I’m still trying to figure out how paralyzing the entire downtown area will earn these guys any friends. It took my an entire hour last night to get from Anguk-dong to my home in Itaewon. Between the traffic and the typhoon rains, it was almost surreal.
-
English Books on Korea... and More!
-
Visit My Brother's Film Review Site
12 Comments
Bob, go UNDERGROUND! I live in Anguk and it took me almost an hour by taxi to go from the Hyatt to the Lotte Dept. Store downtown before I gave up and took the subway back.
I was walking around Anguk and Sejong Art Center as well yesterday. It was like being inside a video game where one might suddenly find their way blocked by a phalanx of riot police who had just formed infront of ones path. I would have taken a camera if I had remembered what was going on that day.
It was a mess and was definitely a
North Korea loversanti-South Korea convention along with some groups that had legitimate complaints but bad timing and poor comonsense.Took me all of 30 seconds to get home yesterday to my place in Ilsan. The almost 1 foot of water surrounding my building convinced me not to take the 10 minute trek to 청발산역. I promptly marched right back to the elevator and up to my hooch. Apparently a good decision judging from the news photos of the subway station.
ahhhh… now I better undertstand that broadcast message I got last night on my phone. Would have loved to have been there to get some photos and tell angy inquisitive people that i’m not American, but, perhaps some country they’re never heard of, “부가부가 사람 입니다!”
Things were a wet mess on the East side too. Dongbu expwy north of the Han was flooded by the Jungnancheon and empty. Don’t know where all the cars went that usually fill it up every evening.
Mr. Marmot, I feel your pain–Kwanghwamun Station was closed at 5.30 pm so I joined the sodden masses heading down to city hall on foot, trying to get home. City hall was surrounded by police but there was a small opening between police buses and out of curiosity I detoured through city hall plaza–the riot, um, protest had just ended and there was a stunning amount of garbage everywhere, plastic rain covers, umbrellas, hats, fliers, etc.
I don’t have any opinion about the FTA per se, yet seeing the response to the talks on it it seems the whole ambivalence of Koreans toward Migook is again on display.
Michael, I must have ben right by you. From 5:00-6:00 I was wandering in and out of the police lines.
What struck me was the numbers. In the paper they claimed anywhere from 20,000 - 50,000. I walked all the way from gwanghamun to City Hall and saw no more than 10,000 total.
Either I missed something or the news boys are fudging their numbers.
With such demos and seemingly widespread opposition to the FTA (or is it just the usual leftists and those with the loudest voices?), I’m surprised that the Roh-nothings are still pushing forward with it. If the FTA goes through, they’ll have accomplished one thing in their 5 years of incompetence in power.
Well, maybe I won’t go walking through protests here anymore:
http://english.chosun.com/w21d.....30017.html
Don’t these demo-ers have better things to do? What a complete waste of time. Let the rest of the population go about their business making money. The fools can waste their own time, just don’t waste everyone else’s.
An hour? Man, you could have walked that distance in an hour!
Looking at that second photo, I’ve never seen so many 이동 파출소 in one place at one time….
What’s with the wonky page-like break halfway through Michael’s comment #9?