The parliamentary opposition is threatening massive street protests and hunger strikes if US beef imports are resumed:
South Korea’s new parliament got off to a rough start Friday, as opposition legislators threatened to take to the streets over impending U.S. beef imports, and cracks appeared in the conservative ruling party over the contentious issue.
Discussions on new parliamentary committees, which are required by law to be established by June 7, were pushed into the background as opposition legislators were set to hold street protests and hunger strikes to scuttle the beef deal, which has sparked massive nationwide protests.
UDP chairman Sohn Hak-kyu doing his part to bridge the gap between public perception and rational judgment [sarcasm off]:
“Do not even dream about fooling the public into eating dangerous American beef,” UDP leader Sohn Hak-kyu said Friday. “We will not stand for it.”
Just a little while ago, the floor leaders and policy committee heads of the UDP, Liberty Forward Party and Democratic Labor Party issued a statement demanding the resignation of President Lee’s entire cabinet.
Oh, and ending on a slightly interesting note, the Korea Cargo Transport Workers Union — a member of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions — says it will refuse to ship US beef imports, and will physically block non-members from shipping the stuff from the port of Busan. If they actually go through with this, and the government tries to break it, things could get very, very exciting.
88 Comments
So after all those candle light vigils, what have the Korean students achieved?
They will now be eating US beef, labeled and priced as Korean beef. Well done.
Now buying US beef will be like trying to rent an x-rated video.
Mothers will have to drive across town to a store where the clerk is not familiar with them. They will have to fumble around the chicken section, until there is no one at the meat counter, and quickly dash in, make their order and hope like hell the butcher is fast and serves them before anyone else shows up.
Perhaps as well she will have to tell the butcher she is picking the meat up for her friend who is on crutches and cannot make it to the store herself.
Favored will be stores that have a US beef section, off to the side in a dark secluded area, where one can readily walk by and pick up a couple of steaks without breaking stride. These will immediately be buried in the shopping basket under other groceries least someone see them. Then the mothers will have to fumble around the gum and battery section close to the cashiers, waiting once again for chance to pay while no one else is around. The conscientious mother will be prepared to bag her groceries immediately, and rush out of the store to smuggle her booty back home.
She will then repackage the meat, and tear the original package up into a hundred small pieces. Then to insure no one will recognize the packaging, she will pour red pepper sauce over the pieces and put them into a small bag before throwing them into the garbage pail.
Do the OECD or WTO ever expel miscreant members?
If only they could get this worked up about things are are REAL problems and dangers in Korea!
I guess that would only happen if those problems and dangers could be blamed on the US!
Physically blocking imports of US beef? NOW this is getting stupid.
I don’t care if folks are dumb enough to not eat red meat from any particular country - that’s their choice. But if I can’t buy cheap steaks any more on the base’s - I’m gonna be ticked off. Normally, I could care less where the beef comes from - just as long as it tastes good and it’s not way over priced.
They’ll be selling American beef like they used to sell Marlboros here: Look both ways and surreptitiously pull it from under the counter.
The FTA is dead dead dead dead dead. Thank fuck.
They just like the feeling of mass feelings, don’t they? Jumping Jesus. Can you imagine Canadians/Americans doing this over pork imports from China? A mass candlelight vigil to stop poison toothpaste..
Wow. This was really amusing when it was just homemakers and students organizing candle light vigils with funny posters. But now we have Korean MPs and people in power making bold statements, and, as I see it, deliberately misleading their constituents. I wonder how far this has to go before I’m not laughing anymore.
@1 and 5 - Funny you should mention that. A buddy of mine had a conversation with his Korean wife, in which she told him she had no doubt at all that Lotte Mart and like would simply label American beef as Australian, and that restaurateurs wouldn’t think twice about lying to their customers about where their beef comes from.
i read on a US health site the odds of getting mad cow is 1 in 10 BILLION
I wonder what the odds are of getting something nasty from this dust from China. me thinks its a bit lower than that given how miserable i feel today.
where are the vigils and lawmaker outrage over the chinese deforestation and industrial pollution?
If Canada (or most countries’) population were as concentrated as Korea’s, and if Canada’s media and leadership were as irresponsible and rabble-rousing as Korea’s has proven itself to be, I wouldn’t put this kind of cathartic mob-mentality foolishness past most countries. Humans are herd-ish creatures.
From Men In Black:
The frustrating thing to me is the way the people who KNOW this kind of thing is stupid (and there are plenty, if my conversation students provide even a modestly accurate sample) sit back, say nothing, and wait for it to blow over, rather than speaking up and try to settle shit down, and offer a counter-point to all the irrationality.
r.rac, the Koreans don’t protest people they know will retaliate. Japan and the US are indifferent to the Korean bi-yearly temper tantrum. As Marmot showed a few posts back, the Chinese defend their interests. Koreans (or to be fair, the xenophobic, nationalistic ones — which sure seems like a vast majority) only like to scream, yell and generally act like fools when there is no consequence.
now you know why the masses act like morons their elected officials are just as whiny, childish, petty, and completely retarded! i could go on
can you imagine a US congressman or Senator threatening a hunger strike over legislation they dont agree with
i would like to see a public transportation strike from the public until taxi and bus drivers actually follow basic fucking traiffic rules
now you know why the masses act like morons their elected officials are just as whiny, childish, petty, and completely retarded! i could go on
can you imagine a US congressman or Senator threatening a hunger strike over legislation they dont agree with
i would like to see a public transportation strike from the public until taxi and bus drivers actually follow basic fucking traiffic rules
i was having lunch with my cousin today and she was telling me about how her korean friends were going on and on about how bad LMB is and the dangers of US beef. my cousin said she couldn’t take it anymore and left. one of her friends said she couldn’t sleep because she is so worried for the country. and they said people who disagree with them are so stupid because we don’t know the “truth.” i asked my cousin what their sources are and she laughed. my cousin asked the same question and they said, “duh, look it up on the internet.” what are the popular arguments made by theses idiots so i can argue back? if anyone can also provide citation or sources, it would be even better. it’s perhaps, pointless because they are stuborn and only gets upset if you correct them but i still wanna point out why they are wrong. if anyone can help, i would greatly appreciate it.
You will have better luck trying to convince a 9/11 “truther” that George W. Bush is a good president.
Don’t waste your time. Email your congressman about what is happening.
The taxi driver my wife talked with said that he’d like to buy US beef. He said that the people that want to buy it aren’t out countering the protesters because they have to work and they know they’re right. In essence they have better things to do than reason with idiocy.
It makes sense to me. Why make a big stink if you know you’re right. Time will reveal all. It’s only the wrong ones that try to convince the herd, loudly, that they’re right. If the herd follows, well, that’s their choice and they have no one to blame but themselves, although we know what they’ll say. *sigh*
The really exasperating thing, I think, is the manner in which people who know much better, and are in positions to act to raise the level of Korean political discourse and divert it course into more productive channels, are actually abetting this sort of retrograde mass hysteria. I’m thinking especially of Sohn Hak-kyu who, if he were sitting in LMB’s chair, would be following exactly the same policy line on this issue (and the FTA)as LMB. What an unprincipled piece of work. he’s turned out to be.
@9 - Well put, good quote. But to me, nobody said it better than good ol’ Alexander Hamilton:
“The masses are asses.”
“Do not even dream about fooling the public into eating dangerous American beef,”
that is funny
After five or six days on a hunger strike, a nice, juicy American steak might start looking pretty good.
There is a slight uniformity of opinion on the comment board here over this issue, and a combination of that opportunistic idiot Sohn and “I don’t want to die” wailing high school kids are granted, ripe for ridicule and render sympathy for their cause a little hard, but it is a little more complicated than “irrational fear of BSE”. I am playing devil’s advocate to a certain extent here, but allow me to elaborate:
The health issue has proven to be a catalyst for some very deep grievances about the LMB administration (his plummeting approval rating is not just amoung the left).
And they go like this:
Dear Lee: Beef was not part of the FTA deal. Given that the FTA is arguably unlikely to pass Congress anyway, capitulating to the US beef lobby just so you could get a Camp David photo opportunity was bound to go down like a lead balloon.
You claim to be the best person to ‘fix’ Korea’s economy. But letting the won drop that far against the dollar just to boost exports is stupid, inflation is rampant, and you just made oil more expensive for unhappy consumers here.
Cack-handed attempts to stifle protests, no matter how irrational the latter are, remind emotional youngsters - keen to emulate the glory of their 386 predecessors - of authoritarianism in the ’70s and ’80s. Given that your party has publicly ridiculed the past two administrations - who, whatever their faults, were committed to democracy and all the raucous frictions that that entails - as a historical anomaly, I don’t find that so suprising.
Your penchant for running things in a highly personalised manner, using personal weight rather than structural tweaking to get things done, again goes down badly with people now used to an almost functioning legal system. (Weber’s rational/legal vs traditional domination). You represent the latter to a lot of people, no matter whether you are right or wrong on the issues.
And when you try and privatise a number of banks, water etc, the right is going to bay for your head too for selling off the national silverware.
Opting for a bragging-rights photo op in an earthquake zone while this is going on at home looks shit too.
By the way. “Arrghhh I don’t want to die from BSE”
re: 18
It is especially funny since US beef has already been allowed into this country where it was sold and, presumably, eaten by Korean people already.
I wonder why no one has pointed out that fact? Since it would certainly counter the arguments about catching Mad Cow!
But, of course, the issue isn’t really about US Beef; it is about slowing down the government and destroying LMB and GNP momentum before it gets started by any means necessary.
Where are the commenters who were sure that this entire fiasco would blow over in a couple weeks and all would be back to normal with LA galbi flooding the streets? I seem to remember cm, user-81, and a few others who refused to believe that this would grow into a full-blown movement.
Yet now we have nightly protests, LMB taking a massive hit, teams of ajumma surrounding warehouses that dare import killer beef, department stores refusing to carry the poison burgers, opposition lawmakers declaring all-out war, and now union members vowing to block incoming shipments. Oh yeah, it’ll blow over in a day or two.
In retrospect it was quite simple to see the storm brewing, and what was coming. Really, can you think of a better way of ensuring a lengthy national temper tantrum than by bombarding gullible Koreans with the idea that the US government and its cronies in the beef industry are literally trying to kill them?
Give a Korean a choice between being waterboarded at Guantonomo Bay or having a thick, juicy, US Prime filet mignon in a fan-cooled room…and he’ll be on a plane to Cuba faster than you can say BSE.
Are Koreans really this stupid?
‘the Chinese defend their interests. Koreans (or to be fair, the xenophobic, nationalistic ones — which sure seems like a vast majority) only like to scream, yell and generally act like fools when there is no consequence.’
lol! maybe you’re missing what’s happening to sharon stone right now. ‘merica will be joining korea in watching what it says to the chinese.
Raw translation of a government institution’s brochure on my desk at this moment:
[...sound of Linkd sharpening his red pencil...]
As long as the US maintains its military presence here and is perceived as interfering with the reunification of the Korean people there will be protests instigated against US interests. Nothing comes for free.
I hope those dumb fucks do go on a hunger strike. With any luck they will…umm…die.
And here I thought that when the pinkos left power there would be a shortage of blog material….
“Nothing comes for free”
With any luck, Korea will soon find that out.
Tonight, Seoulites by the thousands will clog the Cheonggyecheon and Sejongno, raising their voices in protest against an entirely imaginary danger—cheap, abundant, “tainted” beef, courtesy of their
Uncle Suckerfriendly neighbor to the east.Later tonight, when they get home, they’ll drink tea and honey in vain to salve their sore throats, the result of an entirely real danger—free, abundant, tainted hwang sa, courtesy of their
masterfriendly neighbor to the northwest.Few (if any) of them will appreciate the irony.
Don’t bogart that joint, my friend. Pass it over to me…
@ #22
yes they are this stupid
and another point candlelight vigils are
supposed to be a symbol of mourning and sympathy after major disasters not to fucking protest political driven agendas!
idiots!
24: Wow, Linkd. I wish I could read Korean to see if all korean prose is so over-wrought — it reminds me of the Victorian Era.
Any theories as to why it is — does the language lend itself to bombastic expression, or is it a cultural thing, or the mere fact that Korean literature never had an Ernest Hemingway to trim the fat, or what?
My high school students were practicing count nouns yesterday. The activity required that they put together a grocery list for an imaginary party for fifteen of their friends and explain why they chose certain items.
One group of three students said, “20 kgs of AMERICAN beef, because it’s cheap and completely safe!”
Point being - faint as it may seem - there may still be hope for the future.
I’ve been thinking that for over 10 years now and you know what? Same as it ever was…
“I seem to remember cm, user-81, and a few others who refused to believe that this would grow into a full-blown movement.”
I don’t recall making that comment at all. In fact, I haven’t made too many comments on this issue, except for maybe couple of them including that it’s frustrating to see how Korea always seems to be about one step forward and two steps back. I’m firmly on the side of LMB, who’s doing the right thing at the expense of his own reputation.
But I worry what this will do to LMB’s future policies on anything. He maybe gun shy on making tough decisions that are needed to be made.
Link’d : Which institution’s brochure is that? Just curious.
COTI dot go dot kr.
I never heard of them until last week, myself. Apparently the developing world is clamoring to learn from Korea’s experience with accelerated development, and coti teaches them how it’s done. At least, that’s what the brochure promises. I’m rewording it to give the target audience a little more face, and a smaller dose of Korean nationalism.
roboseyo - don’t ask me. I just work here….
It seems that anything involving foreigners in Korea is a case of pushing shit up hill.
1. Foreigners couldn’t buy land in Korea. This was only allowed because it was forced on Korea by their financial crisis.
2. Men with Korean wives couldn’t work in Korea, this was only allowed because of Korean farmers importing wives, and pressure from Vietnam.
3. Foreigners couldn’t buy banks, this was only allowed once their banks were insolvent.
4. Foreign food stuffs have huge import duties, these are only just coming down because of high commodity prices
5. etc
6. etc
Are people here Xenophobic? Seems to be A LOT of evidence to support the arguement.
The only time Korea gives foreigners the semblence of a fair deal is when they are FORCED into it.
Basically all these people understand is force. The Chinese have known this for a very long time.
#36 Ha, funny, I work at COTI. I’m the only foreigner on staff there, and do proofreading in addition to teaching.
This line, quoted by Linked above, sounded familiar: “A small country stricken by the war completely lacking in resources and technologies achieved industrializa-tion in such a short period of time, a task completed by the West for over centuries.”
[We've got a misplaced modifier there, so that "the war" is "completely lacking in resources and technologies." What a boring war.
There is also a logical fallacy. It's a false comparison. It's like saying, "My 6-year-old son can speak fluently, a task that has taken my English teacher 48 years."]
A sentence nearly identical to the one above is in many of the speeches, written by my boss, that our president gives to visiting foreign officials.
I, too, like Linked, use my red pen to tone down the nationalism to the best of my ability.
I’ll add, just for fun, that the most cringe-inducing event in the training at COTI for visiting government officials (Malaysians are the most frequent guests) is the one in which a Korean with an acoustic guitar leads them in learning “Arirang” in Korean — a language which none of them speak.
#36 Ha, funny, I work at COTI. I’m the only foreigner on staff there, and do proofreading in addition to teaching.
This line, quoted by Linked above, sounded familiar: “A small country stricken by the war completely lacking in resources and technologies achieved industrializa-tion in such a short period of time, a task completed by the West for over centuries.”
[We've got a misplaced modifier there, so that "the war" is "completely lacking in resources and technologies." What a boring war.
There is also a logical fallacy. It's a false comparison. It's like saying, "My 6-year-old son can speak fluently, a task that has taken my English teacher 48 years."]
A sentence nearly identical to the one above is in many of the speeches, written by my boss, that our president gives to visiting foreign officials.
I, too, like Linked, use my red pen to tone down the nationalism to the best of my ability.
I’ll add, just for fun, that the most cringe-inducing session in the training at COTI for visiting government officials (Malaysians are the most frequent guests) is the one in which a Korean with an acoustic guitar leads them in learning “Arirang” in Korean — a language which none of them speak.
I think I may have to attempt a blog post in the coti pre-red-pen style someday. looks like fun. Right after my satirical newspaper article headlined, “Lee Myung-Bak Announces Korea’s Intention To Become International Hub Of What Else’ve You Got?”
look out, Yangpa!
31 - Yeah, I always wondered about that, too. You could probably devote a whole dissertation to that . . . I’m sure some have. The bombast used in Engrish: does it exist in Korean, or do Korean translators put it in the English, and why?
24 - Whoa, I swear I read something almost exactly like that a few days ago, but for the life of me can’t remember where it was. I’m scouring the archives now.
anybody see the latest from the times:
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/ww.....25062.html
i say full steam ahead with roberts plan.
time to slap some serious tarrifs on korean products
r.rac - and no anger at Burger King and McDonald’s for saying “rest assured, it isn’t US beef”? I bet they wouldn’t like their US consumers (or US beef suppliers) to know they’re playing that game over here.
Mad Cow Disease
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE)
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad-cow disease, is a fatal, neurodegenerative disease in cattle.
hxxp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovine_spongiform_encephalopathy
In humans, it is known as new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD or nvCJD), and by April 2008, it had killed 163 people in Britain, and 37 elsewhere.
hxxp://www.cjd.ed.ac.uk/vcjdworld.htm
It is believed, but not proven, that the disease may be transmitted to human beings who eat the brain or spinal cord of infected carcasses.
hxxp://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~comm/bsefaq.html
Between 460,000 and 482,000 BSE-infected animals were slaughtered for human consumption before the ban on high-risk offal such as brain and spinal cord was introduced in 1989.
The number of people exposed to potentially infective doses through food may have been “extremely high”, said the scientists. hxxp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/1671737.stm
In the US, where consumption of brain and spinal tissue in over 30 month-old cattle is banned, there has been only one case of vCJD (and that was a woman who contracted the disease in the UK). hxxp://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~comm/bsefaq.html
Accordingly, bone is not a high-risk material, only spinal bone and tissue. Americans are eating steaks with bone (T-bone), as they have always done, without general alarm. Koreans are also not the only ones to use bones in soup: Americans are still making soup with beef bones, just as they have done for centuries:
Old-Fashioned Vegetable Beef Soup
Brown meat in drippings. Pour off excess fat. Cover with water; bring to the boil. Add salt and onion; simmer 2 hours. Add vegetables and rice. Simmer for about 1 hour longer. Remove meat from bone; add back to soup.
hxxp://southernfood.about.com/od/beefsouprecipes/r/bln398.htm
FDA regulations require that all the organs in which infectious prions occur were removed at slaughter and did not enter the food supply.
hxxp://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~comm/bsefaq.html
FDA has prohibited the use of cattle material from organs from cattle 30 months of age or older in which infectious prions are most likely to occur.
hxxp://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~comm/bsefaq.html
In other words, US consumers are eating beef and bone older than 30 months old; the only thing they are not eating from older cattle are the high-risk organs (primarily brain and spinal tissue).
That last post was for Soulmilk #13.
The people who are speaking are speaking loudly. That’s good! Let them have their way, they’re going to get it anyway. It is wonderfully poetic.
The FTA will not pass two democratic houses, it just won’t. The people here will cheer and pat each other on the back and everything will be delightful. I can’t wait to see it.
They will go to the store and pay 14 bucks for a morsel of beef, a buck for an apple and not even realize the rest of the world is paying a tenth of that. It’s cool. They won’t even be angry because they’ll believe anything you spin them. They’ll continue to wander through life with eyes rolled up in their heads like ban roll on dispensers and listen to the same music, dance the same dance and be content in their shared misery.
Most of the people spending thousands on knock off gucci bags are only one or two generations removed from the Korean equivalent of Appalacia. Let em be. They seem fine with it.
The Korean left is really cynical. They lost the election and are manufacturing an issue to try and legitimize LMB.
What do you expect from a country that spends this many millions of dollars year after year on a system that fails to teach their children English?
41: If that’s the way every newspaper article is written in a Korean paper, it explains a lot, actually. Reminds me a little of “Rita Skeeter” the cracked journalist from Harry Potter.
Which one do you prefer:
(loosely based on this article)
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/ww.....24308.html
“An international report ranked Korean universities 53rd out of 55 in their ability to prepare graduates for social and economic participation, though Korea scored fifth in scientific competitiveness.”
or
“A study done by the IMD, from Europe, which had thousands of years to develop its advanced civilization, and spent centuries enslaving and colonizing other races which they deemed inferior, recently released another volley in their imperialistic attempt to measure every country in the world by their own narrow cultural standards. After choosing criteria which, obviously, would favour their own countries, using vaguely defined terms like ‘competitiveness’ and surveying so-called ‘knowledgeable experts’ in various fields, the imperial aggressor has chosen again to besmirch the great Daehan Corean Empire, which once stretched from the northern reaches of Manchuria, all the way down the coast of what is now known as Eastern China. Despite rising from the ashes of the Korean War and Japanese Colonial Aggression, surviving countless fans left running at night with windows closed, and achieving three thousand years of development in a mere thirty years, the bitter envy of these less-ancient nations now leads them to take unprovoked swipes at an education system which, along with the use of chopsticks, has produced, in Koreans, the highest average I.Q. score in the world, and natural immunity to SARS. In an attempt to deny our country the natural birthright due to us for. . . oh shit. What was this article about again? Nevermind.”
(maybe there’s a database of cut and paste bombast phrases embedded in that infamous Korean word processor program, that automatically pop up when you start typing in English, kind of the way if I type “Thurs. . . ” the MS Word paperclip fills in the rest of the date for me — except instead of the MS Word paperclip, it’s Yi Sunshin.)
I’m almost ready to subscribe to paper number two, just for the fun of it.
cm: “So let them protest. It’s all moot point. There will be US beef flooding in and all this will go away in few weeks.”
You weren’t the only one…there were several other pie-in-the-sky optimists in that thread at the outset of Beefopalooza 2008.
The smart money is always on mass hysteria and irrational behavior when it comes to Korean herds.
This isn’t getting the stateside media play it richly deserves.
@50: Agreed. Norimitsu Onishi has been strangely quiet…
Hunger Strikes over the Beef issue?
That’s ironic!
@50/51: I wonder if the lack of coverage is based in part on the utterly ridiculous nature of the “fear” involved.
For someone not familiar with the reactionary, opportunistic Korean strain of anti-Americanism and naive, easily-manipulated nature of its citizens, there may be an initial disbelief that so many people are really behaving in such a hysterical manner over such a benign non-issue.
I can easily see an American journalist looking at this and thinking “Mad Cow? Wasn’t that 15 years ago, and on the other side of the pond?” The story seems so farcical and absurd on its face that covering it would require taking it seriously…which is difficult to do without insulting the subjects.
Any fair coverage of this story would require painting the South Korean public as comically ignorant, and American journalists in particular are loathe to paint any foreign population with such a brush, even if — and especially if — its accurate.
“The story seems so farcical and absurd on its face that covering it would require taking it seriously…which is difficult to do without insulting the subjects.”
Well put. But I do think the politicians, teachers and (some) media of the Republic of Kindergarteners deserves pillorying exposure this time.
That’s an insult to well-mannered, respectful, eager, bright, open-minded kindergarteners that I teach.
I wouldn’t even call these folks MR (mentally retarded). A student of mine who’s borderline MR actually tries to understand and learn new things, and he’s cheerful and pleasant besides.
OK, devil’s advocate time. We’ve just called Koreans hysterical, irrational, retarded kindergarteners. Let’s at least try to understand what’s at play here.
One of the blindingly obvious things I’ve noticed about Korean society is the emphasis placed on “fitting in.” Once the mob has ruled on an issue, thinking otherwise doesn’t make you the maverick individualist that you’d be in the West. It makes you unpatriotic and un-Korean. And without membership to that larger group, in Korea you are nothing. So no matter how asinine the group mentality is, Koreans have no real social incentive to rise above it, and lots of incentive to simply go along.
This kind of group-over-individual mentality can get a lot accomplished, like in the push towards modernization that happened in ‘88. Unfortunately, like any great force, it only works when pointed in the right direction. And it currently isn’t.
On #53, you nailed it. As an American journalist in Seoul, it’s been pretty hard to decide how seriously to take these protesters.
For me, it comes down to how do their actions affect the readers of my publication, a big-name financial newspaper with a worldwide subscriber base about 85% of which is in the U.S. Those readers know that American beef is safe, and part of that safety stems from the constant, reasonable discussion about inspections and handling conditions that’s rooted in science, cost benefit analysis and ROI etc. I think they trust the government, media and plaintiffs’ bar to root out abuses and threats to public health.
So my story on Thursday’s formal decision to reopen was pretty short and focused on the immediate prospects for the beef producers in the U.S. and the impact on their competitors from other countries. It included comment from Australia’s beef promotion guy in Seoul about their preparations for competition. It put the protesters in the context of spooking retailers into not wanting the beef.
As for the broader circus, it’s hard to make any derogatory label — xenophobic, racist, nationalist, stupid — because this stuff is too complex. This thing has brought to boil simmering suspicions and mistrust of the US among Koreans that have real roots. Also, hanging over any reporter in the mainstream media is brand and reputation that has value. Making big derogatory generalizations can erode or damage that value and reporters like me and the editors above me are very cautious about that. There are times when it’s worth saying things that are bold and risky. But in this case, the stakes at the moment are small for the readers of my publication — at most, a few hundred million in annual beef sales (a true fraction in the $160 billion US beef industry) — so I’ve just written that the protesters are acting on bad information, have a political ax to grind and are able to exploit simmering anti-US sentiment. If this leads to a bigger disruption in trade or the US-SK relationship, then I’ll dig harder into the people and the money behind all this and make bigger assertions.
For now, what I’m watchful for is whether the activists/leftists succeed in taking the political agenda away from LMB and the GNP. The problem for the UDP/leftists seems to be, besides crying wolf about beef and saying no to LMB’s other ideas, they are not offering any ideas of their own. In this case specifically, they have nothing to say about high food prices or about the safety of their own meat.
Finally, what also strikes me as interesting about the affair is the complete lack of balance in the Korean media, the absence of any reporting that shows ordinary Americans buying beef at stores or any attempt to get at real statistics instead of those shoveled out by partisans.
well said, ergnus.
From where I stand (I live right next to downtown seoul, where the protests happen), the problem with this whole clusterfuck is that it’s been framed in terms of public emotion vs. presidential authority — one side says “We’re upset” (because they’ve been manipulated by bad information and a reactionary media) and the other side says “Well I’m the boss, so fuck you” — neither side has gone to science, logic, facts, or probabilities in a credible, rigorous way, and that’s why it’s still a mess.
LMB botched this one, big time. it’s gonna take a while to recover — after the biggest landslide victory in Korean electoral history, he’s also set the record for “fastest time to calls for impeachment”
what a system!
ergnus, I think your last two paragraphs bear repeated consideration.
There is essentially no public discussion about measures to correct the serious health problems posed to the Korean poultry industry by the outbreak of avian influenza, nor is there any discussion about the economic aspects of these problems. Rather, people have simply begun to purchase chicken less often, and appear to be waiting for some sort of signal that the crisis has ended. If they were concerned about AI, it appears to have been replaced by a concern about US beef. While we might expect the public, fickle and manipulative as they are, to shift focus, I’d guess most want (if not hope) that government would not be so fickle.
And where is the Korean media in all this? Well, they go to whatever interests their readers. They’re not in the business of being a societal balancer, or of providing increased pressure on government to serve people’s needs. The media’s concern lies with increased revenue, and to that extent, the media here simply demonstrate an overt interest in publishing that which will sell, rather than that which is informative.
I suppose the above ought to read ‘to correct the serious health problems posed to the public by the outbreak of avian influenza in the Korean poultry industry‘ - apologies…
@59,
With all due respect I find that to be somewhat of a cop-out.
You state the dangers of making broad generalizations in the sense that you and the papers must cya (perfectly reasonable), but why is it implied that the generalizations have to be made?
Perhaps I am being slightly naive, but why not just present the facts of the matter and let the readers reach their own conclusions. I think it would make for one helluva good read. Statements from the govt (opposition), teaching materials revealed, union unrest and threats, public calls for boycotts etc.
It, of course, could be somewhat balanced with the measures the ruling party is taking to promote the issue.
Just a thought….
A Modest Proposal:
Per Jimong’s comment:
Perhaps the protesters could eat each other since that would solve several issues.
Firstly, protesters would be cheaper to eat that imported beef, especially since they are so plentiful lately. They young ones would probably taste a bit more like veal since they would not have the bitter taste that is acquired with older protesters.
Secondly, less labor would be required to herd and maintain such willing protester cattle since they gladly go anywhere at the least implication of necessity. They could probably be directed to slaughterhouses using the power of the internet to direct many where mostly needed. Such is the virtue of having an rudimentary education made available.
Educators should be disallowed from becoming food stock since , as earlier noted, older protesters tend to acquire said bitter taste from years of discontent. Some have suggested that they may also suffer from some sort of dementia since many seem to act in a disorientated manner, lacking all manner of decency and propriety. Being that I am not a physician I could but guess as to the cause of such a malady. Educators also serve the purpose of instilling enough education so that our protester herd can receive direction — even through modern means such as the internet and cell phones.
Considering the benefit, educators should be held aside unless, at some time, a shortage of glue should occur, wherein they could easily be rendered to make a fine paste that would never come undone.
Thirdly, harvesting the quality of the younger protester could only be superior to any imported beef since Korean mothers are famous for their undying devotion to the care and well-being of their children. Such a quality livestock could only be considered as a medicine, greater in benefit to any soups made from dog or fish.
Instead of importing beef from America, I further suggest that, due to the steady rise in fuel prices and especially due to the upcoming fuel crisis that is due in most parts of the world, Korea should import American cows and bulls for the sake of riding them with saddles, thus providing a perfect solution for solving the upcoming energy crisis in Korea and preserving the FTA since the meat industry is so desirous of exporting American beef. Riding bulls for transportation would be considered very classical, in the Korean sense, since Korea has had a history of using carts and bulls to plow fields with. This could be the larger part of a Korean energy policy that would be far greener than any thus far on the entire planet and uniquely Korean, thus insuring that Korea would be a global leader in fighting global warming.
If this modest proposal seems reasonable and meritorious in the points made herein, please consider forwarding this to any parties you might consider to be influential and Korean legislation.
A little off-topic, but a few posters have mentioned the FTA needing to pass both houses of Congress in the states. I was just talking with my american colleague last week, and we were wondering why that is? Aren’t treaties the sole responsibility of the Senate to ratify? What does the House of Representatives have to do with the FTA?
@63 Fair point and you’re quite right. I can write about this without making broad generalizations. And I have, though far less than the Korean media with just four articles since this began. I mentioned generalizations in the earlier post as a way of responding to the comment in #55 that “American journalists in particular are loathe to paint any foreign population with such a brush, even if — and especially if — its accurate.”
The facts themselves are interesting, but the question I have to keep answering to get space in my paper is “Why does this matter to readers?” And so I focus on the effects, first economic and then political. For the moment, those effects seem fairly small to an international readership. It could affect the FTA between SK and the US (but the Democratic resistance in the US is more meaningful), could harm the hopes of the US beef producers in the SK market while helping the Aus/NZ producers, could keep food prices high in SK and could harm LMB’s agenda. Or it could fizzle out after a big pep rally today at Myungdong Cathedral where the 386ers relive the glory of 1987. It’s a social curiosity and phenomenon and important to all of us here in SK, but it’s not quite more than that at the moment.
I hereby nominate #64 for the title of Best R. Elgin Post EVER.
Re #64: Jonathan Swift would be proud. Bravo!
Jonathan Swift *is* the man for all times.
#45 BT…many thanks!
I’m confused.
What exactly is it that makes the Korean Left fear US Beef?
Successful Capitalism?
Maybe the grass soup these protesters are eating in unity with the typical citizens of Wonsan and certain Pyongyang suburbs is short a few vital amino acids and they’re not thinking about Korea, just the Dear Leader…
@70
For the left, beef is not something to be feared but to be embraced as a tool to bring down LMB a few notches.
The pinkos love US beef.
#65 its not a treaty per se, treaties are now a rare occurrence in the us. most “treaties” are filed under “executive agreements” which dont require the advice and consent of the sentate. fta is considered a “congressional executive agrement, thats why the house and senate must agree to to it.
its all spelled out here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_track_(trade)
@JTB-In-Texas,
Is the American beef industry an example of successful capitalism? Isn’t it based on cheap corn paid for by American tax dollars?
American Beef! American Cars! American Airlines! Proud examples of America’s “Successful Capitalism”!
replace US Beef with terrorists
Another cheer for Elgin’s post, #64.
I think it’s time I shelved the English lessons at the college and fell back into my degree to teach some CRITICAL THINKING to these students.
Though, I think a big part of the problem is that while I can scour the web to get countless global sources of information about mad cow disease in English, the only sources about it in Korean will be in Korea, and apparently questionable.
Thank God LMB didn’t try to convince Koreans that “Fan death” was a myth.
I always thought Americans were the dumbest asses in the world until I lived in Korea.
There are NO critical thinkng skills evident in the Korean mentality. None.
They never ask the basic question:
Is it true?
Could democracy be in danger in Korea from Korea’s left? The Mad Cow Party (Kwangwoodang) lost both recent national elections (and a string of by-elections) badly after a failed 5-year stint by Roh Moo-hyun/Uri Party and they are now rejecting those electoral outcomes in the street, using some of the planet’s most gullible and easily misled masses and arguably the free world’s most irresponsible media. We still don’t have a complete picture of just how much the Uri cabal allowed North Korea to infiltrate key Korean institutions. Korea’s hard left are not by any stretch democratic forces.
As the WSJ (?) reporter pointed out above, this is small ball for the United States. Although the mad cow issue is pure fiction as a health matter, the political impact could be devastating on an immature democracy with shallow roots, very few competent politicians and a nearly dysfunctional press.
#58,
The same can be said of many societies (it’s called tribalism). Remember the climate in the US shortly after 9/11? The Dixie Chicks incident?
#77,
I tried that. I think it went rather well. I don’t think they all understood the importance of using critical thinking while formulating an opinion, but at least they understood that not everybody agrees on the issue…and that’s okay.
…I also told them to read between the lines, to find if anyone has any vested interests in raising the issue.
Cheers to Kim Jong Ill’s spies for succeeding in getting a mass army of gullible Korean idiots to march all the way to the blue house to do what the DPRK miltary has been trying to do so long. They’ve also succeeded in taking over the korean internet and all public air way channels. This crap is so deep rooted now it looks like this country isn’t going to go anywhere politically, diplomatically, and economically. It’s all going down, down, down.
Man I can’t believe how stupid and biased people can be. You guys here really think this is just about mass hysteria concerning a fictional disease? Fucking unbelievable. This is about incompetency of the government, how they failed to negotiate a fair deal with the U.S. over beef that numerous other countries attained. It’s about the unwillingness of the government to listen to its people, their arrogant attitude that they can do whatever the fuck they want once they’re elected. And it’s about the injustice of how they violently and illegally disperse peaceful demonstrations every night, wounding unarmed civilians, many of them women and high school students.
Many Koreans, in fact, would probably have accepted the deal if we decided only to import cattle slaughtered when under 30 months old and took rigorous measures to prevent srm materials from slipping in. The point is that WE DON’T WANT YOUR SHIT DUMPED IN OUR YARD. I suppose this might find slightly too difficult for you folks to understand since you sell industrial waste to third world countries all the fucking time.
Americans always pretend like they are interested in lofty ideals like justice, democracy, equality and freedom. Reading these posts so worried about the FTA convinces me that all they’re ever really interested in is money.
WTF happened to the separate posting of Elgin’s comment?
Anyway, don;t let the lilliputians tie you down. Remember what the man said about writing for their edification rather than their approbation.
jeez — Don’t give up hope. At the rate it’s going, the FTA will be history soon enough, and the Obama White House and Democrat Congress will steer the US away from “making money” (evil! evil!) and concentrate on “justice” and all that other good stuff… by dropping the FTA and slapping retaliatory trade measures on Korean products to curry favor with US industrial workers in the name of fair trade.
The removal of posts is a little strange. Can expats no longer make racist comments about Koreans and Gyeopos on this blog? Is it ok to talk about Tibet and democracy in China on this blog. We already know criticism of the US or whiteguys-korean wives is out of line. Is this comment itself out of line?
Jump the shark indeed. See what happens to brand value when you oversell your franchise.
Talk about a lose-lose! And the people here are going mad to get it. Pat yourselves on the backs cause here it comes.
Nobody said the path toward Reunification was going to be easy. With luck the rejection of the FTA, followed by a reactionary harsher stance from the US, will precipitate the US withdrawal of military from Korea and bring closer the possibility of reunification with the North. These troops are a hostage, the idaho farmboy equivalent of the Lonestar investment in KEB.
That ramble besides, I’m just laughing at the latest fortune of poor little lee myoung bak. I hope he ends up killing himself.
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