철수네 소프트웨어 세상 [마이크로소프트 지점] : Korea

candle protest in Korea marks 55 days and still going on

bkchung — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:01:53 GMT

The president’s strategy to bash who doesn’t favor the government is failing as the religious bodies join the candle protest. The government tried to disrespect the protest by distorting calling them extremists and blaming them with lies and using wrongful force (no miranda, no specific suspicion and random) but both of these core key elements they’ve been using can’t be used for now on religious bodies especially when they have international influence.

[copyright ohmynews]

Today “the catholic priests’ association for justice” celebrated a mass for the country. They have been fasting for the governments censure and wrongdoings during the 55 days of protest. The preyed for all the people that attended the protest and the 900+ people that got arrested. The buddhists are scheduled to gather with the candle protest on friday.

Meanwhile, the human rights group Amnesty International has sent an investigator “Norma Kang Muico” to Korea to look into the incident whether there were any violation of human rights during the forced suppression of the candle protest. Amnesty International already have been saying that the authorities should investigate the excessive force. I really hope that all the sins get attention and the government could acknowledge and apologize and further more change their stance to favor the people(other than the rich and powerful people they’ve been favoring). Of course, that includes not faking apologies as did before.

Will the government go on until someone gets killed?

bkchung — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 18:53:50 GMT

It’s raining but the protest goes on as the Govenment has ignored and went on forcing the beef policy and today, not like what the press favoring the government is telling(that people are tired and the protest is losing it’s power), over twenty thousand people gathered. As the President announced war after his fake apologies, the police are aggressively using brutal force on innocent people, even firing fire extinguishers on baby carriages. The insane president is wiping Bush’s ass and throwing it right at the faces of the citizen. God, please help our country, our people.

[copyright ohmynews]

Heard that the emergency rooms in hospitals nearby are said to be pretty full. Reporters, congressmen, and people just passing by…the police doesn’t matter who it is. It’s just hurting anyone in the way, and throwing things randomly.

Update: Videos and Photos from the bloodshed hours.

Government, war against the citizen

bkchung — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 19:29:56 GMT

To enforce the public announcement of the beef negotiations, the government is imposing war against the citizen.

Rather than describing all the savagery, one situation speaks for everything: After arresting the opposition party’s congresswoman from the protest, which never had happened since the military dictatorship, the police are playing innocent by letting her go from the station leaving all the other arrested protesters(it is said that most haven’t even heard their Miranda rights). Government is even ignoring the congresswoman's privileges, and need I say more about all the other mortals (news indicates that over a hundred people have been taken)?

The government representatives are saying “we are thankful that the negotiation has ended as our people had hoped.” in front of the media, while the people are fighting with their lives to stop the announcement to happen.

They are bullying the people for their failure of diplomacy. For their legitimacy, they are describing the people who are against them as criminals and leftys (it’s a crime to have a different ideology). Nothing more to say. The government is totally out of their minds.

Another sad and humiliating moment of our Korean history.

Korean Major Papers in a crisis

bkchung — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 09:54:27 GMT

The three major media Chosun, JoongAng, DongA is currently in a crisis which they courted on their own.

During the President’s fallacies, the three media company’s actions of distortion covering up the truth has been disclosed to the major people which created movements to cancel their subscriptions to the papers. Along the movement, people are calling the advertisers that they are not willing to use the products if they publish their ads in the three major media. The movement is known to be a consumer campaign.

The three companies having a loss by the movement, are threatening random groups that are participating in the movement. Chosun has threatened 82cook.com that they will file a lawsuit unless they delete all the articles related to Chosun. 82cook.com is a community site for housewives about cooking/childcare.

They also filed official documents to the second biggest internet portal Daum to force closure of certain group communities. They even requested the deletion of certain members that wrote articles around the movement. Certain advertisers are also filing complaints to the people writing articles containing their names and phone numbers(which is obviously public).

The public prosecutors and the police have also made a public statement that they will be conducting investigations and will be strict on the results. During this year and so, there were a few cases where certain entities used advertisement for pressing but there was no single case when the public agencies publicly leading their stance. People aren’t understanding why they are favoring these three media companies.

Again the people are raging against such accusations and a lot of unprecedent actions are happening. Hundreds of people volunteering to be arrested by writing on the prosecutors office’s homepage because they “told their family, friends, collegues to cancel their subscription to the three papers” or “called certain advertisers that they will stop using the products if they don’t stop the advertisements on the three papers”. Also hundreds of people are signing up to join the community sites after facing the news.

This is said to be another grassroot movement by the citizen other than the candle protest to protect their rights around the wrong doings of the whole country’s system.

President flips his words of apologies in 5 days

bkchung — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 08:28:31 GMT

이 대통령, 닷새만에 '아침이슬' 잊었다 - 오마이뉴스

After another pretending show of apologies, President Lee changes his words after only 5 days.

5 days ago the President started his public apologies to the people like this:

“Dear citizens, On 6/10 night, when the KwangHwaMoon was bright with lighted candles, I was at the hill behind the blue house looking at the candles. Along with the protester’s outcry, I heard the song <Morning Dew> which is one of the songs I’ve enjoyed singing for a long time.”

Yesterday:

“Protests that critisize certain policies should be a chance to reflect upon our Government’s policies but the protests challenging the nation’s identity and and illegal violent protests should be distinguished and strictly handled.”

I’m not sure what “certain” means in this context but there is only one protest that is going on in line with this mention and he is saying two things with one mouth. He is trying to stamp down what he has told the people with (alleged) respect.

During the five days, there were some additional negotiations around the beef import and yesterday the Government announced that they were very successful with the result. But the people were absolutely disappointed with the self-praise and the augmented negotiation still had big problems. Now, this settlement on the beef importing issue is to be forced throughout the country even though the people still aren’t convinced. It took only 5 days to flip the promise to listen to the people.

It seems that someone is addicted to not listening to what others are saying.

News today from Korea(20080611)

bkchung — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:43:00 GMT

Another day with another sigh.

Guide document from “Ministry of public administration and security” for yesterday’s protest: Ask for cooperation from Farmers/Fishermans/Environmental party’s not to come to Seoul, cooperate with korcham to let corporates control their workers not to come to Seoul, let officeholders not participate in the protest. It is told that these kind of guidelines are always being sent whenever a big gathering is scheduled.

The “ministry of public administration and security” decides to sue 6 senior staff of 3 officeholder union for not obeying the guide document above and favoring the candle protest.

The police is investigating (to sue for libel) the person who disclosed the names of the police officers that appeared in the pictures taken while using wrongful force to the candle protesters.

The police announces that their estimation of yesterdays candle protest were eighty thousand (with some nonsense details how they came up with that number). A blogger counted the glows in the picture using a customized program and it showed 260 thousand(this doesn’t even count the circulation or the people filled in the alleys). Is this another joke from the police?

Today’s picture from Korea (20080610)

bkchung — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 08:01:12 GMT

[I’ve very sorry, i’ve lost the source link. If anyone knows the origin, please let me know]

Hundreds of thousands of candles of hope. How could any President ignore this, blame this in a country of democracy? The cabinet has submitted their resignation, but the President says nothing useful. Still no appologies or any policy change.

Here’s what he actually said that day:

I’m also one of the person who participated in the democratization of this country.
I know what the people want. The people are worried about the cabinet’s vacancy. We will do our best to decrease the impact.
China is also having a crisis but their people and the government is cooperating to overcome the crisis. We should also do so.
The government is on a new start with new determination.

Is this a joke? Who should really resign?

Another silly story:

The police blames the people for desecrating the Korean flag. The media reported that it wasn’t the people who put the flag but got phone calls from the police that they are distorting the truth. After a citizen uploaded a video showing the police putting up the flag by their own, they changed their words and sent a new presskit.

Compared to the protest being 500~800 thousand, the people favoring the President had less than ten thousand gathered. The major media(Chosun, JoongAng, DongA) “again” distorts the protest story and reports this as a “vs” situation. I didn’t see even one anti-protesters that day. Also there was absolutely no reference to any anti-US whatsoever, but those papers reports the possibility. These kind of distortion is being recognised among the people and resulting in income decrease for those media. They are blaming their income decrease using more distortion.

Mommys get phone call threats saying: “If I see any baby carriage in the protest, i’ll kidnap your baby right away.”
Guide document from “Ministry of public administartion and security” for yesterday’s protest: Ask for cooperation from Farmers/Fishermans/Environmental party’s not to come to Seoul, cooperate with korcham to let corporates control their workers not to come to Seoul, let officeholders not participate in the protest. It is told that these kind of guidelines are always being sent whenever a big gathering is scheduled.

Police blocks the road with container boxes

bkchung — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 10:44:15 GMT

Today(6/10) is the anniversary of the June civil uprising of ‘87 which led our country to the first democratic elections. The people’s anger against the Presidents extreme dictatorship, distortions and massacres, created an uprise leading people to fight the president’s pet military which in turn resulted in a civil victory.

Today, to follow and commemorate our past and independently claim our civil rights, the “non-violence” candle protest that has been continuing for over 40 days is trying to mark this day a flagship day. Estimation is that nearly a million people(50mil in Seoul and more throughout the country like Busan) will be attending today’s – peaceful – protest, the goverment and police are already trying to interrupt the event:

The police are blocking the main gathering place with container boxes making a traffic disturbance. (pictures)

[via Yonhap news]
The extreme rightist supporting the President are have publicly announced that they will be gathering at the same place. The government has authorized the event, of course.

People are guiding others not to engage in any violent act or to make any damage, so that the event doesn’t degenerate into what the government wants it to be. The protest’s pure meaning is to let everyone know the truth, including the President himself.

The President’s ratings has plummeted more to 1x% and still yet hasn’t change any policy or stance. He even publicly blamed the protest to the extreme leftys and the previous President Roh (and tried to cover it up by giving out distorted press materials to the media which didn’t work). And that happened after interviewing with Times lying that he “fully understands”. The Times article also says:

Lee was forced to retreat himself, effectively reimposing a ban on imports of U.S. beef from cattle more than 30 months old, which are more susceptible to mad cow disease.

which is wrong. It wasn’t an action of retreat but just an act of performance, knowing that this would not be accepted by the US. The protest is not just about the beef incident but about each and every wrong doings like this.

p.s. Protests around the world: London, Berlin, Paris, Manhattan, Sydney, Vancouver, LA, Washington, Brazil, Newyork and it goes on…(Korean news, but still you can see the pictures)

100 days of ignoring the Korean people

bkchung — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 12:31:39 GMT

It has been raining since yesterday in Korea. It was the 100 day mark since the new government started. Rain didn’t stop the protest against the government. The people even protested in front of the police department denouncing their act of unnecessary brutal force.

Here ar some facts:

The police head quotes “water bombs are absolutely not dangerous”. A lot of people has been already got injured and the internet has all sorts of video footages of the happenings.
Government “asks” the US to stop the beef aged over 30 months and delays the official proclamation – this was a “2 minute” press conference. Nobody knows what this exactly means.
President Lee says “If the majority of the people wants it we will accept it humbly” “We will start over from today on”. People have been in bloodshed for 2 weeks by police force. Is that all what the President has to say at this point? Nobody appologizes, no details no nothing. No change on any policy.
Coincidentally, we have a local election for vacancies. Why did the beef request to the US happen now not a weeks ago when people already have been protesting? Why now?
US ambassador Vershbow’s quote angers Korean people again. “We don't think there is a scientific justification for changing the agreed basis that we worked out in April, but American exporters have offered a step forward.” [via Korea Times] “and expressed hope Koreans will "begin to learn" about what he said were the scientific facts.” [via English Chosun Ilbo] There has been scientific proofs on possibilities that preon could be imported so the negotiation is dangerous.
Over 80,000 participates in suing the government to stop the beef import.
KDB bank to be sold to private companies and forced to be completed in 4 years. The original plan was 6 years. The President’s term is 5 years.

During the 100 days, here’s what happened [via MBC news]:

Only 20% of the citizen backs the president. Was 63.8% 100 days ago.
77.9% thinks the governments acts around the beef negotiation are wrong.
60.7% answered that running a household has grown harder than before.
Prices of commodities growth rate has jumped to 4.9%.
Current account deficits highest since the IMF incident.
All the economical indexes has plummeted. Obvious signs of depressed economy.
And it goes on.

More bloodshed in Korea while the President smiles and waves his hand

bkchung — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 11:17:28 GMT

While thousands of people peacefully protests with bloodshed, the President enters the country waving his hand as if nothing has happened being proud of what he thinks he has achieved from China. (pictures, pictures) More civilians are being bashed by the water sprinkler and the police’s combat boots and metal shields. Over 200 people has been taken by the police including a pregnant mother, over 60 are injured including a highschool student that has been known to gone blind due to the water bombing. 2 weeks has passed and still no words from President Lee, and while things are obvious, he’s still trying to read the people’s face.

Staffs from the bluehouse tells the media that they’ve told the police not to use force and are worried about casualties but the video above shows what lies they’ve been telling.

http://flvs.daum.net/flvPlayerIn.swf?vid=U-eUUlxbDA8$ – Video: Police provoking the people by teasing and smiling, and people shouting out to convince that that is what they want and not to be provoked by throwing things.

I eagerly hope everyone in the world are witnessing this.

update: news from BBC - BBC NEWS World South Asia S Korea beef decision protests

More videos: http://tvpot.daum.net/clip/ClipView.do?clipid=8388250 – The police smashes a civilian and shouts “we can’t sleep because of you f***s”.

Korean President’s policy: lend everything to the private enterprises

bkchung — Thu, 29 May 2008 15:37:11 GMT

The government has just released plans for lending our tap water under private management.

Here’s a list of what the president is trying to toss everything to the private sector: Tap water. Medical programs. Public banks(Korea Development Bank). Public broadcasting stations. Assets of lots of Ministrys(golf club, casino), Transports, I mean everything.

Is this really just a matter of policy? The government doesn’t listen to the people(majority is already against most of this) so I expect all this is eventually going to happen unless any hazard happens. I just hope my guess is totally wrong.

Also, today was another unfortunate day:

Agriculture Minister Chung Woon-chun announced the conditions for U.S. beef imports Thursday…[via Beef Import Decision Triggers Protests]

Here’s another photo from today’s protest. the text on the right-bottom side says something like “What did our children do to deserve this. We’ll protect them ourselves” [both via ohmynews]

Over 50,000 gathered today and in the government’s eyes these are just stupid mass:

Today’s picture from Korea (20080529)

bkchung — Wed, 28 May 2008 20:41:07 GMT

[The words mean “We punish you. Arrest me.” Appeared after the police started taking people including middleschool/highschool students via Media Daum News]

Here’s how the government sees the people here:

[This is a presentation slide from a policy communication education by PR subsidiary of the Ministry of Culture, Sports & Tourism. Spokesman from 22 government agencies attended. via OhMyNews]

Translation(please bear the awkwardness, there are portions I don’t understand):

Title: Manipuliate/flatter the stupid mass

Lacks critical reasoning –> Brainwashable by alluring them using made up and amusing stories

Results of some of the university’s ‘enterprise-friendly’ process(of course, similar to practicing “Job interviewing”)
Accepting a few critical factor and doing some magic will surprisingly stick pins easily
Mixing Plausible sentimental rhetoric and patriotic grandeur

Make max use of the Internet Media and the citizens' group’s corruption(or realization)

At least 30% of the people who surrendered to Chosun/JoongAng/DongA(Korea’s major media) will definitely be effective.
Internet Bulletin boards are for satisfying the Poor and Lonely people’s grudge. –> needs warm and kind response
Invent/Develop/Preoccupy trend items such as “Social Responsibilities” –> easy and amusing appeal point.
Develop ideology items, secure and manage a delivery and distribution channel.
Same goes to the Critical Media Critics(Media Today, Media union’s report, PD association’s bulletin)
Most of the critic trend includes non-mainstream frustrations –> flatter and they will like it very much.

Reconsider interfaces centered to Conventional main-stream media and opinion leaders.

Why feed and bother kids(the reporters) when you can bribe them with luxury presents anyway.
Rather, give them “a moderate snob item” and let them get famous.

Rhetorical advantage

To lure the mass with shiny good looking words –> This is the actual use of Consulting Words.
Pro: Export, Overseas Development, Investment, …
Con: Plutocrat, Nobles, Vested rights, Conservative, …

If you know français and want to understand the situation in Korea

bkchung — Tue, 27 May 2008 20:32:03 GMT

Try this link (not sure about the technical parts, it was left out in the translation i’ve seen):

HNS-info Corée du sud le pouvoir déstabilisé par un mouvement autonome à propos de l’importation

I’m not even slightly a policial guy but even for someone like me, the governments actions are enormously disturbing. Even the kids at school understand the errors.

The candle-lit protest is getting bigger since the police used force and has also started in DaeJeon. Fourth day and still the president has nothing to say. Thousands of random people are coming from all over the country voluntarily.

Everything is being broadcasted throughout the internet by participants using personal broadcasting services and internet radio and blogs and text messagings. The major media isn’t reporting the truth quite correctly.

“Withdraw the beef negotiation”

“Lee MyoungBak should resign”

“Release the minors” has been added to the slogan recently since the police are even taking under-aged students and there are lots of incidents where they are hurting people using force(there are even a report of assault on people just passing by).

Also some pictures from BBC here.

Currently, the history is going backwards in our country. Pretty f***ed up.

Korean people’s anger against the government flames out

bkchung — Sun, 25 May 2008 18:35:26 GMT

The approval rating of the Lee MyoungBak government has long crashed due to a handful of policies against the people’s will. Even people who voted for the president are turning their backs closely feeling the wrong doings of the past three month of his political performances as the president. Recently a peaceful gathering of students and mothers and children and citizens got dispersed by the police by force(pictures, videos, article). Also there was a suicidal attempt by fire in JeonJu to protest against the government.

Lots of his previous achievements, as the mayor of the capital Seoul before being elected as president, was already proven to be unsustainable and irresponsible resulting in all sorts of side-effects. Only caring for his own administration, the pledges were short-termed and has been always infamous, ignoring people who gave opposite yet resonable opinions. Even being called the “bulldozer”, his ways of doing things was one way when decided even when nobody agreed.

For example, the ChungGye stream’s renewal resulted in flooding when raining, destroying the ecosystem, contamination and it is currently wasting a huge amount of tax money. Sungnyemun the top National Treasure of Korea has been burnt down shortly after being opened to the public without proper security measurements by Lee’s own will. Even after the event as the president, he let his government refuse to pay for the restoration and rather tried a campaign to raise the fund, not admitting his faults.

After being elected(with people’s desparate hopes of reviving the nations economy with his experience as a CEO) as the president, the style of doing things persists. He makes promises with the US President on the beef trading agreement without notifying the Korean people, even accusing people providing opposing proofs as made up stories and even pointing fingers at mothers who are worried about their child’s well-being. The government even admitted some of the negotiations by ignorantly mis-translating the agreement articles which was proved by the FTA hearings.

The personnel changes of the government raised questions making a new vocabulary “KoSoYoung, KangBuJa” designating the major portion of the new cabinet being “Ko Ryo University, So Mang Church, YoungNam area(province of Korea)” which are all Lee’s affiliations and “KangNam(the richest area of Korea) BuJa(meaning Rich in Korean)”.

Another infamous pledge which majority of the people also disagreed was the Korean grand canal project(this, this). Even after being bashed by the National Assembly and the Korean citizen, the government is still trying to execute the project compulsorily(recent). A few days ago, a researcher made the second declaration of conscience against this project. His claims are that the government is forcing him to make up materials on rebuttals around the canal project. His words on the letters were “This would give me a huge disadvantage but I chose to disclose this to the public, not to be a dishonorable father of my children.”

The prices of commodities is soaring opposite of what has been promised, the obvious policies favoring the rich, the canal project, highly debated educational policy, beef import negotiations, personal acts of despising the national pride and what our country has stood for, oppressions of opponents and the incompetency by itself… All these dictatorial acts inevitably made the Korean people angry, and not just the deploring of the country’s fate but words of the presidents resignation is already flowing among them. The current government is also being accused for blindfolding the Korean people of these whole events by trying to control the Media (of course, underestimating the grassroot media - blogs and so). Extremists even evaluate these actions as the resurrection of the 5.18 democracy movement(ironically Lee has attended the 5.18 commemoration ceremony).

My opinion? “What use is a President if he does what he wants, not what the people wants?”

Update: Forgot to mention the medical program the government is trying to force. Ironically near the release of the film “Sicko” in Korea, it was told that they were trying to make the medical program run by private enterprises to incorporate senior nations best practices. Life’s weird.