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Record turnout for South Korea’s parliamentary polls, despite Covid-19

By Susan Owensby - RFI
Asia Record turnout for South Koreas parliamentary polls, despite Covid-19
MAY 23, 2020 LISTEN

This week on The Sound Kitchen, you'll hear the answer to the question about the parliamentary polls in South Korea. There's wonderful news too, about the winner of RFI's Planète Radio ePOP video competition – an RFI English club president won! There are letters to you from RFI English journalists, great music, and of course, the new quiz question. Just click on the “Audio” arrow above and enjoy!

Hello everyone! Welcome back to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, once again published every Saturday. A hearty “thank you!” to all of you who so kindly continued to watch The “Quarantine” Kitchen videos on Facebook during confinement.

Now you'll hear The Sound Kitchen as you have always known it, with the quiz, the winners and all the other ingredients you're accustomed to: your letters and essays, “On This Day”, quirky facts and news, interviews, and great music … so be sure and listen every week. And once again, thanks for continuing to be a part of The Sound Kitchen !

For the time being, Paris Live, our afternoon news broadcast, is still off-the-air. We will let you know as soon as we can safely bring it back to you. Thank you all for your patience, and for your support of the English service during this difficult time.

RFI's Planète Radio announced the winners of the 2020 ePOP short video competition this week, and Adita Prithika Subrahmanyan, the president of the RFI Agnichiragu Phoenix Club in Tamilnadu, India is the laureate in the Club RFI category for her video “Cultivation between factories”. Adita won a week-long series of masterclasses in Paris with RFI and fellow ePOPers, a 1000€ grant to design and run a local ePOP Camp workshop in her community, and five ePOP video shooting kits.

Prithwiraj Purkayastha, the president of the RFI Listeners Club of Jorhat in Assam, India, won fourth place in the Club RFI category for his video “Solution for greener cities”.

The Grand Prize winner is Hadama Diakité from Bamako, Mali, for his videoThe economy of waste” (Adita also placed 11th in this category).

The Young Female Producer award went to Olivia Christine Jeanne from Alakamisy, Madagascar for The value of trees”.

The Emergency Science prize went to Damarus Tshinyam, from Kipepe, Democratic Republic of Congo, for his video Helping Fishing”.

Initiated in 2017 by RFI Planète Radio and the French Development Research Institute (IRD), ePOP is an innovative project which aims to mobilize an international network of engaged and responsible youth. Coming from multiple countries, the young people produce short videos showing the reactions and the questions of people in their communities – especially the older generation - whose lives have been negatively affected by climate and environmental changes. The videos are then broadcast on the ePOP site and social media platforms, notably Facebook.

To find solutions for the problems brought forward in the videos, ePOP works with an international community of researchers at the IRD, a top development organization whose decisions are based on their contact with the public.

More than 130 videos were received this year from nearly 25 countries on five continents.

The selection of the winners was made by a jury of audiovisual, media, and environmental professionals.

Congratulations to the winners and kudos to all ePOPers for their commitment and participation in this second edition!

  • You can watch the Grand Prize video here, and here
  • Beginning this Friday, the prize-winning videos will be posted here  and here
  •  22 May: Helping Fishing” by Damarus Tshinyam, the laureate of the Emergency Science Prize award
  • 29 May: “Cultivation between factories” by Adita Prithika Subrahmanyan, the laureate of the Club RFI award
  • 5 June: “The value of trees” by Olivia Christine Jeanne, the laureate of the Young Female Producer award
  • The runners up in each category will then be posted on the following Fridays.

Congratulations Adita! Congratulations Prithwiraj! And thanks to all of you who entered the contest.

Be sure and listen to the podcast - you'll hear Adita talking about her prize. 

Send me your music requests! I'll make programs of your favorite music when I can't be in the kitchen to cook something up new for you … write to me at  [email protected]

To listen to our features from your PC, go to our website and click on the three horizontal bars on the top right, choose Listen to RFI / Podcasts, and you've got 'em ! You can either listen directly or subscribe and receive them directly on your mobile phone.

To listen to our features from your mobile phone, the three horizontal bars are on the top left. Click and choose “Features”.

Teachers, take note! I save postcards and stamps from all over the world to send to you for your students. If you would like stamps and postcards for your students, just write and let me know. The address is [email protected]

RFI Clubs: Be sure to always include Audrey Iattoni ([email protected]) and Chrystelle Nammour ([email protected]) from our Listener Relations department on all your RFI Club correspondence. Remember to copy me ([email protected]) when you write them so that I know what is going on, too. N.B. You do not need to send them your quiz answers! Email overload!

And don't forget, there is a Facebook page just for you, the RFI English Clubs. It is a closed group, so when you apply to join, be sure you include the name of your RFI Club and your membership number. Everyone can look at it, but only members of the group can post on it. If you haven't yet asked to join the group, and you are a member of an independent, officially recognized RFI English Club, go to the Facebook link above and fill out the questionnaire!!!!! (if you do not answer the questions, I click “decline”).

There's a new Facebook page for members of the general RFI Listeners Club. Just click on the link and fill out the questionnaire, and you can connect with your fellow Club members around the world. Be sure you include your RFI Listeners Club membership number (most of them begin with an A, followed by a number) in the questionnaire, or I will have to click “Decline”, which I don't like to do!

To join the RFI Listeners Club, just write to me at [email protected] and tell me you want to join, and I'll send you a membership number. It's that easy. When you win a Sound Kitchen quiz as an RFI Listeners Club member, you receive a premium prize.

This week's quiz: On 18 April, I asked you a question about South Korea, and the parliamentary polls they held earlier that week, on 15 April.

RFI English journalist Jan van der Made wrote an article about the elections for our website: “Covid-19 strategy propels South Korea's leader to record poll victory”. In his article, Jan noted that voter turnout was the highest at parliamentary elections for 28 years. You were to write in with that figure, or rather, the percentage of eligible voters in South Korea who voted.

The answer is: 66.2 %. And that with the Covid-19 pandemic raging! Of course, extraordinary precautions were taken getting people to the polling sites – social distancing, masks, hand cleansing, glove-wearing, temperature taking – quarantined people voted after the polls closed; those who were hospitalized voted by mail.

And who won the fruit of this exceptional voter turnout? President Moon Jae-In's Democratic Party. It was a landslide victory, as Jan noted: “The centre-left Democratic Party and its partner Together Citizens Party won 180 out of 300 seats,  while the main opposition United Future Party took 103 seats together with its ally the Future Korea Party.

South Korea's parliament has 253 directly elected seats, with 47 selected through proportional representation. The Democrats won a staggering 52 seats more than during the 2016 elections, while the main opposition alliance lost 9 seats.”

As Jan van der Made noted, not only was voter turnout at its highest for parliamentary elections in 28 years, the win by the Democratic Party was the largest victory since democracy was established in South Korea in 1987.

The winners are: Priyanka Paul, the president of the RFI Women's Club in Murshidabad, India; Kanchan Kr Chatterjee, the president of the RFI Natun Radio Listeners Club, also in Murshidibad; Mohammad Likhon, a member of the Nilshagor RFI Fan Club in Nilphamari, Bangladesh; RFI Listeners Club member Miss Eshba Rani from Sheikhupura, Pakistan, and faithful listener and quiz participant Rasheduzzaman, from Rangpur, Bangladesh.

Congratulations winners!
Here's the music you heard on this week's program: “One Mint Julep” written by Rudolph Toombs and performed by Pancho Sanchez and his ensemble; variations on the traditional Korean song Kayagum Sanjo” performed by Hwang Byeonggi; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and “Sade Blu”, by Blu Samu.

Do you have a musical request? Send it to [email protected]

This week's question ... You'll have to listen to the show to participate. You have until 22 June to enter this week's quiz; the winners will be announced on the 27 June podcast. When you enter, be sure you send your postal address in with your answer, and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

Send your answers to:
[email protected]
or
Susan Owensby
RFI – The Sound Kitchen
80, rue Camille Desmoulins
92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux
France
or
By text … You can also send your quiz answers to The Sound Kitchen mobile phone. Dial your country's international access code, or “ + ”, then 33 6 31 12 96 82. Don't forget to include your mailing address in your text – and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

To find out how you can win a special Sound Kitchen prize, click here

To find out how you can become a member of the RFI Listeners Club, or to form your own official RFI Club, click here

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