Some outcomes of the controversial Seoul-Incheon Channel Project are now becoming subject to public ridicule. The photos and comments below originate from an OhMyNews sarcastic article on Nate. The article is long so the following is an abridged (pun very much intended) summary of the article:
The Seoul-Incheon Channel connects the Han River with the shore of Incheon. The waterway was built to reduce flood risks and allow water transport. However, some low-lying areas along its passage have been negatively affected by the channel, as massive bridges had to be built on top of raised riverbanks to allow ships to pass under the bridges. Such bridges – let alone their accordingly high costs – seem to have made it more time- and energy-consuming to cross the road and, in some cases, even life-threateningly dangerous. The proposed functions of the waterway – for shipping cargo and entertainment (such as cruise and parks on the shore) – do not seem to have come true, either. Netizens are reacting with derision and criticism towards the pictures of the impractically tall bridges (some only accessible via lift/elevator) and empty waterway. They are concerned as to whether the Channel was worth all the public funds spent on it; with 2.2 trillion Won already spent on building the channel, further annual costs of maintenance are expected to be around 20 billion Won.
Comments from Nate:
이정호:
There are ‘things to look at’, for a start… Only that they are laughed at… tut tut
지영수
The article makes me cringe. What is he [the President] thinking? His problem is that he is way too firm in justifying his beliefs. It’s really scary.
백진희:
Such a terrific article I haven’t lately seen the likes of.
허민회:
As a citizen of Gimpo [I say], whether it is the Seoul-Incheon Channel or the 4 Great Rivers, could you really not make a bridge for Ilsan with public funds, while you went around making the 12 bridges with the funds? Did you really have to let the private company build it, forcing the citizens of Gimpo 2,200 Won per return trip for tens of years? Did you really have to do that, huh?
김진용:
Master of nonsensical acts, Mr Myeong-Bak ‘Useless’ Lee
박혜선:
Ke ke ke ke ke what’s wrong with that bridge… [I can’t believe that] he made such ridiculous bridges having had a 4-year undergraduate degree, with masters and doctoral degrees on top…
김대용:
MB says: It’s all bullshit, ladies and gentlemen~
홍석숭:
Enough is enough, you rat bastard [referring to Lee Myung-bak, using similar rhetoric to this].
김민수:
One should consider the wartime conditions when building bridges~
박진규:
Conman Lee Myung-bak
김상엽:
Why is he doing this?
유재덕:
Maybe the bridges were built for car-jumping or quality testing?;;
최진:
Don’t blame him. You’ve voted for him. Idiotic people of an idiotic country have stupidly voted for an idiotic conman, producing an idiotic president who started an idiotic business and made the country idiotic. There’s nothing to blame on him. He’s an idiotic Mr President who is just right for the standard of idiotic people in our country.
김도형:
I give you that, Mr Mental-Block [presumably, = MB], you win! Wow~ this is dumbfounding. Anyways, hope to see you again on TV and papers even after resignation.
김은화:
Rat the President seems to regard politics as something like Rule the Sky or Tiny Farm [names of social games where you build things].
김명환:
Why don’t we see those on the 9 o’clock news [major news program in the evening]? He should take responsibility for the faulty construction. It’s a waste of tax money! He’s spent it all for construction, but it was all faulty
김경신:
Rat shit is piled up nicely all over the country…
이은영:
Bloody rat…. Every single thing he does makes me frown..
장은경:
That’s so typical of the President, as someone who worked for Hyundai construction. He knows nothing but digging the ground and building stuff. On the other hand, he also knows where the money leaks through while stuff is getting built. The reason that he digs all around the country is that he is a master of swindling money away while doing so.
김한조:
How much of the 2.2 trillion Won would have he taken for himself, I wonder. That bastard should be torn limb from limb.
김태화:
All that money for nothing but shit. He should really be spun and squeezed [to pay the money back] so that he knows what we mean by ‘blood-tax.’ [= tax money that is as dear and precious to the common people as blood]
김주희:
While the country’s economic growth rate keeps falling, we are sure to have even more debt.
이동훈:
ke ke ke ke ke ke ke ke Even my son is laughing at that bridge!!! [He is] calling it a big slide~~~ Fuck
