The Marmot’s Hole

The Chosun has been running what appears to be a series on the “Ugly Korean” and the rise of anti-Korean feelings in Korea’s golf-colonies in Southeast Asia. Now, as an American, I find it difficult to criticize the behavior of other countries’ nationals abroad as “ugly.” Still, I’ve got to say, some of this crap is pretty damn, well, ugly:

Late last year, the Korean Embassy in Manila sent an official request asking Korean Air and Asiana to “exercise self-restraint in serving alcohol to passengers.” This is because heavy-drinking Korean passengers were causing disturbances on planes. Last Feb. 3, a dead-drunk Korean passenger caused such a disturbance upon arriving at Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport — he went so far as to take off his pants in the airport — that within an hour, he was put on plane straight back to Korea. According to an airport official, “He was drunk and caused quite a commotion, pounding on the glass door of the VIP lounge.”

On Feb. 6, another Korean, who was completely plastered, was arrested in Cebu for assaulting two waiters in a hotel karaoke club.

Local police said that while they were escorting the man to the station, he kicked the police car’s door and screamed in Korean. Recently, in the Angeles City area, a Korean professional golfer, Chun Ho-sang, was shot dead by bar employees.

Korean expatriates in the Philippines pointed out that “As far as the incidents and accidents involving Koreans are concerned, there are many cases of unseemly behavior by Koreans becoming problems.”

The piece should be read in conjunction with this Al S. Mendoza piece on the “Korean Invasion” over at the Filipino news service INQ7.net. Just a sample:

The world is a stage. Anybody is free to sample it. Just make sure, though, you follow the rules and you’ll be all right. Welcomed with even a red-carpet treatment.

But, alas, that has not been happening in many of our golf courses nationwide. Seemingly, the golfing Koreans have taken control. Generally speaking, they act and think as if they own what they don’t actually own.

You see them throwing their weight around in golf courses with alarming consistency. As a result, verbal jousts are a common sight between a Filipino golfer and a Korean golfer.

You see them acting arrogantly, sometimes, with even murderous intentions. One golf course manager got himself almost killed by a Korean driving a golf cart.

“He did not even apologize,” said the Filipino golf official. “He even made it appear that it was my fault. That if he had ran me over, nobody’s to blame but me.”

You see that and many other harmful deeds happening almost in every golf course in the land — courtesy of the Koreans.

Koreans forcing their way into the first tee even if it’s not their turn yet to tee off.

Koreans hitting shots from the tee box even when there’s still someone about to hit a shot on the fairway.

Koreans hitting shots even when there’s still someone about to stroke his putt on the green.

It’s become almost commonplace that I won’t be surprised if one day, a Korean gets killed on the golf course, either by clubbing or stabbing.

All this, and Korean golfers don’t even have a SOFA. Anyway, Mr. Mendoza is obviously one very pissed off golfer. He does say, however, that the situation isn’t all the Koreans’ fault:

We are partly to blame, though.

We allow them to control us instead of us controlling them.

We allow them to intimidate us with the power of their currency, effectively reducing us to mere beggars.

We allow them to trample on our sovereignty, for a fast buck.

We have lost all honor and dignity in the name of money.

One day, we will wake up to see our golf courses being owned by Koreans, run by Koreans, with Filipinos being mere servants serving them kimchi. Worse than one being tagged as a running dog of Abu Sayyaf.

They have invaded the village that I live in, renting whole houses and noisily drinking beer till the small hours of the morning any day of the week.

To be sure, let me assure you that I am not anti-Korean. I have friends from Korea. In fact, one dear friend of mine is a Korean. I met him in Busan during my coverage of the Busan Asian Games in 2002. Very soft-spoken, a gentleman to a fault, he accepted the job as golf guide for the Asian Games even though he is a wealthy businessman. To this day, he calls me every now and then just to say hello. Last December, he greeted me “Merry Christmas.”

What I am saying is, the Koreans aren’t bad per se. If they’ve been bad to us in our own land and continue being so, not their fault. We are at fault because we allow them to do what they want to do to us.

It’s as simple as that.

Of course, my wife makes a number of the same complaints about the Korean expat community in Mongolia; namely, that they run around the country treating the locals with barely concealed disdain (something I can perhaps understand, given the inevitable clash between the Korean hyper-work ethic and its Mongolian-Soviet counterpart), with Korean businesses marketing themselves in such a way that sometimes makes Mongolians feel as if they are being colonized.

Personally, I don’t want to come down too hard on the Koreans here. I had a discussion about this with someone at work today, who thought this was a huge problem that Korea has to correct. And he was right, it does need to be corrected - Korea is a major player in Southeast and Central Asia, and as such, it needs to cultivate a better understanding of the societies in which it involves itself. But at the same time, Korea hasn’t had a whole lot of time to adjust to its role of international economic powerhouse (dare I say imperial power), so I’m not really surprised that attitudes haven’t caught up yet. I’m reminded of the U.S. in the immediate post-war era, a nation that suddenly found itself with political and security commitments in nations most Americans didn’t even know existed before 1945. And the ignorance showed, both at the official level in terms of policy making and at the local level with Americans — military and civilian — finding themselves living in societies they knew next to nothing about. If Koreans living in developing countries show the same kind of ignorance and arrogance, perhaps that’s understandable, given that South Korea has gone from international basketcase to international investor almost overnight. The society will eventually make the adjustment once the realities set in. Still, it would help if the Korean university system took the lead here and started training various regional specialists that could assist the nation’s policy makers and media in gaining a better understanding of those societies in which Korea’s influence is being felt more and more. Just to give you one example that I’m familiar with, Korea is one of the biggest investors and trading partners in Central Asia, yet as far as I know, there is only one university in Korea (that I know of) — Pusan’s University of Foreign Studies — that offers courses in Central Asian languages. The same goes for Mongolian, where Danguk University’s Ch’eonan campus boasts the nation’s only Mongolian Studies program. That doesn’t leave a lot of experts for the government of businesses to consult when they try to tailor policies to local conditions. Granted, Chinese and Japanese Studies are important, given the importance of those nations to Korea’s political and economic well-being, but simply put, the nation’s sphere of influence (and potential sphere of influence) extends beyond those countries into places that Koreans really need to start learning about if its going to a) use its influence most effectively, and b) stop pissing off the locals.