Leave it to the Canucks to write the bleeding heart, conciliatory commentary on the U.S. Beef train wreck.
In today’s Globe and Mail, Marcus Gee asks everyone, to “Give Mr. Lee a Chance.”
Some interesting passages:
South Koreans are awfully hard to please. The four previous presidents have left office in bad odour with voters, a fickle tribe who tend to lionize, then vilify their leaders…. Mr. Lee’s supposed sins do not warrant the scale and passion of these protests, which have confused aims and ulterior motives…. It’s a fine thing that South Koreans hold their leaders to such a high standard… But the reforms Mr. Lee plans to a top-heavy South Korea are overdue, and he could yet turn out to be a good leader. South Koreans should give him a chance. He’s only just begun.
You can read the rest on your own.
21 Comments
Nice find!
I liked the article ( I am a bleeding heart Canuck
).
I don’t think the article was too conciliatory. It pointed out some of LMB’s misgivings, and avoided villifying the protesters. This is the kind of article that either side of a reasonable debate might find non-offensive enough to deserve consideration.
You can’t alienate or infuriate your audience if you want to get a message across. Not an easy thing to do when writing about Americans and Koreans in the same article
“You have to bend like a reed in the wind oh grasshopper!”
Off topic from here on :/
We Canadians find it somewhat entertaining when other people mistaken out “gentleness” as weakness or passivism.
We are also proud when non-Canadian tourists sew Canadian flags on their back packs when travelling the world ;)as long as they behave properly.
Well what else would be better at this point than a hockey analogy
Best to pass the puck if you are being pushed out to the side and into the corner. But having no other choice, if you end up forced into the corner you WILL come out with the puck, even if you have to leave a few things behind, like teeth, or a kidney. And if it happens you are bested by a better man, when you get back to the bench, you appologize to your team-mates for having lost the puck and let them know you are OK because you have a second kindey and a few more teeth left
May reason prevail, and in its absence, let kindness rule the day. ( My quote so no ” ” required
)
Well forgive me for that silly moment of national pride ( how Canadian…to appologize for being proud
Korea has A LOT of problems.
It’s like a doctor having a patient who has diabetes, high blood pressure, arthritis, dermatitis, an ulcer and lung cancer. On top of that the patient insists on a cure whilst continueing a lifestyle of not exercising, subsisting on McDonalds, Cigarettes, and copiuos amonts of alcohol.
Whose fault is it that the patients health is not improving. The doctors of course!
Why the hell would any sane person want the job of President of Korea!
It’s really surprising. So many of the overseas Korean kyopo population are calling for the death of LMB and calling him the worst president ever.
Many Korean American kyopos on internet discussion boards are saying that they are nostalgic for the “good ol days” of Roh Moo Hyun and Kim Dae Jung when they felt proud of Korea’s presidents.
If you can stomach the laughter and idiocy of the posters, it’s quite entertaining to read. Scary thing is that alof of these so called Korean-American “patriots” claim to be enrolled in top Ivy League universities in America. I don’t think I can think of a bigger harmful blow to a school’s reputation than the confirmation that that the school is home to a breeding ground of future Korean-American VANKers.
Sure, it was conciliatory. Perhaps you’d like to see riot squads with live ammunition? Would that be non-bleeding heart enough for you?
This is a very interesting post by someone at Asia Finest who seems to want to give something back to the kyopos for them to chew on as food for thought. While reading this posting, I could not help myself but to think he was referring to our own Pawi.
Why Can’t Koreans Handle Criticism?
http://www.asiafinest.com/foru.....pic=162791
Posting inflammatory messages to bait them on a message board most frequented by immature teens and college kids, and then pointing out their predictable reactions.. I see that really proves your point. Do you think Gyopos have two heads?
“Do you think Gyopos have two heads?”
Yes, the American head and the Korean head.
Some of you guys know much more about Korean politicians than I do and have the language skills to follow those things — but —- one reason I can’t buy the “This is about Lee, not anti-US sentiment” is that — Lee was a known quantity and quality before the election.
There haven’t been any surprises in style or policy based on what he said and did before the election —- an election he won by a wide margin.
Roh was the one who disappointed his base by not following through much with policies they expected to see….
….but his administration still managed to say enough and do enough to have the conservatives on his back too.
But we never saw anything close to this kind of street protesting under Roh…
…again….a president not liked by the people and who carried out certain policy items that were clearly against some of the same groups that are filling the streets today.
This isn’t a policy or style issue we are seeing today.
This is simply a return to the past — with the Blue House in conservative hands - hands the people trust will keep the US alliance and export market strong — while they get back to boosting Korean nationalism the old fashioned way…
Super hockey analogy #2, and Canadians do have more grit and strength than people give them credit for, beneath that softy exterior. Great friends and allies in the world.
Or to put it another way —
Roh went to Washington to kowtow in 2003 and the citizens breathed a sigh of relief.
Lee went to Washington to kowtow in 2008 and all hell broke loose.
Connect the dots…
““Do you think Gyopos have two heads?”
Yes, the American head and the Korean head.”
Well, I guess MrMao picks up right where Dogbert stops.
My brief discussions with Seoul taxi drivers, a lot who generally tend to be antagonistic towards traffic-disrupting demonstrators, gives me some insight why many moderate and conservative Koreans are giving Lee low marks. It is not so much for his policies but for his inaction and silence in the face of what seems to be candle lit protests.
Many Koreans want more decisive action and tough talk. That advice is easier to offer than having to skillfully implement. But in any case, it is important to understand that Pres. Lee’s lack of popularity is not singularly focused on his policies and actions. Rather his perceived inaction had made him much more unpopular than he might otherwise be.
I agree: I hope LMB’s learned his lesson, and tries to become a statesman instead of a CEO, but in turn, he deserves another chance, once he gets the Yes-men out of his cabinet and puts in advisors instead — here’s a chance for that vaunted “pragmatism” he promised during his campaign to really become the rule.
Sohn Hakkyu’s overplaying his hand now, as we see when Reuters calls out Korea’s batshit insane netizens (who have also targeted brian from jeollanamdo, it seems http://briandeutsch.blogspot.c.....tizen.html )
– Sohn will be the fall guy when Korea feels embarrassed over being misled into overreacting, as that overreaction gets covered (embarrassingly) in the international press, and he’s put himself into that position by muddling his agenda, lumping his legitimate gripes in with mad bullshit, so that instead of having a focus and an objective, and handling himself like a statesman, he’s rabble-rousing and sounding like one of a bickering couple, pulling every single grievance into today’s argument. “Last month you forgot to walk the dogs. . . and you forgot my birthday in 2006! Why do you hate me so much?”
What the writer probably does not understand is that the reaction is not linked with any one policy itself. These asshats will find something…anything to keep their self-glorified pinko masturbatory rallies going.
“Many Korean American kyopos on internet discussion boards are saying that they are nostalgic for the “good ol days” of Roh Moo Hyun and Kim Dae Jung when they felt proud of Korea’s presidents.”
Now that’s laughable.
“Connect the dots…”
Okay. Anti-Americanism is key to the beef issue and most other issues protesters blame the US for. The bias against the US is blatant and obvious (in Canada, too).
#13…tom..
It is a matter of, “Damned if you do, damned if you don’t!” for LMB.
If he was strong-handed with the protesters, he is damned as a dictator.
If he is strong-handed with his policies, he is damned as an autocrat.
If he is gentle with the protesters, he is damned as a weak an ineffectual leader.
If he is gentle with his policies, he is damned for having no insight or direction.
What is the man to do ?
Thanks for that inside look, Tom Coyner. Seoul cabdrivers are often a good barometer of different cross sections of public opinion. That is incidently how I learned about the anti-Americanism beginning to surface in 2002.
The first time I heard LMB called a rat was in a taxicab. The guy said “Does this guy look like a human being to you? He looks like a rat to me!”
#17
Those aren’t exactly the dots I had in mind.
If it were just about anti-US sentiment, they would have railed against Roh when he went to Washington early in his tenure. In fact, unlike Lee, that action by Roh was a very clear violation of one of his campaign pledges. He said if he won the Blue House, he would not go to the US hat in hand and kowtow to the great American president like all other Korean leaders had done.
If reactions were just about anti-US sentiment and nationalism and broken promises, Koreans would have been angry at Roh - instead of relieved.
Lee, on the other hand, was expected to heal the wounds Roh’s administration, and the events of 2002, created. When he went to Washington, nobody feared he’d put his foot in his mouth and do further damage to the US-SK relationship. And Koreans were comfortable resting assured.
And then they went nuts when also did something they had expected - moved to better US-SK economic relations with the beef deal.
The dots to connect illustrate how Korean society has developed the habit of enjoying eating its cake and having it too:
under the authoritarian regimes, they became habituated to two things: 1. The government keeping the US relationship strong and 2. The government not listening to them even if they wailed in the streets.
Before, it made them angry and depressed because they really wanted democratic reform.
Today — as Roh’s tenure proved — they just want the exercise.
If they had really wanted to overhaul the relationship with the US — perhaps to “make it equal” — they would have supported Roh significantly when he was in office instead of pressuring him whenever he did things that could have harmed the relationship.
usinkorea, interesting take on things. I still think that anti-Americanism is fundamental to the thinking of many Koreans with the paradox that many Koreans continue to look up to the US in so many ways. Somehow it seems easy to hate the US while also wanting so much of what it offers. It kind of reminds me of many Canadians who instinctively hate the US, and yet are only too happy to enjoy the great benefits of being a close neighbor.