Korea. How I wish..

Korea. A small country, yet with big influence. At present, it is evident that they are beginning to rise from the ashes. And with the rate that they are going right now, I can say that it is really possible that they would get to the top in no time at all.

They constantly popularize and endorse the beauty of Seoul, the capital of South Korea. in fact, according to wikipedia, Seoul's influence in business, international trade, politics, technology, education and entertainment all contribute to its role as a prominent global city. It is considered to be an Alpha World City, ranking 9th in the 2008 Global Cities Index. Seoul is the iconic city of the Miracle on the Han River and hosted landmark international events such as the 1988 Summer Olympics and the 2002 FIFA World Cup and will be the host city of the November 2010 G-20 Summit. It is one of the world's top ten financial and commercial centers, home to some of the world's largest conglomerates such as Samsung, LG and Hyundai-Kia. Seoul was Asia's most expensive city to live in 2007, and the third most expensive city worldwide. With a GDP per capita of $32,171 in 2008, Seoul has a living standard comparable to France and Italy. In 2008, Seoul was named the world's sixth most economically powerful city by Forbes.com, ahead of Paris and Los Angeles.Seoul is the 2010 World Design Capital and has one of the world's most technologically advanced infrastructures. It is ranked first on the Digital Opportunity Index, and its Digital Media City is the world's first complex for high-tech technologies, a test-bed for futuristic IT and multimedia applications, as well as home to the 133-floors, 640m supertall DMC Landmark Building, slated to be the world's second tallest building by 2015. Seoul is the only city in the world featuring DMB, a digital mobile TV technology and WiBro, a wireless high-speed mobile internet service, as well as the world's fastest, most penetrated 100Mbps fibre-optic broadband network, which is being upgraded to 1Gbps by 2012. Seoul Station houses the 350 km/h KTX high-speed rail and the Seoul Subway is the third largest in the world, with over 2 billion passengers every year. Seoul is connected to Incheon International Airport via AREX, which is rated as the world's best airport by ACI since 2005.

Korean music has also been aired worldwide. In fact, the song “Genie” or “Tell Me Your Wish” by the Korean group called Girls’ Generation or So Nyuh Shi Dae has been topping the charts here in the Philippines for the past weeks. People have also gone crazy over these girls. Everywhere I go, people keep talking about them. My neighbour even asked me for all of their songs and music videos! Even in school, my classmates watch their videos using the school’s computer. I too, have more than a hundred pictures of these girls stored in my laptop!

Not only SNSD is the Korean group that is slowly becoming more and more popular here in the Philippines, but also other Korean groups such as Super Junior and 2ne1. People everywhere just can’t seem to have enough of Koreans. It is clear that the Koreans' image, along with their country, have strongly improved in quality.

As you can see, the Koreans’ tireless efforts have not gone in vain. The fruits of their labour are truly amazing. How I wish that the Filipinos too would follow their example and hopefully someday, be able to stand up and proudly say, “We are here, and we are proud to be Filipino.”