I guess I shouldn’t get out my pith helmet after all — Madagascar’s new government has canceled a controversial land deal with Daewoo Logistics. (HT to reader)
Kim Gi-cheon, a Chosun Ilbo editorial writer, was not particularly happy with the outcome, blaming the British press in particular in a column:
Late last year, the Financial Times took issue [with the land deal]. Running an article with the headling, ‘Daewoo to cultivate Madagascar land for free,’ the paper didn’t hesitate to use harsh expressions like ‘neocolonialism’ and ‘pirates.’ It was like Korea was plundering a poor country for food security. It ignored the fact that Daewoo would create 70,000 jobs by investing US$6 billion over the next 20 years, and that if the local food situation turned worsened, the country wouldn’t export corn. Once could call it an intentional distortion.
[...]
With the recent change in government in Madagascar, Daewoo’s renting of farmland is in jeopardy of falling apart. The coup leadership that controls the new government has declared a “cancellation of the agreement,” citing articles in the constitution. One could say in the end, the cantankerousness of the press of Great Britain, which one could call the father of colonialism, worked. Meanwhile, it’s true that local opinion in Africa is not favorable towards foreign corporations acquiring farm land. We should not be disappointed, and investors and locals both must harmoniously search for a win-win path.
Frankly, I agree with guy in large part — it seems the FT’s initial report didn’t do the Daewoo deal justice, and even if the allegations of neocolonialism were true, Daewoo would hardly be the first to engage in such practices.
The Chosun’s illustrator, however, might wish to reconsider his style:
I’m going to cancel my bulk orders of gin and tonic water now.
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In defense of the British, for the most part they peacefully dismantled the empire they built. Sure there is no precedent in history for that.
Then again, after WWII, they didn’t have much of a choice, unless they wanted to make the same mistakes the French, Dutch and Portuguese made.
That’s not quite balanced because some parts were feasible to remain, but became independent upon asking, and as for following the “mistakes” of the French, Dutch and Portuguese, some of the biggest chunks of empire were released before those “mistakes” were known.
Korea has malaria, too. I try to keep a supply of gin and tonic handy.
Anyway it’s a well known phenomena that an “ex-smoker” is usually amongst the biggest critics of smoking.
Plus surely having learned a lesson doesn’t deny someone a right to comment on the errors of others.
The FT is a great paper, in fact there is none other that I read more, but I wonder about its influence on the masses in “Madagascar”. I suppose there would be just as much influence from the Korean Government official who attributed this move to “securing arable land for the benefit of Korea”, which seems not to have been Daewoo Logistics’ intent, since they were actively courting Chinese firms to buy the produce as well as other Korean firms.
More than likely I just think that, in light of this being Africa, the new administration is looking for a bribe, as inevitably most business arrangements in Africa require, and unfortunately most Korean companies I know seem more than obliged to facilitate.
I guess we can say now that the agreement represented a bad deal after all. Oddly, however, it appears to have been bad for Daewoo.
“The Chosun’s illustrator, however, might wish to reconsider his style:”
Well, at least he didn’t put a bone in their noses and spears in their hands. Progress comes in small steps.
The Korean man sowing the field while two locals come at him with sticks. I thought one of Daewoo’s selling points was that these farms would give jobs to locals.
Is the thinking here that bad press from the FT somehow caused a coup in Madagascar?
If Noam Chomsky thinks the FT is “the only newspaper that tells the truth,” who are we to argue?
As per the Reuters article, it sounds as if the Daewoo deal itself contributed to the unrest in Madagascar rather than some FT article.
I do not feel sorry for any part of Daewoo either.
The Chosun’s editor that used that cartoon is taste-impaired; talk about giving offense, but then while standing in a bank lobby the other day, I watched a character from “Dooly” graphically get slowly expelled from the puckered anus of some cartoon dinosaur. Bad taste seems almost endemic to so many Korean cartoonists but should examples of such be in a major daily newspaper!??
Sorry, but I couldn’t find any reference, direct or indirect, to either Daewoo Logistics or long-term farming leases in that Reuters article. Was the article revised?
Oh, so little do you know. This is from the same column I linked above:
Damn that FT! Damn them!
Good to know that Canada contributed to the unrest.
Corruption being as rife as it is there (and other nearby countries), did anyone think a few palms weren’t being greased?
Speaking of palms, Madagascar is home to one of the most beautiful – Bismarckia nobilis.
And let’s see – Korea whines about Dokdo and yet employs journalistic cartoonists that are straight from the 1890s. Yes, I’m sure that that’s a sign of national maturity, but Korea is going to exhibit enlightened colonialism, isn’t it? Once again, the failure to do market research in the targeted market lays bare the weaknesses of the plan.
Was there a caption with the cartoon?
Ahhh… The FT. The new whipping boy. Single handedly destroying Korean economic power throughout the world.
One of the things that worries me about the future of Korea is its ability to scapegoat any problem and refuse to except any blame. If you never face a problem how can you overcome it? This happens on all levels of society here, but nationwide the scapegoating usually involves a foreign source. (Now I’m not saying Daewoo is at completely at fault here, but where is the introspection on levels such as, ” Was this a good move to make in the first place?”, rather than blaming it on a third party that is not really involved!)
Economy going down the tubes? It’s the FT. Currency or stock market on the downturn? It’s foreign investors ripping off Korea. Drug bust involving 20 Koreans an 2 foreigners acting in a minor capacity? Foreigners bringing drugs into the country. And my personal favorite, (on a socially more myopic scale but the incident which really drove it home for me): The head of the J.U. network, who gets busted for running a huge pyramid scheme and defrauding thousands of people, says, when arrested, “It’s not my fault! My secretaries tricked me and forced me to steal all that money!” This is your defense? Are you kidding me!
It’s the mistakes you make that are the ones you can actually do something about. If you refuse to face them what kind of improvements can be made?
“gbnhj” that reference to Daewoo was in the 22nd paragraph:
,thus direct knowledge of the Daewoo deal has been an issue during the unrest there.
The BBC article that Robert linked to is a better statement on the Daewoo deal too.
I am really surprised at the lack of understanding on the part of the Chosun Ilbo. I suppose they are writing to please the status quo rather than report the reality as it is.
Thanks. I don’t know how I missed it.
There’s something else notable about Chosun’s graphic.: the two men approaching the farmer are running toward him, truncheons raised, yet their faces show no anger. In other words, they appear to be attacking, but oddly, without menace. In fact, there have been no reports of physical violence against Koreans as a result of this change. I guess, in the Chosun’s view, cancelling a contract with Daewoo is tantamount to assault.
Personally, I’ve always sort of appreciated drawings that are so profoundly lacking in perspective that they make it look like 100-foot-tall cut-and-pasted men with tree trunks for clubs were attacking what appears to be a hard-hatted construction worker who was otherwise engaged in hand-sowing crops. That’s art, damnit.
“I am really surprised at the lack of understanding on the part of the Chosun Ilbo.”
I’m not.
“I suppose they are writing to please the status quo rather than report the reality as it is.”
Some things never seem to change.
This is great news. A naked colonial land grab has failed. And the big lie that it’s ok because it’s being grabbed by Koreans didn’t fly.
Gosh… I love all these pots calling the kettle black.
that’s the white man’s nature, wangkon.
they did all the bad stuff around the world, and accuse and try to teach the yellow man about good, bad, and proper etiquette.
the protest against this hypocrisy is one of wjk’s main themes at the Marmot’s Hole.
i seriously think you guys ought to be more concerned about racists in White Russia than some drunk calling you a yangnom in Seoul. Or how about Oakland around Detroit versus downtown Detroit.
Bansung manee haera, jashikdeul.
wjk: “that’s the white man’s nature, wangkon.they did all the bad stuff around the world, and accuse and try to teach the yellow man about good, bad, and proper etiquette. the protest against this hypocrisy is one of wjk’s main themes at the Marmot’s Hole.”
Wjk ia right. This hyoocricy can be explained as a deficit of melanin resulting from genes including SLC45A2, ASIP, MATP, TYR, and OCA2 and SLC24A5, which are associated with racial hypocricy. The gaffes by Daewoo, the cartoonist, etc. can be traced to the fact that many Koreans have even less melanin than Caucasians.
The Chosun’s illustrator, however, might wish to reconsider his style.
The cartoon looks like it was drawn by a 10-year-old.
There are a couple problems really.
The developed, Western world come across as spiteful, hypocritical bitches (ie The Financial Times).
The developing, non-Western world seems obtuse to the lessons of history and utterly unwilling or incapable of learning from or not repeating the same mistakes that the developed world has from hindsight.
As the developing world plays catch-up, expect to see more of this sort of dynamic in the future.
“Bansung manee haera, jashikdeul.”
wjk, 백인은 그렇게 나쁘면 왜 백인이 많은 미국에서 살아? 백인의 탄압이 힘들지 않아? 어서 조국에 귀국 하면 좋은 것 같아.
Love it – the WJK justification for backwards thinking, its OK for us to think backwards because you guys did it first.
Ever hear of evolution, few in for example the UK deny the bad aspects of our history, empire et al, but we don’t support or justify its continuance by saying the that Ghengis Khan did it first!!
“they did all the bad stuff around the world, and accuse and try to teach the yellow man about good, bad, and proper etiquette.”
Love the continued PC reliance that only whites can be oppressors ignoring all the yellow empire builders, Mongol Empire – Ghengis Khan etc, Chola empire, Kogyoro, Japanese Empire, Manchu Empire, current Chinese empire, not to mention the wider asian empires – Moghul Empire, Ottoman Empire, Ummayyad Islamic empire, Hunnic empire, etc, etc
“The developed, Western world come across as spiteful, hypocritical bitches (ie The Financial Times).
The developing, non-Western world seems obtuse to the lessons of history and utterly unwilling or incapable of learning from or not repeating the same mistakes that the developed world has from hindsight.”
Surely the first is only in the view of the second!!
샤쿠 어린이, 참 잘 했어요.
백인’은’ 그렇게 나쁘면 -> 백인’이’ 그렇게 ‘싫으면’
어서 조국에 귀국 하면 좋’은’ 것 같아 -> 어서 조국’으로’ 귀국하면 좋’을’ 것 같아.
7 out of 10 for effort.
Yuna,
Thanks. However, he never admitted to disliking white people – only that white people were bad people, hypocrites, etc. While asking why someone would live among people they dislike is a valid question, my question is more like why he would want to live among bad people.
유나 씨,
정정 글, 감사합니다.
사실은 재가 한국에서 산 적이 없고 한국어를 잘 못 합니다. 일본에서 1개월 동안 독학해서 기본적인 한국말 배우웠습니다. 잘 못 된 저의 한국말을 해독해 주셔서 기뻤습니다.
Shakuhachi, both you and Yuna are missing the point. Wjk has explained that this is not about historical fact, but race, period. White people are to blame for all evil in the world because they are inherently evil.
Even where there was no actual white involvement in a crime, white influence can be argued.
For instance, while Genghis Khan’s religion is widely speculated to be Tengriism, which was common among nomadic Mongol-Turkic tribes of Central Asia, his interest in the philosophical and moral lessons of other religions led him to consult Muslim merchants and Christian missionaries. Once again, the malicious white man was pulling the strings, and Khan was a helpless thrall.
mizar5 wtf? all i did was to correct shak’s attempt at korean, i didn’t even read the point being made. by him or wjk. and shak even if you want to say
백인’은’ 그렇게 -> 백인’이’ 그렇게 나쁘(다)면
use of 은 is incorrect in both cases. it’s a very easy mistake to make, for non-koreans. when to use 은,는 or 이,가
but if you are know japanese then it’s easy as there is a direct translation:
は -> 은,는
が -> 이,가
を -> 을,를
Yuna, read the Korean part of my post where I thanked you for the corrections. The English part wasn’t related to the corrections of the particles you corrected for me.
Thanks again.
i know shak, you wanted to emphasize he didn’t dislike/hate them , but keep the original literal expression they were “bad”. which is exactly why i said what i said:
*even* if you wanted to keep the “nappumyun” part the particle *still* should be 백인”이” and not “은” nappumyun->nappu(da)myun
the (da) bit in the bracket is not compulsory but it makes a more smooth flow.
if you are fluent in japanese, say it in japanese first and then translate into korean, it’s much easier in most cases.
.
Leasing land in underdeveloped, politically volatile countries such as Madagascar for the purpose of securing a stable supply of a food commodity while the rest of the world accuses you of “neocolonialism” hardly seems like food security to me. These are countries where rule of law may not be enforced. What happens if an unfriendly government decides to say “FU” and nationalize the enterprise? What happens if hostile locals take over the leased lands by force? Anything can happen in 99 years. In the case of such contingencies, Korea would have to dispatch an expeditionary force to protect the investment, which is no small amount, and there starts the slippery slide into actual colonial-imperialism.
There needs to be a techno-scientific solution to the problem of food security. Perhaps, a re-thinking of agriculture as we know it. Especially for arable land challenged nations like Korea.
“There needs to be a techno-scientific solution to the problem of food security. Perhaps, a re-thinking of agriculture as we know it. Especially for arable land challenged nations like Korea.”
Soilent Green!
At least the Madagascar people rose up together in a singular voice and made their opposition heard to positive effect.
The Koreans tried to do that on March 1st, 1919, in an age before “neo-colonialism” and the results were not nearly as positive…
That’s Soylent Green. I was a zygote (I think?) when that movie came out.
“caused him to consult Muslim merchants and Christian missionaries. Once again, the malicious white man was pulling the strings, and Khan was a helpless thrall.”
Shame the christian missionaries he consulted almost certainly weren’t white.
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