A group of Korean-American housewives have released a statement opposing the full opening of the Korean market to US beef, reports the Kyunghyang Shinmun.

The group, called in Korean the “Korean-American Housewives Group Demanding Renegotiation of Beef Imports,” refuted point-by-point a May 7 statement by another Korean-American group supporting US beef. The group said it felt regret and fury over how some Korean-American are claiming US beef is safe. They expressed concern that the views of some Korean-American groups were being mistakenly conveyed as representative of all Korean-Americans.

The housewives said in their statement that even in the United States, insecurity about and distrust of US beef was growing. They noted that this year, there was a beef recall after a slaughterhouse illegally slaughtered a cow showing signs of Mad Cow Disease and distributed the meat all over the country, including to school cafeteria. They also cited another beef recall in Kansas last month.

The statement said the United States did not sufficiently inspect the safety of its beef; with less than 1% of US beef undergoing inspection for Mad Cow Disease, nobody could guarantee its safety.

Incidentally, one Korean-American housewife called up MBC’s “100 Minute Debate” last night to say much the same.

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Okay, here’s a little break from bird flu and beef.  No NSFW pics, but we’ll have to make due with a more heart warming story for the time being.

According to a local Daytona Beach, FL paper, a Korean American immigrant tracked down a veteran of the 24th Infantry Division who had took him under his wing during the Korean War. 

You can read more here.  The sad thing is that these stories are going to be rarer and rarer as these fellas get older and pass on.

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My latest KT piece is on the candidacy of a Korea-American for Congress. The unusual part is that he is running in North Carolina, a state that generally sees ‘ethnic politics’ in black and white terms.

There is a Korean connection, besides his immigrant status:

His journey into politics began in 2002, when he returned to Korea to become an instructor in one of the colleges serving U.S. military personnel. That experience living in Korea again and working with members of the military had a strong impact of Cho and his views on community service. He vowed to “make a positive difference” when he returned to the United States three years later.

That vow led him to a position in the local board of transportation, a town council seat and the chairmanship of the Orange County (North Carolina) Republican Party, culminating in his current congressional campaign.

His candidacy is looking like a bit of a long shot. As of April 16, his primary opponent had three times as much cash on hand as he did. The general election is looking even tougher, with the incumbent (who is something like 9-2 in elections in the district) sitting on a cool half-million bucks. On the other hand, his endorsements include two current and one former member of the NC state legislature in the district, so he might have a better ground game than the money race would indicate.

The primary is today. Well, actually it is tomorrow because today is still yesterday in the States right now (OK, I’ve gone cross-eyed). I’ll update tomorrow, which will be today because… Oh, never mind!

BTW and in case you were wondering; I found out about Cho because he was on my ballot.

UPDATE: Cho lost pretty badly, although the vote margin was not a bad as the money gap.

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Shockingly, Korean-Americans do not appear to be flocking to underpaid English-teaching positions in the Korean countryside. The problem? Well, you guys just don’t feel Korean enough:

Many ethnic Koreans in the United States reacted negatively to the Lee Myung-bak government’s plan to use a pool of young Korean Americans for the promotion of English education at public schools in rural areas.

On top of pay levels that are far from appealing, they said they see little merit in taking part in the program of volunteering to teach students in rural areas who have few chances to learn English from native English speakers. To attract Korean American students studying at U.S. colleges to the program, the government needs a program to instill a Korean identity into them before asking them to help rural students improve their English, according to the leader of an association of young ethnic Koreans. (emphasis mine)

Said Korean-American Youth Assistance Coalition (KAYAC) founder Lee Chung-wha:

“I am not sure how many Korean American students would apply for the program. How can our children, who don’t have a sense of Korean identity, voluntarily work for Korea?”

Well, I’d normally suggest paying them more than 1.5 million won a month, especially if you’re going to make them live in the middle of nowhere, but the answer apparently lies in correcting Korean-Americans’ “identity problems”:

KAYAC President Shin Young-soo also said that the government needs education programs teaching the Korean language, history and culture to second generation Korean Americans, who could have “identity problems.”

“Money doesn’t matter. If they have a strong sense of ethnic identity, they will extend helping hands to their homeland before they are asked,” Shin said.

And what would a discussion like this be without mentioning the Jews:

They said the government needs to learn from China, Japan and especially from Israel. “The Jewish people work hard to embrace their kindred all around the world. There are about 850 Jews in the White House, for example, and they are the power and driving force of Israel,” said Lee, who also served as president of the Korea-American Association of New York.

Not only do they control US foreign policy in the Middle East, but they make a mighty fine bagel, too.

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When Virginia Tech needed someone to help Korean students deal with the mass shootings last April, they contacted Harvard education lecturer Josephine Kim, who spent two weeks with the students in Falling Waters, West Virginia. After this experience, she realized the need to reach out to young Korean-Americans coping with high expectations, communication barriers, and intercultural conflicts and set up Mustard Seed Generation, a non-profit Christian organization that does outreach to Korean and Korean-Americans. A JoongAng Ilbo profile of Dr. Kim contains this disturbing statistic:

While Korean international students and Korean-American students account for about 10 percent of all students in the Ivy League, studies show that they comprise more than 60 percent of suicides in the Ivy League

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There is an interesting interview with Global Voices contributor, Kim Hye-Jin, a Korean contributor to Global Voices, who has written a novel called Jia — A Novel of North Korea. The interview is here.

Kim Hye-Jin also “works as a development adviser for the Singapore Korean School and as a technical interpreter facilitating exchange between Korean and Singapore markets and governments. Besides, she is a freelance writer: she has written for numerous publications, such as Asia Times” and has contributed to OhmyNews.com.

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I know what you’re thinking. “Oh no, not another gyopo bitching about hagwon hiring only white folk.”

Fear not, however. This time, we have gyopo bitching about discrimination that favors Korean citizens over them.

The Busan Ilbo tells the sad tale of young Mr. Yang, a 25-year-old Korean-American who hasn’t quite finished his four-year degree from UCLA. Having recently gotten hitched to a Korean woman and now living in Busan, Yang tried to get a job as a hagwon teacher. The evil minions at the Busan Seobu Department of Education, however, refused to register him as a teacher, citing his failure to complete a four-year degree. Under current law, foreigners must complete a four-year degree in order to register as hagwon teachers.

Clearly upset and this grave injustice, Yang complained to the Busan Ilbo, “It’s unfair that overseas Koreans cannot receive the same treatment as locals.”

Gee, and you thought it was only “expats” with an overdeveloped sense of entitlement?

Anyway, the Busan Ilbo noted the controversy surrounding laws that made it difficult for overseas Koreans to get jobs at Korean hagwon.

You see, under current laws, locals need only a two-year degree or more in order to work as a hagwon instructor, while foreigners — as noted above — need a four-year degree or more. Mr. Yang, who does not have Korean citizenship (a phenomenon called in most countries “being a foreigner”), needs a four-year degree. Which, according to him, sucks, because he has 140 college credits to his name, well in excess of the 80 college credits needed for Korean citizens to get teaching jobs.

According to the Busan Ilbo, because of the laws, many Busan-area hagwon have given up on hiring talented gyopo. Said one Busan hagwon, “I want to hire overseas Korean graduates of two-year colleges in the United States and Canada, but unfortunately I can’t because of relevant laws.” In particular, hagwon laws seem to contradict the Overseas Korean Law of 1999, which says the government must give necessary assistance so that overseas Koreans do not receive unfair restrictions or treatment in Korea.

An official from the Busan Office of Education, however, noted that hagwon laws contains nothing about overseas Koreans, and that authorities were considering measures to fix any blind spots in the law, such as offering an authoritative interpretation on the issue.

Well, anyway, it looks like Mr. Yang’s ship has come in, with the government considering lowering E-2 visa requirements to two-year degree holders.

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Ethnic Koreans in Central Asia are reportedly inspired by Korea’s first astronaut, Yi So-yeon:

If Yi So-Yeon represents everything that is youthful and optimistic about her homeland, the ethnic Koreans resident around Baikonur cosmodrome are testimony to a painful period of uprooting and hardship under the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.

“My soul is rejoicing! It’s even better that it’s a woman. I’ll be watching the launch of course,” said Larisa An, 48-year-old owner of Ginza, a popular restaurant that serves up spicy Korean specialities in Baikonur, the centre of Russia’s manned space programme.

You want to know what’s painful? Naming a Korean restaurant “Ginza.”

(HT to reader)

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The Education Ministry is pushing a plan to use overseas Korean students and “foreign” students in Korea-related majors as after-school English teachers in rural areas.

The ministry plans to implement the program, designed to help alleviate the shortage of foreign English teachers in rural areas, beginning this summer vacation.

The ministry noted, however, that it would be difficult to employ college students as regular English teachers (since you need a four-year degree for an E-2 visa), so it would deploy these instructors to schools for after-school programs.

The instructors would come as volunteers and teach children for six months to a year. They would also get to participate in Korean cultural programs prepared by the Education Ministry.

The ministry will announce at the end of April how many teachers it will recruit, what their qualifications should be and how the selections will be made. Once a detailed plan is released, the ministry will work with the Foreign Ministry to recruit instructors through Korean embassies abroad, ethnic Korean student associations and overseas Korean groups.

An Education Ministry official said, “I understand there are a great many overseas Koreans and foreign students want to experience Korea… The plan will have the effect of providing them with an opportunity to experience Korea while Korean students receive high-quality English classes.”

Marmot’s Note: Doubt this will provide “high-quality English instruction.” I might also wonder how many university students will come to Korea as volunteers when they can just wait until they graduate to do the same thing and get paid. Still, the thought is nice, and it might be a great experience for Korea-interested individuals looking to take some time off from school to do something productive.

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(This is a little old, but I didn’t find it in the Hole.  If this has been posted here before, will our Dear Leader please delete it.)

This story from The Japan Times starts out innocently enough:

Yoon, a feisty 32-year-old Korean woman with a strong entrepreneurial spirit, is happy to be living and working in her newly adopted home of Japan.

Within months of settling here, she set up her own business, a Korean-style massage parlor, which she runs out of her Tokyo condominium. She says she employs several other Korean women, who perform massage of a decidedly sexual nature.

“The job is tough, but it’s a lot of fun,” Yoon laughs.

As a Korean living in Japan, Yoon (a pseudonym) is hardly unique. Over half a million ethnic Koreans reside here.

And now for the rest of the story.

The surprising thing about Yoon is where she came from — North Korea.

She’s one of an estimated 1,000 North Koreans who have escaped their country and ended up living in Japan, Weekly Playboy says. Like Yoon, nearly all are female and work in the sex industry, according to the magazine’s source, a documentary filmmaker from South Korea, whose name is undisclosed.

Read the rest on your own.  As you can imagine, a publication called Weekly Playboy puts a more positive spin on the story than you would get from others.

Some defectors have had a difficult time adjusting to life in South Korea and have sought greener pastures elsewhere (including the USA).

(Hat tip to Japan Probe.)

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