In 2007, the Cambodian Prime Minister declared Booyoung Limited – a Korean company – as a “civil diplomat” in South East Asia - and apparently for a good reason:
In Hanoi, Lee Joong-keun, the CEO of Booyoung’s Limited Co., which seems to specialize in housing development, engineering and construction, donated 10,000 digital pianos to Vietnamese students today. Popular songs from Viet Nam and South Korea, as well as the national anthems from each country, will be saved in each piano’s memory. In 2006 they donated 6,000 anti-dazzle boards worth 300,000 USD to primary schools in Ha Tay (now Hanoi ) and donated 10 million USD to the Ministry of Education and Training.”
But its not only in Vietnam that Booyoung Limited has displayed its generous nature. Last year in Laos they helped build schools, provided blackboards and gave digital pianos as well to help celebrate the opening of the Booyang Lao Bank. It might also be noteworthy to add that they built a 27-hole golf course and are will start building a new international airport in 2011.
In Cambodia, Booyoung apparently helped build 300 schools for free in 2007. Sok An, the Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister, said, “This donation from South Korea is good and real humanitarian behavior which aims at developing the human resources in Cambodia.” They also donated 300,000 USD in 2007 to build a taekwondo training center. But this year has been kind of hard on the company and they were forced to shelve plans to develop land in the Cambodian capital.
This company seems to be doing a lot of good things and no matter how hard I looked – I could find nothing negative. This is something Korea should be proud of – a company supporting its community.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
They need more Cambodian wives??
next there will be full-scale advertisements in the Cambodia Daily or the Phnom Penh Post for Cambodians to recognize Dokdo as Korean sovereignty or to eat BimBimBap for lunch…
then the tribes of the Cambodian hills will be taught to study the Korean language so they can write their language in Hangul..
it never ends..
I’m still suffering from the jet lag… well, 6:30 pm seems like 6:30 am as if I were transported to a magical place where I cannot distinguish dawning morning from darkening evening…
When I wrote comment #94 in “The Glass and Steel Encased Burrito”, I thought that could be the last comment this week…. (because I thought I was gonna recover from the jet lag…). But that’s not the case, I just realized.
[in reference to my comment, #94, in "The Glass and Steel ...."]
(8)
I do not think the charity work [the above article by Mr. Neff] has anything to do with Dokdo or Hangeul (or any other….)
(9)
Hypothetically, if Cambodians need linguistic support for their language… yeah, I emphasize again, “Hypothetically”. I’d suggest to them all existing alphabets/written systems on the planet, including English.
*** Chinese people thought about using English as a “sort” of written system for their language at one time. They dropped the idea, though. One of the complaints was that it was difficult and time-consuming to type “written Chinese” on computer. A beautiful language like Chinese ain’t perfect, just like all other languages.
(10)
So, I’d be happy to see if and only if Cambodians choose to use Hangeul for good reasons of their own. However, I’d rather suggest, truly following King Sejong’s spirit, “if you guys have any problem, you can invent a new writing system and alphabets of your own”. Again, I have no idea whether Cambodians need a “written system” for the language or not.
(11)
While reading some comments (somewhere…), I thought “Korea has four distinct seasons” is rather a factual description than a fact South Koreans can be proud of. Yeah, kind of silly if schools really teach that way. However, when it comes to the written system of Korean language, “Hangeul”, my conviction does not entirely come from my education received in my country. When I saw my Chinese friend watching a Chinese film “…. with written Chinese subtitle” [because she does not understand spoken Cantonese in the film], or when another Chinese friend complains, “I couldn’t understand Shanghai dialect at the meeting yesterday”, I appreciate King Sejong’s custom-made written system for Korean language.
*** Of course, Korean language ain’t perfect, but compared to the neighbor country’s …..
(12)
Since the invention of Hangeul in the 14th century, it has been in use until now: Recorded many events and was published in books. The official documents of “written Chinese” cannot alone tell the entire Joseon kingdom’s rich history. Christianity has been disseminated by Hangeul, too. And two Koreas in the 20th and 21st centuries are firmly based on and have benefited from the use of Hangeul.
*** Need to go out to break away from the jet.lag. …
Cheers,
(12) since the invention of Hangeul in the 14th century –> mid-15th century
oh, those numbers..
He’s only had two arrest warrants, so he’s doing much better than most. Of course those glass-half-full types will say he’s a bit slower than most. I like to think he’s more cleverer. That’s how I roll.
Very nice Seouldout……God, I must be tired….I didn’t even think about checking out the CEO. Nice catch.
Golly, I hadn’t thought about checking the CEO too; I googled the company and it popped up on page 4.
Don’t be quick to condemn him; he hasn’t been convicted yet. Them pianos must have magical anti-extradition powers. He’s donating them in Vietnam and Laos too.
My wife is pretty excited about the golf courses. Too few of them in Cambodia.
What’s an “anti-dazzle board”? I found some references to them in highway construction, but I have no idea how a school would use them.
The anti-dazzle board. Kids love ‘em.
The construction industry in Korea is one of the dirtiest, most corrupt, sectors of business, thus I am not really surprised to read about the above mentioned CEO.
You must log in to post a comment.
{ 1 trackback }