Why are the soldiers there?

Let's talk about some of the cultural details in this protest that you wouldn't get from media. People who wear military uniforms are the people who finished military service which is mandatory for every Korean guys, called "Ye-Bi-Yuk", which means a veteran. I'm also one of "Ye-Bi-Yuk". The reason that they are in front of protesters is that they want to protect citizen from the violence of police, also to keep the protesters from doing something crazy. I don't like the pride of army. But, I'm very proud of these brave colleagues. I'm shamed that I'm in NY right now. (Few days ago the Ministry of National Defense started to try legislating against wearing uniforms of "Ye-Bi-Yuk" Hah!)

On the other side, the people in black police uniforms are also the people who are serving for the police instead of army.(Living in the bases in 2yrs, monthly around 100$ paid) Since 70s Korean government has often used these young guys from 18 to about 28 to suppress all the demonstration in the country, no matter what their politic opinions are. The strongest reason of violence on the street is that their senior officers always force them to be furious.(In addition, there's also a group of "Ye-Bi-Yuk" from this police service.) For example, this is the picture from June 29th.

You might wonder what the fuck these protesters are doing to the police. The newspaper said this is madness of violent riots. However, at that time commander sent only 300 police into the crowd over 15,000 protesters for breaking up the demonstration with using physical force--attacking with the truncheons, chopping with the shields. Yes, this is the classic way of framing up, the commanders use this situation for making reason to use strong police force. The protesters easily get angry with police's physical force, only 300 police can be easily dropped into the angry crowd. It's also good to be photogenic by the conservative media which wants to show only bad side of protest. Although there was violence from protesters, if you see carefully, you'd notice some of protesters are protecting the police by making circle.

This is just only small part of how this smart-ass government does for keeping its power now. President Mr. Lee and his crews are the evil, the real axis of evil.

What's going on?

Last Sunday morning, I've got a call from a good friend in Helsinki. When she asked me about the protest in Korea, the first thing that came to my mind was that I need to tell my friends about the background story of this protest.


First, this is just only my opinion and explanation based on what I've heard from Korean bloggers and citizen reporters who are struggling on the streets in Seoul. I don't want you to hear about my country only from what all the media are saying only for the people who have power-believe or not.


Here's a link of New York Times :

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/11/world/asia/11korea.html?ref=asia


The trigger of the protest was about their unfair negotiation of importing US beef including the meat which American don't even eat--over 30 month old cows which are suspicious of mad cow disease. However, the real point of the protest is that Mr.Lee's government lost its trust at all. Nobody in the government listens to what the protesters speak out everyday almost 7pm to 4am for almost 2 months now.


For more detail, President Lee Myung-Bak's government seems to go wrong about most policies -- putting universal healthcare into the private management, the construction of canal in the whole country(The stream of canal is vertical, but we have a lot of big and beautiful mountain chains across the land, and Korea is surrounded by three seas. Huh? Yes, President Mr. Lee was CEO of Hyundai construction company which was dishonored by him), supporting only cooperations like Samsung which are mostly connected to the politicians, controlling the media by choosing the heads of national TV stations, stopping support for NGOs that were considered as left or communist by the conservative party, poor education policy that maximizes a competition of grades. (Can you imagine almost every teenagers in Korea have to be in the school almost 7am - 10pm, beaten by teachers sometimes? Then, they go to the private classes called "Hakwon" That's what I did. This is the madness. We need to stop this. But,this government is making it worse.) And more... horrible policies under the idea of the radical capitalism.


The worst thing is that President Lee's Government has no philosophy about running the country. After he won the election, the conservative party of him complained that we lost 10yrs by so-they-called left and communist government, and they would innovate the weak national condition. But, according to their plans that I mentioned, what they try to do is just taking a trophy from being Government party.


It's such a shame.


However, the protesters--young students, office workers, mothers, also some of my friends, walked down to the street with holding candles for changing better. I think this is amazing that we try very hard to keep the anger, to control any violence of crowd.


I hope you guys watch how we change Korea from the bottom.