Technology, Democracy A Potent Mix In South Korea
from the when-your-president-knows-HTML... dept
A very interesting article about how democracy and widespread broadband adoption in South Korea has impacted the country. Apparently, there’s an online news site there that has tremendous impact on the politics of the country, and people seem proud of the fact that the country’s president is the “first world president who knows HTML”. With all the recent articles about how governments can use the internet to keep control over their populations, this is a good story showing the other side of the coin.
Comments on “Technology, Democracy A Potent Mix In South Korea”
Mob Rule?
But how effective is such a “democracy”, if it causes the masses to become more emotional, irrational? I don’t think anyone would have cared if a Korean truck driver ran over two girls, but because Americans did, the entire country went into a big riot.
Re: Mob Rule?
in Italy we are still narrowband, or we still were when an US pilot played to fly his plane below the cablecar and cut the cable, killing a few. Tried in the US due to international treaty, he walked away scot free, still flying as he was not discharged from the Army.
On average people are sensitive to justice issues while US armed forces abroad are not (I also remember the case of a young girl raped in Okinawa which upset public opinion in Japan)
Honestly don t know about what happened in Korea, but if it is the same that happened in Italy … sometimes justice requires mob-ilitation
Re: Re: Mob Rule?
It works both ways. There are foreign diplomats in the USA who have diplomatic immunity. A few years ago, an employee of the embassy of Georgia, the nephew of George Shevardnadze, went on a drunken driving rampage in Washington DC and killed a 16-year-old girl. However, he was sent back to his own country and never charged with a crime. But it never became anything more than a medium-sized article in the local newspaper.
The same week the girl in Okinawa was raped, another 12 year old in Okinawa was raped by a Japanese guy, but it never became big news.
Despite what foreign media says, US servicemen are subject to the laws of foreign countries during off-duty activities. US servicemen do get arrested and sent to jail for things they do on weekends. Whenever bad incidents occur, there are widespread feelings of remorse on the base, but foreign media usually shows only unapologetic politicians.
But yeah, there are also calls in the USA for removing troops from ungrateful countries and just let them suffer.