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Trixie
Joined: 15 Apr 2007
Location: Anatolia
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 Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 3:24 am Post subject: |
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He reminds me of in some ways of a savage or feral child (Kaspar Hauser syndrome).
By many accounts, there's a window of opportunity in which children can learn to speak. And that's not just about learning words. It's about being able to relate to people.
Cho may have had a biological predisposition to psychosis (some studies suggest that that's how we have to understand psychosis). His extended family members in Korea say he was always withdrawn and uncommunicative. But another possibility is that that psychosis (whatever its biological causes) was influenced by the failure to engage him in language. His parents worked all the time and the father was away (perhaps in Saudia Arabia) during a crucial time. That early development and socialization into language and culture is crucial.
But I don't pretend that this explains everything. Koreans I know can be histrionic, emotional, hysterical. Many Koreans have anger issues. They deal with conflict not through dialogue but by having spaz attacks. But usually these don't lead to a passage to a violent act. I know Koreans can have terrible fights, threatening each other with knives and all, but don't actually hurt each other (or hurt each other too much). The crime of exhibitionism and public whacking off is very common but actual rape less so.
I'm only an armchair critic (and a newcomer to this forum). You'd have to talk to his family members more to get a fuller picture and diagnosis. But Korean culture is not a culture that has the same kind of relation to violence that we can see in parts of the Middle East and Africa (which has a variety of causes including tribalism). My sense is that although Koreans can be histrionic, and there is tradition of corporal punishment (of women and children), it doesn't usually lead to large scale murderous rampages of complete strangers. So there must be some other element. The standard answers are: America's gun culture, video games, violent movies, problems with the educational system, etc.
My sense is that there is a breakdown of some kind culturally around the world that we don't yet fully understand. |
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demi
Joined: 23 Mar 2006
Location: London
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| Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 3:36 am Post subject: |
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In which country can you get a gun when you open a bank account? Yes that's right....a bank that gives you a gun on site.
a)USA
b)The States
C)America
Regardless of whether guns are legal or not, is that not just pure stupidity?
In which country did a partic. state pass a law obliging everyone to own a gun?
Idiots |
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wylies99
Joined: 13 May 2006
Location: I'm one cool cat!
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| Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 3:40 am Post subject: |
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I think it's easy to say what one "would have done", but you really don't know until you are in that situation.
I think drills for such events should become more routine. Wasn't there a school in Texas that trained the students to deal with such situations. I think throwing books was one of the techniques. 20 or so heavy text books flying at your face should cause some distraction. |
Been to the US lately, if EVER? Almost every school district trains teachers to deal with these situations.
Also, I didn't just "say what I would have done"- I explained what everyone should try to do in that situation. Big difference. |
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wylies99
Joined: 13 May 2006
Location: I'm one cool cat!
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| Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 3:42 am Post subject: |
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Demi- you HATE the US, EVERYTHING about the US, and EVERYONE who lives there. We get the point. 
BTW-If you opened your mind and actually visited the "Great Satan" to you, aka, the USA, you'd love it there and would never want to leave. |
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PimpofKorea
Joined: 09 Dec 2006
Location: Dealing in high quality imported English
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| Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 8:35 am Post subject: |
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| That Cho seung-hui gets my vote for most badassed looking korean guy of the year....considering most of his peers are walking around with pink cardigans on......he doesn't have much competition. |
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Vicissitude
Joined: 27 Feb 2007
Location: Chef School
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| Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 9:04 am Post subject: |
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| charlieDD wrote: |
I found the family's released statement to be rather cold and legalistic.
I'm wondering more and more about the family and it's real status. I mean, does your average family know how to hire a top-notch, out-of-state lawyer to write up its press releases and distance itself from the acts of one of their members?
And this thing about the parents in the hospital: patent Korean reaction when they get caught in a scandal: go to the hospital and be sick to get sympathy. Look at Hwang, the SNU researcher. As soon as the scandal broke, he was in the hospital; pictures in every newspaper of him "recovering" in hospital. Chun Doo Hwan, after being forced out of office and damned near put on trial: hospital, then a Buddhist monastary for a year. There are countless other examples.
And the other patent Korean thing: Turn your back on the criminal who is associated with you. "Now I think I barely knew him" . . . the sister's statement goes. In other words "I had nothing to do with his acts." When, in likely fact, they all knew he was a time bomb and just pushed him off on the university to deal with. According to his roommates, the family never visited him there and they can't recall anyone from the family ever calling him. He never went home, even on breaks.
I have yet to hear any kind of sincere regret or apology out of the family. I was really expecting something more. Was already getting upset with them for taking so long to say anything; now I'm even more upset with them for putting out such a cold, carefully-worded PR statement. |
I couldn't have said it any better myself. My sentiments exactly, except that I wasn't expecting much of an apology from them. Typical of Koreans to feel sorry for themselves before thinking about other people. Their words seem like a desperate appeal for sympathy from other people rather than showing sincere remorse for what their own son has done. They are hiding behind a shield feeling pity for themselves while ignoring the suffering of the true victims. Their main excuse is so typical, "we don't speak English very well." Okay, so speak Korean and use your lawyer son to translate. How simple. |
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demi
Joined: 23 Mar 2006
Location: London
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| Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 4:21 pm Post subject: |
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| wylies....you've got me all wrong. I don't hate Americans. I hate Americans who seem to have a complete lack of respect for other cultures (in this case Korea). You got me all wrong. |
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Yu_Bum_suk
Joined: 25 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 6:46 pm Post subject: |
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| Vicissitude wrote: |
| charlieDD wrote: |
I found the family's released statement to be rather cold and legalistic.
I'm wondering more and more about the family and it's real status. I mean, does your average family know how to hire a top-notch, out-of-state lawyer to write up its press releases and distance itself from the acts of one of their members?
And this thing about the parents in the hospital: patent Korean reaction when they get caught in a scandal: go to the hospital and be sick to get sympathy. Look at Hwang, the SNU researcher. As soon as the scandal broke, he was in the hospital; pictures in every newspaper of him "recovering" in hospital. Chun Doo Hwan, after being forced out of office and damned near put on trial: hospital, then a Buddhist monastary for a year. There are countless other examples.
And the other patent Korean thing: Turn your back on the criminal who is associated with you. "Now I think I barely knew him" . . . the sister's statement goes. In other words "I had nothing to do with his acts." When, in likely fact, they all knew he was a time bomb and just pushed him off on the university to deal with. According to his roommates, the family never visited him there and they can't recall anyone from the family ever calling him. He never went home, even on breaks.
I have yet to hear any kind of sincere regret or apology out of the family. I was really expecting something more. Was already getting upset with them for taking so long to say anything; now I'm even more upset with them for putting out such a cold, carefully-worded PR statement. |
I couldn't have said it any better myself. My sentiments exactly, except that I wasn't expecting much of an apology from them. Typical of Koreans to feel sorry for themselves before thinking about other people. Their words seem like a desperate appeal for sympathy from other people rather than showing sincere remorse for what their own son has done. They are hiding behind a shield feeling pity for themselves while ignoring the suffering of the true victims. Their main excuse is so typical, "we don't speak English very well." Okay, so speak Korean and use your lawyer son to translate. How simple. |
His sister graduated from Princeton, works for the state department, and can't speak English well enough? Oh well, who knows - maybe the family distanced themselves because he was also a threat to them. What would you do if you had a pychotic brother like that? |
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Adventurer
Joined: 28 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 7:21 pm Post subject: |
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| demi wrote: |
| wylies....you've got me all wrong. I don't hate Americans. I hate Americans who seem to have a complete lack of respect for other cultures (in this case Korea). You got me all wrong. |
Demi, you have a point. However, don't foreigners of other nationalities have many amongst them who have similar attitudes? I think generally Canadians and Europeans might or might not be more tolerant towards some of the undesirable attitudes in Korea. Of course, there are desirable aspects about the society and people.
Back to Cho, the only Korean connection I can see is his parents not having him get psychological care when he was young and didn't seem to visit him when he was in university when he was so closeby as if he was just forgotten, and they put it all on society and the university. It hardly seems fair and it seems like those actions helped lead to this bad situation.
I don't think it is simply guns that are the problem in America. A cultural change has happened leading too many people to use them to harm many people. That didn't really happen so much in the past. |
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Vicissitude
Joined: 27 Feb 2007
Location: Chef School
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| Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 9:38 am Post subject: |
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| Yu_Bum_suk wrote: |
| Vicissitude wrote: |
| charlieDD wrote: |
I found the family's released statement to be rather cold and legalistic.
I'm wondering more and more about the family and it's real status. I mean, does your average family know how to hire a top-notch, out-of-state lawyer to write up its press releases and distance itself from the acts of one of their members?
And this thing about the parents in the hospital: patent Korean reaction when they get caught in a scandal: go to the hospital and be sick to get sympathy. Look at Hwang, the SNU researcher. As soon as the scandal broke, he was in the hospital; pictures in every newspaper of him "recovering" in hospital. Chun Doo Hwan, after being forced out of office and damned near put on trial: hospital, then a Buddhist monastary for a year. There are countless other examples.
And the other patent Korean thing: Turn your back on the criminal who is associated with you. "Now I think I barely knew him" . . . the sister's statement goes. In other words "I had nothing to do with his acts." When, in likely fact, they all knew he was a time bomb and just pushed him off on the university to deal with. According to his roommates, the family never visited him there and they can't recall anyone from the family ever calling him. He never went home, even on breaks.
I have yet to hear any kind of sincere regret or apology out of the family. I was really expecting something more. Was already getting upset with them for taking so long to say anything; now I'm even more upset with them for putting out such a cold, carefully-worded PR statement. |
I couldn't have said it any better myself. My sentiments exactly, except that I wasn't expecting much of an apology from them. Typical of Koreans to feel sorry for themselves before thinking about other people. Their words seem like a desperate appeal for sympathy from other people rather than showing sincere remorse for what their own son has done. They are hiding behind a shield feeling pity for themselves while ignoring the suffering of the true victims. Their main excuse is so typical, "we don't speak English very well." Okay, so speak Korean and use your lawyer son to translate. How simple. |
His sister graduated from Princeton, works for the state department, and can't speak English well enough? Oh well, who knows - maybe the family distanced themselves because he was also a threat to them. What would you do if you had a pychotic brother like that? |
What would I have done if I had a psychotic brother like that? I'll tell you exactly what I would have done. First, I would not have ever distanced myself from him. I would have been a support, a friend and a shoulder to lean on. Why? Because he's my brother, he's a human being and that's what people do for their family members whom they love. They support them. Had his family been there for him, got him the help he needed and offered unconditional love throughout his life, maybe this whole thing would not have ever happened. I'd say it's a pretty safe bet. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree (usually). But let's give them the benefit if the doubt if you want and say they were a perfect loving family. In either case, if it were me, I would certainly offer my condolences in WHATEVER DAMN language I could possibly utter in order to make it perfectly clear that I AM SORRY FOR THE PAIN MY BROTHER CAUSED FOR SO MANY PEOPLE. That's what I would do. You asked and I'm telling you. |
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bangnangja
Joined: 13 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 1:16 pm Post subject: |
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| wylies99 wrote: |
Been to the US lately, if EVER? Almost every school district trains teachers to deal with these situations.
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I left in 1980 and my last visit home was in 1996.
A friend of mine recently went back to Florida to teach and recieved no such training. After a year of getting threatened by Junior High School kids; he decided teaching in Manila was alot safer afterall and so went there. |
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Hollywoodaction
Joined: 02 Jul 2004
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| Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 4:40 pm Post subject: |
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| Rteacher wrote: |
Koreans comprise the greatest number of foreign students in U.S. universities - with about 100,000...
So, based on that statistic alone, it was most probable that the first foreign student crazy enough to do something like this would be a Korean...
One of the recent articles I posted makes reference to the fact that he didn't even associate with other Korean students, suggesting that severe pyschological disorder was more of a causal factor than cultural influences.
Of course, university students in Korea do have some tradition of violent protests for various causes (including anarchy...) but I think that agents from Pyongyang have spurred much of it ... |
Actually, Canadians probably compromise the highest number of foreign students are US universities. |
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andrew
Joined: 30 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2007 12:52 am Post subject: |
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.....
Last edited by andrew on Fri Mar 20, 2009 6:43 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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igotthisguitar
Joined: 08 Apr 2003
Location: South Korea (Permanent Vacation)
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| Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2007 1:59 am Post subject: |
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Sources: Feds Ordered VA Police To "Stand Down"
Local authorities were told to take no action to pursue killer
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Friday, April 20, 2007
Police and EMT workers at Virginia Tech tell us that campus police were given a federal order to stand down and not pursue killer Cho Seung-Hui as Monday's bloodshed unfolded.
Though wishing to remain anonymous for obvious reasons, we have received calls from police and EMT's who tell us that a stand down order was in place, and this is also confirmed by eyewitness Matt Kazee, who is a Blacksburg local. |
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SuperHero
Joined: 10 Dec 2003
Location: Superhero Hideout
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