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TheUrbanMyth
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Location: Retired
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 Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2004 2:36 am Post subject: Re: Kiwi TEFLER sold into slavery in South Korea (seriously! |
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| Sadebugo1 wrote: |
Goodness! This must have been a nightmare. In the next to last paragraph, the KFWA says that they believe this is the first time something like this has happened to a Westerner. Not to make light of the situation, but I wonder how they feel about the slavery in some of the hagwons!
Human traffickers trap unsuspecting Teflers
By Jean Briesbois, Tuesday 13 January 2004
Fears over the safety of Western males teaching in South Korea are growing after a New Zealander's escape from a human-trafficking ring.
Alex Wyer, 26, was discovered unconscious outside an apartment building in northeastern Seoul wearing only a G-string after the gay bar where he had been imprisoned was engulfed in flames.
Security guard Lee Byung-woong, 52, said that Wyer was in a terrible condition when he and his partner found him. 'We couldn't believe our eyes, here was this foreigner wearing strange underwear covered in soot lying in our garden.'
Unable to produce any form of identification, Wyer was taken to a migrant hostel where he received medical treatment and clothing. A hostel employee speaking on condition of anonymity said that they had never seen a foreigner in such a state of distress, describing Wyer's appearance as 'ruined'.
Wyer's unwitting involvement in human trafficking occurred after he accepted a position teaching English to Russian college students in South Korea following his dismissal from a City job in London. The contract was organised by a company that advertised the EFL opportunity in an East London DLR station, with interviews held in Soho.
'I couldn't believe this was happening,' Wyer said. 'One minute I had nothing and the next, a hundred quid advance in my hands and a one-way ticket to Seoul. I didn't need any encouragement; I went straight home and packed. I was so naive, so bloody stupid.'
Wyer and three other men, one from Spain and two from Italy, met their Russian chaperone at Heathrow Airport for the flight.
Upon arriving in Seoul, they were greeted by a 'Mr Larionov', a heavy-set Russian in his mid-40s who took the group's passports for 'safe keeping' before driving them to a house where they were separated and locked in cell-like bedrooms.
After 48 hours confinement, Wyer was brought into Larionov's office where his passport was burned in front of him. It was at this point that he was told that he would have to work as a go-go dancer and escort in a foreigner-only gay bar.
Refusing to comply, Wyer was imprisoned and beaten on a daily basis before succumbing. 'It was a nightmare,' he whispered. 'I am not gay but I was forced to dance for men and entertain them. I just switched off, it was like I wasn't there, I was a total zombie.'
A spokesperson from the Korean Foreign Worker's Association believed that this was the first time that a Westerner had fallen prey to human traffickers in Korea.
Speaking before his departure for New Zealand, Wyer said, 'I know that people think that something like this could never happen to them. I can't even believe that this happened to me. I just want everyone to be aware that they need to be very careful when they accept a job in another country. If the offer seems to good to be true then it usually is. I just want to be able to walk down the street like a human being again.'
Other news
Korea to make English official |
Sounds like Asia T's been busy.  |
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Homer
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| Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2004 4:54 am Post subject: |
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Whats dumber here:
The story or the person who posts it and seems to think its real.... |
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Sadebugo1
Joined: 11 May 2003
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| Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2004 5:38 am Post subject: To Homer! |
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This article appeared in the ELT Gazette. As to its veracity, who knows but similar situations to this do happen in Korea. The Korean police are corrupt and rarely investigate such accusations when brought by filipina women.
As for your personal attack, it would have stung had I not known you developed most of your wit in a hagwon setting!
Good day. |
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Homer
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| Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2004 7:51 am Post subject: |
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Sade,
It was not a personal attack dear.
It was a sarcastic comment on a story that was taken out of context and posted under the thread that we as foreign teachers should be careful not to be abducted and sold into slavery.
Any rational person that has been here more than 5 minutes has to see that this is just not realistic.
As for my wit and where it was "developped" it comes from much more varied sources then you think...books, thesis, research, safari hunts, space walks, they all contribute to my "wit"....  |
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kiwiboy_nz_99
Joined: 05 Jul 2003
Location: ...Enlightenment...
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| Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2004 10:57 am Post subject: |
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| Let's get real, that just didn't happen. The author needs a bit of technical refining, but there's a good novel in there somewhere if he keeps working hard. |
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humanuspneumos
Joined: 08 Jun 2003
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| Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2004 1:10 pm Post subject: Even if the story turns out to be true or not true |
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The world ain't the place it used to be. The times they are a changing and changing right under our noses. Geo-politics/Sociological temperaments have all changed as the world gets smaller and groups are forming in a rapidity that boggles the mind.
The AOC for example: Asian-based Organized Crime (no- not something that can't be confirmed like Enf-Corp).
Human trafficking- fact
Growing corruption- fact
Growing Sex-slavery/Trafficking-fact
http://www.yorku.ca/nathanson/Links/links.htm
A while back somebody I know predicted that the racism, corruption, failing economies, and a growing geo-expansionism of organized criminals would eventually spill over into the whole TEFL community. They wern't the kind of people who didn't research and take notes. Even if the article turns out to be crap or if our dear poster friend WYLDE read the article first and then posted his and now we're all thrown off by whose who- the AOC is real.
Will it spill into the TEFL community in percentages that become huge? I doubt it. Will incidents on a small percentage scale- due to the smallness of the percentage- raise skeptics, believers, and not so sure agnostics when it does hit- yes- for sure. (We're all still wondering if that teacher who claimed drugs were mailed to him was telling the truth or not about things like "final pay- motive" and "they wern't mine.") Again- when percentages of weird things happening are small it's easy to be skeptical- isn't that what criminals want us to be- skeptical???
When anything is breaking into a new market- like the AOC breaking into TEFLer's lives- skepticism is great. When it increases- skepticism decreases. I predict that it won't increase to any great degree for the sole reason of keeping skepticism alive.
Also- me thinx that this board will never have a shortage of "skeptics" because there is never a shortage of recruiters who aren't the most altruistic people in the world when it comes to TEFLers and TESLers.
I think it's good that a bell like this is ringing for the sake when those 1 or 2 legitimate cases do happen so as not to bury serious situations in an ocean of skepticism.
Last edited by humanuspneumos on Fri Jan 23, 2004 2:23 pm; edited 3 times in total |
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Cthulhu
Joined: 02 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2004 1:19 pm Post subject: |
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Hey, I sold my last two hagwan partners to the Japanese porn industry in order to get my uni job--are you telling me I did wrong?  |
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humanuspneumos
Joined: 08 Jun 2003
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| Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2004 1:54 pm Post subject: I'm trying to figure out how you delivered them over |
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Did you wrap them in tissue and blow your nose- thus- propelling them into the air- over the sea- and into Japan? Or Did you put them in a capsule- inserted it in your arse and shoot them all the way to Japan?
How Watson? How? |
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Cthulhu
Joined: 02 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2004 4:25 pm Post subject: |
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Bad day at the office?  |
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humanuspneumos
Joined: 08 Jun 2003
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| Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2004 4:57 pm Post subject: Thought it was funny |
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| Thought my response was funny since you were blowing so much hot air in humor. |
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Cthulhu
Joined: 02 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2004 5:16 pm Post subject: |
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| My mistake, and you are right. |
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