New Media’s (an Asian American publication) Kenneth Kim reports that a lot of Koreans in Korea (particularly netizens) are mad as hell with their Korean American ”brethren” regarding the whole U.S. beef debate. 

Per the article:

Last week, Korean American community organizations across the United States held meetings to rebut the South Koreans’ protests over the safety of U.S. beef and to clarify misunderstandings. At a press conference in Los Angeles, the immigrant community leaders tried to assure South Korean journalists that U.S. beef is one of the safest in the world and that the spreading rumors in Korea about the dangers of mad cow disease from U.S. beef was baseless scaremongering.

(Emphasis mine)

More:

Proving its position as the most wired country in the world, Korean cyberspace has crackled with South Koreans’ disappointment towards the immigrants. They accuse Korean Americans for not standing up for Korea, or worse – of being a lapdog of the American government. One reader of JoongAng Ilbo, a major daily newspaper in South Korea, wrote in the comment section, “Korean Americans are those who would aim guns at us if Korea goes to war against the United States.”

(Emphasis mine) Pretty intense.  And what would this entire conversation be without mentioning the Jews?

When the media in South Korea reported the immigrant response, there was a backlash against Korean Americans from the homeland. It’s similar to American Jews being attacked for criticizing Israel’s Palestinian policy.

Well, not exactly the example that I’d use, but okay.

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In this editorial on the controversy over US beef imports and the recent related MBC program, the editorial staff at the Chosun put the danger of contracting vCJD into perspective:

미국 쇠고기 반대운동을 벌이는 세력들의 거짓과 논리적 모순과 위선(僞善)은 한두 가지가 아니다. 우리 국민 1000만 명 가까이가 매년 광우병이 위험하다는 미국과 유럽 일본 지역에 태연히 관광 여행을 다녀오고 있다. 광우병 부풀리기를 한 사람들과 그 부풀리기에 올라탄 사람들도 그 대열에 끼어 맛있게 햄버거와 스테이크를 먹고 왔다. 지금 쇠고기 재협상 주장을 펴고 있는 민주당 등 야당의원들도 국정 감사차 뉴욕에 가선 유엔 한국 대사관저에서 미국산 쇠고기를 원료로 마련한 갈비와 육개장을 맛있게 들었다. 이 많은 미국 쇠고기 수입 반대론자 가운데 미국이나 유럽에 유학 가 있는 자녀들에게 ‘쇠고기를 먹지 말라’고 신신당부했다는 사람이 있었다는 소식은 여태 한번도 없다. 자기 자식들에겐 광우병 위험이 있는 쇠고기를 먹이면서도 다른 국민들에게만은 먹이지 않겠다면서 쇠고기 수입반대운동에 팔을 걷어붙인 대한민국 위선자들을 어떻게 받아들여야 할 것인가.

The hypocrisy, logical inconsistencies, and false appeals to authority that have launched the opposition movement against the import of US beef have no value. Every year up to 10 million Koreans head overseas to the US, Europe, Japan, and other regions where the dangers of Mad Cow lurk. Not one person savoring a hamburger or a steak has contracted the disease. The same MDP and opposition party members who dined on galbi and yukkaejang made from US beef at the Korean UN mission now stand together with Korean beef producers. We have not heard of any of these US beef import opposition activists warning their children heading overseas to study in the US or Europe to avoid eating beef. How can we accept that while their own kids risk eating beef which may harbor Mad Cow, these hypocrites march around in demonstrations to keep other citizens from eating US beef?

In the comment thread, some posters have chided the Chosun Ilbo for flipflopping on the issue, citing links to recent stories on the dangers of Mad Cow.

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As reported in two Chosun Ilbo articles, Koreans may be “going overboard” with mad cow disease. “PD Diary”, the famous MBC current affairs program, has claimed that 94 percent of Koreans have a “special” gene that makes them more susceptible to getting Mad Cow Disease vs. regular Americans or Britons (Canucks, Kiwis and Aussies were, unfortunately, not mentioned in the report). Per the article:

“A tepid and delayed response from the government is only fueling fears. The personal blog of President Lee Myung-bak, who promised that resuming import of U.S. beef will bring high-quality and low-priced beef to the table, has been virtually shut down by Internet users who bombarded it with messages protesting against the decision.”

Interesting bit of “scientific” exposé there MBC! It would have reinforced their case if they had interviewed just one gyopo from America who’s had his brains melted from a lifetime of eating American beef. Reminds me of another equally futile piece of pseudoscience that Koreans still hold dear.

Picture from Japanese show “Morning Musume”.

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It seems that the Olympic Torch will be coming to South Korea on or around April 26 but the odd thing is that the only mention of this is by the JoongAng Ilbo article on “Athletes selected to carry the torch in North Korea“. Naturally the North Koreans will cheer for the torch (which would otherwise never have found its way through such a place) but it really seems the government in South Korea is concerned frightened enough of any protest, so much so that there is not even a *peep* on the official website of Korea (korea.net) and no one so far seems to know who will carry it through Seoul. It is very strange to see Olympic spirit in North Korea yet silence in the South but then good is bad and what was bad is now good.

I wonder if it will pass by, at night, while we are in our beds and least aware . . .

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Since the launch, things are really heating up down here on Earth. I’ve been getting extremely positive responses from non-Koreans to the Yi Soyeon videos, and I generally think the reaction amongst many Korean women is positive. My Ewha FLHS girls, for example, are enamored of her.

However, certain Korean netizens are forming an attack army of nasty comments, mostly talking about how “ugly” she is, how this is a waste of tax money, and finally, since the publication of a misleading DongA.com article about her, how she is really a “CF Queen” (commercial queen), gone to space to get rich.

What the article did was lift quotes from the first video — which was shot 2 years prior and when she had only made the final 30 — without actually linking to or even attributing it properly so that people could see it for themselves. Then the article led with the quote “I’m going to buy an apartment for my mother as a present!” ( “돈 벌어 엄마한테 아파트 선물”) upon becoming famous. She also said she’d donate money to her school and foundations for scientific research, but those key points were left out.

Also left out was the fact that she also jokingly said that she would promote my web sites and podcasts when she got famous. I didn’t get the sense that her main goal in going into the program was to promote SeoulGlow.com, nor did I hear her plugging the web site in any ISS communications. It’s about as ridiculous to say she went into this program to buy her mom a house as it would be to say she did it as a publicity stunt for some foreigner’s online video magazine. But leave it to the Korean media to omit, distort, and fail to properly attribute to the point of completely misrepresenting the truth.

What the article did was 1) misleadingly lead any reader to believe that the interviews were conducted recently, after she had become the final candidate, 2) actually misquote her, since some of what is in quotes is not what she said, and 3) by not attributing the source so people could see for themselves that they were misquotes taken completely out of context and actually 2 years ago, make people completely unable, unless they are one of the few thousand who’ve actually seen the videos themselves, to see that the article is full of horse doody. Of course, the twisting of truth going on in that article seems to depend on not having actually seen the source material, but…

In short, it was a hit piece, and completely lacking in any basic journalistic ethics or basic moral integrity. I wrote a more lengthy article on my own blog about it, with the name of the reporter, the telephone numbers of the newsdesks at Donga that keep giving me the runaround, and even the weepy apology of the reporter himself, who promises to change the article and make corrections…and it’s been 2 days now. I feel smoke has been blown up my ass.

Mostly thanks to this article, some netizens are calling her the “CF Queen” and I feel absolutely disgusted by this, since I made this video. Even though the vid’s been up for more than a year now, and Soyeon herself, as well as her buds at NASA and in the space community, have all seen and liked the video, who knew it could be so deliberately twisted to the point that it has been?

I am planning to adapt a shorter version of my blog piece into a story on Ohmynews.com attacking back, and pointing out all the errors and distortions in the article. I am also hoping that any of you who might be interested will keep the heat on for the DongA.com people to print a correction and to clarify the nature of the source from which so many of their article’s quotes came from.

I feel sick to my stomach about this and will do my best to fight the main source of the bullshit. I would take the video down, but I think it stands better as a record for what was actually said, and if it suddenly disappeared, it would tend to confirm any suspicions about the evil intents of the “commercial queen,” anyway. Plus, it’s already out there, in tens of thousands of iPods and several Korean UCC sites, not to mention YouTube. It wouldn’t really disappear, anyway.

If any of you are so inclined to pressure DongA.com to rectify the situation and at least properly attribute their source, please do travel over to my longer version of this post and get the information so you can make a few calls or write a letter. I can understand that there will be assholes in any bunch of people, but an article twisting the truth enough to earn the moniker “CF Queen” takes the cake.

Also, if there is anyone in the international media who would like to do a story on how nasty Korean netizens are being to one of their own, I would be more than happy to describe the situation to you. I’m deleting a couple of nasty comments an hour, it seems, on the YouTube videos in question, with the comments in Korean usually being full of curses and slurs, even as international commenters are nearly, down to the person, 100% behind her and think it’s a great thing to see a Korean woman go into space.

The specifics of the DongA.com article aside, it baffles even cynical old me just how vitriolic many Korean netizens are when it comes to Soyeon, who is probably one of the most selfless and dedicated people I’ve ever met in my life. Since I’m inevitably involved with some of the garbage being spewed out about her, I’m going to do my best to make sure the origins of the nastiness get exposed for what they are — pure garbage, which has nothing to do with anything Soyeon said or implied.

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It’s done. Now you can see the much-promised, much-delayed, final interview with Soyeon. I think that when you watch it, you might be able to see why I held onto it for so long — one reason was that I thought it would be most relevant around the time she went up, and the other reason was because I didn’t want to help publicly pigeonhole her into being the backup astronaut well before the decision was made.

[Grr. Wordpress 2.5 is stripping out the embed code. I got it to post on my own Typepad site. Sorry!]

For a long time, the video seemed particularly fitting because she indeed became the backup; now that she’s sitting in the first chair, it’s even more interesting. Enjoy, Marmot’s Holers… I posted it here first. I haven’t even upped it to YouTube yet, and KBS is coming to my house to interview me and get the original DV files of the vids for broadcast in 40 minutes. But I wanted you guys to get it first. I’ll wax wordy and wise about all this on my own blog later.

Enjoy!

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Sun March 23rd: Juwang-san National Park and Jusan Reservoir Hike — A special treat for movie fans — the Jusan Reservoir is the scenic location for the movie “Spring, Summer Fall Winter and…Spring.” 30 willow trees more than a century old decorate this ancient reservoir, giving it a mysterious vibe. We’ll also tour other parts of this beautiful, fascinating and remote national park just east of Andong City.

Tuesday, March 25th: RAS-K Lecture-Meeting, featuring Mr. A. Lin Neumann (Chief Editor of the JoongAng Daily, international journalist and advocate for 25 years) speaking on “Practicing journalism in a dual-language, dual-culture environment.” He will focus on the “very real differences between U.S.-style journalism and the approach taken in a Korean newsroom. While some of the problems and issues are common to second-language newspapers anywhere – editing copy written by reporters for whom English is a second language – there are also particular challenges blending the individualistic and conflict-oriented style of an American newsroom with the more consensus-driven culture in South Korea. Also, how do Korean newsroom managers cope with a foreign presence in their environment? Can an “outsider” be trusted to make the right decisions? In addition, while compromises exist in every media environment, the goal of strictly separating news judgment from advertising and business concerns is not yet enshrined in most Asian newsrooms. How are these tensions manifested in the making of a newspaper? The discussion will also put the phenomenon of second-language English media in the context of the changing face of regional journalism at a time when many big international media companies have retreated from the region.” (this lecture was previously scheduled but had to be postponed to now). 7:30 pm in the 2nd-floor Resident’s Lounge of the Somerset Palace, Anguk-dong (just north of Jogye-sa), Seoul. Free for RAS Members, w5000 donation requested from others.

Sat-Sun March 29-30th: Mai-san and Muju Gucheon-dong Valley Tour (Deogyu-san National Park) – Exploring the best parts of these famous mountains in North Jeolla Province will take us to an ancient fortress, a temple filled with Shamanic stone pagodas between the “Horse-Ears Mountains”, a two-tiered waterfall, and an old Confucian school – all in wonderfully beautiful flowery springtime scenery.

Sun March 30th: Walking Tour of Joseon Seoul Architecture with leading expert Peter Bartholomew — 9am~3:30pm — Walking through Seoul’s past and examining the cultural and historical background of the Seoul palaces and Joseon-dynasty landmarks, as well as some rare and recently excavated royal treasures. RAS highly recommends this tour — you can learn so much!

Sat-Sun April 5-6th: Namhae-do Island and Jinhae Port Tour (Viewing the Cherry Blossoms!) We will proceed to Namhae-do, Korea’s fourth largest island, famous for its typical Korean flora and natural beauty. Jinhae, a small port city on the south coast of the peninsular, is known for its cherry trees-some 70,000 of them. Every year when the cherry trees are in bloom (usually in the beginning of April), the city holds the Cherry Blossom Festival.

Sun April 6th: Suwon City Relics Tour led by Peter Bartholomew  — Today we will visit the capital of Gyeonggi Province and, with the expertise of our well-known guide Mr. Peter Bartholomew, we will be able to learn more about the various Joseon Dynasty remains in the walled-city-center – including the 18th-century palace buildings and the magnificent Hwaseong Fortress (a UNESCO-designated World Cultural Heritage site).

Being a Member of the Royal Asiatic Society - Korea has many benefits, including free attendance of interesting lectures, receiving newsletters of activities, discounts on great tours of Korea’s most beautiful and fascinating places led by experts, discounts on books about all Korean subjects in English, and more. Everyone involved with Korean Studies who speaks English would do well to join this 108-year-old scholarly organization. For more information, call 763-9483 in Seoul during business hours, write to raskb@kornet.net or visit our website http://www.raskb.com/

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This is giving me a headache. You know somebody got millions of won to pitch an idea like that. Somebody should tell Samsung, KT&G, and others that if your name means everything it really means nothing. Besides, how the heck do you get “Challenge to the Top” from “C&T”?

UPDATE

Speaking of things that mean everything so they mean nothing, there is now the 585 generation with some ambiguous rationale (as if 386 was an exact demographic box). Speaking as a 379er, the son of a 465er and a 758er, and a father of a 204er, I think this is getting rather silly.

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Speaking of Irishmen in Korea, here’s the roundup of events for this year’s St. Patrick’s Day, brought to courtesy the Irish Association of Korea:

1. 10th – 15th March: Irish Photography and Cultural Gallery. Gwanggyo Gallery, Cheonggyecheon (Stream Level, no North Bank, approximately 400 metres East of Cheonggyecheon Plaza)

See the Event Listings at www.iak.co.kr for more details.

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In Ireland’s Independent, Donal Lynch reports on a new RTE documentary on the horrors experienced by Irish missionaries during the Korean War. Give it a read, and you’ll recall I blogged a visit to two Irish churches in Chuncheon in January.

NOTE: Judging from the RTE website, it appears they’ve run two previous episodes (I, II) on Irishmen who fought in the Korean War.

(HT to Korean Economic Reader)

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