To this day, the way Park Geun-hye admin reacted to the Sewol Ferry Disaster is just incomprehensible to me. It was so fundamentally contrary to good politics and common decency. It would have been EASY to do the right thing. Instead, they chose evil to the point of self-harm. https://t.co/ZYUj3chffC
President Park did not personally don a wet-suit and heroically lift the overloaded, capsized ferry boat with inoperable lifeboats and 300 children ordered back to their rooms by the captain who survived and was not charged with 300 murders.
She should not have assumed that the people employed to do such rescues, like the Korean Coast Guard, could trusted to show up and do what was needed.
After sll, one more bureaucrat nosing around or possibly out on the water in a rowboat with a boat hook or grapple on a chain would have made all the difference, right?
GrayBlack
1 year ago
Her reaction was incomprehensible. She apologized and cried. The politicians smelled blood and pounced. Human nature to want to assign blame, and she automatically painted a big target on herself by taking ownership. Had she immediately attacked the ship’s crew for criminal negligence public outrage would have been more pointed where it should of been. As a politician she should have known to never apologized because people often take that as proof of guilt.
She made the same mistake in her campaign for president when she apologized for her father’s actions. Besides allianating his diehard supporters, it cast herself in the wrong moral side. Again, the apologizes were taken as evidence of guilt. She simply did not understand politics.
Yoon Suck Me
1 year ago
GrayBlack’s logic perfectly illustrates the Trumpian logic. Don’t take any responsibility for anything, blame everything that you did wrong on someone else, ignore any criticisms, and obfuscate any controversial issues. In other words, just act like Trump. Lovely.
setnaffa
1 year ago
Grayblack, she thought she was dealing with liberals instead of communists.
OTOH, she really had nothing to apologize for, except she, like so many pretend-conservatives, has no fixed beliefs to defend.
Sadly, people without a rudder, like the Bush family, Romney, McCain, and so many others, think a fake apology makes trouble go away.
GrayBlack
1 year ago
GrayBlack’s logic blah blah blah
This isn’t my logic, it’s merely observing political reality. I’m not even passing moral judgement on such behavior.
I didn’t see Hillary apologize for that private email server, Nixon for Watergate, Clinton for lying to congress, Reagan for Iran Contra, Biden for is son’s illegal firearm disposal/drug habit/bribe taking (with 10% for the big guy), or Obama for his numerous controversies. Not apologizing is bipartisan to American politics and predates anything Trump ever did. Funnily, the only thing that truly separates Trump from the others is his obscene open honesty.
In terms more familiar to Korean politics, Roh Moo-hyun never apologized for a family of bribe takers including his own wife, Kim Dae-Jung is silent about paying the North Koreans $500 million or his failed sunshine policy, and Moon Jae-in never apologized for appointing a bunch of corrupt property developers and protecting them when investigated by Yoon.
What’s truly bizarre, and shocking, about PGH is that she took ownership when she had negative political incentive to do so. No one else in Korean politics would have done so. Even more unusual, she had zero connection to the incident as it was the Ship’s captain and his crew that caused the disaster. Ultimately all legal and moral responsibility lies with him and his crew alone. PGH’s sole responsibility as president was purely in ensuring rule of law be carried out and the crew in jail.
PGH should have never gone into politics. She was far too empathetic for an environment that is inherently callous and machiavellian. How she even got there in the first place leaves me baffled.
Korean Person
1 year ago
The problem with the Setnaffarians, GI Korea, and Flyingsword is that they believe that Park was impeached because of Sewol.
On the contrary.
The reason she was impeached was because she refused to cooperate with the prosecution when they were investigating Choe Soonsil and used her powers to block prosecutors from searching the Blue House.
From the viewpoint of the Constitutional Court this was clear conflict of interest and abuse of power, which to them were impeachable offenses.
After that she lost her immunity which cleared the way for prosecutors to investigate, indict, and try her for corruption.
Of course the courts found her guilty and sent her to prison.
Korean Person
1 year ago
The Setnaffarians, GI Korea, and Flyingsword should stop acting like they know about Korea and how things work here.
In actuality, they are ignorant when it comes to Korea and how things work here in Korea.
And here’s something for some of you… you know who you are…
I believe The Korean was criticizing the botched rescue efforts after the capsizing.
The rescue efforts were less than stellar and needlessly caused loss of life.
Fing commie. complete commie set up to stage a judicial coup
No, TOK,
President Park did not personally don a wet-suit and heroically lift the overloaded, capsized ferry boat with inoperable lifeboats and 300 children ordered back to their rooms by the captain who survived and was not charged with 300 murders.
She should not have assumed that the people employed to do such rescues, like the Korean Coast Guard, could trusted to show up and do what was needed.
After sll, one more bureaucrat nosing around or possibly out on the water in a rowboat with a boat hook or grapple on a chain would have made all the difference, right?
Her reaction was incomprehensible. She apologized and cried. The politicians smelled blood and pounced. Human nature to want to assign blame, and she automatically painted a big target on herself by taking ownership. Had she immediately attacked the ship’s crew for criminal negligence public outrage would have been more pointed where it should of been. As a politician she should have known to never apologized because people often take that as proof of guilt.
She made the same mistake in her campaign for president when she apologized for her father’s actions. Besides allianating his diehard supporters, it cast herself in the wrong moral side. Again, the apologizes were taken as evidence of guilt. She simply did not understand politics.
GrayBlack’s logic perfectly illustrates the Trumpian logic. Don’t take any responsibility for anything, blame everything that you did wrong on someone else, ignore any criticisms, and obfuscate any controversial issues. In other words, just act like Trump. Lovely.
Grayblack, she thought she was dealing with liberals instead of communists.
OTOH, she really had nothing to apologize for, except she, like so many pretend-conservatives, has no fixed beliefs to defend.
Sadly, people without a rudder, like the Bush family, Romney, McCain, and so many others, think a fake apology makes trouble go away.
This isn’t my logic, it’s merely observing political reality. I’m not even passing moral judgement on such behavior.
I didn’t see Hillary apologize for that private email server, Nixon for Watergate, Clinton for lying to congress, Reagan for Iran Contra, Biden for is son’s illegal firearm disposal/drug habit/bribe taking (with 10% for the big guy), or Obama for his numerous controversies. Not apologizing is bipartisan to American politics and predates anything Trump ever did. Funnily, the only thing that truly separates Trump from the others is his obscene open honesty.
In terms more familiar to Korean politics, Roh Moo-hyun never apologized for a family of bribe takers including his own wife, Kim Dae-Jung is silent about paying the North Koreans $500 million or his failed sunshine policy, and Moon Jae-in never apologized for appointing a bunch of corrupt property developers and protecting them when investigated by Yoon.
What’s truly bizarre, and shocking, about PGH is that she took ownership when she had negative political incentive to do so. No one else in Korean politics would have done so. Even more unusual, she had zero connection to the incident as it was the Ship’s captain and his crew that caused the disaster. Ultimately all legal and moral responsibility lies with him and his crew alone. PGH’s sole responsibility as president was purely in ensuring rule of law be carried out and the crew in jail.
PGH should have never gone into politics. She was far too empathetic for an environment that is inherently callous and machiavellian. How she even got there in the first place leaves me baffled.
The problem with the Setnaffarians, GI Korea, and Flyingsword is that they believe that Park was impeached because of Sewol.
On the contrary.
The reason she was impeached was because she refused to cooperate with the prosecution when they were investigating Choe Soonsil and used her powers to block prosecutors from searching the Blue House.
From the viewpoint of the Constitutional Court this was clear conflict of interest and abuse of power, which to them were impeachable offenses.
After that she lost her immunity which cleared the way for prosecutors to investigate, indict, and try her for corruption.
Of course the courts found her guilty and sent her to prison.
The Setnaffarians, GI Korea, and Flyingsword should stop acting like they know about Korea and how things work here.
In actuality, they are ignorant when it comes to Korea and how things work here in Korea.