Korean Scandal (1)
投稿者： wicked_gook_korean 投稿日時： 2007/12/04 16:23 投稿番号： [198007 / 203793]
Los Angels Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-sokorrupt30nov30,1,256788.story?am p;cset=true&ctrack=1&cset=true
"In South Korea, it feels like a scandal a day"
ONE OF MANY? In South Korea's season of scandal, belly dancer Ahn Yoo-jin, foreground, is accused by prosecutors of padding her educational record to get a teaching job. "Competition for survival has become ruthless and morality disregarded," one expert says.
SEOUL _ In what has become South Korea's autumn of scandal, it sometimes seems no one is immune from accusations of impropriety.
The top executives at Samsung, the country's biggest company, are alleged to have created a bribery network whose tentacles snared politicians and prosecutors, professors and journalists. The front-runner for president is campaigning beneath the dagger of possible fraud charges. Elite schools are reeling under allegations of fixed entrance exams.
And from the upper echelons of the art world to Buddhist temples, South Korean personalities are being ignominiously exposed for having faked their academic credentials to get ahead. If there was a moment that illustrated the pervasiveness of the scandals now roiling South Korea, it came with the indictment this month of Ahn Yoo-jin, accused by prosecutors of inflating her educational record in order to land a teaching job at a college.
Ahn is a professional belly dancer.
"Competition for survival has become ruthless and morality disregarded," says Kim Mun-cho, a Korea University sociologist. "In the competition to be ahead of others, people resort to any means available, resulting in corruption."
Some blame the tendency to shave corners on a cutthroat mentality that developed in the wake of the 1997 Asian financial crisis, which shook Koreans' faith in an ever-expanding economy. Others contend that South Korea has never shaken off the mutual back-scratching culture of a small society, where the establishment has tight personal connections forged by blood, school or regional ties.
And some suggest that Korean society simply has an unhealthy obsession with success. "Living an ordinary life is not regarded as being successful, and staying still economically is seen as an unbearable retrogression," Kim says. "Korean society demands overachievement."
Whatever the reason, Koreans picking up a newspaper or turning on TV news these days are confronted with seemingly endless stories of bribery and cheating, influence peddling and corruption.
//////To be continued//////
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-sokorrupt30nov30,1,256788.story?am p;cset=true&ctrack=1&cset=true
"In South Korea, it feels like a scandal a day"
ONE OF MANY? In South Korea's season of scandal, belly dancer Ahn Yoo-jin, foreground, is accused by prosecutors of padding her educational record to get a teaching job. "Competition for survival has become ruthless and morality disregarded," one expert says.
SEOUL _ In what has become South Korea's autumn of scandal, it sometimes seems no one is immune from accusations of impropriety.
The top executives at Samsung, the country's biggest company, are alleged to have created a bribery network whose tentacles snared politicians and prosecutors, professors and journalists. The front-runner for president is campaigning beneath the dagger of possible fraud charges. Elite schools are reeling under allegations of fixed entrance exams.
And from the upper echelons of the art world to Buddhist temples, South Korean personalities are being ignominiously exposed for having faked their academic credentials to get ahead. If there was a moment that illustrated the pervasiveness of the scandals now roiling South Korea, it came with the indictment this month of Ahn Yoo-jin, accused by prosecutors of inflating her educational record in order to land a teaching job at a college.
Ahn is a professional belly dancer.
"Competition for survival has become ruthless and morality disregarded," says Kim Mun-cho, a Korea University sociologist. "In the competition to be ahead of others, people resort to any means available, resulting in corruption."
Some blame the tendency to shave corners on a cutthroat mentality that developed in the wake of the 1997 Asian financial crisis, which shook Koreans' faith in an ever-expanding economy. Others contend that South Korea has never shaken off the mutual back-scratching culture of a small society, where the establishment has tight personal connections forged by blood, school or regional ties.
And some suggest that Korean society simply has an unhealthy obsession with success. "Living an ordinary life is not regarded as being successful, and staying still economically is seen as an unbearable retrogression," Kim says. "Korean society demands overachievement."
Whatever the reason, Koreans picking up a newspaper or turning on TV news these days are confronted with seemingly endless stories of bribery and cheating, influence peddling and corruption.
//////To be continued//////