I think it is great that so many people are volunteering to clean up the oil spilled along the shores of Taean Beach but it seems like everyone, but USFK is getting recognized in the Korean media for aiding with the clean up:
However, with up to 50,000 volunteers’ giving a helping hand each day, the government said about 70 percent of the spilled oil was collected. Parents brought their children to teach them how to help others, and company workers went there instead of having their usual year-end drinking parties.
“It is very moving to see such a response, because from a European perspective, Koreans are not known for their generosity in giving charity or volunteering,” said Michael Breen, president of Insight Communications Consultants.
He said some companies are also taking part in the volunteer work showing their corporate social responsibility, with their employees going down to Taean ― much more charitable than might have been expected of the Koreans.
Tamara Kowalska, a Canadian resident here, also said, “It provides an example to show how it is possible to work together to make the world better, not motivated by money.” [Korea Times]
Just this week 200 soldiers from USFK have aided in the oil spill clean up and yet I have not seen one article in the Korean media covering it. Not that I’m all that surprised by it.Â
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7:43 am on December 27th, 2007 1
US troops, on and off duty, do a shit load for these ungrateful people and it never gets mentioned. A lot of foreigners in general do things out of kindness from their hearts, but these things rarely ever gets mentioned. You could possibly sacrifice over 35 000 of your own people for Koreans and they wouldn’t care. Oh! Wait! That’s reality, never mind!!
11:34 am on January 5th, 2008 2
I worked out there Thursday and Friday and the cleanup, while still needing a lot more manual labor, has come a long way. The sand is clean and the water clear, just the oil residue on rocks persists.
All of the Koreans there at the beach working or supporting the volunteers were very nice, but as you said I didn’t see _any_ Korean media on our beach at all.
Either way I scrubbed the hell out of some rocks and hopefully that helped.
5:01 am on January 27th, 2008 3
2:18 am on March 7th, 2008 4
very soon the locals will eventually become multi millionaires(…e.valdez has made the locals very rich by claims) and the fish population is going to explode
7:19 am on March 7th, 2008 5
I would be very surprised if the locals at Taean become multi-millionaires because they would have to get the money from the big chaebol conglomerate that caused the spill. In Korea the chaebols control the government so what is the odds the government is going to force the chaebol to properly reimburse the fishermen and business owners at Taean? Not very likely.