Interesting TIMES's article.

A tip of the Santa Hat to Brian for posting a TIME article. (TIME magazine not the piece of shit we know as the Korea Times which is part of the problem.) It seems that the issue of ONLY testing E2- VISA holders for HIV in South Korea has reached TIME magazine. As has the bile the Anti-English Spectrum assholes perpetuate.

There are a few things in the TIME article I have trouble with.

More than a century later, South Korea, a thriving nation of 50 million, is coming to terms with a different sort of outsider: foreign English teachers.

I don't see them coming to grips with it yet. If you look at the government policies and media bullshit the anti-foreigner sentiment is being encouraged and perpetuated rather than seeing Koreans coming to terms with it in a rational manner.

"Lee, of course, doesn't speak for all — or even most — Koreans."

Actually, I found he does speak for a lot of Koreans. Thanks to the anti-foreigner shit spread by the Korean media it has heightened their natural xenophobia when it comes to foreigners. This was picked up by the government as well as some companies who also pander to it and give it legitimacy.

But every few years, a fresh wave of anti-foreign teacher sentiment shines a light on the nation's lingering xenophobia.

Except it hasn't been every few years. It has been pretty constant the last few years. The HIV test wasn't introduced this year nor is the controversy over it new. What is new is that the Korean government has basically admitted to how much bullshit it really is, and that they don't see foreigners as a real threat. They are just pandering to the xenophobic bullshit.

"We've decided to ease the rules as HIV is not transmitted through air or water but through human contact most of the time," a health official official told the press last month. Another official from the Ministry of Education also waffled on the reasons for keeping the teacher tests: Mandatory HIV/AIDS testing for foreign English teachers "does not mean the government regards foreign teachers to be HIV positive or have the potential of transmission," he said. "It is just intended to assure the parents."

We know you aren't a threat but because Koreans are so bigoted when it comes to foreigners we are going to treat you like you are one. Unless you marry a Korean, in that case you aren't a threat. Like I said ... not rational.

Overall it was an interesting article and it is nice to see some of the bullshit foreigners deal with in Korea being discussed in the western media.