Seems like the news theme of the week is the “ugly Korean.” On Monday it was the Korean prostitutes in California, on Tuesday it was Korean drug runners in Vancouver, and today, it’s Korean fisherman and underage local prostitutes in the South Pacific island republic of Kiribati:
A study published by the National Youth Commission on Wednesday says the South Pacific island nation of Kiribati banned Korean fishing boats from docking in the islands for a time in 2003 because child prostitution became a serious problem whenever Korean deep-sea fishermen came ashore. In the islands, which have a population of 85,000, there are 30-50 girls who exclusively service Koreans, most of them underage girls from low-income groups, some of whom are raising children of their own.
Seems the locals have even coined a term — “Korekorea” — for these young women, who the Hankyoreh reports are between the ages of 16 and 20, although local women say 70 percent of the girls are under 18. Most are elementary school graduates from poor families who hang out in the bars around the docks and take small boats out to the Korean fishing boats where they conduct their business transactions. They usually charge 100 Australian dollars (about W80,000) for their services, although they’ll take $50 in cash along with cigarettes, booze, clothes and other items. The children born of such liaisons are being abandoned, and there is a growing concern about AIDS since the fishermen do not use condoms (!) when having sex.
The National Youth Commission is now calling for Koreans who engage in sexual crimes — such as procuring the services of underage prostitutes — to be punished when they return to Korea.
Of course, this isn’t the first time Korea and Kiribati have been mentioned in the same news story — in 1998, a Korean fishing boat caught illegally fishing in Kiribati waters escaped to Korea, bringing with it some extra cargo, namely, a Kiribati policeman.
Your Kiribati historical fun fact of the day, courtesy the Lonely Planet:
Tabiteuea
You’d be wrong if you thought crusades were confined to the 11th-century Holy Lands. During the 1880s, a force from the Christian north led by Hawaiian pastors descended on the southerners ‘in the name of the Book’ and killed about 1000 non-believers (and also grabbed some more land for themselves).
The name ‘Tabiteuea’ means ‘chiefs are forbidden’, and the society of the islands is egalitarian with no nobility to get in the way. It is the largest and most populous outer island, and parts of Tabiteuea South are among the most beautiful in Kiribati.
A particularly dirty piece of colonial high jinks took place on 8 April 1841, when 80 officers and enlisted men from the USS Peacock let themselves loose on Utiroa village, Tabiteuea Island. They believed the locals had killed one of their number the day before and, in the best traditions of the Seventh Cavalry, they burned 300 houses and left the community meeting house, or maneaba, ‘entirely in ashes’ as punishment. The ‘official’ figure of islander dead was only 12, but the commander, presumably pleased with his day’s work, described their effort as a ’salutary lesson’. It’s not clear from the record whether the islanders learned their lesson and suddenly started liking the invaders.
Learn something new everyday. Check out Jane’s Kiribati Home Page for everything you wanted to know about the nation. Lots of cool stuff, actually.
20 Comments
Mark say “dirty laundry”….
If anyone’s looking to see if anyone is out to wash that laundry check out one of today’s Hankyoreh editorials.
The org described has the specific goal of keeping Korean companies accountable for their labor practices overseas.
One of my favorite artist used to be Paul Gauguin, but I threw away a $75 reproduction of this painting.
I had bought it in college (when I had little money), but when I saw a biography special on him and how he went to the south pacific and went through the local girls even though he knew he had syphilis. Going through the islands underaged girls is unforgivable, doing it with a known and deadly STD…….well, at least the documentary said he suffered greatly the last years of his life, and I’m sure he isn’t thrilled about the hot place he will be in for eternity eithter….
The thumbnail for the painting is here:
http://images.google.com/image.....card08.jpg
I applaud the various governmental and non-governmental organizations for looking into these matters, and especially the Chosun Ilbo for running the articles in English. Most dirty laundry here in the Korean media is kept in Korean only. Heaven forbid Korea loses face in the English-speaking community.
Kiribati is also famous as one of the 27 nations to recognize Taiwan, actually the most recent one. It switched recogniton from the PRC to Taiwan in 2003, after Taipei offered certain monetary incentives. It was a real shame to lose Kiribati, the PRC withdrew from the island as a result and gave up a satellite tracking station which was converted by the islanders to grow beans. A satellite tracking station on prime equatorial real estate converted into a farm for beans!
I can’t believe that Hankyoreh would run a story like that.
I like the part about having successfully washed away part of the disgrace of civil rights abuses of Korean companies. It is true that there are major issues with the lack of human resources management skills of the Koreans that are sent abroad by their companies. I would very much like to hear how this civil rights group feels justified in claiming they have made even a small difference in the way Korean companies behave overseas. I understand it is just an editorial but that statement still lacks believability.
dogbert wrote:I can?€™t believe that Hankyoreh would run a story like that. Why not? Criticism of corporate entities is right up Hankyoreh’s alley. In Korean media, there are LOADS AND LOADS of criticism of “ugly Korean” practices.
I do find the English-language airing of the dirty laundry refreshing.
From the quoted English Chosun page: There exists no criminal provision for overseas child sex tourism and prostitution in the country?€™s laws.
There’s lots to catch up for Korean legislators. Four years ago, it was even legal (!) to posses child porn (it was only forbidden to produce or spread the material).
“Criticism of corporate entities is right up Hankyoreh?€™s alley.”
If you only read the English papers, you’ll get that wrong impression. But yeah, leftist paper they are, they are very heavy on social injustices, perceived and/or real.
I think the best of the articles in the english language press about Kiribati was this one by the Joongang Ilbo. It provides a lot more detail than the Chosun or the Herald (no surprise on the last one).
Do you even know the meaning of the phrase “Hankyoreh”? It is rare that the Hankyoreh criticizes embarassing acts of the “Hankyoreh”. In addition, this article was not about expoing corporate entities.
Okay, Dogbert, I guess I was half-responding to your point and half-responding to oranckay’s statement that the organization described in the articles “has the specific goal of keeping Korean companies accountable for their labor practices overseas.”
Anyway, I still maintain that the Korean-language media has far more criticism and hand-wringing about the Han-gy??re than most English-language sources let on. Perhaps enough to match all the hand-wringing and criticism about the United States, Japan, China, France, etc.
Perhaps, it’s just that to me there is a striking difference in the internationalist/globalist/anti-racist/anti-nationlist Western European and North American left compared to the Korean left, which is quite nationalistic.
The left has historically been fairly nationalistic outside of Europe. The contemporary western liberals is as McCarthy said, merely pink.
Jibe aside, the positions of leftist elements have historically been all over the place. The divisions that plagued the Comintern and the fracturing of many leftist movements bear testament that there has never been one universal platform that can was accepted by all.
Very well said. Certainly no one who is not Korean can accept the rabid ethnocentrism, leftist or not, represented by the Hankyoreh.
Just to be clear, Dogbert, I’m no fan of the Hankyoreh. They are the epitome of an agenda-driven press here. Fortunately, only a minority population here takes them seriously. I usually get a lot of eye-rolling when I ask some people if they read it.
[...] iews on the subject, before the week was over, wed be hearing about Korean men are stirring up trouble and who knows what else by [...]
Yes, there are tabloids here. They do a fine job picking people apart. Among others, the “sports” papers are often along those lines.
Is there a Korean counterpart here for The Enquirer or The Star? Talk about outsourcing, methinks those two American-made tabloids would make a killing over here in the South Pacific!