Kudos to the Ministry of Education!

(Hat tip to The Marmot's Hole for this one.)

Well, as much a I ride the Ministry's ass about many of their other policies, sometimes you gotta give them credit.

For all the problems that go along with having a centrally-controlled and managed school system and curriculum, it has its own powers – there are some benefits. One of the downsides of the American way of doing things is that the Department of Education has no overreaching power to force any kind of reform – the federal government can lead with a carrot, but can't force the states to do anything they don't want to do when it comes to education funding, administration, or curriculum. The Constitution's a great thing, but it makes education reform in the US a major bitch.

Enter the Korean system, where everything happens from the top. When a policy sucks, it sucks for everybody. When a textbook is full of unequaal gender roles or assertions of pride in alleged racial "purity", everyone is learning it. And that's been the subject of many a post of mine (here and here and here and here).

But when a decision is made to make a long-needed change, it's done. Like that. "Two snaps up in a circle," and textbooks are all different.

And for those who said I was just seeing what I wanted to see, or that the work "minjok" absolutely, can never be translated as "race", or that I was being too hard on Korea and am a "Korea-basher" – well, eat crow.

From the Hankyeoreh article quote in the link right above:

"Additionally, expressions that reinforce discrimination against those of mixed-race backgrounds and immigrants, as well as excessive emphasis on Korea as a nation of "one blood," will disappear from textbooks."

So that means the government acknowledges that there indeed was material that did indeed "reinforce discrimination against those of mixed-race backgrounds and immigrants, as well as excessive emphasis on Korea as a nation of 'one blood.'"

And since I'm giving the Ministry kudos, you can't say I am "just negative," right? Sure, there's more critical stuff on this blog than "대~한민국!" – but that's what you get with a social criticism blog, right? If you want hand-clapping and "대~한민국", just pick up any tourist brochure, book in English published in Korea, or Seoul Magazine.

Here, you get reasonable social critique – and if and when there's "positive" headway made on an issue I otherwise critique, I am more than happy to point that out. But signs of such progress, as is true for any society with certain social problems kept locked in by social inertia and the interests of the powerful, doesn't come easily or often.

But when it does, I'm as eager to point that out as criticize it. Otherwise, what would be the value of making the critique in the first place?

Comments

[kihyon]

No sensibe, decent minded person would call you Korean basher or one who's just being negative. Please keep up the good work.

[JK]

Don't mean to hijack, but this goes to all U.S. citizens out there:

Please find below information on how you can contribute to this cause:

The House Resolution 759 expresses the House of Representatives of the United States' sentiment that the Government of Japan
should formally acknowledge and accept responsibility for its sexual
enslavement of "comfort women" during its occupation of Asia in the
first half of the 20th century. The majority of the 200,000 victims
were Korean girls and women, many of them in their teens.

The resolution is sponsored by Representative Lane Evans (D-IL), and
co-sponsored with over 50 other members. Previous similar efforts
were blocked successfully by powerful lobbyists for the Japanese
government and those who believe that such a resolution would damage
relations with Tokyo.

The new bill is reworked and slightly revised to gain wider support-
for example, it does not mention any compensation for victims, and
calls for Tokyo to "take responsibility"- rather than apologize. As a
result this resolution has an unprecedented wide array of support
from both parties.

Now that the bill is marked up, the resolution must move to the House
Floor so that the entire Congress can vote.

This bill MUST be passed before Congress leaves session in October.
Time is running out. On a graver angle- the few remaining comfort
women in this world are in their 70s, 80s and 90s. Thousands of them
have perished without any formal recognition of their plight- and
have had to live with being slandered as prostitutes and willing
partners in the vicious exploitation they were victim to.

Here is how you can help:
1) Forward this email to all of your friends and family, as well as
to any listservs you're aware of. Post it on blogs and web boards.
Get the word out!
2) Call, email, write and fax [all of the above!] your local
representative, and ask them to vote yes on this bill, and to urge
House leadership to bring the resolution to vote on the House Floor.
If you don't know who your representative is, go to
http://www.house.gov/.
3) Contact the offices of both Majority Leader John Boehner and
Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert and ask them to make sure this
resolution (House Resolution 759) is brought to the House Floor for a
full vote WITHOUT DELAY. If it does not get to a vote, it doesn't
matter how many congressmen are in support- it will die when Congress
leaves session, and with it any hopes of justice for these people.
All you have to say on the phone is, "Hi, I'm calling because I'd
like to make sure ______ can bring House Resolution 759 to a vote
this session- the resolution on Comfort Women." or something to that
effect.

Majority Leader John Boehner, H-107 Capitol, Washington, DC 20515-
6502, 202-225-4000, fax 202-225-5117

Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, H-232 Capitol, Washington, DC
20515-6501, 202-225-0600 or fax 202-226-1996

Please take just a moment of your day to do something great by doing
something little for these women. Call in RIGHT NOW. Send an email.
Send a fax. AND write a letter. Why not? If you would like more
information, contact www.justiceforcomfortwomen.org

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

[Matt]

And for those who said I was just seeing what I wanted to see, or that the work "minjok" absolutely, can never be translated as "race", or that I was being too hard on Korea and am a "Korea-basher" – well, eat crow.

Michael, I agree with you 100% on that. I was reading through the history textbook for Junior Highschoolers, and the number of times the word 민족 appears makes it seem like the writers of the textbook are suffering from monomania. Descriptions calling Koreans an inherently 'peaceful race' make it seem like the other races are inherently violent races.

Keep up the good work.

[JK]

And again, Australia's version of David Duke agrees with someone else who makes legitimate critiques of Koreans so that David Duke can get his pot shots in on Koreans (for whatever past abuse or shunning or rejection by some Korean girl) and fulfill his sick agenda of making Korea appear like hell on earth.

Relative to the Japanese and what they did to Korea, China, and the rest of Asia between 1895-1956, Koreans are indeed peaceful, Matt. Sorry about your past pain where some korean girl must have rejected you, but revising history to take on an overly pro-Japanese/anti-Korean viewpoint isn't going to make the pain go away.

[JK]

BTW, funny remark about Matt over at Yellow World (http://forums.yellowworld.org/showthread.php?p=491882#post491882)

"ok he's been banned. quite frankly i don't see much of a difference between people like him and Holocaust deniers. their basic argument is that all pictures and documents are doctored and fake, and all personal accounts are lies. there's no arguing with them.

"and i'm also going to close this thread now."

[The Metropolitician]

Dude - drop it.

I don't know what you want. I made a decision to not make it my or this blog's job to "take down" that site. We could go at it until we're both beaten up and blue in the face, and you know where it leaves me? Beaten up and blue in the face.

Who's right? You? Me? Matt? Listen – it's not going to get solved by having a huge, inter-blog flamewar, and I've already decided that my energy is best spent simply DOING the kind of work that I think is good, rather than having a negative battle that just leaves people – especially my readers – in a bad mood and me not actually DOING any of the "good work" that I'd like to imagine that I do.

So, as you seem so into making all sorts of analogies to equate Matt's site or Matt himself with all sorts of bad people, past and present, in order to get some kind of rise out of me – let me just say, yeah – OK, so Matt's like the KKK, white supremacists, and skinheads all rolled into one web site. OK. And?

If any of those people come to my site, I'm not going to waste precious posting time debating whether or not they are indeed "racist" or not, or whether their historical interpretations are right or wrong, or whether or not they say offensive things. I'm just gonna keep on blogging, hoping to show by example how I think things should be done.

So dude - drop it. I don't think my readers are interested in a blog battle, nor am I. No one's "giving in" to anyone or ceding ground. There's just no point to it anymore. No one's responding to your comments – not because they disagree with you or agree with him – it's because now you're like the embarrassing guy at the dinner table who may in fact be right, but you just won't let the argument drop. So you're just making everybody uncomfortable.

If you really want to continue this war for the sake of doing so – I guess to prove once and for all that you're RIGHT and he's WRONG, or that you were treated unfairly – then start your own blog and do it. But I think you'll find that not that many people will be reading it, because simply making arguments to prove your specific and selfish point as a function of your ego being slighted – you're wrong and he's right – isn't really what turns people on.

You wanna know why I dropped it? Because I was becoming a worse person for the wear; the negativity, the selfish desire to simply "win", the pettiness that the back-and-forth debate brought to the fore – made my blog a place I wouldn't want to visit anymore. And I wasn't doing anything besides talking about that site.

So what do you want to prove? That you're right? That he's a bigot? That you were unfairly banned from or treated on his blog? OK. And? All that may be true. OK. And? So? What's next? Is that blog gonna disappear? Are people going to read your comments and say, "Yeah! He's right! That blog's bad! I'll never, ever go there again!"? Of course not.

Just drop it. You, like I did, let this turn into a simple matter of selfish, injured pride. I mean, I'd probably agree with you on a lot of stuff about that site's stance and whatnot – I'm saying that I'm extremely sympathetic to your points here – but jeez, dude...*I* want to ban you from my site, and I'm pretty much on your side of the fence. So what does that tell you?

It's time to let the whale go, Ahab.

[JK]

The matter is dropped, Mike. Live with the fact that you got Satan/Matt on reading and commenting on your page, who is riding your coattails and basically appeasing you because you also critique Korea (however legitimately).

See me as John McCain or Howard Dean, a guy who can ALSO criticize Korea....but who draws the line between himself and David Duke, who is making one too many false and negative innuendos about Korea (which you are failing to speak up about recently). Did it ever occur to you that in while writing your own blogs critiquing Korea that you are not seeing that he is taking his pot shots THROUGH your own blog???

See yourself as Jesse Jackson who says even John McCain is wrong because he agrees with George W. Bush.

The bottom line is yes, you do have David Duke on your site, and, at the moment, he agrees with you. But he has also proven to be offensive, not just to you, but to quite a few Korean-Americans (who are ALSO critical of Korea), many who would find YOUR writings okay if not for your tacit support of SOME of Matt's remarks. But when you say you and he are "on the same side of the fence" they have to question you.

Once again: If he had made a blog about African-Americans because he was bitter about some experience with some black woman (or many women), would you be so conciliatory as you have toward this Satan? I think not. So shall you be a little more sympathetic toward KOREAN-Americans who so easily identify his obvious racism and poison??? Is Yellow World so closed-minded??? I think not.

[JK]

BTW, if you truly see the world as black-n-white (ie, Matt's comments are okay but mine are bad because mine have RECENTLY been provocative, though not as much as Matt has in the past), then you are living in the same black-n-white world that George W. Bush would have us live in ("You're either with us or against us").

[randomcow]

haha - you guys are so funny. And so far off the mark with your "rejected by a korean girl" it makes me laugh out loud. If only you knew.

RC

[dogbert]

That dude is definitely in the running for the kooky kyopo award!

[Fantasy]

@JK:

I enjoy (and have enjoyed for quite a while) reading both Matt's AND Michael's blogs.

Matt is basically saying that there are serious shortcomings in Korean society (the same goes, for that matter, for overseas Koreans of the Yuhaksaeng variety, with whom I have always had enormous problems) - whereas Michael voices some such criticisms, as well, but places his emphasis on the undoubted improvements that are taking place.

My own point of view is that, while I believe that things in Korea are, indeed, improving, they do so at snail's pace.

As Michael rightly points out, the change in the student textbooks described above does represent a landslide victory for sanity and against discrimination - congratulations to those courageous enough to tackle the issue ! Let us hope that 15 years from now, when those primary scholl students, who will be learning with these books, will come of age, Korean racism will have largely abated. At present it is, however, still in full bloom. And, while Matt may sometimes go over the top with his comments, he is basicallly right in highlighting this situation which can only be called scandalous !

So, both sides are right in a way, and there is no need for another flame war. So will you please stop your attempts to rekindle the fire again !

BTW - in case it matters for people like you (it shouldn't, but I know it does) I want to lay open my personal background:

I am a Caucasian Male of German nationality who has been happily married to a Korean women for 7 years.

[Fantasy]

In addition to my previous post (right above) I want to emphasise that I do not condone Matt's apparent pride showing up in his graphic (and almost pornographic) description of his sexual adventures back in the year 2000.

But maybe I understand better than others his reasons for putting this kind of stuff into the net.

I've learned from a long and unbroken chain of unpleasant (and sometimes highly dangerous) encounters with Korean males, ranging from 1986 (no kidding !), when I was a mere 21, to the present days, that to many Korean men it does not make the slightest difference, whether the Caucasian man they want to target is a pornographer or the most conservative individual between Berlin and Tokyo who would never ever dream of anything like casual sexual adventures.

A high percentage of Korean males feel entitled to declare a merciless war on anyone with a foreign face, whenever they only suspect to have noticed an interest of whatever kind and however innocent, in a woman whom they have never met before and whom they merely perceive as being Korean (in some instances I experienced they were mistaken even regarding this aspect, quite apart from being misguided all along, anyway).

As I said before, Matt is going over the top in some of his posts on his own blog. I am convinced he will not do it again.

But faced with this relentless racially motivated hate campaign in Korea (and by Korean Yuhaksaeng in other countries) I can well understand that some people end up going over the top, that some people feel the urge to fight back against these racists. Some of the ways of fighting back may be inappropriate and constitute a calculated provocation.

But my guess it that many Koreans would have felt provoked just as much, if Matt had written that the girl he is going out with is his steady long-term partner and that they are about to get married or had already got married.

Maybe they would have hated him even more for that - it would, after all, have meant that one more of the Korean females (whom some Korean males believe to be their national property) would have been lost for them for good.

At least that's what happens practically every time when my wife and I go out together. They start hassling us, and this gets worse when they learn that we are a married couple they cannot possibly separate. Luckily my wife has got a strong and clear voice to shout them down....

[JK]

Michael, I am sorry, but I am merely responding to Fantasy.

Dear Fantasy,

Sorry to hear about your experiences. Really I am. And I do believe you.

Having said that,

You wrote: "Matt is basically saying that there are serious shortcomings in Korean society..."

Uh, he's doing a lot more than that. I STILL remember one post not too long ago where he talked about how the Korean soccer team caused players from other teams to be injured. Never mind that there were a LOT of other teams that did MORE damage to their opponents (one commenter on that post even backed up this assertion up with facts) or that Koreans may have accidentally hurt another player or done it in response to being provoked.

It would be like if I hit you in the face and insulted your wife. You then beat the crap out of me. The next day, a newspaper says, "Fantasy injures JK! It's the second person this month he's hurt!" Kinda misleading, no? And what's the purpose? To paint Fantasy (or in the case of Matt's blog, Koreans) in the worst possible light.

I know I am not white and that I don't truly know what it's like to be a white Westerner in Korea. Having said that, I DID have a lot of white friends in Korea, many of them males with Korean girlfriends (talk about a cliche'). While a lot of them did feel they got unwanted attention from much of the Korean population, MOST fit into Korean society just fine. Or maybe it was just the white people I knew, I don't know.

ALSO, what I will add is that as a Korean-American, I experienced FAR less racism in Korea than I did in America. DUH! you may say. But my point, which Michael Hurt elaborated on in one long entry on racism, is that racism is truly in the eye of the beholder. I used to tell my white friends in America of the subtle racial comments I got in the US, and they often either sympathized (without necessarily empathizing) or said I was reading too much into it. Sometimes, I got in fist fights (there's no reading too much into being called a "Chink" or a "Gook" or blaming me for Pearl Harbor). I found myself (depending on what part of the US I was living at the time) hearing racist remarks, either direct or subtle, sometimes with bad intention, sometimes not.

Then I go to live in Korea. Surprise, surprise, I don't experience ANY racism (once my Korean improved and I didn't sound an idiot who couldn't speak Korean). Then ALL OF A SUDDEN, I AM HEARING FROM WHITE PEOPLE LIVING IN KOREA THAT THEY ARE EXPERIENCING RACISM! They go on and say Korea is backwards and the most racist country. Many of these people are the same ones who said I was overreacting to my racist incidences in the US. All perspective, eh Fantasy?? I guess it also depends what part of Korea you live (like it was for me in the various more rural regions of the US).

My point is that in my view, there are things about Korea that are screwed up. There is a certain amount of racism in Korea, like there is in Japan and the US. But just because YOU see this kind of racism directed at you for the first time (to this degree) doesn't mean it didn't exist in your own back yard (meaning the US). I used to get GLARES and remarks, from white guys in certain parts of the US, who saw me, a Korean-American guy, with a white girl. But since you didn't see this, I guess that makes you think Korea is institutionally more racist than the WHOLE US (not talking about big metropolitan areas like NY, LA, DC, Chi.)?

As for U-hak-saengs, WHICH ones are you talking about who are hate-motivated? I interact with u-hak-saengs quite frequently these days. From MY point of view (and I AM an American), these people are not hate-motivated or racist. That doesn't mean that some of them would not frown at the sight of you and your Korean wife. (BTW, I know of PLENTY of white guys or white girls married to a Korean and living here in the US who have NO problems with either the white or Korean communities. And no, I am not saying I deny your claims either, just that not everyone had the same experiences as you.) But because I myself, the American, do not experience it, that does that mean it doesn't exist? Of course not. Likewise, because certain white people (not saying you because I don't know you or your experiences) say I am imagining things when I talk about my clashes with racists in America and when I say white people (taken as a whole in the US, not just the big metropolitan areas) in general are no less racist than Koreans, does that mean what I say is not true?

Now let's look at the balance. Among the Western expats I have met in Korea, I hear a lot about racism from Koreans. Okay, I'm sure they may be telling the truth. But let's look at who comprises these Westerners: Almost ALL of the complainers are white (not that it makes their complaint any less legitimate). I had black friends who also complained about it, but they said they also experienced racism (and a lot more violently at that) in the US. Now ask a Korean-American where he experiences racism more, in the US or in Korea, and you hear different answer from what the white expats are saying. Then suddenly the white people give ME a hard time for saying this and say I am blind to what goes on in Korea. No I am not. But like Michael Hurt once said in his Racism post, "Uh, welcome to the club, boys. I've been going through this for years in the West." So then I have to ask again, WHICH country is truly more racist????

Matt, who plainly IS a racist, has no credibility to complain about Korea whatsoever. This does not mean that SOME of his claims are right. But when the guy becomes so bitter that he has to take pot shots at Koreans in general by insisting that the Korean comfort women were really prostitutes willingly supporting Imperial Japan, or by insisting that Dokdo belongs to Japan instead of Korea, or by insisting that Japanese colonization was GOOD for Korea and that they should quit complaining, that is taking it too far. Then he tried to blame Korean grocers in LA for using guns (when their shops were being ransacked by looters). His agenda was obvious.

And it is obvious to many of us readers of these various blogs that Matt did NOT have much game with girls in Korea, and the ONE time he did, he had to write about it in detail to make Korean women appear as slutty as possible. In other words, like the post about the Korean soccer team injuring players from other teams, he is leaving out important information (like the fact that most Korean women he asked out probably told him to go to hell) in order to present a distorted picture of Koreans in general.

[The Metropolitician]

LIt's fine to respond. But I don't want this to turn into a flame war.

It's simple – try to delink the arguments about a person's motivations for the arguments from the arguments, please. Such a line of reasoning doesn't do you any good, and how will you know if you're right or wrong, anyway?

And as for people experiencing or not experiencing racism – I don't feel it's fair to invalidate people's experiences just because of how "bad" or "worse" you think it was, relative to your own limited experience. Just as you complain that many whites didn't seem to be able to emphathize with you because they don't live in your skin, same goes with you here in Korea. It's the same thing that you're talking about, dude. Now, do I believe white folks got it so bad here? Noooo. But to start invalidating people's experiences just because you want to dismiss them away as "not as bad as me" doesn't mean Korea's not racist. Almost by definition, if you listen to how many people complain about certain things, it is. How much? That's a silly question. Are you gonna use a Racism-o-Meter?

Point it, saying that YOUR knowledge of how ALL Uhaksaengs act because of your experience as an insider is like the skeptical white person saying, "What do you mean there's racism? I never see it!" Of course neither of you really see a lot of it - you're not on the receiving end all the time.

And as for the things that you think are outside the limits of legitimate debate – just like Holocaust deniers, they damn themselves with a glaring lack of credible evidence in the shadow of mountains of evidence pointing to the contrary. The ownership of Tokdo isn't quite that. I happen to believe Korea's case is stronger, but let's not get extreme. In the same way, I think it's quite open debate as to how Korea did or did not MATERIALLY benefit from aspects of colonialism, quite aside from whether or not Japan did any of this for Korea's benefit (which it's easy to assert that it didn't). And while I don't think the comfort women were Korean prostitutes or anything ridiculous like that, there are far more complexities to the issue than most people like to admit, one of them being that many of the people who actually did the recruiting, deceiving, and sending (as far as I understand the history) off to this horrid fate were Korean. Does that mean it's Korea's "fault?" Nooooo. But it does make that horrible history a lot tougher to deal with, especially when you through in the factors of class and patriarchy – people at that time weren't thinking in the pure "Korea vs. Japan" dichotomy that many Koreans do now, who live in a clearly-defined, independent, sovereign nation. When you step out of the mindset of the fleeting and self-interested present and into the world that these people lived in the past, things get more complex and interesting than just "traitor." And you get something out of your black-and-white view.

And as for you saying that I'm laying in bed with the devil, how would I feel if the Klan were burning a cross on my lawn, oh lawd, I'm betraying myself and all my values by NOT actively attacking Matt's site with every ounce of my being – dude. Get a grip. I already told you why I'm done with that. I did my flying spinning ninja style attack on that site and it just brought both me and Matt into the mud. And I don't like mud. I just get dirty.

You want to spend all your energy arguing what you want to argue? Fine. Go start a blog – I'll link to it and tell people to take this entire debate there. It'd be a fine starting point for a blog, too. If there are people out there interested in your agenda and project of attacking Occidentalism, cool.

But when you gonna realize that sometimes, even in the most drop-down, drag-'em out fight, you just gotta call it a night and go home and rest? Or fight back another way? And if you have something particular to say or prove, perhaps it's better to spend your energy doing that?

Jeez - me and Matt aren't 69-ing each other, dude. We just decided to stop fighting. And he was man enough to be conciliatory on his blog as a symbol of truce, and I recognized that in return. Did I say I agree with him or his site? Do I love it? Do I laud it? Do I even talk about – besides when you keep bringing it up? No. You are doing more to send people over there and actually – make his "side's" argument actually look more reasonable, because of your being so friggin' dogmatic about it and unable to just let it drop.

And why are you getting so mad about me stopping "fighting the good fight", as you see it as being? Why don't you start your own blog and do it, instead of castigating others for not doing it. I swear fo' da Lode I'll link to it and send people over who want to continue this conversation.

Otherwise, please drop it. And I encourage others to try and drop it as well.

JK - just walk away, just walk away, dude.

[JK]

Michael,

I was merely responding to Fantasy's response to me (which he made on your blog, so therefore I responded at the same place), and since he didn't attack me, I didn't attack him OR question his personal experiences....only saying that I questioned certain OVERALL generalizations made about Korean males and u-hak-saengs. I am allowed that much, right?

And then, unfortunately, I went on a tangent. My bad.

[JK]

Extra non-confrontational note, Michael:

You wrote:
"And as for people experiencing or not experiencing racism – I don't feel it's fair to invalidate people's experiences just because of how 'bad' or 'worse' you think it was, relative to your own limited experience. Just as you complain that many whites didn't seem to be able to emphathize with you because they don't live in your skin, same goes with you here in Korea. "

That was my point, Michael. My comment never questioned Westerners' actual experiences, only their assertion (either stated or implied) that the racism in Korea was "worse" than in their own Western countries. My point being is that it is a matter of relativism depending on who the person is, and oftentimes, what the person's ethnicity is and where he/she is residing. Not saying it's equal either, just that it's often hard to judge objectively as to which country is "worse."

[Fantasy]

@ JK:

Your points are taken.

In lieu of a detailed reply suffice it to say that, in June 2006, I have been banned from a German/Austrian/Swiss Korea-Blog called "Meet Korea - Deutsch-Koreanisches Forum" (you are welcome to look it up, but do not be disappointed to find it to be almost entirely in German) for extended posting about racism against the respective ethnic minorities in a variety of countries, i.e. in Korea AND in Germany AND in France AND in Canada AND in Singapore AND in the UK - all countries within the borders of which I, in the course of the 41 years of my existance hitherto, was resident for some time and have therefore been in a position to acquire some first hand experience.

My primary point in these posts being that, for a variety of reasons, the last three countries named in my list above (Canada, Singapore, UK), while definitely not free from challenges in this respect, have demonstrated a sincere willingness to actively tackle the problem of racism in their midst, and have managed to achieve some success - while, naturally, all is not yet well, and there is still plenty of room for improvement.

Contrast this with the prevailing attitudes in the other three countries from the list above (Korea, Germany, France), where there has, among the political classes, as well as among the majority population as a whole, until fairly recently, been a remarkable determination to shy away from even a mere recognition that there posiibly might be a problem, at all.

And guess, in which of these three above-named countries I believe problem awareness among the majority population to be at an even lower level than in the other two, which do not fare well on the awarenees scale, either...

Regards

Fantasy

[Fantasy]

I forgot to mention the reason they gave for banning me:

The reason stated was that I am allegedly unable to conduct a dialogue in a civilised and polite manner. This is obviously untrue and a mere pretext. You are called upon to examine my writing style in the posts above and judge for yourself whether they are governed by "rudeness and aggression", as they stated, my posts over there not being much different from these ones.

The real reason for the ban seems to me to be their unwillingness to even consider any sort of crticism of the conditions in "our beloved native country" or of the behaviour of some Koreans abroad. For these Yuhaksaeng, Gyopos and Adoptees, Korea is the land of milk and honey, the rediscovered Garden Eden, a place without any flaws, whatsoever.

With this attitude they would probably even have banned Michael if he had chosen to make only some of his critical remarks about the alleged paradise on their blog.

In my last contribution I derided the blog as a blatant attempt to glorify the country and the people originating from there - with opinions to the contrary simply not being tolerated. That seems to have been the stroke which broke the Camel's back and led to my immediate expulsion.

How could I, after all, be so obnoxious as to describe some, if only a few, of the many negative experiences I had in Korea and with some of the Korean people abroad. This was, in their view, simply not acceptable behaviour and more than justified the measure taken.

One Caucasian friend of mine who had had similar experiences once remarked:

"Involvement with the Koreans is like living at the frontier. Sure, there are some really nice people around. But there always remains the lurking danger of being shot into the back by strangers, or even by those who had presented themselves as friends before."

[Fantasy]

After our relocation to Germany (I do not use the word "return" as my wife had never been in this country before) my wife managed to learn German reasonably well and decided to enroll in Medical School in 2004. She is now making good progress in her studies and I am definitely proud of her achievements.

But even in university she had unpleasant experiences, one of which I want to recount here, as it illustrates my point:

In one of her classes the agenda was to carry out some biochemical experiments in the laboratory. The students were supposed to work in pairs - and my wife was paired with a German woman student who she had never talked to before but who seemed to be quite friendly at first sight. They worked together well.

Eventually it was time to take a break and the group went to the university cafeteria to eat lunch together and to engage in some small talk. My wife was asked by her German partner about her background, where she came from, about any possible feelings of homesickness and so forth...

My wife told her some light stories about Korea and admitted an occasional bout of homesickness once in a while. The German woman tried to console her in the following way:

"As soon as you have finished the course I am sure you will receive a warm welcome in your home country and become a marvellous doctor there. Then you no longer need to feel homesick."

To which my wife replied:

"In Korea they would probably not welcome me too warmly as they have already more than enough doctors - and moreover I am tied to staying in Germany because of my husband, anyway."

Upon hearing this the woman's mood changed sharply. She turned ice-cold, hardly spoke a word any more - and after the break she went to the tutor (who happened to be an Iranian), asking him for a different partner "as I cannot work together with this woman due to her poor knowledge of German".

This now is the same kind of behaviour as that displayed by the average Korean male, only in reverse.

Korean males are, in most cases, not hostile to foreigners right from the start. But as soon as they discover that the respective foreigner is in some way romantically involved with or, even worse, married to, one of their "sisters" you can feel the air burning with hate. And the poor foreign devil has got to be damn lucky if he gets away unscathed after a mere verbal skirmish...

[JK]

Fantasy, interesting story! I am sorry your wife had to endure that.

So you do see that racism toward people of certain ethnicities (especially if they are married to one of the residents' "brothers" or "sisters") is pretty common across the countries. Now if you are saying that this is more prevalent in Korea than Germany, I won't question you as I do not personally know what it's like to be a white male married to a Korean woman (even though I know people who are in a Western-Korean marriage) and certainly nothing about German everyday life.

I don't know specifically why you got banned from that site, but I do hear your reasons and have no reason to disbelieve them. And you seem like a reasonable enough person so I doubt you "went off" on Koreans.

Having said that, I have been on other blogs frequented by Korea-sidding expatriates from the West. From many of the white men married to Korean women, I have to hear the CONSTANT barrage of how Korea is racist, how anyone who disagrees with them (or merely QUESTIONS the degree of their assertion relative to other countries) is an idiot and blind to the realities of life, how Korean culture (including the fine arts that Japan, under Hideyoshi, felt was valuable enough to steal and take back to Japan) does not even exist compared to their OWN cultured Western countries, etc.

I do see a pattern among these Western expats. They met a woman and fell in love with her. She was different and whether they knew it or not, I do believe her being Korean MAY have had something to do with it. I am not saying they married her BECAUSE she was Korean, just that they found something about her that was appealing and different from the other women around. I should note that more often than not, these men met their future wives in the MEN'S home country, so the other women around were mainly white.

Eventually the husband and wife decide to live in Korea, the wife's home country, for a few years. The man goes there wide-eyed and open-minded. Then he notes the occasional surly remark, the constant stares, the pointing in his direction, the insults from strangers, the pointing...... (BTW, I the Korean-American get those stares and insults, too. So does my African-American friend. However, my African-American friend, who now lives in Japan, says that while he knows there is racism against him in Japan, he cannot tell to what degree because everyone is polite to him and avoids looking at him, and he only finds out later that some Japanese people smiling to his face thought and said something racist about him; in Korea, the stares from the people are right in his face with people wearing their feelings on their sleeve, and he knows what he is up against, since nothing is hidden. And from the people doing the stares, almost all wish him no harm.)

After several months of this, maybe even years, the white husband with the Korean wife EXPLODES and goes to some English-speaking site about Koreans and says Korean culture sucks, Korean society sucks, and anyone who disagrees with him is an idiot.

Then you get a Korean-American like myself who has had similar experiences with this white guy, only mine was in certain parts of the US. Then the guy INSISTS I'm the blind idiot because Korea is OBVIOUSLY worse than any of the Western countries. By whose standards? ask I. Then I'm called an idiot again.

Then next thing you know, I find myself avoiding white people married to Korean women....because when they start on the topic of race, I hate to get involved...because eventually I'll get called an idiot when I don't completely agree with them that Korea is worse than their own country. They don't want to hear that my experiences with the native people are a LOT better in Korea than in many parts of the US. Then they'll tell me to go "back" to Korea, not realizing that they are blind to the fact that I an American. I COULD reply that they should go back to America (or Canada, or wherever) and get out of Korea, but then they'll just say that I am avoiding the issue, which I am not; I am merely saying this stuff happens EVERYWHERE (though admittedly not in the same degree).

Fantasy, you seem like a reasonable guy, and you definitely do not fit the profile of the stereotypical Westerner married to the Korean woman. I appreciate your views. And you have shown me that white Westerners CAN talk about race and acknowledge that other countries, includign their own, are capable of racist behavior as is Korea. Not saying it's all equal, but that it exists everywhere.

[limon]

Wow, just caught on in this whole blog issue. Anyhow, every country has their own issues that correlate to their timeline of economical progress... even the USA has many social problems despite their world power status. In this context though, every country has some strong social problem moving at a snail's pace, Fantasy. Thus, it's easy to criticise any country (hell, I get enough of it from neighbours just by telling them who I vote for), but it's just mere gossip unless one actually puts an effort into solving this issue (Though I'm sure some will claim that the gossiping is an effort to cure rather than maim. Just like telling a kid constantly that he's stupid is just one's attempt to get him to read better). In this regard, I think Michael's blog is a shining example of useful critcism. In all honesty too, I wouldn't be surprised if Michael was part of the catalyst to have made these recent changes in S.K.; his posts highlight specific issues and reflects on them very thoroughly (the lengths of some of his pieces still surprises me). Kudos to your work, and hopefully other issues will gain more of a spotlight (though yes, most likely not too soon).

[Unger]

JK is obsessed with 'foreign dudes and Korean women' and how he must stop this 'crime'. Usually this involves JK trying to educate the woman that he JK is the dick she needs and not the foreigh guy.

[nipponia]

if it’s of any interest to you, it maybe worth checking this site : http://www.jiyuu-shikan.org/e/index.html and blog entry : http://blog.livedoor.jp/jiyuu_shikan/archives/50317494.html
they include pretty much of the Japanese side of view. please consider both opinions from both sides. thanks in advance.