Farmers pick mulberries at a field in a village of Hamyang, South Gyeongsang Province, southeastern South Korea, on June 1, 2015. Koreans consume the fruit, known to be effective against hypertension and diabetes, as a juice or alcoholic beverage. (Yonhap)
Via a reader tip comes this interesting article over at Gusts of Popular Feeling that discusses a United Nations decision that ruled that South Korea was discriminating against foreign English teacher by requiring them to have HIV tests:
In late 2009 I posted here about a foreign teacher who was refusing to take second HIV test in order to renew her teaching contract at an elementary school in Ulsan. As a result she lost her job and left Korea, and with Benjamin Wagner representing her, complaints were filed with the National Human Rights Commission of Korea (which rejected it) and Korean Commercial Arbitration Board (which ruled against her. Then in July 2012 it was announced that the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination had agreed to hear the case, though not a single Korean media outlet chose to report on this despite receiving a press release from a PR firm. Given 90 days to reply, the ROK instead took 9 months to reply, stating that “since 2010, its guidelines on the employment of foreign teachers do not specify that [foreign teachers] have to submit results of HIV/AIDS and drugs tests to have their contracts renewed,” an assertion which I knew personally was not true (and which the Korea Herald looked at here). In 2010 the ROK had in fact officially removed all HIV tests for those registering for residency except for the E-2 visa tests.
In a journal article coauthored by Benjamin Wagner and myself, we asked in the title whether HIV tests were a proxy for racial discrimination, and this week the CERD answered that question: Yes. [Gusts of Popular Feeling]
I recommend reading the whole thing at the link, but unless you are a long time ROK Head you may not remember this issue. It all began in 2005 when English Spectrum-gate occurred. Some foreign English teachers had made some derogatory comments about Korean women on the English Spectrum website that some Korean netizen noticed. It soon exploded within the Korean Internet community who were able to take down the English Spectrum website. This did not stop the Korean netizen fury against what they believed to be unqualified foreign English teachers running around the country taking drugs and molesting Korean women. An Anti-English Spectrum group was formed that actually wanted to provoke incidents with foreigners in certain university areas in order to push them out. The movement against foreign English teachers got so bad it was reported in the LA Times:
ie Eun-woong, volunteer manager of the Seoul-based Anti-English Spectrum
Sometimes, in his off hours, Yie Eun-woong does a bit of investigative work.
He uses the Internet and other means to track personal data and home addresses of foreign English teachers across South Korea.
Then he follows them, often for weeks at a time, staking out their apartments, taking notes on their contacts and habits.
He wants to know whether they’re doing drugs or molesting children.
Yie, a slender 40-year-old who owns a temporary employment agency, says he is only attempting to weed out troublemakers who have no business teaching students in South Korea, or anywhere else.
The volunteer manager of a controversial group known as the Anti-English Spectrum, Yie investigates complaints by South Korean parents, often teaming up with authorities, and turns over information from his efforts for possible prosecution.
Outraged teachers groups call Yie an instigator and a stalker.
Yie waves off the criticism. “It’s not stalking, it’s following,” he said. “There’s no law against that.”
Since its founding in 2005, critics say, Yie’s group has waged an invective-filled nationalistic campaign against the 20,000 foreign-born English teachers in South Korea.
On their website and through fliers, members have spread rumors of a foreign English teacher crime wave. They have alleged that some teachers are knowingly spreading AIDS, speculation that has been reported in the Korean press. [LA Times]
The controversy led the Korean government to order a crackdown against foreign English teachers. The crackdown got so bad I felt compelled to offer my advice to English teachers on how to blend in as a US GI. I have to admit that I did take some pleasure in that since back then expat English teachers used to regularly complain about GIs until they got a dose of how isolated incidents are used by the Korean media to slime an entire population.
The anti-English Spectrum group was eventually able to lobby to get laws passed in 2007 to make it harder to get an E2 visa which is how the HIV testing came about. I would have no problems with more stringent requirements for teaching English in Korea if all teachers were subjected to the same requirements because I am sure there are many of unqualified Korean teachers teaching students in Korea as well.
The UN ruling has been published in the Korea Times:
This is racial discrimination,” an English teacher from Northern Ireland, who refused to be named, said. “Why should only white, American and European people be subject to this? There is an insinuation here that white people are more promiscuous, and more inclined to take drugs than Korean people.
“If you want to protect young students, then you test everybody for drugs and HIV. Not just foreigners.”
Sarah Abendroth, who teaches English in Seoul, agreed saying, “It would be fine if the test is required for both Korean and English teachers.
“A lot of people feel it’s an invasion of privacy and it perpetuates the stereotype of foreigners being ‘loose,'” she noted.
Korea has a history of restricting global trends to abolish discrimination.
It joined the international convention on CERD in 1978.
In its ruling, the U.N. committee called Korea’s HIV testing policy an act of racism.
“The mandatory testing policy limited to foreign English teachers, who are not ethnically Korean, does not appear to be justified on public health grounds or any other grounds, and is a breach of the right to work without distinction of race, color, national or ethnic origin,” it said.
The committee called on the Korean government to grant adequate compensation for the mental and material damages she suffered. It also urged the government to abolish the law that is “discriminatory and an affront to her dignity.” [Korea Times]
What I find probably of the most interest in this ruling is not whether the Korean government will end the HIV testing but whether they will offer compensation to foreign English teachers. That would have to be a hefty bill to offer compensation to every English teacher that was forced to comply with discriminatory laws since 2007. It will be interesting to see how this plays out, but I have a feeling the law will probably just be quietly removed at some point and no compensation will be offered.
It is good to see that South Korea is taking the MERS virus seriously because in a densely populated country like South Korea the virus could easily spread:
The government said Sunday it will soon launch a task force of government officials and civilians to enhance a monitoring system for MERS and take all-out measures to prevent the spread of the viral disease.
“We will launch a joint task force of government officials and civilians for all-out efforts against the disease,” Health Minister Moon Hyung-pyo told reporters. “We are determined to shed light on the cause of the disease and the route of its spread.”
Moon’s remarks came as the number of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome cases rose to 15 in South Korea as of Sunday.
The ministry confirmed two more MERS cases earlier in the day, bringing to 15 the total number of people infected with the deadly disease.
The Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said one serviceman in the central city of Gyeryong recently contacted his mother, who has been infected with the MERS virus, noting military authorities have quarantined some 30 other soldiers who live in the same barracks. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but the virus is reported to have a 40% mortality rate. Hopefully everyone in USFK is taking necessary precautions as well.
I bet the person that organized this exercise is now regretting it:
Osan Air Base halted operations at its laboratory biological defense program this week after 22 people were possibly exposed to live anthrax spores, U.S. military officials said Friday.
A statement issued by U.S. Forces Korea and the 51st Fighter Wing said that a review would be conducted while operations are stopped, but it did not say who would be conducting the review nor what exactly they would be reviewing.
The live anthrax spores had been mailed from Dugway Proving Ground in Utah to Osan as well as to labs in nine states. It appears that irradiation procedures failed to kill the live spores, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno said Thursday. The military has said the anthrax spores were to be used for training purposes.
“The purpose of the training being conducted was undertaken in Korea with the expectation that the materials sent from the United States would be inert and harmless, to be used for identification and detection capabilities,” a statement issued by U.S. Forces Korea and the 51st Fighter Wing said.
It was the first time the training at Osan’s Joint United States Forces Korea Portal and Integrated Threat Recognition Program (JUPITR) had been conducted. According to the military’s statement, the training was meant to improve the U.S. and South Korea’s ability to protect their troops and the South Korean population “by testing currently fielded equipment and new systems that could better identify toxins and pathogens in the environment.” [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more at the link, but maybe it would be better to certify that these systems work in the US and not bring in something like anthrax even if it was dead spores. That is because if it leaked to the media the anti-US groups would twist the facts to bash the US. Remember these are the people that nearly toppled newly elected President Lee Myung-bak by spreading US beef lies back in 2008. Now due to the irradiation failure they don’t even have to twist the facts to push their anti-US agenda the US military did for them.
South Korean actor Song Joong-ki salutes reporters and fans near a military unit in Goseong on South Korea’s east coast on May 26, 2015, as he is discharged from the Army after spending 21 months in military service. (Yonhap)
The Chief of Staff of the Army is blaming a machine failure for the mailing of live anthrax spores to Osan AB:
The Army followed all appropriate procedures, but irradiation might have failed to kill live anthrax spores mailed to labs across the United States and a base in South Korea, Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno said Thursday.
Odierno said an investigation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is focused on why the gamma radiation used by the Army’s Dugway Proving Ground in Utah did not neutralize the spores before they were mailed. He said the Army is not aware of any other cases where irradiation did not work.
The Pentagon said Wednesday that Dugway mailed the spores to be used in training at labs in nine U.S. states as well as Osan Air Base, but there was no threat to the public. Anthrax is a potent biological weapon that is often deadly when inhaled; it was used in mail attacks after 9/11 that killed five people, wounded others and ratcheted up public anxiety over terrorism. [Stars & Stripes]
If you are wondering why anthrax is being mailed to Korea here is the reason:
U.S. Forces Korea said the sample it received was meant to be used in a training lab as part of its Joint Portal and Integrated Threat Recognition program, which is designed to increase biological weapons readiness on the peninsula.
I would love to see the risk assessment form done on this training exercise that some how involved real anthrax:
Twenty-two personnel at a U.S. Air Force Base in South Korea have been given emergency medical treatment after being exposed to a possible live sample of anthrax, the U.S. military said in a statement on Thursday.
The anthrax was destroyed on Wednesday when a sample initially expected to be inactive and destined for a training exercise was suspected of being live, according to a statement by the U.S. Air Force 51st Fighter Wing in the South Korean city of Osan, 35 kms (21 miles) south of Seoul.
None of the personnel in contact with the sample showed signs of exposure, the statement said, but were given “appropriate medical precautionary measures to include examinations, antibiotics and in some instances, vaccinations”. [Reuters]
