Korea

Animation to brighten your day

Let’s say you’ve just been convicted of a crime in Korea, and you’re going to spend a little time in prison.  That’s not really going to be a pleasant experience.  Never fear–Borami will be around to brighten your day.  Who’s Borami?  He’s the mascot of the Korean Correction Bureau, which manages Korean prisons.  Borami is a caricature of a bear bedecked in a police uniform.  He has a female counterpart who wears a dress.  Whenever you feel life is too difficult in prison, you can always find Borami popping up from time to time to make you feel just a little bit better.
 
Let’s say you just bought a ticket to ride the KTX high-speed train from Seoul to Busan.  You enter the train platform, where the KTX awaits.  Chirpo is there to greet you and wish you a safe journey.  Who’s Chirpo?  He’s a cat (I think, although possibly androgynous) dressed in riding gear with a cyclist helmut.  Chirpo is the mascot of Korail, Korea’s national railway.  His regalia denotes speed and efficiency. 
 
Chirpo and Borami are jsut two of many cutesy caricatures that represent the Korean government’s ministries and bureaus.  I find it fascinating that these organizations use animation to soften and personalize their public image.  Borami is the most obvious example.  Does Borami help cut down on the number of inmates handled by the Korea Correction Bureau?  Probably not.  Does he help the bureau in its relations with the Korean public?  Yes, I believe so.  Hardened criminals may not appreciate the caricatures, but visitors who visit them likely do.  In addition to caricatures, Korean government organizations use a variety of attractive images to appeal to the general public, including the extensive use of cute children and foreigners, mostly non-Asians, in marketing materials.  These images are typically cuter and more animated than what Americans prefer.  After all, many Americans would think it odd to find a teddy bear-like caricature representing the U.S. prison system.
 
Among all the caricatures I have seen in Korea, Chirpo is my favorite.  Then again, I hope to see as little of Borami as possible!  Here is a short list of caricatures used by Korean government entities: 
 
 
 
 
Korail (Korean Railway):  Chirpo
 
Korean National Tourism Organization:  Boy and girl in traditional Korean dress
 
I attached images of each so you have an idea of what they look like.  If you visit Korea, be on the lookout for excessively cute caricatures.

Korea blocking VoIP

The Korean government recently enacted legislation prohibiting voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) calls placed on Korean telecommunication networks.  The ban goes into effect in July nationwide.  As a result, thousands of people, including many American expatriates, will find that their VoIP service rendered useless, and they will have to either find a way (illegally) around the ban or pay for Korean phone service.  Needless to say, Korean telephone companies are very happy, and VoIP providers and customers are (or will be) incensed.
 
VoIP enables Internet telephony and allows companies such as Vonage and Skype to provide telephone service to customers over the Internet.  VoIP is increasingly popular.  Although the sound quality of VoIP can be spotty if the Internet connection is subpar, it is much cheaper to use VoIP than paying for traditional phone service.  If you have a computer with broadband Internet access, a microphone, and speaker, you can use VoIP at a marginal cost.  If you use Skype, you don’t need any additional equipment.  Vonage and other VoIP provide service using phone equipment that plug into your computer.  Telephone calls travel over broadband pipes via Internet backbone.  Global Internet broadband networks are very expensive to build and are owned primarily by traditional telecommunication companies such as Korea Telecom (KT) and Dacom, Korea’s two largest telephone companies. 
 
Therein lies the VoIP conflict–Korean telephone companies built and maintain the telecommunication networks over which VoIP calls travel.  Companies such as Skype do not pay telephone companies for the privilege of sending Internet calls over their networks–computer users pay subscription fees when they sign up for Internet broadband access.  If a computer user enables VoIP over the same broadband connection they use to access the Internet, they eliminate the need to purchase additional telephony service from telephone providers.  As a result, telephone companies understandably claim that they are losing out on millions of telephone subscribers who switched–or will switch–to using VoIP exclusively.  Sources say that starting July 1, Korean phone companies will block VoIP access in Korea by blocking any Internet connection using COM Port 2 (broadband connections use Port 1; VoIP uses Port 2).  Many users will bypass the blocking of Port 2 by plugging their VoIP and broadband connections into routers that use Port 1. 
 
While I understand the telephone companies’ need to receive fair compensation for VoIP calls placed over their networks, I believe the Korean government’s action is short-sighted.  First, this regulatory action falls squarely in favor of the Korean telephone duopoly, KT and Dacom, at the expense of Korean consumers.  Korea often favors Korean conglomerates such as KT at the expense of consumers, stifling competition.  Secondly, Korea prides itself on being a hotbed of cutting-edge technology.  VoIP is on the bleeding edge of technological innovation.  Korea cannot stop the advance of VoIP as a worldwide telephony standard.  Korea may now be at the cutting edge of wireless and Internet technology, but its action effectively shuts Korea out of the next wave of telecommunication advances.  Much as the U.S. is criticized for missing out on stem cell research by banning the harvesting of embryonic stem cells, Korea is really missing the technology boat by banning VoIP.  Thirdly, KT and Dacom customers placing international phone calls inevitably use telecommunication networks outside of Korean telecommunication networks.  Essentially, KT and Dacom customers use foreign phone lines for free without paying compensatory surcharges.  It would not be beyond a begrieved VoIP company to prompt the U.S. or another nation to take Korea to the World Trade Organization for unfairly subsidizing Korean telecommunication companies by blocking VoIP.  Whether it will happen remains to be seen.

Seoul more expensive than Tokyo, London, and New York?

I definitely believe it.  Seoul has just been ranked the second most-expensive city in the world, after Moscow, Russia, according to a survey recently released by Mercer Human Resources Consulting.  The survey ranked the world’s 144 most expensive cities.  The top ten most expensive cities this year are (with 2005 ranking in parentheses):
  1. Moscow, Russia (4)
  2. Seoul, Korea (5)
  3. Tokyo, Japan (1)
  4. Hong Kong, China (9)
  5. London, England (3)
  6. Osaka, Japan (2)
  7. Geneva, Switzerland (6)
  8. Copenhagen, Denmark (8)
  9. Zurich, Switzerland (7)
  10. New York, USA (13) and Oslo, Norway (10)

So there you have it.  If you live in Seoul and wonder why it seems so darn expensive to live here, now you know why.  This is especially true if you live on a U.S. military base with subsidized pricing where tax-free goods are even cheaper than they are in the U.S.  Living in Seoul is more expensive than living in Switzerland, apparently.  Much of the fluctuation is due to currency movements, but it also has to do with recent housing booms in both Moscow and Seoul. 

When you juxtapose these survey results against the fact that yesterday marked the 56th anniversary of the start of the Korean War, you can’t help but be amazed by how far Seoul–and Korea–has come in just 53 years since the ceasefire was signed.  Still, Seoul has a long way to go to match the quality of life in many other cities around the world.  It doesn’t even rank in the top 50 worldwide for best quality of life.  This recognition is reserved primarily for Swiss and German cities, which captured six of 10 top ten cities based on quality of life (I believe the results are skewed–under no circumstances would I rank Frankfurt, Germany the 7th best city in terms of quality of life, especially considering that Munich is right behind it, ranked 8th.

Personally, I see one silver lining in this survey.  Asuncion, Paraguay, our next destination, is the world’s least expensive city ranked globally by Mercer.  I think I’ll wait to buy things in Paraguay.