The Republic of Korea has gone to the polls today and at time of writing looks to be on the verge of electing the nation’s first female president.
Voting appears to be serious business in this country. Election Day has been a national holiday to enable people to cast their votes – not something I can recollect happening in England during my lifetime. A local news headline a couple of days ago proclaimed that 84.9% of Koreans asked said they would be voting today – a predicted turn-out that again I can find no recent parallel for back home.
Conversely trying to engage some of my Korean friends and colleagues in conversation on the subject has yielded little by way of results. Reactions have ranged from statement of some basic facts as can be found in the international news reports through to indifference. Perhaps one is not supposed to discuss such things with non-Korean people; it is hard to say. Whatever the reasons, whatever the statistics and whatever the outcome of today, I wish Korea the best with her new leader.
In other news, work is crazy as ever, Christmas is almost upon us and Medina is becoming a sharper observer and mimic by the day. As I have not posted a picture of her for a while, here is a quick one of her posing for the iPhone while trying to put a clip in my hair…
