Comments on: Hong Kong to prosecute 11 Korean rioters

By: Shenzhen Whitey

Shenzhen Whitey — Thu, 22 Dec 2005 02:55:37 +0000

To the English teachers in the above comments: Tell the students in the ’special situations’ to bring it up for a vote with their fellow classmates. Would the public shaming help, or would any fellow classmates vote to allow them to pass?

By: Brendon Carr

Brendon Carr — Thu, 22 Dec 2005 02:29:02 +0000

The Uri clan are really, really clueless, aren’t they? Ban Ki-Moon intimates that Beijing would take a dark view of suppressing the “free speech rights” of political interest groups to oppose their government’s policies. Incredible amateur hour.

By: Wedge

Wedge — Thu, 22 Dec 2005 01:35:31 +0000

From the JoongAng:

“Seoul’s campaign for leniency for the anti-WTO protesters continued yesterday when Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon called Hong Kong’s chief secretary for administration, Rafael Hui, to plead for the protesters.
The ministry official who described the phone call to reporters said that Mr. Ban stressed the bad effect that heavy sentences could have on Korea’s bilateral relations with China. He also stressed the sensitive nature of agricultural issues to Korean farmers.”

He stressed the bad effect heavy sentences could have on bilateral relations with China. They have to be howling with laughter in Beijing over this one.

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 22 Dec 2005 00:59:34 +0000

Friend of mine who lived in Hong Kong sent me a funny commentary on the Korean farmers’ antics:
Being in a merciful and rehabilitative frame of mind as we count down the days before Christmas, I urge my fellow commuters to consider a more educational approach. We should put the thugs to work on a prison farm, I tell them, then make them sit in chains in street markets, trying to sell their produce at 10 times the price other stall holders are asking. For this, they would receive 10 dollars a day, but they would have to pay for their food. Their menu would have two options–Korean beef and rice for 25 dollars a bowl, or foreign beef and rice for 5 dollars. Plus extra kimchee for good behaviour in economics classes.

http://www.geocities.com/hkhem.....dec05.html

By: Brendon Carr

Brendon Carr — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 23:09:55 +0000

Korean rice farmers already have the second highest prices in Asian after Japan. No-one is saying that they are not worthy plaintiffs in the globalization debate…

Speak for yourself. After Hong Kong, A LOT of people are saying the Korean farmers should have a nice cup of STFU. One site (can’t recall the link) had some nice poems in haiku, including:

Korean girls
I like them all, except
if they are farmers

By: Shin

Shin — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 21:36:14 +0000

Korean rice farmers already have the second highest prices in Asian after Japan. No-one is saying that they are not worthy plaintiffs in the globalization debate, but the demand that the world should focus on them first and foremost is spurious in the face of the fact that the true beneficiaries of any agricultural adjustments should be the West African nations.

By: Shin

Shin — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 21:09:54 +0000

I’m Korean, and I want to say that the blind nationalism is something that I am personally very critical of. However this perspective comes largely as a result of having lived overseas for a while. Inside Korea, it is very difficult to ‘get one’s head around’ the very cultish sentiments of national pride. National pride in this country is of the level of myth, really. I don’t know if it was always this way, but somehow in the last 100 years it has become the bedrock of every Korean child’s social and cultural education. Maybe the lack of a Western style Enlightenment period as the basis for education development is the cause, allowing instead for resentment at years of oppression by foreign powers to grow completely unchecked to what it is today…

By: dg611

dg611 — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 19:06:38 +0000

I don’t know why the Korean government wants to have the protestors released. They should have let the HK authorities throw all 600 or so in the clink. I mean, how many rice farmers can there be? One would think that 600 less farmers beating up the riot police here would be a releif to the government. They should have washed their hands of the whole issue then things would be a lot quieter (at least till the next thing).
I also have to wonder what would happen if 600 or so foreign English teachers marched on the Korean assembly weilding pipes and sticks to protest low wages and poor treatment. Would any of our governments come to our aid and request the Korean government to ‘understand our situation.’ I think not.

To the poster at Dongduk Uni: I get the same thing all the time, I really want to say:
Student: “I’m please try to understand my situation and pass me”
Me: “If you are truly sorry then you must take another exam and pass it. If you do not pass it then you are not sufficiently sorry and I will see you next year.”
or
“The job market is not that good these days anyway. You probably won’t be able to get a job. SO, by failing you now, I am doing you a favor because you will have something to do next year besides play video games and you will be able to mooch off your parents for one more year. Now, say ‘thank you and goodbye.’

Then I woke up and remembered where i am.

By: ben

ben — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 17:49:21 +0000

Coming from Australia, we just had a harsh lesson recently on ‘home field advantage ends when you leave home field” with a guy falling foul of Singapore’s capital punishment laws.

Same goes for anyone - when you’re on someone else’s turf, they call the shots, not you. Period.

Conclusion - Koreans breaking the rules, breaking property should be put in the slammer, just like any one else.

By: slim

slim — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 08:56:19 +0000

I’d simply like to see a learning situation for Koreans, who in their home land see very few examples of actions having real consequences. I assume Hong Kong jails are still more British than Chinese (not sure on this though) which would probably make them more humane than South Korean prisons.