85. I’m still hungry!
“Mr. Chairman, please don’t say that and—.”
“Mr. Kim, is your opinion representative of the government?”
“…”
Director Kim Sung-jong was unable to answer my words.
The conclusion was, as I expected, that he had come to Gong Shim on his own.
“Actually, only the support for China has been finalized, not the details.”
“Then you should leave. If there is an official request from the government, I will go and deal with it then.”
“…”
Mr. Kim’s shoulders slumped, and he called the meeting to order.
“The reason I’ve called this meeting is that today, an official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs came by and asked for our assistance, and I thought it would be a good idea to clear the air once and for all.”
“Shall we make a formal complaint to the government?”
“No, Mr. Nam, there’s no need for that, and besides, he gave me a timely wake-up call.”
“Enlightened you?”
“There’s something we need to set a course for now, something I hadn’t thought of, and he reminded me of it.”
“What is that?”
What’s what?
Prioritizing.
“Well, as it turns out, the pandemic I predicted is upon us. And it’s only just beginning.”
“…”
No one spoke up.
I was grateful that everyone had been listening to me so far, but I don’t think anyone really thought this would happen.
To be honest, it would be abnormal if I really thought that my prophecy(?) would come true.
However, it was gradually becoming a reality.
“Now, if a global pandemic were to materialize, what would be the first thing that would happen? It’s going to be a shortage of epidemic prevention supplies, because no one would have expected that to happen in the 21st century.”
“Ah—.”
“And you’re not even thinking about diagnostic kits and vaccines and treatment supplies, except for China, because they’re the source and they’re getting screwed right now.”
“Sooner or later, there’s going to be a lot of pressure. “
“That’s right, now there’s going to be a battle for supplies and medical supplies for the new coronavirus, and there’s not going to be any morality or dignity in that, when their own people are dying.”
“Huh! A world where quarantine supplies and vaccines are weapons—.”
“Yes, and the best weapons, at least for the time being, are neither guns nor cannons, because any government in any country that can’t get masks and can’t get vaccines will not be trusted by its people.”
In this situation, you might as well be a dictatorship.
You can mow people down with guns and knives as they die.
But a democracy that lives and dies on public support is a different story.
It immediately jeopardizes the stability of the regime.
So it’s as obvious as fire that medical and quarantine supplies will be fought over by any means necessary.
“Therefore, we need to establish firm principles now. Because we will be the only people on the planet who have anticipated and prepared for a pandemic.”
“Exactly. We need to have principles in place so that when the pressure actually comes, we can deal with it without panic.”
Some scholars have been warning of a global pandemic for a long time, but unfortunately, they had the ability to see it coming, but not the ability to prepare for it.
But we were different.
“Here are my principles. The first priority is the Korean War veterans. If you’ve been favored, you have to pay it forward.”
“So you’re going to give all the Korean War veterans a free ride, right?”
“Oh, Mr. Nam. The world to come is a world where you can’t buy medical and quarantine supplies even if you have money. In a world like this, it’s a great benefit to sell them first.”
“hahahaha! I’m just being old-fashioned—.”
“Well, I’m not going to charge an excessive profit margin. This goes for countries that don’t get along with us, too. I don’t want to hear that you’re making money off of this in a shady way.”
“That’s a smart idea. If you make too much money on this, you’ll make a lot of money in the short term, but you’ll end up with a lot of resentment and it won’t end well.”
“So we’ll sell it to the participating countries at a reasonable profit, but we’ll sell it to the poorer countries like Ethiopia and the Philippines at cost or below cost, and of course we won’t lose money because other countries will make up the difference.”
Well, Japan and China will make up for it.
“Also, we’ll work with the Chung Hwa Foundation to take care of Korean War veterans and their families around the world.”
“hahahahaha, that’s a great idea.”
“Second on the list would be our current allies and countries that didn’t fight in the Korean War but provided medical care and supplies. Most of these will probably overlap, but there will be some that don’t, and some that don’t, and we’ll make a judgment call about which ones to sell or support.”
“So where do Japan and China rank?”
“Japan is second to last, blah, blah, blah, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to play hardball in a pandemic like this. If they do it, we’re all the same if we play the same.”
“Hmph! I get it.”
“Just keep it under wraps and handle it appropriately. I don’t want to take any heat for it, I hate what they’re doing, but at some point we’re going to have to work with them, even if it’s because of China.”
“Yeah!”
I said, finally, China?
“So what’s China going to do?”
“I don’t think they’re going to run out of quarantine supplies, and I don’t think they’re going to open their arms to us even if they did.”
“Well, there’s not much they can’t handle on their own now.”
“China is last on the list, anyway.”
“I see.”
It is my opinion that China should be held accountable in this coronavirus outbreak.
As far as we know, they probably identified the virus a long time ago.
And then they let it get to this point?
“Anyway, my policy is this. I’ll have to consult with the government, but I don’t think their policy will be much different. If there’s any disagreement, Mr. Nam will handle it in consultation.”
“Yes, Mr. Chairman.”
“Now, let’s all do what I say and encourage and support the production of as many medical and epidemic prevention supplies as possible. Remember, this is a race against time.”
“Yes, Mr. Chairman!”
The novel coronavirus continued to spread around the world, and the world began to show signs of closing in.
Of course, Korea was still able to prevent the spread of the disease by picking people off at the airport with the help of diagnostic kits.
Finally, around 4:45 a.m. KST on January 31st.
The WHO declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).
As I watched the gates of hell open, I headed back to the U.S. on February 10.
I’d packed enough that I didn’t have much to do, and I had a feeling I was going to have a lot of headaches trying to get into the U.S. later.
“John, it’s been a while.”
“hahahaha, boss, it’s good to see you healthy again.”
“Aww, what kind of weird country am I in? It’s Korea, Korea! I can’t even show my business card in the US because of the security.”
“Hmph, you know full well that’s not what you meant, don’t you?”
“Yeah, I know what you mean. By the way, how’s the mood in the US?”
“Uh, not too serious yet. I mean, the president is publicly saying it’s no big deal.”
“…”
Whatever, Trump, you crazy man.
Then again, America is such a great country.
Even with this crazy asshole as president, the country is still on track.
“Take this.”
“What’s this?”
“A mask, hand sanitizer, and a diagnostic kit.”
“What, a mask? You want me to do this?”
“Then why not?”
“Look, boss, the US is different from Korea. If you wear something like this, you’ll be treated like a patient.”
“hahahaha, I’m not going to ask you to do it right now, so just keep it with you, because sooner or later you’ll be without it.”
“Okay.”
“Also, I brought some stuff for our Karma people in the truck in the parking lot with me on the private plane, so you might want to keep that for now.”
“No, no, no, no, no, no, no…”
“Let’s see if you’re still saying that in a month.”
“It’s scary when the boss says we’ll see.”
“…”
Scary is bullsh*t.
“By the way, isn’t Tesla scary?”
“hahahahaha, sure, it went up to $160 today, February 13th, and it’s been over $170 for the last four days.”
“Hmph, it’s just getting started.”
It’s already tripled, but Tesla is just getting started.
After all, our stake was now worth nearly $40 billion in Tesla stock alone.
“Nvidia keeps going up, too. It’s about to go over $70. AMD is in the $50s.”
“This is getting a little scary.”
“Uh-huh! You’re getting richer than you’ve ever been.”
“hahahahaha! I’m still hungry!”
“Of course!”
The bull rally is just beginning.
It’s likely to continue like this until at least the end of next year, and I have no idea how far it will go.
However, it was expected that Tesla would have to make some adjustments.
Not my prediction, of course, but the Lord’s.
I instructed John to sell some and buy back if Tesla went up a bit more.
The deal we had with Elon was that we wouldn’t sell for two years after we got above 15%, but we were allowed to sell down to 5% as a special arrangement.
So Elon is going to be a little bit of an asshole, but in moderation.
I think Nvidia and AMD are going to have a correction at the same time, so I gave John the same instruction.
We’re just going to touch them for a while, and then we’ll go back up.
In the meantime, the novel coronavirus, which was officially named COVID-19 on February 12th of this month, gradually began to terrorize the world.
Whether it was Asia or Europe, North or South America, there was a massive outpouring of cases.
The number of patients skyrocketed and hospitals overflowed.
South Korea was still on the safe side, thanks to my active involvement in MERS vaccination, which kept the disease out of airports and ports.
By Feb. 29, the world began to freeze as the official global death toll reached nearly 3,000, with the death toll hitting the world’s most powerful country, the United States.
By March, the United States was in shambles.