I think you can judge a country by it's political system, it's food, and it's art. Korea is impressive on all accounts. Clearly we Americans, who bill ourselves as the world leader, have much to learn from this newly democratic society. Now I'm no political expert, but today I learned that Korea has a parliamentary democracy where all four of their political parties have representation in parliament. Even the smallest party, the workers party sort of equivalent to our unions, have seats representing their interests based on their amount of votes in each election. They have a female prime minister and 13% of parliament are women. Nice. The food is great. it's varied, complex and they take pride in the preparation, service and enjoy long meals. But of course what I personally find most impressive it their love of the arts. There is so much public art along the streets, in subway stations, on the buses, and there are many galleries and museums honoring traditional arts as well as contemporary ones. Wow. This is quite a cultured civil society.

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