Mr.Notice's blog

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

After 17 days of competition, the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games in Beijing came to an end with a lavish closing ceremony on Aug. 24.

This year’s Olympics will probably be remembered as the most joyful sporting event for Korea, as the nation recorded its best performance ever, securing seventh place in the medal count with 13 gold, 10 silver and eight bronze medals.

In past Olympic Games, Korea won 12 gold medals in Barcelona in 1992, seven in Atlanta, eight in Sydney, and nine in Athens in 2004.

With this year’s outstanding performance, the country ranked second among Asian nations, after China and just ahead of Japan.

It is the first time in eight years that Korea has outperformed Japan to be the Asian nation with the second-highest number of Olympic medals.

Initially, Korea had entered this year’s Games with the goal of winning ten gold medals and ranking in the top ten 10 in the medal standings.

Korea’s performance far exceeded its original goal, giving it its best performance in Olympic history.

This astounding achievement was partly thanks to remarkable performances by its baseball team and taekwondo athletes.

One day before the closing ceremony, the men’s baseball team won the country’s record 13th gold medal with a 3-to-2 win over defending champion Cuba, after a nine-game winning streak.

Slugger Lee Seungyoup set the table for Korea’s thrilling victory with a two-run home run in the first inning.

In addition, all four Korean taekwondo athletes won gold, maintaining the country’s pride as the birthplace of the martial art.

Following Lim Su-jeong, Son Tae-jin and Hwang Kyung-seon, Cha Dong-min beat Alexandros Nikolaidis of Greece 5-4 in the men’s 80 kg class on Aug. 24.

Prior to the taekwondo and baseball victories, the nation collected eight golds, some in events that Koreans had been considered weak in.

The first to snatch the gold was judoka Choi Min-ho, who topped the men’s 60-kilogram division.

He was soon followed by swimming sensation Park Tae-hwan in the men’s 400-m freestyle and the men’s and women’s archery teams.

Park Tae-hwan, also known as ’Marine Boy’ in Korea, brought the country’s historic first-ever swimming Olympic gold in the men’s 400-meter freestyle.

Park, who turns 19 next month, set a new Asian record of three-minutes and 41.86 seconds, defeating Australian favorite Grant Hackett, a two-time Olympic gold medalist.

Men and women archers swept the team competitions, which were their third and sixth straight victories at the Summer Games, respectively.

Next, marksman Jin Jong-oh shot to gold in the men’s 50-meter pistol, while Sa Jae-hyouk lifted
gold in the men’s weightlifting 77-kilogram class.

Following that, lifter Jang Mi-ran clinched an Olympic victory and three world records in the women’s over-75 kilogram class and Lee Yong-dae and Lee Hyo-jung added in the badminton mixed doubles.

This Olympiad was even more meaningful for Korea, in that her athletes gave brilliant performances in sports in which they had not been considered strong, including swimming, weightlifting and fencing,

Although not winning a medal in rhythmic gymnasts, Korea was represented in the Olympics for the first time since 1992, by Shin Soo-ji.

The Olympic athletes got a heroes’ welcome after their return on Aug. 25.

A celebratory parade took place in central Seoul toward Seoul City Hall, and tens of thousands of people shared the joy of the best Olympics in Korean history.