Sunday, October 17, 2010

A translation

For money, I translate other languages into English. For fun, I translate English into English. Today, I would like to translate the following passage:

South Korea is promising a cheaper and more beautiful G20 after watching the uproar over Toronto’s imposing grey security fence and a final summits tab that ballooned past $1-billion.

[...]

As for the security costs, there will be no high-end hotel snacks or luxury linens for South Korean police officers. That’s a key reason why South Korea says its budget will be “far below” what Toronto spent on back-to-back G7 and G20 summits earlier this year.

[...]

South Korea will avoid these costs entirely. The police in Seoul will come from the ranks of the country’s compulsory two-year military or police service.

“They are paid very little,” explains Chan-Ho Ha, South Korea’s ambassador to Canada, who watched the debate over the Toronto summit closely. “We don’t have such luxury. I mean, putting them in hotel rooms. In Toronto, the police were in hotels, but [the South Korean police] just have their own tent or mobile barracks. So we can save a lot of money.”


Translation: "Don't worry, our workers are essentially enslaved to the state and aren't granted the usual and customary comforts and conveniences of civilization, so we can gratuitously oppress the population at a far lower cost."

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