Anti-English Spectrum's attempts to link English teachers to AIDS

Benjamin Wagner's article in the Korea Herald, "Abandon discriminatory HIV policy," is well worth reading. I especially appreciated him putting the spotlight on Anti-English Spectrum's attempts to link English teachers to AIDS. I've mentioned this briefly before (in this post). Wagner notes "a quote provided by the group that has become very significant":

"At an AIDS testing center for foreigners, 80 percent of those requesting tests were foreign English teachers.""

Lee Eun-ung of Anti-English Spectrum brought this up in his Kyunghyang Shinmun article from February.

The September 18, 2006 Breaknews article this quote is originally from can be found here (in Korean) titled (in the internet edition) "At foreigner AIDS testing centers, 80% of users are native speaking instructors." Note the lovely photos used in the article.



Previous to this article, in the summer of 2006, Breaknews had published several articles about “The damage beyond imagination caused by illegal low quality English teachers” with titles like “Low-quality foreign teachers absorbed in women [and] drugs.” They wrote about ‘Low quality foreign English instructors’ shocking debauchery,’ the blogs of sex-crazed teachers and the inclusion of English teachers on a blacklist.’


The end of the 'AIDS article' has a Q&A with a man who had contributed to the several articles Breaknews had written about 'low, illegal English teachers,' a Mr. K. The interview is titled "Protection of human rights first, behind the protection of citizens; Enhance the E-2 visa, to reduce risk of HIV infection." The unidentified contributor suggests that “E-2 visa requirements should be strengthened. … A medical check certificate (including AIDS) should be added to the documents required for an E-2 visa.”

13 months later, that's what E-2 visa holders got. As to who the contributor might be, or who he represents, it might be worth looking at what appeared on Anti-English Spectrum the day the article was released. This makes pretty clear that they are connected with the AIDS article, and they're very happy that they're no longer just on the internet, but on broadcasts, in newspapers, on subways and in convenience stores.

Breaknews (AIDS Foreign teacher) wide distribution!!!

Broadcast and newspaper. Today it's come! Till now we
hadn't risen from the internet! The report's in terminals,
convenience stores, subways!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The writer of the post is em-tu, who has been identified as 'Mr. Lee' before, and whom I'd imagine is Lee Eun-ung. I would have thought only 12 year old girls would use so many exclamation marks, but hey, expanding their despicable smearing tactics from the internet to the press really must have been really exciting for them.

Below is an interview with Lee Eun-ung, where he admits that he contributed the story reenacted below to the 그것이 알고싶다's episode about English Teachers, titled "Is Korea their Paradise? Report on the Real Conditions of Blond-haired, Blue-eyed Teachers," which helped shape the image of English teachers as unqualified, pot-smoking child molesters.


So, sit back and bask in the warm-hearted interview of Lee Eun-ung that the Seoul Shinmun has provided for us: