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!