All the while we recognise that a privileged few, by chance born higher up the mountain than the common ilk, have high-level paths mapped out for them. These are more convenient to follow than fighting through the congested chaos of the common riff-raff living in the dark valleys far below. Usually people born to privilege recognise their advantages and are considerate enough to show some acknowledgement, gratitude or at least humility. Usually. However just occasionally someone comes along who is so totally oblivious to the status that they enjoy but neither earned, deserve nor even recognise that they deign to lecture their minions about it. For such people social media can make them instantly infamous and in recent times the example which has drawn the most wrath is Ms Yoo-Ra Chung with her illuminating rebuke to critics in 2014 as follows;
"Blame your own parents if they don't have the ability.
Don't point fingers at us if your parents don't have what it takes.
Money is also a form of ability"
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| Ms Yoo-Ra Chung, an 18 year old high school truant, in the 17th Asian Games, Sept 2014, where she competed as part of South Korea's gold-medal winning equestrian team |
In 2014 Yoo-Ra Chung was selected by the Korean Equestrian Federation (KEF) to represent South Korea in the international dressage championships at the 17th Asian Games due in Sept 2014. This was more than a mild surprise to seasoned observers who ranked Ms Chung somewhere between 500th and 600th on the international circuit at the time.
Ms Chung's team happily won gold in the Asian Games, after which, in an extraordinary double-helping of exceptional good luck the country's most elite women's university, The Ewha Women's University in Seoul, curiously revised its admissions policy. At the end of 2014 Ewha suddenly added horseback riding to the standard list of sports open for students applying on an athletics basis. As if this wasn't subtle enough, Ewha's Chief of Admissions is alleged to have told faculty members to select a candidate who brought a "gold medal" to their admissions interview. The admissions panel probably understood this as a cloudy metaphor for a candidate giving a 'gold star interview performance', but any confusion instantly evaporated when Ms Yoo-Ra Chung duly arrived for her interview quite literally wearing her gold medal.
In a country where people commit a near-religious devotion and every cent they earn to getting their kids to into a prestigious university, Ms Chung's suggestion that kids should blame their parents for their incompetence amounted to vigorously prodding a sleeping bear with a fairly hefty stick. Media dissent and public protests followed swiftly as people demanded to know why much more highly achieving candidates without Yoo-Ra Chung's obvious connections had been denied selection. Ms Chung's mother, Ms Soon-Sil Choi, just happened to be the best friend and confidante of the (then incumbent, since impeached) president Ms Park. Also Ms Chung's father had been a top aide to president Park in the early days that she entered politics. The public and the media smelled a fish.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/03/15/asia-pacific/politics-diplomacy-asia-pacific/seoul-female-student-protesters-lit-fuse-triggered-parks-ouster/#.WWHl7YiGPb0
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| Seoul, August 2016; 18 months after the admission of Ms Yoo-Ra Chung, students and graduates of Ewha Women's University demand resignations. |
For the Korean equestrian team 2015 started with eye-watering good fortune as a president of Samsung Electronics assumed the chairmanship of the KEF and shelled out donations of ~US$ 3.2m. However this paled into insignificance next to another vault-busting donation of almost $US10m to a then-unknown 'sports consultancy' founded by Yoo-Ra's mother - offshore in Germany for reasons which still remain opaque. Subsequent investigations suggest that Yoo-Ra Chung, her $1m horse and training staff were apparently the only beneficiaries of this sports consultant.
Meanwhile impudent questions from the media refused to go away. Officially Yoo-Ra had a perfect attendance record and respectable grades at Ewha university despite rarely showing up for class and regular failures to turn in any assignments. Seemingly she could not muster the good grace to play her role in her mother's little farce. Yoo-Ra's blatant contempt while under such intense media scrutiny suggested that the integrity of more than one or two people on the Ewha staff had been compromised. However, in what amounted to a modern day version of The Emperor's New Clothes, the university maintained the facade, held its nerve and attempted to weather the storm. That was until Yoo-Ra's admission that she did not even know what her major was supposed to be. This simple comment showing that a student was unaware of even which subject she was ostensibly studying finally rendered the position of the university untenable. Overnight the distinguished careers of at least 7 senior staff ended; including the university president and six professors who were consequently indicted. This was no doubt a welcome outcome for the protesters but in reality the staff probably had little choice in their complicity with the whole charade.
During 2015, as the influence of Yoo-Ra's mother over Ewha university became clear, people started to ask how wide and how deep Yoo-Ra's mother's influence might reach over her life-long close friend president Park. By 2016, as investigations dug deeper, revealing Yooo-Ra's exceptional good fortune to be a mere lightning rod to a much greater government scandal which would see the president herself impeached and some of the country's most rich and powerful facing criminal investigations which are still ongoing.
In 2016 Yoo-Ra declined repeated requests to return to Korea to account for her role in the greater scandal. Instead she fled to Denmark and reportedly tried to claim Maltese citizenship before finally being extradited and detained on arrival in Korea in May 2017. During her first court appearance, Yoo-Ra claimed no knowledge of the details behind her circumstances and stated simply that her mother was responsible for everything.
Last month Yoo-Ra's mother was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for peddling influence to secure Yoo-Ra's place at Ewha university. Trials surrounding the greater political scandal are still far from over ........
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| November 2016; 2 years after prodding the bear, citizens called for the impeachment of President Park |
