Alas, it seems the Korean Teachers and Education Workers’ Union had their collective ass handed to them in the recent national education committee election. Couldn’t happen to a more deserving group. What got me, however, is something I read during lunch in a hardcopy of the Segye Ilbo and is reprinted in English in the Korea Times:
It was also found that the union’s Seoul chapter recommended teachers put up a North Korean propaganda poster for decoration in classrooms in elementary, middle and high schools.
The chapter posted 25 pictures on its Web site in March, saying the pictures would be good reference material on unification.
One of the pictures was of a North Korean poster featuring three soldiers holding guns, with a phrase that glorified the North’s “songun” or “military-first” policy.
Regarding the controversy about the poster, a member of the Seoul chapter said no student looking at the poster would think North Korea is a good society to live in.
Yes, because the rest of the posters did a really good job of showing how tough it is to live in North Korea…
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http://images.ifun.ru/r/RXYzs2tfqo.gif
Using a propaganda poster lauding the military and showing people bearing arms is unification material, but including images suggesting that North Korea might have some human rights problems to solve (in addition to malnutrition – and that’s a human rights issue as well…) would have been “instigating confrontation, conflict, and war”. This was the answer of a representative of the Seoul chapter of KTU to Daily NK.
색깔이 빨간데 무슨 색깔론… Good title.
The news reported sometime back that the KTU had the richest coffers of any union. If that is true, it speaks whole volumes on its own……..
Also, the Joongang Daily had one of its opinion writers writing about talking a kid (in his family or something like that) who asked him if South Korea started the war – and he mentioned Bruce Cumings. And the editorialist explained Cumings’ 3 possibilites crap in his only real academic book.
And the boy said he believed the South and the US didn’t start the war, but if he said it as school, he’d “be bullied.”
This is a part of Korea I didn’t get to see much of when I was teaching kids before 2000. Things might have really been changing at that level. And it doesn’t sound good……
That is a great title, Antti… and quite appopriate, I should add. Unfortunately, the link appears to have changed.
Educators call these “props.” An invaluable part of many lessons.
A couple (obvious) points. First, most KTU members I have spoken with oppose mandatory military service. Do you imagine that these same members admire songun?
“Of course [some readers will exclaim], they’re all irrational ideologues!” Sure they are. And groups like the “New Right Union” have a lock on reasoned discourse here.
Second, this is an initiative of the faction within the union that prioritizes peaceful unification, as the surest route to remedying the appalling conditions of life for too many in the north. A peaceful reunification will require reconciliation, which will in turn require understanding.
These teachers are promoting understanding. They are not promoting Kim’s mad regime.
“The surest route is a ‘Fat Man 2′ on Pyeongyang!” Ah, I see.
Robert, I was just thinking aloud that the title you had for this post sounds even better in Korean.
Unfortunately, the link appears to have changed.
The one to Daily NK? Seems something went wrong when writing the comment, but here it is:
http://www.dailynk.com/korean/.....;num=26600
(전교조 “北인권참상 게시물 일부러 뺐다”)
I would like to remind everyone that there are two teaching unions in Korea. The other is http://kfta.or.kr/
which is a quite respectable organization. Not exactly my cup of tea but an organization that is professional. I think some balance should be given. The other union is just a dying irrelevant group like Nho’s political base.
Still, the posters are a marvellous art form….
Part of a plot to weaken the ROK Army. Fewer trained soldiers make an Army weaker.
Alright, trachys…
Well, most members of the Grand National Party I’ve talked to support freedom of speech in North Korea. Do you imagine that these same members support South Korea’s National Security Law? In other words, the fact that they oppose mandatory military service in South Korea doesn’t necessarily mean they oppose North Korea’s Songun policies. The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions—the umbrella union of which the KTU is a part, as I’m sure you’re already well aware, supports the rights of conscientious objectors. Do you think they’d support North Korea’s Songun policy? Well, I care not to speculate.
Nobody said they did.
“Mad regime?” It seems you didn’t get the union memo. Anyway, leaving aside for a moment that North Korea seems to be the only country the union is interested in “understanding,” those posters had nothing to do with understanding North Korea. Mihwa is the name of the game here. And assuming the Daily NK didn’t completely make up its conversation with a KTU Seoul branch official, it would seem the union—or its Seoul branch, anyway—was fairly honest about its intentions:
Perhaps he was misquoted? Daily NK are a bunch of anti-unification, anti-minjok, pro-American lackies, after all.
Did I miss a comment somewhere, because I don’t recall anyone saying that. Not in this thread, anyway.
Regarding the Marmot’s link, http://seoul.eduhope.net/bbs/v.....amp;id=193
I want to point out something that may not be obvious from first looking at these photos.
I once went to a meeting held by someone who provides aid to North Korea.
She said that photo-ops of classrooms with “computers” is very common. Except, sadly for the North Korean kids, electricity is scarce. So scarce and valuable, that they can’t be really wasted on running computers, even for educational purposes. Check out the Marmot’s link. Most of the screens are OFF ! There’s only like one screen lit up and working. How sad it is to have kids intently staring at blank screens like they’re doing something for a PHOTO-OP. I’d strangle Kim Jong Il myself, if I could.
Koreans say that Koreans turn to a more darker complexion, when they are malnutritioned. Look at the faces and exterior skins of these North Koreans. Except for a few exceptions where a woman is old and pale, and a healthy sports champ man competeing in sporting games is shown for propaganda purposes, the common folk look much darker than their South Korean counterparts. I’ve yet to identify what medical explanation there is for this, but it is pretty clear that this phenomenon doesn’t show up on Kim Jong Il’s face. Again, I’d make him eat his own shit at gunpoint, if I could. It is very clear, very sadly, even for propaganda pics, these people have nothing to eat and a no electricity.
The aid provider also said that once you leave Pyong Yang, and look at people’s houses from the train in winter time, you’ll notice that none of these houses have any smoke coming out of their chimneys. Meaning, they don’t have heating fuel, too.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wi.....lights.jpg
This photo says a lot.
I believe I also saw a video link from the Marmot’s site, where North Koreans even save the shit that prisoners lay, so that those could be used for fertilzer or heating fuel. So, they even collect the crap that prisoners lay.
I can’t imagine it’s a lot, because if you don’t eat, there’s not much coming out.
Iwshim, surely you jest – the KFTA is NOT a union, and rarely pretends to be. HOWEVER, they too have been known to cavort with the enemy: see their “6.15 Reunification Class”: http://english.kfta.or.kr/boar.....amp;num=70
oh my, it looks like they’ve recently scrubbed the page! which only shows their commitment to … something. not sure what.
Rick, this “art form” reached its pinnacle circa. 1955, if not earlier: http://writing.upenn.edu/wh/ar.....ition.html
Robert: I confess I haven’t spoken with anyone in the Seoul office. They claim (linked below) that they uploaded the images with the intent to show kids that people in the north aren’t all backward peasants, and that it IS possible to seek reconciliation without rending the fabric of society. A noble goal, wouldn’t you agree? They also argue that the same posters can be found in school textbooks here. I somehow doubt that these textbooks engage in overt mihwa!
look here:
http://news.naver.com/news/rea.....enu_id=102
and here:
http://www.segye.com/Service5/.....1209001542
It seems to me that with so much propaganda painting people in the north as freaks/troglodytes, a LITTLE counter-propaganda should be welcomed.
And what IS this obsession with “commies”? Was Connecticut targeted by some heinous Soviet plot that I’m not aware of?
and Wjk, I share your sentiments. Every breath that Kim Jong Il draws is an affront to the good people who died fighting the tyranny of emperors. The fate of Ceausescu is too good for this wretched fuck.
Here’s a plausible medical explanation: Suntan. These are people who probably walk just about everywhere and probably work in the fields for several hours a day. Kim Jong-il’s pasty face is probably a result of him spending 90% of the time inside or under sun shades carried by his subordinates. He sure is fat, though.
“Second, this is an initiative of the faction within the union that prioritizes peaceful unification, as the surest route to remedying the appalling conditions of life for too many in the north.”
Peaceful unification? Maybe a peaceful unification with China in our lifetime.
By ‘understanding’ their brethren and giving the fat dwarf plenty of support (ala sunshine) is not going to bring peaceful reunification closer. If anything, it will continue to kick the can farther and farther down the road, which is probably really what many (most?)people in SK actually want anyway.
You know, this idea that the NK songun policy is good for ALL of Korea is like the neighborhood pimp
Korea’s Senior Cabinet Counselor Kwon Ho-ungtelling people in the neighborhood how he will protect the neighborhood from the bad people and will make the streets safe for their daughters to walk alone at night!Who would then protect us from the pimp?
Just saw this gem in the Chosun Daily:
http://english.chosun.com/w21d.....70033.html
Better watch out what you say about them, or the Teachers’ Union might file civil and criminal charges against you. My favorite quote from the article:
Wow… I’m speechless.
Zonath, it’s not sun tan.
Maybe not. I was just trying to offer a plausible explanation of why the average North Korean looked like they’d been spending multiple days in the sun. I was simply trying to analogize to South Korean farmers, who tend to be at least a shade or two darker than your average South Korean university student. Anyhow, I don’t claim to have any special medical knowledge as to why someone’s skin might turn darker.
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