I hope your irony meters are set on high—speaking about the tragic fire at an immigration detention center in Yeosu, the consul general of the Chinese embassy in Seoul told the Hankyoreh Shinmun that “the Chinese government was taking an interest in the situation on the ground where the victims were locked up.” He commented, “It’s said they broke the law and were staying illegally, but the Korean government, too, must treat them humanely.” He’s right, of course, but…
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28 Comments
That is truly a painful irony.
In this case, a little cultural background information can greatly aid in understanding why the Chinese government is upset. Traditionally, those held in detention in China are shot before their bodies are burned.
You’re fired!
dogbertt,
It’s also ironic that the Korean media runs stories about about a Korean locked up in Australia for being an illegal immigrant while it ignores that the South Korean government does the same.
SomeguyinKorea—The Korean media has not ignored the fact that illegal migrants in Korea are locked up. It might not pay as much attention to the issue as some might like, but it hasn’t ignored the issue, either.
I don’t know about the Australia thing … I was thinking that it’s rich for China to complain in light of what China does to the North Korean refugees it catches.
Well, ‘ignores’ may not have been the right choice of word.
One reason Koreans have a hard time understanding foreigners’ complaints about how horrible they are to foreigners is that Koreans are horrible to each other too. Korean kids die pretty regularly in senseless fires, trapped behind chained-up fire doors at camps and schools. Is Yonsei still chaining up its foreigners’ dorm? When I was a student there that gave me the willies. I’d lay money that Korean prisoners get burned up in jailhouse fires too, unable to escape because the cells are barred, security exits are chained closed, and everybody responsible to get them out had skedaddled out of there. Those folks at the Sampoong Department Store didn’t get any warnings, despite the misgivings of the staff as the cracks spread.
So what makes you so special, Mr. Foreigner? Here is Korea.
Hammer on head of nail B.C.!
Also, for all you clowns who like to stick it to the lawyers, I’d like to point out that the reason basic safety is so widely and ignorantly ignored here in Korea is because the Korean legal system does not punish this sort of negligence with civil sanctions. Everything is taken out of the hands of the people and entrusted to our betters — the Authorities — to apply criminal punishments in lieu of self-help.
Should these prisoners have been asphyxiated by toxic fumes given off by the flammable urethane floor mats, when non-flammable solutions are available? Without the spectre of damages for wrongful death, who gives a shit about them?
Under the current system, the only punishment anyone has to worry about is getting put on a show trial and locked up a few weeks until the next amnesty.
That $130 million cup of McDonald’s coffee is part of the solution. Korean law not allowing for such outcomes is a real problem for this country.
B.C., 130$ cup of coffee is not the best argument. I agree with other point about the fire however, if the silly twat had a modicum of personal responsibility, she would have never burned her hair pie. I think a lot of the frivolous lawsuits turn people off to lawyers. Of course if there were fewer victims, there would be less call for litigators.
BC: “Also, for all you clowns who like to stick it to the lawyers…”
But this is our national pastime.
Besides, someone has to give you grief when the result of a class-action suit is the average schmoe stockholder gets $130 in useless Lucent coupons while the attack lawyers walk off with $30 million.
The consumer always pays when it comes to lawsuits and unions.
This comment needs a second reading.
The comment is right. If this kind of garbage changed in this country, this society would be a much better place for all the people. And, lawyers are often the closest people to the situation, the people that can can most easily force the system to change itself.
Having said that:
Stick it to the lawyers.
That is, to the extent that they fail to encourage these types of changes, and to the extent that they hide (like the Wizard of Oz) behind and abuse a curtain of situationally-specific series of ad hoc solutions (prior decisions, etc.).
All the lawsuits in the world will not change the Koreans cultural denial of danger. Bad things don’t happen to me, they happen to the other guy. The rules do not apply to me! Every rainy season when people get washed out to sea, or the Ajuma picking up Eunhang Nuts in the bus lane, will continue. The change has to come from within.
“…Koreans cultural denial of danger….[etc.]”
It’s a racist mentallity to pick anecdotal evidence to cast generalizations on a group of people.
Maybe this is the way railwaycharm thinks, but this thinking is in the ignorant minority of this society.
Got to like people who call you a racist whenever an opinion is different that theirs. Koreans ferment cabbage = Vegetable Nazis
than
Reminds me of when I was undergrad.
There was a pond(for lack of a better word) in our school, about neck deep and pretty scummy, that the students would throw each other into during school festivals, etc. Mostly done in harmless fun, not all that different in spirit from the horsing around American frat boys might engage in. Only thing was, I looked at what they were doing and saw a potential lethal accident, although I wasn’t sure how or when it would happen.
As it turns out, in my sophomore year some students from the central student council got drunk celebrating the election of their new leadership, and although it was nighttime and raining cats and dogs so that the water level of the pond had risen substantially, they decided to haul ass over to the pond and baptize their newly elected buddies by throwing them in. I think about three people died that night, one of them jumping in to try and rescue the other two when it became obvious they were in danger. It was a very sad and stupid situation. I doubt any of them ever seriously thought of the danger of drowning that any body of water can pose, never mind any elementary knowledge of lifesaving(in which the cardinal rule is never to go into the water after a drowning person unless you can help it).
Needless to say, the practice died out immediately, and I’d say most of the students at my school today probably don’t even know about the incident by now. More’s the pity - I’m not sure that the current student body is any more ‘danger aware’ than during my day.
Good story Leefr. See, Sine qua non! Our good man has an opinion about his fallen classmates; he is certainly not a racist?
My question is, (in the Chinese example) why isn’t the treatment of ethnic Koreans of Chinese origin an issue? China’s economy may be sizeable, but what developing country doesn’t want to maximize remittances? If Chinese-Koreans were given the same visas as their North American counterparts, wouldn’t their earning potential increase and find more cash in China’s pockets?
If the climate right now truly is one of 친중사대주의, then it’s something for China to consider pressing for…well, that and everything else they want. East Yellow Sea, anyone? Sorry if this has been discussed at length before…
Actually Railway is absolutely correct here. There is even a Korean term for being “numb to danger” (I can not remember it just now), thus this very sort of blindness to danger is a mindset that does exist in Korea and may be unique as well.
The Chinese counsel general expressing concern over “humane” treatment of Chinese citizens is very much an act of hypocrisy and is an indication of how deep the level of cynicism in Chinese Government. A curse on the lot of them.
In legal terms, I like to think of Korea as the ultimate “assumption of risk” society.
@terrible dan:
I haven’t heard of the Chinese government taking up the matter of F4 visas for Chinese nationals, but ethnic Koreans in China, Russian, and Central Asia have complained about the double standard for years. The problem from China’s standpoint is that many ethnic Koreans might not return. From Korea’s standpoint, it is not prepared to handle a large influx of ethnic Koreans from developing countries.
R. Elgin, be careful! Agreeing with me may paint you as a racist!
Racist = The comeback of the intellectually lazy.
@ Wedge:
Hear, hear!
Mr. Marmot, for lack of a better venue, I ask here, whatever became of my friends, the Busan 9? I miss their company!