By Yesterday I was walking around downtown Seoul and saw that the Seoul City Hall is preparing to put on what appears to be quite a show for the upcoming Liberation Day tomorrow:
Last year’s Liberation Day, Seoul City Hall was decorated to look like a Hawaiian print shirt via this Marmot’s Hole image:
I have to say I find the Korean Taeguki a bit more fitting considering the holiday is supposed to recognize the independence of Korea from Japan after Japan’s defeat during World War II by the US and allied militaries:
The Taeguki is made on City Hall by hanging thousands of little plastic balls on its walls:
It looks like a lot of work to be able to hang that many balls up. The grass in front of City Hall appeared to be in pretty good condition as well considering all the recent use it has received:
The workers were also busy setting up a stage and some tents so it appears that quite a show will be put on tomorrow. Hopefully some of the usual suspects don’t show up to ruin it.
2:55 pm on August 14th, 2008 1
I read in the paper that Lee wanted it to signify 15 Aug 1948 when the first Constitution was adopted, but others wanted it to remain 15 Aug 1945 on V-J day.
Did this ever get resolved? Never read anything more about it and just curious. Still taking tomorrow off.
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2:56 pm on August 14th, 2008 2
You do realize that those flowers on the so-called Hawaiian shirt are the Rose of Sharon, Korea’s cherished national flower.
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3:01 pm on August 14th, 2008 3
Sonagi,
Do you realize that the Koreans STOLE the hibiscus — Hawaii’s state flower — for their national flower? GASP…
Just joking…actually Hawaii’s flower is the red hibiscus — a larger variety of the same flower.
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4:18 pm on August 14th, 2008 4
“cherished national flower.”
Its not a flower, it is an invasive shrub. According to the USDA its “weedy and invasive”.
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=HISY
Most people pull them because of their weedy nature and they are an eyesore most months of the year.
Sonagi, you seem to know quite a bit about plants and nature, I am surprised you would call it a flower. A cherry tree has “flowers” but I would never call a cherry tree a flower.
http://hcs.osu.edu/pocketgardener/source/description/hi_iacus.html
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6:03 pm on August 14th, 2008 5
Auwe e anohi e… Hawaii’s state flower is an “invasive shrub”!!!!
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10:55 pm on August 14th, 2008 6
No Kalani, in fact the Hawaii state flower isn’t a invasive shrub” unlike the “rose of sharon” (hibiscus syriacus). Its more like a small tree and its not invasive its endangered and rare. Weeds like the Korean national shrub, are invasive and left unchecked they will eventually kill off the beautiful (hibiscus brackenridgei).
If you love nature and beauty, you should pull weeds like the “rose of sharon” before they root. Pull them out, poison them with weed killer and do what you can so they don’t overrun native species.
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2:42 am on August 15th, 2008 7
@1 Liberation Day or Foundation Day?
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/304279.html
This is to answer my own question. It is Foundation Day by unilateral action and some people are yelling sour grapes. The Hanky article gives the reasons why — and it makes sense to me.
My young students simply called Friday — “Red day” as holidays are in red on the calendar. Doesn’t that sound better?
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5:50 am on August 15th, 2008 8
[...] is Liberation Day in Korea and Seoul City Hall isn’t the only place you can go to celebrate [...]
2:52 pm on August 15th, 2008 9
I have concluded after extensive research that the so called “rose of sharon” is a weed. I hope this helps.
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10:00 am on August 16th, 2008 10
A bit off-topic. The protestors were also out celebrating the holiday last night by taking a water-cannon shower in blue-green dye — instead of that jello orange dye used last time. Tuned in late and missed all the action. Clips showed that Kang Ki-gap was there at the start in his white hanbok along with others in the street during a a face-off with the water-cannon down the street in Chongno 2-ga. Don’t know if he got splashed too. Only saw some clips of the protestors sitting in the streets in a line with arms linked getting sprayed. By the time I tuned in everything was over. It was just noisy with the police running up and down keeping the protestors on the sidewalk. Usual throwing of water bottles, etc and hauling away of rowdy protestors, but nothing exciting. I missed all the fun. SHUCKS…
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10:04 am on August 16th, 2008 11
Oh, the riot police now had backpack dye sprayers — like the type that farmers use to spray insecticides — but never got to see it used in action. Gee, they are getting smarter all the time. What a nice way to cool off and have fun on Foundation Day/Liberation Day.
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2:15 pm on August 16th, 2008 12
I made a brief pass through last night. A highlight was in Namdaemun, when a riot policeman who couldn’t have been more then 20 was knocked to the ground behind the line of protesters, in the alleyway next to Shinsegye Dept. Store. As fellow policemen rushed over to try to revive and fan him, a female protester in her mid-twenties came up and started yelling insults at him. I clearly heard her scream angrily into his face, “Do you want to die?!”
VERY classy, oh noble freedom fighters!
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6:06 pm on August 16th, 2008 13
Scott — Remember when I said here that the dye color needed to be disgusting to keep it from becoming a “badge of honor”? Take a look at this pic from Tongil News. I think the police have the dye color just about right.
http://www.tongilnews.com/news/photo/200808/79880_11746_252.jpg
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6:18 pm on August 16th, 2008 14
Sonagi I was just making a joke, however I do think the Taeguki is more appropriate for Liberation Day than the Rose of Sharon.
Kalani that die color is quite a good color to use. That guy looks like a zombie after getting hit.
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7:30 pm on August 16th, 2008 15
Kalani, that’s a great pic. I noticed that right before the police started the water cannon last night at Namdaemun Market, all the “brave freedom fighters” of Hanch’ongnyon who had lined up in formation at the front ran away into a side alley like little cowards.
You’re never going to overthrow the government if you’re afraid of getting wet. Happy Liberation Day, punks!
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7:37 pm on August 16th, 2008 16
BTW, my grandfather served in WWII, but none of the demonstrators bothered to say “thanks” to me or my country last night, so I’d just like to say here to anyone who cares: You’re welcome!
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8:22 pm on August 16th, 2008 17
“like the type that farmers use to spray insecticides —”
A little bit of irony there, because the Koreans spray the protesters like their “cherished national” weed.
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10:46 pm on August 17th, 2008 18
The magpie is another symbol of Korea. Most people think that magpies are the same as crows. Well they are in the same family. Weeds and crows. Welcome to Korean.
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5:49 pm on August 18th, 2008 19
Kalani, is this just more of the usual bleating from the Hani, or does this story have potential traction with the wider public?:
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/305027.html
I personally did not see the police shooting water beyond the confines of the street so I doubt many ordinary people were hit by the dyed water, especially after police ordered demonstrators to disperse first.
I am also wondering if even if police arrested a few non-demonstrators by accident, did they actually haul them in or just let them go? If they just let them go, what’s the big federal offense?
In any case, I’m just a clueless foreigner, but even for me it was easy to tell who was a demonstrator and who was an ordinary passerby, so I suspect that Hankyoreh is exaggerating once again. It’s amazing how these people are able to drag this thing out seemingly endlessly by hammering the police all the time!
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10:55 am on August 19th, 2008 20
Scott, I read that editorial and the first thing I did was laugh. It claimed no one was read their Miranda rights…geez, when did American laws start being applied in Korea? Second, unless something has changed since I last woke up, the Korean system is that you are guilty until proven innocent and your only “right” is to not talk during questioning (like the KBS Prez did). I think they can hold you without charges for 48 hours — but I’m not sure of this point. Anyway after that Miranda line, the editorial went down hill.
The Hankyoreh asserts: “After using a water cannon mixed with coloring at the 100th candlelight demonstration August 15, police arrested about 150 people simply because they were covered in the coloring.” Based upon the video clips of the initial assault to clear the roads, it is easy to dispute this statement. However, later on it gets a bit cloudier as the police were basically leaving the protestors alone on the sidewalks to chant and heckle the police. It was only when the protestors tried to move onto the streets again that they were rushed and arrested.
From watching the internet TV, it was rather obvious that the police did NOT want to arrest anyone. They simply wanted them to go home and stop bothering them. However, the kids wanted to play.
Sometimes, the police would also rush the sidewalks, but only after the protestors started throwing objects at them and were warned to disperse. The police moved down the streets with shields up over their heads to protect themselves from the flying objects and then rushed the sidewalks. The people had plenty of time to leave, so those that remained were NOT innocent bystanders.
The claims that there were plainclothes police in the crowds is true as substantiated by photos of them hauling off protestors in the progressive media. Though I can’t prove it, I believe that the police rushed the sidewalks to extricate their plainclothes policemen who were arresting the protest leaders on the sidewalks. After these leaders were gone, the protest was effectively over by 10:30 and all the rest was noise.
Some of the video clips of this protest are below that disprove many of the statements of the Hankyoreh article. Some really foul language from both sides are heard.
http://www.tagstory.com/video/video_post.aspx?media_id=V000227190
http://www.tagstory.com/video/video_post.aspx?media_id=V000227230
http://www.tagstory.com/video/video_post.aspx?media_id=V000227196
I mentioned before here that the back packs were used but I didn’t see them — but upon reviewing the video clips I saw what they were doing and the tactics they were using.
Both water cannons were using a low-pressure fan spray pattern in a high arc to cover the entire street — but no danger to people. This was more for intimidation and to disperse the crowds. There was no liquid tear gas added to the mixture. The dye consistency seemed to be much thicker than the previous jello orange used last time as seen in a clip of the pools of dye flowing down the street. (NOTE: Later on an EMPTY street, a video clip captured the water cannon used on high-pressure stream, so this capability still exists.)
The police were not chasing people as their intent was to simply clear the streets. Even Kang Ki-gap had run for cover. Kang Ki-gap was caught in this spray and was seen in the clips running like a wet rat to get off the streets to escape police.
The Hankyoreh claim that innocent bystanders were hit by the spray is plausible, EXCEPT that in the videos the sidewalks were empty. Only the people I call the “support elements” (non-violent protestors) had not vacated the sidewalks, but they were backed-up against the storefronts. The spray did splash the sidewalk areas as seen by photos of parked along the street covered with dye spots.
As the riot police moved up they confronted the hardliners standing their ground on the streets. One could see the police with the dye-back packs. The dye in the backpacks appeared to be a stronger mix than the spray from the water cannons as shown by photographs. In each squad in the front ranks, there were three police with back packs to mark people, one police photographer to document, and the rest were to haul off the protestors. There were no batons or shields that I saw as this was a suppression mission to haul away the die-hard protestors.
The hard-core fighters like Hancheongryeon and some of the older guys from the activist NG0 groups (anti-war, unification and anti-WTO farmers) were standing their ground in the streets — and were simply swarmed over and hauled off. It was not a solid wall of protestors as seen in the past, but only small separated groups. The police were using a method to split them into small segments and then surround and arrest them.
The accusations in the Hankyoreh article about “innocent” bystanders being arrested because of paint is cloudy.
In one of the video clips, an old man with paint on him complains that he was an innocent bystander and the real heckler ran away and the police sprayed and caught him. Possible…but he was being escorted from the STREETS to the sidewalk where he was released. Innocent bystanders were not in the streets. Also look at the sly grin he gives at the end, like a kid just getting away with a lie. (NOTE: This is the same smile that the UDP politician gave after he claimed he was assaulted by the police — until a video clip from a bystander showed he was lying.)
In another clip a two young girls are heckling the police as the police are moving away. After some really foul-mouthed exchanges, the girls taunt the policeman with a dye backpack with threats of violence. The policeman “come on” and the girl moves in to attack him. For her effort, she gets a blast of dye in her face and starts screaming like a stuck pig — suddenly being transformed into a helpless school girl who has been violently attacked. I wondered when I saw this I wondered if the NGO grousp provide “ham acting” lessons for all their supporters.
The bottomline is that the Anti-US Beef fiasco is dead. The activists are floundering to try to find a cause. Ridiculous accusations are flying everywhere. The Jogye Order is trying to make this into a religious thing. But the again — the protests are dead.
The progressive media showed Kang Ki-gap at the head of the protest defiantly facing the police water cannons. But not one showed Kang Ki-gap fleeing the scene in his stained white hanbok like a rat deserting a sinking ship. This anti-US beef protest is over — and was actually over the last time.
The progressives could only muster 2000-3000 for this protest — and that is from ALL their groups. The message is pretty clear. However, the danger is that small group hit-and-run guerilla tactics — the type that you saw at Namdaemun (protest and run) — will catch on as they no longer have the large numbers. Just be glad that the protest season is just about over.
Also I think the water cannon mass spraying will continue for any large gathering — spray over the head in a rain-shower so no abuse can be claimed. It really isn’t being used to mark the people for arrests — the backpack dye is doing a good job in this area. It is marking the protestors so that when they return to their home communities they are going to be singled out as they walk down the streets. It is easy to be an ass-hole in a mob, but how does it feel when everyone on the subway is looking at you like a pariah instead of a hero.
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7:09 pm on August 19th, 2008 21
Hi Kalani, thanks very much for your in-depth observations. I wonder if the progressive media ever ask Kang Ki-gap how he feels about getting paid to protest by taxpayers, since the liberals have been boycotting the National Assembly for the past three months essentially over this stupid beef issue.
I also wonder if these people are so concerned about mad-cow disease why they are not equally concerned that Korean cattle ranchers also feed their stock animal-parts, making them highly susceptible to BSE? According to what I have read in the Korean media, downer cows here are underreported by Korean cattle ranchers due to fears of what might turn up in tests.
On Aug. 5th I saw a member of the Anti Lee Myung-bak Daum cafe violently kick and hit a haraboji in Chongno-3-ga at about 11pm. He was actually bragging about it and reenacting it to the other members of the cafe a few minutes later. This past weekend, I saw this same individual — a short stocky man of about 45 wearing narrow black-frame glasses — at Chogye-sa laughing and talking with the protest organizers holed up there. Since the Anti Lee Myung-bak cafe spear-headed the candlelight vigils right from the start, I would really like to know who this guy is, since he is no doubt tight with the organizers, but of course I was not about to start asking him questions when I saw him at Chogye-sa given his violent nature. In any case, I wonder how the high-school girls who attended the early rallies feel about being duped by people who like to kick and hit senior citizens, preaching about “democracy” and “freedom of speech” all the while.
Disgusting and utterly pathetic.
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7:16 am on August 20th, 2008 22
Why don’t the police put the water cannons on high and spray those idiots down the street?
My word, protestors should be quite easy to take care of. Toss in a few CS canisters, hit them with the high pressure water and gather them up. If they hit you, use the batton as a fulcrum and bar the arm. They will either submit or end up breaking their own arm. Have any arrested pay a fine that increases with each offense. Get arrested more than 2 times and they will stop as their backers will be running out of money.
Just my 2 cents.
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12:33 pm on August 20th, 2008 23
Chefantwon, you got here about 28 years too late.
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