The incredibly talented and witty people down at the Hankyoreh continue to find humor in the fact that those American schnozzes are just so damn big.
The flag on the tank reads “American base move in accordance with American needs,” while apologetic politicians from a number of parties (the GNP, DP, and the ULD, to be specific) cry, “Don’t go!” The American soldier replies, “You wanna be constantly anti-American?” The Hani obviously disapproves of the sadaejuui (flunkeyism, to borrow the KCNA’s term) of Korean politicians.
I, for one, would be perfectly content if the Hankyoreh (and its not alone here) would simply cut the noses down a little.
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Many of you must have noticed how the Hankyoreh cartoonist draws a small moustache under for the Hannara part leader Choi Byung-nyul (??흹?쨀????), as if referring to the ??흹?????? (”Choitler”) taunt.
http://www.hani.co.kr/section-.....06001.html
http://www.hani.co.kr/section-.....03001.html
It’s just depressing to see the lack of sense of history and judgement, but I guess the haphazard use of nazism is nothing new there, and neither the “progressive” use of labeling one’s opponents as fascists (not only in Korea).
With that comment by a US soldier, essentially saying “you go ahead and just keep up the anti-Americanism,” you can almost read a feeling that the Hankyoryeh doesn’t want them to go.
When after the candlelight protests Mr. Rumsfeld or was it the US ambassador said something to the effect of “well, we won’t have troops in Korea if Korea doesn’t want them there,” many in Korean society, and some Hankyoryeh analysis articles as well, called it ?째째?짠짹, like the Americans really didn’t mean it, but were threatening to do so in order to get their way. You’d think they’d want America to threaten to pull troops, so they could then say “yes, please do,” but when it’s not even a threat, a simple statement of the obvious, they almost get upset.
Dunno about others but I sense a minor strain of discourse among the Left that either (1) doesn’t want the Americans to get upset about anti-Americanism, or (2) doesn’t think it would be becoming of the US to get upset about anti-Americanism.
If (1), then you wonder why the heck not and if (2), then it confirms my suspicion that alot of anti-Americanism originates in unconscious but higher expectations for the US than for Korea or other countries.
Oranckay,
I read the Korean as “You still anti-American (now, huh)?” It’s interesting how nuance is hard to translate.
Big nose, big……..tissue.
If the US and U.N. commands on Yongsan are within range of North Korean artillery, it would seem crazy not to move them out of range. Why risk getting your head cut off in the opening shots of a war? Even with the bunkers on Yongsan, a large concentration of artillery fire, which might include shells tipped with chemical and biological agents, could kill a lot of senior officers who might be above ground for some reason, such as, attending some function at Dragonhill Lodge. In fact, it might be a good idea for the Korean Ministry of Defense to move, too, which would give Seoul more land to build an even bigger “Central Park.”
Seoul is overcrowded, and the Korean government has been trying for years to figure out how to disperse the population to other places of the country. If Koreans really do feel uneasy about the US and U.N. commands leaving Seoul, then maybe the US-UN move out of Seoul is the answer that the Korean government has been looking for. If enough Koreans move away from Seoul, maybe land prices will come down, and Seoul residents will get some elbow room.
The Korean Left is falling into the same mind trap most marxists can’t resist, because dialectics posits conflict into the very fabric of all group relations. Even if the Americans are sincerely looking at South Korea as a liability, because of discontent, the left has to create an imaginary divide between those Americans who want to stay and those who want to go. And then, it has to interpret Rumsfeld’s remark as some kind of inside joke Rumsfeld the bureaucrat is using to fight with the State Department.
South Koreans just don’t understand how deep the isolationism runs in American thinking, because Koreans are such victims, that they only see winners who are imperialists and losers who are conquered. Washington after Munich and WW2 sees the world as either a chessboard with America on the white side, or as the Old Europe America needs to ignore and isolate itself against. Koreans are also so cynical they could never just accept or admit that there is such a thing as loyalty between allies.
On the other hand, the South Korean right is probably just ideologically bankrupt. Although I would never question its loyalty, I’m sure it would murder to stay in power if an emergency presented itself. And the same for the left. No, what surprises me most about that cartoon is that it uses Rumsfeld to dramatize South Korea’s party divisions. It almost screams the message, “Without Washington We Koreans Will Kill Each Other!”
Wow, those sure are some big noses. I’d hate to see a Korean cartoon of Irsaelis and Palestinians.
I noticed that there are only honkies in the US army in that cartoon. Where are the brothers?
Oh boy I had a couple of jokes about to roll but I don’t know any of you well enough to see how you would take it….
Needless to say I do have a big nose and it’s nothing compared to that…
Charles, I was thinking the same thing myself.
The “????쩐쨍 ?째???쨍 ???????” part, (mis-)translated by Marmot as “You wanna be constantly anti-American?” and by Brendon as “You still anti-American (now, huh)?” and accurately rendered by Peter the First as “You go ahead and just keep up the anti-Americanism” can be *explained* as “See what happens when you behave like that to us Americans? Now, do you really want to keep up with that kind of attitude, dude?”. Replace ?째???쨍 by anything else of your liking, and you got yerself a pretty useful expression…
dda the linguist, on a beautiful Sunday morning…
They don’t call us kojaengees for nothing.