Comments on: South Koreans fire water cannons at Bush protesters.

By: syzdekbr

syzdekbr — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 03:01:54 +0000

Some observations from an American living here in South Korea.
1. Protests are a fairly regular occurrence here. They had a lot to do with Korea achieving democracy just 20 years ago.
2. There have been almost constant protests here since the whole “mad cow protests” began a few months ago. Many Koreans look at these protests as a front for the political left here to push forth an agenda undermining the newly elected conservative president.
3. Many also believe these protests have overshadowed more realistic and serious problems such as North Korean human rights violations, worker’s rights, and withdrawal of Korean troops from the Middle East, to name a few.
4. The mad cow protests have cost the country an estimated $6 billion in losses (according to S. Korean gov’t statistics reported in a newspaper here a couple weeks ago and I can’t be bothered to look up now) due to worker losses, direct costs of protests, and loss of foreign investor confidence among other reasons. This at a time when the country is having other economic difficulties.
5. Hiding face and head is status quo at protests as any public recognition of a protester could bring about damage to their family’s reputation. Even those accused of crimes here are covered and their identities are hidden until convicted.
6. In these past months during the protests the conscripted riot police have suffered about 4 times as many injuries as protesters (about 500 to about 100). Recently, water cannons have started to be used to disperse protesters who have attacked police and damaged barricades.
7. The country has a very diverse religious representation which many Koreans are quite proud of. Of the 50,000,000 people maybe 25% are Christian.
8. During the past protests Christian groups have had a calming effect on the protests, acting as a peaceful buffer between protesters and police. In past years, churches have also played an important role in political activism, acting as a forum for free speech when this was not available in mainstream society.
9. #21 DrxJ. Koreans use their family names first, so person Uhm Mi-Kang should be referred to as Mr. Uhm.
Anyway, politics are often a lively affair here and I do think it is a good thing to see people get so involved AND I hope that the democratic process remains peaceful.

By: JBaddo

JBaddo — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 18:59:13 +0000

How come dont see 20,000 spirted and passionate Americans on the streets of Washington demonstrate against the monster Bush?

By: stateofthedivision

stateofthedivision — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 18:49:23 +0000

Dan Flynn is on C-SPAN talking about the liberal icon, Jim Jones and The People’s Church. How ironic, as conservatives have Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the self appointed Second Messiah.

By: Game of Life

Game of Life — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 17:16:50 +0000

While mcchimpy blast Sen. Obama popularity his mentor chimpy is getting raves reviews from South Korea. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I can’t wait to see the response Sen. Obama receives from South Korea.

all the world know what low-life the repugs are.

mcchimpy should visit SK afterall he was defending them way back when. Let’s see some current file footage of flowers and chocolates he should receive from the good he inspired (finally.) That would be some powerful stuff. he can show the difference between his policies vs. chimpy’s policies.

I’m so fu)king smark.

By: stateofthedivision

stateofthedivision — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 16:53:24 +0000

One might expect a “freedom loving” American leader to visit its “mature democratic” counterpart without thousands of security forces. Bloomberg reported

An additional 7,000 police officers and special forces will guard the hotel where Bush and his wife are staying, the National Police Agency said.

By: stateofthedivision

stateofthedivision — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 16:43:58 +0000

Bloomberg reported on one group rallying in support of President Bush. It’s called the New Right National Union.

Wikipedia has this to say:

In South Korea, New Right movement is a Korean version of neoconservatism politics. In South Korea, political parties never tried to show their real political point of view, especially Grand National Party, most popular conservatism party. But New Right movement groups show their political view very positively.

Some famous politicians showed their commonness with the New Right groups, as an instance, Park Geun-hye(former leader of GNP) agreed with New Right’s ‘Alternative Korean History Textbook’ in a symposium.

Maybe these folks can help rewrite history for the SMU Bush library.

By: Doc Rock

Doc Rock — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 16:30:49 +0000

They aimed at the wrong target! ;-}

By: shoeless

shoeless — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 16:23:17 +0000

Barak Obama should travel to South Korea the day Bush leaves, just so we can see the contrast.

By: Paul W

Paul W — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:54:40 +0000

Police turned water cannons on them as they tried to move onto the main central downtown boulevard, telling the crowd that the liquid contained markers to tag them so they could be identified later.

Apparently freedom of expression is just as lacking in South Korea as it is here.

http://progressiveworldreview.com

By: stateofthedivision

stateofthedivision — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:48:20 +0000

For a bit more on the Unification Church, likely responsible for the 30,000 turnout in support of Bush:

http://www.cesnur.org/2004/waco_kim.htm

By: trollsbwild

trollsbwild — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:30:28 +0000

Shrub is on his dictator tutorial tour.
Sigh.. only another 167 days to go. Can’t get here fast enough for all of us, including Dubya. He has to be feeling pressure from all the unraveling evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors.

By: gummitch

gummitch — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:19:35 +0000

Themis Says:

Sorry for my 3,000 over-estimate. Police say that there were only 1,500, and the issue was U.S. beef imports.

It all depends on whether you want to believe the police or the media.

The Kyunghyang News said about 20,000 protesters participated in the anti-U.S. candlelight rally, while the police said the number of protesters was about 1,500.

One thing for sure, the police have a strong reason to minimize protest numbers.

Police said about 7,000 officers would guard Bush, while 17,000 more were being deployed during his stay to control the beef protests — the latest in a months-long series sparked by the supposed dangers of mad cow disease.

Thousands of troops will also be mobilised, the defence ministry said.

By: The Republic of Stupidity

The Republic of Stupidity — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:16:30 +0000

WaltTheMan Says:

Themis,

That certainly looks like a cow on those posters.

And what does the Korean word “OUT” translate to in English?
____________

Walt, this is one of your finer moments…

It bears repeating…

By: stateofthedivision

stateofthedivision — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:12:38 +0000

Bush referenced the code word in his remarks about freedom in China (WaPo):

Bush also grappled with how to gauge openness and freedom in China today. “I mean, this is a closed society in many ways,” he said. “The Internet provides interesting opportunities for people to express themselves. Sometimes it’s open, sometimes the filters are there. I’ve talked to the evangelicals who go there who feel like the underground church movement has gotten a few steps forward, a step-and-a-half back. It’s really hard to tell.”

By: WaltTheMan

WaltTheMan — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:05:13 +0000

Theis,
That certainly looks like a cow on those posters. And what does the Korean word “OUT” translate to in English?

By: Art

Art — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 14:51:22 +0000

20,000 protesters.
Sharp contrast to Obama’s trip last week.
Just saying…

By: stateofthedivision

stateofthedivision — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 14:50:38 +0000

Moon’s Washington Times paper helped Bush & Co,:

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2006/122706.html

By: DRxJ

DRxJ — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 14:42:34 +0000

Since when did South Korea become a communist nation?

“I don’t have anti-U.S. sentiment. I’m just anti-Bush…,” said Uhm Ki-woong

You and me both, Mr.Ki-woong. You and me both.

By: Witch1

Witch1 — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 14:39:52 +0000

It use to cost the american tax payer’s $6,900.00 per hour to shuttle bush’s ass all over in air force one…Don’t know the figure now, my guess twice that amount…To bad we don’t have a patriot pilot that would shuttle him to a foreign country when the game’s are done so he could be arrested and tried for war crime’s….Oh well some day’s I just need to have a good dream….Blessings

By: stateofthedivision

stateofthedivision — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 14:36:42 +0000

Moon money also saved Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University years ago.