The 2018 Winter Olympics Will Be Held In Pyeongchang NOT Pyongyang


I guess I'll devote more posts on economics and business again even if I'm no economist. I read it last last October 31, 2017 that the Olympic Flame was received in Pyeogyang not Pyeongchang. Maybe I'm just writing this post because of my fondness for South Korea's culture. Somehow, I'm glad that the Winter Olympics for 2018 will be held in South Korea.

Here's a question: if you were the organizer would you want to hold the games in North Korea? I wouldn't. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that North Korea would not be the best place for the Olympics. In the first place, if economic protectionism is so good why is South Korea doing much better than North Korea? Why is it that all the Korean products enjoyed worldwide are from South Korea and not from North Korea?

Would you want to endorse a huge event in a country that's walking backwards like North Korea or would you like to do it in a country like South Korea? In South Korea, you don't only have democratic freedom but you also have first world conveniences. The atmosphere is much more welcoming and there's more choices than just government-sponsored businesses. Besides, the Olympics is all about competition. You'll have a lot of countries competing each other and hopefully there will be competitive Filipino athletes (like Michael Christian Martinez) who will be able to show off how great they are even without taking home the gold medal in the future event. If they lose gracefully it'll be an opportunity to show the world that they're good sports.

South Korea is very friendly to healthy competition. Many South Korean products you're enjoying today were once Small and Medium Enterprises. Samsung was faced with so much competition that the company kept innovating and it's still innovating. Innovation is always part of competition in businesses. It may not always go upward or get better all the time but there's a lot of lessons to learn. You may not win all the time but there's a lesson you learn from your losses. Just think I wouldn't be able to enjoy Korean culture today without South Korea.

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