Lifestyle > Train of Thought
The Koreans in Afganistan
Sparegeez:
Real American sounds like he's jacking off to this.
big mat:
can't diss em they fought with usa in vietnam
LooN3y:
--- Quote from: Don Rizzle on July 29, 2007, 12:45:38 AM ---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.
--- End quote ---
koreans have too much sense of pride, but usually their not ignorant and they know reason, were in korea are you, are you in seoul?
LooN3y:
--- Quote from: Don Rizzle on July 29, 2007, 07:55:56 AM ---
--- Quote from: Real American on July 29, 2007, 07:21:34 AM ---What do Koreans say about America?
--- End quote ---
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)
--- End quote ---
yea they do get angry n their ignorant for that, but thats the media makin it a big deal, but shit happens like war crimes in vietnam thats y vietnamese and koreans dont really get a long, so any1 can clearly see the hypocracy but doesnt every nation have a lil bit out hypocracy
but the US did help the koreans but it was for their benefit also, they did not want a another communist sattelite and the korean war ended in a stalemate and it is divided still.
Don Rizzle:
--- Quote from: Real American on July 29, 2007, 04:45:54 PM ---Tell us more about living in Korea. What are you doing out there, what are their women like, etc........
--- End quote ---
The standard of living is really high, everyone lives in high rise apartment blocks and drives korean made cars. the main companies like samsung and hyundai do absolugtely everything and i mean everything they cars, hospitals, supermarkets, apartments, electronics - basically if there is a pie u can bet they've got atleast one finger in it! Everything is very clean here which was nice welcome as I came from the rubbish dump of cambodia (not that i didn't like it there, there were many things to love about cambodia but the rubbish wasn't one of them!) The food is really good here and its not very expensive if you eat out you probably won't spend any more than $5 person on a meal unless u go somewhere really fancy, however nothing beats Laos where you could eat 3 meals a day, get drunk and sleep for about $10 per day aslong as u stayed away from their shitty capital Viantiene. Accomodation is really the only expensive thing here in Korea, and that doesn't mean it will necessarily be good, but luckily i'm staying with my gf's family so its free, but i am missing my independence so i can't wait to get my own place.
Its strange the majority of high school girls look ugly, but most girls in their 20s are beautiful but that may have something to do with the fact that 90% of them have had some form of plastic surgury.
I've been going out with a Korean girl for the last 18 months, she went back to Korea in march to finish her final year of uni and I came out at the begining of july for her summer holidays, after travelling around south east asia for a couple of months (highly recomended). I was supposed to go to new zealand next but now I am going to stay and teach English here for one year atleast then we might go back to England together. Teaching English although its not amazing pay the conditions are pretty good you get $2000-$3000 per month, free apartment, 50/50 medical ins and pension and free flights (they're gonna pay for me to goto japan for the visa run :) ) and even with all deductions like tax, medical and pension you still get to keep 90% of the money you earn.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version