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[Column] The Seoul Olympics and the G-20 |
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By Jung E-gil, Opinionnet Editor
In 1988, I covered the Seoul Olympics as a rookie reporter. I believed that the games were a strategy to cover up the lack of legitimacy of a military dictatorship, but my critical thinking ended up being watered down. My report flowed with milk and honey. I made periodic appearances at popular events, where scalpers were selling tickets in the hundreds of dollars, and I was able to see the incredible bodies and accomplishments of famous sports stars I had only ever heard about: Carl Lewis and Ben Johnson running the 100 meters, their bodies seeming to explode with muscle; female track star Florence Griffith-Joyner with her trademark style and muscular physique; six-time gold medalist Kristin Otto from East Germany with signature androgynous beauty; a basketball battle between the United States and the Soviet Union that had my palms sweating. The nymphlike forms of the ballerinas of Moscow’s Bolshoi Ballet, who had come to give a celebratory performance, linger with me even today. Police officers and public servants alike were accommodating for Olympics ID cards. Olympics officials roamed the streets of Seoul, emptied out by an even-odd number operation system, and visited famous first-class hotels. Beginning a month before the opening ceremony, these hotels’ banquet halls were bustling with Olympics-related events. A booklet containing the schedule for all sorts of Olympics-related meetings and dinners was an essential for these officials. They stopped at the feasts that suited their fancy and were treated to special buffets and dinners that would have gone for 40 to 50 thousand Won at the time. Souvenirs were another essential. The Seoul Olympic were the most good-natured and jovial in the games’ history. A day’s lodging at the Olympic athletes’ village and reporters’ village in the Songpa area - today a forest of luxury apartments - cost somewhere in the neighborhood 20 dollars. Compared to subsequent games in Barcelona and Atlanta, where reporters were paying 200 to 300 dollars a day in lodging, we were basically sleeping and eating for free. Foreign journalists who had been covering the event for decades unanimously gave the thumbs-up signal and declared, “Korea is the best.” The problem was the slick smile behind the thumb, one that seemed to say, “We really hit the jackpot here.” Twenty-two years later, the Olympics atmosphere is back in Korea with the G-20 Summit meeting. It feels like the whole country has been mobilized, but while in the past it was merriment for the guests, today it is rigid order for the South Korean people. Every day when you turn on the television, the government is going on about the G-20. At the first official presidential press conference after dodging them for a year and a month, President Lee merely reiterated the government line about this being an opportunity for enhancing national prestige and improving the nation’s fortunes. It feels as though “the elevation of Korea’s prestige” is the theme of this summit meeting. Previously, the government pushed to amend the Assembly and Demonstration Act and bring in sound cannons, claiming that it would be rude to have demonstrations while guests were being entertained for the meeting. At the preceding G-20 meeting in Toronto, some 600 people were arrested after a variety of demonstrations by a total of around 30 thousand people.
Large-scale global events took place during the administration of Kim Dae-jung (the Asia-Europe Meeting and World Cup) and Roh Moo-hyun (the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum), but there was none of this kind of ruckus. Some are even saying that the Lee administration has so little to stand for in accomplishments “Four Major Rivers Restoration Project on the inside, G-20 for the outside” - its top accomplishments in domestic administration and foreign affairs. We are not guaranteed respect from our guests simply because we load the tables with food until their legs break and muster every member of every household to wait on them. How bad are things when foreign news outlets are printing articles about how “G-20 fever has gripped Seoul so hard that children are getting homework assignments about exchange rates”? During the Seoul Olympics, foreign journalists thought they had hit the jackpot. Are we now going to hear sarcastic jibes about the “land of the morning calm” for the G-20 summit? The Seoul Olympics were an opportunity to see the outstanding achievements of athletic superstars. As a citizen being asked to contribute services for the sake of joyless world leaders and politicians for this G-20 summit, the main emotion felt is annoyance.
The views presented in this column are the writer’s own, and do not necessarily reflect those of The Hankyoreh. |
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