and political maneuvering are really horrible. Privatizations will get started some time later in the administration if Mr. Lee can handle the beef situation. If not, he can kiss his task goodbye to Mars. The beef situation is a perfect vehicle for those people can ride along without putting their face on the front pages.
3) Koreans have this sense of pride/inferior complex/defensiveness. They have a history of being hounded by big guys like China, Japan, U.S., Russia, etc. The sense of pride kept them being acquired by bigger guys. Some Koreans compare the situation to Israel (maybe the reason why Christianity is so popular?? although I know Judaism is totally different from Christianity) So they are often very hostile against the pressure or disrespect however you can call it from outside or above. Now Mr. Lee’s government executes the style of the boss who jams the tasks down to the throats of poor employees. There is nothing more offensive to Koreans than being disrespectful. The disrespect, a.k.a hurt the ego, factor pops up in people’s daily conversation. No wonder people are extremely unhappy to have the boss telling them what to do. So there goes why political pandering is not so bad.
U.S. side:
1) Read above Korean side 1). It’s an election year. The focus is in Michigan.
2) How is this Korean beef thing in terms of priorities in U.S? After election, after Iraq, after Afghanistan, after oil, after Israel, after racism, after sexism, after flag pin, after patriotism, after old age, after hummer chevy cadillar SUV’s etc etc… Okay no wonder most Americans don’t have capacity to care this thing unless you are from Cargill, Tyson Foods, or Mr. “you-know-who-got-your-back” Bush.
3) FDA is a crap. Many experts in U.S. agree that FDA is stretched very thin. All the new food outbreaks as well as drug fatalities are bogging down FDA. How likely is that FDA can effectively monitor this situation while Salonella is running wild out there? And informed Americans also know that the U.S. government blocked the attempt by the private company to voluntarily inspect the beef. Why? I don’t know what is cooking inside but it’s not hard to figure out what is at stake, PROFITS.
So there goes a one page term paper on where they are. I see that Koreans are more willing to engage as they think it’s more vital to their life while Americans have a laid back attitude on this issue due to more urgent issues out there. It sure sounds like a lot got done in the past week but if someone is not happy (likely those meat packers in U.S.), this will bring a stalemate and may kill the FTA down the road.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
One of the best cable moments during democratic primary
Life Lesson: Don't ever hire a lawyer who is nothing but a loud mouth like Kevin James.
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