The Famous Millionaire

Ani & Funny literally had its heyday. It produced a lot of stars not only in animation but also in the entertainment area, including singers, talents, movie actors, comedians, dancers, composers, and songwriters.

Thanks to the brilliant activities of Ani & Funny’s entertainers, their faces were everywhere on soap operas, ads as well as entertainment programs.

Yu Zuung was also very active in appearing on TV shows.

Though well known, Hyunwoo was rarely seen on TV. He was sometimes on TV when there broke some important stories like STM’s listing on the stock market.

In a sudden break with such practices, however, Hyunwoo appeared on TV ads. The ads were public service ads on encouraging more young voters to go to the polling booths.

<I hear the voting rate of the last by-elections was 32.6%. In other words, only one out of three voted. In particular, the voting rate of those in their 20s was the lowest. I take this voting trend of the young voters very seriously. Let me promise you this time. If any one under 30 votes in the upcoming by-elections, I will send you a 10,000-won note. And thorough a lottery, I’ll send ten voters gift cards worth 10 million won, 100 voters gift cards worth one million won, and another 1,000 gift cards worth 100,000 won. But I have one condition here. The next day after you’re done with voting, let me open an “I VOTED!” bulletin on the homepage of Ani & Funny. Take a shot after you vote and post the picture on the bulletin along with your phone number before you apply for the gift.>

Everybody was surprised by Hyunwoo’s surprising proposal. The total lottery prize was 300 million, plus 10,000-won gift cards to all the young people who actually voted.

Regardless of age or sex, most people praised Hyunwoo.

But there were people vehemently opposed to that. They were veteran politicians like Chulmo Kim because the more young voters went to the polling booths, the more young candidates would likely to win.

“This is clearly a breach of the election law.”

“He is trying to buy off the voters, so they have to investigate right away.”

Of course, their argument didn’t make any sense. Though Hyunwoo’s proposal was extraordinary, it was far from an election campaign. It was simply a way of recommending votes.

As a result, veteran politicians’ opposition only invited backlash from many young voters.

“What the hell are they talking about? He just wants to increase the turnout of young voters. Why is that an issue?”

“Their logic is their candidates have more chances of winning when young voters don’t come to the polling booths. How disgusting!”

When young people gathered in threes and fours, they talked about the by-elections.

“Are you going to vote this time?”

“I’m thinking about it now. Actually, I planned to travel with a friend on the election day.”

“I’m going to vote by all means.”

“Because of the prize money?”

“No way. I’m not going to vote for the sake of a 10,000-won cash gift. I’m really touched by Hyunwoo Jang’s enthusiasm. I think we, young people, have to change this time.”

Some students openly liked Hyunwoo’s cash offer of 10,000 won.

“Do you think you can make 10,000 won easily? Our parents would have to work hard to make that money. If you’re lucky enough, you can win the 10 million lottery! I don’t have any reason not to vote this time.”

“Me, too. I have to work two full hours to make 10,000 won. If I receive 10,000 won for my vote, I just make the money for nothing. I wish I could win the lottery, too.”

Some of the righteous young men instigated the college students as followers of Hyunwoo.

“Whenever our country was in a crisis in the past, we students rose up first. Now is the time. Let’s clean the politics stymied by the resources diplomacy scandal with our hands. Let’s rise up against corrupt politicians!”

Looking at them, Hyunwoo felt satisfied. He felt he might see much bigger effects than expected.

On the very election day, there was a long line from early in the morning. In the past, they were mostly in their 50s and 60s, but this time the majority of the voters were young.

There were many young voters who took proof photos of their voting and contacted each other to double-check if they voted.

On that evening the TV networks reported heavily about the high turnout of young voters.

<In the by-elections this time 73.6% voted, recording the highest voting rate in history. In particular, those below 30 turned out massively to vote.>

Thanks to young voters’ high turnout, the young candidates nominated by Wonju Ha in the stronghold areas of the ruling party won a landslide victory, while those candidates sent by Chulmo Kim were breathing a sigh of defeat.

Hyunwoo’s promise also shook the opposition stronghold areas.

The opposition parties nominated those candidates with vested interests in their constituencies. Accordingly, young candidates with little chance of winning were just content with getting their names known to the voters, but strange things happened one after another. There were five opposition strongholds in the by-elections, and two young candidates defeated their rivals there.

College students were happy. Though they thought that their voting could never change the existing political landscape, they became convinced that they could if they were united.

Hyunwoo carried out his promise. He sent a 10,000-won cash gift to every young voter, plus the gift cards through the lottery.

Moneywise, Hyunwoo had no problem though he spent a total of 3 billion won for the elections.

Given the landslide victory of young fresh candidates, he felt the money was well spent. Above all, he was happy to confirm that the young voters’ consciousness began to change.

Mr. Wonju Ha, the ruling party’s chief, was also happy about the election results.

As soon as the elections were over, he came to Hyunwoo’s office in person.

“Thanks so much. All thanks to you.”

“I’m happy if my efforts paid off. I hope our politics can be cleaner on the occasion of the just-ended elections.”

“Absolutely. We should make efforts in that direction, too.”

They talked about 30 minutes about the election outcomes.

Still, Hyunwoo was not satisfied with the outcomes.

After the by-elections Ha’s power would be stronger than now, and young politicians will help get rid of political corruption.

But there were lots of corrupt politicians in the National Assembly. Though they kept a low profile now because of the resources diplomacy scandal, they would raise their ugly heads when the dust settled over time.

Hyunwoo wanted to get rid of them before they began to reassert themselves. Though it would be impossible to expel them completely, he wanted to stop the newly elected young politicians from being contaminated by corrupt veteran politicians.

He had to pull on the reins more strongly for this.

In the past, it was Ha who took the initiative, but it was Hyunwoo’s turn to do so.

Is there any good method? How can I winnow out more politicians?

While he was turning it over in his mind, he got an international call.

It was from the biotech research center in Bangladesh.

Hyunwoo answered the phone casually, but its chief reported to him in an excited voice.

“Sir, we have finally succeeded in developing a coconut mangrove. Looks like we can sell them commercially.”

Hyunwoo’s face brightened momentarily. He was planning to launch several so-called future industries, and one of them was the mangrove that the Bangladesh research center was developing now.

In fact, the original purpose of Hyunwoo’s launching the center was not to make any profit. As the sea level was rising due to global warming, many coastline areas in Thailand and Bangladesh were damaged.

So, he had been thinking of reducing the damages and hit on mangrove. If mangroves were planted in the coast and lowlands, they would block flooding and tidal waves.

Of course, it was not Hyunwoo’s sole idea. A Ph. D holder in genetic engineering had been working on it with ten students for more than ten years.

But they had made little progress in their research because of the lack of research funds.

Hyunwoo learned about this and gave full financial support. He invited world-famous genetic engineering scientists to Bangladesh to speed up the research.

Hyunwoo thought it would take at least 10 years to see the specific results.

But it had only been three years that they finally made a major discovery.

“Very nice job! By the way, how much will it cost to produce one mangrove tree? Is it possible to breed them naturally?”

“Natural propagation is impossible for now. We have to produce all seeds through genetic engineering. It costs one dollar to produce one seed, but its survival rate is less than 5%.”

“Is that survival rate low?”

“Yes, because it is the coast area are the only places we can plant the seeds. In fact, we can’t guarantee 5%.”

According to the center director, they were working on how to increase the survival rate, but it would take some time.

“How about the coconut? Does it taste differently from existing one?”

“Not really.”

If that’s true, its commercial value must be very good.

Besides, they could harvest coconuts four times per year, and one coconut tree could produce as many as 50.

“How about the growth period?”

“Not much difference. I think we can start harvesting coconuts in about six years.”

Hyunwoo had to reason to delay then. In fact, there was considerable damages in the lowlands in Bangladesh because of seawater intrusion. He couldn’t wait until they raised the survival rate of mangrove seeds.

“How many seeds can you produce?”

“I think we can produce up to 100,000 per day. You have to take into account the fact that the survival rate is less than 5%.”

“Start producing them now. As many as possible, please. And expand the production facilities as quickly as possible. I’m going to cover the whole coastlines of Bangladesh with coconut mangroves.”

“Expanding the production facilities will not be difficult. As long as you offer the necessary funds fully, we have no problem expanding the facilities indefinitely. But I think we need the approval of the Bangladesh government first.”