Korean-Americans are continuing to voice their opinions of the safety of American beef:
Korean-American organizations in New York, Washington and Los Angeles on Monday expressed concern about a health scare surrounding American beef in South Korea. Korean-Americans, who on the whole consume more beef than average Koreans, said they don’t understand why a demagogic slogan such as “I’d rather swallow potassium cyanide than eat American beef” has persuasive powers in their motherland. [Chosun Ilbo]
Obviously this guy has not been in the motherland for quite some time because demagoguery is the order of the day in Korea because it works. Look no further then the Yongsan Water Dumping Issue, the 2002 Armored Vehicle Accident, the GI Crime issue, or the US-ROK SOFA issues. All these issues have been demagogued by the Korean media as well as politicians and activists linked to North Korean spies.
To compound the problem is the fact that many Koreans lack critical thinking skills. That is why statements like this fail to register with Koreans:
Some Korean-Americans were aggrieved at a tendency in Korea to view American beef as the carrier of mad cow disease. A Korean customer at a restaurant in Annandale, Virginia frequented by many Korean Americans said, “Does it make sense that the same beef we eat here is regarded by Koreans as the carrier of mad cow disease?” An employee of the restaurant said, “We’ve cooked here with beef certified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for 15 years, but we’ve never worried about mad cow disease.”
You would think the fact that all the hundreds of thousands of Koreans living in America are not dropping dead from US beef would register with people. Additionally all the people in Korea not dropping dead right now from eating US beef bought from the blackmarket would also register. Unfortunately it appears these facts are not registering with many people because of a mind block brought on by the lack of critical thinking skills.
For example I have had discussions with KATUSA soldiers before about the 2002 Armored Vehicle Accident. Keep in mind that KATUSA soldiers are Korea’s best and brightest. I explain to them the misinformation of the accident to include the hypocrisy that Korea leads all OECD nations in fatal pedestrian traffic accidents to include leading the OECD in child fatalities and often time this does not register. The conversation usually returns to, “But I heard on the Internet that the US soldiers ran the girls over on purpose, laughed about what they had done, and then got in a fight with KATUSA soldiers at the scene.” This is of course all rubbish but shows the power of the mind block caused by the lack of critical thinking.
This lack of critical thinking begins in Korean schools which Korean President Lee Myung-bak realizes and is trying to force teachers to teach proper information to the students:
Teachers appear to be divided over candlelit vigils being held to protest American beef imports.
Education authorities Wednesday instructed heads of schools nationwide to take steps to stop groundless rumors over the imports. They also told teachers to stop students from participating in candlelit vigils or rallies against U.S. beef.
The Ministry of Education and Science suspects that many progressive teachers are “encouraging” young students to go on the vigils. However, the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union (KTU) criticized the government for telling teachers to discourage students from going to the streets, without verifying the safety of American beef.
The union has also been highly critical of President Lee Myung-bak’s administration for “blindly adopting free-market” education policies. [Korea Times]
So why would the KTU be against teaching (gasp!) free market policies? Could it be because they are pro-North Korean stooges that consistently teach North Korean propaganda and anti-Americanism in the classrooms to include celebrating the 9/11 attacks. With people like this teaching Korean children and encouraging them to go to the US beef protests, is it any wonder why critical thinking is missing in Korean schools?
Overall though this issue will be healthy for the US-ROK relationship because it will be a great indication of what direction the country wants to go. Free trade is what is going advance the Korean economy, but the relics of the past, the anti-US activists, are trying to sink the US-ROK FTA with this beef issue for their own anti-US agenda. Will the so called pro-US President Lee Myung-bak side with the relics of the past or do what in the long run will be good for the Korean economy?
I don’ know, but I do find it interesting that former President Roh Moo-hyun always said Korea should have a more equal relationship with the US and now that Korea is getting this more equal relationship the public doesn’t like it.
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7:57 am on May 8th, 2008 1
The Korean wave will cause a tsunami of a backlash against Korea when the ones the wave hit realize the true nature of the country. I’m not sure if the hermit kingdom is ready yet to be a globally repected nation with these stupindous things coming from it. It is really really sad. Korea has already told the world that their “race” is genetically prone to disease recentlly. Do they understand how much they are shooting themselves in the foot? Do they even know that the internet goes beyond naver?
8:12 am on May 8th, 2008 2
That KTU-supported 9/11 APEC video was a low for the US-SK relationship that will be hard to surpass. I thought the anti-US + 9/11 children’s songs that were popular in the Pusan area a couple of months after 9/11 would take a long, long time to beat, but the visual images won out over downloadable anti-US jingles…
I got pissed off at the expat K-blog community for what I considered a pitifully weak response to something so vile and cutting so far into the bone……Yes, the anti-US sites took the video down off the net, but I was offering it and plugging it everywhere, and it seemed like the K-bloggers didn’t care that much — or maybe some thought it was too big an issue that could blow up too much….I don’t know….
Here is the link for the video if you want to see it:
http://usinkorea.org/videos/new/KTU-Anti-US_Video_APEC_2005.wmv
And I should point out clearly — I wasn’t incredibly pissed off at all of Korea for that video. I just wanted to harm the people who made it and were promoting it — especially promoting it to secondary and elementary school students. In fact, the GNP leaders in the government jumped out in front on the video and attacked it and the KTU and soon after so did the editorial pages in the major Korea papers. That was good to see.
The same was true during even the worst of the 2002 orgy of hate, before Korean society started toning it down, when the media and parents voiced strong complaints against the middle school teacher who was proudly showing off to the media “art work” done by three girls in her class who pricked their fingers and wrote anti-US slogans in blood. It was good to see that many in South Korea knew there should be limits to how far the anti-US habit should go.
Anyway, I think it’s hard to get people who’ve never been to Korea or only been there a year or so and haven’t spoken to many Korean adults — to understand what you mean my “mind-block” issues. You really have to see someone in person punch 1+1 into a calculator repeatedly, repeatedly get 2 as the answer, and repeatedly insist the answer is 3 — before you can understand it.
The best I could think of to describe it to people (well, Americans) is to think about racists they might have met in their life…..that is the only time I’ve come across this kind of mind-block thing before: In high school, I knew guys who had good friends who were black who could still somehow find a way to say they “don’t like blacks” — and be sincere in both their friendships and bigotry……..it made no sense…..and that is the same with Korea on things like the SOFA, American beef, the IMF bailout, the 2002 tank accident, and a couple of other issues.
And lastly, the Korean exchange student I teach at my high school brought up the beef issues, and she doesn’t even have much access to the internet, because the computers and school and the one her host family has doesn’t have the Korean font - so she can’t access most of the Korean news.
9:43 am on May 8th, 2008 3
USinKorea:
That exchange student definitely sounds like she doesn’t want to be in the US. I’m not familiar with exchange programs, but if a student is performing poorly and is resistant to the culture he/she is studying in, are there ways to return the student back to Korea? Or is there a business factor involved and exchange programs see profit before education?
10:01 am on May 8th, 2008 4
they also believe in “fan death”
http://www.fandeath.net/
then again, i think global warming is also a farce, as are these dangers in mad cow disease w/ american beef!
12:53 pm on May 8th, 2008 5
They can send her home, and she has actually been threatened with that. She is on a zero tolerance probation after her host family told the agency they wanted her gone now - at 4 months in on a 6 month contract - because of her attitude.
I don’t think she has too much of a problem with being in the US. She is just lazy, totally self-centered, and rude.
I also don’t think she is typical of Korean teen students, unless they have changed a whole hell of a lot since 2000, the last time I was teaching them in Korea.
She is just like a typical very lazy American student. Meaning, she is below the norm of even American students - who are by and large MUCH lazier than Korean students in Korea (that I knew of before coming back to the US).
She is also rude. Ruder than American students. And that takes some work.
One story she told students in my class was about how she hated her teacher (a Korean, of course) back in Korea and said that the teacher had thrown away a gift she had given her right in front of her mother on the last day of school. She said she couldn’t dream of why the teacher had done that.
I could easily imagine why — though I’d never be so confrontational with a student or their parents….
1:21 pm on May 8th, 2008 6
Fan Death and Global Warming.
Be careful when you make accusations of Korean mindcontrol. The accusation just might just bounce back on Americans.
12:37 am on May 9th, 2008 7
” She is just lazy, totally self-centered, and rude.”
Sounds like a lot of Koreans I know. SELF CENTERED and RUDE. This might be because Koreans have defective and inferior DNA, at least that is what the chosun ilbo has pointed out.
6:26 am on May 9th, 2008 8
[...] is an editorial in the Chosun Ilbo that only further validates my belief of how Korean children’s ability to critically think is hampered by their own educational [...]
1:02 am on May 12th, 2008 9
6:51 am on May 13th, 2008 10
[...] is just another example of the Korean mind block I have posted about [...]
1:32 pm on May 22nd, 2008 11
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1:19 pm on June 9th, 2008 12