Misinterpretation of `pork barrel`

An 800-meter-wide strait separates Ketchikan and Gravina Island, the site of an international airport in Alaska. A ferry ride is required to cross the strait and reach the airport. Congress has debated since 2005 the construction of a bridge across the strait that costs 400 million U.S. dollars, spawning the phrase “Bridge to Nowhere.” This proposed project has symbolized pork barrel, which means overly generous government budget for a certain region and residents. The island has just some 50 residents but more than 200,000 people use the airport and more than 350,000 people ride the ferry per year. So the bridge cannot be called a pork barrel project.

Pork barrel is a political term that compares the practice of American politicians gaining government budgets for their constituencies to the phenomenon in which black slaves would flock to get salted pork mass in the past. The meaning is similar to the term “earmark,” which is derived from the practice of an owner printing a sign on his or her lambs` ears to identify the owner, and is considered a negative political practice. U.S. President Barack Obama often used this expression in June last year, saying that if pork barrel projects and foreign aid are removed, the U.S. can get rid of its financial deficit.

In Korea, Strategy and Finance Minister Park Jae-wan rightly said Wednesday, “The government will recover soundness in public finance by fighting pork barrel, manage fiscal spending within a sustainable degree, and establish budgetary rules.” Park then faced harsh attacks from ruling and opposition party lawmakers. Rep. Kim Jin-pyo, floor leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, called Park’s comments “absurd,” saying, “He compared the political circle, which strives to benefit the people, to pigs.” Party spokesman Lee Yong-seop went as far as to urge Park to make an apology and resign. Rep. Kim Sung-tae of the ruling Grand National Party said, “It is unacceptable for a Cabinet minister to make comments that compare (the National Assembly) to pigs.”

The term "pork barrel," which is frequently used in U.S. media and politics, is experiencing a hard time due to misinterpretation stemming from its literal translation in Korea. If clarified anew, pork barrel has become an idiom meaning “overly generous budget that lawmakers secure for their constituencies.” Certain Korean lawmakers questioned “raising issue with the Chinese proverb, “Dogs fighting in the mud,” asking why they were compared to dogs. The Strategy and Finance Ministry immediately sought to clarify Park`s comments, saying, “We did not mean to compare the National Assembly to dogs,” but parliament seems confident and arrogant even in its misinterpretation.

Editorial Writer Kwon Sun-taek (maypole@donga.com)