Next time one hears about the “unfair” SOFA, remember this. It’s the judgment statement that really gets me.
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This is why there’s a SOFA
This entry was written by Robert Koehler, posted on August 2, 2004 at 7:29 pm, filed under ROK-US Issues. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.
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3 Comments
How about the U.S. gets custody of Koreans who commit crimes against Americans? That sounds like a fair SOFA.
Maybe the “I was under the influence of mob psychology” excuse will come in handy for people who voted in Roh Moo-hyun as the cost of that indulgence mounts in coming months and years.
Although Dae Han Min Guk owes its existence to SOFA, rather than make an honest attempt to assess or understand how it works and the urgent reasons for its existence, Koreans seem to prefer journalistic distortions that misportray it. Ironically, this only underscores the need for SOFA.
Aside from the fact that SOFA is extremely fair and infinately more generous than any of the SOFA agreements Korea itself maintains with other nations, the political agenda is simply to displace blame on foreigners rather than admit to Korea’s own self-inflicted problems.
Koreans want it both ways - they want the US to ensure their survival while they continue to vent their anger for their dependency on the US by exercising racial bias against US citizens.
This distorted inferiority complex is mistakenly labled “patriotism” and “pride”, just as reactionary, anachronistic rhetoric is labled “progressive” in Korea today.
What true patriots should realize is that the progress Korea desparately needs will continue to evade it until Koreans are taught to honor truth and objectivity over groundless rhetoric justifying a racially prejudiced world view.
It is extremely chic to portray Western nations as insensitive but the fact is, all the sensitivity in the world will not assauge the willing, perverse, deliberate misunderstanding that Koreans mistake for “pride”.
Next time you read a story based on the Korean victim complex (the world does not understand us and persecutes us simply because we’re Koreans) understand that the only way to overcome Korean angst (han) is to grow up emotionally. For years Koreans focused on IQ, making groundless, ludicrous claims of having superior IQs. But they have too long neglected EQ - emotional maturity. To join the world on a level playing field, Korea must bring their average EQ up to international standards.
Regardless of the historical, cultural, social, psychological and even economic barriers to emotional progress, given the current state of chaos, disarray and self-defeating rhetoric, Koreans who are truly patriotic realize that putting this issue off any further will only cause further erosion of international competitiveness.
Isn’t it ironic that I, a foreigner, am a more patriotic Korean resident than many native-born Koreans? Well, that’s because I grew up here and know more about Korea than many Koreans who willingly ignore the truth in order to bask in fictitious pride.
Let me define the concept of patriotism: it is the earnest desire to improve the welfare of one’s people. It means an honest hard assessment of the problems and solutions necessary to correct it, rather than assigning blame to scapegoats.
SOFA and US assistance is not and has never been the cause of Korea’s problems. Corraboration with the Japanese some 60 years back is also not the cause of Korea’s problems. Where does the blame for Korea’s lost competitiveness truly lie? It is up to the real Korean patriots to investigate this in earnest.