Online writer causes a stir in South Korea
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In South Korea, an online writer known as "Minerva" has created a stir, after making some disconcertingly correct predictions in online forums about the economy, including the fall of Lehmann Brothers. Some Korean internet users are calling the writer the 'Oracle' but the government accused him of spreading fear with his gloomy predictions.
Presenter:Tito Ambyo
Dr Roald Maliangkaj, Head of Korea Centre, Australian National University; Hanjun Kim, Korean student in Melbourne
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MALIANGKAJ: I will shut my mouth because the nation ordered me to remain silent.
AMBYO: That was the last message left by Minerva, a South Korean internet writer who has become an almost mythical internet figure. In September, he correctly predicted the fall of Lehmann Brothers, five days before it happened. In October, he also correctly predicted the fall of South Korean Won. In November, he left that last message in the korean online message board.
With his correct predictions and analysis of the world economy, he created a wave throughout South Korea, with citizens calling him 'the internet economy president', and a blogger compared him with Hong Gil Dong, a Korean equivalent of Robin Hood. But it was not money that was spread around the poor, it was information.
His gloomy predictions became a concern for the Korean government, with a state television running a story critical of him, and the finance minister Kun Man Su admitted that officials had attempted to uncover Minerva's identity.
But behind all the predictions and government reactions, the Minerva case shows two things. Roald Maliangkaj is from the Korea Centre at the Australian National University.
MALIANGKAJ: This man who calls himself "Minerva", this man who basically predicted a lot of the things that has been going wrong both in Korea, and for example, with Lehmann Brothers. It basically raised two issues. On the one hand, of course it showed that there might be some people out there who are possibly better equipped at dealing with the economic crisis, but it also raised this issue of hey, why is this man annonymous, and why is the government actually now admitting that they are trying to sort out who this man is?
Although I think Korea is a fast developing democracy, they are still very hesitant about letting people just use the internet kind of without any form of control. They are very hesitant about that.
AMBYO: Internet use in Korea first became widespread in 1999, and now South Korea is the most connected country in the world, with more than 70% of Koreans using the internet. And the speed is one of the best.
MALIANGKAJ: The whole DVD market has totally collapsed, because you can download James Bond in about five or six minutes and it's so easy to find as well.
AMBYO: The South Korean government played an important part in it. In 2006, for example, the government provided super-speed internet service to rural villages making it available to virtually every village in the nation. But in a society which is known to be hierarchical, the internet, a very democratic medium, is creating a big change in society.
The enthusiasm in how South Koreans embrace the internet happened at the same time as the occurrence of several large-scale disasters. One of these was a fire in a subway station in Daegu, which claimed more than 100 lives. All these prompted some to say that South Koreans are feeling anxious. Even the president, in a speech defending the government's policy on internet control, said that South Korean society is rampant with excessive emotional behaviour.
To ask if this is true, I went to a Korean internet cafe in Melbourne, and ask around.
I'm sitting in an internet cafe located in a small alleyway in Melbourne, Australia, and the restaurants outside have their European menu - Italian coffee, French sauces. But in here, almost everything is written in Korean. There's Korean products everywhere, and the place is full with activities, computer monitors are glaring with chatting consoles, films, online games. But everyone is wearing headphones, and there is a sense of stillness in here.
I felt like I was disturbing an important ritual as I asked around, but apparently no one has heard of Minerva. But everyone said they spent at least 3 hours a day on the internet. As I was leaving, I asked Hanjun Kim, a Korean student, why internet is very important for him. He hesitated for a bit, and then he said these words:
KIM: If in fact, I don't think about the internet, because in Korea it is very stressful, very busy, and very competitive, and if I was play games, yeah I feel free.
