I chatted with my mom a bit about the Korean government, and about one of the recent moves made by the government that had a lot of Korean intellectuals up in arms.

It turns out that a little while back, the Korean government put in a mandate forcing all homes to install new gas meters in order to fall into compliance with new housing codes. By itself, this isn't a problem. That just makes good sense, as it's an easy way to maintain the safety of the population. However, some folks noticed that the new gas meters going in all said, "Made in Japan" on them, making it quite clear that somebody in the Korean government made a deal with a Japanese corporation; a couple of folks are getting quite rich in this mandatory and government-sanctioned upgrade.

In the end, the Korean government basically told journalists and other inquiring organizations to back off, causing the story to basically fall down into the memory hole. Corruption and greed are pretty universal, it seems.