Lifestyle > Train of Thought
The Koreans in Afganistan
Don Rizzle:
OK i've been living in Korea for the past month and the koreans being taken hostage is really big news here. I read what they say on the news that these were aid works but FYI they just ignorant christians on a religious holiday involved in some one upmanship against other churches, i think they only planned to be there for a week, while they were out there one of them posted a video ( video with subtitles, this one is still running but previous ones have been taken down and the ones the governement can't take down are getting blocked here) on their cyworld (basically the equivelant to myspace/facebook) home page of them teaching a bunch of afgan muslim kids a religious christian song in korean, the children wouldn't know what they are singing and it shows ultra cultural and religiously insensitivity which they seem to make a big song and dance about here with regards to us foreigners (but that is an entirely different subject), but they themsleves are even more worse when they leave their country!
i've been discussing this wtih as many koreans as i can and i have been really dissappointed with the responses and the korean attitude to discussions such as this anything that involves some form of criticism of korea or koreans basically, I listen patiently to their views and as soon as i give my opinion they interupt every few words making it impossible to have a real discusssion. (yesterday i was trying to discuss the hostages, anti-americanism and FTA)
to keep to this particular subject of the hostages unfortunatly it seems pretty much everyone i spoke to thinks their government has to paythe $10m for the hostages, when i explain the money maybe loose change for the K-govement, but it would actually be a real big deal to the taliban, making them even stronger and more likely to do this again and again, not to mention the lives that will be lost as a result of the way the taliban will use the money to buy weaponary and explosives. Koreans don't seem to care that paying the money is in effect swapping the 21 koreans lives for the lives possibily 2100 non koreans (however I can't just blame only korea for this attitude italy springs to mind). However one thing we could agree on was the hostages were idiots for going there in the first place, but i can't stand the media manipulation that is going on https://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2007/07/27/200707270071.asp - this story is a prime example and just shows how delluded some people can be, if you want to get a more accurate version of what is being report check this site http://metropolitician.blogs.com/scribblings_of_the_metrop/2007/07/cunning-christi.html.
now if i were the korean president my response would to do the exact opposite to what the taliban are asking - instead of removing the symbolic presence of 200 medics and engineers who don't actually make any signicant difference to the situation in afganistan, I would send proper combat troops into afganistan with a number somewhere in the region of 10,000 to 20,000 troops to actually confront the taliban and show the world S Korea is not weak anymore and they won't be dictated to by some loonies who live in caves thousands of miles away.
J @ M @ L:
1. Good job pointing out their real objective/mission in Afghanistan. However, that didn't matter much to begin with... the Taliban will take any foreign workers hostage because they know the Afghan government doesn't give a shit about Afghan civilians, but will be pressured by the governments of foreign workers to negotiate with the Taliban if foreigners are taken hostage. And yes... the incident with the Italians certainly did not help. Good for the Taliban.
2. Korea was gonna pull those 200 hundred out anyway... even before this incident.
Real American:
What do Koreans say about America?
Don Rizzle:
--- Quote from: Real American on July 29, 2007, 07:21:34 AM ---What do Koreans say about America?
--- End quote ---
this a picture of some Koreans protesting against FTA they are throwing cow shit at US beef which costs half the price of Korean beef (btw farming standards are pretty low here but land is really expensive) however it is about 50/50 if koreans are infavour of FTA or not, but they do seem to have an ultra protectionist attitude they seem to only ever want to buy korean made products but at the same time export many Korean products and don't really think about the hypocracy of it all.
They do seem angry at the US because you don't punish your soldiers who commit crimes in Korea, which is understandle IMO however i think they give too much weight to this and forget about how much help america has actually given to support the Korean people and still does do....however i will say they are more friendly about americans as opposed to the american government. They are also very xenophobic here so if any foreigner does something wrong over here its a really big deal and all koreans should know about it, whereas a Korean doing the same thing there isn't the same fuss, really it is the media that is to blame for many of koreas problems like this, but also the mums love to gossip and rumors spread like wildfire. On the whole when i try to talk to them why they don't like certain things about america or whaterver they can't back up their opinions, it seems to be more something that is what they are told to think by the media etc. if you can get them to engage properly they usually come around to the way i see things looking at them objectively, either that or they will just get really angry not listen to you and interuot you all the time trying to say their bullshit points over and over which usually actually have no substance at all(really frustrating)
Real American:
Tell us more about living in Korea. What are you doing out there, what are their women like, etc........
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