Culture of Excuses?
Here is a cartoon from Naver that was linked to by a commenter at the Marmot’s Hole that I found interesting. My Korean skills are limited but here is my translation, native speakers let me know if I’m off. The top frame has the American tank running over the names of the two girls killed and GI crimes while above it, it says the US has a culture of excuses in regards to these issues. In the bottom frame it says that the US is a culture of condolences after the Cho shooting at Virginia Tech.Â
Of course this cartoon is nonsense because USFK made apologies for the 2002 armored vehicle accident and made restitution payments to the families involved. Additionally US president George Bush made an additional apology to the Korean people over the accident. Now lets compare that to when US Army Major David Berry was murdered in Itaewon in 2000 by a Korean man, no restitution was made, much less an apology from the President of Korea.Â
Additionally absurd is that for every GI crime that happens apologies are made from the chain of command even before the offender has even been convicted of anything. Perfect example is with the recent taxi cab related incident in Kunsan. The base commander apologized to the victim and locked down the camp before anyone has been convicted of anything. Heck when I was in 2ID I can still remember when the Assistant Division Commander, General Martz went to apologize to the mayor of Uijongbu for a taxi cab related incident.Â
Now let’s compare this to when Koreans have raped on multiple occasions, sexually assaulted, stabbed, assaulted, or kidnapped and paraded on TV, American soldiers. Koreans are usually not even arrested for crimes against US military servicemembers and on the rare occasions that they are, they serve no jail time. So which country really has a culture of excuses?
"US is a culture of condolences "
would be better translated as "US is a culture of forgiveness."
I'm glad to see you post that offensive cartoon. Editorial cartoons have got to be the most egrerious examples of distorted content in the Korean media.
"Now lets compare that to when US Army Major David Berry was murdered in Itaewon in 2000 by a Korean man, no restitution was made, much less an apology from the President of Korea. "
Major Berry was murdered by an ordinary citizen, so no apology was needed. As far as I know, no US president has apologized for the occasional murders of Korean nationals in the US.
I'm in agree with you, but here is one item that cuts against the grain…
back at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, after American boxer Roy Jones Jr. got hosed —- winning the award as best fighter of the games but losing on the score cards to a Korean who even knew he had lost…
….a group of Korean monks did come to the games and offer Jones a personal apology as a means of atonement.
This post also reminded of the Japan incident when a US sub off Hawaii poped up under a Japanese vessel loaded with teenage students – many of whom died as a result.
I remember reading how the Japanese parents brought to Hawaii as the search was on-going —– apologized to the Americans —- because they were afraid they might have been rude to their hosts in their grief!!!!
Good goobly!!
http://www.usinkorea.org/images/rape.jpg
[…] Culture of Excuses? at ROK Drop on 25 Apr 2007 at 4:09 […]
Sonagi thanks for the clarification of the translation. I make the point about Major Berry because the Korean media and public demanded an apology for a traffic accident from the president of the US while they could care less about the murder of an American servicemember in Itaewon. I still haven't met a Korean that even knew of the murder before I told them about it, but if Kim Dae-jung had offered some kind of apology after the murder of Major Berry I could understand the demands for an apology from President Bush in 2002. However, there was no apologies for the Berry murder that I know of from the print media thus making the demands for an apology from the US president over a traffic accident in 2002 seem absurd to me.
The traffic accident was caused by two US military personnel traveling in a convoy. I am quite sure that if a US citizen unaffiliated with the military was involved in a fatal accident, there would have been no massive demonstrations nor demands for apologies. There are no South Korean soldiers in the US, but if a diplomat, for example, killed a US citizen in a traffic accident, I would expect an apology from Korea's president since a diplomat is a government employee.
As for the under and misreporting of Korean perp/foreign victim crime and biased coverage of bilateral issues, well that's a longstanding issue that won't change anytime soon. A fundamental rule for speakers and writers is to know their audience, and the Korean media definitely knows how to appeal to the 99% of their readership and viewership.
Sonagi, just to point something out, you would be surprised how many South Korean soldiers are in the US. Most of the military schools I have been to in the US have included ROK Army soldiers. The ROK Army has also sent entire units before to train in the US before. Despite what the political relationship may be, the US and ROK militaries maintain close ties.
the apologies came after the protests. so did the trial. in fact, based on comments from the us military shortly after the girls were killed, there wasn't going to be any trial nor was there to be an investigation. they announced within hours the case was closed.
that's the kind of stuff you guys like to ignore because it gets in the way.
lastly, a word about comparing maj berry and the tank incident. the maj was killed by somebody who was psychotic. the girls were accidently killed by two sober drivers who worked for an organization that announced shortly after the incident that the case was closed. comparing the two is just apples and oranges.
here's a better question:
what would have happened if some english teacher from the states accidently killed two korean girls? would there have been these mass protests you saw with the tank affair? i doubt it. of course, this kind of question doesn't give you the answer you're looking for so looking for one that does is always the avenue of choice.
So pawi what you are telling me that the murder of a US officer in broad daylight while people stood around and did not help is not a big deal? So if a ROK Army officer was walking around and was murdered in broad daylight in America and everyone stood around and watched and nobody helped like what happened with MAJ Berry that wouldn't be a big deal in Korea? I have a hard time believing that.
Additionally your claims of no apology is flat out false. The unit apologized to the girls families immediately after the tragedy held a candle light vigil, and offered compensation. The families originially accepted until the anti-US groups got a hold of them and started the anti-US hatefest which now we know some leaders of have been linked to North Korean agents. The only thing the anti-US hatefest achieved was that President Bush apologized for a traffic accident in response while simultaneously starting the beginning of the end of the US-ROK alliance.
The U.S. embassy offered compensation and an apology to girls' families right after the accident. When the it first happened, I got the sense it was not nearly as big a deal for Koreans as the Olympic speedskating incident. The ruling party got the issue to build by paying people to hand out flyers for months afterward. When the soldiers were found not guilty at the court martial was when Korea went bezerk. It's odd that USFK scheduled the trial just before the presidental election — judge must been pulling for Roh.
As far as the cartoon goes, who is the U.S. forgiving? Since Cho is dead, the issue of forgiving him doesn't really arise. Perhaps some group drove Cho to murder-suicide, and they have been forgiven too easily? The cartoonist obviously thinks the 2002 traffic accident is bigger deal than VT, but I don't follow the logic. Hey, more Koreans died at VT. Maybe it's not supposed to make sense.
usinkorea,
I'm not trying to stir the pot, but if Ray Downey hadn't received a suspicious treatment at the hands of the judges in his fight against Park, Roy Jones might still not have won the gold. Downey vs. Jones, that's the match I really wanted to see.
pawi,
What happens when a hagwon teacher turns up dead? The Korean press, if it even mentions anything about it, prints whatever it is told and leaves it at that. In one case, it was 'death caused by an accidental overdose of insulin' even though the teacher's family claimed he wasn't even diabetic.
Someguy,
I would like to see foreigners in Korea put up a website to compile crime reports like the one you just mentioned. While I was in Korea, an American EPIK teacher was stabbed to death by a Korean man who "didn't like foreigners teaching Korean children." The crime itself was never reported in the press. I learned about it only through a letter to the editor of one of the English rags. The letter was written by a friend of the murdered man. The double standard in crime reporting – sensationalize crimes by foreigners, hush up crimes against foreigners – is apalling.
[…] April 25, 2007 Culture of ExcusesHere is a cartoon from Naver that was linked to by a commenter at the Marmot’s Hole that I found […]