I guess many of us saw this coming. Gerry Bevers at Occidentalism has been fired:
For those who are interested, I was informed by E-mail on December 23rd that my university, where I have worked for the past six years, would not be rehiring me as an English instructor.
The email notice that Gerry received stated that his views on Dokdo were the cause of his contract not being renewed. He had made posts critical of Korea’s claim. Once school officials found out, I guess it was inevitable.
(My baby has just woken up, so posting must stop. Hopefully, someone else will have more on this later.)
Good luck with your next gig Gerry.
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The archpriest of the I-despise-Korea-cult has lost his job. Don’t shit at the place, where you eat!
Remember, it’s a non-continuation of an employment contract! Admittedly because of his views and stance towards issues like Dokdo, Korean collaboration, his favorable views on Japanese imperalism and his general derogatory stance towards Koreans.
I can imagine the outcry of his cult-followers and the AngryWhiteAngloAmericanyExpat-crowd about censorship and neglect of academic liberty or freedom of speech in Korea.
Geez, Gerry, you’ll find another better job… maybe somewhere on Nipponisland. Good luck!
Yes, of course, that must be it, just as all those American historians who do research on topics like American colonialism, slavery, Jim Crow, massacres of Native Americans, etc. are all just a bunch of USA-haters. Only people who hate a country would ever dare to look at its national myths with a critical eye …
If you could be any more of a typical myopic, ultranationalistic, hate-filled, curdle-brained little Korean bigot, it would be a miracle.
Is this your German name, Timmy?
Your last paragraph tells me everything about your general mindset towards Koreans.
1. Gerry is no professional historian
2. Your analogy about American historians doing research on unfavorable parts of American history doesn’t fit: Gerry = American driveling about Korean issues
3. Gerry doesn’t stop of being only critical, he has an anti-Korean agenda and is on a personal crusade
If you could be any more of a typical myopic, ultranationalistic, hate-filled, curdle-brained little Anglo-Saxon bigot, it would be a miracle.
Wish you a happy new year, Hans Castorp, you blind prick.
Sugar Shin writes:
Employment is my main area of advice, usually to employers. You’re wrong.
After a certain point a fixed-term employment contract, having been “successively renewed” a number of times, by operation of law becomes a permanent employment relationship — and cannot be “non-renewed” at the employer’s choice. Serious employee misconduct shall be required. Whether or not having and publicly expressing a contrary opinion on Dokdo counts as serious misconduct is open for debate.
Usually an employer is at serious risk of a deemed permanent relationship at any time after the fixed-term contract has been renewed twice. There could be a nuance in that university faculty jobs are different from commerce; since I normally work with businesses I’ve not previously encountered university-related issues. However, Gerry’s been there six years, never on a tenure-track “real faculty” progression but always as a hired hand. That fact would appear to give him a pretty good case to claim regular-employee status based on successive renewals. In that case, the relationship could only be terminated if the court or labor tribunal determined that Gerry’s “Korea-Hating” Dokdo research, because it dares to state facts and opinions contrary to official mythology, constitutes serious misconduct. Even so, the employer is generally required to follow internal disciplinary process — offering the employee procedural and substantive due process.
But what we do know for sure is that Gerry will have a very hard time finding a private lawyer to take his case pro bono publico. No lawyer or law firm wants to be branded as “Korea Hater” and endure the inevitable protests, especially not for no fee, or a knockdown fee, or anything less than a really big fee (if willing to take the case at all). That leaves him the unenviable position of asking the state — in the form of a wrongful-termination complaint to the local office of the National Labor Relations Commission — to use its police power to bully the university to follow the law. Good luck with that.
I’m back but I don’t have much time (midnight service at my wife’s church).
So if I split the difference between Hans Castorp and Sugar Shin, my daughter would be a typical little ultranationalistic, hate-filled, curdle-brained myopic angry white Anglo Korean-Americany expat bigot.
“I think there is little doubt that the school made this decision because of the Dokdo problem. It also hurts me to have to relay this news.”
I’m impressed with the official’s honesty.
Mr. Bevers’ email to Marmot doesn’t say the school fired Mr. Bevers, but simly that the school did not renew his contract. I’m not a lawyer knowledgeable in Korean law and maybe I’m mistaking here, but if you take them to court, wouldn’t the school just say, “we did not renew his contract because we decided his performance was unsatisfactory and it had nothing to do with Tokdo”? As a lawyer, how do you prove that the school unfairly treated the man, and that they broke the law? This is about free speech. It seems to me, if they broke the law, this would be one of the better cases for you to get involved, Mr. Carr, wouldn’t it?
CM - I think the post answer your point.
“The email notice that Gerry received stated that his views on Dokdo were the cause of his contract not being renewed. He had made posts critical of Korea’s claim. Once school officials found out, I guess it was inevitable.
“So if I split the difference between Hans Castorp and Sugar Shin, my daughter would be a typical little ultranationalistic, hate-filled, curdle-brained myopic angry white Anglo Korean-Americany expat bigot.”
Has she been doing anti-dodko and anti-native american postings on her blog then?
Right before Christmas too, that’s got to hurt.
Korean official? Crocodile tears, grasshopper.
It says “I think”. This is not an official letter from the school saying they are firing Mr. Bevers because of his stance on Dokdo. This alone, I doubt, will hold up in the court because it’s just one man’s opinion. Even if Dokdo had everything to do with it (and it probably is), doesn’t the school have every right to not renew his contract? They don’t need to give a reason why they’re not renewing. On the other hand, this would be a totally different story if they fired him before the contract was up. Further related note, I would never use my real name on the internet, especially when you’re posting controversial political issues (this is particularly true in South Korea). You never know what could happen when your personal information is at the hands of the public.
At any rate, I feel bad for him, and wish him every luck.
Well, I’m no lawyer, but I am a former university lecturer with knowledge of hiring regulations since I used to be on the hiring committee. Our university implemented annual reviews after it decided it wanted to get rid of one instructor. Perhaps owing to the law cited by Brendon, they wanted documentation of unsatisfactory performance, including student evaluations and a summative performance evaluation written up by the committee with no discussion or input by the teacher. They never told us directly that they wanted to sack a teacher, but we figured out why they were instituting this evalution process when they balked at the nomination of this teacher, whose contract was not renewed the following year.
Korean universities use job titles to separate foreigners from Korean nationals so that they can pass regulations exclusive to or excluding their foreign staff. As an example, my former employer decided it wanted to get rid of aging foreign teachers at its language institute, so it passed a regulation mandating retirement at 55. This regulation applied only “waegukin ohak kangsa,” not the Koreans teaching Korean as a second language at the institute.
I realized as a foreign national, I could never enjoy in Korea the long-term job security that teachers expect, and for us green card-less, Korean spouse-less foreign nationals in Korea, losing our jobs means losing our homes.
There’s life after Korea, Gerry. I’m not making light of your situation, but rather speaking from experience.
There seems to be a troubling trend in Korea. Foreigners who make fun of Korea (the Pusan 9) or argue against Korean views (Gerry) will not be tolerated. I guess next time anybody is on TV, and are asked what they think of Korea, they better say “Korea is the best” with a big thumbs up or else. Very troubling.
Assuming, as seems likely, that his political opinions and postings were the reason why Mr. Bevers was let go, may I ask an obvious question?
What do his political beliefs have to do with his job?
He has been teaching English. I have not seen it suggested anywhere that he used his classroom for political harangues or advertised his university affiliation to enhance his stature as a commentator.
Therefore, the answer to my question would seem to be, “Nothing.”
Perhaps it’s worse than that. The fact that outside of his job he has been a prolific controversialist and has gained a following shows that he knows how to use the English language and is able to engage in dialogue with people of different viewpoints on a variety of subjects. This sounds like a positive qualification for his job.
If this incident is typical (or as some of you suggested, inevitable) in the context of Korean society, does it not point to a wasteful and counterproductive tendency in that society?
Just wonderin’.
Obviously, the reason you’re wonderin’ must be because you’re an “AngryWhiteAngloAmericanyExpat”: no one else could ever possibly argue that Korea is anything less than God’s Own Country, paradise manifested on earth. Korea is perfect, and if you don’t agree you’re just a racist hater!
Welcome to Korea. It doesn’t make much sense (or seem very fair) to deny job security to foreigners. Especially where there seems to be a general bitchfest over how ‘unqualified’ all the foreign English teachers are, where the qualified ones often automatically get their contracts terminated after 2-3 years, have no chance for promotion, etc… Just another indication that the system in SK is deeply flawed.
Of course, debunking national myths in a country where nationalism is the primary flavor of religious thought isn’t likely to get one much sympathy from the locals. I suppose it’s sad to get fired for expressing such views, but it certainly isn’t surprising.
Why is everyone so shocked?
In the US, they have been going after all sorts of educators that may be critical of the current administration and labeled “Anti-American”
Just watch Bill O’Reilly for a while to find out who is the next target for character assassination
Then when the Koreans do its bad.
What do you propose we call educators that teach 9/11 conspiracy theories, raise money for Hamas, and preach the destruction of Israel in the classroom? These are typical educators O’reilly rightfully points out for criticism.
Could you provide some examples of Bush critics in academia whose views cost them their jobs? Don’t bother citing the case of the Florida professor who lost his job after Fox broadcast images of him chanting “Death to Israel” on a trip to Syria. Wishing for the destruction of a nation hardly equates with an anti-war stance or challenging Korea’s claim to a couple of rocks. US university faculty appointments can be politicized, and when they are, there is criticism. In case you haven’t noticed, this is a Korea-centric blog, hence, the interest in Gerry’s case.
http://law4u.net/tech/board.ph.....&no=24
Read it, and surf through the post.
There are numerous examples besides those.
I’ll scribble one example more: an American student in USA was kicked out from his school after writing trivial episode of his school day at his blog.
After reading those, still grumble continuously why it is so, so peculiar in Korea.
http://www.ohmynews.com/articl.....ode=350052
This ex-professor was not re-hired by the university authorities mainly because he criticized the senior professors of his college department as pro-Japan in his paper.
Litigations have been for 7 or more years.
When I showed this to my (Korea born and raised) wife, she said, “Of course, he should be fired.” At first, I thought maybe she was joking, but she was dead serious. I’ll summarize her view as “foreigners must know their place and act accordingly.”
This woman has lived in California for approximately 10 years, and overall has received pretty fair treatment from most Californians. She has been given or allowed to take plenty of opportunities, including a desirable job where she beat out eight other candidates in a three-round interview process.
In her defense, maybe she also thinks that when in Korea, Koreans must also know their place and act accordingly. I don’t know. I’m fishing for a way to understand this viewpoint. Unfortunately, successful lifetime indoctrination is as likely an explanation as any other I can come up with.
For the record, Dokdo is indeed our land.
Part of this event & topic is the “how foreigners are treated in Korea” question. That’s a worthy discussion, but never having been in Korea I have nothing to contribute to it. I am focusing on the choice how to organize economic activity. One way is meritocracy, the “best person to do the job” criterion. Something else seems to have operated in this instance, but I’m not sure what it is.
Have nationalistic causes become a shibboleth, a litmus test for any kind of participation in Korean society? This would not be unprecedented in human history, but it seems inconsistent with rapid economic growth in the modern global economy, etc., etc.
Or is it just that in the absence of legal safeguards, people are free to take out their resentments on others (especially non-citizens) in unrelated areas of their lives? If that’s it, can one ask whether the university administrators fulfilled their responsibilities by choosing to hurt a political gadfly rather than retain a productive employee? [I'm assuming, let it be repeated, that he did not politicize his classroom.]
There is one outcome which would make this incident seem much less significant and less troubling than it does now. That would be if another Korean university immediately recognized an opportunity and hired Mr. Bevers. What are the chances of that?
Where did anyone say this? I cannot find any such comment on this thread.
You forgot to mention that the courts have awarded him six and half years worth of backpay equal to more than 300 million won. Wonder how Gerry’s case will fare if he decides to contest.
Go ahead and sue them, Prof. Bevers. I encourage you to do so. Interesting that this site offers actual legal device versus that other occidentalism.org site only bashes Koreans from the lips of Japanese people and other people allied with their mindset.
But, I think they might have read about your King Se Jong used Comfort Women argument as well.
I think you should be angry at Matt of occidentalism.org as well, for involving you in this stuff with your real name on the line. While Matt himself suffers no harm in real life.
Calling all Korean speakers,
In the linked story about the fired art professor, there is a section entitled, “천막강의 돕던 학생 괘씸죄 걸려 졸업 못할 위기…주시하고 있다” What exactly is he talking about? What is a 천막강의 and 괘씸죄?
I actually hope you win the lawsuit. That would be necessary progress.
Kang Jeong-ku, the Korean professor who said General McArthur’s statue should be brought down because the General was a dangerous war monger, was not only fired, he was arrested. I don’t think there was any charges of racism then.
천막강의
Tent lecture. Seems like the fired prof continued his lecturing duties, without being paid, on school grounds, using a tent and some chairs or some tarp on the ground. Basically as a form of protest that this person has something significant and educational to give to SNU. Kind of like those university protesters who take over school grounds and lecture to people about some political cause, except this person was talking about an academic subject.
괘씸죄
The sin of offending his superiors. Basically, the student offended the tenured profs by defending and helping the young prof who accused the tenured, distinguished, emeritus status profs as having been Pro-Japanese. That was inevitable to be true anyway, chronologically. Seoul National University started as Kyong Sung to begin with.
My 2 cents. Don’t do anything to piss off your boss if you like your job. Be politically correct.
I don’t think this is peculiar to Korea. This is about being politically correct. Relate it to American issues of being politically correct. Then, you’ll understand.
Nobody’s crying racism, cm. Any Korean prof espousing the same views as Gerry would probably be canned, although this is a purely hypothetical conjecture. It was his views, not his nationality, that got him in trouble. Googling 천막강의 yielded links to several cases of terminated professors protesting their firings as politically motivated.
BTW, I figured out that 천막강의 means some kind of sit-in by a dissenting/fired prof, but what is 괘씸죄? wjk? cm? anybody?
Anyone surprised or outraged by this development (including senor Beav), knows nothing about Korea or Koreans.
Nothing.
Thank you, wjk. Seems we’re posting at the same time.
Actually Sonagi, I was kinda replying to
kpmsprtd and Gray Hat (#23, #24).
Unfortunately, you are correct. It was his views, not his race that got him in trouble. In that regard, Mr.Bevers is getting to be treated exactly like a Korean - punished for unpolitically correct views. But I’m sure charges of racism will creep up neverthless.
And I have to agree with this
I think a lot of us knew, a little way back, what was going to happen to Mr.Bevers after he ran into problems with the school faculty. And I think it surely must have been a calculated risk on his part for whatever reason. After all, is Dokto/Takeshima that important to risk your career for?
I don’t think anyone is surprised by Gerry’s firing, and I don’t think Gerry has ever explained why he took such a risk of posting such controversial views online under his real name.
What is the name of the school? Please somebody tell me the name.
The school is Gachon University of Medicine and Science. They put up an advertisement for new teachers (plural) on Dave’s ESL Cafe.
Has anybody here written to the school in defense of Gerry Bevers? Enough people writing polite and thoughtful letters in his defense might help his case. Online I found two addresses related to hiring or his department, jwhan@gachon.ac.kr and kimdh@gachon.ac.kr. Maybe there should also be a boycott of the positions they are hiring for, but I don’t know how to do that.
Here’s a question for Gerry Bevers. Did you ever use the Gachon University computers for your Dokdo essays or comments or your other blogging? I’m no lawyer, but I think they might use that as an excuse to not renew your contract.
If my son’s kindergarten is any indication, where students are encouraged to produce Dokdo-themed artwork - complete with deformed looking Japanese pirates being slaughtered on their ships and Japan engulfed in flames - none of this should come as a surprise.
My guess is that Gerry is aware (and has been aware for years) as to how people might/would react to opinions that go against the official Dokdo line. It is neither accurate nor fair, but Koreans tend to look at such views in the same light as most of us would regard holocaust revisionism.
Nobody seems to have touched on it, but getting fired by email after six years of employment is a classy touch don’t you think? I guess that happens outside of Korea too, but it is an extra little “Fuck You” for the road.
Sonagi, at the risk of duplicating wjk’s excellent description, I’d add that ‘괘씸’ is perhaps something like ‘outrage at a perceived offense’, or ‘justifiable outrage’. However, it’s a subjective conclusion, I believe. So, ‘괘씸죄’ is not something that you’d usually hear. Perhaps Brendon might know if that’s an actual legal term, but it’s a bit unusual in regular discourse.
Essentially, the student expressed outrage over the situation, that outrage was directed toward the senior faculty (and was a contuation of the prof’s arguement), and the student is now at risk.
They don’t really need to give a reason for not renewing Gerry’s contract. If there is a perceived need to provide a reason for firing a teacher, they can always use student evaluations or complaints (neither of which a teacher will likely be able to scrutinize for him or herself!) Like most of the foreign teachers on one or two-year contracts, we’re little more than temps, regardless of whether one’s title is 강사, 교수, or whatever. I’ve been here since ‘96, like it for the most part, and have been pretty lucky with work. However, even with a good job, wife and family, F2 visa, etc. I never allow myself to get too cosy here.
globalvillageidiot, you got me worried. My son will begin attending kindergarden soon. I would certainly hate seeing him exposed to such xenophobia and propaganda, even more so that he obviously looks different from the other kids. What did you do to remedy the problem?
SomeguyinKorea, aside from the nationalism it isn’t a bad school. (I forgot to mention the class picnic to Unification Observatory! No joke.) However, for a number of reasons, he’s moving to a different kindergarten in a couple of months. (Though it wasn’t a major factor in the decision, it is my understanding that this one doesn’t really try to involve the kids in things political.) The real remedy, aside from trying to promote some more accepting values at home, will be moving to Canada for elementary school in a few years. Problem solved. (I’m pretty sure that the kids back home still draw lots of violent pictures - terrorists of Middle Eastern persuasion being a likely subject - but not as part of the curriculum!)
As for day-to-day stuff, he seems happy at school and accepted by other kids as one of them. Kind of a celebrity student, as opposed to being an outcast. He has referred to himself as “미국 사람” a couple of times - which he can only have picked up at school - but that has passed; now, he seems very comfortable with the concept of being both Korean and Canadian (though it is a concept beyond the grasp of a lot of Korean, regardless of age). My guess is that elementary school might be when things could get nastier, hence the exit strategy. Just keep your eyes and ears open with your son once school starts.
Brendon,
I realize your law firm is unable to take on my case due to the sensitivity of the issue, but do you think you could point out the specific sections in the Labor Law that the school may be violating by not rehiring me? That way I could quote them to the officials who may try to claim I have no case. One of the things I am particularly interesting in knowing is what particular section of the law can I quote “to claim regular-employee status based on successive renewals”?
I plan on submitting a “wrongful-termination complaint to the National Labor Relations Commission,” as you suggested above. Even if my chances of being rehired are slim, especially without legal counsel, I want to test the system to see how it works with non-Koreans and with an issue as sensitive as “Dokdo.”
Also, since I have been notified by the people at Immigration that I must leave Korea by the end of January, I assume I will be able to come back and present my case under at tourist visa, or possibly a student visa?
For those who might be interested, I do not talk about “Dokdo” in my classroom or about any other political issues, and have not been accused of doing so. Also, I have received good evaluations from my students and fellow Korean professors. Here is one paragraph from the recommendation letter written by my department head. By the way, I supplied no imput, whatsoever, for the letter:
I knew “Dokdo” was a sensitive issue in Korea, but I did not realize that my posting about its history on the Internet would lead to my losing my job, especially a job at a university that I have worked at for the past six years.
Why all this talk about laws and lawyers. Forget it it dude, do you really think any judge is going to award any money to someone who hasn’t toed the Dokdo line. Think out side the box! This is Korea I can guarantee you with 100% certainty that your employer is involved in some sort of tax, pension, accounting fraud, scam, dishonesty. The solution is easy BLACKMAIL the bastards. Go to the tax office and find out exactly how much tax you have paid, compared to what your university says it has paid. There WILL be a discrepancy, get your colleagues to do the same. Government officials don’t care about you, they don’t even care about their own citizens. What they do care about (like all governments) is their tax revenue! Blackmail-Got it!
Gerry Bevers asks:
The root of all job security in Korea is this: “Without just cause, an employer shall not dismiss, lay off, suspend, transfer, reduce the wages, or take other punitive measures against an employee” (Labor Standards Act, Art. 30, para. 1).
The rest of the relevant law is not statutory — it comes from Korean court precedents interpreting what is “just cause”. And that means there’s no one thing you’ll be able to point to and say “See here? You’re wrong!” As today is a holiday I don’t have my collection of cases handy. Perhaps later in the week. Definitely we can get you the case on successive renewals — that’s a key issue for many, many of the foreign companies which we counsel.
Just be aware that from the time the school terminates you, you have 90 days to file an administrative claim with the district labor office, which ends in tribunal process. After that 90-day window closes you only have recourse to the court.
But here are the legal issues:
(1) Is Gachon University, or any other educational institution, an “employer” for purposes of the LSA?
(2) As a contracted instructor, is Gerry Bevers an “employee” for purposes of the LSA?
(3) Is non-renewal of the fixed-term employment contract after six years of continuous employment tantamount to “dismissal” for purposes of the LSA? (The corollary question is, has Gerry Bevers’ employment converted by operation of law to a permanent-employment situation despite the formal appearance of term employment which can be non-renewed at the option of the employer without just cause?)
(4) If so, does a regular employee having abhorrent political opinions (i.e. denying the “uri ddang-itude” of Dokto) constitute “just cause” sufficient for termination? This is the weak point in your case — because just cause is not clearly defined, a judge just needs to attenuate this definition to make it unique to you, then split it down some issue of disturbance to the rest of the university.
(5) If just cause is found to exist, has the employer carried out the termination in accordance with procedural fairness? Has the employer followed applicable administrative and contractually-based processes (internal disciplinary-committee hearing, 30 days’ notice of termination or extra pay in lieu of termination, etc.) necessary for the employee to have been given a fair shake?
You should hunt around for a young English-speaking lawyer who wants some notoriety and would like to take the role of social change agent. Your own Korean language skills mean you don’t absolutely need the English speaker, but we guess that an English speaker is more likely to want to take that role.
Our associate actually was interested in the case. She says the key to victory is to make the case not about the foreign asshole and his abhorrent and provocative Dokdo speech, but about the rights of all Koreans to say and think what they want without getting fired. It’s about freedom of political association, and choice of God, and the right to be a Communist if you want to. But our partner says “No way! No matter the issues, we get screwed. ‘Voice of People’ will be over here with a bullhorn to brand us ‘Enemy of People’ and they stay until all the clients leave.”
Also don’t forget to petition any sister schools (foreign) to tell them what is happening. There is nothing like shame from abroad to punish them.
What are the sister schools?
By the way G. Bevers. send me an e-mail to jollyrocsta@hotmail.com
I can help you find a new job.
globalvillageidiot,
The daycare we’ve picked for him is probably the best one in our town, so hopefully everything will be all right. In any case, he is well adapted to daycare. In fact, the other kids sort of look up to him. He is a sort of celebrity kid, too. Registration at the daycare centre has double since he’s started going (they had to hire 2 new teachers). And just as your son, he understands that he is both Korean and Canadian.
I meant to say we picked a good kindergarden for him. He’s in daycare now.
Do you really want to spend a $1,000+ on a ticket to contest a case that you and everyone else on this thread think you will lose? The money would be better spent as rental deposit for your new digs stateside. Take your final paycheck, your six years of severance, and say goodbye with a smile and a handshake.
Gerry Bevers writes:
Persons attending to administrative or judicial processes (offering testimony, consulting with attorneys, etc.) may enter Korea in visa status C-3 (Short-Term Visitor), which allows them to remain up to 90 days at a time.
If you need to stay longer than 90 days, you will want to have filed your complaint prior to departing Korea. Then, at the Korean Embassy or Consulate overseas, apply for a G-1 visa (a special visa for people attending to certain matters including receipt of medical care, or participation in legal process, and which is good for up to two years), offering proof of filing and some letter from the labor inspector attesting to the fact your presence is required.
I’m not sure if G-1 visas may be issued to persons who have administrative matters pending, or if a civil suit is required. You should confirm that yourself through the Ministry of Justice (whose webpage, I note, has a lot of stuff about Dokdo on it). If civil litigation is a prerequisite, be aware that litigants are not required to use a lawyer (they may represent themselves as pro se litigants) to have access to the court.
Sonagi writes:
I tend to agree with Sonagi. Find a lawyer or nomusa (labor advocate), get him to huff and puff a little, and bully a little more money out of the university in exchange for not filing a claim. Six months’ extra pay should be achievable without too much difficulty.
Otherwise, litigation could take three to five years, with appeals. On a C-3 or G-1 visa, you’re not able to work to earn a living except with permission of Ministry of Justice (they of the webpage full of Dokdo justifications), and it may be expected that if you were in high-profile “anti-Korean” litigation, there would be someone detailed to the mission of making sure that Gerry Bevers, Korea Hater™ did not earn a living illegally during that time.
Frankly, I am not surprised. I am surprised that somebody is surprised, since most people here have spent in Korea a number of years, often speak Korean, married to a Korean and sometimes are Koreans themselves. Frankly, when I read about Gerry Bevers being merely called to his university president a couple of months ago (?), I was surprised how liberal and free-minded the school is and how much things have changes over the last decade. Ten years ago a mere discovery of such activity would lead to an immediate dismiss of the wrongdoer.
Korea is a seriously nationalist country. It might be unpleasant and annoying, but this is a part of package. In every country, US/Australia/Russia/India/Singapore there are features one likes and features one does not. We make decision about whether we like place or not, based on balance, not on complete absence of things we do not like. Nobody is perfect. Will any of us go to a seriously fundamentalist Muslim country and then spend some efforts proving that certain chapters of the Holy Koran are, well, not perfect, and would not stand a serious scrutiny? And if such a person is fired from a teaching job and perhaps kicked out of the country, should anybody be surprised? This is not “democratic”, of course, but now, in 2007, democracy is not a universally accepted value, whichever people in the White House want to believe.
Frankly, and not as an offence to the overwhelmingly American crowd here: it sometimes strange to see that you people behave as if American or Western values apply everywhere and are accepted everywhere. They are not! If you go to Saudi Arabia, you do not wear mini-skirts and preach Bible in public (do it in your home)! If you come to Korea, you do not attack the sacral cows, and the Dokdo issue is one of the most sacral cows now. Dokdo was the worst possible choice, I can think of only few issues where an expression of doubt by a foreigner would produce similar outbursts.
In Korea you do not criticize nationalist assumptions, at least, you do not do it too actively. This is not the States where academic writing about slaughter of the Amerindians or the US military interventions/aggressions in Latin America is not merely safe but will improve your career opportunity in academia. Again: in Saudi Arabia you do not criticize Koran, in Korea you do not question the nationalist superiority complex, in the States you do not cast doubts at women’s perfect equality and do not make whichever would pass for a “racist statement”. At least, you do not do it in public, and if you do, you know that retribution might be swift. Do you remember what happenned to Professor Lawrence Summers? And he was not a hakwon teacher…
THE SECOND PART, so to say. About the situation. Well, advices to use the legal channels might sound good, and I wish Bredon Carr and his colleagues all the best. However from my own experience I am very skeptical about outcome. Even if a case is won, there will be too many ways to make life miserable, and these ways will be used, be sure. Serious people in Korea seldom solve their issues at the court, and people here know how to get around a court decision they do not like. Again, there might be righteous outrage about it, but this is how things are done here. Period. And you/we are here. Period.
Gerry Bevers’s situation is made worse by two things. First, foreigners are expandable. Even if they happen to have special skills (not a common situation), foreigners are not protected by the networks of chi-yol, hak-yol, hyol-yol. Second, the major task of a Korean university administrator is to avoid scandals and embarrassment. Everything should move smoothly Once again, I am not judgmental, I have worked in Russia and in English-speaking West long enough to make equally unfavorable comments about situation there! People in the university might be even sort of sympathetic, but since there is a great potential for a scandal now, and since Gerry is a foreigner without a clan and an alumni association sanding behind his back, the solution is obvious.
As a matter of fact, three years ago a reputable university suddenly broke a contract with me. Yes, they signed a contract, I paid a lot of money to prepare for my move to Korea, but in the last moment when I had tickets, paid for storage etc. they notified that they could not accept me, citing an invention they wrongly believed I could not check. It took me few phone calls to learn that they were lying, and more time to learn that the real reason was an act of one very nasty and influential person who happens to dislike me (mutually, I am proud to say). So, what did I do? Did I sue them for breaking the signed contract? No. Did I try to revenge? No. I sighed, said a few Russian obscenities, wrote off some five thousand dollars spent on the preparations, and began to look for other opportunities. Last year I went to the said university for a presentation and had a nice dinner with some of those people and even their president (well, the guy who was most actively involved with the intrigue, did not come). Why? Because a legal case, even if it is won, is not something which helps your reputation here. Well, to the Westerners it might sound unfair? To me, too. But, first, it works (see South Korean GNP), second, it is how things are being done here. Like it or not.
Of course, Gerry might try. This was just my humble opinion.
Professor Lankov said:
Who are “you people”? Only Gerry has expressed surprise at his firing, and very few commenters have expressed indignation. The prevailing attitude on this and related threads is “you should have known better.”
Sonagi writes:
Probably Prof. Lankov is responding not only to Gerry Bevers’ interest in free speech, but also to the bleatings of the “Pusan Nine” and their defenders, as well as those folks who worry about the Itaewon police beating the stuffing out of errant soldiers.
I learned a new culturally loaded word on this thread, definition courtesy of cm:
I found 괘씸 but could not find 괘씸죄 in any dictionary, yet googling unearthed this compound word in the context of media stories of academic and political disputes.
Thanks, Brendon.
Getting six months extra pay in exchange from not filing a claim sounds good, but do you really think I can find a lawyer or advocate who will be willing to huff and puff enough to convince my school to do that? Anyway, if I am forced to go to court and do have to represent myself, what do court costs usually run in Korea?
Sonagi wrote:
I do not mind spending a $1,000+ to point out something I consider unjust, especially if it involves me and I consider the process a learning experience. Besides, there are a couple of other matters I need to clear up before leaving Korea, including doing a little more research on “Dokdo.”
As for my severance pay, I will not being getting six years of it. The school says they will only pay me for two years. Though I worked under the National Pension Plan for the first four years, the school says that they are not required to pay me severance pay for the first two years since those contracts were for only eleven months. In other words, my contract period was from March 1 to the end of January.
I cannot remember how it was worked out after the first 11-month contract, but when my school went to Immigration to renew my second 11-month contract with a new 12-month contract, the people at Immigration told them that the contract would have to start from the end of my old contract (the end of January), not a month later, at least as far as my residence card was concerned. So my residence card was renewed for one year from the end of January to the end of January the following year, even though my contract said my employment period would be from March 1 to the end of February the following year. The school handled the transition from the 11-month to the 12-month contract by just no paying me for the month of February, even though Immigration considered me officially employed with them. Since then my residence card has expired at the end of January, even though my contract goes until the end of February. That is one of the reasons I have to leave and come back to Korea. I have to come back to get my last month’s pay. Another reason is that I have to come back to get my apartment deposit.
The school is screwing you on the severance pay. The use of “11-month” contracts to avoid accumulation of severance liability is clearly unlawful — another issue to take up with the district labor office. Those four “11-month” contracts entitle you to four months’ worth of severance, for a total of six. That’s your minimum entitlement. You should be able to get that additional money through the intervention of the labor inspector. More than that, as a compromise to induce you to give up a possible claim (or to withdraw your already-filed claim) and you’ll need professional help.
They are lying, and this trick is usual here. As a matter of fact, in most cases of retirement I am aware of, the employees did their best not to pay severance pay in full, or perhaps not to pay it at all. Last year I spent some time helping two people get their SP money. In both cases, it required some time and persistence, but they both got what they were entitled to. It seems that law in this case is on your side. Unlike the dismissal case, this one worth efforts, and chances are high. Make a bit of noise. Brendon will be far more knowledgable, but in “my” last year cases few trips to the Labour inspection office made wonders, they paid for eight years instead of three or four they wanted first. Firing a “Korea-hating-anti-Dokdo-uri-ttangist” is one matter, and not paying him is another.
I had a run-in with an employer once regarding severance pay. I found the labor office to be extremely helpful about getting the money I deserved. One phone call and my employer was scrambling to get me my money asap and make sure all was well. This is one issue I find the Korean government has been consistently aggressive about, even with foreigners.
Brendon,
I was only under the National Pension Plan for my first four years with the school, and then the school switched me over to a private pension plan for the last two years, so I think I am entitled to severance pay for only the first four years. I should be able to get back my payments into the private pension plan, but I do not think they are required to pay severance pay for the last two years.
National Pension = Social Security. It’s not a “pension” as one would ordinarily think of it. Severance pay is a separate issue, and the employer’s obligation alone. There aren’t any of “your contributions” to recover. Don’t ask about it here on this blog — go to the district labor office and ask the inspector whether you’re getting all the law entitles you to receive.
It’s an open and shut case, a waygook shot his mouth off about something he knows very little about, or even worse yet pretends to be a self-proclaimed expert on the issue. You do something stupid that results in you losing your job, and we’re suppose to feel sorry for you? No law firm in Korea is going to touch this case.
Use your head, and keep your mouth shut in Korea, or just leave the country if you want to criticize its governmental policies. You might be able to keep your job that way at least in the future. Koreans could give a frog’s fat ass about what a waygook has to say about anything. Honestly, I’m a bit surprised a bunch of Koreans haven’t shown up yet to give you a bit of “physical education” on how things are here in the good old ROK.
–Remort
Comparing the don’ts of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) to Korea’s seems a bit rich. KSA makes no claim to be a liberal democracry, free speech isn’t a right, and there’s nothing guaranteeing religious freedom. Heck, converting is a death sentence–stoning, ain’t it? KSA is straight up about what type of society it is and what isn’t permissible. Fair enough.
I wish Korea could be as honest as the KSA. (And yes, it is certainly far more liberal and liveable than the KSA.) Does it want to be viewed as an equal to western liberal democracies? It certainly goes through the motions and pays lip service to it. Why the pretense?
I also wasn’t surprised; it’s a shame I wasn’t. Mr. Bevers is just one of many who have been consumed by the netizen mob. Most have been Koreans, and all for the silliest of “infractions”. The goose steppers dictate the joun gibun.
Mr. Bevers, I hope you receive an agreeable payout from your employer. Good luck to you.
Re: Remort and others who say foreigners cannot criticize Korea.
Yet people like Anna Fifield, Michael Breen and others criticize Korea with plenty of vigor, volume and frequency, and they continue to live and work in Korea and do quite well.
Ugh. That previous post of mine came across a lot more snippy than I intended. I just was trying to point out that, for all the looniness of VANK and the like, there is a lot more going on here than some would cartoonishly like to describe. There are plenty of people make full-throated criticisms of Korean society.
And as Andrei pointed out, all countries (even liberal democracies) have their hot-button issues. The president of Harvard got lambasted for merely suggesting looking into whether biological differences between men and women led to their relative successes in science. If you press those hot buttons, you cannot be surprised when you get a reaction.
A good option for Gerry could have been to write an academic paper on the issue and getting it published in an academic journal or book. A better option would have been to bash Japan over their imperialistic claim to the property. The best option would have been to say nothing.
In any event, start firing off your resume Gerry, and get ready for a visa run to Japan. Claim political refugee status upon re-entry, perhaps President Roh will be out of office by then.
–Remort
Lambasted yes, fired no. To equate Mr. Summers’s case to Mr. Bevers’s seems to miss the mark. I reckon Mr. Bevers would have been keen to debate this topic with any scholars. And yes, all societies have their hot button issues. How they are handled is what seperates those who walk the walk from those that don’t.
Remort,
I am not looking for pity, but I admit that I was fishing for a little free legal advice, which Brendon, and a couple of others, have very generously given.
Also, I have never claimed or pretended to be an expert on Dokdo. I am just someone who noticed problems with Korea’s claims on the islets, and decided to do some research to get the other side of the story. For those who are interested, it was Kim Wan-seop’s book, “In Defense of New Pro-Japanese” (”친일파를 위한 변명”), that started me to question Korea’s claims on “Dokdo.” Though Mr. Kim does not go into much detail in his book, he also believes that Korea is illegally occupying the islets. By the way, I do not recommend the book because I do not think it is very well written.
I have been living in Korea off and on for the past thirty years, and I honestly did not think my postings on “Dokdo” would get me in trouble. I was quite surprised to find that even Korean college professors throw reason out the window when it comes to “Dokdo.” That is the biggest disappointment I have experienced in my thirty years in Korea. It is so disappointing, in fact, that I think I can now leave Korea behind without any regrets. I loved Korea when I first came here in 1977; I cannot say that now.
As for your surprise that “a bunch of Koreans haven’t shown up yet to give [me] a bit of ‘physical education,’” I think that just shows your ignorance of Korean society. Even though news of my views on “Dokdo” have spread among some of my students, none of them have shown any kind of hostility toward me and are still quite friendly. The professors, on the otherhand, seem to be afraid to make eye contact, possibly for fear of being labeled a “Gerry Bevers” sympathizer. In fact, one of the professors explained that she was untenured, and that that was the reason she could not openly express her support for me.
As for your opinions of me, Remort, I do not give a crap. I wrote the above for the benefit of others, not for you.
you lost your job because you were so brazen in the things you wrote about korea, gerry. any korean reading the things you wrote would quickly conclude that you were a bigot. your whole purpose in life, gerry, is to dehumanize and belittle koreans. that’s why you wrote about dokto. you don’t give a fuck about two little rocks in the east sea, what you care about is using the issue as a way to belittle koreans and the way they feel. that’s why you’ve written gobs on the subject while at the same time telling us that the issue is really trivial.
perhaps it’s time for you to move to japan where you can continue your research.
beverisms:
1. koreans deserved to be colonized by the japanese.
2. sure the japanese killed a lot of koreans after the earthquake, but look how the japanese police tried to protect koreans!
3. dokto is japan’s.
4. the japanese government did not assasinate queen min.
5. japan modernized korea because the koreans wouldn’t do it themsleves.
6. korea was an ally of wartime japan.
7. korea needs to shut about yasakuni since its an internal affair.
8. korea welcomed japanese domination.
9. koreans are co-equals with regards to japan’s second failed attempt to dominate asia.
10. likes to refer to queen min as ‘your dead queen’.
and you wonder why you got fired, gerry?
I don’t agree with Gerry getting fired about something like this, but Lankov is right: Dokdo is a sacred topic in Korea, as silly as it may seem to a lot of us. (I don’t think his analogy about questioning the Koran in a fundementalist Muslim country is too far off the mark, though the punishment involved there might be a little bit more unpleasant than not getting one’s contract renewed.)
My guess is that there were probably people in the university very eager to fire Gerry immediately upon learning of his Dokdo-related activities, but it would have been logistically difficult - not to mention potentially messy for his department, other deparments in the school, etc - to have done it mid-contract.
Gerry Bevers, I wish you well. May you have a much better future.
Pawikirogi,
Why don’t you link to the “beverisms” you mentioned above? I would like to be reminded of when and where I said those things. Yes, when it comes to Japan, I think Korean history books are filled with half-truths, especially when they talk about Korea’s colonial period. As for “Dokdo,” Korean historical claims are so full of holes that it is ridiculous. By keeping quiet on Dokdo or by writing books that are full of nothing but half-truths, Korea’s Dokdo historians risk damaging the reputation of all Korean historians. I can almost guarantee that Dokdo will end up being a big embarrassment for Korea.
“Frankly, and not as an offence to the overwhelmingly American crowd here: it sometimes strange to see that you people behave as if American or Western values apply everywhere and are accepted everywhere. They are not! If you go to Saudi Arabia, you do not wear mini-skirts and preach Bible in public (do it in your home)! If you come to Korea, you do not attack the sacral cows, and the Dokdo issue is one of the most sacral cows now. Dokdo was the worst possible choice, I can think of only few issues where an expression of doubt by a foreigner would produce similar outbursts.”
Lankov, point on that one taken and understood but there is one fundamental difference between Korea and Saudi Arabia. As far as I know Saudi Arabia is not demanding respect and acknowledgment from the international community as a “hub”, as “dynamic”, or as a “free, vibrant democracy”. It is Korea itself that is setting for itself the high standards that it consistently fails to meet. If Koreans are content to have their country be thought of at the level of Saudi Arabia, then fine. People can lower their expectations of Korea accordingly.
Perhaps the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs could formally announce to foreigners thinking about working in Korea that questioning the assumptions about Korean nationalism is forbidden. Then Korea will only get the type of foreigners that meet Koreans expectations, and the newspapers and TV programs can get back to whining about foreigners fucking Korean girls.
I said it before and I’ll said it again. BLACKMAIL!. I know nothing about Gerry’s former employer, however in my earlier post I predicted that just like all Korean organizations, they no doubt are doing something illegal. Surprise! surprise! turns out they are trying to scam Gerry on his severance money. I can guarantee there is a lot more scamming they are engaged in. Do some digging. Blackmail the bastards and just get as much money as possible. Don’t get mad, don’t cry. GET EVEN! Are they doing illegal classes? Under the counter cash payments? Deducting too much tax and pocketing the difference? Lodging tax returns and keeping the employees refund? Call me a cynic, call me anti Korean. I’m just being realistic.
One other point of F.L.A. (Free Legal Advice): Claims for unpaid wages (including severance pay) are time-barred after three (3) years from the time the obligation is due. Severance pay is a carry-over that normally comes due upon separation from employment — the LSA says it must be paid within 14 days of separation, regardless of reason (which means even million-dollar embezzlers get to enforce their severance entitlement).
Your severance pay for those four “11-month” contracts should come due on the date you leave permanent employment — don’t let anyone try to say the time bar applies to that pay!
Lankov said:
Well, Andrei, the problem with your argument is that Korea has an open pipeline to Washington through which it pumps a lot of sludge about being an open democracy and “blood ally,” hence justifying the placement of 29,500 warm American bodies on the line to preserve
Kim Jong Il’s collection of palacesits special claim to perpetual U.S. dependency. Or, at least, that’s what I could have sworn I heard the Korean Ambassador say at a cocktail party recently, commemorating some milestone anniversary for this great alliance of ours.Man, do I ever feel raped reading this now.
I don’t accept your Saudi analogy as completely valid here, but let’s extend it to its logical conclusion. When we eventually got wise about the Saudis being (1) authoritarian assholes who were (2) paying off people who wanted us dead, we readjusted our alliances accordingly and dramatically reduced our military presence in that uniquely godforsaken place. That makes this more than just an issue of dictating Korea’s form of government, but rather a question of whether we will weld this sludge valve shut and coldly question the unity of our interests. Having U.S. ground forces in South Korea actually impedes our freedom of action against North Korea, should matters turn unexpectedly much worse. If we’re looking for dictatorships to hold our noses and support, I see a stronger argument for cooperating with the Ethiopian dictatorship today than for subsidizing the inter-Korean experiment with national suicide.
But I digress.
It’s disturbing to see so many blame Mr. Bevers for believing Korea’s claim that it is a free and open society and not knowing better than to have and express his views, even on his own time. I don’t suppose his employment contract or previous warnings by supervisors were any help, either. At least Saudi Arabia does not make such a claim.
Yet I’m frequently thankful that Andrei Lankov, to name the best available example, speaks out against many of South Korea’s sacred cows, perhaps with considerable courage. I specifically commend your most recent contribution to this report by the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, where you dispensed with the “Korea is one” myth vis-a-vis the non-acceptance of North Korean refugees there.
We should value your right to speak, that of Mr. Bevers, and even that of Kang Jeong-Koo, who serves the public debate by showing us how goofy people really can be and inviting someone to scrape away the bong resin he coughs out. If it can be shown that Kang, you, or Bevers taught demonstrable falsehoods, that’s different, but no one has even connected Mr. Bevers’s private views to his employment.
Simply put, this is petty despotism. The defense of it is hard to compehend, especially when it mostly comes from opinionated Canadians and Americans on Internet threads. If there is to be a generalized licensing of censorship, I wonder who will nominate himself to be an exception.
My own advice to Mr. Bevers is to carry a sharp stick or an iron pipe next time, since such objects appear to cloak one in immunity in Korea today.
Whether Korea is misrepresenting itself as a free society depends on whether this is the action of a few cowardly academic administrators or that of Korea as a whole (there are enough examples of the latter). That depends on whether the law will protect free speech. The consensus is that it will not, but I would love to see the issue tested.
On the other hand, this will probably only be done at great cost to Mr. Bevers, and so I can only wish him well and hope that next time, he’ll choose a more mature, rational, and self-confident place to have an opinion.
“It’s disturbing to see so many blame Mr. Bevers for believing Korea’s claim that it is a free and open society and not knowing better than to have and express his views, even on his own time.”
I think most posters here agree that the situation Gerry is in is not fair, but by his own accounts he first came here in 1977 and most people have developed a healthy cynacism about korea’s free and open society in less than a year. Having been involved with koreans for many years overseas, I’d developed it before I even came here. So yes, Gerry should proabably have known better.
Not all of them. I know of at least one big Uni who gives exactly the same titles and pay to the foreigners – but it didn’t prevent them to
fire themnon-renew their contract because they wanted to renew the pool, lower their overhead [difference between 1st year 전임강사's pay and 조교수's pay can be as much as 1:3], or just get rid of the person.Universities – not unlike companies – tend to disregard the Labour Laws, with the difference that their foreign empl