Mr.Notice's blog

Obama Elected as Next President of US!

"Korean netizens congratulate Obama and strongly support him"

On Nov. 5^th, as expected, Democrat Barack Obama won the presidential election.

The US is a country where equal opportunity is guaranteed to everyone, enabling people of all race and religion to enjoy the same opportunities.

In that sense, Obama's victory is even more encouraging and as we applaud him, we expect to see him make further developments.

We hope Obama will persevere in keeping world peace, protecting the global environment and most of all overcoming the current global financial crisis through wise economic policy.

Korea's netizens look forward to seeing Obama and his new team hold cooperative and close relations with Korea.

Korea's netizens strongly look forward to seeing Obama and his new team hold cooperative and close relations with Korea.

We again congratulate Obama on becoming the new US president

A congratulatory event for the election of the US president was also held in the virtual world, Second Life.

Yesterday, on November 5, an event to congratulate the election of the US president was held in Second Life, a virtual reality world.

Kang Hyun-woo, the head of Second Life in South Korea and owner of Joywindkorea, was in charge of planning the recent event, and stated that the event was held as netizens in Korea showed great interest in the US presidential election and in order to enhance friendly relations between South Korea and the US.

Moreover, he remarked that the two countries have profound and close relations not only in military and diplomatic ties but also in various fields, and forecasted that the friendly relations between South Korea and the US will not change after the US presidential election.

In the cyber event, held from 21:00 to 22:00 on November 5, approximately 120 netizens from overseas as well as South Korea took part, and the event began with an opening speech that was given by the avatar of President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea.

President Lee stated that he hoped with the election of a president that the American people had desired, the current financial crisis suffered globally will be resolved and the US will enjoy an even more peaceful era.

Also, at an outdoor auditorium located within Korea Town of the virtual world, an event which revived the whole process of the US presidential election was held.

At the campaign venue, the avatars of both presidential candidates, Obama and McCain, appeared and announced their election pledges and had a heated discussion in the presidential candidates' debate on various pending issues.

Afterwards, the residents of Second Life made virtual votes.

The result was 21% : 2%, with Obama receiving support that greatly exceeded support for McCain.

After the vote ended, President-elect Obama gave his acceptance speech and had a Q&A session on the future directions of national administration with the netizens.

Also, a lotto drawing was conducted among participants of the event.

Meanwhile, a personnel from KoreanBlog.com, a famous blog site in South Korea which sponsored the recent event, gave the closing speech and expressed his sincere hopes for the US to successfully overcome the current global financial crisis by voting for the candidate that the American people truly wants to elect as president.

In particular, he remarked that he hoped the bilateral relations between South Korea and the US, which was restored after the Lee Myung-bak administration, would develop even further in a win-win direction.

In addition, a personnel from the US division of Second Life said that the virtual world is now expanding into a new social space, and went on to predict that it won't be long before the virtual world will be recognized as the 51st state, enabling its residents to directly take part in voting for the US president just as the other 50 states.

Recently, foreign media are releasing reports one after another that distort the actual financial and economic situation in South Korea. Such reports are clearly false, and they seem to hope that South Korea once again experiences a financial crisis like that of 1997. If those foreign media did not have such intentions, why would they issue false reports that can throw a country into a crisis and great confusion?

Fortunately, the South Korean government is directly confronting such false reports of foreign agencies by actively refuting the reports. As a South Korean, I felt reassured by the government's measure.

Foreign media that have recently made false or exaggerated reports on rumors of South Korea's economic crisis include the Times, Financial Times, Reuters, Dow Jones news agency, and International Herald Tribune, and etc. Such news agency made it seem that South Korea showed strong signs of foreign exchange crisis by using wrong statistics and translations.

Contents published by internationally famous media have enormous effects. Therefore, it is highly likely for the country, of which false reports were made, to be hit severely.

It is not difficult to predict the actions that the US, the UK, and France would take should South Korea's media make serious false reports concerning economic issues as well as education and racial problems of these countries.

Among the major functions of the media, providing accurate information and observing the society are considered most important. The press must be faithful in realizing such core functions. However, if media agencies do not report the truth and refuse to reflect on their mistakes after making distorted and false reports without confirming the facts, such agencies no longer deserve to be regarded as media agencies.

The press must remember that trivial false reports can cause huge side effects and social confusions as well as friction among states. The fundamentals of South Korea's economy are strong. South Korea when compared to other countries have a relatively healthy financial structure and ample foreign exchange reserves. The leaders and people of Korea are well united to overcome the difficulty.

It is worrisome that foreign media as a whole could be mistrusted by the Korean people due to false reports of a crisis in South Korea's economy issued by some foreign news agencies.

I pursue the press to be faithful in executing its functions such as reporting the truth and realizing social justice. Media agencies that continuously make false, exaggerated or distorted reports must remember that they will be strongly criticized by netizens throughout the world that love freedom and justice.

I completely agree with the above opinion, and put my signature.

=> Signature campaign corner opposing the media's false and distorted reports