Foreigners Fear for Safety in South Korea

Koreans Make Big Sacrifices to Study Overseas

S. Korean kids learning English from a native speaker in Seoul


Koreans Make Big Sacrifices to Study Overseas
Families Separating So Kids Can Be Educated Abroad

By Anna Fifield
Financial Times Correspondent

Every morning when Park Jin-soo wakes in his studio apartment in Seoul, his wife and three children are just sitting down for dinner at their house in Montgomery, Va(Virginia). His family usually eats Korean food, although the children are no longer so keen on kimchi.

"They are Korean on the outside but American on the inside now," said Park, one of thousands of kirogi appa, the "wild geese fathers" who continue working in South Korea while their families migrate abroad for schooling.

"I sometimes feel miserable," he said of living alone. "But my wife and I feel very strongly that our children must have the best education."

More and more South Koreans are choosing to split their families to try to escape the country's grueling school system, which is based on endless hours of rote learning, in favor of a better education and a more balanced life abroad for their children.

Life in South Korea revolves around education. Graduating from one of the country's top three universities is a ticket to a good job. Thirteen of the 18 cabinet members attended Seoul National, the most prestigious.

Students as young as 10 attend hagwon — cramming schools — until 11 p.m. on weekdays and 8 p.m. on Saturdays. The average family spends a 10th of its income on private education, worth a total of $8 billion last year.

High school students live by the mantra "four in, five out" — a Korean saying reflecting the belief that those who sleep for only four hours a night will get into a top university but those who stay in bed for five hours will not.

So crucial is the university entrance examination that government offices and the Korea Stock Exchange open an hour late to keep roads clear and airplanes are grounded during the listening test. Out of a population of 48 million, South Korea has 2.6 million university students.

But many parents despair of the educational rat race.

"In Korea, parents educate their children by force, sending them to hagwon and over-educating them," said Park, a university professor. "In the U.S. my children enjoy living in a freer environment with more possibilities. And they all speak English."

A trend that started in the ritzy suburbs of Kangnam and Apgujong in southern Seoul has now spread across the country.

This year 192,000 South Koreans are studying at overseas universities, up from 150,000 five years ago. Meanwhile, the number of children attending school abroad has quadrupled to 16,500. The U.S. is the prime destination, but cheaper countries such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand are becoming popular alternatives.

Choi Byung-il, trade professor at Ewha Women's University, says the kirogi trend shows how South Koreans are becoming global consumers when it comes to educational services.

"Parents are not just sending them to a foreign university but they are immersing them in a foreign language, and that will be very important for career development," he said. "There's no question about the wisdom of that kind of thinking, but it comes at a high price."

While the phenomenon underlines the lengths that South Koreans will go to for education, it is a difficult trade-off, raising serious concerns about national identity and family values.

Many families feel torn about separating children from their fathers at such a pivotal stage in their lives — when their personalities and values are being shaped — and many kirogi children's knowledge of Korean history and language suffers.

Gwangju - Birthplace of Korean Democracy

Bodies of demonstrators killed in the massacre

Gwangju - Birthplace of Korean Democracy
By Stephen Little
Travel Writer

Centre to some of the most tragic events to have occurred in Korea's recent history, Gwangju is a place seen as being the birthplace of democracy in South Korea.

What happened here is now viewed as being crucially important in bringing about political change, in a country that was ruled by a dictatorship following the Korean War (1950-53).

On May 17 1980, the Korean government led by Gen. Chun Doo-hwan, declared martial law across the whole country and dissolved the National Assembly. This was the response to demonstrations and the growing unrest within Korea, following the assassination of the dictator Park Chung-hee and the resulting coup that had brought Gen. Chun Doo-hwan into power.


Many of the protesters armed themselves with weapons taken from government troops

The next day in Gwangju, students protested outside the gates of Chonnam National University, which resulted in violent clashes with soldiers. Over the course of the next few days there were further protests which culminated in the events of May 21, when 300,000 people took to the streets, indignant with rage for the violence which had already occurred and the broken promise of martial law troops being withdrawn.

These protests by the students and citizens of Gwangju resulted in people being stripped naked and viciously beaten by the soldiers. Crowds were also indiscriminately fired upon as further clashes occurred.

This show of resistance led to the troops being forced out of the city and Gwangju remained in control of its citizens until May 27, when the military returned, finally crushing the resistance.

The final death toll is still unknown. An official report by the civilian government in the 1990s put the official figure at 207, although other unofficial estimates have put it between 500 and 2000. After the massacre in 1980, bodies were piled up in hand and dust carts and taken to Mangwol-dong, where they were buried.


Gwangju Memorial Park


Here they remained until 1997, whereupon they were exhumed and reburied at the May 18 National Cemetery.

The events that occurred sparked the flame for pro-democracy demonstrations in 1987, which led to major democratic reforms. In 1992, after more than 30 years of military rule, the first civilian government in South Korea came into being with the election of Kim
Young-sam.

A long time pro-democracy activist, he brought in further reforms and the successive governments of Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun have since consolidated the democratisation process.

Chun Doo-hwan along with his successor, Roh Tae-woo, whom he helped into power, were both arrested in 1996 and later convicted for corruption, mutiny and treason.

Although not admitting to giving the orders for the massacre, they were both held accountable on the basis of being military and state leaders.


Coup leader Gen. Chun Doo-hwan (right) was jailed and then pardoned for his role in the massacre

Chun received the death penalty, whilst Roh was given a term of life imprisonment. These sentences were later reduced to 17 years for Roh and life imprisonment for Chun. The following year they were both pardoned by President Kim Dae-jung, shortly after his inauguration in 1998.

The Memorial Park was opened in 2002 to honour those that lost their lives in the massacre. I was very fortunate to have a Korean guide called Ji-young to show me around, who provided me with an excellent insight into Gwangju's history and people.

Upon entering, you first pass through the Democracy Gate, which is built in a traditional Korean style and provides the entrance to the park. Standing opposite this is the huge Memorial Tower which
symbolises the resurrection of life. Beneath it were school children and other visitors, each paying their respects to those that died.

On either side of the tower are two statues and on raised stonework behind these are murals, depicting the events that occurred.

Ji-young told me that under Chun's leadership, people were led to believe that the uprising was the work of Communist sympathisers and for many years, those that lost their lives were not recognised. It was only with the advent of democracy in South Korea that what happened became properly acknowledged.

"With democracy, we finally had the truth," she told me.


Coup leaders headed by Maj. Gen. Chun Doo-hwan, sent troops to crush the pro-democracy uprising in Gwangju


Behind the Memorial Tower are the graves of those that lost their lives in the massacre. Here there are 325 people buried and each grave has a photograph alongside it of the person who died.

Ji-young firstly took me to the grave of the youngest victim, a schoolgirl who was inadvertently caught up in the events. Sent out by her father for groceries, she never came back and her father unable to live with himself, later took his own life. She then showed me the graves of a married couple who both lost their lives and had been buried side by side.

As we walked around I could see that people of all ages were killed, from all walks of life. Old and young alike. The lives of families and entire communities irreversibly altered forever.

Next to the graves were memorials for those known to have died in the massacre, but whose bodies are still missing. One day, if they are ever found, they will be laid to rest alongside the others. It is also possible for those who took part in the demonstrations to be buried here once they have passed on.


The Gwangju Massacre was a pivotal moment in South Korea's history

As we went further on, Ji-young told me how she remembered as a child, a man running through her home covered in red paint, an event that she thought was very strange and a little amusing at the time. Only when she was older did she learn that the reason he did this, was so that he could lie down and pretend to be dead if confronted by soldiers.

She then went on to tell me that it took many years for South Korea to come to terms with the events of the massacre and that she felt glad that the Memorial Park has finally been built, so that future generations wouldn't forget what had happened.

We then went into the museum, which provides information on the history of the massacre as well as pictures and a film. The images here show in dramatic detail the events as they unfurled. Much of it is in Korean, but words are not necessary. The graphic pictures of people being beaten and the mutilated bodies of those killed, fully
convey the atrocities that occurred, without the need for description of what happened.

I found the whole day to be an extremely moving experience, learning about those who had lost their lives, fighting for what they believed in. It really helps to put in perspective how much South Korea has changed in such a relatively short space of time.

Visiting the Memorial Park helps to bring home the true horrors of this turbulent period in South Korea's history and more than anything, the events stand as testament to the resilience of the Korean people and the triumph of the human spirit over adversity.

"Father of Video Art" Dies at 74 in Maiami

Video artist Paik Nam-June i his studio in New York

Goodbye to Paik Nam-June
"Father of Video Art" Dies at 74 in Maiami
Paik Nam-June Survived by His Japanese Wife Kubota

"Father of Video Art" Paik Nam-June died of natural causes at 74 around 8 p.m. on Jan. 29, 2006 (local time) at his residence in Miami, Florida. Paik is survived by his Japanese wife Shigeko Kubota.

Paik's funeral will be held on Feb. 2 or Feb 3, 2006 (local time) at Frank E. Campbell The Funeral Chapel at 1076 Madison Ave. 81st St, New York, NY 10028 (Tel: 212-288-3500 Toll Free: 800-423-5928. Services will also be held in South Korea and Germany.

Sources close to Paik's family said that his remains will be distributed in South Korea, the US, and Germany after his cremation.

Paik Nam-June was born in Seoul, Korea on July 20, 1932. After graduating from Gyeonggi High School in Seoul, Paik went to Hong Kong to enroll in Royden House Junior and Senior School.

A year after graduation from Royden School in 1949 Paik went to Japan for advanced studies.

Paik studied music history, art history, and philosophy at the University of Tokyo, where he graduated with a dissertation on Arnold Schoenberg.

He then went to Germany in 1956 to continue the study of music history at the University of Munich. In Germany he met Karlheinz Stockhausen and John Cage who inspired Paik's interest and subsequent development of electronic art.

Both composers, Stockhausen and Cage influenced Paik through their ideas of composition and performance.

Paik worked with Stockhausen in a studio for Electronic Music. He then got involved with the post neo-Dada art movement, fluxus. Fluxus was founded by George Maciunas. George invited Paik to join his group of artists and he accepted.

Paik returned to Japan to conduct experiments with electromagnets and colour television, alongside electronic engineer Shuya Abe.

In June, 1996 Paik suffered a stroke that left part of his body paralyzed . But the wheelchair-bound Paik continued holding numerous exbibitions both in South Korea and around the world.

The rise of new technology led him to use the video image. Today he is known as the father of video art and influences the younger generation of artists.

"Paik Nam-June Art Museum," will open in October in 2007 in Yongin, south of Seoul.

Japan & China: What’s Really at Stake?

French Shanghai — Looks of the old french concession in Shanghai with those typical buildings and art-deco rchitecturePhoto Courtesy Pingu In China

Dr. George Gu's Asia Watch
Japan & China: What’s Really at Stake?
By George Zhibin Gu
Contributing Writer


In the past three decades, Japan and China have enjoyed ever-increasing economic ties. But their political relations have been lagging behind seriously. The ongoing political rows do cast a shadow over their economic ties. So, what's really at stake?

Japan Inc. in China
Japan Inc has been the third-most important investor in China, after "Overseas Chinese Inc." and "US Inc." By 2004, Japan had invested US$66.6 billion in equity into China. Japanese banks are leading international lenders to China. At the same time, the booming Chinese economy has become an engine for Japan's economic recovery. Of late, 50 percent or more of the total increase in Japanese exports has been attributable to China.

Japan Inc's investments in mainland China have come in three waves. The first wave, which really only tested the water, came in the 1980s. Japanese investors of that period felt that Chinese lacked sufficient buying power to make the investments worthwhile.

In 1993-95, as Chinese growth began to accelerate, the second wave arrived. Still, however, Japanese investments remained limited in scope and reach. China was treated as a factory, not a market. Goods made in China by Japanese manufacturers were largely sent to overseas markets. But by the late 1990s, seemingly all of Japan Inc rushed in - the third wave.

By 2005, not only giant Japanese multinationals, but also countless small and medium-size firms had arrived. Shanghai alone has more than 40,000 Japanese residents. Japanese schools are operating in major cities such as Xian, Dalian, Beijing, Shenzhen and Shanghai. In 2004, the number of people traveling between the two nations reached 4.35 million, a new record.

Basically, Japan Inc is now completely hooked on China. This should not come as a surprise - China has already become the largest consumer market in the world, besides being a top manufacturer and top trading nation. In 2004, China had 334 million handset users and sold 15 million personal computers, giving it the first and second biggest global market for these goods.

Countless Japanese firms are now established in China, including Mitsui, with more than 110 joint ventures; Matsushita, which runs more than 49 factories and is adding more; and Canon, Hitachi and Sharp, which intend to make China their biggest market and site of their biggest factory. Japanese auto giants Honda and Toyota are already top players. Clearly, the fortunes of Japan Inc are already seriously tied to China.





Furthermore, many Japanese companies are setting up research and development (R&D) labs in China, and lining up Chinese research institutes and universities to support future R&D efforts. Outsourcing is another major activity; Sony alone has more than 3,000 China-based suppliers, and Japanese firms are increasingly turning to China, rather than India, for their software outsourcing.

Japan Inc is active in all economic sectors, not just manufacturing. Retail giants like Justco, Ito-Yokado and 7-Eleven (which has been Japanese-owned since its Japanese subsidiary purchased it from the Southland Corporation in 1991) are all established in China. Increasing Chinese consumption has become a goldmine for these retailers, who are competing with Wal-Mart, Tesco, Carrefour and everyone else to set up more stores.

The rising real estate price in China has brought over countless Japanese land developers, who have been busy to build countless hotels, office towers and shopping centers in places like Xian, Nanjing, Tianjin and Suzhou. Japanese banking and financial service giants are increasingly active in China as well. In particular, venture capital companies are coming in crowds. Top venture capitalist firm Softbank is already a major investor in numerous Chinese Internet and information-technology companies.




China Inc. in Japan
Chinese exports to Japan have been increasing fast. By 2004, China had replaced the US as the top exporter to Japan. Chinese products in Japan are mostly consumer products, and their penetration has been greatly aided by Japan Inc's operations in China. Relying on low costs in China, Japan Inc has adopted a strategy of manufacturing its vast range of products in China, then selling them in Japan and elsewhere, including China itself. The cost advantages are tremendous, since the average Chinese manufacturing job pays only around $115 a month, but the labor pool is vast.

Besides trade activities, China Inc has become increasingly active in Japan lately. Some Chinese companies are interested in acquiring Japanese assets as a way to obtain better technology, a distribution network, or both. Several high-profile cases come to mind. First, Shanghai Electric Group acquired a bankrupt Japanese manufacturer of high-tech printers, Akiyama. Another purchase came from Guangdong-based Midea, a major home-appliances manufacturer, which acquired the entire microwave oven division from Sanyo Electric Co. Also, the Chinese company 999, a Shenzhen-based pharmaceutical and consumer-chemicals business, has an active joint venture with a Japanese pharmaceutical concern, with the aim of cross-selling each other's products.


Chinese purchases like this have shocked Japan Inc. In the case of Shanghai Electric Group's purchase of Akiyama, made basically for its printer factory, the Chinese factory had been in distress itself; before the acquisition, the Chinese firm's technology was three decades behind. By buying the Japanese asset, the resulting company benefited tremendously, and it now offers popular printers for the Chinese market and beyond. Such acquisitions have become one popular way for Chinese firms to upgrade their technology and gain a new market at the same time. This has naturally concerned Japan Inc, which has always been more concerned with building business empires headed by Japanese than with actually making money.

But China Inc may not need to buy Japanese assets to advance its interests. Chinese firms can simply hire Japanese talent to work for them, for example. This is what Skyworth, a leading Chinese consumer electronics company, did when it recently hired a veteran Matsushita engineer together with many of his research colleagues. The Japanese engineer has become a senior executive at Skyworth. Due to such activities, and for other reasons as well, the technological gap between Japan and China is narrowing fast - faster than expected. The eroding of technological advantage has increasingly become a concern for Japan Inc.
In addition, many leading Chinese companies are actively expanding into Japan. So far, these efforts have met with limited success. Partly this is because Japan's domestic market has always been notoriously closed to foreign companies; surprisingly, in many ways, Japan is not as open as China. Typically, a more effective way to penetrate the Japanese market is via joint ventures with Japan Inc.


So far, most of these joint ventures have aimed for the China market. But this is gradually changing, as more Chinese companies attempt to invest in Japan as well. In recent months, leading Chinese brands such as ZTE, TCL and Haier have all increased their efforts to tap into the Japanese market. In particular, Huawei, a top Chinese telecom equipment manufacturer, has established joint ventures with NEC and Matsushita dealing with third-generation (3G) mobile phone technology.

Interdependence and beyond
As the world's second-largest economy, Japan has both advantages and challenges. The biggest advantage is that Japan has hundreds of truly global companies that are well equipped to operate anywhere it is beneficial for them to do so. Its biggest challenge is at home, Japan has had a 14-year economic slump. Deep-seated problems include high costs, low efficiency in many industries, rampant overstaffing and a banking sector that is still recovering from massive bad loans made during the "bubble economy" period on one hand and running into more bad debts on the other hand, among other things. These problems run very deep and are not likely to go away anytime soon. This tightly closed Japanese market has backfired. Domestic stagnation virtually compels Japanese businesses to expand overseas - and China has been their overwhelming first choice.





At a deeper level, Japan Inc confronts with this reality: it needs to generate fat profits from overseas in order to sustain its declining operations, very often money-losing, at home. This compels Japan Inc to do even more overseas and in a hurry.

Unfortunately for the increasingly globalized Japan Inc, the Japanese political establishment has been behaving in a way that is contrary to its interests. The political leadership is keen to re-establish Japanese assertiveness, politically and militarily. This unresolved conflict has been causing wide debate within Japan. The recent protests in China and Korea against new Japanese textbooks that minimize war crimes committed by the former imperial Japanese government; Japan's alleged interference in the Taiwan issue; and conflict over certain islands claimed by both China and Japan, among other issues, has heightened this conflict of interest between Japan Inc and the Japanese government.

At the same time, Japan Inc's competitive edge is no longer as sharp as it was back in the 1980s. For example, both the European Union and the US surpassed Japan in total trade with China in 2004. Also, "South Korea Inc" is investing more in China. In the late, Korean investment has surpassed the Japanese already. Leading South Korean names like LG, Samsung and Hyundai have made huge progress in China, although they were late entrants into the Chinese market. LG did $10 billion in business in China in 2004, a level even the biggest Japanese brands have hardly reached. So, Japan Inc feels great pressure to do more in China, and do it bigger and better, for fear of losing out to Japan's global competitors.


Cranes cover the stretch of Pudong, Shanghai. In the back is the Oriental Pearl Tower. Shanghai is called "The New York of the East." Photo Courtesy Stephanie Lee


For now, China is less dependent on Japanese investment than it had been. This is due partly to the fact that international investment in China has been so massive. By 2004, more than $560 billion worth of foreign investment had entered China, of which Japan accounted for only $66.6 billion, a small fraction. Although Japanese investment is still significant, its relative level of significance is decreasing.

Also, domestic Chinese companies have developed significantly, and tens of thousands of them have gained the ability to produce all sorts of products. As a matter of fact, China has already become the top manufacturer for over 100 manufactured goods. Furthermore, Japan has a high-cost structure, and Chinese buyers generally prefer low-cost, but highly competitive, products and services. For example, Indian software companies are far better equipped to sell in China than Japanese companies.

Overall, even without the ongoing row, Japan Inc faces an increasingly uphill battle in China. Its entire business line faces tough competition from both China itself and international firms. Japanese products no longer have any unique advantages, as they did in the 1980s. For example, in the auto industry, Honda and Toyota face competitors like GM, Volkswagen and Hyundai, among others. And in home appliances and consumer electronics, which have been traditional strengths for Japanese firms, the domestic brands are improving fast, and there is intense competition from other international brands.


Toyota's Lexus Concept Car shown in a Shanghai exhibition room. Photo Courteesy Benoist Sébire


One can predict that the opposing interests of Japan Inc and the Japanese government will impact Japanese foreign policy more in the future. Traditionally, there are close ties between Japan Inc and the Japanese government, and it is difficult for the Japanese government to act in a way that is contrary to the interests of the business community. Japanese foreign policy is in fact more influenced by domestic politics than is widely believed. For the benefit of Japan as a whole, the Japanese government has every reason to try to make Japan part of the solution for regional conflicts, rather than part of the problem. Japan's neighbors are watching eagerly for signs of this.

Chinese Economy Grows to 4th Largest in World

Chinese Economy Grows to 4th Largest in World

By Keith Bradsher


Huangpu River in Shanghai's Pudong area

HONG KONG, Jan. 25, 2006 — The Chinese economy grew 9.9 percent last year, the third year in a row of roughly 10 percent growth, government statisticians announced in Beijing on Wednesday.

The Chinese statistics, showing a national economic output of $2.26 trillion, sent China soaring past France, Britain and Italy to become the world's fourth-largest economy, after the United States, Japan and Germany.

Some economists adjust China's figures for the low value of its currency and low domestic prices to suggest that if valued at Western prices, China's output has surpassed Germany's as well.

From the clumps of tall cranes that dot the skylines of Chinese cities to the shopping malls packed with buyers to the containers full of exported shirts, toys and other goods that clog Chinese docks, the economy is growing so fast that some experts suggested on Wednesday that China may even have underestimated the true level of growth.

A figure of 10 percent or higher might send prices even higher for oil and other commodities that China imports, and might prompt the United States to make even stronger demands that China's currency be allowed to rise appreciably in value against the dollar, said Stephen Green, a China economist with Standard Chartered.

China, like most countries, calculates economic output mainly from data supplied by factories and other producers. But the government's own data on spending by the government, investors, consumers and foreign buyers suggests that the true rate of growth last year may have been as high as 15 percent, Mr. Green said.

Rising exports in particular have helped lift China to an average annual growth rate of 9.6 percent over the past quarter of a century. But economists said that Wednesday's figures showed that consumer spending was becoming increasingly important as well.

Liang Hong, an economist in the Goldman Sachs office here, noted that retail sales in China climbed 12.5 percent last year. "We believe domestic demand will increasingly become a much more important driver for growth and China will become a more positive force for global demand in the coming years," she said in a research report.

But some experts continue to question whether China is too reliant on investment spending and whether too much of that investment involves ill-considered splurges on new factories and the latest equipment even in industries like auto manufacturing and steel making, where overcapacity is becoming a serious problem.

China has been gradually whittling away the serious problem of non-performing loans at state-owned banks. But China remains heavily dependent on continued heavy borrowing by companies to build ever more factories and apartment buildings even as they struggle to earn enough profit on their existing facilities to repay previous loans.

"Given the evidence of deteriorating investment efficiency, China needs to rebalance its growth by shifting away from investment towards consumption," said Qu Hongbin, the senior economist for China at HSBC.

Strong Chinese demand for new power plants, cranes, high-speed locomotives and trucks has fueled a boom in Chinese imports of these and other kinds of capital equipment from Germany and Japan in particular. Tao Dong, the chief Asia economist for Credit Suisse, said that a detailed analysis showed that exports to China were playing a critical role in recent signs of a revival in the German and Japanese economies.

"China has become one of the forces lifting these two countries out of recession," he said.

The economic figures released on Wednesday are so strong that they suggest the Chinese economy may even be reaccelerating this winter despite the government's efforts to discourage property speculation through tax changes and administrative measures, Mr. Tao said.

One reason for the economy's strength is that the People's Bank of China, the central bank, has only raised its benchmark interest rate by slightly over a quarter of a percentage point in the last three years, even as the Federal Reserve has pushed through 13 quarter-point increases.

Despite China's relatively lax monetary policy, there has been little sign of inflation in recent months, as competition from new factories has held down prices for manufactured goods while steep rises in real estate prices have moderated.

Many consumer-oriented service businesses are now running at capacity as a result. Mr. Tao said that when he visited Beijing last week, he had to call seven high-end restaurants before he could find one that had a table free for dinner.

"After six restaurants turned me down, I said 'gee, the economy is booming.' " he recalled.

The above article is from The New York Times.

Korea down Mexico 1-0

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 15 (Yonhap) -- South Korea defeated football power Mexico 1-0 in a friendly match at the Memorial Coliseum here Wednesday.

The victory culminated the South Korean team's 41-day overseas training trip that started on Jan. 15, and boded well for the team in the World Cup finals in Germany this June.

S. Korea drop two slots to 31st in FIFA world rankings
SEOUL, Feb. 15 (Yonhap) -- South Korea slid two notches to 31st place in the monthly FIFA rankings for February, the world football governing body said Wednesday.
The Asian side dropped to its lowest rank in 29 months after teetering at 29th place for the last four months.

culminate /klmnet/ (culminates, culminating, culminated)
VERB
If you say that an activity, process, or series of events culminates in or with a particular event, you mean that event happens at the end of it.
They had an argument, which culminated in Tom getting drunk.

bode /bod/ (bodes, boding, boded)
VERB
If something bodes ill, it makes you think that something bad will happen in the future. If something bodes well, it makes you think that something good will happen.[ FORMAL ]

teeter /tit/ (teeters, teetering, teetered)
1. VERB
Teeter is used in expressions such as teeter on the brink and teeter on the edge to emphasize that something seems to be in a very unstable situation or position.
Three of the hotels are in receivership, and others are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy.
His voice teetered on the edge of hysteria.

People remember Daegu subway fire victims on 3rd anniversary

DAEGU, Feb. 18 (Yonhap) -- Heart-broken family members and survivors of a deadly subway fire that occurred in Daegu three years ago joined Saturday with city residents and dignitaries to hold a memorial ceremony.

The ceremony began at 9:53 a.m. with the sounding of a one- minute siren as participants in the ceremony and people across the city observed a moment of silence in memory of those who lost their lives.

Among the mourners at the ceremony held at the Daegu Citizen's Center building was main opposition Grand National Party leader Park Geun-hye and Environment Minister Lee Jae-yong, both of whom delivered a memorial oration.

The silence was followed by a dance-like ritual by performance artist Cho Sung-jin to soothe the souls of the victims and separate memorial services by Buddhist, Christian and Catholic groups.

On this day three years ago, a mentally disturbed man set fire to one of the cars of a six-carriage subway train in this southeastern city while it was picking up passengers at Jungangno Station.
Within minutes, the fire engulfed the entire train and another train that entered the station, with both sets of passengers trapped inside as the doors remained shut.

The tragedy left 192 dead and 148 injured.
This year's ceremony was organized solely by the family members of the victims as the city originally promised to host the event for the first two anniversaries.

However, a separate and smaller ceremony was also held near Jungangno Station by a group of other family members. The family members have split into two groups in the past as they differed on how to be compensated and how to organize the memorial.

A Bush Realignment?

A Bush Realignment?
By Victor Morales
Washington
22 February 2005
To Listen to Victor Morales's Focus Report (MP3)- Click the main title.



Whether it's reforming the national government pension system, Social Security or promoting President Bush addresses a joint session of Congress to deliver his State of the Union Address freedom around the world, many analysts see a unifying theme in President Bush's vision for the future.

According to David Keene who heads the American Conservative Union, the nation's oldest and largest grassroots conservative political organization, the President plans to turn his agenda into Republican Party victories at the ballot box for years to come.

Mr. Keene says, Mr. Bush "has defined it as this 'ownership society' and a society in which individuals get to make choices and have control over their own lives. Social Security is part of
David Keene, Chairman of the American Conservative Union
that. And a lot of the other things he's doing are part of that. He's also trying to make certain that his party gets the major share of the demographic shifts that are taking place around the country that will allow him and his party to dominate the politics of the next few decades. But that's what the game is about."

Many observers say President Bush and the Republicans plan to reshape the U.S. political landscape by weakening support for the Democratic Party.

Just last week, the Republican-dominated Congress overwhelmingly passed legislation that would limit jury awards against doctors and businesses. The Bush administration says the goal is to cut down on what it calls "frivolous" lawsuits. Critics argue that it's part of a strategy to choke off campaign contributions to Democratic political candidates by the nation's trial lawyers.

Perhaps one of the biggest threats to the Democrats' base is the Bush administration's plan to reform Social Security. Since its creation during the Great Depression, the 70-year-old pension and benefits system has been a pillar of Democratic politics. While the President's proposed reforms address the system's financial problems, many analysts say these changes would also create a new generation of private investors and Republican supporters.

"There's no question about it. I think this is the Bush project," says Will Marshall, President of the Progressive Policy Institute, which seeks to define and promote liberal politics in the United States.


Will Marshall, President of the Progressive Policy Institute

Mr. Marshall says, "This President is trying to bring about a partisan realignment and is very cleverly and systematically offering proposals that raid the other party's voters and territories. The President has fashioned his proposals on Social Security for 18-to-29 year old voters. They also happen to be the group that voted strongly for [Democratic presidential candidate] John Kerry in the 2004 election. There's no question that this White House has systematically gone after Democratic constituencies in a bid to realign American politics with the Republicans in the majority."

Will Marshall predicts there will be a major showdown in Congress over the president's policy agenda. He expects a nearly unified Democratic opposition with some dissenting Republicans.

In addition to the President's Social Security reforms, some moderate Republicans oppose the Bush administration's budget deficits and the President's stance against abortion and homosexual marriage. And without solid support in Congress for the President's agenda, many analysts say any effort to forge a national political shift toward the Republican Party could be in jeopardy.

From the mid-1990s through the 2000 election, American voters were nearly evenly divided in their support of the two major parties. But David Keene of the American Conservative Union says last year's elections may have been a major turning point for the Republicans.

"The indicator in this race was that you had a relatively narrow, but very deep Republican win that went all the way down to the counties," notes Mr. Keene. "And that is the indicator of the kind of partisan change that Bush is now trying to accelerate."

Historically, the major accomplishments of two-term presidents have tended to occur during the first term. But some observers argue that President Bush's first term was short circuited by the September 11th terrorist attacks when he was forced to shift his focus from domestic policy to national security. Now Mr. Bush may be returning to his first term goals. But his chance for success may be fleeting.

Republican strategist, David Keene says, "At some point, people are looking not to you, but to who is going to succeed you in your own party and in the White House itself. So Bush has a couple of years in which he can make some real impact on these things and lock in the kind of majorities that he has been looking for."

But Congressional elections are less than two years away. And many members of Congress may have to focus more on what voters back home want than on the President's agenda. That, most analysts say, could dampen hopes for a Republican realignment in American politics.