Another anti-Hyundai Screed, Some Political Notes and a Short, Short Story

                                                

Why I Will Not Buy a Hyundai nor a Kia

Here is a brief quote from the Congressional Research Service’s 1-16-14 report entitled “The U.S.-South Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA): Provisions and Implementation” This was passed by Congress in 2011 and passed by the South Korean legislature in 2012.  While it contains advantages for both South Korea and the United States, the objectives of both countries differ.  South Korea would like to integrate components manufactured in North Korea which they include in South Korean products which fall under the treaty.  The United States opposes this.  Note the ambiguity in the following language taken from the Congressional Research Service’s report.

“Another criticism of the KORUS FTA was that it could constrain the United States’ ability to restrict imports of North Korean goods or components, for instance, by invoking the agreement’s dispute settlement procedures to challenge a U.S. decision to prohibit the entry of a South Korean product that contains North Korean components. However, provisions in the KORUS-FTA will appear to allow either the United States or South Korea to impose or maintain trade restrictions against the goods of a third country (such as North Korea); thus the agreement will accord each Party the right to restrict trade with the other Party in implementing any such embargo. 

In the KORUS FTA negotiations, the United States backed away from the principle of its initial position of not ever expanding the KORUS FTA to North Korea-made products, a significant achievement for South Korea. At the same time, the United States appeared to give up little in substance in the near-to-middle term. The United States apparently would be able to control the decision to and pace of any move to grant preferential treatment to North Korea-made products. Any perceptions of foot-dragging by the United States, however, may come at a diplomatic price if future South Korean governments push for more rapid integration of North Korean industrial zones into the FTA.” 

The manufacturing in the North Korean industrial zones referred to above takes place in the Kasong Industrial Complex, in North Korea just across the border.  Many South Korean plants operate there, paying the North Korean government which in turn pays the workers there at probably the lowest wage rates in Asia. 

The South Korean Hyundai conglomerate, which includes its subsidiary companies manufacturing Hyundai and Kia automobiles, manages and operates the North Korean Kasong Industrial Complex. (It usually shuts down during periods of tension between the two Koreas, but invariably reopens shortly thereafter.)  There are plants there making components for automobiles.  Whether these parts find their way into Hyundais and Kias sold in the United States is uncertain, but even if they are used only in vehicles sold elsewhere, they affect the profitability of Hyundai and Kia and the pricing of their products.

 

The family which founded the Hyundai group of companies has North Korean origins.  In fact, their Chairperson was an honored guest at the funeral of the present North Korean President’s father, Kim Jong Il back in 2011.  Companies in the Hyundai group were also influential in building the railroad system in North Korea.  For these reasons, as well as ambiguities in the report cited above, I will not purchase a Hyundai nor a Kia vehicle and I consider it to be an unpatriotic act on the part of those who do, at least so long as the nuclear-armed North Korean government remains belligerent toward the United States.

 

Jack Lippman



                                             

Political Notes

Okay, so I was wrong when I suggested that the Republicans cancel their convention a few weeks ago.  They will have it, and they will either nominate someone other than Donald Trump, who will then decide to run as a third party candidate, or they will give him the nomination, and other Republicans, the ones with more than half a brain, will run their own third party candidate.  The outcome, however, will be the same as I had predicted.

It will result in the same scenario I postulated a few weeks ago.  Neither Trump nor the Republican Mainstream candidate nor the Democratic candidate will get the requisite 270 electoral votes needed to become President.  The decision will then be made by the House of Representatives with one vote per state.  Since a majority of state delegations are Republican controlled, they will vote in a Republican President, probably the Mainstream candidate.  My guess is that it will probably be either Paul Ryan or John Kasich.  

The only way the Democrats can elect Hillary Clinton (or a surging Bernie Sanders) would be to keep the election out of the House, and that, in a three party race, will take a truly massive voter turnout.

     

Kasich or Ryan?

(I saw a bumper sticker the other day reading “Those who ignore the lessons of history are doomed to vote Republican.”  The car had Arkansas plates, no less.  Governor Huckabee wasn’t driving.)

JL

                                             

“Blind Guy” 

Jack Lippman

 “I’m going to disappoint you. But you knew that already.” 

“Was it really that bad?”

“No, No, it’s a great script,” but no one will ever produce it,” he replied.  “I love your idea of this blind guy who works in a bank and manages to stop a robbery because of the way his other senses have become sharpened to a level those with sight don’t possess.   But the way you’ve written it, it won’t work”

“I’m just telling it from the blind man’s perspective, what’s wrong with that?” I asked.

“That’s what wrong with it.  You can’t expect people to pay to see a movie where the screen is totally black for 85 minutes.”

“Actually, it’s not black. It’s blank.  There’s a difference.  But that’s the way the blind guy sees what is happening.  Or more correctly, doesn’t see what is happening.  But he does hear sounds that no one else in the bank picks up, and he smells things others don’t smell, and he picks up movements taking place there that don’t register with anyone else.  So it doesn’t mean a thing that he can’t see.  All of his other senses are working overtime to make up for that and that’s what the film it about.  The blank screen just accentuates that.”

I knew I wasn’t getting anywhere with him and gathered my papers up and made it clear I was about to get up and leave.

“Joe, stick around a little longer. If I approved pumping out a few million to start funding this property, the studio would have my head.  But if you rewrote it so that at least some of the story is told by people with sight, so it would look like a real movie with scenes and everything, we might give it a shot.  But we can’t live with a black screen.”

“Blank, not black, but anyway, I won’t compromise,” I answered. “We’ve tested it out over at the film school and when we hooked up the spray nozzles misting out what the blind guy smells, juiced up the sound track so it’s like the way he hears things, and got the air moving across the screening room, the kids went wild.” 

“Okay, okay, Joe.” I understand where you’re coming from, and the studio just can’t go there.  But something just hit me.  Listen for a minute.”

With nowhere to go, I sat back and listened.

“Joe, there’s this screwball billionaire lives down in the Baja.  Made his money in software up in Palo Alto.  I hear he has thrown money at ideas a lot wackier than yours.  He just might like the idea of a full length movie with a blank screen. Here’s his private email address.  Just mention my name if you contact him.   He’s had some dealings with the studio and he knows me.”

I thanked him and left.  The next day, I got to the billionaire who was intrigued with my idea and told me to fly down to Cabo so we could talk.  He wouldn’t fund the whole thing himself, but he thought he might get some of his friends from Dubai and San Paulo to join with him.

 

“You know, Joe,” he said. “The idea of a theatre full of people paying to look at a blank screen for 85 minutes fascinates me.  Probably a lot better than most of the crap they pay to watch every day.”

“Hold on, it’s not just a blank screen, there’s voices, sounds, smells and air moving around.”

“Yeah, I know, but all that stuff doesn’t really matter.  It’s the idea of getting customers to shell out twelve bucks to look at a blank screen for over an hour. That’s what will bring them into the theaters.  I swear, all of the late night hosts will be fighting over getting you first.”

Well, you know the story.  “Blind Guy” was one of the nominees for Best Picture at this year’s Academy Awards.  What really gets me is it actually won Oscars for Best Film Editing and for Best Achievement by a Cinematographer, quite an accomplishment for 85 minutes of a blank screen.

                                               

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