Elections

This year I got to see my first Korean elections. This was only a local election this year, but it was still terribly amusing.

First off, the candidates rent trucks. They put huge pictures of themselves on the backs of the trucks and drive them around. They then stop someone, get out of the truck, stand on the back next to their big picture and yell stuff. The yelling certainly doesn't sound like an election, but more like they're calling for violent overthrow of not just the Korean government, but the whole world. The candidates make a point of saying "Tae Han Min Gook" (the full name of Korea in Korean) at least every other sentence, and they say it vehemently, as though perhaps that's the product that they're selling, which in a way, it is.

Occasionally, the trucks are surrounded by supporters. You know they're supporters because for some reason, they all wear the same colored shirt and a sash with the candidates name on it. They chant things and cheer when the person talks. They also chant back and forth with other candidates supporters if that candidate happened to park his truck a little too close to their truck.

These supporters do other things when their candidate's truck doesn't happen to be nearby. The their they're the best at is clogging up sidewalks and giving pieces of paper to everyone but me. I never particularly wanted the paper anyway, but it would have been nice to have been offered. I could have made a hat out of it or something.

Another thing the candidates are good at is waking me up in the morning. Since everyone in Korea usually goes to work at about 8, the candidates would drive around talking over loudspeakers at about 7. Seems to me if a candidate woke me up in the morning, I'd go out of my way NOT to vote for him. To make matters worse, they all co-opted the same song, so although it was different candidates waking me up every morning, it was still the same song that was doing the waking. It was "Peel Sung Korea," which means "Korea will definitely win." It's a song from soccer games, and I'm not sure why candidates though it would translate over to elections very well.

In any case, I'm glad the elections are over. I hope the guys that didn't wake me up won.

R