It’s 5:00 in the morning, so I’m in no mood to translate today’s OhMyNews piece covering their little adventure to the clubs in Hongdae. Those who read Korean can look at it on their own; as usual, the comments section is either hilarious or infuriating, depending on your sense of humor.
Look forward to the translation tomorrow.
21 Comments
This maybe not be politically correct thing to say, but the way a lot of the USFK members who behaved like ass**** which I seen them doing, they deserve the bad reputation that they get. I am sorry, but I”m not the only non-US-military foreigner who has had problems with the USFK’s and who are relieved that they are banned in some of those clubs. (at least that’s what I think the article is saying). There are far less problems that way. And frankly, I sometimes wondered how Koreans could have put up with this crap for 50 years. You just got to believe that if you’re the lowest quality soldier in the entire US army, they’ll send you to Korea. I’m guessing that Korea is like a dumping ground for all the trouble makers and potential trouble makers in the US army. That’s the only way I can explain it.
???밯hy does Korea keep its relationship with the United States in this way and for what? First of all, obviously it is neither because we like the United States nor because the United States had been generous to us. Once people live in the United States and the more they learn about the country, there is a tendency in which those people begin to despise the arrogance and the lopsided ways of the powerful nation. There are many times when those experiences develop into anti-American sentiments. Eventually those feelings create impotence and fear against the power of the United States, which leads to concerns and a gloomy view of Korea??р꽓s future.???
Kim Dae-joong, Chosun Ilbo, May 25, 2004
Well Mr. Kim, allow me to retort:
Why does the US keep its relationship with the Republic of Korea in this way and for what? First of all, obviously it is neither because we Americans like the South Koreans nor is it because South Korea has contributed a damn thing to US national security, despite the billions upon billions of US taxpayer dollars spent to build and protect vulnerable South Korea. Once people live in South Korea and the more they learn about the country, there is a tendency in which those people begin to despise the arrogance, xenophobia, outright racism, and the lopsided ways of the PoS nation. There are many times when those experiences develop into anti-Korean sentiments. Eventually those feelings create frustration and anger against the ingratitude of Koreans, which leads us to say, ???밎oodbye and f**k off.???
Let me add that if Mr. Kim is so goddamned unhappy with life in the USA, he is always welcome to leave and stay gone.
Leaving Korea,
why don’t you fisk your own US government(s) for spending over 50 years “the billions upon billions of US taxpayer dollars” for lil’ ingratfeful South Korea? Ask them, what the purposes were to act in the way they did, instead of fisking an ally who took what it was offered by your US adiministrations.
Hey Marmot can you get the Chosun Ilbo people to do an RSS or Atom feed of their English news?? If they need help I can put them in touch with the Father of RSS.. In fact, if any of the Korean news sites want to syndicate their English language news content this guy can help them out.
I can put them in touch with the Father of RSS
Quite liable to start another religious war, that… Hehe.
if Mr. Kim is so goddamned unhappy with life in the USA, he is always welcome to leave and stay gone.
I think he can’t really come back, because Seoul’s Prosecutors Office is dying to ask him so pointed questions…
“I think he can’t really come back, because Seoul’s Prosecutors Office is dying to ask him some pointed questions…”
He could always go to the North. He’s a big hit up there.
The reason we spent hundreds of billions of money in defense dollars (all over the world, not just in Korea) was to stop the wave of Communism that threatened to roll through the world. That’s what was in President Truman’s mind, when he made the decision to order MacArthur to send in US combat troops, in late June or early July of 1950.
Are you saying that he chose wrongly, Sugar Shin? Had he not done so, the Peninsula would have been “unified” by August 1950 — now the heart’s desire of every good Korean, I gather.
Every dollar that has been spent since then by the US, on behalf of the defense of South Korea, was a consequence of that decision. But it’s not the “mandate of heaven” that this must continue indefinitely into the future.
Since we are no longer are threatened by worldwide Communism (the comical but deadly NorK variety isn’t going to be exportable, at least outside the peninsula), there’s no longer any need for us to maintain ground forces in Korea (in fact there has been no need since the fall of the Soviet Union and the death of Kim Il Sung).
Nobody expects continued expressions of gratitude for this from you or any other South Korean, Sugar Shin, since it was in both our countries’ interest to do this. All I ask is to not have my country and my President continually insulted.
But I suppose that’s an impossible request, as you and many other South Koreans have learned your technique all too well from the American left, with their virulent hatred of Bush. It’s all about America, it’s all about Bush, Bush, Bush…
Oh well, regardless of what happens in November, hopefully the rest of the ground forces will be withdrawn early in the next Bush (or Kerry) administration. It can’t happen too soon for me.
Paul H., you don’t have to give me lectures about matters that I already thoroughly know. It is something, that obviously Leaving Korea needs, because he was the man, who was asking questions and was misled himself to fisk Korea.
Korea as a junior partner over the time span of 50 years has not “blackmailed” the mighty USA (like North Korea in recent years) to pay the taxpayers’ money, the US did it accordingly to their own security interests on the peninsula and in NE Asia (howa could they?).
You and other Americans are continuing to criticize the ROK government, their policy, the society and the people itsself; I have every right to insult your US president and society as long as I am free to do so. Or are you gonna stop me to use my democratic right of opinion and expression? It’s not the right of left or right US citizens only, it’s the nature-given right of every free human being on this planet!
Sugar, you don’t have to give me lectures about matters I already know. I suggest you try turning your critical intellect on your own country for a change, instead of obsessing over the US.
Tell me, what do you say when you post on Korean language blogs? Do you stand up for the US there, when Koreans indulge in unjustified America-bashing? Or is nothing too extreme when it comes to criticizing America?
What do you say in writing IN KOREAN about North Korea? Or do you say one thing in English here about North Korea, but nothing about them when you write in Korean elsewhere?
I’d welcome for you to provide an example to Marmot (who speaks and reads Korean) of a post you have made somewhere in the “blogosphere” in your native language — one where you defended the US against some of the extreme things I read here (and elsewhere) that Koreans now say about us.
If you have done so, then I will agree that you are a real “democrat” (small d). Meaning one who looks at both sides of a public issue, before speaking out and voting.
Americans like myself, who have felt for a lifetime that it was important to fulfill our defense treaty obligations with our allies, now find ourselves and our country the subject of overwhelming and unjustified criticism from people like you. So now I now consider them (South Korea, Germany, France, etc) — our “allies”.
I’ve now come to believe that it’s time for we Americans to exercise our democratic right, and vote to end these one-sided expenditure of defense resources — the sooner the better. Call it an American version of a “sunshine” policy.
If you feel (as you certainly seem to) that the presence of the US overseas is bad no matter what, then I suppose you should celebrate the fact that many knowledgeable Americans like me, who pay attention to foreign affairs, no longer see the need for these alliances. I wouldn’t be so quick to celebrate it if I were you — but I fully agree that it’s your democratic right to do so.
I believe that Sugar Shin has a total right to speak his/her opinion. I appreciate your non-angry US native perspective on this blog, and want to read more of it.
However,,,
Sugar Shin says: Americans are continuing to criticize the ROK government, their policy, the society and the people itsself; I have every right to insult your US president and society as long as I am free to do so”
Then, we living in korea have a right to insult Korea for random asshole korean eventents.
‘i suggest your turn your critical intellect on your own country for a change, instead of obsessing over america.’ *aul h
‘perhaps you should do the same.’ shin jong il
‘you walked right into that one, man! that was a dumb one!’ shin jong il to p*ul h
‘have respect for one’s name and the names of others.’ hwahng bee hohng
Paul H.,
I don’t comment in the Hangeul-written blogworld or in the OhMyNews comments section. I haven’t even installed a Hangeul-typing software. So you won’t find any inconsistent opinions or argumentations of mine there or here. The raving, racist anti-American idiots in the OhMyNews comment sections don’t mirror the opinions of the whole Korean society, even if many expats want to take them as a stisying “proof” for their own cliches and stereotypes about despiteful Koreans. If I would take the comments of raving idiots in the English-language Korea-blogosphere as representative for US, British, Canadian or Australian nationals, I would only break down in despair.
I’m not obsessed about the US, but the descisions made or not made by the leadership of a global superpower has always consequences, if not deadly ones, for peoples all over the globe, therefore my critical stance towards the US as the one and only liberal-democratic superforce is driven by the inconsistent usage (or abuse to be frank)of this enormous power without living up to the democratic, humanistic principles that made your country great and a lighthouse of hope and encouragement for many freedom-loving people in this world, who don’t have the luck to be blessed with a similar amount of wealth and freedom like you enjoy.
US criticism means not automatically anti-Americanism! I don’t expect anything goog from other despotic or semi-despotic world powers like China or Russia, but I’m used to have a higher expectation from a country like your’s, Paul H.
And the “overcritical” allies like France and Germany you’ve mentioned are only following the wills of their democratic souvereigns, namely their populations, who view 43’s sad domestic and international crusades and not the USA (and what it stands for) itself as a danger for the security and well-being of the free world, with his reckless, disastrous, irresponsible and blindfoldedly ideological foreign policy. You can’t get better democratic, stable and influential allies than Germany or France on the European continent, who only despise your actual administration, but not the American nation and their co-shared values. France, Germany and South Korea have tasted the wonderful grapes of freedom and democracy under the co-protection of the USA, but you demand from them to give up exactly the protected freedom of choice to say no to your Iraqi cup of hemlock, that you have offered them to drink. If you deliberately disregard them in such a fashion, then don’t decry thereafter the spilled milk.
The new World War II Monument in Washington D.C. and the rememberance of D-Day in the coming days will show you, that there have been righteous wars and struggles, which the two forementioned allies appreciate and gratefully thank America’s greatest generations for their sacrifices and efforts made in a just cause worth of American, British and not to forget Russian flesh and blood, and all other nationals worldwide who fought on the side of the coalition against fascistic rage. What is happening now in Iraq is a perverted degeneration of the admirable US spirit shown yesteryears ago. Your not-so-trusted allies can smell it and I think a good portion of the US citizens are awakening out of their manipulatively sedated delirium in believing in the “imminent necessity” of the “war against terror” in Iraqi dust and darkness. Catastrophic for the whole Middle East, deadly for your own sons and daughters in the military and a priceless recruitment campaign for terrorist scum of al-Quaeda. The whole participating or non-participating western world has lost this war for the hearts & minds already… and your commander-in-chief has to carry this painful burden on his back, but he will not feel anything, cause he will go back to the luxurious pleasure of his ranch in Texas, hopefully soon, in the future and his simple, twisted and self-righteous mind will never fathom, what kind of unspeakable disservice he has done to his own people and to the world for the years and decades lying ahead of us.
End of my rant.
Zdunk,
Can’t tell, if ???밎oodbye and f**k off.??? stands for constructive criticism. If I would have typed this kind of line for the USA, I would have been virtually lynched here. Keep on insulting Korea for random asshole korean eventents, which have personal consequences for foreign residents living in Korea, but don’t expect me to refrain from showing you occasionally the mirror. Suum cuique!
typos:
satisfying “proof”
anything good
Sugar Shin,
Someday, when you can eat bibimbap in Baghdad, and young Afghan women come to study science at the universities of Korea, you might want to rethink your hysterical view of what Bush has done for the world.
Why are so many people like you failing to understand that it takes more than one year to bring change to what were very unfree socieites???
Look at Korea’s history. It took nearly four decades to solidify democracy here.
Why are you passing judgement on Iraq after only a year?????
Chill out and wait a decade. Then enlighten us with your sweeping pronouncements on America’s deposing of Saddam and the Taleban.
sundubuman, you are a perfect example of American Imperialism. You assume that everybody wants to be American. That is not the case.
If you really support Bu$h, you can go join the Army. They are really short of people, so much so that the are forcing members to stay longer than their contracts. Check your local recruiter or
http://www.goarmy.com
I hope to hell that America does not have to wait a decade to see that the war in Iraq can never be won, like it did in Vietman. Hell, recently released documents show that McNamara and LBJ realised that as early as 1965. How many dead American boys would that take? One thing you can be sure of, none of hte dead kids will come from Bu$h’s, Cheney’s or your family, Sundubuman.
This is a little off-topic already due to the evolution of the discussion, but re dda and Joel’s comments about the Chosun Ilbo opinion piece by Kim Dae-joong, he is not former South Korean President Kim Dae Jung. Same name, different Romanization, different people.
Kimchipig-
if I am a perfect example of american imperialism….than you are the perfect example of the confused knee-jerk anti-american.
Re-read my post.
I talk of Iraqis being able to enjoy Korean cuisine, and Afghan women being allowed to travel to Korea to study.
And you throw the American imperial label at me.
unbelievable-
Thankfully, where I am from, Arab-Americans and korean-Americans dine at one another’s restaurants.
Bad bad America.
Kimchipig-
Re-read my post.
I talk of Iraqis being able to enjoy Korean cuisine, and Afghan women being allowed to travel to Korea to study.
And you throw the American imperial label at me.
unbelievable-
And what do you know of my family, anyways????
Back to the subject on Hongdae clubs, here is how you deal with the issue of people not acting approriately in clubs whether you’re in Seoul, LA, Berlin, or Singapore: There is no need to ban any specific group from entering the club as most will behave approriately. Take those few bad apples who do behave inapproriately out back and kick the living shit out of them. Hopefully that will send the message to EVERYONE that that sort of behavior will not be tolerated.
Sorry to hassle you, Marmot, but as a Korean-impaired imperialist, I’m still looking forward to a translation of the original piece.
Go industrial complex!