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Korea World Leader in Broadband/Technology at Home
bozoman42 writes "67% of Korean Internet users are connected to broadband, some at 32Mbps! In fact, according to the Guardian Article, Korea is leading in nearly all walks of a modern high tech life. But there may be downsides. (Especially as covered here last week.)"
67% of Korean HOUSEHOLDS are connected to broadband. There's a big difference there, and it's very impressive. I'll bet that 67% of Mexican Internet users are connected to broadband, and it's around 0.1% of their population.
Ingredients for happy society:
Add: one ounce of capitalism, one ounce of socialism, a pinch of communism
Not everything in the world is black and white, especially when it comes to determining which "ism" makes the greatest number of people happy.
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This is not shocking due to some basic differencews between the US and South Korea.
1)The South Korean government is encouraging technological growth, while the US is still realing from P2P networks and people exercising free speach.
2)South Korea is relatively new, like Europe and Japan, South Korea recently (relativel) rebuilt its industrial base. The US has NEVER had a serious conflict close enough to home to neccesatate major rebuilding. This means that our stuff is old compared to theirs.
So you see, it is not only explainable, it is logical that South Korea would lead the US, and the rest of the world, in the people having cool toys and making cool tech toys.
Help I'm a rock.
There is some strange paradox here. Korea in fact is two Koreas. They started just in the same line and nearly with the same problems but today they seem to make a difference like Earth and Moon. We have the North with its rich resources but backward economy, its hunt for nukes, militarisation and lack of Internet (probably with exception of some bureaucrates). And we have the South that was considered to be more poor in resources, but which, in the end, is becoming the top technocratic country in the world. Yes, the South was also highly militarised and had nukes from the US. But the same went for the North with USSR.
I just wonder what will happen when someone will try a real reunification. What will happen when a North, which still cannot give up its dependency on someone else, with an economy in shambles and one of the biggest armies in the world meets a South which a big part of the world depends on, an economy that gives envy to anyone and carrying a more pacifist mood than ever?
North - What do you mean by "using Internet"?
South - What do you mean by "not using Internet"?
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There are two reasons why there are real life beatings because of the multiplayer games: 1. They take the games very seriously. 2. Korea's a densely populated and relatively small country (compared to the US) so they can physically meet the person they're playing with/against. I'm sure that there are people in the US who would do this, but it's kinda expensive to catch a plane to go beat up some other kid. Not everyone can get a wad of cash like Jay and Silent Bob ;)
I remember reading an article on this and the police had a term for these beatings, an "offline PK."
In urban India (where I'm unfortunately banished), the internet has become just another method of communication. Access is taken for granted. his despite the average computer here is a pentium1 with hardware sold under false pretenses. Broadband is unheard of. Most people access the internet at cybercafés How does pervasive broadband access measurably improve on this situation? Sure, flashy content is enabled, but I don't think anything fundamentally changes.
Japan launched 3G phones first, and broadband is equally prevasive here. Obviously, the author didn't check their facts. I probably just sounds better to say Korea, which has a back water image for some reason, than to compare to Japan. Still its more accurate to say large parts of asia (taiwan, korea, singapore, japan) are now significantly ahead of the west as far as being wired goes. Its easy here because due to population density the last mile problem disappears.
--wyn
It would improve the social enviornment in the USA, and give kids a place to go.
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I think its great that North Korea doesn't adhere to America's demands. Not doing so doesn't make them bad.
North Korea is much like a homeless person desperately committing violent crimes on street corners: They have nothing to lose. That is the reason why much of the world is fearful of NK with nukes: Israel, the UK, Russia, the US- All have "something to live for", so to speak, so their nukes largely are retaliatory. Mutually assured destruction, if you will. North Korea, on the other hand, seems like the kind of nutbar country that would take action knowing full well that it would be obliterated: What's there to lose?
If you're looking for a great example of anti-Americanism, I would hardly consider North Korea a good choice: A despotic, shithole of a country where millions continue to starve to death while the leadership builds giant monstrosity of buildings in a desperate attempt to portray itself as a successful nation.
You do realise that there is only one nation which has actually used nuclear weapons in war - and its not any of the countries in the so-called 'axis of evil'.
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Tim
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You assume that the only reason North Korea is the way it is is because it's a "communist" country. That may be the case, but it may also be the case that they are they way they are in a reaction to events and people around them.
In other words, would they be in the same situation if they had been left alone? Maybe, but it's hardly given.
You're a suburbanite.
[i]I think its great that North Korea doesn't adhere to America's demands. Not doing so doesn't make them bad. [/i]
No, I think the mass starvations, dicatorship, killings, recruiting from orphanages at the age of 6 for SF troops, terrorist bombings of jetliners, kidnapping of foriegn citizens, and sending death squads into South Korea is what makes them 'bad'.