In Seoul, South Korea, this past Friday 10,000 people took to the streets in a candle light vigil to oppose US beef imports that many fear may be tainted with mad cow disease. Overnight, the number of peaceful protesters doubled and by Saturday night, 20,000 – 25,000 South Koreans held candles and raised their voices against American beef imports.
I joined the protests on Saturday to learn more.
The demonstrations targeted South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, self-declared “CEO of the Korea, Inc.,” who recently met with US President Bush to swallow a $20 billion free trade deal. The deal pivoted on South Korea’s consent to vastly increase US beef imports at the expense of its farmers and against the will of its citizens.
But South Koreans fear that mad cow disease has not been eradicated in the US. In particular, many point out that mad cow disease can remain dormant for decades in humans who have eaten tainted meat.
Many of the protesters this weekend were women who were extremely upset that in years to come their children might pay with their lives for President Lee’s kowtowing to US export interests.
Not only does the opening of Korean markets to US beef have South Koreans feeling worried for health safety reasons. It will also starve out South Korean beef farmers, who have led separate demonstrations across Korea against importing US beef.
The US-Korea deal will also badly damage the Australian cattle industry, which had more than doubled exports to South Korea since 2003, when concerns over mad cow disease caused a drop in US beef imports to the country.
Lastly, many South Koreans point out with alarm that beef products from US cattle older than 30 months, which are at particular risk for mad cow disease and which are generally not eaten in the United States, will make their way to Korean dinner tables.
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/_74pnVaKaG0" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
One of the most remarkable aspects of the demonstration was how tidy, peaceful, and well organized it was. Although at least a dozen caged police buses waited on the nearby street, police action was entirely unnecessary. Volunteers kept demonstrators under control and peaceful.
Even more noteably, after the candlelight demonstration concluded, volunteers cleaned up the trash that had gathered on the street. I even saw dozens of volunteers scraping the melted wax that had dripped from candles off of the sidewalk. It was perhaps the most responsibly orchestrated demonstration I have ever witnessed.
Information source: Reuters
Photo, video credit: Gavin Hudson, EcoWorldly
That leaves us in the United States wondering how to get Korean beef…
I am impressed with the cleanliness and orderliness of the demonstrations. Scraping the melted wax… it seems like a great expression of non-waste. Maybe they can re-use those bits of wax.
Here is an article on a longer-term solution, but it does not answer the short-term concerns:
http://www.thetechnologyblog.net/archives/2007/01/02
I did some more investigating online, and found this unnerving video.
I had heard about stories like this some years ago, but this report is current to 2008, and shows me (an American) that our beef supply is not safe as well as being inhumane. I am not a vegetarian, but eat less and less meat. Veggie burgers are terrific, by the way.
I sent an email of this article to my friend. Korean internet users have been desperately trying to report this event to Western media. Thank you for letting people in the world know what happened here.
Hello
I’m korean.
Our country is now safe for the people
Candles to light.
The government is forcing soldiers and armed civilians. Jikyeobwaju attention to me! Help!
Our scientific knowledge is very limited and there are many diseases which our medical science could not eliminate or cure- some illness can be cured, cannot cured or just loose one’s life to it.
The Korean mass demonstration against the beef and eventually against the Lee government is very dangerous tactics which are damaging the Korea’s economy immensely, most beneficial to stupid anti lee politicians, eventually Kim Joong Ill dreamers.
Their actions are excessive and very harmful to Koreans and the Korean images which display irrationality of Korean people.
Don’t we have any decent educators or scientists who could explain the status of mad cow disease control techniques to the Korean people? If the college student demonstrators are smart enough, try to seek a fair solutions to the problem, getting help from our own scientists and government officials.
.
If they really don’t like the beef, just don’t buy it and don’t eat.
If they antagonize the trade relations with US, South Korea could hurt her national economy immensely. If you continue the stupid emotional demonstrations to destroy the Lee government, that is a great opportunity for the North Korean communist to walk down to South and join the mass. In that case, do you think the United States Army would fight for you stupid demonstrators against the North. You must understand South has only a small part of her small territory now. Didn’t see how Mr, Lee look so small when he met with the Chinese President Hu jin Tau.
South become so prosperous with the aid from the US. So you can now have a choice to east the beef or not to eat under the circumstances. Do you think If the North walks down to South, could they feed you better beef?
Allow the government to find a best way to deal with the beef problems. Do you think demonstrators could resolve the problem? If
you don’t respect the law and order of your own free society, who would help you? If your demonstration had sent your sincere messages to the government, it would try to resolve the problem for the best interest of the Korean people.
Thank you all for your thoughtful comments.
PlanetThoughts, agreed on veggie burgers.
Luna, yes, it’s frustrating how little international media filters into the US. Increasing the flow of international (esp. environmental) news to the US is certainly one of the things that we’re trying to do on EcoWorldly.
Chae Sone, interesting view. It was certainly unnerving this week to hear the air raid siren test.
chae sone, the reason why people are mad is because the president is pulling some WEASEL sh*t, and signed a deal that f*cks with KOREANS on TWO LEVELS.. the agriculture and the health of citizens who have to eat that meat that US citizens don’t even find fit to eat. if you dont understand that and think it’s better to a*s kiss the US or you think its better that people should have to worry about getting sick whenever they want meat, then you’re an idiot. funny thing is, you’re korean too.. what’s wrong with you? stop trying to be cute.
If the Korean government was going to buy such dangerous beef, it should be stopped. Korean people don’t have eat it. But the demonstrations seem
to have been wasteful to that society, needless to say, about school and family affairs. The Korean government should be smart enough to have received the message from them.
chae sone , you don’t know any sh*t so just shut your mouth and go to hell, alright? Korean government’s not smart enough, that’s why.
I saw the lame documentary Mbc made about how South Koreans are not immune to mad cow disease like Americans. This is all a bunch of hyped up bs and Chae has pointed out some of the sole causes that has generated this ignorant mob mentality in S. Korea. So much misinformation being posted on the internet and exaggerations of the media who have their own personal agenda, this is getting way out of hand.
There was a professor form princeton, he said that the mad cow situation is very serious ,,, it isn`t something that we should just it keep quiet like a little kids just telling a secret .. it concernce lot of people,,, our generation and generations to come and we know it is A FREE TRADE AGREEMENT but America should concern the life of other people just because they are Not American doesn`t mean that they can`t live and there are many American citizen that lives in Korea ,,, when you export it to Korea or other countries it means that people aren`t needed ,,, see look now even Malesia even didn`t agree with the US`s FTA because they know that they are hamful to them … Us govenment people in my own opinion are egocentric … People who doen`t care aobut oher people ,,,,I hope that Us will reconcider the FTA ,,, think of the people first before the Economics,,..~~!!
I’m looking up the statistics right now, but these people look for any reason to demonstrate. It must be nice to not have anything to do other than gather thousands strong to protest something that poses such a small threat. Even at McDonalds they proudly say “We use only Australian/NZ Beef” and have since 1995 but it says, “Clean and Safe”. Koreans are American haters, no matter what the situation.
3 confirmed cases of Mad Cow across the entire U.S. but hundreds of cases in Germany, France, Italy. Thousands of Koreans travel to Europe each year, and thousands more live there. Do the Koreans boycott travel to Europe? No. All they are doing is the same old thing. Pick a sore subject and use it to criticize the U.S. Hey, if you don’t like U.S. beef it’s great. Leaves more for me!
mad cow message
The candle light demonstrators are going to continue the anti beef march, eventually “You don’t have to eat American beef.” The demonstrators should know that Americans eat beef every day without mad cow disease yet. You think that you can stop buying American beef in anti American sentiment. If you want to have trade war with America, you will fail because Americans could avoid Korean goods very easily, such as cell phone, Samsung TV, radio, computer, etc. You can reject one item of American good, beef. But Koreans will lose the American market which feed you beef and other good things.
You hate Americans. Then, who would love you Koreans? Russians, Chinese or Japanese? Even if they do, they could not feed you beef.
You shook up the new Korean government. Communists and mad cow ghosts have immensely damaged South Korea. President Lee Myung Baek seems to be very weak, showing just gentleness. He should have shown his tough stand. If the civilian government loses the control, the communists could walk down to South.
If anyone thinks Kim Jong IL would bring his own workers’ paradise to South, he is absolutely empty headed. There is no mad cow in America but in the empty Korean heads.
You have had enough demonstrations. The president, the people and the world got your message.
If South Korea loses American market, do you think Russians or Chinese could help you?
I hope that they would understand the situation of South is always in a danger. Do you know that only a small piece of the land is left in the South Korean hands?
The weak Korean government could not help the 6 nation de-nuclearization conference. Who can unify the divided Korea? It is you.
CHAE S. SONE, eat some of that beef and STFU, for love of god, it really shows how ignorant you are. And American food? Safe? LAWLS! Just had a f*cking crisis with salmonella, and o whats that? FDA stopped all restaurants from selling salmonella? Only few outbreaks, just like mad cow disease, but why isn’t it unsafe for US citizens to eat tomatoes?
Mad cowed assemblymen.
WHO REPRESENTS KOREA?
The Korean people want to be free from the mad cow riots. It reminds Rousseau’s statement. “Man is born free, yet everywhere he is chains.” In this social condition, he proposed an idea of a representative government. So the citizens send their elected representatives to the parliament to present the voice of the people to find solutions for the problems.
Now in Korea, the government is a representative democratic system.
Under the present circumstances, the opposition parties are boycotting the assembly to prevent the opening of the new assembly. Thus, the opposition leaders are neglecting their own duties to represent the people. In other words, they abandoned their responsibilities as the representatives of the people. Outside the parliament, they do not have a legitimate voice or a forum. If they have a legitimate disagreement with the beef import issue, they should come to tell their opinion to the national assembly. They are just trying to paralyze the function of the government.
Thus, their very action is destructive and disqualifies their representation –A reverse course to the parliamentary system.
It is questionable if the government authority has the power to dismiss the disobedient opposition members. If so, it should oust them and let the people have a new election for their own true representation. Otherwise the society can not stand in peace under the status of “misgivings.” Needless to say KorUSFTA benefits.
BAN KI MOON, UN SECRETARY
Even if they have a disagreement with the beef imports, they should have convened the assembly even during the demonstrations.
More over, the national Assembly knew that UN Secretary Ban Ki Moon will visit Korea. They should have prepared in advance to receive him. Thus, UN Secretary Ban Ki Moon should have been respectably welcomed, as an international dignitary, and let him speak to the Assembly that represented the Korean people. But, they failed miserably as they violated their protocol in the occasion. Unfortunately, the UN secretary did not have a chance to speak proudly to his countrymen, Koreans, who were saved by the UN army. Thus, the Korean people scarred themselves, as if their representatives were ignorant derelicts. They seemed to have ignored their own status as the assemblymen. They just tried to snub the Lee Myung Bak government.
However, the opposition leaders actually snubbed themselves as if spitting into each other’s face. What a shameful action?
They misrepresented Koreans’ image to the world.
Koreans must know that South Korea was able to preserve its tiny territory because UN member nations sacrificed their lives to save South Korea from the communist aggressors.
But they missed the great opportunity to express the Korean gratitude to the Secretary who represents the member nations. Because of their misrepresentation, the Korean people be ashamed of themselves.
The Secretary is a proud Korean citizen. Thus, the Korean people are considered to be honored so much in the international scene because of his statue.
Imagine if these mobs had taken over the legitimate government in riots, what would happen to the people? Their suffering would be much worse than the mad cow ghosts can give.
GORBACHEV KIM
Remember the procommunist demonstrators that your mentor Kim Jong Il is evolving into Gorbachev Kim. You do not have any other place to go now but Myanmar or Zimbabwe. Korea should keep up its pace according to the change of East Asian political scene. The denuclearization is both US and our victory.
The opposition leaders and senseless
demonstrators owe an apology to the nation. Especially, the undignified religious leaders should be ashamed of their not-so-saintly, subnormal spirituality, joining the senseless mad cow demonstrators against the very new government that you did not give an enough honeymoon period. Don’t you think you are cruelly mad cowed? – Think over! Where to go from here?
Wake up! Stay on the line of law and order! Eat beef; work harder, Korea will be beautiful for ever. It’s yours.
okay first of all, chaesone … do u even live in korea? APPARENTLY not because it’s soo difficult to just “not buy the meat and not eat it” or so you put it.
I’ve been here 1 month and i cant avoid beef. Pizza? Meat sauce. Spaghetti? Meat sauce. Even in stuff like chicken or seafood… they have taste enhancers that uses f*ing diseased cow meat…
oh and we’ve been too busy ragging on chaesone or whatever …But “HEREWEGOAGAIN”
hahahaha so ur saying that since theres such a low risk for us to get madcow disease we shoudl just eat beef with relief?
Imagine this. Imagine someone pours you thousands or millions of cups of water. And okay, you’re thirsty and you can drink out of any cup. But someone tells you that theres poison in ONE cup that will kill you. just one cup. Do u think you can drink the water with relief?
Think twice before you open your trap
Mad cowed assemblymen
WHO REPRESENTS KOREAN GOVERNMENT? MAD COWS?, MOBS?, OR DUMMIES?
The Korean people want to be free from the mad cow riots. It reminds Rousseau’s statement. “Man is born free, yet everywhere he is chains.” In this social condition, he proposed an idea of a representative government. So the citizens send their elected representatives to the parliament to present the voice of the people to find solutions for the problems.
Now in Korea, the government is a representative democratic system, A national assemblyman is representing the citizens in his own district; he should presents the voice of the constituents to formulate their political fate according to the consensus of the parliament.
Under the present circumstances, the national assemblymen from opposition parties are boycotting the assembly to prevent the opening of the new assembly. Thus, the opposition leaders are neglecting their own duties to represent the people. In other words, they abandoned their position as the representatives of the people. Outside the parliament, they do not have a legitimate voice or a forum. If they have legitimate disagreement with the beef Import, they should come to tell their opinion to the national assembly. They are trying to paralyze the function of the government.
Thus, their very action is destructive to it and disqualified their representation- A reverse course to the parliamentary system.
It is questionable if the government authority has the power to dismiss the opposition disobedient assembly members. If so, it should oust them and let the people have a new election for their own true representation. Otherwise the society can not stand in peace under the status of “misgivings.” Needless to say the benefits of KorUSFTA.
BAN KI MOON, UN SECRETARY
Even if they had disagreement on the beef import, they should have convened the assembly even during the demonstration.
Moreover, they knew that UN Secretary Ban Ki Moon will visit Korea. They should have prepared in a advance to receive him, according to the established diplomatic protocol.
But, they seemed to have ignored their status as the assemblymen, just they tried to snub the Lee Myung Bak government in malice.
However, the opposition leaders actually snubbed themselves as if spitting into each other’s face. What an uninformed, shameful action?
They should have known that
UN Secretary Ban Ki Moon should have been respectably welcomed, as an international dignitary, to the assembly. But they failed miserably as they violated their protocol in the occasion. Thus, the Korean people scarred themselves, as if their representatives were ignorant derelicts.
They misrepresented Koreans’ image to the world.
The Koreans must know that the South Korea was able to preserve its tiny territory because the people of UN member nations scarified their lives to save South from the communist aggressors.
But they missed the great opportunity to express the Korean gratitude to the Secretary who represents the member nations. Because of their misrepresentation, Korean people ashamed of themselves because of the derelict representation.
The Secretary is a proud Korean citizen. Thus, the Korean people are considered to be honored so much in the international seen because of his statue.
Imagine if these mobs had taken over the legitimate government in riots, what would happen to the people? Their suffering would be much worse than the mad cow ghosts can give.
GORVACHEV KIM
Remember the procommunist demonstrators that your mentor Kim Jong Il is evolving into Gorvachev Kim. You do not have any other place to go now but Myanmar or Zimbabwe. Korea should keep up its pace according to the change of East Asian political scene. The denuclearization is US and our victory.
The opposition leaders and demonstrators owe an
apology to the nation. Especially the undignified religious leaders should be ashamed of their subnormal spirituality, joining the senseless mad cowed demonstrators against the very new government that you did not give a honeymoon period. Don’t you think you are mad cowed? – think over where to go from here?
Wake up! Stay on the line of law and order! Eat beef, work harder, Korea will be beautiful for ever. It’s yours.