This incident shows a cultural difference in Korea many Americans may not realize. In the US people would likely intervene to stop what was going on, however in Korea intervening and getting into an altercation could lead to a lawsuit. That is why I recommend to foreign visitors and residents in Korea to not intervene in situations like this unless there are a whole bunch of Korean friends to act as witnesses. The foreigner’s word against a Korean’s usually does not turn out well at the police station. It is best to call the police and take video to give to the police like the Canadian that took this video did.
Two weeks before New Year’s Day, Eun Deok Cultural Center was covered in snow. Located next to Changdeok Palace in Jongno District, central Seoul, the cultural center is the cradle of Won Buddhism – modern Korean Buddhism.
There, Dathane Turner, the first American believer in Won Buddhism’s 100-year history, sat quietly at a coffee table. He visited Korea to conduct a spiritual ceremony and was scheduled to fly back to the United States shortly after.
There was sadness in his family affairs.
The question “Why is my life is so arduous?” has lingered in his mind since he was a young boy, Turner said.
To find the answer, he tried to study positive psychology at graduate school and looked around asceticism centers.
But all those attempts turned out to be in vain.
One day when he searched for “meditation” on the Internet, he was randomly taken to a webpage that introduced him to Won Buddhism. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
“We apologize, but due to Ebola virus we are not accepting Africans at the moment.”
This is what a bar in Itaewon, a popular area for expats and tourists in Seoul, publicly posted in front of its property last month.
The statement triggered thousands of angry comments online, both from expats and locals ― especially after the public learned of reports that the bar admitted a white person from South Africa, while banning almost all dark-skinned individuals, regardless of their nationalities.
The incident is likely to get attention from Mutuma Ruteere, the U.N. special rapporteur on racism. Ruteere is scheduled to visit Seoul later this month to monitor the situation of racial discrimination and xenophobia in Korea and will file a report to the U.N. Human Rights Council next year.
The incident is one of the growing number of racism cases in the country ― Asia’s fourth-biggest economy, a key manufacturing powerhouse in the region, as well as the producer of hallyu.
While the nation’s immigrant population continues to rise, Korean racism ― both structural and internalized ― is becoming a growing concern to the international community.
Complex nature of racism in Korea
Korean racism, however, must be understood differently from its Western cousin, experts say.
It is a complex product of the country’s colonial history, postwar American influence and military presence, rapid economic development as well as patriotism that takes a special pride in its “ethnic homogeneity,” according to professor Kim Hyun-mee from Yonsei University. [Korea Herald]
You can read the rest at the link, but first of all I find it interesting with everything else going on in the world that the UN is going to send someone to investigate racism in Korea and actually issue a human rights report? Korea definitely has some racism issues, but it has definitely improved over the years as Korea has become more globalized. If this UN investigator wants to see really bad racism then he should head north of the border to North Korea.
Secondly in my opinion much of the remaining racism in Korea has to do with ignorance and perpetuating stereotypes than true hatred of someone of another race. Really true hatred of someone of another race is mostly limited to the Japanese, if they can even be considered another race. But maybe I am wrong and I look forward to other opinions on racism in Korea.
Huh, a 30-year-old teacher, had a rude awakening in his first year at a high school in Kyonggi Province.
“Things have changed so much from when I was in high school, and even then teachers complained that we didn’t treat them in the proper manner. These days, students openly criticize teachers’ skills, chat or text message on mobile phones during classes and even miss school for days without explanation. We as teachers are supposed to be fine with that,” said Huh, who believes that frequent news reports about corrupt teachers and failing students are further eroding the respect for his profession.
Historically Korea has maintained a culture that payed great respect to teachers and scholars, however by reading news reports like this it appears this culture is changing. The question I have is it the students or is the teachers that is changing? If a teacher lets them use cell phones in class, why is the teacher surprised that the student is zoning them out? If teachers spent more time acting like teachers instead of spreading anti-Japanese hatred and North Korean propaganda maybe they would earn more respect in the classroom.
It sounds like the teachers are as much to blame for what is going on as the students.Â
That is the question that the Joong Ang Ilbo asked recently. The Joong Ang also called Koreans the Italians of Asia. Wait a minute I thought Koreans were the Irish of Asia? Anyway this is how the Joong Ang answered the question of why Koreans are rude:
Anti-social behavior displayed by Koreans is said to have its origin in the agricultural society of the country’s past. In close-knit communities where members care for each other like family, strangers were rare. This perhaps explains why the Korean language has limited expressions appropriate for social conversation between complete strangers.
As society modernized, companies engaged in Western-style services or retail industries had a hard time training local staff to be hospitable to customers, as they have a habit of taking professional situations very personally.
Compared with other Asians, Koreans in general are known to be temperamental.
I think to an outsider it may appear that Koreans are rude, but really I don’t think they are. For example in Seoul there is a lot of bumping on sidewalks and subways, but Seoul is so over populated people are just used to bumping into each other and think nothing of it. The locals are used to it, but foreigners new to Korea are not. Really the only non-polite tendency that really bugs me is some of the drivers of both mopeds and cars are just absolute jerks and the people who obviously cut in line. The line cutters I’m able to deal with because I will confront them and when confronted they retreat to the back of the line. The drivers, not much I can do about that, I just grin and bare it.
However, in restaurants and businesses I have more often than not received better service than what I have received in many western countries. When traveling on the subway or trains around the country and I needed assistance usually I was overwhelmed with people wanting to help. Often in Korea I also see people give up their bus and subway seats to senior citizens. There is politeness in Korea, but in a Korean way, not a western way.
Discrimination of foreigners in Korea is nothing new, but recently it has been getting a lot of attention because of the current Minyeodeului Suda Scandal. This scandal has caused at least one K-blogger to start an online petition to protest KBS’s racism.
Well now the Korea Times has an article about foreigners being denied access to swimming pools and saunas:
Connie Arnold, a middle-aged English teacher at Pochon CHA University in Songu-ri, began having hip pain earlier this year and went to see a doctor. He identified it as muscle strain and swimming was prescribed.
Arnold knew of only one pool in town, but when she went there she was told, “No Foreigners Allowed.’’’ She asked a Korean co-worker to call for her and explain that she had to swim for health reasons.
“I explained about you (doctor’s order) but they said no,’’ the co-worker wrote in a follow up e-mail. “Foreigner(s) cannot use the pool.’’
None of this is really surprising to me because foreigners have long been treated like second class citizens in Korea. However, the ones that have it by far the worst are the people who come from third world countries to work in Korea’s manuafacturing businesses. Korea’s Confucian thinking puts these labors way at the bottom of the class structure. That is the real reason why foreigners are denied access to swimming pools, saunas, and even internet cafes:
Arnold said that besides the swimming pool and sauna, she has been refused entry to PC bangs in Songu-ri because she is a foreigner.
A reporter asking to use a computer at the Joy PC Bang in Songu-ri was told foreigners were not allowed to use the service.
I have never been denied access to an internet cafe or even a sauna, but the denial of GI’s to bars and restaurants is quite common, but also keep in mind the denial of Koreans and other foreigners to American only bars happens as well, which I don’t agree with. This is done the ville areas outside of some of the US military installations. The bars are owned by Koreans and just goes to show that they are willing to discriminate against other Koreans in order to make a buck.
There is plenty of discrimination in Korea, but I really think it has been getting better in recent years and the netizen outrage to the KBS show is encouraging, however it is going to take a whole lot more Hines Wards out there to end discrimination in Korea any time soon.
Brian over at Gangwon Notes has provided an update on the progress of the reconstruction of Naksan Temple in Gangwon Province after the forest fire that destroyed much of the temple complex that Brian also provided outstanding on the scene reporting about here and here. You can also see some pictures I took about two months after the fire here.
Two of Brian’s friends that went to the temple with him, the Seoul Hero and Seoul Man also have some nice pics up of their visit to Naksan Temple as well, plus pics of a killer rabbit.
It looks like progress in the reconstruction of the temple is going well and hopefully it continues, because Naksan Temple was one of the prettiest temples in Korea and hopefully after the reconstruction it will be that way again.
The mean streets of the industrialized world are meanest in South Korea, which tops several categories for accidents and road fatalities.
South Korea led the developed world in 2003 with the most accidents per 10,000 vehicles, the most accidents per kilometer of roadway and the most road-related fatalities per 100,000 people, according to figures compiled by South Korea’s Road Traffic Authority.
(…)
South Korea had 137 accidents for 10,000 vehicles in 2003, followed by Japan with 117, Belgium with 90, while the United States and Australia tied for fourth with 85.
South Korea had 2.5 accidents per km of road to top the industrialized world ranking, far more than number two Turkey at 0.9 and third-ranked Japan at 0.8.
Here is what South Korea’s Road Traffic Authority says is responsible for the high accident rate:
“Koreans have a ‘hurry hurry’ culture. We only consider the results and the not the means,” said a spokesman for the agency by telephone.
The figures could also be attributed to heavy traffic levels in a densely populated country, the spokesman said. Simply not paying enough attention when driving was also a factor.
I am often conflicted on if Korea has the world’s best or worst drivers because the way people here don’t obey traffic laws along with pedestrians running around all over the place, I am amazed there isn’t more accidents here.
Koreans prescribe to what I call a Darwinian approach to driving. There is a food chain on the Korean roads. The buses and “Terminator” trucks rule the roads. Large Bongo trucks are next in the pecking order. Small bongo trucks, taxis, SUV’s, and cars are next in the pecking order. In last place on the pecking order are the many moped drivers. If someone gets in accident with a vehicle higher in the pecking order it is that driver’s fault for the accident and the driver of that vehicle will let you know it to by becoming angry and sometimes violent after the accident.
Sometimes it doesn’t even take an accident to make someone higher in the food chain angry. One time I saw a cab driver get out of his cab and slap someone in a car who was talking on his cell phone and didn’t go on the green light. The cab driver didn’t honk or anything, he just simply got out and slapped the guy.
USFK has had a handful of accidents over the past few years involving military vehicles hitting mopeds. You hear very little outrage over these accidents because the mopeds are the lowest on the food chain. Now if a USFK vehicle hits a pedestrian that is a different story because they are not considered part of the food chain.
Due to this Darwinian approach to driving the buses, “Terminators”, and taxi drivers feel they have free reign on the roadways to cut off other vehicles and break any traffic laws necessary to get them more quickly from Point A to Point B.
The police do nothing to stop this either. When I walk to work I have to cross a busy intersection and sometimes the police will stand with these gay looking flags in an effort to get drivers to stop running the red lights and causing accidents at the intersection. It has little effect because the buses, “Terminators”, large bongos, and taxis just driver right through the red lights anyway and honk at the police. The police just blow their whistles at the offender but do not write down any license plate number or get into their cruiser to chase the person down to ticket them.
There is another busy intersection I cross and there they have ajummas with flags to stop cars from running the red light as well. At this intersection no one dares run the red light because first of all the that is the main crosswalk for children to go to school and Koreans love children so they will stop there, plus no matter how high a vehicle is on the food chain all drivers are scared of pissed off ajummas.
So there is a number of reasons for the high traffic accident rate in Korea, but the bottom line is that as long as the Korean police is looked at as nothing more than Keystone cops nothing will change unless of course every intersection in Korea is manned with pissed off ajummas.
The government plans to spend 8.8 billion won to repair Naksan Temple in Gangwon province that was heavily damaged from last month’s forest fire, according to the Korea Times:
I actually had a chance to visit Naksan Temple last weekend and was generally amazed first by the devastation of the forest fire. The fire really was quite large and destroyed civilian buildings could be seen, along with scorched cars, not to mention the thousands of acres of blackened trees.
Secondly I was amazed more damaged wasn’t caused by the fire in the Naksan area in general. The civilian community in the Naksan area seemed to fare pretty well considering the cicumstances. I saw many homes, restaurants, and hotels that had scorched trees right along the sides of the buildings but the structures never caught fire. I don’t know if that is due to the firefighters or property owners protecting there own property, but the damage could have been worse. The Naksan Temple on the other hand was heavily damaged:
The Korea Times article made mention about deforesting 20-30 meters around Buddhist Temples in the future to create a fire break. You can see in the below picture workers have already begun deforesting some areas of the temple:
Brian disagrees with the deforestation idea and I tend to agree with him. The Naksan Temple already had a large fire break in place, Highway 7, but that didn’t help protect the temple as the flames obviously were able to jump over the highway. I tend to like the trees around the temples here and it would be a shame if all the temples in Korea have to be deforested because of this one incident.
I for one however couldn’t understand how this fire got so out of hand to begin with. With the amount of available water to fight the fire, along with the Highway 7 fire break you would think the temple could of have been protected. Especially since the home and business owners near the temple were able to protect their properties. Maybe man power was an issue but with the heavy military presence man power shouldn’t have been issue. It was probably inexperience in dealing with a large forest fire. Large forest fires are not very common in Korea so hopefully this was a wake up call that maybe the fire fighters and the soldiers need more training on how to contain these types of fires. I’m confident the appropriate Korean authorities will learn from this incident to improve in the future.
The good news is that the reconstruction at the temple is moving quickly:
Many of the buildings at Naksan Temple have already been reconstructed and workers are moving really fast to clean up debris and dead trees. With the quick pace the workers are moving to repair the temple, I estimate that the temple’s structures will all be fully repaired before the end of the year from what I saw.
Not all of the temple is scorched however, and is worth visiting now:
The monks at Naksan Temple are extremely friendly. Usually when visiting the various temples in Korea the monks are usually quiet and keep to themselves. For whatever reason various monks came up to me while at Naksan Temple and thanked me in broken English for visiting the temple and tried to explain different areas of the temple to me. So please visit the temple and support the reconstruction work going on because Naksan Temple was a really beautiful site before the fire and I am confident it will be that way again in the future.
