But still hella silly — Rick Ruffin suggests Korea shut down its auto industry. To cut down on pollution.
Rick on why this won’t happen overnight:
One thing that would help to reduce congestion and pollution is pay parking. Here in Gangneung, Gangwon Province, parking at the potentially beautiful Gyeongpo Beach area is free. “Why?” I asked a couple of officials in the Gyeongpo Lake Beautification Department at Gangneung City Hall.“We tried pay parking several years ago,” one of them responded, “and all the tourists took their money and went north up the coast to Sokcho, or south to Samcheok. The Department of Tourism opposes pay parking,” he added.
“They think that pay parking will only drive customers away. But many policymakers agree that pay parking is the answer. We are simply afraid of public reaction.”
And there you have it. Here in Korea, the consumer has the politician by the balls. And the politician is too interested in getting re-elected to do anything serious. [emphasis mine]
I’ll let you mull that over.
PS: Wonder if Rick was feeling OK when he wrote that — he went through an entire column without even mentioning George W. Bush.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
he must be drunk.
Why stop at auto? Shut down all industries period. Voila, no more need to import expensive oil, no more pollution.
“Here in Korea, the consumer has the politician by the balls.”
And this is a bad thing? I hope Thomas Jefferson rises from the dead and zombie-rapes this fool.
Zombies are now capable of rape?!
First the financial meltdown and now this…zombie rape. Does every September completely suck? ‘Cept for zombies.
This is merely symptomatic of the larger failing of hub-ness and globalization in Korea. Since becoming self-employed, I don’t commute anymore and thus rarely pick up a Times or Herald. But I got one for a subway ride recently and was just appalled at the deterioration in quality (which was never high).
Good content costs money. The Times clearly can’t be making any. Why, why after all these years is the Times still such a shitrag? Because there is no need for it – the customer base is too small.
Where are the foreigners? Leaving Korea. Where are the English-speaking Koreans? There aren’t any. Where is the hub? Still in Hong Kong and Singapore. Why do we even have such laughable nonsense being offered to us as editorial comment in a newspaper? Because we occupy an outpost of civilization, far, far from the traderoutes of the international community, in a marginal land that has given up on joining the world, instead shipping its young off to overseas lands from which they hope to never return, in search of a better life, and better newspapers.
No-one has ever accused Rick Ruffin of having a sensible or reasoned thought.
But since he is restricted to being published in this outpost of civilization (a very generous description), he is doing the least amount of harm.
Why is is it that any clod EFLer with a BA thinks they are a journalist or “writer” (or “actor,” “model,” “investor,” “pundit,” etc.) in Korea? The thing that amazes me with this guy’s articles is that I find myself rolling my eyes in their sockets almost the way Linda Blair twisted her head around in the Exorcist. I’ve never actually had sore eyes before – but now I know what that feels like thanks to Ruffin’s “opinion pieces.” In normal newspapers I never read articles that do that to me. Shows you that KT will print anything.
“… we occupy an outpost of civilization, far, far from the traderoutes of the international community, in a marginal land that has given up on joining the world, instead shipping its young off to overseas lands from which they hope to never return, in search of a better life, and better newspapers.”
Maybe there are people in Korea that can write after all. Well done!
To be Korean is to be trapped – your money, your time, your friends, your activities, your neighborhood. To be a Korean parent is to willingly if resignedly thrust your children into the trap at the first opportunity; that is, the day they are born.
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2895200
This guy should prove to us that he is not a hypocrite and move to North Korea, where there are no cars (except for the nomenklatura). He could then experience the smug satisfaction of living in the nation with the world’s smallest carbon footprint. In fact, I’ll set up a fund (“Send Rick to Ecotopia!”) and contribute W10,000 to help him on his way. Any other takers?
The KT should give Ruffin a regular column…call it “Ruffin’s Rubbish,” or “Ruffin’s Bluffin’,” “Ruffin’s Roughage” (becuase it’s indegestible), etc.
Linkd called it: still a shitrag after all these years.
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