The JoongAng Ilbo reports that Hallim University Medical School dean Kim Yong-seon, whose thesis claiming that Koreans were particularly at risk of contracting Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease sparked the whole US beef import uproar, has told friends that media reports have exaggerated his findings, and politicians are misusing them for political gain.
Hallim University Director Yun Dae-won, who is with Kim on business in Finland, told reporters that the professor was quite embarrassed by the mess. Yun said he was speaking for Kim because the latter felt if he did the talking, he’d become an even bigger victim and perhaps be unable to return to Korea.
Kim appeared with Yun during the interview.
Earlier, Kim’s secretary said his boss felt insulted because some of his thesis had been exaggerated by the press.
Yun said the real problem at the heart of the uproar against US beef was not the facts contained in Kim’s thesis, but rather that those facts were being politically manipulated. He said Koreans were currently not making a rational judgment.
He stressed that Kim’s thesis was very specialized, so even other scholars would have a tough time analyzing it haphazardly. He said it was very dangerous to interpret Kim’s findings arbitrarily. In particular, Yun expressed concern about focusing the discussing on US beef. He said this appeared to be political; the real problem was European beef. He noted that only three cows in the United States had been infected with Mad Cow disease, and all three were infected outside the United States.
Then the kicker — Yun said Kim has enjoyed and continues to enjoy eating US beef, both when he was researching Mad Cow Disease in the United States and now. Given this, Yun said, you could probably guess what the professor personally thought about US beef.
As to why Kim did not actively promote his findings, Yun said that since the controversy over US beef erupted, several angry people had visited his home and thrown animal shit at it.
Yun added that as a result of this mess, Kim has begun showing symptoms a nervous breakdown. The two plan to return to Korea after visiting another European university.
More Sogogi-gate Weirdness
Matt from Gusts of Popular Feeling overheard this conversation on the bus between two Koreans:
Hey, you know that girl I told you about in my class, the one who was crying after she saw her test scores?
Yeah.
Well after school my friends saw her eat a burger at Burger King.
So?
Guess what happened?
What?
They found her in the parking lot of her apartment building that night. She was lying on the ground covered in blood, and people could see her brains. They looked like…
What??
A sponge.
Wow.
She totally died of mad cow disease.
He also points out that the government is trying to put an end to the crazy rumormongering on the Internet, spread by high school students, according to the Chosun Ilbo. The rumors look to be originating from some organized source that cloaks its number, something I doubt high schoolers sending messages to friends would do. This was taken from the Hankyoreh:
The national prosecution and police say they are going to criminally prosecute people involved in spreading so-called “mad cow horror stories” (gwangubyeong goedam) on the Internet, in addition to prosecuting the organizers of candlelight protests against imports of American beef.
Top ranking officials at the Supreme Prosecutor General’s Office held an unscheduled meeting on May 6 to discuss ways to prosecute “horror stories (goedam) on the Internet.”
“The number of horror stories on the Internet is reaching serious proportions and we can’t just sit around and do nothing,” said one prosecutor. “We’re going to look at what’s going on and see if there are any issues.”
A high-ranking police official, said the police see it as a “serious problem” that there is “inaccurate information about American beef and criticism of government policy that is not factual overflowing” on the Internet.
GI Korea at ROK Drop believes it’s a lack of critical thinking skills in the general Korean populace which makes them believe urban myths more readily than proven facts.
Look no further then the Yongsan Water Dumping Issue, the 2002 Armored Vehicle Accident, the GI Crime issue, or the US-ROK SOFA issues. All these issues have been demagogued by the Korean media as well as politicians and activists linked to North Korean spies.
To compound the problem is the fact that many Koreans lack critical thinking skills. That is why statements like this fail to register with Koreans:
Some Korean-Americans were aggrieved at a tendency in Korea to view American beef as the carrier of mad cow disease. A Korean customer at a restaurant in Annandale, Virginia frequented by many Korean Americans said, “Does it make sense that the same beef we eat here is regarded by Koreans as the carrier of mad cow disease?” An employee of the restaurant said, “We’ve cooked here with beef certified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for 15 years, but we’ve never worried about mad cow disease.”
He concludes that the reason for this lack of critical thinking skills lie within the teachers. The government is telling the teachers to not allow students to go to the candlelight vigils. My personal feeling is that even though the protests are based on urban myths, taking steps to discourage or actual outlaw free speech and assembly would have more of a backfiring effect on what the pro-U.S. beef people intend. When the government or any large organization steps in and tells people what they can and can’t think, immediately the organization loses credibility in the minds of those people. They may be gullible, but they’re not stupid.
Rather than that, I believe one of many ways to battle this misinformation is to encourage discussion of these issues in the classroom freely without teachers or bullying groups dominating the conversation. Encourage critical thinking where students must back their claims with facts, a skill that seems sorely looked over in the Korean school system that infects the rest of Korean society from the media to the universities to the average housewife, especially when the society can be influenced by high schoolers’ text messages.
Some of the rumors include the following
- The first human death of mad cow disease was reported on May 2nd this year
- Consuming 0.01 grams of U.S. beef is guaranteed to kill you
- After allowing the beef imports, the Korean president will relinquish Dokdo Island (an issue that fires up the nationalists)
Among the rumor mill is talk of a protest on May 17th by high schoolers. Now, I’m all for youthful civil disobedience. I think a healthy democratic society needs it. It just makes me sad to think that it’s wasted on an urban myth. Imagine if high schoolers in the U.S. all did sit-ins to protest Pop Rocks and Coke.
That’s the level of surreal silliness we’re living with.
UPDATE: The Marmot has brought to our attention that the professor whose findings about Koreans being more susceptible to mad cow disease has been used as the basis for the media scare about U.S. beef has come out and said he was embarrassed that his findings have been manipulated for political purposes. He said that his thesis was such that even other scholars would have trouble interpreting it.
He said the real fear, if anything came from European beef. Only three American cows have been found to have mad cow disease, and all three of them were infected outside the U.S.
Nonetheless, he was speaking through someone else because of fears that the populace would turn against him. He has already had animal feces thrown at his house.
Repeat, he has already had animal feces thrown at his house.
Breaking the Korean Mind Block of US Beef Protests
Korean-Americans are continuing to voice their opinions of the safety of American beef:
Korean-American organizations in New York, Washington and Los Angeles on Monday expressed concern about a health scare surrounding American beef in South Korea. Korean-Americans, who on the whole consume more beef than average Koreans, said they don’t understand why a demagogic slogan such as “I’d rather swallow potassium cyanide than eat American beef” has persuasive powers in their motherland. [Chosun Ilbo]
Obviously this guy has not been in the motherland for quite some time because demagoguery is the order of the day in Korea because it works. Look no further then the Yongsan Water Dumping Issue, the 2002 Armored Vehicle Accident, the GI Crime issue, or the US-ROK SOFA issues. All these issues have been demagogued by the Korean media as well as politicians and activists linked to North Korean spies.
To compound the problem is the fact that many Koreans lack critical thinking skills. That is why statements like this fail to register with Koreans:
Some Korean-Americans were aggrieved at a tendency in Korea to view American beef as the carrier of mad cow disease. A Korean customer at a restaurant in Annandale, Virginia frequented by many Korean Americans said, “Does it make sense that the same beef we eat here is regarded by Koreans as the carrier of mad cow disease?” An employee of the restaurant said, “We’ve cooked here with beef certified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for 15 years, but we’ve never worried about mad cow disease.”
You would think the fact that all the hundreds of thousands of Koreans living in America are not dropping dead from US beef would register with people. Additionally all the people in Korea not dropping dead right now from eating US beef bought from the blackmarket would also register. Unfortunately it appears these facts are not registering with many people because of a mind block brought on by the lack of critical thinking skills.
For example I have had discussions with KATUSA soldiers before about the 2002 Armored Vehicle Accident. Keep in mind that KATUSA soldiers are Korea’s best and brightest. I explain to them the misinformation of the accident to include the hypocrisy that Korea leads all OECD nations in fatal pedestrian traffic accidents to include leading the OECD in child fatalities and often time this does not register. The conversation usually returns to, “But I heard on the Internet that the US soldiers ran the girls over on purpose, laughed about what they had done, and then got in a fight with KATUSA soldiers at the scene.” This is of course all rubbish but shows the power of the mind block caused by the lack of critical thinking.
This lack of critical thinking begins in Korean schools which Korean President Lee Myung-bak realizes and is trying to force teachers to teach proper information to the students:
Teachers appear to be divided over candlelit vigils being held to protest American beef imports.
Education authorities Wednesday instructed heads of schools nationwide to take steps to stop groundless rumors over the imports. They also told teachers to stop students from participating in candlelit vigils or rallies against U.S. beef.
The Ministry of Education and Science suspects that many progressive teachers are “encouraging” young students to go on the vigils. However, the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union (KTU) criticized the government for telling teachers to discourage students from going to the streets, without verifying the safety of American beef.
The union has also been highly critical of President Lee Myung-bak’s administration for “blindly adopting free-market” education policies. [Korea Times]
So why would the KTU be against teaching (gasp!) free market policies? Could it be because they are pro-North Korean stooges that consistently teach North Korean propaganda and anti-Americanism in the classrooms to include celebrating the 9/11 attacks. With people like this teaching Korean children and encouraging them to go to the US beef protests, is it any wonder why critical thinking is missing in Korean schools?
Overall though this issue will be healthy for the US-ROK relationship because it will be a great indication of what direction the country wants to go. Free trade is what is going advance the Korean economy, but the relics of the past, the anti-US activists, are trying to sink the US-ROK FTA with this beef issue for their own anti-US agenda. Will the so called pro-US President Lee Myung-bak side with the relics of the past or do what in the long run will be good for the Korean economy?
I don’ know, but I do find it interesting that former President Roh Moo-hyun always said Korea should have a more equal relationship with the US and now that Korea is getting this more equal relationship the public doesn’t like it.
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