Gord’s not gonna like this.
Anyway, so this Canadian English teacher plans this mountain hiking excursion with some other foreign friends of his. They agree to meet at Exit 1 of Namtaeryeong Subway Station. Unfortunately, the teacher’s friends don’t read Korean, so he’s a bit concerned if they’ll be able to find their way to the meeting place. Being a clever Canuck, however, he gets the brilliant idea of sprinkling coffee creamer from the station’s passenger platform to Exit 1, just so his friends could find their way. Of course, being from the peaceful Great White North, he might not have realized that in the post 9.11 world, people generally look askance at mysterious white powers in crowded public places like major transportation hubs, especially when those people reside in a country that just dispatched troops to Iraq. Someone notifies the authorities of the white powder, and the ROK Army’s Capital Defense Headquarters dispatches a CBR (chemical, biological and radiological warfare) unit to the scene. On-site tests yield nothing unusual, so they send a sample of the white powder to headquarters for minute testing. Meanwhile, the police shut down the station and bring in for questioning a rather suspicious-looking Canadian male who was loitering around Exit 1. In the course of the questioning, the Canadian explains to police what he had done, an explanation the police apparently buy. Unfortunately for the hapless English teacher, the police have to keep him in the station for about four hours until the army’s test results come back, forcing him to cancel his hiking trip. On a positive note, however, he keeps the streak of Canadian English teachers making Yahoo! Korea News alive.
I’ll link to the Chosun Ilbo’s English version of the piece when it’s posted.
UPDATE: English version posted.
NOTE TO CANADIANS: No, I’m not targeting Canadians. The fact that Yahoo! Korea nailed you guys twice is pure coincidence. I’m sure most Canadians in the Republic of Korea are fine, morally upstanding individuals, even if you do come from a nation of colonial collaborators 
25 Comments
The various Seoul Hash House Harrier running groups had a similar problem with leaving their flour trails around Seoul a couple of years ago. They’ve since decided to use chalk markings as a substitute.
And this canuck hadn’t had any beer before engaging in his well thought out plan…? How many more stupid Canucks are going to make the news…
If he were American, he would owe the Korean people a sincere apology and get his own Hankyoreh editorial.
Instead, he’s Canadian, from a country no one really cares about, so an apology isn’t necessary.
RE comment: “…from a country no one really cares about, so an apology isn?€™t necessary….”
Which goes to show you, apologies are demanded of countries everyone really cares about.
Actually, it was cocaine that the Canadian scattered and it was dropped accidentaly. He was waiting to sell his cache. Quick Canuck thinking saved him from the clutches of the Korean police. An American would clearly not have gotten out of such a situation.
You’re right, I don’t like it. But it wasn’t violent, at least.
I stand by my rant. The majority of Canadians here are not people I like or want much to do with… though I did meet a few nice ones at the camp I just worked.
do a google news search of the words below to find articles dealing with a story that’s currently driving the chinese ape shit. they’re comparing it to abu ghraib and cite it as proof of american arrogance and hypocrisy. it’s a big story there in COMMUNIST china. take a look if you can stomach it.
‘zhao yan chinese woman us border guards’
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On the plus side, one has to admire the quick response and seeming professionalism of the police and military. Given the performance of the cops in the Kenzi Snider case and the serial killer (Yoo Young-Chul) case, it would seem far more likely that the powder could have been reported by anxious citizens and NOTHING done about it. Instead, they get there quick enough to nab the suspicious-looking maroon out front and run tests on the Coffee Mate. Well done.
Yeah, I was actually a little impressd by the police response to it all.
The guy was an idiot, plain and simple. If it was for a gab, he’s a dummy. If it was for his buddies, then they’re all dummies.
1) I’m with Brendan (see you at the Aussie embassy tonight?). It was very impressive bit of police work.
2) What is the follow-up, if any, to the Canadian guy who beat up two cops and destroyed a radio in Pohang(?) last month? Has he been charged with anything? If not, why not?
3) Shin Jong Il - good story and a very bad piece of law enforcement and international relations, but why do you bring it up?
As if you can’t find Exit #1 of any station in Seoul. C’mon, all exit signs are marked in English. Throw the guy in the bin for being stupid.
One more thing, this does make me feel a tad bit better about the confidence of law enforcement in these parts.
And on the off-topic Chinese story, it looks like that one will back fire on the Chinese gov’t as people discover that in America lawsuits and criminal trials against officers of the government are possible.
Uh, that should’ve been “competence”, of which I seem to be lacking.
HILARIOUS!!! Keep bashing those Canucks! :p Maybe this will be a lesson to those people who work here and never bother to learn one of the most phonetic languages in the world! Ok, I will step off my soapbox now.
The Chinese tourist will soon find out exactly what a “Standard Form 95″ looks like. And before Christmas she will be several hundred thousand dollars richer. Thanks to the Federal Tort Claims Act. The guard who beat her will at the very least be formally reprimanded, essentially ending his career. At most he will do jail time.
The Chinese can bitch and moan all they want about the horrors of violent America, but the fact is, as tragic as this incident was, it began from a simple mistaken identity and will end in full and fair compensation, along with an official apology.
How much would relief would she be entitled to from the good old boys in Beijing?
Chances are this guy or one of his friends has a blog, and some more details are up about this great story somewhere on the net. Three cheers to anyone who supplies a link to one of those blogs.
‘why did you post it here, sin jong il?’ mankyongdae
well, i just wanted to be sure you guys would be aware of it. the chinese are making a big stink over a small matter. comparing zhu yan’s incident to abu ghraib is simply ridiculous. however, i’ll have to thank the chinese for opening my eyes to what nationalism really looks like. yes, i admit it; i’m soft on the koreans. i’m tolerant of their often childish behavior. but if korean nationalism looks anything like the chinese type, i would urge the koreans to knock it off because it’s really ugly.
seeing crowds of angry chinese jeering at japanese folk sent a chill through my spine. i felt sorry that the young japanese soccer team had to pay for the sins of their GRANDFATHERS by way of chinese boos and spit.
now, add the above with china’s attempt to steal korean heritage and what you get is a growing menace to the world.
‘beware the chinese!’ ulchimundok, KOREAN hero from the ancient kingdom of koguryo.
Shin Jong Il:
Of course, it’s disgusting, Chinese nationalism. But don’t forget: Korea is still ahead on the curve, of China.
Do you think it’s possible those Chinese may have taken a lesson or two, from Korean nationalists?
After all, there are almost 40,000 Koreans enrolled in China, studying Mandarin right now, and some of them could be teaching things as well.
I think the Chinese began spitting on the Japanese,because it was obvious their side was going to lose to Japan. But for spitting, they can’t be beaten - it’s a national sport in China!! The Japanese knew they were beaten in ONE event…
Be smart: it’s an oppurtunity for recession-prone Korea to start exporting made-in-ROK umbrellas to future China-born Japanese tourists…
Wow… you Americans take as many pot shots while you can.
The good thing is that our lowest common denomiator is much higher than yours, in terms of intelligence.
And most fortunately for the World the lowest common denominator, in terms of unintelligent Americans, don’t travel outside of America unless forced to by the military.
As a last retort…
Q: Why does America like to go to war so much?
A: It’s the best way to teach Americans world geography.
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