Special Topics: Africa in Korea

Entry tidbits ^^

Category: Korea and the World

Keywords: Africa, Lotte Seoul Hotel

I just attended the 2nd Korea Africa Forum yesterday at Lotte Seoul Hotel. Lotte Seoul Hotel by the way is probably the best hotel in Seoul. The location is perfect since it's in the center of Seoul where everything's (shops, tourists' spots, restaurants etc.) almost a walk away from the hotel. The hotel staffs are gorgeous and definitely know their work. However, if you're in a tight budget this is not your place. I was shocked to see a wine that cost 30,000,000 won (around US$26,000) on its wine display. Well, you can always drop by and take pictures ^^v and experience being "rich" for awhile.

Anyway back to the main topic, before going to the forum I just wanted to know how Korea's partnership with the African region is going since recenlty Korea has been very active in forging partnerships with almost all organizations/countries in the world. As we know there are Korea-ASEAN, Korea-Arab, Korea-EU probably Korea+ the 202 other listed sovereign states in the world ^^ well this is an exaggeration. It is quite obvious that Korea is trying to prove something. I'm fully supporting Korea's efforts for these partnerships. It always feels good to know that wealthy countries like Korea are extending there hands to countries in need.

Once I entered the hotel I suddenly felt the gravity of the event. Men in suits were all over the place and the press people were horribly plenty. The security was also tight, with the scanners and all.

Then inside the hall, the emcees were practicing the script which was written in 3 languages, Korean, English and French. One of the emcees was really beautiful by the way...kkk So I was like, what is this? It was to lavish for a forum.

Then when I check the program I was amazed with the list of participants who were all ministers of African countries and Korea with the Prime Minister of Korea and the President of Senegal. This explains why the forum was jampacked with people.

However, I personally don't like conferences with the presence of government officials. They usually say nothing but good things so we don't see the "real" situation. I was expecting a low profile forum that would discuss the partnership seriously and practically. I was however impressed with the President of Senegal's (Pres. Abdoulaye Wade) speech since he was very honest in talking about the situation in Africa and as to which areas Korea could contribute unlike the other speakers who only said hifaluting words to create beautiful speeches.

For the Korean side, I hope this would not just be another strategy to get alliance to support the country's political agenda. I hope a genuine partnership would be forged.