I saw the headline and clicked to check out the story. And I hadn't finished the first paragraph before the oh my god alarm started to sound.
The offending passage: U.S. Ambassador to Korea Alexander Vershbow has weighed into the beef controversy, sparking an outcry with what critics say was a display of rudeness and arrogance.
Rudeness? Arrogance? These are the same people who spit everywhere, smash into each other as they walk, don't wait for people to get off the subway/elevator before barging forward etc, saying this is arrogance. FUBAR!
Now you might be asking what possibly could have prompted the Koreans to react this way. Here's the offending comment:
After meeting with Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan on Tuesday, Vershbow had said, "I can't deny that we're disappointed" at the Korean government's decision to delay U.S. beef imports. "We hope Koreans will begin to learn more about the science and about the facts of American beef." He also rejected reopening beef talks saying, "We don't see any need for re-negotiation of the agreement."
So, what is the offending comment?
A) Americans are disappointed a key export is still being held up costing them hundreds of millions of dollars--- I would say that this is something that's easy to see why they'd be disappointed over.
B) They want Koreans to learn the facts and science about something.--- How dare they! Question the intelligence of a people who elected a man who wants to build a massive canal down the center of the entire country. Koreans clearly know what's what.
C) no renegotiation is needed.--- If the Koreans are allowed to scream, yell and cry about the need to renegotiate, surely an American official is permitted to calmly and coherent state their view that no renegotiation is needed.
To sum up:
rude= calmly stating your opinion which is supported by science, facts and international trade regulations.
Not rude= repeatedly violating a trade agreement. Allowing citizens to hold overtly xenophobic , out of control demonstrations based on completely inaccurate information. To openly disrespect a country that is the only reason Korea even has freedom and isn't a property of Japan or run by communist, and who lost thousands of lives making it so and who have spent billions upon billions of dollars in securing this freedom.
I say let the soldiers leave, the military aid stop and Congress start passing similar measures to what Korea has in place. See what happens then.
These people are nothing more than infants and need to grow up.
Rudeness? Arrogance? These are the same people who spit everywhere, smash into each other as they walk, don't wait for people to get off the subway/elevator before barging forward etc, saying this is arrogance. FUBAR!
Now you might be asking what possibly could have prompted the Koreans to react this way. Here's the offending comment:
After meeting with Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan on Tuesday, Vershbow had said, "I can't deny that we're disappointed" at the Korean government's decision to delay U.S. beef imports. "We hope Koreans will begin to learn more about the science and about the facts of American beef." He also rejected reopening beef talks saying, "We don't see any need for re-negotiation of the agreement."
So, what is the offending comment?
A) Americans are disappointed a key export is still being held up costing them hundreds of millions of dollars--- I would say that this is something that's easy to see why they'd be disappointed over.
B) They want Koreans to learn the facts and science about something.--- How dare they! Question the intelligence of a people who elected a man who wants to build a massive canal down the center of the entire country. Koreans clearly know what's what.
C) no renegotiation is needed.--- If the Koreans are allowed to scream, yell and cry about the need to renegotiate, surely an American official is permitted to calmly and coherent state their view that no renegotiation is needed.
To sum up:
rude= calmly stating your opinion which is supported by science, facts and international trade regulations.
Not rude= repeatedly violating a trade agreement. Allowing citizens to hold overtly xenophobic , out of control demonstrations based on completely inaccurate information. To openly disrespect a country that is the only reason Korea even has freedom and isn't a property of Japan or run by communist, and who lost thousands of lives making it so and who have spent billions upon billions of dollars in securing this freedom.
I say let the soldiers leave, the military aid stop and Congress start passing similar measures to what Korea has in place. See what happens then.
These people are nothing more than infants and need to grow up.
2 comments:
mmmmm....
I like this blog and you are a clever thinker about Korea. But (I bet you knew that was coming) a little bit of reading on integrity versus intimacy cultures, confucianism, and Korean history might blunt conclusions as simple as that Koreans are like children.
This is a culture built out of philosophy that is alien to westerners (there's some killer science on the difference in how the "east" and the "west" view things), and some really effed up history. Viewed through that prism, a lot more makes sense.
Add to this the fact that Korea is only a few decades free of dictatorship, and I think there are reasons it lurches about as it does.
I'm from the US and having met Koreans there, I know they find exactly the same kinds of sillinesses and contradictions when they view the US.
still, as I noted, I like this blog and it's going on my personal blogroll. ;-)
Just make sure to keep it up... the web is, tragically, littered with corpses of blogs that started out well, and then went the way of all e-flesh.
Rwellor,
Thanks for the comment. Most people seem to visit the site and read, but you're the first comment.
As for the East Vs West and confucianism etc, we account for that. The writers of the blog collectivity have visited about ten countries in Asia, with that number set to go over a dozen in the coming months.
What we've found, and what serves as a major reason for this blog, is that the standard of behavior in Korea is lower and in some cases far lower than most other nations we have visited. The distinction we often use is modern/developed countries vs non-developed or developing countries. In many cases the way things happen in Korea are far closer to developing nations than developed.
The example that stands out most in our minds is Seoul vs Taipei. The behavior on the subway is the prime example, wherein on the Seoul subway we get smashed into, stepped on etc in someway every time we set foot on the Seoul subway system. The same thing never happens in Taipei. EVER. The same can be said for barging in before people get off the subway, cutting in line (subway or non), driving, running red lights and the list goes on and on.
As for being free of dictatorship, that's something we also try to account for in what we post.
Once our new blog is up and running we'll be adding your blog to our blog roll, if that's ok with you.
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