Saturday, January 16, 2010

What the .... protest?

Gusts of Popular Feeling has a very interesting post up. It the 4th in a series looking at protests in Korea. It starts at the 2002 World Cup and works up to today. I found the information about the death of the 2 Middle School girls and subsequent "protests" interesting and edifying.

I was never quite sure about when they were killed. From what I gleaned with my poor Korean at the time it happened after the World Cup. In actuality it occurred DURING World Cup. Koreans didn't really START acknowledging it or protesting until AFTER the World Cup. A fact the Korean media constantly ignored, and from reading the Korea Times and Herald back then I knew it was being ignored, the fact that the U.S. military HAD apologized to the family and paid compensation. The family ACCEPTED both. It was the Korean public, in a lot of cases stirred by Anti-US groups that went into a tizzy AFTER the World Cup.

Even the great Candle Light vigils started late. Oh well, actually, while Koreans were ignoring the accident and focusing only on the World Cup the US military in Korea held fundraisers for the families of the 2 girls AND held ... a candle light vigil in memorial for their deaths. DURING the World Cup. While Koreans were IGNORING the deaths of the 2 girls until it became politically expedient to pay attention and fan the flames of anti-Americanism. Very nice gesture on the part of the US military. Kind of makes the subsequent "outrage" look false and hypocritical.

I may write about my experience in the aftermath of the 2 girls deaths. Or rather my experience with the "protests". It involves getting attacked by Koreans looking to beat up Americans and the Koreans with them. The two most interesting members of the group that attacked us were a KATUSA soldier who hated Americans and punched a woman with us in the face. The other interesting fucktard was actually working at Immigration and was most responsible for instigating the others to attack. Unfortunately, it will be a LONG story if/when I write about it.

But I digress. I encourage you to read Gists of Popular Feelings post. It is worth the read.

6 comments:

  1. Flint,

    Thank you for the link. That was a well-researched and well-put article by Gusts.I am glad that I wasn't in Korea then, but again being a non-white would have made me "not-an-American".

    "Saving face" and "how others see me" are very dangerous concepts. Know what? You may always be unhappy just to look nice in the eyes of others.

    I am glad a few Koreans realized that the protests should not reek anti-Americanism.

    I can never understand what Americans especially white Americans (not sounding racist) and GIs went through.

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  2. Anytime Ajay. I felt it was a link worth sharing.

    Saving face seems to cause people more trouble than it is worth.

    Unfortunately it wasn't only Americans that went though it. If you are white Koreans assume you are American, that is why my friends and I got jumped.

    I feel bad for the US troops that are here. Koreans come off as anti-American, I know all aren't, and unappreciative. The troops get looked down on whether they did something wrong or not. They deserve better.

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  3. Yeah, cheers for the interesting link, although you didn't title this blog, so I didn't notice you'd posted anything until this now...

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  4. Oops....bad Flint. Will fix that now. :)

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  5. That means I got my ass err act together and added a title. :)

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