LTW - Brotherly Love, Gaga over Gaga, Mad Cow, & K9 Debut

1. National

1) A touchy Canadian brotherly love
The family of a Canadian Korean War veteran Archibald Hearsey who died last year will bring his ashes to Korea to his final wish to be buried with his elder brother Joseph Hearsey who has been buried in Korea since 1951 when died during the war. Born in Ignace, Ontario, in 1929, Archibald was sent to Korea in Dec, 1950. His one year older brother Joseph was concerned about the safety of his younger brother, and joined the same battalion as his younger brother on Jan 6, 1951. The two brothers fought in Korea, Joseph in the front line and Archibald at the rear, but Archibald was never informed his elder brother was in the same battalion. In Oct, 1951, Joseph died at a battle in Gapyeong in Gyeongido Province, and it was only then Archibald learned his brother was fighting in the same battalion in Korea. The upper photo is Joseph, and the lower one is Archibald.

1. National
1) A touchy Canadian brotherly love
The family of a Canadian Korean War veteran Archibald Hearsey who died last year will bring his ashes to Korea to his final wish to be buried with his elder brother Joseph Hearsey who has been buried in Korea since 1951 when died during the war. Born in Ignace, Ontario, in 1929, Archibald was sent to Korea in Dec, 1950. His one year older brother Joseph was concerned about the safety of his younger brother, and joined the same battalion as his younger brother on Jan 6, 1951. The two brothers fought in Korea, Joseph in the front line and Archibald at the rear, but Archibald was never informed his elder brother was in the same battalion. In Oct, 1951, Joseph died at a battle in Gapyeong in Gyeongido Province, and it was only then Archibald learned his brother was fighting in the same battalion in Korea. The upper photo is Joseph, and the lower one is Archibald.

Some 26,000 Canadians fought for South Korea during the Korean War, and 516 of them were killed in action. Koreans thanked Canadian contribution by buying Canada’s Cando nuclear reactors and building a car plant in Bromont near Montreal where I used to work for five years from 1988 to 1993. My wife and I thought about what else we could to for Canada at that time, and worked as a team to add two more boys in Canadian population.

2) Protest over Lady Gaga’s performance in Seoul
Lots of applause and boos at the same while Lady Gaga kicked off her “Born This Way Ball” world tour in Seoul in front of 45,000 fans, despite a ban on those under 18 and protests from Christian groups who criticized the self-dubbed “Mother Monster” is obscene. Korean government implemented an adults-only rule, and Lady Gaga referred it as “I was told that your government decided my show should be 18 or over. So I’ll make sure it will be.” Concerned about Lady Gaga’s advocacy of homosexuality, profanities and grotesque costumes, the Christian groups threatened a boycott against Hyundai Card, which was a main sponsor for Lady Gaga show in Seoul.

I being an old man, this was the first time I heard about Lady Gaga. Paris Hilton must be in fear that she has a tough challenger for her world championship in obscenity.

2. Economy
1) Venezuela opportunities for Korean companies
The Ministry of Knowledge and Economy signed four Memorandum of Understandings and one Letter of Intent with Venezuela’s energy and oil ministry. Korea will pursue five energy and infrastructure projects in Venezuela worth U$1.1 billion. The deals cover the building of pipe lines, storage and harbor facilities for oil, a petroleum coke power generation and an oil refinery project and petrochemical facility. Hyundai Construction & Engineering, Daewoo Construction, GS Construction and SK Construction are the Korean companies working on these projects.

Venezuela is special to me. I stayed in Barcelona in Venezuela for a month in March 1996 to support a local car maker to launch Hyundai Excel. I took time off on a weekend to tour a wild forest, and got checked by the local police for not keeping a passport which I left at my hotel. I was put in a prison for five hours until a hotel boy brought my passport from my jacket in the hotel. When I returned to hotel, I found my $2,500 gone. I reported it to the hotel, and went to the police for questioning. I found my face in the front page in the local newspaper the following day. The experience in Venezuela was special to me as it gave me the first time ever experience in jail, and my successful debut in the media.

2) U.S. beef sales slips with the outbreak of mad cow disease
Sales of U.S. beef are falling fast at the news of mad cow discovered in California on Apr 24 as consumers have some worms over the safety of U.S. beef despite the government’s efforts to reassure the public by dispatching inspectors to the U.S. E-Mart, Korea’s largest wholesaler, said the sales of U.S. beef dropped 66.8% from last Thursday to Sunday compared with the same three-day period one week earlier. Leftist groups lost no time to use it as an opportunity to promote their causes, and already began to hold candle light protests to stop the U.S. beef import, much like what they did exactly four years ago. Korea is the fourth largest importer of U.S. beef after Canada, Mexico and Japan.

No doubt mad cows are very dangerous to the health of people. More dangerous are those protesting mad people whose logic circuits and common sense in their brain went haywire pretty badly.

3. Auto Industry
1) Money keeps coming, coming and coming to Hyundai
Hyundai Motor announced that its Q1 earnings jumped 30.6% from a year earlier thanks to strong sales overseas. Net profit reached 2.45 trillion won ($2.15B) in Q1, compared with 1.87 trillion won a year earlier. Sales went up 10.6% on-year to 20.16 trillion won in the 3 month period, with operating profit jumping 24.9% to 2.28 trillion won. Overseas sales reached 917,879 units in the same quarter, up 22% from the same period last year. Domestic sales slipped, though, down 7.1% on-year to 154,800units. Hyundai’s sister Kia also made record net income of 1.2 trillion won ($1.1B) in Q1.

Reflecting the high profit, Hyundai shares hit all time high of 272,500 won per share on May 2. It was around 100,000 won just two years ago. My wife bought a few Hyundai shares in April 1999 at around 10,000 won. She still keeps Hyundai stocks, and plans to sell lunch tickets with her at 10 times higher price than Warren Buffett’s lunch.

2) Kia debuts K9 luxury sedan

Hyundai-Kia Chairman Chung Mongkoo proudly unveiled Kia’s new K9 luxury sedan at Hyatt Hotel in Seoul. Mr.Chung said all state-of-the-art technologies are in K9 for the safety and convenience of drivers. The K9 shares the same platform with Hyundai Equus, but is 7cm shorter for more dynamic look. It is equipped with head-up displays that enable driving data displayed on the window, a radar-based blind spot detection device and electronic shift lever, all of which are not available in more pricy Equus. The K9 is powered by 3.3L and 3.8L V6 engines, with the price tag ranging from 53 million won ($46.5K) to 86 million won ($75.6K). Kia expects K9 compete against BMWs and Mercedes.

Kia plans to market K9 overseas from the 2nd half this year, but Kia’s marketing people are in headaches as foreigner consumers might think K9 is a nice bus for a highway drive. K9? Canine? Greyhound!!!!

Regards,
H.S.