Korean Job Discussion Forums

[howie2424]

ESL Milk "Everyday said

[bassexpander]

[RJjr]

[wylies99]

[maximreality]

[aussieb]

Wow � what a hot topic! Congratulations Jake Kim on a well presented post.
I agree with much of what you say. I believe that these demonstrations are a political backlash against LMB for his perceived weakness in his capitulation to the US on the FTA issue.
The previous Korean Government had strict guidelines in place for the importation of US beef post MCD. Even then, a number of shipments were rejected because of bone detected in the shipments. I am sure I read that a whole vertebra was found in one shipment. (woops � must have slipped through the safety net).
The Korean people have then seen their new President throw all these precautions out the window under pressure from the US
In saying that it is political, I am also sure that the longer these demonstrations persist, the more anti US sentiment will rise.
I am sure that US beef would be 99% safe. However MCD does have an incubation period of up to 4 years in animals and 25 years in humans � so I guess the jury is still out.
I read that, under the FTA, Korea cannot reject US beef even if further cases of MCD are detected until a thorough epidemiological investigation is completed. This investigation took over 12 months to complete after the last incidence of MCD. I would want to know that all imports of beef would be halted immediately there was another confirmed case of MCD, not continue accepting beef for another 12 months while some investigation was carried out.
The US slaughters about 35 million cattle each year. Why would they reduce the animals being tested for MCD from 470,000 to 40,000 in 2007?
Europe produces roughly the same amount of beef as the US. They test approximately 1 million beasts per MONTH.
One processor in the US, Creekstone Farms proposed to conduct their own tests for MCD on all the animals they slaughtered. Why did the USDA block them from doing so?
Maybe the US could be doing more to allay the fears of Koreans and others.
Maybe Koreans should be more concerned about the bird flu which is already within their borders and poses a much greater and immediate threat.

[maximreality]

[Geckoman]

In the wake of the current anti-US beef protests, this site is a good one to visit as it provides good information about how Koreans LOVE to protest and engage in extreme behavior while protesting.

Protesting and engaging in extreme behavior while protesting is part of the Korean national character.

See:

The Exciting World of South Korean Protests!
http://www.who-sucks.com/people/the-exciting-world-of-south-korean-protests

And here is the thread about that site on Dave's ESL Cafe: http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=94387

[aka Dave]

[dogbert]

[Pligganease]

[mj roach]

any and every issue to bask in the warm glow of candles in little cups....
it's an 'uri-nara' thing
without a wold cup type event to allow mass gatherings of 'unity'
the next best thing is 'us vs. them'
no better way to unite (manipulate?) people than an enemy
and japan or the usa draws the biggest 'uri' crowds
australia is and will be a non-stater untill
some perceived 'slight' is spalshed on tv/intenet
and the k/inferiority/superiority complex finds a new target

[bassexpander]

[Saxiif]

What really gets me is that there's so many problems with the US beef industry:
-E. coli.
-Massive use of anti-biotics, which is bad for people with allergies and leads to the evolution of anti-biotic resistant strains of bacteria.
-Massive use of growth horomones. It probably isn't the best idea in the world to eat meat pumped full of horomones.
-Large-scale use of subsidized corn to keep prices low, which hurts American tax payers.
-Massive use of illegal immigrant labor on the part of US slaughterhouses.
-Poor treatment of said workers, for example horrific accident rates.
-Large-scale assembly line style work in slaughterhouses which have been sped up a great deal, with so many cows coming down the assembly line per minute that the rate at which intestines are accidentally cut open to spray shit all over the meat has gotten dangerously high.
-Poor treatment of cows in factory farms.
-High fat content.
-Already fairly lax inspection regime gutted by the Bush administration.

Now if these were the reasons what Koreans were agains the importation of American beef, then more power to them. I usually buy Australian beef myself since it is more likely to be free range.

But nooooooooooooo, thanks to the horrifically irresponsible Korean media we have mad cow hyseria on our hands. This is despite the fact that mad cow disease was never much of a problem in the US in the first place (since US cows usually got their protein more from soybeans than cow brains, since soy beans are cheap in the US). And in addition, there's been regulations in place against cow cannibalism in place for years and years. Dying of mad cow disease by eating American beef is about as likely as getting hit by lightning while getting bitten by a shark, all this hysteria is doing is making Koreans look like idiots.

[justaguy]

American beef.

Made in America by Mexicans.

Americans need to understand the fact that "Made in America" doesn't necessarily mean made by Americans. And thus shouldn't imply American quality either.