Korean Job Discussion Forums

[wanamin]

I think we should have a sticky dedicated to the mad cow issue.
This whole issue has greatly changed my perception of Korea.
It is offensive to me on so many levels.

Students buy into this crap hook line and sinker. These candlelight vigils really get me... While I think its great that students are protesting 2MB, they are doing it for all the wrong reasons. The government itself is most likely behind it all, IMHO. Remember, they never wanted to import American beef. These protests have poisoned the market, and it makes Korea seem, to America and the rest of the world, as dishonest.
An American diplomat compared it to that whack-a-mole game. Don't get me wrong, America is FAR from perfect, but we negotiated this deal in good faith, only to have Korea constantly change the terms of the debate, to bring up a new issue, forcing re-negotiation. And now this, tricking its people, brainwashing them, into believing all this mis-information about vCJD.
You chance of getting infected with vCJD from American beef is about as likely as you finding a winning lottery ticket on the ground... twice.

Supposedly, there is a great unity of the Korean people, this idea of Jeong, but yet we have thousands of students protesting this non-issue while MILLIONS of Koreans are dying of starvation a few miles to the north. I'm a guy, and not a very sensitive one at that, but it really brings me to tears to think about all those people dying horrible deaths.
But no one here seems to really care.
Instead of demanding that 2MB do everything he can to stop their Korean brothers from dying, they're protesting against beef, basically a luxury food item.
Their protests, if successful, will have the economic effect of RAISING food prices on this peninsula. Making it harder to help, if and when the ROK decides to help these people.
Thats what theses candlelight vigils should be for.
I guess its wrong to just pick on these protesters, no one is perfect, but it just comes across as so selfish with all the real issues going on, not only in Korea, but around the world.
We have a duty as educators to get the facts out about Mad Cow disease. Lets get our FACTS straight. Most of Korean educators I work with believe the same misinformation that my students do.
My hope is to be able to use this issue to instill some rationality in my students, who are acting quite the opposite when it comes to all this.
I could go on, but I have other things to do.

And I really hope that despite the political tensions, something can be done about all those people dying up north. I just don't know what I can do as an outsider to re frame the 2MB protests in a more constructive way. I hope some people have some ideas.

[VanIslander]

There are five (5) Michael White stickies There should be at most ONE, with links to the others

[wanamin]

exactly. there must be 10 threads about Mad Cow, it should be condensed... Please????

[BS.Dos.]

I think it's all a load of tosh and simply serves to illustrate American 'trade-agreement' bully-boy tactics perfectly. Much like the illogical and wasteful practices of the European CAP, it's more a case of the US bowing down to domestic beef industry pressure to target and open up new markets for a product that the US simply has too much of and can't get rid of anywhere else.

So what happens, the US, unhappy with SKs refusal/reluctance to allow beef imports; possibly because of BSE fears, but more likely because of SK industry protectionism being as SK beef producers simply cannot hope to compete with cheap foreign imports, starts waving the trade agreement in SK faces backed up with just a subtle suggestion that any refusal to deny the US with a potential new market for its beef will be similarly reciprocated at the US end. "You won't buy our beef? Fine, then we'll buy our semi-conductors elsewhere". Ask yourself who that's going to hurt economically in the long run.

But don't panic. Cheap and plentiful American beef imports will be available soon enough. Perhaps only, say, 5000 tonnes in the first year, but thereafter, there'll be burger joints selling 2000 won 1/4 pounders on every street corner. Far better IMO that the US (and let's not forget Europe too. I wouldn't want to appear as being Anti-American when the CAP is the single biggest drain [read French] on European financial resources) address their own agricultural inefficiencies and stop producing stuff that nobody wants and don't forget, that's without even considering the more important environmental implications of both producing beef and converting more people over to a higher protein diet.

[Dome Vans]

[Adventurer]

I was reading that there were only like 3-4 cases of CJVD and that some of the cases dealt with people who lived in England. So, we don't have a true picture of how widespread it is in the U.S. Let us say for the sake of argument that there were 4 cases since 2006. That's such a small number out of a population of 300 million. British beef has had more issues than American beef, and Canadian beef was banned. I can definitely understand Japan and Korea had a concern, but mad cow is not a major problem since quite some time. The numbers are very low statistically. You can find stupid nationalistic behavior in the US as well with the freedom fries that someone mentioned and the killing of a Chinese fellow there was some anti-Japanese rhetoric going on over Japan not opening up its markets. Korea though is full of conspiracy theories. There are those who actually believe 2MB wants to give Dokdo to Japan and that Kim Jung Il wants to give Baekdu Mountain to China.
The Korean people have many people who are prone to paranoia and propaganda. I am sure every population has it, but I expect this in less developed states.

[wanamin]