Flavor of the Month

by R. Elgin on July 4, 2008

in South Korea, South Korean Politics

The police arrested a “42-year-old college lecturer at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies for posting” a false statement, posing as a riot policeman on-line. I loved this part:

Kang (lecturer/teacher) said he used the posting as a “literary metaphor.”

Right . . . but then, how many flavors does stupid come in? We should ask Lee Suk Haeng, KCTU (Korean Confederation of Trade Unions) leader, “why would workers strike, causing economic harm to the country at a time when a global depression is looking more and more possible?”

“This is not a political strike, but a strike that is aimed at protecting our right to health,” said the union’s leader, Lee Suk Haeng. “We want to live long and healthily.” Lee also said his group planned to start a nationwide consumer campaign to boycott American beef.

* * *! ? Naturally, this guy will still have a job as a union leader even if car exports really go sour and the economy tanks, so it is not like his family would starve, right?

{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Benicio74 July 4, 2008 at 12:26 pm

Sounds to me like the trade unions are looking for any excuse to have a few days off from work- economy be damned!

2 chiamattt July 4, 2008 at 12:27 pm

the IHT left out…

“This is not a political strike, but a strike that is aimed at protecting our right to health,” said the union’s leader, Lee Suk Haeng as he puffed on an ESSE and sipped from the straw protruding from his soju box.”

3 Benicio74 July 4, 2008 at 12:30 pm

PS- I guess ‘literary metaphor’ means “I got caught, but please don’t hold me responsible”.

Maybe we should all just “understand”. Maybe this lecturer has had a “hard life”.

Cane his a$$!

4 Gravytrain July 4, 2008 at 12:48 pm

Who says there are never any ‘feel good’ stories in the news?

5 Johnson July 5, 2008 at 6:39 am

Tell him the 5 million won fine is a ‘financial metaphor.’ Ah, l’agent provocateur!

6 R. Elgin July 5, 2008 at 11:08 am

I would rather give the lecturer a pink slip as an existential metaphor for not knowing den-jung from dung.

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