I had the privilege of being invited to participate in the recent Seoul Conference on Cyberspace, which provided me with an opportunity to visit Korea for the first time. Although most of the three days I stayed there was spent in the COEX Convention Centre, the organisers had also arranged for some of us to go on an ‘industry tour’ which briefly took us out into the ‘countryside’ to the south of the city last Saturday. The hospitality of our hosts was both generous and humbling. I post below some photos that seek to capture that hospitality, and the energy, tastes and beauty that we all experienced.
The slideshow captures images from the Seolleung and Jeongneung Royal Tombs, the amazing music of Miji and the energy of TAL‘s Taekwondo performance at the Gala Dinner, Bongeunsa Buddhist temple, images from the conference, and some more general pictures of the Gangnam area of Seoul.
I left challenged and excited, determined to learn more about how the people of the Republic of Korea have transformed their economy and society in recent years. Experiencing a tiny bit of Korea, makes me reflect all the more vividly on the observation that in 1960 Ghana and the Republic of Korea had the same per capita income, and I wonder all the more at the very different ‘development’ paths experienced subsequently in Africa and eastern Asia.
Tim Unwin's Blog 