The Gift of Democracy

Democracy...a gift granted to the South Koreans by their ancestors who fought against the communist North from 1950-53.

And boy do they use it! Today, I have been given 2nd, 3rd and 4th period off. Why? Because today Yong San Elementary School is exercising it's gift of democracy.

4th, 5th and 6th grade have convened in the gym to elect a new student leader.

The event started at 10 but I didn't turn up till 10.30 cos' I knew everyone would be banging on in Korean and every other sentence would end in "imnida."

All of the students where sat on the floor, facing the stage. They were sat in orderly lines and rows, placed according to their grade and class and most probably their student number.

On stage was a guest speaker and the 6 candidates, all of them 6th graders. They each had their time at the podium to give a speech and try to encourage the crowd of bored voters.

One of the candidates, a small girl with glasses and long curly hair, is going to be a future President of the Republic of Korea. I had no idea what she was saying but her words moved even me, and by the end of her speech, I was applauding, and pumping my fist in the air and chanting her name.

After, the 6 candidates had their time on stage, out of nowhere, the Korean teachers brought some mobile polling booths and ballot boxes.

The students all lined up at a polling station where a teacher handed them a ballot. They then entered the polling booth, a curtain was drawn across them but you could see their little democratic legs and feet from underneath it. Then, they come out with their folded ballot and drop it in a ballot box. It's just like the general elections back home except the voters are 9, 10 and 11.

After everyone had their vote, the children sat back down in their orderly fashion and, while the ballots were being counted, the guest speaker had a rant about something.

Then the winner was announced rather anti-climatically. A tall boy with glasses and short curly hair who sits at the back of my class every lesson, looking at me like I'm more boring than William Hague.

During the ceremony, the Vice Principle came up to me and said "Mr. Kevin! This sort of thing is good for the students. It teaches them Democrashy. I don't think they have this in the North Korea."

It's mad to think that here I am, watching elementary students learning the value of democracy, whilst just 250 miles north, there's a mad communist regime, with a leader who's crazier than Charlie Sheen in a Colombian cocaine factory!