Residents of East Gyeongju burned used tires at a street market in Yangbuk village yesterday to demand that the headquarters of the Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Corporation be relocated to their village. - Photo and caption, Dec. 26, 2006 Joonang Daily
Imagine that chamber of commerce meeting: “OK to prove we have a nice clean safe community that would welcome a large corporate headquarters with open arms we are going to riot and burn a bunch of tires!”
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Demonstrations here often follow the logic of children’s tantrums. I’ll never forget the chicken farmers two or three years ago who were demonstrating against lack of government support by picking up their own live chickens by the legs and hurling them to their deaths on the asphalt. Photographs caught them grinning broadly as they did this. They certainly didn’t score any points with the netizens, judging from the horrified and outraged reeples.
New Jersey?
Either a generalized reference to pollution in New Jersey, or do you know of some special affinity for burning old tires there? (I mean as in an accidental fire at some old-fashioned disposal place, one with millions of old tires).
My impression is that the average “US street demonstrator” doesn’t have an affinity for burning tires in the streets; this seems to me to be a foreign specialty. Conscientious US “greens” amongst the demonstrators would be horrified by the air pollution.
If not throwing stones at the cops, I think the normal US street demonstrator predilection would be for smashing windows and grabbing merchandise (justified as “ripping off the capitalist oppressors of the people”).
paul h….. i was wondering the same thing..
Where does this sense of entitlement come from? Why do they think anyone owes them anything to “demand” a corporation move to their medieval, tire-burning village? Why don’t they burn their homes down to prove they are serious, morons.
let’s not perpetuate the urban myth of undue pollution in the garden state, my friend.
Yeah, what’s with this sense of entitlement? But, I wonder…Could these ‘demonstrators’ be thugs hired by people who also want the headquarters?
To the best of my understanding, the deal was as follows: East Gyeongju gets the nuclear power plant (not cool) and nuclear waste site (decidedly not cool). They were to be compensated, or so said the 시장, with the fancy new headquarters.
Alas, they still get the plant and waste sites, but the headquarters - and concomitant and atmospheric rise in property values - will go to West Gyeongju.
Or they’re simply childish morons. As you like it.
Isn’t this kinda along the lines of this Korean approach: if a Korean stalks his or her lover or would-be lover, it affirms that the stalker really cares for that person - maybe the Yangbuk residents figure that burning tires shows they are SO devoted, and their love for the nuke plant HQ should be rewarded, if there’s any justice in the world….
trachys> I am aware the details, and agree they got screwed. However, I still think there has to be a better way to express a grievance and show you are a worthy candidate than rioting and burning tires. That just has to be counter-productive.