I did learn a lot about Koreans, Korean culture, the legal process, and friends from this. Most of it bad.
To recap points already beaten to death, err mentioned I learned that 1) Korean men are never braver than when they outnumber you, 2) never break up your group ... the Korean's will always go after the weaker people, 3) there is no self-defense law in Korea, 4) when dealing with the law or other authorities (often just with Koreans in general) foreigners don't count, 5) Koreans are poor losers, and 6) racism is rampant. Hope I didn't forget one in my recap. There are 4 more lessons I learned from this incident.
7) As brave as Koreans are in groups if you look scary enough they will back the fuck off. When I left the police station the night of the fight I was in a BAD mood. On the walk home I could hear a couple of mooks at a ddeok beokki stand makes noises about me. Some michen mejuk (crazy fucking American) comments, in bad English someone said fucking American. Like I said, bad mood, I don't usually do this, I walked up and yelled "What the fuck do you assholes want?" They looked horrified and started apologizing in English and Korean. When I finally got to my room and got ready to shower I figured out what scared them. I was wearing a white shirt. There was blood all over it plus the gout that shot up my right arm. Some blood on my face. Add that to my size. Yeah, scared the shit out of them. :)
8) Then we have the lesson of Blood Money. It is a strong part of the Korean legal system. If you pay off the person the charges are dropped. DongChim wanted blood money. He ended up getting it too.The police will actually push you to make a monetary settlement instead of doing their job and charging the person. If it hadn't been for DongChim's eye injury being worse than anything that happened to our attackers WE would have been screwed. As there is no self defense law, if you get attacked and hurt your attacker you will have to pay him blood money. Nice system, eh?
DongChim, well, what can I say, I am not friends with him today, or BumSuk. DongChim was never really MY friend, he was a friends friend. I always thought there was something sleazy about him. He actually finished my lesson on Blood Money and how sleazy some Koreans are about it.
A year later he was in a car accident. He bragged about how he got the doctor to keep him in the hospital for an extra week so he could get more money for it. Oh and to prove a point about how bad the other driver was. Fuck me. What a lieing, cheating, ricetard.
Years later one of my friends was attacked repeatedly by a Korean. He kept knocking the guy away. Finally the guy picks up a bottle and charges him, My friend kicks him in the balls and pops him in the face. As the guy goes down he is basically chanting "money! You pay me money!" Everyone ended up at the cop shop. The Korean is KNOWN for this type of BS, the cops were apologizing to me friend for the guy. YET my friend HAD to pay blood money or be charged. He paid 2,000,000 won. What fuckery is this?
9) Then we have the senior-junior BS that permeates Korean society. I say BS because of the fuckery it leads to. Before Gus Hiddink started coaching their National Football Team the younger players would ALWAYS pass to the older so the older player could get the goal. Even if the younger player was better or had a better shot. That about sums it up. If you are older you are right even if you are wrong in reality. What REALLY got DongChim and BumSuk's goat that night was that someone younger than them told them to fuck off.
10) Anti-Americanism is strong in Korea and has been for as long as I have been here. Some try to hide it behind a veneer of apologies or dismissal. The main reason we were attacked almost 9 years ago is because we "looked" American and these mooks wanted to hurt whitey.
You can see it in the attitude of many Koreans when you first meet them. The first question is are you an American. Often you see them trying to mask a sneer or their disgust. As soon as they hear I am Canadian their whole demeanor changes. "Oh Canada is good." I remember several incidents when I was out with American friends (fuck I hate having to qualify nationality) and Koreans would say "Hi. Where are you from?" I would say Canada. They would smile and make nice. As soon as my friend said America they would snarl and say "Fucking Americans." While this wasn't a common occurrence it happened enough that it didn't seem rare. I have had students, when discussing 9-11, start laughing about Americans being killed. It disgusts me to see that.
11) I am long winded. :)
Yeah, the blood money crap is screwed up, and used for more than just assault- rape, theft, accidents, etc. My boyfriend and his brother had to pay out 2,000,000 each after being attacked by two drunk adjusshis. Basically, it is legalized bribery that flies in the face of democracy and justice.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about what happened to your boyfriend and his brother. Legalized bribery. That sounds about right. Or legalized extortion.
ReplyDeleteIt always boggled my mind with my friend who was attacked by the guy with a bottle that he had to pay. The police KNEW the mook did this to people, and not only foreigners. That is what they were apologizing to my friend for. They tried to make it seem like their hands are tied. They have to go along with it. Makes them seem like a bunch of mindless drones.
If they know someone is abusing the system this way surely they can tell him to piss off. Oh wait, where am I?
It makes their system of "justice" look more and more like a joke.
How did the concept of blood money hit the Korean psyche? Has it been part of their said 5000 years of history?
ReplyDeleteIn other countries and back home you can actually bribe someone to drop charges. Of course it's mutually agreed.
A forced extortion under watchful eyes of police is appalling.
What saddens me most about blood money is what happened with Ms. Brouard, an English teacher from South Africa, last year.
I surely understand how vile Anti-Americanism is - courtesy - summer of 2008. I don't know whether other American expatriates experienced being asked "Why Americans want to send their dirty meat to Korea?". I was asked this three or four times.
Good question ... where did the concept of blood money come from. I have done some searching and found nothing about Korea.
ReplyDeleteWill keep looking.
I talked with one of my co-workers about the whole blood money thing. He knew about it but had a quite different view.
ReplyDeleteHe didn't know when it started but believes it goes way back. His take on it was that it is only used when someone is accidently hurt. Or if someone hurts you a little. It is supposed to "let the system" work without the government having to get involved.
I managed not to laugh at that ... unrealistic view of how blood money really owrks in Korea. I asked him about the South African was raped and the blood money offered. He didn't believe it because "it isn't meant for that." So I showed him some of the stuff on the internet about it.
Then I told him about the guy who attacked my friend with a bottle but my friend had to pay blood money. He said "Your friend shouldn't have hit him. The guy never hit him with the bottle." I was flabbergasted and said "Someone has tried to attack you several times. He picks up a bottle and start running at you swinging. What would you do?" He was honest and said "Hit him." Then I told him about the guys history of blackmailing people for blood money. He said he didn't think people abused it like that. I have know the guy for a while, I believe him when he says that.
I will have to look into it more and see what I can dig up. Might be worth a post/topic of its own.