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Julius

Joined: 27 Jul 2006
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Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 6:13 am Post subject: Getting nabbed by the cigarette police. |
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So I was in a hurry to catch my train as it rumbled into the station- at the bottom of the stairs there were no trash cans etc so ...ye...I did a bad thing..I threw my cigarette butt down on the pavement.
Immediately the SWAT team moved in. As I ran up the stairs to my train, I was caught on the arm by a man wearing an official sash. His assistant, a woman in uniform, was also first to arrive at the crime scene, also helped with the arrest.
They demanded ID. I asked where the trash cans were. They pointed about 100m down the street. I said many korean people threw cigarette butts down here. They agreed. I said "did u catch them, too?" they said, "No". (presumably because every korean person could instantly read the bold writing on his sash "Clean up seoul squad". With two officials on each arm it seemed juvenile to simply tear away and run. I was issued a ticket with a number to call, presumably for a fine. I will find out later.
So.. I drop a cigarette butt for about the first time in 4 years..and I get NAILED!! While every ajosshi that typically spills one cigarette every 5 minutes onto the street is able to read the warning and avoids punishment.
Fantastic.  |
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Imbroglio

Joined: 23 Jan 2003 Location: Behind the wheel of a large automobile
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Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 6:37 am Post subject: |
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It happened to a guy I work with too. He asked one of our coworkers at our company to write a formal letter of apology in Korean for him and he took it in hand to the local gu office where the smoke police work. After some humble posturing and promising he'd never do it again, they dropped the ticket, Bill saved 30,000 won. Here's a trick he's learned since... Flick off the cherry, then ball up the butt and throw it in the subway trash.
They're going to be cracking down all over the city on this, when Bill went to that office, the manager in charge that waived his ticket showed him a pile of 75 huge books full of offenders - literally thousands and thousands of people who had to pay the fine...not just Koreans, all kinds of Chinese, Americans, Canucks, Brazilians, bunches of names. Another thing you could do is look around and make sure you don't see anyone with a yellow armband before you toss your butt...sometimes they hide though...
Good luck! |
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Join Me

Joined: 14 Jan 2008
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Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 6:42 am Post subject: |
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Hey...or you could try this. How about not being lazy bastard and try to set an example for Koreans by throwing your trash in the trash can? Unless of course you are actually from a 3rd world country in which case you may not know better. If a cig butt is so disgusting you can't put it out and place it in your pocket until you come across a trash can, why are you putting this thing in your mouth in the first place? |
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cdninkorea

Joined: 27 Jan 2006 Location: Seoul
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Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 6:54 am Post subject: |
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Join Me wrote: |
Hey...or you could try this. How about not being lazy bastard and try to set an example for Koreans by throwing your trash in the trash can? Unless of course you are actually from a 3rd world country in which case you may not know better. If a cig butt is so disgusting you can't put it out and place it in your pocket until you come across a trash can, why are you putting this thing in your mouth in the first place? |
While I agree with your sentiment that throwing cigarette butts on the street is not a good thing, I don't think being hostile and confrontational to the OP is an effective way to persuade him of this. |
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moosehead

Joined: 05 May 2007
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Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 7:03 am Post subject: Re: Getting nabbed by the cigarette police. |
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Julius wrote: |
So I was in a hurry to catch my train as it rumbled into the station- at the bottom of the stairs there were no trash cans etc so ...ye...I did a bad thing..I threw my cigarette butt down on the pavement.
Immediately the SWAT team moved in. As I ran up the stairs to my train, I was caught on the arm by a man wearing an official sash. His assistant, a woman in uniform, was also first to arrive at the crime scene, also helped with the arrest.
They demanded ID. I asked where the trash cans were. They pointed about 100m down the street. I said many korean people threw cigarette butts down here. They agreed. I said "did u catch them, too?" they said, "No". (presumably because every korean person could instantly read the bold writing on his sash "Clean up seoul squad". With two officials on each arm it seemed juvenile to simply tear away and run. I was issued a ticket with a number to call, presumably for a fine. I will find out later.
So.. I drop a cigarette butt for about the first time in 4 years..and I get NAILED!! While every ajosshi that typically spills one cigarette every 5 minutes onto the street is able to read the warning and avoids punishment.
Fantastic.  |
Korea SPUTTERING!! |
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Julius

Joined: 27 Jul 2006
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Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 7:04 am Post subject: |
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Join Me wrote: |
Hey...or you could try this. How about not being lazy bastard and try to set an example for Koreans by throwing your trash in the trash can? Unless of course you are actually from a 3rd world country in which case you may not know better. If a cig butt is so disgusting you can't put it out and place it in your pocket until you come across a trash can, why are you putting this thing in your mouth in the first place? |
Yes but I'm not a drug addict. |
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Join Me

Joined: 14 Jan 2008
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Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 7:05 am Post subject: |
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cdninkorea wrote: |
Join Me wrote: |
Hey...or you could try this. How about not being lazy bastard and try to set an example for Koreans by throwing your trash in the trash can? Unless of course you are actually from a 3rd world country in which case you may not know better. If a cig butt is so disgusting you can't put it out and place it in your pocket until you come across a trash can, why are you putting this thing in your mouth in the first place? |
While I agree with your sentiment that throwing cigarette butts on the street is not a good thing, I don't think being hostile and confrontational to the OP is an effective way to persuade him of this. |
All you need to do is look anywhere on the ground in Korea to see that being nice isn't working. No pitty for the op or the other Korean slobs who persist in ruining every inch of Korea with their filthy cig butts.
I was biking in the country today and was once again totally disgusted by all the litter...all of which is left one piece at a time by someone who is thinking only of themselves and their own needs at the time they dispose of it. |
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Julius

Joined: 27 Jul 2006
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Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 7:11 am Post subject: |
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And I pay 50.000W per month in "Appartment cleaning" fees for squat.
Now they suddenly want to charge me more for actually (one time in 4 years) giving them something to clean up???
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I was biking in the country today and was once again totally disgusted by all the litter...all of which is left one piece at a time by someone who is thinking only of themselves and their own needs at the time they dispose of it. |
Well thats it. In Korea its OK to throw trash in the countryside, and to trash the countryside with ugly reckless concrete development. But woe betide anyone who drops a cigarette butt in the city.
Point is: its a fake sort of environmentalism. If they really were environmentalists, they'd not have driven to extinction 80% of native wildlife here over the past 40 years. No perspective. |
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Join Me

Joined: 14 Jan 2008
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Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 7:15 am Post subject: |
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Julius wrote: |
And I pay 50.000W per month in "Appartment cleaning" fees for squat.
Now they suddenly want to charge me more for actually (one time in 4 years) giving them something to clean up???
Point is: its a fake sort of environmentalism. They're going nuts about cigarette butts on city streets now, but its ok for people to dump all sorts of trash in the countryside?? Which by the way they've been trashing by concreting over every important environmental site for the past 10 years. Now all they care about is cigarette butts? |
We both agree that littering the countryside with the same ugly concrete apartment buildings is horrendous. However, I would still rather look at them then the piles of cig butts that are in every little corner where the wind blows them. In Seoul there are sadly more cig butts on the ground then there are blades of grass. |
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beast
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
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Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 7:48 am Post subject: |
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Dude I hear ya',
In my building on each floor, there is a little public balcony area where people smoke. There must be a hundred butts on the floor at any given time. So I brought out a jam jar as an ashtray and left it by the door. After three days, the jar was removed by someone. I guess they like flicking them on the floor better. It sucks to get a ticket for that though. |
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anyway

Joined: 22 Oct 2005
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Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 8:13 am Post subject: |
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The only way to clean up the place is with trash bags, trash cans, and voluntary effort. Not fines and coercion. The same goes for speeding... |
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Julius

Joined: 27 Jul 2006
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Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 8:20 am Post subject: |
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anyway wrote: |
The only way to clean up the place is with trash bags, trash cans, and voluntary effort. Not fines and coercion. The same goes for speeding... |
Korea already has the old folks who pick up trash to make pocket money. The fact there are never any trash cans anywhere I took to mean that they expect you to throw down trash to provide these people with a living. Thats the way the system works here.
Either that, or they must use tax money to provide rubbish bins and refuse collectors- like any other country. |
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madoka

Joined: 27 Mar 2008
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Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 10:21 am Post subject: Re: Getting nabbed by the cigarette police. |
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Julius wrote: |
So.. I drop a cigarette butt for about the first time in 4 years..and I get NAILED!! |
I find it pretty hard to believe that the first time you littered, you got caught. What next? First time I drove 5 MPH over the speed limit I got caught? First time I cheated, the teacher found out? All these killings every year and the first time I murder someone, I get caught.
Dude, man up and pay your $30 instead of whining about the unfairness of littering laws on the internet. You chose to smoke, so learn to take responsibility for your butts. If you were caught in the U.S., it's more like a $1,200 fine in some counties. Count yourself lucky that you learned your lesson to throw your trash away properly. |
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TheUrbanMyth
Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Location: Retired
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Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 2:34 pm Post subject: Re: Getting nabbed by the cigarette police. |
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Julius wrote: |
So I was in a hurry to catch my train as it rumbled into the station- at the bottom of the stairs there were no trash cans etc so ...ye...I did a bad thing..I threw my cigarette butt down on the pavement.
Immediately the SWAT team moved in. As I ran up the stairs to my train, I was caught on the arm by a man wearing an official sash. His assistant, a woman in uniform, was also first to arrive at the crime scene, also helped with the arrest.
They demanded ID. I asked where the trash cans were. They pointed about 100m down the street. I said many korean people threw cigarette butts down here. They agreed. I said "did u catch them, too?" they said, "No". (presumably because every korean person could instantly read the bold writing on his sash "Clean up seoul squad". With two officials on each arm it seemed juvenile to simply tear away and run. I was issued a ticket with a number to call, presumably for a fine. I will find out later.
So.. I drop a cigarette butt for about the first time in 4 years..and I get NAILED!! While every ajosshi that typically spills one cigarette every 5 minutes onto the street is able to read the warning and avoids punishment.
Fantastic.  |
Which provides another reason why foreigners intending to live here for a good length of time should learn to read the language. |
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bassexpander
Joined: 13 Sep 2007 Location: Someplace you'd rather be.
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Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 4:17 pm Post subject: |
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Join Me wrote: |
Hey...or you could try this. How about not being lazy bastard and try to set an example for Koreans by throwing your trash in the trash can? Unless of course you are actually from a 3rd world country in which case you may not know better. If a cig butt is so disgusting you can't put it out and place it in your pocket until you come across a trash can, why are you putting this thing in your mouth in the first place? |
I see two problems here...
1. There are very few trash cans in Korea. Good luck finding them. There used to be trash cans around about 6 years ago, then the gov't started charging for bags (or charging more -- I don't remember which). People started protesting by putting their trash in the city trash cans, so the gov't just removed all of the city trash cans. They realized they could save money this way, and also removed them from the subway -- only leaving one next to the ticket counter. People have been complaining for years, and my wife says that the city is finally going to put out some more cans.
The funny thing about it was that they actually installed cameras over the garbage cans at some places they HAD to have a garbage can at, along with speakers to chew-out those who tried to dump their trash there. I remember watching video clips of this on the news. Imagine that -- they have police guarding garbage cans with video cameras, yet didn't have a soul guarding Namdemun gate (national treasure #1), which burned down recently due to arson.
2. Putting cigarette butts in the garbage is dangerous. We just had a fire start in a trash can at my school last Friday. I was teaching my final Friday afternoon class, and just as we opened the door to leave, a wall of smoke blew in. A cigarette butt had started a fire in a trash can in the stairwell above us. One of the students saw it and put it out with a fire extinguisher, but man, was there a stinky mess all across the floor!
Nobody alerted us, which is pretty scary now that you think about it.
So what's the answer here? How about not smoking?
Seriously, though... I see they put up a bunch of cigarette butt dispensers in Hyewha every 50 meters or so, at the curb. |
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