Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Oops!

Late, absent/ gets money and does a runner/ molestation

The above cartoon is from a August 16, 2006 Seoul Shinmun article titled "Washout Native-Speaking Teacher Problem." Pretty cute.

The article is about the Korean Recruiting Association's blacklist of 'low quality' teachers, something that became news in 2006, and was bolstered by the August 18/19 realization that John Mark Karr had taught in Korea. The blacklist story also made MBC ("Foreign language hagwon, Unbelievable native speaking teachers") and SBS ("English speaking sex criminals openly teach English in Asia"). The blacklist was first brought to light, however, by an August 7 Breaknews story titled "Low quality English teachers: 'Korean women are a source of money and sex partners'" (the paper edition is seen here). The story is mostly full of juicy stories of bastard teachers provided by "Mr. Kim", a member of the "movement against low quality foreign teachers", who, as "Mr.K" provides tips for several Breaknews articles (the first of which extolled the virtues of Anti-English Spectrum)

On October 29, 2006, that BreakNews article was reposted at Anti-English Spectrum, and in the comments, members thanked 'Mr. Kim'. 'M2' - Lee Eun-ung, the manager and public face of the site - coyly wrote "I'm curious about Mr. Kim;..." Regular poster 'jasminhyang' later wrote in a comment "the first letter of Mr. Kim's nickname is 'm'." In a Breaknews article published two days later, Mr. K also makes comments, and is described as "Low quality native speaking teacher deportation site manager Mr. K," also suggesting this is a pseudonym for Lee Eun-ung.


Last night I watched the documentary 'Burden of Dreams,' about Werner Herzog's attempts to make the film 'Fitzcarraldo'. At one point he describes some of his problems with the locals:
They spread rumours we would slaughter them and take the grease out of their bodies and cook the grease and that we would rape their women and that we would do any kind of harm to them

We are necessary as an enemy that can be beaten, because they will not dare to attack the military camps, they will not dare to attack the petrol companies, but since we are small, we may be the losers.
Of course, since this is about the denizens of the Amazon River basin, it really has little to do with Korean news articles, xenophobic groups, or cute cartoons. Oops!

6 comments:

Horembala said...

There are news articles about illicit drugs. All of the involved are native Koreans or Gyopo. The news reports do not say anything about English teachers.

필로폰 판매·투약등 마약사범 24명 검거 

부산경찰, 마약사범 25명 검거…해외원정 투약도

부산경찰, 마약사범 집중단속 551명 검거

일본 명문대생 포함된 대형 마약사범 검거

해경, 마약사범 무더기 검거

조폭이 개입된 성매매알선업체 ‘해식이집’ 수사결과

대마쿠키 1,497그램 밀수한 대학생 불구속 기소

충북경찰청, 마약사범 검거

서울지방경찰청 상반기 중 마약사범 총 855명 검거

하반기 마약류사범 집중단속 결과 분석

brent said...

You didn't mention that the blacklist was illegal and had to be ended.

Tony Hellmann said...

Korean Labor Standards Act
Article 39 (Prohibition of Interference with Employment)

Anyone shall not prepare and use secret signs or lists, or have communication for the purpose of interfering with employment of a worker.

Darth Babaganoosh said...

Brent, it's still there, so I'm not sure what you mean by "ended".

SUPER EAGLE said...

i think there's a better burden of dreams quote you could have gone with:

It's just - Nature here is vile and base. I wouldn't see anything erotical here. I would see fornication and asphyxiation and choking and fighting for survival and... growing and... just rotting away. Of course, there's a lot of misery. But it is the same misery that is all around us. The trees here are in misery, and the birds are in misery. I don't think they - they sing. They just screech in pain. It's an unfinished country. It's still prehistorical. The only thing that is lacking is - is the dinosaurs here. It's like a curse weighing on an entire landscape. And whoever... goes too deep into this has his share of this curse.

(just kidding, y'all)

matt said...

Thanks for that - it elicited more than a few chuckles. What the hell is that sound magpies make anyways?

I was introduced to Herzog's films at the 2002 Bucheon fantastic film festival - good times.