Trains won’t be the only form of transportation linking the two Koreas [Korea Herald], if former Seoul mayor and GNP presidential hopeful Lee Myung-bak has his way. Frankly, I like Lee, but I wish he’d just drop this canal business.
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Inland canals: The best transportation solution of the 19th century.
It’s just this sort of nonsense that gives the lie to the notion that the return of the GNP to power will mark any sort of substantial change in Korea, apart from the noise made by the clucking tongues.
A man, a plan, a canal - Korea?
Not much of a palindrome.
If the two Koreas were one, would a canal be a bad idea?
They could flood it with Lotte Cider and call it —
Korea SPARKLING
I think my man just wants to throw work at Hyundai Engineering and has a perverse notion of changing the land into something that it is not. Let me make a short list:
“Things Korea is not”:
1) Europe
2) united
3) sparkling
4) Rhodes
5) the Suez
6) a good place to breath deeply
Korea *is* loved by many (including me) and sometimes, that is enough.
Anyone see Lee’s comments on the news last night about how he opposed abortion, except for people with disabilities. They weren’t too thrilled with the comment understandably. I wonder what moral principles Lee would claim as a basis for his position. Not the sanctity of human life, evidently. If Lee is after some kind of Hitler-esque mission for racial perfection, he’s sure one to judge.. old snake-eyes Lee just looks sneaky.
“If the two Koreas were one, would a canal be a bad idea?”
Ecologically speaking, it most certainly is. It would introduce species that are non-native to some rivers, there will be oil spills, and, lets not forget, the effluents from factories. All it will accomplish is enable factories to buy cheaper land…but I’m sure there are plenty of coastal towns that would be more than happy to provide tax breaks that will make the canals less than attractive.
It’s an overly ambitious project, one that is not needed. This isn’t 19th century France, you know.
Why does this canal nonsense remind me of the Simpson’s when Lyle Lanley came to Springfield to get everyone on board with his ill-fated monorail scheme …
‘I tell you folks, what we need is a great, big, whopping canal to get things going.’
Wedge (#1): exactly. There already is fast, economic, relatively “eco-friendly” alternative to the 1% of freight traffic that goes by coastal shipping and 88% by truck: rail—the same technology that supplanted British canal transport 200 years ago! It’s all the more pie-in-the-sky, considering that the two proposed southern canals are essentially duplicating the major Gyeongbu and Honam transportation corridors.
Ah, taxpayer-subsidized infrastructure megaprojects. I know them well, because successive governments of every political stripe in my home provice have made them the state religion since the 1950s.
…Not that modern society doesn’t need effective (key word there)—and sometimes expensive—transportation solutions, but c’mon, there has to be at least a sliver of a decent economic argument in favour of them!
Park Chung-hee initiated a huge civil engineering project, in spite of criticism that it was not economically viable, which now remains as his legacy, the Seoul-Pusan expressway.
Now one might ask, what does this have to do with the canal? Put it simply, Lee Myung-bak probably wants to emulate former pres. Park. He, like former pres. Park probably wants to initiate a huge civil engineering project during his presidency, which will remain as his legacy long after he has left office. He is also probably hoping that his critics will be proved wrong when in the future, the canal, like the expressway, becomes a success. Just like former pres. Park’s critics were proved wrong about the expressway.
But there is a big difference here. S. Korea needed the highway from Seoul to Pusan, but it doesn’t need a canal from Seoul to Pusan.
What irritates me, is the penchant for Korean leaders, whether they be CEOs, or mayors or governors or presidents, to initiate huge, visible, and unnecessary prestige projects, just so that they can prove that they have done something during their tenure. It will do a lot more good, if they would concentrate their resources on issues that matter the most.
The cost estimate for the canal is 21 billion dollars. That money will go a long way if it was spent on less well-off Koreans, the environment, and the education system, among others.
I just wanted to repeat this point since it is so obviously relevant and true. I would rather Lee focus upon being a “good Shepard”, that is if he is any kind of wise Christian.
“Wise Christian”????
What type of Christian advocates aborting disabled fetuses? The guy hardly has any religious principles from the looks of it.
Haven’t we learned from GW Bush that electing someone who claims to be a good Christian is not such a great idea? For my money, anyone who believes some invisible diety is talking to them is no fit to lead a real-life nation.
I have thought the exact same thing as mins (#12).
This is about leaving a legacy in the form of a massive infrastructure project ala Park Chung-Hee and the Kyoung-Bu expressway. (And the Cheongye restoration project, for that matter.)
His “advisory group,” made this startling comment (quoted from today’s Korea Herald):
“It would demonstrate our poor imagination to our descendants if we only emphasize the economic effects of the canal project such as job creation, the development of the tourism/leisure and logistics industry and the balancing of regional development.”
I disagree. What’s really poor imagination is simply attempting a larger version of a popular waterway project (Cheongyechon).
For a fraction of the $15 billion cost, to stroke Canalster’s ego, couldn’t we just build a massive Juche Tower for him at the head of the Cheongyechon and be done with it?
Too late
Yep, he’s already made his mark at the head of CH. with Claes’ “dog”.
Hopefully this perverse fantasy of an infrustructure project will be shelved. I want to starting seeing all those 100+ floor buildings go up instead!
Upon reflection, I’d like to see it go ahead. It wouldn’t be economically viable in the least, but canals in the West nowadays are getting great use for pleasure boating and romantic getaways. It would be cool taking a three-day houseboat cruise around this country with a couple of kegs of Alley Kat Ale aboard.
“For my money, anyone who believes some invisible diety is talking to them is no fit to lead a real-life nation.”
Yes, it’s too bad the US had to suffer through the Carter administration.
Speaking of Carter, when’s that dictator lover going to kick off already? It was bad enough what the guy did ‘77-’81, but he’s like the house guest who wouldn’t leave–for 26 fricken years.
Mr Clinton looks like the gold standard when compared with Mr Carter.
That canal would be hell of stanky in no time at all, with dead bodies and an armada of plastic trash bags floating down it. They could call it Lee’s Folly, or Dong Pari Ditch.
Snow, Wedge, Peninsular, this one’s for you:
http://www.slate.com/id/2166661/nav/tap2/
Thanks, Chief. This is classic:
“It’s hardly an exaggeration to say that every administration since has had to deal with the chaotic legacy of Carter’s mind-boggling cowardice and incompetence.”
Living in a land full of canals and having studied civil engineering, I must say that canals have definitely proven their effectivity. The tonnage transported via waterways is still growing in the Netherlands and studies point out that transportation over water is less damaging for the environment, quite efficient and economically viable.
There are some prerequisites though:
1. there must be no mountains
2. there must be an existing myriad of natural waterways
3. there must be a pool of experienced engineers
4. there must be some neighbouring countries to transport the goods to
So it is absolutely possible provided that Korea:
1. razes all mountains to the ground
2. is overflooded by massive monsoons
3. hire me and other Dutch bloakes from the TU Delft
4. builds polders between Korea and Japan (we Dutch can support that too)
Havik: a man with a vision!
Aren’t half of your polders flooding from the table water underneath, though?
I’m not trying to be smug, though…the Fraser River is possibly about to hit its 2nd-highest water level in the last 100 years, and I work behind a dyke at sea level.
Sorry…dike…
i think Lee Myung Bak knows what he’s talking about and I support him with the woon-ha.
There is no way that he’ll be pushing this, this being his biggest weakness in the whole campaign, if he didn’t absolutely have good reason for it, given that he’s leading in all the polls and is pretty much a lock-in to win the Presidency.
Maybe he has the engineers in Hyundai. Maybe there is no plan to raze mountains.
I thought the plan involved submerging the mountains by building dams.
That’s what they did in Panama….