 Employees and volunteers for the G20 Seoul Summit shout “fighting,” wishing for the successful hosting of the summit at the Coex in southern Seoul, Monday. / Korea Times photo by Choi Heung-soo |
By Oh Young-jin
On the one hand, leaders of the G20 emerging and advanced nations are coming to town together with CEOs of over 100 global conglomerates.
On the other, leaders of global unions are holding a meeting. A group of protestors are demonstrating to try and force those political and business leaders to pay attention to the plight of the poor and underprivileged.
Many Seoulites agree that the two meetings ― the G20 Seoul Business Summit and summit of political leaders ― are important showcases by which they can project a new image of Korea to the world. But still, there are a sizable number of people complaining about the inconvenience caused by streets being cordoned off near the Coex, the main venue of the Seoul Summit, which forces residents to leave their cars at home and use mass transportation ― subways and buses.
Some say that it is wrong for the government to make a fuss over the G20 meetings as if they were World Cup soccer matches or the Olympics.
Still it is hard to deny that the effects of any success from these meetings will certainly improve Korea’s image around the world. After all, Korea is one of the few cases of a country rising from rags to riches in a short period of time. It was only 60 years ago that Korea was devastated by a three-year fratricidal war. Now it is one of the advanced economies in the world and is being benchmarked by many developing countries as an example of development.
Few can blame President Lee Myung-bak for showing it to the world.
It is a different story when a glance is given at the complicated politics that involve the intricacies of a new global order, entailing a clash of the old guard led by the United States with the emerging powers, led by China.
There have been a number of precursors that indicate the severity of the clash of the old against the new. Perhaps, it would be better not to try and know too much about it. But it is human nature to be inquisitive. Whether one wants to know the result of the clash or not, it will be common knowledge in two days’ time.
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