If I had brought up the exploitation of 3D workers in the same breathe as women in the sex industry, how many eyebrows would I have raised??

And- crap - I can’t help myself —-

I fail to see how I deserved it when I came to Korea, wasn’t paid for two months, and didn’t have enough money to fly back home, but a woman (or 3D worker) who came to Korea and wasn’t paid and couldn’t afford to fly back home deserves our pity???

And Milk, didn’t I mention how one of the teachers I knew had an owner bring over two thugs to threaten him to either go back to work or get the shit kicked out of him?

Is this as common as the physical threats sex industry workers? No. Did I say it was? No. But why brush off what happened to this language instructor?

And didn’t I mention how it isn’t uncommon to have hakwon owners threaten teachers in bad schools with deportation if they complain? but they don’t count, right? They should have done a better job checking out their new schools, right?

But that’s just me….

Just because they were sight seeing doesn’t mean they are not sexual slaves.. nice leap though.

Secondly, the reasons you and your teacher friends may be ‘trapped’ in Korea are very different.
The teacher’s reason is lack of money.. there are no threats being made if you leave and there are no ‘debts’ to your employer that must be payed off. If you don’t have enough money to leave korea that is your own fault.
A prostitute threatened with battery or death if they run away is another matter entirely..

Look I know you weren’t saying the teacher’s plight isn’t as bad as the prostitutes, but comparing them at all is insulting to the victims of the sex industry.

I need to fix the last part of my comments post to make it coherent. Sorry about the rush, but my GI Wife was threatening me with the Hereafter…(Quote: “If you don’t hurry up, you’ll be a member of the hereafter, here after everyone leaves….” She got that gem from my father).

That being said, Drambuie Man knows that just because an area is off-limits doesn’t mean GIs abide by said rule.

Interestingly enough, The Flying Yangban reported last Tuesday what happened with Kim Kang Ja, the infamous first female police chief of the Miri district, Her personal war on prostitution failed, so she’s going into politics to try to change things. Hope she does better in legislature than in law enforcement.

And besides forcing my attempt to point out what I defined above with saying sex slavery was the same as being a hakwon teacher, you also jump to the conclusion that all the foreign sex workers are slaves. I don’t fault you for this. It is a natural tendancy, and the problem of abuse of the foreign workers seems to be widespread.

But, in my last trip to Kyungbuk palace, I was surprised at the number of white (probably Russian) foreign prostitutes I saw there taking in the tourist sites. (OK…I can hear it now…..”How do you know they were prostitutes!?!…Of course I don’t know for sure. But I’d bet a full pay check on it). These women were surely not slaves, and they didn’t look too abused either. If you search the archives of the English language press, you’ll also find articles where it shows that one reason so many foreign entertainers come to Korea is it is easier to get a visa than in Japan and they make much more money there.

So one shoe size doesn’t fit all. I was clear enough in what I was comparing between the abuse of hakwon teachers and the abuse of foreign prostitutes, and I was clear that I was knocking the Korean justice system and government on their inability to help in what are well known problems.

“YOU CAN LEAVE YOUR HAGWON JOB ANY DAMN TIME YOU WANT!!!!”

The one Canadian teacher who hadn’t been paid for two months before his boss flew to China couldn’t “just go home” even if he wasn’t being locked in his room. I was in the same boat at one school that wouldn’t give me more than 50,000 won a week. I didn’t have the means to “just go home.” And you don’t just simply change jobs at will either. We both had to get our bosses permission to legally work in Korea. The other guy whose boss was a fugitive in China only got a new visa after his new boss bribed an immigration official. I also didn’t have enough money to rent a hotel room much less get an apartment — and since I was living in a place provided by the school, I was afraid of being turned out in the street for weeks. So forgive me for not feeling your rebuke bothers me much. Sure, I could have stood in front of Kyobo Book Store or other places and rounded up some private lessons and gotten money that way and found a way to get by other than I did. I’ve met illegal foreign teachers who make a good bit of money that way. But I’m sure they didn’t just decide on that path without a dollar to their name.

And for that matter, what the heck makes you so sure all of these sex workers can’t just “leave” their jobs too? If you read enough of the articles, you see where some have run away (and some caught) and you read where some go to the Korean government to complain of the ill treatment, and they are usually deported. So the more I think about it. Get off your high horse. I didn’t claim hakwon workers are exactly the same as these abused sex workers. I was more than clear enough.

YOU CAN LEAVE YOUR HAGWON JOB ANY DAMN TIME YOU WANT!!!!

You think these prostitutes can just up & leave in the same way… comparing the two is one of the more ridiculous things I’ve ever heard.

The Hong-Ik college night-club area (by Hongdae subway station) is also off limits due to the increase in fighting between USFK military and Koreans. Interestingly enough, some of the bar owners now charge double for ex-pats.

The off-limits listings are posted by the walk through gates, disseminated on Fridays in weeekend safety briefings, and are broadcasted on AFN-Korea.

For the bigger issue, as USFK military personnel, we get briefed during in-processing and at least every six months during the “New Horizons Day” training about human trafficking and prostitution in Korea. USFK command channels warn personnel that once caught, the Korean Government will have first dibs on jurisdiction according to the Korean Anti-Prostitution law. Another is scheduled for 6 January, and you guessed it, Prevention of Human trafficking and Prostitution are on the training schedules…

That being said, Drambuie ManTuesday what happened with Kim Kang Ja, the infamous first female police chief of the Miri district, Her personal war on prostitution failed, so she’s going into politics to try to change things. Hope she does better in legislature than in law enforcement.

http://joongangdaily.joins.com.....09041.html

I’m going to temporarily pull the review from the newsletter until I get a chance to go over it well to make sure I wasn’t too wrong, and if I was too unfair, I’ll edit it. At minimum, I’m going to add a list of articles like these two I find as an appendix to the review….

I have caught more of the other USFK and sex slave issue over the last 12 months or so. I did a review of it on the latest newsletter. Good portions of it were from the O’Sullivan review. (http://kalaniosullivan.com/Kun.....ostitution)
He presented more aticles in full, and his review has more on the military aspect of it and specifically Kunsan, including a rise in on-base sexual assaults after the military cracked down on soldiers going to the A-Town special entertainment area. I added some more of the news coverage in the Korean English language press.

I don’t think the Korean media as untainted as Marmot - at least the English language press. I usually caught the articles popping up during other periods where more heat was brought up by other issues like the tanks accident, but I am glad to hear that more is said of the Korean side in the Korean language media. As I wrote before, I did catch one indepth investigative news section on prostituion including foreigners and it was Korean-centered clients.

But, there is also help from the US press and a big boost from the woman and a couple of others in American academia who have promoted the idea of US + military + sexual exploitation using Korea as one of the models. I believe the prof was a Korean-American academic. FoxNews also jumped on the bandwagon not so many months ago.

I just wish there was more blending of coverage. It should be that hard when talking about the prostitution problem to not just focus on the Korean side or around the US bases.

Above all, change will have to come from the government and courts as well as in the media and public mind. I’m not holding my breath…..

And I forgot, I think the ball really got kicked off on the sex slavery issue with the report by the US government on human trafficing that labelled Korea as a key player. The Korean government and press didn’t like it. Then the publications of the diary of the poor woman from the Philippines was pretty big, it seemed to me. I think they were published in Korean and the English version brought in parts and editorials about them. They were pretty brutal…

BTW, my understanding is that USFK authorities have instructed its personnel to stay away from the clubs outside the bases because of alligations of human rights abuses by club owners. Since I’m not a serviceman (and, in fact, I live quite a distance away from any sizable American installation), I’d prefer (and appreciate) more info on this from those readers (and bloggers) who are (or were) USFK personnel and hence much more knowledgable than I about what USFK is or isn’t doing.