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IMF crisis
Joined: 27 Mar 2008
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 Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2008 12:50 am Post subject: Beef Protests Appeal to Gut, not Brain |
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http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200807/200807040022.html
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| How come the government has agreed to import beef from cattle that has been dead for more than 30 months?" asks a middle-aged protester in a recent anti-U.S. beef rally in Seoul, apparently befuddled by controversy over imports. The additional deal struck between Korea and the U.S. prevents shipments of beef from cattle aged 30 months and older, but her comment shows how the debate has been dominated by emotions rather than facts. |
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One of the favorite phrases used by activist groups to maximize fears of mad cow disease was, "The mad cows will rush in," which has been used by the Korean Alliance against Korea-U.S. FTA since last year. In a leaflet distributed on Apr. 29, such phrases as "mad cows, mad government and people are running mad" were used, subliminally creating a simple equation -- "U.S. cattle = mad cows = BSE-infected beef."
Other illogical propaganda slogans include the allegation that of about 5 million American patients with Alzheimer's disease, 250,000-650,000, or 5-13 percent, are presumed to have been infected with variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human form of BSE. A spoof Korean movie title "Many Holes in Your Brain" has also been successful in linking Alzheimer's disease with mad cow disease.
Sensitive children and students have responded to the slogan, "You can die if you eat 0.01g of American beef" -- referring to the scrapie prion protein (PrPsc), the substance that causes BSE. Others say even vegetarians can die from cosmetics or instant noodle soup containing beef byproducts. Although these products have nothing to do with mad cow disease, the allegations are effective in exaggerating a vague sense of danger. In this regard, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been advising cosmetics manufacturers not to use extracts of bovine byproducts for fear of consequences.
Reuters reported that the FDA prevented U.S. makers of pet food and all other animal feed from using certain materials from cattle at the greatest risk for spreading mad cow disease, adding, "South Korea officially announced it would gradually open its market to U.S. beef imports as Washington intensifies safety standards."
But dailian.co.kr, an online Korean newspaper claimed, "After seeing a Reuters report, Netizens suspect that even dogs don't eat (American) beef.'" The dailian story transmuted further when it was quoted later by other portal sites, such as Daum�s Agora forum, Pressian and Ohmy News, which said simply, "In the U.S., even dogs don't eat beef."
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This is from the Chosun Ilbo.
In related news, I recently learned that Korea Union of Teachers and Education wanted to hang anti-US beef banners at all schools. There's an OP-ED piece about this at both the Chosun Ilbo and the Korea Herald. |
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Ilsanman
Joined: 15 Aug 2003
Location: Bucheon, Korea
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| Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2008 1:25 am Post subject: |
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There's a sign in Bupyeong Station made by the Train Workers Union saying "We will not transport American Beef".
Seriously, if there were a hand big enough to slap a whole country, Korea could use a good slap in the back of the head. |
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nautilus
Joined: 26 Nov 2005
Location: Je jump, Tu jump, oui jump!
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| Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2008 6:53 am Post subject: |
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| If you prove to every korean that american beef is actually safe...would they turn around and stop protesting? |
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catman
Joined: 18 Jul 2004
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| Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2008 11:14 am Post subject: |
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Other illogical propaganda slogans include the allegation that of about 5 million American patients with Alzheimer's disease, 250,000-650,000, or 5-13 percent, are presumed to have been infected with variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human form of BSE. A spoof Korean movie title "Many Holes in Your Brain" has also been successful in linking Alzheimer's disease with mad cow disease.
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This could be the new "Fan Death"!  |
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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2008 12:05 pm Post subject: |
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| catman wrote: |
| This could be the new "Fan Death"! |
Actually, there would seem to be something to the analogy.
American beef finds its way to many other markets. Why are only South Koreans behaving this way? |
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Adventurer
Joined: 28 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 7:36 am Post subject: |
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| Gopher wrote: |
| catman wrote: |
| This could be the new "Fan Death"! |
Actually, there would seem to be something to the analogy.
American beef finds its way to many other markets. Why are only South Koreans behaving this way? |
Korea is not a very scientific society in terms of its thinking like Japan and Western Europe, so they are prone to believing in conspiracy theories much like people of third world country who were colonized in the past like the Arabs, and those who were enslaved in the U.S., in the past, African Americans. They have this victim mentality and smell a conspiracy quite often. Korea was basically a farming country only 30 years ago, so it is understandable. Kuwait is one of the richest countries in the world, and oil was pumping at least since the 1960s. They were getting quite rich a while back, but the Kuwaitis were still retaining so much of the thinking of their nomadic ancestors in the 1990s rather than fitting. Korea also has many Leftists who are trying to spread paranoia amongst the people, and the Conservative government made so many mistakes, and people still fear the old days when there were Conservative dictatorships, and that is one major reason the protests were huge. |
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On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue
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| Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 8:27 am Post subject: |
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| Korea also has many Leftists who are trying to spread paranoia amongst the people, and the Conservative government made so many mistakes, and people still fear the old days when there were Conservative dictatorships, and that is one major reason the protests were huge. |
I'm specualting here a bit, but if 2MB has been handling the beef issue the way he had been handling the English education issue, I can kind of understand why Koreans are paranoid. On education, the guy had his staff making grand pronouncements about his undebated utopian schemes before he was even sworn in. |
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Nowhere Man
Joined: 08 Feb 2004
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| Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 9:58 am Post subject: ... |
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I'm pretty out of the loop on this whole thing, but I'd hazard a guess that it's also due in part to the way the the 2MB's party savaged Noh in his first year.
Or, it at least started out that way. |
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Gwangjuboy
Joined: 08 Jul 2003
Location: England
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| Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 9:37 am Post subject: |
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| On the other hand wrote: |
I'm specualting here a bit, but if 2MB has been handling the beef issue the way he had been handling the English education issue, I can kind of understand why Koreans are paranoid. |
Surely any level-headed man would distinguish between two completely unrelated policies irrespective of the fact that they were pushed by the same president. Is the implication here that Koreans are generally less rational? I might be inclined to agree with that. |
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On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue
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| Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 9:54 am Post subject: |
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| Surely any level-headed man would distinguish between two completely unrelated policies irrespective of the fact that they were pushed by the same president. |
It's not just that the policies are being pushed by the same guy. What I was wondering is if he was pushing his trade policies in the same way that he had been pushing his education policies. |
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Gwangjuboy
Joined: 08 Jul 2003
Location: England
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| Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 10:52 am Post subject: |
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| On the other hand wrote: |
It's not just that the policies are being pushed by the same guy. What I was wondering is if he was pushing his trade policies in the same way that he had been pushing his education policies. |
Yes, the president bungled his attempts at English education reform but it doesn't necessarily mean that his trade policies are as ineffective. On education there is obviously significant room for reform so I think he was right in pointing this out, albeit his proposed solution was naive. The decision to restart US beef imports isn't analagous; the Korean economy can't risk retaliatory trade measures by the US so the resumption of beef imports was a hugely significant gesture. All the evidence suggests that it carries virtually no health risks either. The US has been running a large trade deficit with the ROK for many years but tolerance for this is waning. Koreans are generally very excitable and these huge protests are mostly the result of leftist manipulation. They had ten years in office but as soon as a conservative president is elected the fringe whip up hysteria in an attempt to unseat him. They only respect the democratic process when they win! |
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Adventurer
Joined: 28 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 9:19 pm Post subject: Re: ... |
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| Nowhere Man wrote: |
I'm pretty out of the loop on this whole thing, but I'd hazard a guess that it's also due in part to the way the the 2MB's party savaged Noh in his first year.
Or, it at least started out that way. |
Well, the GNP and others tried to impeach President Roh. There were no legal grounds for impeaching him. What did he do? He turned around later to press for taking the lands of those whose ancestors worked with the Japanese, because he wanted to take a swipe at Park Gun Hye (Park Chung Hee's daughter). |
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