Only in Korea could I write a headline like the one above. This also has to be the most absurd reason for an automobile strike ever:
Tens of thousands of auto workers in South Korea went on strike Wednesday to oppose the government’s lifting of a ban on U.S. beef imports.
Partial walkouts at Kia Motors Corp. and South Korea’s largest carmaker, Hyundai Motor Co., were the centerpiece of a one-day strike by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions to protest U.S. beef imports and the pro-business policies of President Lee Myung-bak. U.S. beef returned to South Korean store shelves Tuesday under a new import agreement.
About 20,000 workers at Kia Motors Corp. stopped work for two hours, union officials said. Some 13,000 other Kia workers on the night shift and about 45,000 union members at Hyundai Motor Co. planned to do the same later in the day.
The 600,000-member KCTU said about 130,000 workers across the nation were expected to join the strike, which would also include workers at textile and chemical factories. It also urged members to participate in candlelight rallies against beef imports later Wednesday. [Chicago Sun-Times]
Here is my favorite quote of the article:
”This is not a political strike, but a strike that is aimed at protecting our right to health,” KCTU leader Lee Seok-haeng told reporters. “We want to live long and healthy.”
These thugs say they “want to live long and healthy” but they will violently assault a column of riot police and set fire to buses which is more hazardous to their health then US beef. Don’t be fooled by these thugs’ claims. This is just another front on the leftists attempts to overthrow the election results.
Popularity: 3%
8:47 pm on July 3rd, 2008 1
Can anybody answer this? What good are Koreans?
9:09 pm on July 3rd, 2008 2
Well we know the most the Auto crowd will do is a symbolic two hour thing…Koreans love their money way too much to take a real stand
11:10 pm on July 3rd, 2008 3
No Beef, No Cars. Close the ports.
Live long and healthy lives? Cigarettes, Soju and self-imposed stress…healthy? yeah right.
11:26 pm on July 3rd, 2008 4
“Well we know the most the Auto crowd will do is a symbolic two hour thing…Koreans love their money way too much to take a real stand”
kittylitter, do koreans pay you to be an servile apologist or do you do it for free?
2:15 am on July 4th, 2008 5
GI,
Are these Auto workers know that they biting the hand that is feeding them? If they are protesting against US beef, then US decided not to import Korean cars, then who is the loser here? There is no common sense.
I wonder if there will be any demonstration and strikes against Chile pork with Dioxin.
2:39 am on July 4th, 2008 6
Korean protest culture - especially the anti-US protest culture - is a pain in the ass, but it isn’t the only aspect of Korean society.
As in any culture/society, there are things to admire.
I liked Korea’s entrepreneural spirit — which I saw in my adult students who frequently had dreams of owning their own business. It was something we used to have in American society but not so much any more.
I think Koreans work to hard, but I still like their work ethic - something the US has been losing but not yet too much so.
I also like that Korean society and government is not so obsessed with money and business that they would object to things like — the major TV networks putting their shows up on the internet for people like my wife - half way around the world - to watch for free. Or the level of public transportation Korea has. In the US, you’ll never see that kind of access to television content or that level of cheap public transportation.
Korean education’s lack of training in logic is a problem, one they realize, but South Korea is still an educated society.
And they became competitive with the major industrial nations after having their infrastructure destroyed in the Korean War and after a few decades of colonial rule.
That is the shining achievement all Koreans point to for their society — and they have a good reason to do so - though they also have an annoying habit of saying they did it all, completely on their own - or some say even against American interference……which is BS — but it was still an impressive achievement.
I hate Korea’s anti-US protest culture. And there are other things about Korea that gain legitimate criticism.
But statements like “What good are Koreans?” does nothing more than play the same game as Korean society at its worst….
7:02 am on July 4th, 2008 7
Hey Shattered no one is making apologies here…what are you talking about?
I guess you were hit too hard on your head with that imaginary fire extinguisher at the riot you read about in the paper
7:55 am on July 4th, 2008 8
kittylitter, do koreans pay you to be an servile apologist or do you do it for free?
I think the answer to that question is that you do it for free.
9:12 am on July 4th, 2008 9
Korea’s real beef with beef:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121503329527624039.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
In the common view, a Korean who commits a crime is guilty only of a temporary weakness or error. The foreigner who commits a crime is “taking off his mask” (a favorite metaphor of anti-U.S. rhetoric)
1:11 pm on July 4th, 2008 10
Wow I guess your just looking for someone who will talk to you. Doesn’t your parents let you come up from the Basement to talk from time to time? I feel so sad for you
1:36 pm on July 4th, 2008 11
Not sure it’s a good idea for Korean auto workers to talk about safety since they produce such dangerous cars. One company even calls itself the KIA or Killed in Action company. Apparently DOA was taken.
I like to catch Imus on the cable RFD channel which is a farm and ranch cable channel and it is one of the few places where the US beef protests are well covered. The agriculture community in America is clearly not amused by Korean slander. I could easily see an anti-Korean backlash in the United States affecting consumer choices at some point. American car companies are sucking wind these days and it’s not a bad time to consider boycotting Korean cars.
1:47 pm on July 4th, 2008 12
” it’s not a bad time to consider boycotting Korean cars.”
Amen to that.
and KittyLitter, it sounds like I hit a nerve. GOOD
3:18 pm on July 4th, 2008 13
Wow
3:40 pm on July 4th, 2008 14
OK, rant over.
4:10 pm on July 4th, 2008 15
Thanks for the article, Shattered; it was enlightening.
8:01 pm on July 4th, 2008 16
My pleaseure InSeoul. When kittylitter learns to read he will be enlightened too.
10:27 pm on July 4th, 2008 17
I am not in favor of the auto workers striking against american beef. But I have been told by my wife’s brother in law that they are required to strike at least once a year. The government actually funds their labor unions to strike against them. Blame Roh for that.If anybody has more info about how the Korean government funds the groups the protest the government feel free to comment.
7:21 am on July 5th, 2008 18
An American business man in Korea recently wrote that Korea is a good country, however Koreans seem to be unable to put themselves in another person’s viewpoint on issues. The Korean auto workers honestly are probably unable to think about what if the shoe was on the other foot. It seems almost ridiculous to us because we know that any other country would know that doing these things could adversly affect them. It probably has not crossed thier minds that Americans can protest Hyundai and KIA for being unsafe. And if American media showed what is going on in Korea and the anti-Americanism, a backlash against Korean products could easily occur. Next thing you know, an American kid would be on Oprah and say ” I’m only 15 years old, I don’t want to die from a brain tumor because I used a Samsung made cell phone.”
7:30 am on July 5th, 2008 19
And lets not forget that although Koreans are brought up to be very pridefull, so are Americans and the very thought that a small country like Korea would be criticizing them would be down right indignatious in the eyes of Americans. They might tolerate criticism from a place like Japan which they can find on the map and look up to with high esteem. Ask any American which country is the most advanced and they will answer Japan, followed by the U.S. Ask about Korea and they will say something about Kim jong il and Team America World Police.
1:02 am on July 8th, 2008 20
Mad cowed assemblymen.
WHO REPRESENTS KOREA?
The Korean people want to be free from the mad cow riots. It reminds Rousseau’s statement. “Man is born free, yet everywhere he is chains.” In this social condition, he proposed an idea of a representative government. So the citizens send their elected representatives to the parliament to present the voice of the people to find solutions for the problems.
Now in Korea, the government is a representative democratic system.
Under the present circumstances, the opposition parties are boycotting the assembly to prevent the opening of the new assembly. Thus, the opposition leaders are neglecting their own duties to represent the people. In other words, they abandoned their responsibilities as the representatives of the people. Outside the parliament, they do not have a legitimate voice or a forum. If they have a legitimate disagreement with the beef import issue, they should come to tell their opinion to the national assembly. They are just trying to paralyze the function of the government.
Thus, their very action is destructive and disqualifies their representation –A reverse course to the parliamentary system.
It is questionable if the government authority has the power to dismiss the disobedient opposition members. If so, it should oust them and let the people have a new election for their own true representation. Otherwise the society can not stand in peace under the status of “misgivings.” Needless to say KorUSFTA benefits.
BAN KI MOON, UN SECRETARY
Even if they have a disagreement with the beef imports, they should have convened the assembly even during the demonstrations.
More over, the national Assembly knew that UN Secretary Ban Ki Moon will visit Korea. They should have prepared in advance to receive him. Thus, UN Secretary Ban Ki Moon should have been respectably welcomed, as an international dignitary, and let him speak to the Assembly that represented the Korean people. But, they failed miserably as they violated their protocol in the occasion. Unfortunately, the UN secretary did not have a chance to speak proudly to his countrymen, Koreans, who were saved by the UN army. Thus, the Korean people scarred themselves, as if their representatives were ignorant derelicts. They seemed to have ignored their own status as the assemblymen. They just tried to snub the Lee Myung Bak government.
However, the opposition leaders actually snubbed themselves as if spitting into each other’s face. What a shameful action?
They misrepresented Koreans’ image to the world.
Koreans must know that South Korea was able to preserve its tiny territory because UN member nations sacrificed their lives to save South Korea from the communist aggressors.
But they missed the great opportunity to express the Korean gratitude to the Secretary who represents the member nations. Because of their misrepresentation, the Korean people be ashamed of themselves.
The Secretary is a proud Korean citizen. Thus, the Korean people are considered to be honored so much in the international scene because of his statue.
Imagine if these mobs had taken over the legitimate government in riots, what would happen to the people? Their suffering would be much worse than the mad cow ghosts can give.
GORBACHEV KIM
Remember the procommunist demonstrators that your mentor Kim Jong Il is evolving into Gorbachev Kim. You do not have any other place to go now but Myanmar or Zimbabwe. Korea should keep up its pace according to the change of East Asian political scene. The denuclearization is both US and our victory.
The opposition leaders and senseless demonstrators owe an apology to the nation. Especially, the undignified religious leaders should be ashamed of their not-so-saintly, subnormal spirituality, joining the senseless mad cow demonstrators against the very new government that you did not give even
a short period of honeymoon. Don’t you think you are cruelly mad cowed? – Think over! Where to go from here?
Wake up! Stay on the line of law and order! Eat beef; work harder, Korea will be beautiful for ever. It’s yours.
2:47 am on July 8th, 2008 21
“Koreans seem to be unable to put themselves in another person’s viewpoint on issues.”
That story has been told 1000’s of ways by 1000’s of people. Koreans lack empathy. Koreans lack the ability to care about other people (other then those they must care about like family).