YTN—that’s right, the TV station of state-owned Yonhap News Agency—reports on how the outrageous behavior of the foreigners and GIs who frequent the area around Hongik University is turning the neighborhood into a “lawless zone.” It also laments that the police are powerless to do anything about it.
After reading the piece, I didn’t know about whom I should feel more ashamed—YTN for running such sensationalist and racist tripe, the foreign community (including USFK) for not policing itself better or the local cops for refusing to do their job.
Anyway, read on (and be sure to watch the video!)… if you dare:
It’s Saturday night in front Hongik UniversityA group of three or four foreigners with short hair ogle a passing girl.
They yell and point…
The girl, who was talking on the phone, flees the area as if she were startled.
In the alleyways, you can easily find foreigners making comments to passing women.
[Interview: local resident]
“Simply put, it’s at a point that you could take it as harassment.”
“Is this a normal scene?”
“Yes.”
It’s common to find foreigners drinking anywhere.
You can even find foreigners drinking by fires they’ve set on the street.
Drunken, some urinate on the sidewalk, while others are making out even on the street.
Outrageous behavior such as this continues straight till dawn.
[Interview: neighborhood merchant]
“Are there many drunk [foreigners]?”
“They’re all drunk. They go around in groups of three or four. Never alone.”
With problems continuing, there are some bars that ban foreigners all together.
[Interview: female college student]
“These days, U.S. soldiers are constantly doing something, so many clubs are banning U.S. soldiers.”
Many residents are particularly worried that young drunk foreigners might go beyond simply outrageous behavior to commit crimes.
In fact, on Jan. 13, many were shocked when a U.S. soldier who was drinking near Hongik University until dawn sexually assaulted a grandmother in her sixties in a neighborhood alley.
Despite the situation being what it is, police aren’t even thinking of cracking down.
[Interview: police]
“USFK has to send MPs to patrol or something. There’s really nothing we can do.”
Amidst the thoughtless behavior of some foreigners and the failure of the authorities to maintain order, the area around Hongik University, limelighted as a street of romance and youth, is becoming a lawless zone.
Oh my God! Foreigners turning Hongdae into a lawless zone! It’s like New Orleans in there! Quick, get Roh on the phone. Send in the troops!
Frankly, the worst part of the story was the interview with the cop. NOTE TO KNP: You’re cops. Act like it. If you see foreigners engaging in outrageous behavior, straighten their asses out. Last time I checked, Hongik was Korean territory, which means YOU are the authority, not the MPs (and the very thought of MPs patrolling in Hongik is, simply put, insane). Your comrades in Itaewon may have gone a little overboard, but damn, at least they had the right idea.
Also, if I might inquire of my USFK readers, what kind of education programs does USFK have in place to teach guys coming over here what constitutes appropriate public behavior in Korea? Ultimately, it’s up to society to enforce its own social norms, but it might be helpful if newbies got sat-down and told that certain forms of behavior are not particularly well-received here. BTW, I don’t mean to put all this on USFK—I’ve seen a lot of non-military foreigners engaging in questionable public behavior as well. I’m generalizing here, but it seems that when you have a situation where the social norms of the Old Country no longer apply and the New Country takes a very lenient view of enforcing its own norms on foreigners, outrageous behavior is bound to take place, especially when you have a lot of young people around.
One last note to Yonhap: I expect reporting like this from some of the smaller Internet newspapers, but not from you.
UPDATE: GI Korea has a very, very good post (a MUST READ) on why putting Hondae “off-limits” is a mistake, the problems of “the ville” and how USFK might improve the situation.
UPDATE 2: Had dinner in Sinchon tonight, and as far as I could tell, public order was still holding on. No roving packs of foreigners visiting outrage upon outrage on the peaceful residents of that beleaguered neighborhood. Of course, I didn’t go to Hongdae, which is apparently like Mogadishu minus the Ethiopian troops.
In Japan, Family Mart is pulling copies of a magazine on “foreign crime” that was criticized as being racist. Interestingly enough, the magazine earned mention in The Guardian. Here in Korea, meanwhile, we obviously don’t need fringe publishers to publish sensationalist, xenophobic mags—we’ve got YTN!
UPDATE 3: I think this golden oldie from August 2005 sums up the real problem some Koreans have with Hongdae’s foreigners. And it’s not crime. Of course, if you’ve been reading the comments at Naver.com, you already know that.
47 Comments
While I can’t vouch for them all, I believe the leadership at most USFK units here in Seoul periodically remind the soldiers about things they shouldn’t do to avoid trouble. It’s probably part of the same speech that reminds them to stay in packs of three or four. Some will undoubtedly misbehave anyway, and a majority of those that do probably aren’t doing anything they haven’t seen Koreans do. I know I’ve seen things here in Seoul room salons with Korean friends much worse than described in the article.
I think more than a few of us have seen Koreans urinating on the sidewalk/building. I imagine it just stings a little more when the locals see it being done by a foreigner.
Are the Korean male college students peeved that Hongdae is a rpime area for foreign males to hookup with Korean women? Probably. Is it racist? Yes. But the USFK soldier is forever on trial in the court of Korean public opinion, and in the wake of the Jan. 13th incident, the behavior of USFK soldiers will be under a microscope. It’ll be impossible to reason with a Korean that it was an isolated incident and not indicative of the behavior of all USFK soldiers.
Oh, and that Korean cop needs to strap on a pair.
In regards to soldiers integration into Korea I can speak with quite a bit of knowledge in regards to 2ID. The new soldiers at the 2ID replacement company receive extensive cultural awareness training including Korean language, culture, and customs. Plus they go and eat at a Korean restaurant and are even taken to Home Plus in Uijongbu to see what a Korean shopping store is like. Plus semi-annually the New Horizons Days are taught at the unit level to go over all the things these soldiers were taught at the replacement company.
This YTN report is racist crap and contains nothing I haven’t seen Korean men do themselves on a regular basis in the streets of Korea.
What would Koreans say if AFKN released a broadcast warning USFK females to watch out for Korean men because some of them have whistled and made comments at them plus because of the rapes and attempted rapes in recent months of USFK females and foreigner females?
The reminders coming from USFK leadership are a bit more than periodic. Soldiers typically have end-of-day have formations and this issue is talked repeatedly. On the last day of the work week they’ll have an additional “safety briefing” w/ their section NCOIC and OIC and then sign “safety pledges” that cover good conduct. And there’s frequent “equal opportunity” and good neighbor” training, both of which cover the issue of good conduct. This training is usually half a day. Every few months there will be a “New Horizons Day” where everyone has to sit in a day-long briefing, watch skits and videos, etc. that cover several topics including good conduct. Several times a year there will be a “Safety Stand-Down Day”, again a day-long event rehashing everything said and heard before. There’s mandatory online training covering “prostitution and human trafficing”, “anti-terrorism”, etc., and good conduct is also emphasized. Lack of training isn’t the issue.
Nevertheless, you’ll always have a few knuckleheads in any group. More worrisome is that there are quite a few who perceive, rightly or wrongly, that Korea excessively or exclusively highlights the negative, and thus adopt the why-bother attitude of the condemned.
There is obvious hypocrisy here, but are any of us surprised? Koreans have the birthright to act how ever they please with little retribution. Let’s face facts, we are generally unwelcome, especially the GI’s that are pie-holing their women. Are these feelings completely unfounded? I think not. When you are a guest in a person’s home, do you have the same rights as the family who dwells there? It is one thing if junior takes a dump in the backyard, and completely another if you do. We all know and hopefully understand the thin skin of our adopted counties people, nothing new here.
however
Just wanted to clarify my earlier remark: “I know I’ve seen things here in Seoul room salons with Korean friends much worse than described in the article.”
Except for the alleged Jan 13, 2007 rape which was mentioned in the article. Obviously, I don’t imagine any of us condone anything even resembling that.
It appears the “rude foreigners” shown in the YTN report have done nothing more than emulate the drunken South Korean ‘ahjeoshi’. Give these young guys credit for respecting the local alcohol-related customs.
Everything shown in the report, you can see South Korean men doing regularly on the street.
Everyone should watch the video clip. It is indeed sensationalist. I wonder if any Koreans can see how absurdly hypocritical it is to complain about drunk foreign men on the streets at night.
Korean media see themselves as having a different calling than their Western counterparts, and I expect to see more such “journalism” as the election draws near. You’d hope they learned from how their handling the events of 2002 produced a Third World-style demagogue like Roh Moo-hyun and his party.
Funnily enough, I think the Korean disgust here has a logic like this:
If you wouldn’t do it in your own country, don’t do it here. I mean, they assume (perhaps rightly) that we don’t openly pee on the streets and openly hoot and whistle at girls back in Columbus Ohio. Korean guys, well, we’ve all seen it with our own two eyes. But then, it is their own country. The same logic applies to running over little kids, as it were (as in 2002). I think Koreans feel something is unfair in all of this.
If your take on Koreans is correct, then Koreans are ASSuming an awful lot. First of all, the foreigners hanging around Hongdae are not all US soldiers, so how can generalizations be made about behavior back in the home country? Secondly, anyone who’s spent time around a US college campus or sports arena has seen packs of drunk and disorderly young people of both sexes. “Their own country”? So in other words, do as we say, not as we do. Yeah, that is unfair. I realize, a-letheia, that you are merely playing devil’s advocate and not necessarily expressing your own views, but I see this as simple media pandering to xenophobia that is not exclusive to Korea.
I have seen several times how Korean police deal with Koreans who are drunk and disorderly. Yohnap is very, very biased and dishonest in making such a report. I guess guess they are like the Korean Fox-TV and that is not a complement.
Silly whitey. Taking steps to solve the problem just leads to a higher likelihood of the problem being solved, which deprives Koreans of an important propoganda tool against the evil furriners they believe are causing all the problems. If the cops straighten their asses out, how will YTN and the rest of the Goebbels-In-Training Gossip Corps get their message out about how furriners are destroying Korea?
Next thing you know, they’ll be left with reporting on how drunken Korean men are harrassing women, pissing on the street, and making the streets of Seoul a lawless zone. And we all know that doesn’t sell papers or get ratings.
Maybe the commenters here should bring these valid points to the attention of YTN. Who should we contact with complaints like these? Does anyone have their contact info?
Reply to Sonagi:
“First of all, the foreigners hanging around Hongdae are not all US soldiers, so how can generalizations be made about behavior back in the home country?”
It struck me that the entire thing was directed at GIs. And I am talking about THE WAY Koreans generalize. Everyone and every culture in the world generalizes… More on that below..
“Secondly, anyone who’s spent time around a US college campus or sports arena has seen packs of drunk and disorderly young people of both sexes.”
I think it was written somewhere that Koreans expect foreigners to act according to the ideals of their own country, not according to the dregs fu*king under the bleachers.
“Yeah, that is unfair.”
I agree. Prejudices always are.
“I see this as simple media pandering to xenophobia that is not exclusive to Korea.”
This reminds me of somewhere in a Bruce Cummings book where he conveniently dismisses any discussion of Korean racism… because “racism is just racism…it is the same everywhere.” (that is a horrible paraphrase). HA! What a cop-out! I think nothing is more interesting that the way a culture generalizes, discriminates and forms prejudices.
Entertainment disctrict. Oogling girls. Calling out to them. Urinating in the street. Drunk off their asses. All hours of the night. Let’s throw in vomiting in the street.
…….(I came back and edited this after having gone on to read further in the comments. I was reassured by seeing the thoughts I was having echoed among some of the long termers….because the original idea had me heading somewhere else)……
I’ve said before, I’m pretty much a prude. I’m fairly conservative in my own personal habits, but I’m liberal in believing people can lead their own lives within very broad limits.
I would personally disapprove of the kind of behavior I’ve seen in Korean entertainment districts. I disapproved of some of the behavior I saw going on in the ESL expat circles.
But, deciding that the foreigners have a special responsibility —— basically to not emulate the Koreans — while in Korea ——- and even pooing on the Korean cops for “not doing something” with the
non-Koreandrunks —— is just as wrong.Moralizing about “bad” behavior is one thing.
Moralizing about bad behavior pretty much based on ethnicity is —- well — how can we avoid calling racist?
You read a fair number of people in the K-blogsphere and comments mention the “guest” idea……..I personally hate that one….
I’ve said it before: keeping all those hash-smoking hippie Canadian English teachers over there serves no military purpose.
What the heck…..I’m going to post this on the few K-blogs I read daily who have comments on this issue……
I have the storage space and bandwidth on my site (at least for now…
Here is a project for those interested…
Take your camcorders — or your cellphone video cameras —
and head out to 1. the “villes” and places like Hongik University, and film what goes on. Film the foreign bastards and if you can find it within yourself — film just the locals out for fun too…
2. go on over to Apkujong and other well-known pretty much exclusively Korean entertainment districs and film away.
3. somebody can happen to find their way over to the well-known prostution areas too….(remember to take the camera!!)
And you all can do this in whatever city you want — because I know from Wonju - there are Korean centered entertainment areas that are fairly generic to what I’ve seen elsewhere (and prostution places - like near the train station) and areas where GIs who don’t trek over to Seoul (1 1/5 - 3 hours by bus) go in Wonju.
Then email me about transferring the video up to my site to check out and give brief editing with mainly titles added.
Be sure to keep track of dates and locations.
I won’t (at least I believe I won’t) tack on Yonhap type editorializing comments.
It would be nice to have a personal, written summary of the video and what you believe it shows about this “foreigners on the town” and “Koreans on the town” issue.
Basically, what I have in mind is — let’s us in the K-blogsphere put some moving images in the place of the comments we recurrently have on this recurrent theme about the expat community in Korea and Koreans themselves…
Let those with the eye and drive show us what they mean when we all comment on this stuff.
I honestly never hung around with GIs much or in the GI entertainment areas. When I went out, it was usually with Koreans and a little less frequently it was with other ESL expats.
I did live above an older Korean entertainment/restaurant area in Wonju — and could not sleep 3 to 5 nights a week due to the loudness of either the drunk Koreans celebrating or the drunk Koreans fighting without their fists.
I have also had to walk through entertainment areas in a couple of Korean cities either to get to work or school early in the morning or late at night.
But, again, let’s get some video reporting to give us all a clear idea of what we mean by the bastard foreigners or just regular happenings in Korean entertainment areas stuff that is a recurrent theme in the K-blogsphere and Korean society.
my email: usinkorea@hotmail.com
Fcuk Hongdae. I’m never going again, even if it is taken off the list.
Celebrate, Corea! Soon you’ll be completely rid of me!
(I just wish my country were rid of you).
a-letheia wrote:
“This reminds me of somewhere in a Bruce Cummings book where he conveniently dismisses any discussion of Korean racism… because “racism is just racism…it is the same everywhere.” (that is a horrible paraphrase). HA! What a cop-out! I think nothing is more interesting that the way a culture generalizes, discriminates and forms prejudices.”
Don’t compare me to Bruce Cummings, please. Far from dismissing YTN’s xenophobic piece, I have harshly criticized it. Racism is not the same everywhere because demographics, culture, and history all influence attitudes towards those who are different.
Don’t you think that sonagi is a balanced person? She’s great.
Why is wjk spouting steam above from his head instead of enjoying here?
Here is much more of a blow-by-blow quote from Cuming’s latest masterpiece: North Korea: Another Nation
“So, North Korea’s govenment has done some horrible things; they’re communists, right?”
I believe I ripped this book apart on my old blog that I erased when I started over on a different server.
Anybody who ever thought Cumings had a shred of credibility on North Korea should read this book - preferably from a library or a borrowed copy - don’t fund this ass…
wow, just two weeks ago, I was in hongdae with two female friends when a group of guys, who were obviously GIs, approached us asking for directions. When I told them I didn’t know the bar that they were talking about, one guy starts going off accusing me of purposely not telling him while the other guys start simulating sex acts on my friends. Classy.
The one thing that is missing from this is the number of foreigners will only increase in Korea and the number of GI’s is likely to decrease.
It’s also worth noting that GI’s make up a small portion of the population in hongdae, most are teachers.
But for Koreans to say that pissing on the street is a foreign problem is absolute insanity.
Also when I was hanging out in hongdae earlier this century… 2000-2003, every time we would taxi down there you would see (and this is around 10pm or so) passed out Loreans laying on the sidewalks, both women and men.
Two or 3 Korean guys carrying a passed out girl.
Can you imagine if two or three foreigners were carrying a drunk korean girl, they would be surrounded in minutes by an angry mob of Korean men!!!!
One evening right accross from US 66 a Korean college guy was throwing and smashing empty bottles of beer and threatening some other college guy. The police showed up and instead of taking this kid down cuffing him and putting him in the back of the car, they just let him keep smashing bottles and pushing the police around like they were punks.
In the states you better believe you push a cop you are getting billy clubbed across your noggin!!
Yeah, it’s just so utterly lawless down there. Small clusters of foreigners dodging pockets of vomit on the street. “They’re all drunk”? Has this person ever gotten on the subway literally anywhere on the peninsula after 8 PM? What does the red-faced 아저씨 to short-haired foreigner ratio have to be to keep from upsetting everyone’s 기분? Is it possible to concede that maybe when you’re in an area with a higher concentration of bars and nightclubs than people, the end result of everyone being drunk is predictable and appropriate?
As for the girl who was ogled and ran away terrified and horribly traumatized, no doubt she was in Hongdae in the middle of a Saturday night to attend Bible study followed by the abstinence club’s weekly Jenga meeting. I’m not defending lecherous dickheads, but “startled” may not have been the best choice of words. I’d like to spread my disdain all around, like a thick coat of peanut butter onto a delicious sandwich.
1. You read a fair number of people in the K-blogsphere and comments mention the “guest” idea……..I personally hate that one….
Like it or not you are in every sense of the term. Do you hold a Korean passport? You don’t have the same rights as the locals. Face it, it is THEIR country. Waygooks are on display and if the Koreans can ease their little dick syndrome by pointing out foreigner feet of clay, they will. Of course it is hypocrisy however, we are not in Kansas anymore.
“I guess they are like the Korean Fox-TV”
Except that they stand on the other side of the political spectrum of each ther.
same old story
And I say that idea is porochial bullshit.
A nation isn’t a house.
I go to another country, and I’m a tourist, immigrant, migrant worker, whatever….I’m nobody’s guest….
It’s their country, and I should by all means live by their laws, and it would be nice to learn the culture and language, but if I want to remain a backward, ignorant barbarian, that is my right and they can bitch about it or whatever…
….but there is no way in hell my status as a non-native means I have bend over and grab my ankles and say, “Thank you, may I have another?” as they repeatedly stick it to me up the bum….
…because I am a “guest” in their country.
I don’t expect that out of the millions of immigrants, tourists, migrant workers, and whatever in the US.
The guest analogy is shit. It is an ear-candy phrase lacking a sense of what a nation and a society and a global society really is or should be about….
The guest analogy is shit. It is an ear-candy phrase lacking a sense of what a nation and a society and a global society really is or should be about….
This is just about one of the most naive statements I have read on this blog. This is Korea. The good-ship-lollypop does not dock on these shores. I guess that the fact that I don’t piss in the street, or pass out in front of the bar, means I am taking it in the ass?
You have completely over-simplified the collative continuousness of this backwards Republic. If you want utopia you will have to look elsewhere. Most people that come to Korea come to make a buck. If you are looking to be loved by the locals you will probably be disappointed.
Well the command of the USFK is sadly living in a damn fishbowl. I’m not saying they aren’t trying, but mandating new soldiers to go out and eat a bowl of kimchi and learn “kamsahamnida” does jack with regards to the issue at hand.
The institutions are in place, new horizons, country briefs for incoming soldiers, and hokey “behave” comercials on AFKN need to be implemented correctly. They need to rebroadcast YTNs report with English Subtitles. Then they need to show a list of those soldiers who are currently serving in korean jail for offenses they commited while drinking in “the ville”. One can’t deny something thats staring them in the face. This needs to be done at new horizons as well.
General Bell getting on the tv telling everyone to where theire sniffle gear and poncho or they might get hypothermia and die is a waste of breath and an embarrasement just as the comercials about wearing your bike helmet with sessamee street music playing in the background.
Dammint, they ought to do that too. This drives home the point about the buddy system.
terrible dan wrote:
“As for the girl who was ogled and ran away terrified and horribly traumatized, no doubt she was in Hongdae in the middle of a Saturday night to attend Bible study followed by the abstinence club’s weekly Jenga meeting.”
Speaking from personal experience, it is scary to be harassed by drunk men, especially if the men are Korean and the incident takes place in Korea because the likelihood of receiving any assistance from bystanders is near zero, regardless of whether the woman is foreign or Korean.
captbbq:
If the lot pulled stakes and moved to Guam, this would all be a non-issue. You all would be much happier.
Sonagi
Come on! Are you for real? Do you have a Korean husband that beats you? If you do, I will agree, if not you are full of shit!
railwaycharm,
sound good to me, wheres the first stake? I’ll help them pack too.
Speaking from personal experience, it is scary to be harassed by drunk men, especially if the men are Korean and the incident takes place in Korea because the likelihood of receiving any assistance from bystanders is near zero, regardless of whether the woman is foreign or Korean.
The likelihood of a bystander helping you increases if the bystander is a foreigner… maybe. I’ve had a few friends intervene when a woman or girl was being beaten or harrassed and the many Korean men present just watched or ignored it. In the first case, a man approached my friend afterward and brought him some canned coffee and thanked him for doing what he did (to which he replied, “Why didn’t you do something?”), while my other friend, when someone inquired and found out he was a student, was asked, “You’re only a student? Why did you touch that (older) man, then?!” (That man was harrassing a high school girl on the subway, and no one present but him helped her).
railway wrote:
“Come on! Are you for real? Do you have a Korean husband that beats you? If you do, I will agree, if not you are full of shit!”
I don’t know if you’re being totally sarcatic, but surely you realize that not all male-female violence is between spouses. Yes, I really was cornered twice by a drunk Korean man, once on the street and once in a subway station. I was also screamed at and threatened by a Korean man in a subway car while two male passengers cheered him on. Everyone else in the subway car stared at their shoes the entire time. I managed to ditch the angry ajosshi by tricking him into getting off the subway at a stop.
Yup. Here is the crux of the matter — which I believe you and I discussed previously with pretty much the same words.
It was somewhere a few weeks ago when I pointed out that it seems one reason why I buttheads with the “guest” analogy with some people is that I have a higher respect for Korea (and for nations in general).
When I start saying Korea should “love me” - grab that quote and use it in the future - because that has never come out of my mouth….
Basically, what your position boils down to is that — natoins can do whatever they damn well please with non-natives. That since something is so wide-spread in a society, and the foreigner should have known that before coming in, they should expect what they get.
Nice dodges, just like the “love” line, but it won’t fly.
As I stated above, I don’t care what the status of the foreigner in Korea (or any country) is - tourist or buck earner or whatever - you cannot excuse negative items pointed at those foreigners……just because it is very common in that society.
To point to non-Korean complaints about how their media (and other social institutions) blow out of propotion “pissing on walls” (or even a violent rape or murder, and the dozens of other things the society uses to justify bigotry), and say “Shut up and live with it. It’s not your country. You’re a guest here….” — is shit.
I don’t consider South Korea to be a “backward Republic” - but even if I did - complaining about the backwardness would be just fine — and trying to dismiss it by saying foreigners are “guests” and have no basis for complaining is — shit.
railwaycharm #35
I get the feeling railwaycharm is trying desperately to hold onto dillusions that allow him to remain in Korean society - which he apparently thinks so lowly about - chasing that buck…
Koreans would have no problem admitting that “don’t get involved” mentality is a reality in Korean society when it comes to things like seeing a public confrontation (whether between 2 men or a man-and-woman or whatever)….(except between a non-Korean and a Korean)…
There’s plenty of hypocrisy here on all sides. USFK is the target of this passive-aggressive attack by YTN, and it represents the usual ambivalence Koreans have about the U.S. troop presence. USFK on the other hand treats the troops like children with arbitrary “off-limits” and random curfews.
USFK should have organized weekend bus trips to Hongdae for the soldiers. Seriously. If someone gets out of hand then ban them.
The Korean gov’t should explain with PSAs why the U.S. troops are here and what their contribution is. OR tell the U.S. to take them home. Support them or let them leave.
None of this will happen of course because it’s easier to play in the mud than act like grown ups.
How long until the next elections?
I get the feeling railwaycharm is trying desperately to hold onto dillusions that allow him to remain in Korean society - which he apparently thinks so lowly about - chasing that buck…
Ha, ha, it is to laugh…I don’t think lowly of Koreans US. I accept them for who they are. I have no illusions that I am a (guest) non-Korean here and not every door will open for me as such. I realize that bigotry exists here however; it seems to be evenly spread to all non-Koreans. Of course it is wrong, despicable etc… It is what it is. I personally do not choose to chase down windmills over this matter. Koreans will not amend their culture for our convenience.
Now on the other hand, If you have some other reason to be here as Korea’s resident victim, all the best luck to you. I am here to make a living and I like the overseas experience. You have some reasonable arguments to my point’s usinkorea however, you have failed to sell them to me.
Sonagi,I was being sarcastic. The events that you went through I am sure were frightening and threatening.
railwaycharm,
sound good to me, wheres the first stake? I’ll help them pack too.
My only request is you guys leave the Navy Club intact!
Just like to add my own rant against YTN. YTN is a pile of crap (I believe it was YTN). Saw a couple of supposed ‘documentaries’ in recent times on the station and they were very biased in favor of the leftist point of view. For example, one was an American-made hit job against free trade agreements with interviews with Chomsky and other radical nuts and another was a program about radical groups in America, right and left.
The problem with the second doc, again made in the US, was that it was very sympathetic to leftist radicals such as the Black Panthers, Weather Underground, etc, while being very unsympathetic to the police and government and yet, when things turned to examining radical rightist groups, then the show was relatively sympthetic with the police and not at all with the militias and others such as those from Waco. In effect, the show promoted the idea that its ok and correct to be anti-government if you’re a leftist (since it’s for the ‘greater good’), whereas rightists are just disgusting criminal racists who don’t follow laws. I don’t need to hear some commie like Angela Davis telling me that the Black Panthers were really a beneficial social organization. Why were there no interviews with supporters of Randy Weaver or the Waco bunch saying they were actually good people?
YTN seems to have no qualms in trying to indoctrinate its Korean viewers with leftist anti-American tripe, so I think the station is yet another amateurish Korean station not worth watching.
The video is quite pathetic. Hooo! Foreigners are never alone, always 3 or 4 of them together. Gee, and what about the Koreans? Going out drinking is no fun when you’re alone.
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[...] put Hongdae off limits. It is probably because of reaction to this YTN report courtesy of the Marmot about the big, bad foreign menace in Hongdae. The YTN report complains about drunk foreigners [...]
[...] of Korea this election year is a genocidal tyrant with nuclear weapons, you were mistaken. The Republic’s Great White Peril turns out to be the GI’s who are keeping the tyrant…. Astonishingly, these deviants have an unexplained affinity for going to Hongdae to drink and [...]
[...] Outrageous behavior such as this continues straight till dawn. (Marmots Hole) [...]