I'm no Minerva but boy did I call THIS!

In June of '08 I noticed some news stories about the HSBC takeover bid of KEB. The deadline came and went and I started writing and article for the Gwangju news predicting that this deal would be used as an indication of Korea's lack of genuine commitment to globalization. It appeared as though I might have been wrong. The story faded away for a while and I got so wrapped up in writing my article that it got too big for the Gwangju news. I thought I may have heard the last of this deal. But now it's back.

In a June 27th post I mentioned the OECD's evaluation of Korea calling them xenophobic and citing negative sentiment against foreign capital as a problem that Korea needs to fix to make itself a more globally viable market.

At the time I was reading stories in U.S. and British financial magazines basically saying that the HSBC deal was a sweet one for KEB but the Koreans involved in the deal STILL let good business sense take a back seat to hyper-nationalism.

I wrote in my June 27th post about Sun Tzu's ideas of "moral unity", keeping soldiers well trained to act in one accord. I wrote in my article about the idea of "jeong", which was explained by two Korean doctors as, "loyalty and commitment without validation, logic or reason." This "jeong" is a socially perpetuated, collective emotion. People don't say in Korean that one "has" jeong, rather they will say, "Jeong deulda." which means "jeong has pervaded." This is identical to the moral unity Sun Tzu strove for in his soldiers. And it's still part of every Korean's training.

I wrote about Tae Won Kun who served as regent to King Ko Jung of the Yi Dynasty about 150 years ago in Korea. Tae Won Kun killed French missionaries and Korean converts, German, American and Chinese people who were trying to open trade with Korea at the time. He had stone monuments erected all over Korea which read, "Western barbarians invade our land. If we do not fight we must then appease them. To appease them is to sell off our land. Ten thousand generations of Koreans must always bear this statement in mind."

I wrote about a guy named Nicolas Chauvin who lived in France about 250 years ago, a century before Tae Won Kun, who was ridiculed and mocked for excessive nationalistic fervor. In fact, before the battle of the sexes, that is exactly what the word, "chauvinism" meant.

Call it chauvinism, jeong, moral unity, whatever you want but it was mocked in France 250 years ago. It is STILL not only NOT mocked in Korea, it's encouraged. I have seen some sad results in Korean individuals. Though they are all one group of like-minded people, they are without much sense of individuality and identity which makes them feel strangely isolated and lonely. I prefer to call the situation "subdivisions" after a favourite Rush song of mine. The lyrics are a scarily accurate description of Korea. " Growing up it all seemed so one-sided. Opinions all provided. The future pre-decided. Detached and subdivided in the mass production zone. Nowhere is the dreamer or the misfit so alone... Conform or be cast out."

While Korea has caught up with wealthy nations such as France economically, this is one way that their culture is still lagging 250 years behind. 250 years behing THE FRENCH! And it could be enough to keep Korea on the outside looking in on the global market that is gaining momentum.

The HSBC/KEB deal is one example of how this Korean chauvinism, jeong, moral unity or whatever "ruptured" the deal. And if my senses are correct, and I'm pretty confident that they are, this jeong is not in decline, rather it's getting stronger among Koreans because they perceive their country as wealthy enough now to afford the luxury of excessive nationalistic fervor even at the expense of overseas business.

There is only one way to overcome this potentially economically crippling characteristic and its ubiquity throughout Korea: education. I also wrote about that in my article stating that since 1919 when the Korean "education" system was provided by the occupying Japanese and its purpose was to classically condition students to mold them into honourable subjects of the Japanese empire not much has changed except now the students are being molded into subjects of the Korean empire. Since the end of WWII when Korea got back control over its own schools they have been far more concerned with taking advantage of Korean "education fever" and making a TON of money rather than trashing this antiquated system and starting from scratch.

The catch 22 of the whole situation is that because Koreans are not properly educated to question things such as the failings of their national education system, they are blissfully unaware that it needs a massive overhaul. In the last election of Seoul Education Superintendant, the place where a change like this must begin, the newspapers reported that 15% of the people of Seoul voted. 74-year-old incumbent Kong Jeong Taek won again. He has strong ties to Korean president Lee Myung Baek and they believe that Korean students need to learn more English, not tolerance of the various cultures around the world who speak it. They believe that students should study the same outdated curriculum, but they need to study it HARDER. It's a moronic educational platform and I asked a few people in Seoul whether they knew anything about the candidates to which they replied, "No. I just voted for Kong because I thought he'd probably win."

The opponent was a 57-year-old Konkuk University TEACHER, Joo Kyung Bok. A guy who WORKS in the education system of Korea. I checked Kong's resume and his degree is in economics. Later he got one in education ADMINISTRATION to make himself LOOK like he is interested in education but really that's still just the BUSINESS of education isn't it?

Joo's platform was, sure enough, to "scrap educational policies that undermine the public education." Now whether he'd do it or not is another matter. I'm not one to put my faith in politicians. What I was more concerned with was that the Korean people VOTED for the right candidate in recognition of this need for educational reform. But it didn't happen. I'm afraid it's going to be a long time before it DOES happen. Most likely too long.

This HSBC/KEB deal could very well be the rock that comes loose to start the landslide of Korean business partners moving away from Korea to greener pastures. There is a possibility that the Korean government will be sued for killing the deal. No doubt then the world will see what so many people have already seen: the COURTS of this country will stall, lie, fabricate "evidence" and pull all kinds of rabbits out of their hats to prevent Korea from losing. Because of the same jeong, chauvinism, moral unity, subdivisions or whatever that stalled the deal.

Yet somehow through these years the Korean economy hasn't crumbled and maybe for the same reasons, I haven't left Korea. Is it possible that despite all this, Korea is STILL a better deal than other countries? It IS for me. I just hope all the Korean money I'm saving won't be worthless by the time I leave this country. Certainly if they would mend the education system and get more global thinking and global business their currency would get stronger and I'd actually MAKE money. But that, I'm afraid, is wishful thinking.