Comments on: Eyewitness account of South Korean demos

By: remora

remora — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:23:39 +0000

..this wasn’t the source but makes for interesting reading.

http://gopkorea.blogs.com/flyingyangban/2004/02/rioting_is_as_k.html

remora

By: remora

remora — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:50:49 +0000

I thought, maybe I was being overcritical, so I googled “korea street rioting” and was informed that it is as Korean as Kimchi and goes by the name of Sok Chon which derives from the Chosun Era..it’s sort of akin to English Soccer Rioting from the good old Seventies..so a weekly brick-tossing teargas gulping riot is thought to be beneficial to one’s mental and physical well-being..oh! and to be fair I did google “japan street rioting” but only came up with a few things about a rock band…how boringly well-behaved the Japanese are! – (or maybe it’s the fearsome reputation of the Kidotai.)

remora

By: Edward Chmura

Edward Chmura — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 09:08:08 +0000

Thanks for writing in, Scott.

By: King Baeksu

King Baeksu — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 04:36:30 +0000

Hello everyone, I’m the guy who wrote the article linked to in this thread.

I appreciate your skepticism so allow me to clarify who I am and what I do.

I am a professional critic and writer with some twenty years experience. This is easily verified on my site. I actually don’t even consider myself a blogger.

I have also written for Japan-based publications like Kansai Time Out and Tokyo Journal over the years.

I’ve been living in East Asia since 1994 and have lived in Seoul, South Korea since 1996. If anyone can point to any inaccuracies in my story I’d be happy to address relevant points.

In any case, how do you think I managed to fake that photograph at the top of my article?

I’ve been going to the anti-US beef and anti-Lee Myung-bak protests from the start and stand by everything I have written.

At this point, these protests have lost most of their credibility with the general South Korean public. The organizers are thus playing a losing propaganda game based mostly on lies at this point, and manipulating a recent AI report on “police brutality” is a key part of their strategy.

I wrote my article mainly to preempt further attempts by the protesters to manipulate AI to their own advantage.

Thanks again for your observations.

–J. Scott Burgeson, Seoul

By: remora

remora — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 03:15:48 +0000

what’s Korea without a weekly riot?..that’s like applepie without the custard.

I worked with a Korean Engineer once and he complained that the teargas used to kill all the leaves on the street trees.Surely they can come up with something a bit more eco-friendly…

remora

By: kanedaa

kanedaa — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 23:11:46 +0000

well, before you start writing letters to AI and stuff like that you should confirm it is true…because of course unless there no kind of evidence except hearsay of one person on the internet (!), than it has to be expected to be probably wrong or at least exaggerated by some agenda of the writer.

That is simply the nature of the internet and of people, since only very few people can claim to have unbiased view on both side of the story AND also write/report like that….

By: Edward Chmura

Edward Chmura — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 14:34:29 +0000

And, of course,the converse is: It’s on a blog so it can’t be true?

By: kanedaa

kanedaa — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 14:04:29 +0000

of course if that guy writes so, it must be the truth…

No saying that he is lying, but sending HIS “report” to AI…? Come on get real people. It is the internet…ridiculous.

But wait, it is on a blog? Oh ok, then it must be true…

By: overoften

overoften — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 03:18:01 +0000

If you’re using Firefox, that link won’t work for some reason. But it’s ok in IE.