Albert Hakim was the banker involved in the Iran-Contra affair. Unlike most of the participants, he was found guilty (plea-bargained to a lesser offense) and fined. He soon disappeared from the public’s view and it was only after his death was it discovered that he was here in Korea operating and teaching at an English Hakwon.
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9 Comments
Oh great, I’m now going to be a pedophile, a drug dealer/user, an alcoholic, a womanizer an unqualified English teacher AND an arms dealer. All of which, I might add, I am not.
Just think of it. Many of Korean dwellers abroad will also( ^^;;; ) be the refugees from Korea.
Maybe Baduk, et al… So, you and Korean blood abroad are in the same shoes, you boh can be friends.
( And I’m a good coordinator or an uninvited goddess. )
Gee, I wonder why he didn’t join a bunch of his fellow Iran Contra scumbags in the Bush State Department? Or become Secretary of Defense? Or become a Fox pundit?
hahahaha.
Sorry, I couldn’t help but laugh at this weird story and Breaktrack’s comment. And you wonder where Koreans get these kinds of stereotypes of English teachers from abroad. Hey, at least he died helping the impoverished children of South Korea.
For Robert Neff:
I see Hakim has been dead since 2003. I assume with your general interest in Korean history you just happened across the info about Hakim’s Korean connection recently and thus wrote the article as a matter of historical interest?
Mr. Neff,
Please email me, I have an unrelated comment to pass along.
Part of the reason I ask is that you chose to entitle this post in what I’d call a rather “neutral” manner.
“The Arms Dealer Who Became an English Teacher in Korea” (which is merited IMO in that I don’t think the story has any broader significance).
While the Oh My News article is entitled
“Korea and the Iran-Contra Affair
Maligned and double-crossed by the American government”
(Your choice of language, or did an OMN editor pick it? As a title it certainly seems deliberately chosen to attract Korean reader interest by evoking a likely sense of victimhood and antagonism towards the US on the part of the OMN average reader).
Having lived through the bizarre Iran-Contra scandal here in the US while attempting to follow its ins and outs, I frankly don’t see where the story has any deep significance for Korea-US relations.
I do wish you had been able to find some personal acquaintances or surviving relatives of Hakim in order to authoritatively establish whether or not his motives in running the school were in fact selfless; one is left to still left to wonder why in the world he ended up in Korea of all places.
“I frankly don’t see where the story has any deep significance for Korea-US relations.”
There isn’t any significance. You’re reading too much into it. It was written by Robert Neff, one of the contributing posters here.
The new screening for visas wouldn’t have caught that one either. They’re not demanding criminal background checks on hagwon owners.