The climate change conference 2011 in Durban, South Africa

It’s probably time for the right wing opposition party to back off. For opposition Leader Tony Abbott, it is time to review his hard-line stance against the carbon tax. The Liberal Party missed the opportunity to score in this significant issue on Australia’s clean energy future. Abbott’s ‘direct action’ missed the international climate agenda.

The carbon tax debate has been one of this year’s political highlights. It had pushed Julia Gillard’s Government to the brink of collapse – but thanks to left wing and pro-environment coalition, backed primarily by the Australian Greens, the carbon tax has triumphed against all odds in both legislative houses.

The timing is perfect. Following passage of Australia’s Clean Energy Future in early November, the Climate Change Conference kicked off in Durban, November 28-December 9.

Monitoring the conference, the Climate Action Tracker has given Australia a high mark for creating the framework for strong action. The tracker has assessed Australia across all sectors, including industry, electricity, buildings, transport, forestry and agriculture.

Australia got an A on the renewable energy sector due mainly to the Government’s goal of 20% renewable energy by 2020.

However, the report also indicates that while Australia has a good grade on overall strategy there is more that needs to be done. One area to be addressed is the transport industry where emission standards for light and heavy vehicles have yet to be implemented. Another area is the industry sector where policies related to reducing greenhouse gas emissions were virtually non-existent in the past.

The carbon tax covers non-CO₂ industry emissions, such as the fugitive emissions from the mining sector. In Australia’s case, this is key, given the country’s massive mining boom. But while it would stabilise emissions from mining, it wouldn’t reduce them in absolute terms. Without these measures the emissions from the mining sector are due to rise 97% by 2020 from 2000 levels.

Bill Hare, a visiting scientist at Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, notes that “Australia’s new climate legislation is a historic breakthrough reform for the nation “ adding that it is one of the biggest reforms over the past three decades.

Australian Greens Senator Christine Milne also takes pride in the Greens’ achievement while acknowledging there is room for improvement.

PM Julia Gillard and Minister Greg Combet visiting a mine site

Greg Combet, the Government’s Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, noted that the Durban Conference is a stepping stone for Australia in building a comprehensive climate change regime.

He admitted that all major multilateral agreements will take time as Australia has taken many years to legislate a climate change plan.

“Durban will be one stepping-stone along the path, a place where we can make further useful progress towards this goal,” he said.

Source: Asian Correspondent

Greens Senator Bob Brown and Prime Minister Julia Gillard speak in Parliament

This early, the party is also hoping to join in the Durban Conference to be held in South Africa from November 28 to December 9, 2011. The Greens will hold their  heads up high as they represent Australia’s success in getting a vote for the carbon levy.

 ”Once the bills pass the Senate next month, the next step is the global climate meeting in Durban…where Australia’s decision to put a price on pollution and invest in renewable energy will make a big impact,” a statement from the Greens website reads.

 There could not be prouder than Greens Leader Senator Bob Brown who is giving his Deputy Leader Christine Milne a pat on the back for the job well done. Milne spearheaded the carbon tax negotiation through a Multi-party Climate Change Committee in support to the Julia Gillard Government.

 Milne exudes with optimism. She is quoted in the party’s website as saying, “Global climate negotiations need a shot of optimism, and what we have achieved here in Australia can deliver that and help build momentum towards an ambitious, science-based climate treaty in the years ahead.”

 Senator Milne, however, is cautious and aware there are tough jobs ahead. The negotiations will continue in Australia and globally. The bills are the package that has been “designed specifically so it can be strengthened over time, with annual opportunities to lift our ambition, increase our targets and invest more in clean, renewable energy than in dirty old energy.”

 Senator Bob Brown admits the vote in the lower house represents a historic day the Greens has been looking forward to. “The greening of Australia is well under way,”  he said in their website.

Meanwhile, the carbon tax vote intensifies the political drama even more and it is getting more vicious. The passage of the carbon tax represents a landmark win for the left wing coalition—Labor and Greens. The Prime Minister and her predecessor Kevin Rudd who was eased out of prime ministership in June 2010 kissed and hugged after the vote.

PM Gillard hugs former PM Kevin Rudd as carbon tax wins

 At the other camp, the Opposition mounted a lethal attack. Liberal Party Leader Tony Abbott pledged a “bloody” vow to get back at the coalition— more specifically at Labor and do all he can to repeal the law if voted.

 Australian mass media said environmental issues are fatal in Australia’s political history. News Limited noted Abbott has already used the carbon tax to bring Gillard’s leadership and the government’s to the brink of collapse and he will continue to do so.

 The Australian quoted Abbott as saying, “We will repeal this tax, we will dismantle the bureaucracy associated with it.”

 “I am giving you the most definite commitment any politician can give that this tax will go. This is a pledge in blood – this tax will go.”

Source: http://asiancorrespondent.com/author/rowenadelarosayoon/

Phillip Island's Penguins Parade has been attracting 3.5 million visitors a year.

After Hollywood star Miley Cyrus joined the protest to drive away urban developers from rezoning the farming town of Ventnor into a residential area, the Ministry of Planning who spearheaded the project began to have a second thought.

Australian media reported that Planning Minister Matthew Guy met with Bass Coast Mayor Veronica Dowman before the weekend to re-think of the plan to develop 23 hectares of farm land on the island’s northern coastal region for residential development.

Earlier, Seven News reported that Cyrus tweeted her disapproval against the development plan and urged her followers to petition the government to stop it. She has about 2.5 million followers worldwide.

The starlet is said to have strolled over the island with her Melbourne-based boyfriend and found the place “magical”.

“Phillip Island is such a magical place, it would be a shame to see it change,” the Australian media quoted her Twitter over the weekend.

Hannah Montana's starlet Miley Cyrus tweets the island is "magical".

Reports said Cyrus visited the island with her boyfriend, actor Liam Hemsworth. The actor and his family are known for their role in Home and Away. Hemsworth and the Hollywood blockbuster Thor, spent much of their lives there. The boys’ mother, Leonie, also told 7News that Cyrus has been in the island and “knows how beautiful it is.”

About  200 Ventnor residents have prepared to roll up sleeves to combat real estate planners and construction workers in the event the local council approves the plan.

Planning Minister Guy, however, denies any connection with Cyrus and blamed left-wingers for the comical tactic. The reports also debilitated the role of Victoria’s Premiere Ted Baillieu who has been out of view over the issue.

Guy denies knowing the Hollywood star. He told AAP, “I can swear on a stack of Bibles and say I actually wasn’t sure who she was, I’m of a demographic who knows her father, Billy Ray Cyrus as opposed to Miley Cyrus.”

“I could not give a stuff what Miley Cyrus thinks….I couldn’t even tell you what she looks like.”

Guy reiterated that Cyrus is a Labor’s tactic which is comical as Cyrus’ intervention.

“Someone said to me ‘Oh, it’s Hannah Montana’ and I thought that was actually a person.”

The Bass Coast mayor admitted Cyrus helped push the issue into the mainstream press, but added it was community efforts, not star power, that changed Guy’s mind.

Dowman celebrated Guy’s change of mind with champagne along with Phillip Island residents, AAP reported.

Opposition planning spokesman Brian Tee, meanwhile, congratulated the minister for the “common sense change of heart”. He, however, insisted the backflip only came after some celebrity intervention.

“It is a sad state of affairs when it takes Miley Cyrus to intervene before Mr Baillieu will listen to the concerns of the local community,” the Australian media quoted the opposition spokesman as saying.

Phillip Island, situated on the southern coast off Victoria, has lured 3.5 million visitors a year. It is an island known for its penguins parading along the coast before sunset called the ‘Penguin Parade’. Other species have also inhabited the place.

Source: Asian Correspondent’s Left-winged Kookkaburra

1. Melbourne, Australia
2. Vienna, Austria
3. Vancouver, Canada
4. Toronto, Canada
5. Calgary, Canada
6. Sydney, Australia
7. Helsinki, Finland
8– Perth, Australia
8– Adelaide, Australia
10. Auckland, New Zealand
21. Brisbane, Australia

The annual survey is based on the best and worst living conditions of about 140 locations around the world. The criteria include political and social stability, crime rates, access to quality health care, cultural events, the environment, education and the standard of infrastructure.”

The ABC News quoted the Economist Intelligence Unit Editor Jon Copestake as saying, “Australia, with a low population density and relatively low crime rates, continues to supply some of the world’s most liveable cities.”

Then, two weeks after the survey came off the press, the world remembers September 11 terror attacks.

Interestingly, terror does not exempt anyone and anywhere. “This is not the time of complacency,” Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation  (ASIO) Chief David Irvine warned.

ASIO Chief David Irvine urges Australians to become vigilant against terror

According to the exclusive of Brendan Nicholson of The Australian, the ASIO’s security hotline has received more than 600,000 suspicious calls and has been investigating “hundreds” of terrorist-related cases. Irvine, however, noted that only a minimal number of Muslim-Australian could be involved in extremist jihadist cause and in tipping off domestic and overseas terrorists.

Irvine could even be paranoid of multiculturalism, if not of Islamic religion. The Australian noted Irvine’s paranoia: “The attacks in Norway by Anders Behring Breivik, who believed Europe was threatened by multiculturalism, tolerance and Islam, showed that killers could come from either end of the spectrum.”

Scaremongering or not, Irvine remembers the sixth issue of Inspire, an online al-Qa’ida publication run by leader Anwar al-Awlaki. The issue has carried a picture of the Sydney Opera House. Irvine said the cover implies the Australian icon could be a target.

Earlier, the Melbourne-based Herald Sun reported the list of 23 suspected Australians who have been on the “no fly” order or “selectee” on the security list from the intelligence body. The report is based on a security assessment released by Wikileaks cable sent in January last year by the US Embassy in Canberra to the US State Department.

Women are said to be the majority of the suspects, including a 58-year-old matriarch and her daughter. The newspaper claims the woman has lived in Sydney since 2003 after being brought back to Australia from Iran by ASIO.

ASIO alleged all suspects to have links with Aulaqi, one of the suspects to the attempted bombing of a US airliner in December 2009 and the alleged mastermind of al-Qa’ida offshoot AQAP, the newspaper added.

Irvine appeals to all Australians to become vigilant. He warned that Australians still face a threat from organised groups and “radicalised lone-wolf extremists.” The number of people of concern could be very small, but “we all know you don’t need a lot of people to make a big explosion,” he said.

 Source: Left-winged Kookaburra @  The Asian Correspondent

Environment Minister Tony Burke visits Broom to have a dialogue with the residents. Photo: The Australian

With the support of the West Australian Government, The Kimberly Land Council (KLC) approved the Woodside Petroleum’s $35 billion James Price Point gas hub—60 km north of Broom.  The KLC expects the deal to return $1.5 billion in benefits to the region’s indigenous communities over 30 years. The KLC also sees the project will boost tourism and other economic activities.

However, masterminds of this developmental plan did not realise that communities of indigenous and indigenous people would rise up to oppose this developmental aggression. In Broom alone, traditional owners, along with conservationists, have staged protests near the site saying the gas project will destroy their environment and cultural heritage.

Police busted protest riots and road blockades to allow Woodside Petroleum contractors to get in and cleared vegetation so geotechnical studies could be undertaken for the proposed hub. But a much larger protest group have defied police and held up a contractors’ convoy of trucks, bulldozers and front-end loaders from getting through to clear land for geotechnical studies for the project.

The Wilderness Society has vowed to launch a national campaign to encourage more opposition from the local community. News Limited has reported the society will target potential financiers of the gas hub plan that WA Premier Colin Barnett has said he hopes will transform Broome into the next Dubai.

The society’s national campaign director Lyndon Schneiders also said “James Price Point was the largest single industrial development project in Australian history, with profound social effects on Broome and the local community,” the Australian newspaper quoted him as saying.

Mr Schneiders feared this project can set precedent for further industrialisation.

In order to appease the community, the KLC has vowed to push for the listing of Kimberley as a national heritage site. Board Co-chairman Tom Birch has urged the state government for its enlistment. This step is hoped to provide an “extra layer of protection to ensure development in the Kimberley met the highest standards”.

Birch is, however, clear the national heritage listing will not stop the gas exploration,  but it will ensure “that any development is done sensitively and to the highest possible environmental and cultural heritage standards.”

Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke visited Broome last week and confirmed he would meet an August 31 deadline to make a decision on heritage listing for the west Kimberley.

 Original post: Asian Correspondent

“Boat people” are shipwrecked off the coast of Christmas Island.

Reposting from: http://asiancorrespondent.com/60898/greens-condemn-australia-malaysia-deal/

Long before Australia signed the deal with Malaysia to swap asylum seekers in exchange for the intake of recognized refugees, the Australian Greens have repeatedly condemned the Malaysian Solution calling it inhumane.

Now that the deal is officially announced on July 25, all hopes on saving 800 asylum seekers to be settled in Australia have been put to tatters.

The Greens, along with human rights advocates, have failed to save asylum seekers to be settled in Australia as they will be sent off to Malaysia to live in limbo.

The Julia Gillard Government has sealed the fate of  800 “boat people” stuck in the Christmas Island off  the continent’s north coast following a deal signed between Australia Minister for Immigration and Citizenship Chris Bowen MP and his counterpart Malaysian Minister of Home Affairs Dato’ Seri Hishammuddin bin Tun Hussein in Kuala Lumpur.

Australia’s Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) has announced in its website (www.immi.gov.au) that the historic arrangement will “combat people smuggling”.

Under the arrangement, Australia will send to Malaysia 800 “irregular maritime arrivals” and will officially accept 1000 additional genuine refugees from Malaysia every year for the next four years. It allows Australia to send off unrecognized asylum seekers to Malaysia and take additional 4000 UN recognised refugees.

‘The arrangement demonstrates the resolve of Australia and Malaysia to break the people smugglers’ business model, stop them profiting from human misery, and stop people risking their lives at sea, “  DIAC’s press statement reads.

Arrivals in Australia before 25 July will not be transferred to Malaysia. People who arrived before the date and currently being detained on Christmas Island will be processed in Australia.

While the two nations’ governments consider the deal historic, the Malaysian Solution strikes a big blow to the Greens who have repeatedly condemned the proposed solution.

Greens spokesperson Sarah Hanson-Young has argued the deal has not been signed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Ealier, she announced, “Australians should not be fooled by the government’s insistence that this impending arrangement will protect the rights of 800 vulnerable people.”  She noted that there’s no way the 800 people Australia expels will be treated any better than the 94,000 other asylum seekers in Malaysia.

Amnesty International Australia (AI) has also rallied behind the asylum seekers. It noted that Malaysia has consistently failed to ratify international standards that protect and promote the rights of refugees and asylum-seekers.

Further, it insists that Malaysia is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees or its 1967 Protocol, the major international instruments governing refugee protection.

The AI similarly outlines some treaties where Malaysia is not an official party such as:
 
• International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)
• UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruelty
• Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT)
• International Convention on the Elimination of  All Forms of Racial Discrimination
• International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)
• 1990 International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.

AI admits though that Malaysia observes customary international law such as respect to the principle of non-refoulement. Non-refoulement is the cornerstone of refugees’ protection that prevents people from expulsion or return to a country where they face persecution or other serious human rights violations, nor can they be rejected at the frontier.

AI has also warned of the inhumane treatment of Malaysia to illegal aliens, including arbitrary detention, physical punishment, denial of the right to work and access to health and education.

Meanwhile, the Greens insists that the Malaysia deal, along with the government’s plan to sign another one with Papua New Guinea, are inhumane and will cost Australians at least $292m to “export our humanity and international obligations onto other countries”.

Hanson-Young posted in her Twitter the “Aust Govt will breach their duty of care to unaccompanied refugee children by dumping them in Malaysia: inhumane, cruel and costly. “

“Eight hundred people should not have to be sacrificed by taking a treacherous voyage to Australia before the government helps 4,000 assessed refugees,” the Greens conclude.

Sources:

Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship
http://www.minister.immi.gov.au/media/cb/2011/cb168739.htm

Australian Greens
http://greens.org.au/content/greens-condemn-malaysian-human-swap-following-new-revelations

Amnesty International
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ASA28/010/2010/en/2791c659-7e4d-4922-87e0-940faf54b92c/asa280102010en.pdf

Australian Opposition Leader Tony Abbott answers questions from the audience during his public forum in Brisbane, 14 July 2011. (Photo: The Australian)

Reposting this article from the Asian Correspondent posted last week:

The carbon tax campaign has been making headway like a rambunctious political circus. Dennis Atkins, The Courier-Mail’s national affairs editor, has described the issue as political rather than an issue of policy. He noted it exemplifies the fundamental division between the pro- and anti-Government factions as more public debates are coming up. On Thursday night, Opposition leader Abbott held a public forum to address his “scaremongering” in Brisbane.

The campaign began last month with Hollywood celebrity Cate Blanchett appearing in a community group’s advertisement urging people to “Say Yes”— followed by “a political superstar and a procession of economists, scientists and clergymen in between” who support Julia Gillard’s carbon price, Atkins observed.

All these hullabaloos could have ceased when Professor Ross Garnaut, the government’s principal climate change adviser, sealed his endorsement. However, even Gaurnaut was dismissed by the fiercest opposition to the policy— Abbott.

This week, Abbott’s remarks have boomeranged. Economists trounced Abbott in favour of Gillard at the Annual Conference of Economists in Canberra. A survey was conducted among the economists in relation to their opinion on the carbon tax. About 59 percent agreed or strongly agreed to the Labor’s tax plan against a minority vote of 27 percent who disagreed, Fairfax media reports.

The Economic Society of Australia President Bruce Chapman considers the tax plan as a “very basic economics to reduce negative spillovers from economic activity such as pollution,” the report added.

Abbott has long mounted his scare campaign. He argued that the carbon levy will destroy many industries including steel, cement, aluminum, motor and, eventually, heavy manufacturing.

Behind Abbott are the “big polluters” (as Gillard calls them) and related industry alliances. The Australian Trade and Industry Alliance, meanwhile, have announced to spend about $10 million on a campaign to scrap the carbon plan. The alliance is made up of organisations including the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Minerals Council of Australia, the Australian Food and Grocery Council, the Australian Coal Association, the Plastics and Chemical Industries Association and the Australian Logistics Council, Australian media reported.

Another climate skeptic stole the spotlight— Lord Christopher Monckton. Described by the press as obnoxious in his manner, he was already banned from speaking at functions in Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth. Mockton has called Gillard’s climate change adviser “Facist”. Earlier this month, an ABC radio presenter based in Sydney hung up the phone on Monckton.

Fairfax quoted Monckton as saying, “It was quite extraordinary….It was a live broadcast interview that the ABC requested, but it was really quite a malevolent and hostile tone the host was taking.” The Australian newspaper noted many are disgusted over Monckton “whose views are unpalatable”.

Monckton, a global warming skeptic, will meet the press at the National Press Club in Canberra on July 19 and will debate economist Richard Denniss, head of the left-leaning Australia Institute think tank.

GetUp!, a left-wing activist group has reportedly booked 100 seats for the event which has exceeded the club’s 280-seat capacity— and more people are queuing to book in.

The Australian reports that bookings may have already exceeded over 130 seats, and “support for a carbon tax is running far higher in the capital than the rest of the nation”.

The Greens, meanwhile, tagged Abbott as a hyperbole campaigner. Greens Party Leader Bob Brown has challenged Abbott to a public debate and has been waiting for the opposition leader to set the date and time.

Source: http://asiancorrespondent.com/author/rowenadelarosayoon/

So how many social media have you been subscribed to? And how much social media has robbed you off your time?

Social media pundits claim these tools can generate exponential investment returns as far as creating prospective business partners is concerned, not to mention the glut of information social media is feeding the dynamic networker.

Web 2.0 has indeed changed the way organisations and individuals do business. Facebook with over 500 million subscribers, for instance, keeps every user wired to a salad bowl of ‘Friends’ and networks. But yes, we have to give Facebook a credit for its various applications useful for marketing and promotions. Tweeter, on the other hand, has created VIPs and stalkers and  LinkedIn has also been closely looked into by peers, business partners, prospective employers, or perhaps spy agencies. 

We are living in a panopticon era where all privacy is dead. Interestingly, LinkedIn’s management is composed of  “seasoned executives from companies like Yahoo!, Google, Microsoft, TiVo, PayPal and Electronic Arts”. Search engines like Google and Yahoo! have been linked to anomalous panopticon scams that allow third parties like online marketers to dig online searchers’ personal information.

Social media is a cultural phenomena that delineates the restlessness of ne0liberalism. 

Get over the issue of privacy and help LinkedIn, for instance, grow its financial prowess by subscribing to its ‘Upgrade’ capabilities to enable each user find more ’connections’. 

Linkedin has provided this worldwide membership statistics: 

•100m+ professionals around the world as of March 2011
•20m+ members in Europe as of December 2010
•5m+ members in the UK as of December 2010
•1m+ members in France
•2m+ members in the Netherlands
•1m+ members in Italy
•1m+ members in the DACH region (Germany, Austria and Switzerland)
•1m+ members in Spain
•9m+ members in India
•3m+ members in Canada
•3m+ members in Brazil
•2m+ members in Australia

•As of April 2011, LinkedIn counts more than 11 million recent college graduates* around the world as members (*LinkedIn defines recent graduates as members who have graduated within the last five years–between 2005 and 2010).

It’s an excellent business model which has annihilated all other job and notice boards worldwide.

 •As of January 2011, LinkedIn counts executives from all 2010 Fortune 500 companies as members; its hiring solutions were used by 73 of the Fortune 100 companies as of March 22, 2011.

Marketers can also triumph over the issue of best marketing practices by creating their company Pages.

•More than 2 million companies have LinkedIn Company Pages.

Lizzie O’Shea, Melbourne public interest solicitor, strikes a point: Wikileaks shares the same suppression Al Jazeera had faced in providing an alternative journalism, albeit both have used different media platforms.  Both organizations have adhered to the traditional journalistic principle of reporting  and both have also provided the public with raw and unedited facts.

Al Jazeera rose to fame for its ‘people’s journalism’ which entailed participatory reporting. It aired unedited footages provided by bystanders who have witnessed on-the-spot events– away from the imbedded and insitutional journalists dispatched by transnational media organizations and other mainstream media.

Wikileaks, on the other hand, released lengthy cable documents via the Internet. Like Al Jazeera, Wikileaks leaked raw and unedited cable documents, but recognized as valuable information. Media giants like New York Times, Associated Press, and The Guardian, among others, have used Wikileaks as their veritable source of information.

Truth is uncomfortable. It disturbs government.

Julian Assange, in a recorded video, points out Wikileaks is just one of the movements of our time. Like the earlier feminist movement or socialist movement, for instance, this era is what he calls the Wikileaks movement fuelled by the Internet revolution. Assange stressed out: ‘This is our moment!’

Christopher Warren, federal secretary of Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance, said Wikileaks delineates a fundamental change to information, more particularly in regard to access and speed. He therefore suggests that Wikileaks should be treated as a legal media institution.

Heaps of slogans have come and gone to describe this city and this nation, Seoul, Korea. For Seoul, among the marketing tag lines include ‘Hi Seoul’ and ‘Soul of Asia’. For the nation, catch phrases range from “Dynamic Korea’ to ‘Korea Sparkling’ up to the most recent ‘Korea Be Inspired’.

‘Hi Soul’ had raised many eyebrows in the past. Colleagues who are working in the government remarked that the Seoul Metropolitan Government lacked imagination.’Soul of Asia’ re-phrases Malaysia’s ‘Truly Asia’ and so it is somewhat unoriginal. Dynamic Korea was coined in the early 2000 in preparation of Korea’s co-hosting of the 2002 FIFA World Cup with Japan. It was apt and appropriate in economic terms, but travel observers have argued that the phrase does not have a touristic appeal. ‘Korea Sparkling’ met even more sardonic remarks. What makes Korea sparkle? Some suggested that Korea must be positioning itself to sell sparkling waters or sparkling wines although Korea has only suju and makkeolli (fermented local wines).

I am convinced Dynamic Korea aptly describes this nation and Seoul itself. In a matter of two years (since I last visited the city), the Gwanghwamun area has undergone massive redesign and reconstruction. The new Gwanghwamun Gate was renewed alongside the Sejong Ave, highlighted by the monument of Gen. Yi Sun-shin. Roads are wider and parking spaces were relocated elsewhere.

South Korean mass media are PR-oriented. News headlines boast of Korea’s global ambition, both political and economic. Chaebols occupy a predominant news coverage, including global inroads of Korea’s carmakers and technocrats.