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 employees have even less clue about what they are entitled to than their corporate colleagues, and that the locals are usually better treated than the Koreans in the corporate world. Examples that come to mind include vacation – not really an issue in the Uni world, of course, but certainly in the corporate world – and severance pay [퇴직금, one month per year worked].
I know of a very famous Korean Uni who had their foreign staff not only sign their employment contracts with blanks in them – notably, the salary was left blank until after the signature; guess what happened… – but had them sign a separate document that forced the foreigners to waive the severance pay. One French teacher sued – and won – his employer when he left. But he had been a long time in Korea, so he probably had people advising him, and quite a bit of money at stake.
But note that the National Pension Fund and the severance pay scheme have nothing to do together. 국민연금 is money you contribute every month, and which can be reclaimed A/ when you’re 60 or so, or B/ when you leave the country and if your home country provides a similar scheme. ie, if your country’s laws provide for a similar lump-sum system, you can get your monies back. If your country, like mine, provides a monthly payment until you die, then you don’t qualify, and you can’t get your money back. This is handled by the National Pension Administration, whatever their real name is.
Severance pay, on the other hand, is an obligation to the employer – ie not your money taken out of your gross salary – to pay a 13th month per year worked. And this is managed by them. Not the same scheme at all. And these schemes are not mutually exclusive: on the contrary they are both compulsory…
Don’t forget severance is based on the average of your last 3 months of pay. So any OT or special classes during the break that pay extra count in that 3 months.
The school is making a mistake. Small schools in the country need to grow and need to have ’sister school relations”. Hit them were they are soft, hit them internationaly. Send a letter stating your problems to a school in the USA or elsewhere that the adminerstration has friends with. That I tell you will shut them up.
Honestly send an email jollyrocsta@hotmail.com and I will set you up with another job.
I don’t mean to insult her, but seriously, taking such an attitude like that (“foreigners must know their place”) is so not cool. She is not a plantation owner and foreigners are not “uppity N*****s who need to know their place”.
I find such an attitude extremely disturbing.
How did you ultimately react to such a statement (knowing its your wife, I realize you cant just go O’Reilly all over her).
My wife is pretty easygoing about most issues, including a number regarding Japan, but starting up a ‘devil’s advocate’ or ‘let’s compare both sides’ type of Dokdo conversation with her is a perfect strategy for imposing a couple of weeks of involuntary celibacy upon myself. I wish I wasn’t speaking from experience, but… As many have noted, this really is a topic that is best negotiated with extreme care, if not avoided completely.
Again, nobody deserves to get canned over voicing opinions unrelated to work – I hope Gerry gets everything his school owes him.
That raises an interesting question. My school began a Continuing Education program at the beginning of November that runs until January 24. Since November, I have been teaching eight extra hours a week at 30,000 won an hour, which comes to about 960,000 won a month. If severance pay is calculated on the last three months of my contract, which would be December, January, and February, that would give me approximately 1.7 million won extra for that three month period. However, since the school should pay severance only on my first four years and not my last two, I wonder if my severance is determined by calculating the last three months of my forth year or the last three months of my final year? It would be nice if it were the latter.
Mr. Shim,
Thank you for offerring to set me up with another job, but I do not think I should take another job right now if I intend to fight for contract renewal. It might disqualify me.
I wish you and everyone else at The Marmot’s Hole a happy new year.
Dear Gerry, this is exactly the case I dealt with, helping my friend last year. It was 100% his situation, additonal classes taught. Initially his employer even refused to talk (we still had to squeeze some money from the school), and I was skeptical, but my friend was persistent. We made two trips to the Labour Inspection Office, he threatened to bring issue to the court, and his school did pay additional sum based on the new calculation which included the extra teaching on vacations. Good luck, and sorry if I offend you by my remarks (I indeed think the Dokdo is too sensitive if overblown, so it should be untouchable unless you are seriously protected and have very strong feelings about the issue).
Gerry,
Heed the excellent advice you’ve been given and fight for your rightful severance pay. Brendon and Lankov are correct, and from my own friends’ experiences, the law will side with you.
Lankov and others,
Gerry’s challenge to Korea’s Dokdo claims have been likened to Holocaust revisionism and sexual equality in the sciences. Dokdo: two rocks and some mineral and fishing rights. The Holocaust: twelve million murdered. Harvard president Summers: both remarks and resignation were controversial; he had his defenders. We all know Dokdo is a sacred cow and every nation has its sacred cows, but how is it that a seemingly minor territorial dispute can be compared to genocide? Is it merely that the dispute is with Japan? I lived in Korea nearly ten years, and I still look at Koreans’ singular attitude towards Dokdo and think, “WTF?”
Sonagi, surely you know better then this? That is since I had the impression you are quite knowledgeable about Korean culture.
To Koreans, Dokto is not just about few rocks and things. It’s the entire legitimacy of Japan’s rule over Korea, which is the root of everything. That is the real sacred cow in Korea, not Dokdo.
The sensitive nature of this subject comes from the Korean national consciousness which basically summarizes to: “We let those Japs take our country but that’s never going to happen again.”
And as it just happens, Gerry is one of the biggest proponents out there in the internet world who has advocated for years, that Korea’s colonization by Japan was legitimate and legal.
As you know, most Koreans would have only one thing to say about this. I’m sure, that had more to do with him getting in trouble then anything else.
The best thing to not damage your relationship with Koreans, is just not discuss subjects on Japan or colonization period. That’s the safest way to stay in neutral position, and not get into trouble at work.
Look at the bright side for Gerry. Now he can devote 100% his time on Dokto/Japan/Korea/Colonization period, outside from Korea.
That is an interesting and accurate way to express Koreans’ feelings. It’s not only that Koreans “let” Japan take over, but that they did not liberate themselves, either.
From GiKorea.net
“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.”
I would expect this response from you. You are only thinking about The South Florida Professor and the nutcase who thinks he is an indian, but he has gone after others. O’Reilly goes on huge tirade about teachers and the school system because they disagree with him and many are not 9/11 conspiracy theorists or Hamas funding.
#1 He is a conservative and is against the public school system and find any minute excuse
example
http://mediamatters.org/items/200605050009
Bill O’Reilly falsely claimed that public-school teachers in New York City “are instructed not to say a word” about students “going, ‘F-you, you mother-F’er,’ in school.” In fact, according to the New York City schools’ discipline code, “[u]sing profane, obscene, vulgar, lewd or abusive language or gestures” is a “Level 2 infraction” that is considered “disorderly disruptive behavior” and is punishable by a range of disciplinary actions.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200512130006
O’Reilly falsely claimed a Texas school district banned red and green clothing, called move “fascism”
#2 He is a conservative and is looking to root out any non-conservative speak in the school system
http://mediamatters.org/items/200603170001
O’Reilly attacked liberal Gabler — but not conservative Thomas — for defending Colorado teacher
He is not alone. David Horowitz is on the attack of “liberal” teachers.
He claims it’s because these teachers try to indoctrinate in the classroom, but he is pretty much on a witch hunt.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200604180011
Then of course you have your typical conservative idiots who fire teachers to bring kids to a museum and not sees a stupid nude
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.c.....r_fir.html
It happens in the US, you wouldn’t be surprised it happens in Korea.
From GiKorea.net
“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.”
I would expect this response from you. You are only thinking about The South Florida Professor and the nutcase who thinks he is an indian, but he has gone after others. O’Reilly goes on huge tirade about teachers and the school system because they disagree with him and many are not 9/11 conspiracy theorists or Hamas funding.
#1 He is a conservative and is against the public school system and find any minute excuse
example
http://mediamatters.org/items/200605050009
Bill O’Reilly falsely claimed that public-school teachers in New York City “are instructed not to say a word” about students “going, ‘F-you, you mother-F’er,’ in school.” In fact, according to the New York City schools’ discipline code, “[u]sing profane, obscene, vulgar, lewd or abusive language or gestures” is a “Level 2 infraction” that is considered “disorderly disruptive behavior” and is punishable by a range of disciplinary actions.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200512130006
O’Reilly falsely claimed a Texas school district banned red and green clothing, called move “fascism”
#2 He is a conservative and is looking to root out any non-conservative speak in the school system
http://mediamatters.org/items/200603170001
O’Reilly attacked liberal Gabler — but not conservative Thomas — for defending Colorado teacher
He is not alone. David Horowitz is on the attack of “liberal” teachers.
He claims it’s because these teachers try to indoctrinate in the classroom, but he is pretty much on a witch hunt.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200604180011
Then of course you have your typical conservative idiots who fire teachers that bring kids to a museum and just happens tp see a stupid nude
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.c.....r_fir.html
It happens in the US, you wouldn’t be surprised it happens in Korea.
Silencing of the lambs.
FREE SPEECH! FREE SPEECH! KOREA IS A DRACONIAN STATE! NO FREE SPEECH!’ whined the nasty expat as he said just about whatever he wanted while in korea.
no free speech issue. the korean government did not fire gerry, but leave it to the nasty expat to equate gerry’s employer with the entire korean people. can we say ‘bigot’?
how to live:
you know, the thais take their king very seriously. i think it’s a bit ridiclous but you know what? doesn’t matter what i think. i just don’t say anything that could be interpreted as critical to their king. i do it to be respectful. i wonder if someone like bevers or lady b sonagi could do the same.
what the hell am i talking about? i’m talking to a bunch of drunk, nasty expats!
The consensus here seems to be that this is what Korea is like (though shakuhachi and joshua make the excellent point that Korea claims to be different).
I’d like to ask: what consequences will flow from Korea’s being like this? In addition to the external effect of reappraisal by allies, which I believe joshua referred to, won’t these actions bring on an intrinsic and inescapable retribution?
Prof. Lankov says
In the event that intemperate nationalism (which dissenting voices, if protected, might have held in check) some day leads Korea into a needless war with Japan, one can anticipate an adverse impact on Korea’s GNP. For me, the problem with the suppression of debate is precisely that it doesn’t work. It offers efficiency at the beginning, and ensures tragedy at the end.
Has J. S. Mill’s On Liberty ever been translated into Korean?
You know, you can make your points without being so nasty and insulting. It’s more effective that way. Otherwise people will just tune you out and dismiss you as a loon. And that’s too bad if you have something worthwile to contribute. Despite it all, I think you too would agree that Korea as a society, need to be more aware and tolerant of viewpoints that may not be welcomed or popular.
Above, I was referring to pawikirogi.
I don’t think so. The way it was set by the accountants in the books of the two companies I managed was, 1/12th of the salary paid that month to employee X was accrued in the balance sheet – ie set aside for later payment when the employee left. Thus, the severance pay for each year was a true one-twelfth of the yearly income of that year.
That would be your decision, but check with the lawyers – I am pretty sure getting a new job would not absolve your former employer of their wrongdoings. It would disqualify you to get your job back, but I am pretty sure this is not an option any longer… And you’d get a visa to stay in Korea.
CM wrote:
Who’s “you”?
Sonagi, I may have likened the negative reaction that some Koreans might have to Gerry’s flavor of scholarship to how most in the west might view and react to holocaust revisionism, but in no way did I intend to liken the actual issue of two uninhabited islands/rocks to millions of dead. However, I have no doubt as to which issue is given more attention in Korean schools…
@#90
I found holes in everyone of the stories you linked to, but they are all weak examples anyway of trying to liken America to being similar to Korea.
None the teachers you linked to lost their jobs. Really the only teacher that lost his job due to criticism from O’reilly was the South Florida professor Dr. Al-arian who was preaching death to Israel and raising money for Hamas.
Some how I don’t equate Mr. Bevers writings over Dokdo to being equal to raising money for terrorists and wishing for the extermination of entire people.
I did not misunderstand you, global but appreciate the clarification.
Darth Babaganoosh wrote in #82 regarding my #23:
” don’t mean to insult her, but seriously, taking such an attitude like that (”foreigners must know their place”) is so not cool. She is not a plantation owner and foreigners are not “uppity N*****s who need to know their place”.
I find such an attitude extremely disturbing.”
I also found it disturbing and deeply disappointing. I thought, perhaps wrongly, that overall fair treatment in California for 10 years would have had a greater effect on her attitudes regarding “foreigners.” That may have been wishful thinking on my part.
I doubt her attitude had anything to do with him being a foreigner, but rather that he deserved what he got for being a heretic. As pointed out before, there have been a few Korean intellectuals deemed heretics who have been treated far worse then Gerry, including ostracization, ridicule, employment terminations, and even some jail times (in the case of National Security Law violations).
Sonagi, by “you”, I was referring to Pawi.
RE: comment 92;
You toss out the term “bigot,” but then refer to those who are angry as “a bunch of drunk nasty expats.” Any cognitive dissonance?
Clearly what happened to Bevers just reinforces what we all know; the South Korea claims to embody democratic ideals, but in reality rejects the most basic component of such democracies; free speech.
The many examples of the government not enforcing its own laws in when it comes to foreigners, i.e. blatant hypocrisy and another example of the lack of civil society and democracy in South Korea, is indeed legitimate reason to critical of the Korean government.
I completely reject Lankov’s approach; it’s basically giving up and grabbing your ankles. Make noise, burn bridges, but don’t complacently take it in the ass like that.
Having said all that, given Bevers experience in Korea, I don’t know what else he ever expected. The outcome seemed pretty obvious.
Free speech does not enjoy the same Constitutional protection everywhere in the ‘free world.’ Britain does not have a First Amendment; its scope of freedom of speech and expression, as interpreted by the courts, is narrower than ours in the US, and the threat of a libel lawsuit has prevented McDonalds opponents, for example, from expressing certain ideas in Britain. Just google “Britain” and “freedom of speech,” and you’ll see that one of the West’s earliest democracies continues to struggle to define and defend this “most basic component” of democracies.
And furthermore, it wasn’t the Korean government that decided not to re-hire him, it was a university making its own decision.
I don’t think anyone said the Korean govt had anything directly to do with Bevers losing his job. If you disagree, please point to the specific comment that you think does say that, as well as the exact text within that comment. Thanks.
I was referring to this.
Sorry to hear Mr. Bevers has lost his job–you’d think that since Dokdo is such a trivial issue the Korean establishment would welcome even negative attention from a foreigner to it because it indirectly reinforces Korea’s claim, guess some people are too thin-skinned.
Re: Calculation of severance pay (see #81 by iwshim and #96 by dda):
Calculation of severance entitlement is a fiendishly difficult affair; there is a 90-page government guide to calculating what employees are owed. It’s very complex because the Korean salary hobong system is full of “allowances” which may or may not be included.
In a nutshell, iwshim is correct in that the basic severance entitlement is one month’s “average wage” per year of continuous service, where monthly average wage is defined based on the last 90 days immediately prior to termination. But, where the “average wage” would be higher if calculated on the basis of the last 12 months’ pay, then the 12-month period shall be used. This is intended to protect employees whose bonuses had been received in the period before the last 90 days.
Because of the possibility that the 12-month alternate calculation period could be used, it is prudent advice for employers to provision for severance entitlement on a monthly basis. So dda’s accountants did the right thing — however, he drew the wrong conclusion from it. Employers should be very careful to re-calculate the severance entitlement at the time of separation, and “top up” the payment if the accrued entitlement is less than what is owed on a “last 90″ basis.
CM, where is the reference to, “the Korean government” that you were bitching about? I just don’t see it… b/ce it’s not there.
Also, if context is important to you, see the next sentence after the one you quote that refers to “civil society.”
Thanks, again.
An excellent point. In other words, South Korea is weaving itself into a cocoon where only procrustean groupthink will be permitted on a growing list of off-limits subjects, mostly concerning national disputes with the neighbors, and mostly enforced vicariously through non-state actors. I don’t deny that plenty of this goes on in the United States, too, although most of our political orthodoxies are constructed in the name of tolerance, and the courts are mercifully balanced in their correction of excesses.
We saw how South Korea’s government and various self-appointed thugs censored open debate about North Korea, and as a result, South Korea lives in a strikingly dangerous alternative reality about the North that no other nation shares. That cocooning has effectively marginalized South Korea in multilateral diplomacy, and has contributed to the unfolding failure of that diplomacy to keep the Korean peninsula peaceful and nuclear-free.
Korea is now doing the same to its relations with Japan … over two barren piles of guano that Korea has occupied for decades, and which hardly anyone in Japan cares about.
Then we have the asinine movement to replace the descriptive term “Sea of Japan” — which denotes a sea surrounded on two sides by Japan — with “East Sea,” which makes no geographical sense for anyone who lives east of longitude 138 E (or, more succinctly, for anyone outside Korea).
One supposes that open debate about Koguryo will close next.
Koreans thus force not only other Koreans, but every citizen of every nation, into a series of binary choices between Korea’s alternative reality and those that prevail among its more populous and powerful neighbors. Korea is not unique in doing this (Turkey gets special props for its denial of Kurdish nationhood or the Armenian holocaust), but Korea is nearly unique in its combination of intellectual hostility and blind presupposition that we’ll all take its side.
Imposing groupthink worked for a while in North Korea, but aside from a few dozen unmedicated schizophrenics in juche study groups, it hasn’t persuaded many others. Indeed, if you visualize a society that demands unanimity, it’s strikingly compatible with equally silly ideas of Korea’s racial purity (“we must all look and think alike”). If that succeeds in a modern, industrialized, and supposedly open society, it’s very bad news for anyone hoping to change North Korea by exposing its people to new ideas, through permissive means or otherwise.
One can only hope that North Korean groupthink will break down faster that South Korea can impose its own version.
RE: calculation of severance pay
The university probably has regulations in place and those regulations should apply. The college faculty lounge of my former employer held a copy of university regulations bound up in a huge book. The regulations were very clear about contractual conditions for different titles – professor, full-time instructor, full-time equivalent instructor, part-time instructor, etc. If you’re not physically banned from campus, you might pay a visit and find out for yourself what you’re entitled to.
Wow, I do believe that this is my first 100+ comment post at the Hole. Not bad from something I spent 4 minutes on.
In the meantime, my post on the Uri break-up (which I spent about an hour on) has 13 comments with probably a similar proportion of readers.
(Andy makes a mental note to adjust blogging style.)
I prefer to assume that the more labor-intensive post was so complete and well written that no one could add anything to or take away from it. That kind of self-delusion make many aspects of life much easier to deal with.
This post would have gotten 100+ comments even if Shelton had written it.
Gerry, do you know if any of your co-workers had actually read your writings on Takeshima?
Here Here.
I would say rather that it is strengthening the cocoon in which it always has existed, especially repairing the bits that had become a bit threadbare as a result of the the way in which the Financial Crisis forced the country to make some of the KSY administration’s globalization hype real.
One could postulate that this is just an unexceptional pendulum swing after the IMPF shock, but (i)it’s gone on too long to be just that; (ii) there’s no genuinely internationalist/free market grouping or leadership in Korea with the vision, skill or the courage to take on the racist-nationalist underpinning of Korean mercantilism.
This is unbelievable to all except those who know Korea. And, please, let’s not compare this to the professor in South Florida who preached hatred while funding terrorism. Please.
Haisan (#115),
Thanks…. I think.
gbevers wrote (#70):
I would guess that this could not be said of many long-term expats in Korea. While one might imagine some FOB failing to realize the extreme sensitivity Koreans generally have to this issue, it is hard to contemplate the same being true for someone who has spent their days interacting with Koreans in the work environment.
To be frank, I have trouble believing this, but I will take Mr. Bevers at his word. That said, he was then demonstrating an amazing blind-side. In particular, one imagines that, after the emotion-laced posts made at occidentalism.org in disagreement with his threads, he would have begun to discuss this issue with Koreans whom he came in contact with. It hardly seems likely that he would have failed to learn what Koreans generally thought about this issue, to say nothing of how they felt.
Lesson: folks get upset when you piss on their totems, so you better have a damn-good reason for doing so.
Bevers comment #44
Have you gotten a copy of the labor laws? Kyobo Bookstore used to have English translations. It was not in the foreign/English section but the one on Korean society, history, and so on. When I asked a Korean worker about it in English, she took me right to it as if she had been asked that question countless times before.
Next, it is absolutely fabulous to have Mr. Carr making comments on issues like this. There are some things even being a long time expat in Korea can’t clear up or teach you – like this technical stuff – that does help out people and help understand as well.
And there are more avenues to handling problems in Korean society than what most expats know, because most of us are in country only a year or two. Sometimes, the Labor Board can work in the favor of even the lowly hakwon worker. Frequently, I believe, just getting a call from the labor board is enough to get the greedy bastards to pay the end of contract money and what not.
The problem is that it takes a lot of effort (and language skill) to find out how to join in the process of the system. Maybe the internet has changed this. I’ve been out of the hakwon business since 2000 and haven’t had to surf for legal options since then…
Like in most places in the world, there are crooks who rely on the foreigner not being able to find out about how things actually work….
Comments #105 & #106
Yes, freedom of speech as legally termed in the US is not the same as in the UK nor are American values going to be grafted completely onto Korea – but as Brendon and some others have shown, what Gerry’s university is doing to him does actually violate Korean labor law, and in at least some areas, he has a good chance of getting what the law says is due him.
I thought Mr. Carr’s comment #4 was straight forward and authoritative since he is a lawyer in Korea and was pretty specific in that comment and in others about where Gerry stands per Korea’s own laws…..
But, I guess we can wipe all that away with the “it’s all relative” stuff that is drummed into us in Western higher education…
Comment #53
As with another comment noted below, how did “suprised” get in?
Mr. Lankov’s point is worth considering, but I don’t think people are expressing “suprise” but bitching about the events. And if someone going to a Muslim country and started saying bad things about the Koran and got his head chopped off, I would hope people would not kind of defend the act by telling those complaining about it that the guy should have expected it. (Which makes me think of that Korean who got killed in Iraq). Yes, we might conclude it would be stupid to go to a Muslim country and do such things. Yes, we might conclude the outcome was predictable. No, it doesn’t mean we should just accept that it is one of those quirks every nation has. The US has quirks, like high drug usage and high violent crime, and bitching about them is fine.
Comment #18 & #89
“Gone after.” How many profs has O’Rielly gotten fired for their thoughts?
Yeah. Same-Same…
I would think raising money for Hamas and groups that put together suicide bombings would be a good enough reason to break tenure.
And it frequently amazes me when people defend the right of free speech by telling other people they must shut up. You can’t react to the speech of another?
You can stone O’Rielly all you want. You can bring in Horowitz.
But, they are exercising the same free speech you want those professors to have, which those professors those guys complain about DO HAVE.
There are a few websites out there that are places for students and sort-of-researchers to post examples of professors in American universities acting like mini-gods – which with tenure, they pretty much are.
What is scary isn’t that O’Reilly exercises his freedom of speech by pointing out some of this. (And I think it is pretty obvious there are a lot of voices in the public domain that continually rip O’Reilly a new one for what he says). What is scary is that much of what those websites about despotic profs is that many of the examples talked about are how conservative students have been emasculated by profs for voicing opinions in class.
(The book Bias and the other one by the same journalist has a few examples of this from America’s top journalism schools.)
(Also, the Horowitz reference reminded me of this gem – he had taken out a ad that ran for two pages in the school newspaper, I believe at Harvard but at least one of the elite schools, and this led to a couple of liberal student body organizations —– going around early in the morning when the papers were delivered to the stands and confiscating them so nobody could read it….wonderful….)
Comment #21 — Kudo to response at comment #25.
Comment #29 — A Korean arrested by Koreans – and gee wilkers – nobody charged racism….
And, he was arrested for breaking a law that is on the books. I don’t agree with South Korea’s National Security Law, but it is a law that they do enforce from time to time. Being let go from a university after being arrested for a crime is a different matter than being fired simply for stating your opinion on an issue – even if what got the prof arrested was stating an opinion.
Bevers comment#58
Ah, the memories of being screwed regularly in the ESL industry… 11 month contracts……..old times….yeah…..old times…..
Remort #64 —
Here is a challenge, Remort. Go get Gerry’s posts on Tokdo. And refute them…
Show us how good you are…
You know…..after reading Remort’s poo and then comments like #71 – I realized – they make me feel better about myself……..
I would add that I am suprised Gerry was suprised this happened (though I think Gerry is the only person so far in the thread has said he was suprised).
Gerry has been around with Koreans a lot as well as in country for a long time, and even more has mastered the langauge. Given his position in the society and that experience, I am suprised he didn’t know instinctively his postings could/would eventually get him in hot water at work and most likely let go.
This is not an excuse for what happened. It should be fought and ridiculed, but I doubt most expats who have been in Korea for over a year or two would have been suprised.
But, the person who brought up Breen and Lankov (Joshua, I think) brings up an interesting point and is why I said “given [Gerry's] position”:
What would happen to Breen if he wrote out the kind of stuff Gerry wrote about Tokdo? It’s kind of intersting to consider…
I’m thinking about Breen’s writing style inparticular. My initial thought is that Breen’s witty style of writing would protect him as well as his status in Korean society.
I would even say there is a chance that if Gerry had been a blatant, typical “Korea-basher” writing a bunch of vile-worded posts about Dokdo, he might have never reached the point he has…
that such posts would have generated less attention from Korea’s nationalistic net searchers.
I mean, I have a feeling it was the methodical way Gerry went about his research, and his language ability, that led him to write extensive, detailed, historically referenced posts that caused a good bit of the ire.
It wasn’t simply mouthing off about Dokdo — it was putting out information that couldn’t simply be wiped away as ignorant clap-trap of a know-nothing foreigner that caused so much attention.
But, also in the case of Breen or Lankov and some others who have achieved a certain status, the fact that doing them in for pissing on a sacred cow could/would end up becoming news articles in things like the New York Times would save their skin. Korea would rather grin and “endure” even such stuff on Dokdo to avoid looking bad in the international press.
Brendon, BTW; I know that this is Korea and not the U.S.; that dismissing an employee is very difficult here; and that Korea does not practice “at will employment,” but people ought to know that you in fact cannot say and think what you want in the United States without getting fired either.
People in the United States are routinely fired for what they say on their blogs (here and here.
People can be fired for smoking in their own homes and on their own time. Given that this happens in the homeland of free speech, it’s hard for me to see how an American could see not getting a contract renewed as a genuine free speech issue; he’s not being thrown in jail or being subject to prior restraint. He really just should have known better.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation recommends that you blog anonymously and it’s good advice to follow anywhere you are.
As everyone already knows, the level of sensitivity for Koreans regarding Dokdo is very high, comparable to the analogies mentioned above, regardless of whether one country proclaims to be free and democratic or not. It’s unfortunate what has happened, and I hope Mr. Bevers is able to collect whatever he is owed. But for the life of me, I have no idea why Mr. Bevers is surprised at what has happened. When I came across the site several months ago, I thought the writer was in Japan. When I found out he was teaching at a Korean university, I shook my head and wondered when he was going to get canned, and was surprised that he wasn’t immediately. Surely, people must have told you that posting about Dokdo that goes against what’s engraved into the minds of Koreans is purely idiotic, unless, you were ready to move back to the states and/or publish a book about it. When I mentioned this to some Koreans, they all agreed that he should not have been fired for posting what he posted, but should be fired for his stupidity of posting that IN Korea, because well, even Koreans realize they are not always the most rational of people and that they wear their emotions on their sleeve. And as I know some lawyers, they all said they wouldn’t want to represent a guy purely for his stupidity. I understand Mr. Bevers is going through a hard time right now, and I don’t want to make it any worse, but whether you’ve been here 30 years or 6 months, you know there are some issues you don’t touch, and he should’ve known better. Again, it’s unfortunate and I wish the university, and the society in general, can be more open-minded. But that won’t happen overnight. Should have watched more AFN commercials about being respectful to the host country. Well, good luck.
Sorry the smoking link was supposed to go here and the EFF link is supposed to go here
jyce, you’re right: In the United States (except for the People’s Republic of California) “I don’t like the look on your face” is reason enough to terminate someone. But here is Korea, and I’ve counselled enough heartbroken Western clients about the difficulty — which is not to say “impossibility” if the employer is actively managing the problem — of terminating some useless (or malign) turd employee under Korean concepts of “just cause” to know that in Gerry Bevers’ case, the university seems to be overstepping the bounds of what they are permitted to do under Korean law. My guess is they feel caught between a rock and a hard place: Gerry Bevers has transgressed with a thought crime and therefore must go, but he’s a very nice guy and they will miss him terribly, plus the law really doesn’t support the university in what must be done. That position of being trapped is what usually prompts payoffs from Western clients — but in those cases the employer is very much concerned about compliance with law, and the employee very belligerent about demanding all that is required (and then some) by law. In this case, the Korean university has a law-avoidance mentality, and until now Gerry seems to have been taking his advice from (i) the university, or (ii) an imaginary voice, each telling him to “be nice”. Hopefully he’ll get to a labor office soon and at the very least get the severance entitlement he is owed.
I’m not saying the labor office is always right — they’re frequently shockingly and aggressively wrong — but their tendency is always to err on the side of the employee.
Really tough luck Gerry. Wish you well.
‘you can’t compare the situation. gerry wrote about a small matter called dokto, the prof in florida called for the destruction of isreal. the two are not the same.’
well, yes, they are since both express political views. what many of you are really saying is that the prof had no right to say what he said because he said it about one of america’s sacred cows. if he had said ‘death to saudi arabia’ do you think he would have lost his job? but for argument’s sake, let’s say he did lose his job because he said ‘death to saudia arabia’, i’ll just bet we’d see the angry expat brigade go into an anti-liberal tirade. your implication with all of this is that america may have it’s sacred cows but korea cannot.
and this ain’t about free speech since bevers can continue to write about the rocks if he chooses to do so. this is about bevers expousing hatred and promoting ridicule of the korean people. what happened to him was long overdue.
btw, dokto is simply the focal point of korea’s determination never to allow japan to ever dictate terms to korea again. understand that.
‘blah, blah, i’m sooooooooooo arrogant.’ richardson
i used the word ‘bigot’ in the racial sense. nasty expats have no race. have you not seen ’soldout’ scream at the top of his lungs he ain’t no white guy? did you miss jdog is a black? btw, i loved the responses you got at the atimes. that guy jacob really made a fool out of you, richardson. it was fantastic. i loved his line: it seems richardson knows what’s best for korea and that’s that. lastly, richie, i responded to you so i could write about that.
re: cm to pawi:
i’ll give you some time.
GOOBER GOT FIRED by Pawi Kirogi
(goober (g) approaches friend named stan (s))
g: stan, i got fired today! the damn niggers fired me!
s: well, goober, what on earth for? and don’t call the people who gave you a job niggers.
g: well, they fired me even though i’m really nice to them. i’m always kind. i even call them mame and sir. they just fired me for expressing my opinion.
s: what do you mean?
g: well, i kind of write for this guy who runs a hate site called occidentaloon.org. i wrote a series basically saying that slavery was beneficial for the niggers in america. i also maintained sections called ‘negro sex’ and ‘wacky whippings from the massa’. i also rip to shreads all they find sacred. they found out about it and they fired me. i have the right to free speech and they have no right to fire me. it’s wrong. i’ll sue. i’ll sue, i tell ya.
s: uh, if the people who employ you are black, maybe it’s not a good idea to ridicule them. it seems you brought this on yourself. why don’t you move to idaho?
THE END
Hey Gerry,
I’m sorry that you lost your job, it’s an unfortunate consequence of shooting your mouth off as a foreigner here in Korea. I’ve been here in Korea for 20 years off and on, and one very simply lesson was learned quite quickly — keep your mouth shut in Korea.
If you really feel like you’ve been wronged, get even by moving to Japan. The Japanese would love for you to stage some demonstrations of Korea-bashing. You might even get elected as a government official there with those sort of actions, with their push toward strong nationalism under Abe’s adminstration. Trying to get compensation here in Korea for a failure to voluntarily renew someone’s contract is going to lead you down a one-way street full of 1 ton trucks, with you on a bicycle without a helmet my friend. The support you do get from the student body or faculty members, well, you can wipe your ass with that dude, that support and about W5,000 will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks.
Read this quote from above again, and pay attention this time,“foreigners must know their place and act accordingly.” You’re (were, not “are”) a lowly English lecturer — you should have just showed up to work, did your job, and kept your mouth shut. If they wanted your political opinion on something, I’m sure they would have asked for it… Gee Gerry, we have a real problem with Japan involving this ongoing land dispute situation, think you could negotiate this problem as the acting unofficial U.S. ambassador since you apparently speak English so well? Get real, and start packing your stuff up man. Maybe you could give both sides a “private lesson”.
–Remort
Thanks for the clarification Brendon – this is something that had been labeled as “복잡하다” by the accountants, and I left it to them. I am sure the accountants checked the “last 90″ average too, and we trusted them to do the right thing. One other complication was that some employees had asked for an intermediary pay-out of their severance pay – something they are apparently allowed to do, and I guess this influenced the calculations too…
“I’m sorry that you lost your job, it’s an unfortunate consequence of shooting your mouth off as a foreigner here in Korea. I’ve been here in Korea for 20 years off and on, and one very simply lesson was learned quite quickly — keep your mouth shut in Korea.”
Fine words of a real house nigger, Remort. Is the salary Koreans pay an English teacher worth their conscience? It is remarkable that Uncle Tom attitudes seem so prevalent among foreigners in Korea. Also remarkable that Uncle Toms in Korea can be purchased so cheaply.
Later on, Gerry might even consider writing a book about his experiences and releasing a PDF version — in Korean.
Whether for truth or beauty’s sake, looking into the mirror is never a pleasant experience, unless one is ignorant of what they find.
Yo pawi, I be reppin’ real cracka playaz, fo’ shizzle.
Peace out.
If Mr.Bevers had done the same kind of thing in USA as regardless of a foreigner or a native,
he might have been jailed with treason or something.
If I had been the boss of Mr.Bevers, I would have kicked him off on the spot with lawful excuse. Gachon medical school was unbelievably generous. I doubt if Mr. Bevers had some promise from a certain Japanese organization. Mr.Bevers must swear he does not have any connection with Japanese organization at this heated thread to continue this thread, not to make the comments here in vain.
Anyway, enjoy these articles,
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....25432.html
http://www.bubbaworld.com/thejudge.html
Here are some guys who pretend to be pro-Japan.
No, They are watching here for just an opportunity to intrude in the thread, make the quarel heated , and make bad blood betweeen Korea and Japan.
They may seem to enjoy it.
OK. If I am correct, enjoy the following rather than that. ^^
http://lezhin.egloos.com/27328
http://lezhin.egloos.com/27669
If not, oh, gosh! What I should do.
Although he faces competition from the upstart uhoooooo, I’d like to asure pawi that I support his retaining his title as the blogosphere’s “Stuck on Stupid” posterboy for 2007. Pawi wrested that title away last year from a guy named nulji, who captured the cup from Shin Jong Il back in about 2004.
Remort is just being sarcastic toward Korea.
Whether Remort was being sarcastic or not, there truly are an astonishing number of “cigar store white men” in Korea, nearly all of whom have been effectively neutered when it comes to formulating and expressing honest opinions about any subject that is remotely sensitive for Koreans.
Brendon,
What happens if a foreigner who is a ‘permanent’ English teacher at a Korean university gains Korean citizenship?
usinkorea wrote:
Yes, I agree. My point was not that Gerry’s firing was legal or justified but that freedom of speech is not secure in many democracies.
Said Shakuhachi from the anonymous comfort of Australia:
I’d like to make one more comment that depends on two premises.
1) It’s my understanding that Dokdo/Takeshima is purely a territorial dispute; that is, the Japanese claim is not accompanied by any threats against the lives, habitations, or commerce of Koreans. Is this correct?
2) If you are a small country in a territorial dispute, it behooves you to persuade as many third parties as possible of the justice of your position.
Now in general, when you don’t have the time or background to judge the merits of a case, are you influenced by the demeanor and behavior of the claimants? I am. For example, if one party in a dispute screams insults, and shouts down those who have a contrary opinion (even taking steps to injure them unjustly), I am likely to think that that party is in the wrong and — at least subconsciously — knows he is in the wrong.
I might sometimes be mistaken, of course, but that is how I would tend to think. Is this not reasonable?
The conclusion is obvious, but I’ll spell it out. I don’t care who owns the rocks. In this, surely, I am like most people outside Korea and Japan. But the Koreans’ extreme sensitivity and active suppression of discussion have persuaded me that the Japanese probably have the better claim.
Refer to point 2).
“uhoooooo” stay away from mirrors because I do not think even your ignorance would protect you from what you would see.
“Said Shakuhachi from the anonymous comfort of Australia:”
What is your point? With google, the fact that my real name has been published, my location made clear on my blog, you could say that I am far less anonymous than Sonagi. Sniping at people for the thinnest veil of anonymity when you are absolutely, completely anonymous… ahh, ok.
Brendon, foreigners complain that everything is rigged against the foreigner, for the Koreans, and that there is no way in hell you’re going to get any kind of justice because if you’re a foreigner, you’re guilty, while if you’re Korean, you’re innocent. But you’re telling us something different for the labor office. I’m getting more confused as to what is the real situation for the justice for foreigners in criminal and/or civil matters?
I would also like to add that I have told Gerry many times that I admired his courage in using his real name to post about Korea/US/Japan issues. He is a bigger man than me, that is for sure. I just do not want the casual hassles of people getting angry because they cannot handle political dissent. However, I am not totally anonymous. I have met readers in Sydney, including Korean-Australians.
On Asia-Watch I read Koreans were angry because Gerry and occidentalism were giving out personal information from other bloggers….
Here’s the Korean thread on Naver. Can anyone out there read what the Koreans are talking about?I can read Gerry’s name, that’s all…….
http://cafe.naver.com/CommentV.....;replyyn=Y
I know of two cases – there are prolly more – of foreigners who were denied severance pay by their employer [interestingly enough on the same "reason" that they were send by foreign headquarters to Seoul to work for a limited period – limited as in one year or more] and they both won. The first case implied two US citizens from Hawai’i, I think, and they had to go to court – which I think was more expensive than the severance pay they got back but whatever. The second a French expat [as in "living on a lofty, all expenses paid by HQ," expatriate package] who settled out of court, after a friendly phone call from the accountants. He had spent something like 7 years in Korea, so his severance pay check was worth the battle…
I don’t know about court procedures and fairness of treatment. But *before* court, the law and its application is clearly in favour of employees. But with a very strong social pressure not to make waves – at least in the 20th century – few people working for SMEs get what the law says they deserve: holidays, severance pay, etc. I have seen countless examples of Korean SMEs who would make their own rules as to what employees were allowed to get – and when I explained to them what the law really said, they’d just shrug and say “It’s different in our company”. Like decisions made by a company owner supersede the law.
On the other hand, I have seen directly, and heard of from colleagues, Korean employees making the greediest and most absurd demand, saying “It’s the Korean Law™”. Which is why we had a lawyer, and I had a copy of 노동법 on my desk. Not only a good reference in case of a dispute, but the damn thing’s so heavy and compact that it makes a nice missile. Throwing the book at someone taking a whole new meaning!
But interestingly enough, most demands were cash related. They usually were not interested in getting more holidays [except a coupla lazy-ass salesmen] and in some cases were disappointed I had given them all holidays they were entitled to: they were hoping to get compensated monetarily for vacations not taken…
Like I said, I enjoy reading pawikirogi, because it makes me feel so much better about myself…
And drivel like this:
Hey, Remort, he didn’t come to work running his mouth forcing the students and university to listen to his political opinion – dipshit. He wrote about it on his own free time on the internet…
And somehow I highly doubt Remort’s 20 years in Korea has been spent with him keeping his mouth shut.
These two are another classic example of rooting for your team no matter what…
cm #144
Brendan has a ton more experience and knowledge of the matter as a professional working in that area, but from my experience, there is a difference between the criminal and civil justice system especially on labor issues where Korea has strong unions.
The labor board has been known to stick up for foriegners. Perhaps one reason is that it often takes little effort. One or two phone calls and scare a boss straight.
Even with the criminal side, the problem seems to be more with the investigation side than the courts. The police have been known to not want to touch cases where the foreigner is the victim. Other than that, the conviction rate for GIs has been 100% as far as I know, but that number should be high anyway, and when it came to sentencing – despite what the common myth in Korean society says – the GIs were given sentences I’ve read about being given to Koreans who commit similar crimes against other Koreans.
Next, for me, this really isn’t so much a “free speech” issue per se. It is just something that shouldn’t happen, and it is bad for Korea. Koreans fret an aweful lot about how they are perceived in the world:
The South Korean nationalism is an odd bird. The society is incredibly nationalistic, but it comes with a huge heaping amount of an inferiority complex. As others have pointed out in this thread, Korean society desperately want outsiders to view it as a sophisticated, wealthy, top tier nation, but the way they go about it too frequently shows that they really don’t believe that themselves – even though they should.
Korea has accomplished a lot. It has accomplished a lot that other nations (who came out of colonialism in much better shape than Korea witnessed after the Korean War) have failed considerably at.
But rather than resting with its achievements confident it can withstand outside scrutiny, South Korean society opts for things like VANK, sueing Jay Leno for dog eating jokes, and flipping out when Meg Ryan says some offhand comment “defaming” a commercial she did for a Korean company — and letting Gerry for an internet posting.
Dusty:
From what commenters on Asia-Watch were saying, it seems they were angry that a commenter on Occidentalism (not one of the writers there) had posted the whois information for http://www.dokdo-takeshima.com/ , an English language site that claims to offer scholarly information that supports the Korean claim to the islets. The site offered absolutely no information about who was writing it, so someone simply ran a search for the publically posted whois information on the domain and posted the results. The e-mail address in the whois information matched the e-mail address of the person who posted the link in the comments, claiming that “an expat”[actually himself] had started the site.
At the time I didn’t really see it as a major violation of privacy or anything, since many domain registry services allow users to make their registry information private, but I guess whoever ran that site wasn’t aware that such information was available to the general public? To my knowledge, nobody actually did anything malicious with the information posted there (which is publically available via whois lookup anyway). Regardless, I don’t see how how the posting of that whois information in a comment somehow justifies the actions of angry netizens who contacted Gerry’s employers and got him fired…
The comments on this post have turned me into a curious cat. I was under the impression that universities were well within their rights not to renew contracts for any reason. For example, many universities in Seoul have been moving to a limited number of contract renewals for “full time lecturers.” At many universities, the number of renewals is set at 2 or 3, while at my own university, it has just been set at six (if I remember correctly). Are all these universities violating the law with this new tendency? Also, are all universities required to pay severance pay? I know of several universities that specified in their hiring ads for full time lecturers that severance pay would not be paid.
Gerry -
Sorry to hear about the job…..I think that it is a shame that you can not exercise your intellectual freedom. While I do not agree with your views on Dokdo, I always thought that you at least offered some food for thought instead of blind acceptance or pure hate-mongering. I think that one or two of the posters were indeed correct – your writing wasn’t something that could easily be dismissed as a “stupid foreigner” just spouting off and not knowing what he was saying.
As for Prof. Lankov and some of the others – I think it is a shame when academia is forced to hide for fear of being singled out for revenge – it sounds very facist.
However, (and I hate saying this) I do find some truth in what Pawi and others said – that there are some sacred cows that must be considered – sacred. Pawi’s comments about the Thai King – that was one of the things that impressed me the most about Thailand was the people’s devotion to their King. I remember that someone told me if you drop a coin make sure you don’t step on it because the King’s image is on it – exaggeration – I don’t know, but I sure in the hell wasn’t going to take a chance.
It is a shame that we are also encouraged to not blog or post with our real names which allows complete idiots to use the blogs for their own childishness – if you feel strongly enough about something to write about it – it should be done in your own name.
Good luck Gerry
Freedom of speech actually is guaranteed by South Korea’s constitution (Article 21) – except specifically for citizens only. I still insist that any nation that claims to be some sort of bastion of democracy, yet in reality does not have free speech, is hypocritical.
For Pawi; a better example would be those who argue for Hawaiian sovereignty – if anyone got fired for that, they’d sue. . . and win (given they do it on their own time and not at work, of course). Some do of course get fired for what they say as free speech, the difference being if the employer admitted that (as the Korean university in question did), they’d have a suit they’d likely win. Giving money to a terrorist organization, on the other hand, isn’t protected anyway you look at it, and the guy is lucky he’s not in prison.
James, I dunno, it looks like Mr Bevers was getting a little personal on some of his posts. Look at the one post on the Naver thread Why did the people at occidentalism feel an urgent need to post the bloggers phone number and address in Korea??
That’s frickin, creepy.
http://www.occidentalism.org/?p=409#comment-9069
Mr Bevers was starting to sound like Mussolini from the balcony on this post.
http://www.occidentalism.org/?p=363
That’s what I have been saying all along. They have every right to ‘not renew’ even if they think you’re ugly. It certainly would be illegal if they fired you for being ugly right in the middle of the contract. But that’s not the case here. There is no broken contract here, except for some issues on the severence payment. I still don’t understand when Brendon says that what the school did is illegal. What did they do that was illegal? Yes, morally what they did was bad and they shouldn’t have done it, but what was illegal about it?
Nah, what’s frickin’ creepy is the correspondence between “Mr. Steve Barber”, who exists only as a sock of Mr. Cho, and a Mr. Cho, who may be the same Mr. Cho that owns dokto-takeshima.com.
And “…sound like Mussolini…’? Could you specify which sentence(s) leads you to this impression?
Dusty, it was a commenter that posted the publicly available information of dokdo-takeshima.com, not Gerry or any other writer at Occidentalism. Furthermore, this publicly available information was made publicly available by the administrator of that site. People that create websites can choose to make information about them publicly available, or choose to keep it hidden. In fact, this information is still publicly available. You cannot blame any commenter or anyone on Occidentalism for posting information that is freely available to anyone to look up.
Hmmm… Gerry reports about a naver cafe called “Kill Jap” and you say he sounds like Mussolini. By your own admission, you cannot understand the Korean contents of the “Kill Jap Cafe”, so maybe you should think twice before being so opinionated.
Under Korean law, once you have worked somewhere for a couple of years or so, there is an implied contract of de facto permanent employment that is subject to termination only if you commit some egregious act of malfesance (embezzlement) or violate an (otherwise legal)condition of employment that is spelled out clearly in writing and made known to you (usually in the form of employee regulations or some such)(e.g., working hours, amount of leave, etc.)(in which case, as Brendon has pointed out, you still are entitled to your severance benefit. It makes no difference if your contract says it’s for only one year, or that the employer specifically disclaims any obligation to continue your employment beyond some specified time; if in fact the employer doesn’t terminate after the first or second year, you’ve got a featherbed, no matter what the contract says (or doesn’t say). [This is among the aspects of Korean labor law that foreign investors have been complaining about for years]. That’s why Gerry’s dismissal is illegal.
Seouldout, it’s no secret Mr Bevers’ days were numbered.
Mussolini on the balcony?? Sorry you’re right, it was more like Hitler wacked out on speed.
http://www.rjkoehler.com/?p=2719#comment-34042
Ah, I get it. Dusty = Steve Barber. Correct?
dusty
It was quite easy to get that information.
You just google “whois”
http://www.networksolutions.co.....oistoken=0
Enter
dokdo-takeshima.com
You’ll get
http://www.networksolutions.co.....oistoken=0
Besides, it was not Gerry who posted the comment.
And do you think
Gerry sounds like Mussolini? You might want to check who was writing to Killzap.cafe”, According to the post, it was Steve Barbar who was writing to one member of Kill Jap.
Do you still think Gerry sounds like Mussolini? Or did you misspell it? Did you wanted to say Steve Barber sounded like Mussolini?
Thanks, Sperwer, for the heads up.
@Shakuhachi 143:
My point is not that you are wrong to blog anonymously (a wise safety precaution, in fact), but that it’s rich to snipe at others for not standing up to the Man while you publish your controversial blog under a sock.
Cm, look at what he wrote in comment #4:
That is pretty clear and straight forward, and he is a practicing lawyer in Korea. I’m going to have to take his word for it until someone with similar creditials lays out a case that the law does not in fact say what he says it says.
And if the law says what he says, it doesn’t matter what the university (or any company) writes in the contract and has employees sign: the law cannot be avoided that way. The section that goes against the law is null and void. I know that from reading the Korean labor law myself.
comment #155
I was thinking about asking if he actually knew who Mussolini was and if so, how could make such a connection based on that post by Gerry…
As for the other link, it was in the comments section, and holding Gerry and everybody at Occidentalism accountable for that is like lumping all of us at Marmot’s Hole with pawikirogi or baduk (to bracket the range of thought).
However,
I had been running my site for a few years before I discovered from someone emailing me the information that all that private information, including my home address, was freely available…
Next, I wish I had read comment 158 before I started typing this. It was clearly a waste of time on that end…
This sounds like a freakin nightmare.
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/S.....030018.asp
http://times.hankooki.com/lpag.....754060.htm
It never ceases to amaze me how stories like these (Mr. Bevers more or less being “fired”) never seem to make the mainstream press within Korea.
Why is that?
I for one, care deeply about this country… and therefore… point out any and all flaws I see….
Seems to me that Mr. Bevers should be given an award for taking the time to exert effort beyond the call of his expected duties… which hopefully should set an example to his students; ie that one’s intellect/energy/time should not solely be spent in the pursuit of money.
So sad that a Korean University should succumb to group thought and silence one who bothers to seek the “truth”… as messy as that may be.
Even more sad… is that this is not in the least bit sad…
It never ceases to amaze me how stories like these (Mr. Bevers more or less being “fired”) never seem to make the mainstream press within Korea.
Why is that?
I for one, care deeply about this country….and therefore….point out any and all flaws I see….
Seems to me that Mr. Bevers should be given an award for taking the time to exert effort beyond the call of his expected duties….which hopefully should set an example to his students; ie that one’s intellect/energy/time should not solely be spent in the pursuit of money.
So sad that a Korean University, should succumb to groupthought and silence one who bothers to seek the “truth”……as messy as that may be
even more sad….is that this is not in the least bit surprising…
Have a nice flight and a safe trip you big-mouthed liberal. In future stays in Korea don’t: 1) molest Koreans, 2) saying anything negative about Koreans or their culture, and 3) scribble down your silly liberal thoughts publicly for others to see.
–Remort
Regarding contract renewal, Sperwer wrote:
Yet, if there were also a longstanding practice by the institution of non-renewal after a set number of years (as in this situation, two or three), and if this practice were explicitly stated to applicants both in advertisement of the vacancy and at the time of hire, would this still be true?
In its most essential form, yes. Although something could be said about ‘commerce’, since along with Dokdo/Takeshima (the rocks) comes the territorial waters around the rocks, which have fishing grounds and potentially some natural gas deposits. But really, considering the enormous resources South Korea continues to dedicate towards keeping the rocks in Korean hands, the economic/commercial justification for Korea holding onto its rocks seems pretty weak.
Well… Yes and no. Ideally, I’m sure that South Korea would like it if the Japanese claim just ‘went away’ because of international pressure or whatever (although I’m equally sure that some of those in power who exploit the issue to their advantage don’t feel the same way). And to do this, South Korea would need some pretty substantial international pressure on their side.
On the other hand though, what does SK really have to gain from having their claim recognized internationally? At present, South Korea actually occupies the rocks, and Japan is unwilling to press the matter militarily, meaning that for the foreseeable future, the rocks will remain firmly in the hands of the ROK military.
So really, all the caterwauling by South Korea over the issue serves only a limited number of purposes:
First, it helps to ensure that SK doesn’t come under a whole lot of international pressure concerning its rocks. As long as relations between the countries on either side of the Sea Which Must Not Be Named stay fairly non-confrontational over the issue, the international community is unlikely to get involved, and South Korea’s justifications add a veneer of legitimacy to its occupation of the rocks (rightly or not – I leave the actual legitimacy of the claims to those with more time than myself).
Secondly, South Korea’s position is good internal publicity… No matter how much the government happens to be fucking things up, as long as they still have their rocks, things aren’t going too badly for them.
Thirdly, having a credible back-story seems to be a prudent hedge for South Korea should Japan ever be able to force the issue and expose the rocks to international pressure and scrutiny. While this seems unlikely in the extreme (South Korea is under no obligation to accept ICJ jurisdiction in the matter, for example), it is at least a distant possibility for the future.
So really, no… South Korea doesn’t have much to gain from convincing the international community that its claims on the rocks are stronger than Japan’s. But even still, one has to realize that most of the strongest, most vitriolic rhetoric being spouted over the rocks isn’t coming from the South Korean government itself, but from ‘interested third party’ organizations like V**K and the Korean press, not to mention the mindless netijen hordes. So even should SK be backed into a corner on this, the government can claim that all of the whining, the screaming, the cyberterror and the firebomb threats were from private citizens, not the ROK government.
Sky, apparently someone at “dokdo-takeshima.com” has something to hide — the Networksolutions record you linked to says there “is no record available at this time”.
By the way, does anyone know of a “Jaeman Cho”? Is this the same infamous “Mr. Cho” who owns “dokdo-takeshima.com”?
cm writes:
Sure does, but from my perspective — in respect of the first linked story — it looks like Chris Gelken and the Korea Herald have a defamation lawsuit and criminal complaint coming to them. Does that newspaper have any editorial process at all? Sure hope Gelken is ready to go home to Canada — he’s at great risk to get sued, criminally fined, and deported at the end of this.
As for the second link, to Chris Brockie’s Korea Times piece, that one was already covered here at the Marmot’s Hole, by me, back in March. To sum up the advice there: Don’t come to Korea to teach English!
Sperwer points out correctly why the Korean university should be pressed. Featherbedding is a massive point of contention for any American doing business in Korea wherein there is a team of Koreans. This is a big cultural difference that runs through unions, governmental agencies, academic institutions, etc. and is a big reason a lot of Koreans do not want to open services markets further to the outside world. God forbid that competitiveness might actually be imposed.
Remember that the US labor system is heavily bsed on “at-will employment.” This means hiring at-will and firing at-will. There are only a few states that actually have their own “just cause” exceptions.
Korea, as Sperwer correctly points out, is based on de facto permanent employment wherein “just cause” is necessary to prove in order to terminate employment.
“Sky, apparently someone at “dokdo-takeshima.com” has something to hide — the Networksolutions record you linked to says there “is no record available at this time”.”
It is still available as of now.
http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/index.jsp
Enter
dokdo-takeshima.com
You’ll get the imformation.
Brendon would know, but based on what he has said so far and from when I read the labor laws back in 2000, an employer cannot bypass the law in a contract. It doesn’t matter if the employee agreed to the terms, if those terms violate the labor law, those terms are null and void.
Don’t get me started…..
On the Herald piece, I didn’t read it, because I can’t stand the herald website. It takes a year to load and the whole time you have to watch those useless “dynamic” ads….
What was the story about?
For clarity’s sake, I’ll state here that I do not endorse the apparent action by netizens to promote Mr. Bevers non-renewal of contract. I also feel, however, that Mr. Bevers should not have been surprised that his views were strongly opposed by the majority of Koreans, and that their reaction to his blogging could be, in some cases, extremely emotional.
In #44 above, he states that he knew this topic was sensitive among Koreans, but did not realize the extent to which that sensitivity might affect him professionally. Again, while I do not support the apparant actions which led to his university’s decision not to renew, I also believe that he was naive with regard to this. While I do not think that this naivety alone was sufficient justification for what befell him, it seems to have contributed to an exacerbation of ill will toward him all the same. After thirty years of life and work in this country, he might have been expected to have gained the intuition that such might occur. That he did not seems to have allowed him to continue a risky pursuit.
I do not believe that Mr. Bevers was attempting through his blogging efforts to expand the rights of non-Koreans in Korea with respect to free speech. Rather, as he claims, his interests were personal, and directed toward an expansion of information with regard to soverignty claims on Dokto.
While he may think what he wants, he ought to have recognized that his blogging efforts could have led to dire consequence. Whether or not that is fair is a separate issue; reality and fairness are not always close kin.
It was about a disgruntled teacher’s trials and tribulations with a hagwon owner; the “story” read like a post at Dave’s ESL Cafe.
Anglo-American contract law generally proceeds from the principle that competent parties are entitled to agree to whatever they want in a contract and the state will make available the resources (courts) to enforce the bargain made by the parties, so long as it doesn’t offend public policy. Interference with freedom of contract on the basis of public policy has increased dramatically as time has gone by, but state intermeddling in private contracts in the West is as nothing compared to here. That’s because of the famous Rule by Law principle (as opposed to the consent of the governed). Legitimacy here is NOT seen to proceed from the agreement of individuals but from the imposition of a rule by an authority – one that is sanctioned by the mandate of heaven, to barrel of a gun or the imagined collective will of
Das Volkthe ethnically-pure minjok. In other words, state interference and ordering of private affairs is the norm. In the area of labor relations with which we are concerned, therefore, it makes not one whit of difference how the parties or one of them – it’s usually the employer in Korea – attempt to circumvent the law. They can’t. The State in Korea is Big Daddy; paternalism reigns; and you cannot opt out from its not-so-tender embrace. [Now whether, especially as a barbarian, you can get the state to effectively protect the rights that is ostensibly has provided is another matter entirely.]Nathan: Also, are all universities required to pay severance pay? I know of several universities that specified in their hiring ads for full time lecturers that severance pay would not be paid.
Since no one is answering Nathan’s query, I’ll try myself.
As I understand it, the private pension or 사학연금 is seen, apparently in full accordance with the law, as obviating the need for severance pay at private universities. Neither tenured professors nor administration staff at private universities like Yonsei or Korea U receive severance pay. I assume that this is why the universities referred to by Nathan make clear up front that teachers will not receive it.
When denied severance pay, therefore, one should find out first whether one was on the national pension plan (as most English teachers at universities apparently are) or the private university one. Obviously one should not take the university’s word for it, but check by calling the national sahakyeon’geum bureau (which is very friendly) and confirming that the money has been paid in. My understanding is that this can be paid out in a lump sum, but is better left in, because it rises significantly with each following year of employment.
If I’m wrong on all this, I hope Brendon will correct me!
If a university participates in a “private pension” (let’s be careful to distinguish this from National Pension Plan, which is a Social Security-type system), the university will be contributing cash to the employee’s personal account with that private pension. To the extent that this money equals or exceeds what the employee is entitled to receive under calculation of statutory severance pay, the university shall be entitled to forego separate payment of severance — for it’s already been paid, into that pension account! But if there is a shortage, the employer is liable to make up the difference.
This same system is available to private employers too, new in 2006, but the move to “corporate pension” is going to take place slowly because the employees’ “collective approval” is required for any change to existing severance-pay systems. Corporate pensions are supposed to take the form of (i) change to a defined-contribution system, (ii) change to a defined-benefit system (of the type that’s strangling General Motors now), or (iii) continuation of statutory severance pay as-is.
If you think Mr. Bevers is getting screwed here is my story. And this account is EXACTLY the truth!
I too have taught at a university for six years as an English professor. DanKook University here in Seoul to be exact. For six years I encountered no problems. I was never late for class even one time and I believe I missed only one day for illness in six years. My student evals were above average and was considered a leader in the English department. I recommended 5 teachers for hire and they were indeed hired. In short, my director considered me a very good employee.
What happened? After 5 and 1/2 years my director was replaced. No problem. My new director seemed very nice and indeed at our initial meeting he praised me for being an excellent professor and asked for my help (I’m older) in getting the department running smoothly under his leadership. No problem. We were all given our schedules for the spring semester and asked to indicate that we would sign new contracts as soon as possible.
In late December a professor decided to quit at the end of the term. This is a professor that was not well liked or respected by many others on the staff and we were indeed happy to see him leave. Well, it seems he wrote a letter less than complimentary about me that went up the chain of command to the president. Now I am called in for another meeting with my new director and asked “Do you have a drinking problem?’ What the hell?!!! I have always chosen to teach the 8:30 classes and arrive at school by 7:30 am. No, there is no drinking problem. He said they investigated and found nothing to it. He did indicate that there was a letter about me. I asked what else was on it and he would not say. Said “it’s secret” and I should not tell anyone about it.
I figured this was the end of it but it was not. Another meeting held with director and now he shows me the student eval from spring last year. This number out of 5 was just slightly below uni average. First time and he had told me at our initial meeting that that was perfectly fine because it can happen. (I had music and art students that semester!) As a side note, my previous director had told me and others that the student evals were not very important anymore because we had established ourselves as fine professors and that a lower eval here and there was of no importance. We were, in fact, told we could teach at Dankook until we wanted to retire.
Here is the e-mail I received on Dec 18th.:
Dear Sir:
How are you? This is a tough to write. I am very sorry to say that the President of DKU turned down your contract revewal this morning. I feel particularly bad about this news since I am so deeply and directly aware of what you have done to encourage the students at Dankook. Again I deeply appreciate your effors. Thanks.
Sincerely yours,
Head, Department of Liberal English
Nice Christmas present after six years, huh? Of course I called him and asked for a meeting which he really did not want to have but finally agreed to. At the meeting were him and his boss (Dean of Dept.) and myself. I asked for the reason I was not being renewed and was told that since it is a one-year contract they do not have to do so. And the department was changing and the hiring committee felt I was no longer desireable. My credentials and experience top the rest of the remainging staff. Clearly, I was not renewed because of a letter written by a unhappy, unpopular departing employee. But, I could get no specific reason other that they did admit a letter existed. When I asked to see it I was told no.
Let me also note, that after 4 years at DKU our director said the school had made a mistake and that we all should have only been allowed to work for 3 years. He went to bat for us and got the rule changed to exempt foreigners from this policy. He then said we could teach there as long as we wished up til 70 years of age. I just turned 60 last week and really had planned to work at DKU until age 65 as my health is good and I really enjoy teaching. (I was a high school history teacher in the States and have been in Korea for 10 years and have a Korean wife).
Besides, having to find other employment, I am very upset and disappointed in the lack of respect I have been given for six very dilligent years at DKU. I did everything for them that they asked and even more.
As I said, everything related here is the absolute truth. What do you think and what can I do?
After six years at DKU same thing happened to me as to Mr. Bevers. No reason given. Just an e-mail saying I was not being renewed. No controversy at all. Was told just 2 months prior what a great job I was doing and how valuable I was to DKU and would I please come back.
One departing professor wrote a letter critical of me (lies) and that was that. No chance to defend myself at all. I asked to see the letter but was told “it’s secret”. My conduct and professionalism was above reproach for six years. I was given no respect at all. This really sucks. I had been told I could teach there until I was 70 years old if I wanted. Just turned 60 and had planned on 5 more years.
Should I be frank? Nothing. The job insecurity for foreigners is just a part of package. Somebody wrote above that if I (or Mr.Breen) get fired, an article in the NYT will make a difference. Indeed, there might be such an article, but it will not make the slightest difference. Mr.Breen, being essentially self-employed, is in somewhat better position: it’s far more difficult to stage concerted efforts against his company than just send an e-mail telling this naughty foreigner that he/she should start packing. Only Anna Fifield (also mentioned) is quite secure, since she is a real ex-pat with her paychecks coming from their London (?) HQ.
The Koreans are more protected than foreigners, not so much by law, but by the social networks. I would not necessarily envy them, however, since they have a price to pay: a lot of obligations, sometimes unpleasant and often very time-consuming. And, in general, the pressure to conform for my Korean colleagues is higher. As a foreign scholar, even residing in Korea, one can still say a lot of things which would put a Korean academic into a seriously hot water.
At any rate, if a foreigner appears to be troublesome or whatever, if his/her presence might somehow damages the school interests or interests of some influential persons at any real or imagined way, it makes perfect sense to fire the poor bastard. Quite often schools simply fire (well, “not-renew”) all foreign teachers, including very good ones, who have worked for them for more than a certain number of years. It’s how things are done here. One might dislike it, but there should be no illusions. If one does something which might lead to a trouble, this should be done with wide opened eyes. At least, when I do something which might potentially lead to problems, I do not imagine that it is a trivial matter. It is not incidental that, so far, my humble self is the only non-kyopo person who voluntarily resigned from a tenured job at a major Western university to move here. You would expect that foreign scholars of Korea, at least those who really like Korea and are serious about it would be happy to live here for long periods, but this is not the case. There are few reasons, and job security (well, lack thereof) might be the most important one.
Going to Seoulman_8 situation. Well, over half of my foreign acquaintances can tell very similar stories. You might fight a bit, it sometimes helps, but be ready to move elsewhere. Try to smile, get your severance pay (through Labour Inspection if necessary), and start looking for another job, though at 60 this might be difficult. Talk to your former students, they are often helpful, especially if you indeed were a popular teacher.
Seoulman_8, sorry to hear of your situation–something similar happened to me in Korea a few years ago. Right after I was promoted to a low-level management position (the only non-Korean to be promoted from within to that level in this company as far as I know), the division manager had me demoted to my old spot and told management to fire me because “there are too many foreigners in the department” (so a coworker told me he said). I left a couple weeks later for a far better job. I can’t add anything much to what Mr. Lankov said, and I’ll just bite my lip rather than express an opinion on Korean xenophobia right now.
To “seoulman_8″
Actually, you should not loose time. From my experience, January is the best time for job search, since many schools have to deal with sudden resignations of teachers, and/or learn that some teachers they expected to come are not coming. So, be active!
There is a part of me that feels bad, and the other part is asking, “What do you expect?”
First you sign a contract for employment during a certain period. This contract I assume was entered into freely and you knew what you were getting into. Please take a close look to your left and then your right, now look at the window….what do you see?….Korea!!! Please remember where you are, this is not New York, this is not Montreal, this is Korea…..put your ideas of right and wrong back in the box, it is the Korean system that we are employed and live under, whether we like it or not! The North American concept of free speech is great, provided that is where one is.
Speaking ill of the people (and thier culture, which Koreans identify with) is not a good way to endure yourself to them. Piss on the breakfast table and you will not get invited back for a second meal.
We are in Korea and must do things by the Korean rules (yes, which have different standards for non-Koreans). We pick a date and all go on strike. That is right, a strike! We all shave our heads and meet up at Yoido park and hold an old-fashion protest. No English classes for anyone in Korea until this unjust act is corrected! Are you will me?
Scarcasm off now: Hey man you screwed up and gave your boss a reason not to renew you! Accept it and move on. For the rest of us, I hope we have learned a lesson here….if you treat the people that employee you like this be ready to accept the results. I know this sounds mean and cruel, but it is the truth. Mark your schedule to recheck this post a year from now. The university does not hire back, at best a token sum of money is paid to keep the man quite, and the rest of will be saying, “Hey remember what happened last year?, man that guy such screwed himself.”
Seoulman,
Sorry to hear about your situation. Actually, I suspect that your age was more of a problem than the letter. The other American with whom I work will be turning sixty this year, and my department head told me that he was not being rehired because of his age, though she also added a couple of other issues.
I have been part of a hiring committee before in Korea, and resumes of applicants in their fifties were not even going to be considered until I pointed out that their resumes showed them to be more qualified than most of the others. In fact, I convinced the school to hire three foreign instructors in their fifties, and they did a fine job, though one or two of them were a little cranky sometimes. Even at fifty-one, I get cranky sometimes.
I am afraid it will be hard for you to find another university job at sixty. Even at fifty-one, I think my age, not to mention Dokdo, will make it difficult for me, too.
Good luck.
Gerry is another example of a foreigner shooting his liberal mouth off, which ultimately makes it harder for the rest of us decent, and hardworking foreigners in Korea. At first, I felt a bit sorry for the guy. However, he just wants sympathy from everyone. The worst part of it all is his bitching and moaning about being fired for just cause. Good riddance.
–Remort
I am curious what Koreans would say or do if a respected historian like Dr. Lankov were to come out and say that the historical evidence favors Japan’s claim on Liancourt Rocks (Dokdo).
Any opinions on Dokdo, Dr. Lankov?
“Even at fifty-one, I get cranky sometimes.”
Don’t expect the students to care that it’s only sometimes. Since you’re a foreigner, you’ll suffer on your evaluation.
Gerry, is that stuff you wrote on Dokdo original or is it an English translation of the Japanese view?
If I were Lankov, I would just ignore the question.