nanoomi

So that one-joke novelty site blackout Korea got discovered by the Korean netizens.

And while a few comments on the blog post that brought BOK to the Korean blogosphere include sentiments like “Yah, public drunkenness is kind of a cultural embarrassment,” others were quick to blame the usual scapegoat: English teachers.

One blog, the subtly titled: “Englishteachersout” even compares the pictures on BlackoutKorea to the photos at Abu Gharib.

Now that’s just stupid. The English teachers didn’t trap these Koreans, force-feed them alcohol until they passed out, and THEN take the pictures.

Also: the passed-out Koreans’ faces aren’t shown. I don’t know if the writer of EnglishTeachersOut noticed that… so when people aren’t personally being singled out (other than the dumb foreigners who DO show their faces in shaming them), what remains is the cultural shame, I guess, of one of Korea’s dirty secrets (rampant, extreme public drunkenness) being posted on the internet.

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Foreigner Joy asked the intriguing question, “Is Seoul Ready for the G20 Summit”? over on her blog.  Have you heard that the G20 is coming to Korea?  Well, it is.

Living downtown, I’m starting to see flags, placards and signs all over the place that the G20 is coming.  Seems some of the higher-ups, or at least the people who hang flags on light posts, are pretty excited about this.

Joy looks at the cleanliness and safety of some parts of the city, and the efficiency of the transportation system, then she references The Metropolitician’s post about Koreans who are being trained by their own media to suspect, and maybe hate, foreigners, and concludes that because of the provincial, nationalist mentality of people in Korea, the country’s not truly ready to host the G20 Summit yet.

Along that vein, Chris in South Korea chimes in, agreeing that while the hardware is there – infrastructure, facilities, etc., Korean people’s mindset is not really global, and that Koreans will treat foreigners as if invisible, until it is revealed that they are associated with the G20 summit, at which point the special treatment will come out: he cites incidents where Koreans were more ready to apologize when their bad service led to upset people, than just to give good service in the first place.
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So Hi Expat continues to pull out interesting stuff: this time it’s a video of someone who seems to be an American GI (“I fought in Iraq for six years!”), punching an old Korean man in the head.  Warning: the video includes swearing and violence.  It’s pretty shocking.

It’s up on Naver, blurred and stuff, and collecting hits.  (see also daum TV)

This video, and the old lady attacking the young girl earlier this week (see here)

These two videos, in the same week, make me think:

1. Holy COW!  What the hell is happening?  Why is violence breaking out on video, all over Korea?

2. I hope other Korean seniors planning on picking on youngsters see these two videos, and choose to pick on a younger Korean instead of a younger foreigner…” because many foreigners haven’t been trained from birth that abuse from a senior must be borne silently.

3. The young guy throwing punches at a senior citizen’s head: this guy shouts that he has been in Iraq for six years, so he may be dealing with much bigger things, personally, than an annoying old guy who won’t back off — I don’t know the story about the old guy, or what led up to this incident…

However, I’d like to take this moment to address any of my Korean readers, who finds this blog post after getting upset about foreign soldiers punching Korean seniors in the head:

Important Message:

Hey everybody.  In the comments about this video, a lot of people will say a lot of nasty things about foreigners, Americans, and especially American GI’s.  I hope that somebody out there puts in a word for us foreigners living in Korea.  Many of us can’t speak or write Korean, so we can’t speak for ourselves very well in the Korean internet.

See, there’s a stereotype of foreigners who criticize or mock Korea, who live here, but talk as if we hate it, but really, most of the foreigners who hate Korea leave.  The foreigners who DO live here?  Most of us like Korea a lot.  Most of us are shocked and upset by a video like this young GI or ex-GI, punching an old Korean man in the head.  Most of us are peaceful people who like and respect Korea, and who find healthier ways to deal with our frustrations.

Moreover: we are not responsible for this guy’s behavior, and we don’t approve of it.  We wish this guy would have stayed home and gotten drunk with his friends at home, instead of going out and making an ass of himself in public, and around strangers.

So please do not think that “all foreigners are like this guy” — all the rest of the foreigners in Korea would like you to know that almost all of us are not like this guy.

And finally, think of the worst night of your life.  Think of the night when you did something really stupid: something you regretted for a long time.  Now imagine that stupid mistake you once made when you were young, and imagine that someone filmed you having your ugliest moment, and put the video on the internet.  Now imagine that everyone in America is watching that video and saying, “All Koreans are exactly like this person in the video.  All Koreans have the same ugly character as this person in the video.”

That judgement of YOUR character would be wrong, wouldn’t it?  After all, it was the worst night of your life, and the worst mistake of your life.  And judging EVERY person in Korea by that one video would be even more wrong, wouldn’t it?

Please don’t judge all foreigners, all Americans, or all GI’s by this one video.  That would be wrong.

Sincerely
Roboseyo

I was asked yesterday in the comments here by Daeguowl if the ‘Itaewon is a paradise for losers’ article had been amended, and a quick check revealed it had. It originally read:

The founder of the “citizen’s group”, Mr. Lee (40) is an English teacher who received a TESOL certificate/diploma in Canada. During a two day interview he explained in detail the truth about Itaewon. Contacting him after a long time, I asked him what the situation was like in Itaewon, and he answered, “Still the same.”

It now reads:

Jasminhyang,” who was active in the “citizen’s group” in the past under that ID, is an English teacher who received a TESOL certificate/diploma in Canada. During a two day interview he explained in detail the truth about Itaewon. He said he left the group in 2007. Contacting him after a long time, I asked him what the situation was like in Itaewon, and he answered, “Still the same.”

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On the 23rd, the New Daily posted a long article by reporter Jeon Gyeong-ung purporting to tell the truth about Itaewon. Robert already posted about it at the Marmot’s Hole today, but as I translated the first third or so of it, I thought I’d post it here.

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“The Republic of Korea’s hidden center, Yongsan’s Itaewon”

Itaewon – ‘a loser’s paradise’ where Korean women are ruined?
A pack of black people looking only for sex
Fantastic clubs? Frequent crimes of drugs, fraud, perverted marriage
Government, media glorify ‘multiculturalism’ ahead of purification

Until now, only Itaewon’s spectacular side and its unexposed great power have been closely examined. However tall mountains always have deep valleys. That the national media and government ignore this for reasons such as policy is a serious problem.

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