Foreigners Banned from Itaewon Club Over MERS Fears
For those going out to clubs in Itaewon over the long 4th of July weekend, here is one club you will not get into:
An upscale nightclub in Itaewon, Seoul, has stopped accepting foreign customers over the past two weeks in fears of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), a virus that has taken lives of 33 people in South Korea, the owner of the club said Wednesday.
Kim Jong-hyun, owner of Lounge & Club Move contacted The Korea Observer and requested that we remove an article that we published a day earlier as he believes it implies the club has a racist policy in place.
“We absolutely don’t accept foreigners because of MERS,” said Kim. “Above all, Korean people don’t want them. This is Korea, isn’t it?” [Korea Observer]
Here is what he had to say about US military servicemembers:
“Most of the time when a customer loses a cellphone, the CCTV reveals that the thieves are Middle Eastern people or foreigners.”
Kim agreed with his manager Lee’s statement that the club has been hesitant to have foreign customers because it is hard to make them liable when they cause property damages, sexually harass customers or start a brawl.
He also stressed that foreign customers frequently start a fight with U.S. servicemen.
“U.S. servicemen don’t behave badly. The problem is other foreign customers who constantly provoke them into a fight,” Kim said.
“It is better not to have them because we lose too much for trying to make a small amount of money from them.”
You can read the rest at the link, but US servicemembers have been accused for so long for being the ones to start fights in Korea that I don’t know how to react.
“The problem is other foreign customers who constantly provoke them into a fight,”
What does “provoke” mean to Mr. Kim?
“but US servicemembers have been accused for so long for being the ones to start fights in Korea that I don’t know how to react”
Don’t get your hopes up this 4th of July GI Korea. It’s simple, you have “reacted” by reaching for high hopes.
You’re obviously correlating “provoke a fight” with “starting” a physical fight when a fight that is “provoked” doesn’t have to be physical. And just because a “foreign customer” says…”USASUCKS…” doesn’t mean that “foreign customer” “started” the fight and give the drunk(or not) “U.S. servicemen” permission to throw the first punch. By Korean law it doesn’t matter who “provoked” the fight because “U.S. servicemen” are guilty when they try to defend themselves against verbal nationalistic(USA is BAD/YANKEE GO HOME etc…) assaults with physical attacks.