Abolish Capital Punishment
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Too Dangerous to Live?
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Super Supermarkets
By: Craig Holman
Merchants of small and family-run stores and farmers who supply fruits and vegetables to Super Supermarkets (SSM) said that the government should stop regulating the operating hours of SSMs yesterday, saying that the regulations have done more harm than good.
The law prohibits large retailers, such as E-Mart and Lotte-Mart, from being open on two Sundays a month and limits their operating hours on other days from 8:00 a.m. to midnight.
Merchants of small stores at traditional markets in Busan, Gwangju and in Chungcheong also protested the policy yesterday.
A small restaurant owner in Busan’s Dongnae District said that the SSMs have actually brought him more business. “The market was quiet before SSMs turned up, but after they started doing business here, the area has transformed into a new commercial area. Now the street has changed into a shopping hub with more than 500 restaurants and stores. It is successful, especially at night.”
The Merchant Association of Myeongnyun 1-ga - the street where the previously quoted owner is based - called for the government to extend the operating hours of nearby SSMs until 3 a.m. It said their businesses will only revive if SSMs can stay open after midnight.
Farmers supplying vegetables to Lotte Mart, the nation’s third-largest retailer, held a rally in protest against the government’s mandatory closure of large retailers on Wednesday. Because of the government's policy and dropping sales, SSMs have reduced their orders of fresh fruit and vegetables from farmers.
Customers also expressed their unhappiness with the new policy after a popular five-day traditional market was forced to close when the number of customers declined because of a local SSM being affected by the policy.
Because of the negative effects on merchants and farmers, many people say that the government's policy is doing more harm than good.
The law prohibits large retailers, such as E-Mart and Lotte-Mart, from being open on two Sundays a month and limits their operating hours on other days from 8:00 a.m. to midnight.
Merchants of small stores at traditional markets in Busan, Gwangju and in Chungcheong also protested the policy yesterday.
A small restaurant owner in Busan’s Dongnae District said that the SSMs have actually brought him more business. “The market was quiet before SSMs turned up, but after they started doing business here, the area has transformed into a new commercial area. Now the street has changed into a shopping hub with more than 500 restaurants and stores. It is successful, especially at night.”
The Merchant Association of Myeongnyun 1-ga - the street where the previously quoted owner is based - called for the government to extend the operating hours of nearby SSMs until 3 a.m. It said their businesses will only revive if SSMs can stay open after midnight.
Farmers supplying vegetables to Lotte Mart, the nation’s third-largest retailer, held a rally in protest against the government’s mandatory closure of large retailers on Wednesday. Because of the government's policy and dropping sales, SSMs have reduced their orders of fresh fruit and vegetables from farmers.
Customers also expressed their unhappiness with the new policy after a popular five-day traditional market was forced to close when the number of customers declined because of a local SSM being affected by the policy.
Because of the negative effects on merchants and farmers, many people say that the government's policy is doing more harm than good.
Supermarket InterviewsName: Ahn Jeong-bun
Age: 57 Occupation in market: Owner, producer of side dishes Market: Gubeundari Alley Market Why did you open your market stall? I love making food. People kept telling me to give it a try, so I started this store. It’s hard work, as we have to clean, cut and make everything ourselves. People like the kimchi, so many customers come here. After the SSM ruling was reversed in this area, have more or fewer people come to the market? As long as we have big supermarkets, there will always be people who go there. People still come here, too. Well, people like me come here. Why do you think people prefer big supermarkets? Well, I guess they’re just better. People don’t have time, and many don’t like to make food. Even when they do, it doesn’t taste very good. In your opinion, did the SSM ruling help? Of course! If those places close for a day, people have to shop somewhere. People who need something urgently when the supermarket is closed will come here to get it. I think that’s great. Name: Kim Jong-ho Age: 62 Occupation in market: Vice president of market committee Market: Gubeundari Alley Market Do you think the regulation has helped? Certainly. Especially in the first few months. We have 84 stalls at our market. We never used to have empty storefronts here, but lately more and more are closing. I hoped that the Seoul city government and Gangdong district would have enforced the regulation more strongly. Large companies control everything, and that is hard for us to compete with. For the short time the regulation was in effect here, did you notice that more people came to the market? Yes. It wasn’t really apparent at first, but after two weeks, more people started to come. It was great. Sales increased significantly, but these days they are decreasing again. Especially on hot days like today. More will come in the evening, when it cools down a little. What do you think can be done to save traditional markets? First of all, we need to modernize the market. Take the signs for example: they need to be changed. Even I don’t want to look at them. They look messy. We need all the stalls to have the same sign, and we have to replace these old tents. Name: Choi Tae-ja Age: 56 Occupation in market: 28 years operating a fish store Market: Gubeundari Alley Market Why do you think more and more people go to the big supermarkets? The big supermarkets are convenient and simple. You can go there and get everything you need without worrying. Are there any other reasons people might not choose a market like this? Before the subway came through here, many people visited the market. But since that time, the number of people has been getting smaller and smaller. Name: Son Kyeong-seok Age: 28 Occupation in market: Runs fish stall with brother Market: Dunchon-dong Market Do you think that the SSM Ruling has helped? For us, we don’t really feel its existence. It has not had a significant influence here. We didn’t notice anything. There are large supermarkets close by this market. Do you feel that they are affecting your business? I didn’t notice it before, but these days I feel it a little. More people are going to those supermarkets now. Name: So Chang-u Age: 32 Occupation in market: Butcher Market: Dunchon-dong Market Do you feel that the SSM Regulation has had much of an effect? If there has been an effect, the reason I don’t think it is significant is because people will go, or not go, where they want. Just because they made a law doesn’t mean people will automatically come here, or go to a big supermarket. We, as merchants, have to work hard at the markets to make sure the big supermarkets don’t take away our customers. Closing the big supermarkets for two days a month does not mean those people will come to our market. The media are saying that this regulation is bringing more people to traditional markets, but the truth is that it really isn’t. Even with that law, the SSMs are open more days than they are closed. On the days when they are open, we just have to work harder so they don’t take our customers. What can merchants at traditional markets do to bring back customers? We have to change the way we think. We have to work hard for all our customers, not just our regular or big buyers. We have our regular customers. But others come, too. They don’t buy a lot, just a bit of this and that. We have to treat these customers the same. We shouldn’t only greet our big customers with a 90-degree bow, and then just send the smaller customers away. Name: Jeon Sang-hui Age: 45 Occupation in market: Dried seaweed wholesale and Retail Market: Dunchon-dong Market How long have you operated your store? For seven years. Did you notice any effect when the regulation was in place? Our market is a little farther away from the SSMs, and so it didn’t really have any effect on us. Do you think that traditional markets are struggling because of SSMs? Certainly. It’s not like they don’t have any effect on traditional markets. What do you think makes your customers come to the traditional market? There are quite a few reasons. People live close by, and maybe they like the markets. There are some who come to traditional markets, and those who go to department stores. There are those that find what they need in a traditional market, and those who don’t even know about the market. People go to the department stores for processed foods, but come here for fresh foods. Maybe that is the biggest reason. What do you think can be done to save traditional markets? Rather than receiving help from outside, I think that we, as merchants, need to change. We need to make nicer displays, clean the place up a little bit, and be a little kinder. That’s probably the biggest thing. It doesn’t matter how much you beautify the market—people won’t come for that reason alone. We need to research, to find out what the customers want, but nobody is doing that. That’s the way I see it. |
Internet Shutdown Law Is A Necessary Step
In July 2011, a 21-year-old online-gaming addict was found dead in his home in Incheon, South Korea. He’d played intensely since graduating from high school, rarely sleeping or leaving his room, according to family members. Two months prior to his death, he’d begun complaining of difficulty breathing but had refused to seek medical attention.
The Incheon death hasn’t been the only sensational gaming case to scare South Korea. In 2005 a 28-year-old man collapsed and died from organ failure after playing for 50 hours straight. He had apparently just lost his job because of his online-gaming habit. The most high-profile case happened in 2009. A married couple from Suwon immersed themselves in a game where they took care of a virtual infant while their real baby starved to death. The couple was charged with negligent homicide and sentenced to two years in prison. (The wife’s sentence was suspended due to her being pregnant again.) South Korean authorities think that these fatalities are part of a much larger national problem: gaming addiction. Over the past year, two big surveys—one by Seoul’s National Information Society Agency, the other by Korea’s Ministry of Gender Equality and Family—found that more than one in 10 Korean adolescents are at high risk for Internet addiction and that one in 20 are already seriously addicted. Next month the government is getting tough on the problem: a Gaming Shutdown Law, also called the Cinderella Law, is set to go into effect. The law would prevent underage gamers from playing online, whether with PCs, handheld devices, or in PC rooms from midnight until 6 a.m. Many people are wondering how the government will enforce the law. One possibility is that minors would register their national identification cards online, a requirement already enforced in China. But in China, kids simply use stolen ID numbers, and many suspect that Korean gamers will do the same. Jung Hwan-jeon sees hard-core gamers every week at his job at a PC bang in Seoul’s Sogang University district. Customers sit together and play for hours on realistic bloody avatar games such as Halo, StarCraft, and TERA. Once, Jung says, a customer played StarCraft for 85 hours without stopping. "On the third day," says Jung, "he ran out of money. He gave me his cellphone as a deposit and never came back." Jung’s tale is familiar in South Korea, the most-wired country in the world. School children face extreme academic pressure, so online gaming is one of the few places where the average student can escape. Superstars have been born from the gaming world. Players like Jung Myung-hoon and Yo Hwan-lim earn close to $400,000 a year battling in professional StarCraft leagues (one of 10 major gaming leagues in the country). They are watched by millions of fans in competitions broadcast by two of Korea’s major TV channels. The gaming leagues are sponsored by big corporations such as SK Telecom and Samsung. The popularity of the competitions has spawned the World Cyber Games, the Olympics of the gaming world—held this year in Busan. South Korea has won the grand-champion title for the past three years. In a nation where more than half of the nearly 50 million people play online games, the industry has become a big money maker. In 2008 the online-gaming industry earned $1.1 billion. Games like StarCraft, first published in 1998, have sold 11 million copies worldwide (4.5 million in South Korea alone). Understandably, it’s going to be difficult to regulate such a massive industry. But the government is intent upon trying. In 2002 it opened one of the first treatment centers for Internet addiction. Game companies, such as NCsoft, based in Seoul, also finance private counseling centers and hotlines. Today, hundreds of hospitals and clinics have installed government-subsidized programs to treat gaming addiction. Joo Mi-bae, a representative for the Korean Youth Counseling Institute’s Internet addiction group, says that while the shutdown law isn’t perfect, many parents appreciate the government’s efforts. Adults work late and are often unable to control their children’s Internet or online-gaming behavior. And maybe even some young gamers will appreciate it. Kyong Min-kim, a student majoring in economics in Seoul, says, "One time five summers ago, I played World of Warcraft five hours a day ... but then I thought, that kind of life isn’t really good for me. So I just quit." South Korean Government Shuts Down Nighttime Gaming
South Korea's government has long been worried about the prominence of online gaming addiction in its country. Fearing the effects that high levels of addiction could have on its future (specifically, everyone failing school), the government passed a Shutdown Law in April this year which would ban all gamers aged under 16 from playing online games between midnight and 6:00 am.
The Shutdown Law (also known as the "Cinderella Law") is the idea of the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism (MCST) and the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family (MGEF). Although it only covered MMORPGs when first drafted earlier this year, the law now prevents those aged under 16 from playing various forms of online game during the shutdown period. The law's passage has been met with furious opposition from South Korean gaming groups and civil rights advocates. The Korea Association of Game Industry (KAOGI), a group of 14 different games developers and publishers, has criticized the law for "excessive prohibition" focused on one group and is preparing a lawsuit. Similarly, cultural solidarity group MoonHwaYunDae (MHYD) filed an appeal against the law to South Korea's Constitutional Court just over a month ago, but have heard little back. The obvious way to attempt to dodge this law is for a teenager to illegally use a parent's identity to play. This activity is already being done by 5% of teenage gamers, claims South Korean gaming site ThisIsGame. To deal with this problem, the MGEF wants games companies to collect additional information from gamers, including social security numbers and phone numbers, to strengthen account identification systems. As TIG notes, this is "exactly the opposite of personal information protection law." The idea behind this law is that it'll push teenagers towards spending the night hours sleeping rather than gaming, meaning that the government thinks night gaming is such a threat that the parents' control of their family's Internet isn't enough. While this law is offensive to the civil liberties of children, it is true that children need to sleep. Internet Shutdown
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