Another disgusting verdict in a sexual assault case.

A few days old, but here's a story out of Busan.

A father who sexually assaulted his daughter was sentenced to two years in jail and ordered to publicly disclose his personal information for five years, Sunday.

The man, identified only as Choi, 38, was found guilty of habitually sexually abusing his biological daughter for more than four years up to last October when she became an eighth grader.

``He committed sexual assaults against his daughter continuously with the abuse getting worse which left indelible psychological damage during the important period for personality development,'' the court said in the ruling. ``However, the court reduced the sentence because, though a little late, he felt deep remorse, did not have any criminal record and his wife dropped the complaint.''

HT to Korea Beat. One hell of a last paragraph there. I'm tired of seeing "However" turn up in rulings on sexual assault cases. About six weeks ago a Cheongju judge sent a teenager back to the family members who had been raping her over seven years.

Can you show me evidence of the growing number of crimes committed by E-2 visa holders? k thx

I love how just about every time the Korea Times runs an article about policies directed at foreigners, the very next day there's one about how this particular plan is unpopular with foreigners. Today there's this article about some teachers' reactions to the murky new visa regulations:

``The law, which will be put into effect from the end of March, will more thoroughly prevent foreigners with criminal records from coming to Korea than just regulations,'' said Song So-young, an immigration official.

The official said the growing number of crimes committed by E-2 visa holders has driven the authorities to set the requirements.

He's talking about two different things: people committing crimes back home before they get to Korea, and E-2 holders committing crimes once they're here. One has nothing to do with the other, and in two paragraphs he's managed to insult two groups of people.

Worth pointing out that although the initial press release from ATEK made it look like these changes wouldn't really apply to E-2 visa holders---since we're already subject to these regulations---the papers have now focused once again on the E-2 crowd. There's this article, the Chosun Ilbo one from earlier today, and the reports in the Korean-language press, with headlines like "법무부，범죄경력 외국인강사 'No'," "법무부, 외국인 우수인재 'YES'…범죄경력 외국인강사 'NO'," and "전과 있는 외국인 영어강사 비자 못받는다."

Of course everyone would say "NO" to importing criminals, but when you make the implication---nay, when you say it in the papers---that a certain demographic presents a special problem, and when you do so without citing any evidence, you're setting up what will turn out to be an indisputable argument. "We must keep out criminal foreign teachers." / "There aren't many criminal foreign teachers." / "Yes, I read it in the paper." / "There's no evidence of criminal foreign teachers." / "I read it in the paper. They found it out." Repeat repeat repeat. So not only do we get to be potential criminals, we get to be the bad guys for arguing against Korean journalism. The only thing to do, then, is to try and dispute the facts, something that always goes over well. *cough*

I think I'm going to have to get in the paper to talk about this, because the people they talk to never seem to get it right. Foreigners aren't complaining about being subject to background checks, because we realize these are common for teaching jobs back home. Moreover, the problem isn't chiefly that these regulations are expensive, burdensome, or redundant. The problem is that there is absolutely no evidence for the charges that teachers on E-2 visas are committing more crimes, or evidence that they're committing crimes at all. It's possible to introduce legislation---the terms of which E-2 teachers have been following since December, 2007, thank you very much---without slandering thousands of people with no evidence whatsoever. For all the rabble-rousing about the E-2 menace, you'd think one of these immigration officials, or columnists, or vigilanties would have actual evidence of these foreigners committing the crimes they're accussed of.

Additionally, they're going to have to show how a rule is going to be more effective than simply a regulation. This reminds me of all the talk about "unqualified" teachers with fake degrees or forged credentials. They were vetted by immigration and the embassy, so if they still managed to get jobs, whose fault is that? If criminals are still getting through, as is implied, whose fault is that?

Yes, some of you will laugh at me demanding answers, saying a foreign government doesn't have to answer to some nobody. Fine. All I'm doing is pointing out the connection between the continuous insults and the lack of enthusiasm many foreigners are feeling for Korea. Believe it or not people don't like being called criminals, and the media has been doing this for years with impunity. And without sufficient evidence.

Former prostitutes accuse Korean and US governments of enabling sex trade.

The claim that the sex trade in South Korea has flourished because of US military presence is an oft-heard one, and one that's repeated in the cover story on the New York Times website:

Now, a group of former prostitutes in South Korea have accused some of their country’s former leaders of a different kind of abuse: encouraging them to have sex with the American soldiers who protected South Korea from North Korea. They also accuse past South Korean governments, and the United States military, of taking a direct hand in the sex trade from the 1960s through the 1980s, working together to build a testing and treatment system to ensure that prostitutes were disease-free for American troops.

While the women have made no claims that they were coerced into prostitution by South Korean or American officials during those years, they accuse successive Korean governments of hypocrisy in calling for reparations from Japan while refusing to take a hard look at South Korea’s own history.

“Our government was one big pimp for the U.S. military,” one of the women, Kim Ae-ran, 58, said in a recent interview.

. . .

“They urged us to sell as much as possible to the G.I.’s, praising us as ‘dollar-earning patriots,’ ” Ms. Kim said.

The United States military, the scholars say, became involved in attempts to regulate the trade in so-called camp towns surrounding the bases because of worries about sexually transmitted diseases.

In one of the most incendiary claims, some women say that the American military police and South Korean officials regularly raided clubs from the 1960s through the 1980s looking for women who were thought to be spreading the diseases. They picked out the women using the number tags the women say the brothels forced them to wear so the soldiers could more easily identify their sex partners.

The Korean police would then detain the prostitutes who were thought to be ill, the women said, locking them up under guard in so-called monkey houses, where the windows had bars. There, the prostitutes were forced to take medications until they were well.

The women, who are seeking compensation and an apology, have compared themselves to the so-called comfort women who have won widespread public sympathy for being forced into prostitution by the Japanese during World War II. Whether prostitutes by choice, need or coercion, the women say, they were all victims of government policies.

. . .

“The more I think about my life, the more I think women like me were the biggest sacrifice for my country’s alliance with the Americans,” [a former prostitute] said. “Looking back, I think my body was not mine, but the government’s and the U.S. military’s.”

An article on the topic from TIME magazine in 2002 is here, and ROK Drop has more information on these camp towns, but his site is currently down. Sex is a big industry in Korea, and a ubiquitous one, and regardless of whether the government is enabling it or benefiting from it, it certainly has done little to curtail it.

Chosun Ilbo reports on new E-2 visa regulations.

The Chosun Ilbo has an article called "Bar for Foreign English Teachers Raised," on the new immigration regulations introduced last week, although the original press release from ATEK didn't mention anything about E-2 applicants being targetted.

The law requires those wishing to obtain the E-2 visa to submit a police certificate of their personal criminal history issued in the country of citizenship or residence and stamped by the Korean embassy. The new version also requires the applicants to hand in a health certificate to show the person has no infectious or sexually transmitted diseases, and a transcript from the last educational institution attended in a sealed envelope.

The spirit of these regulations have been in place for over a year, although the stamp at the Korean embassy is news to me. The article also includes this winning line:

The new rules come in response to public perception that some foreign English teachers are little more than cowboys.

So does that make Koreans little more than cows? For a lengthier treatment of this issue, see this post from a couple days ago.

Never too early for tests.

"A prospective elementary school girl is being interviewed at a school in Gwangju on Wednesday" says the English-language Chosun Ilbo. A short video of the proceedings at Gwangju's Sinchang Elementary School from the Korean-language version.

New immigration problems on the way?

I'm reporting from the beyond---well, from English Camp---to pass along what has already been posted by The Chosun Bimbo and Zen Kimchi. As per a press release from ATEK, a fledgling teachers' union here, the government is mulling more requirements for immigrants looking to work in South Korea. According to the release:

The bill seeks to establish the "legal basis to require foreigners applying for an employment visa to submit a criminal background check and health certificate."

Interesting, but we've already been subjected to this for a while. The reasoning for this latest activity?

"Nowadays, the number of foreigners working in Korea is increasing, but a good many [Korean: 상당수] have previous convictions for drug and sexual crimes or carry infectious diseases. As we require measures to deal with the threat they pose to our society's public order and our people's health, we herein prepare the legal basis to require that foreigners applying for an employment visa submit a criminal background check and a health certificate."

Christ Almighty. Commentary here from The Chosun Bimbo, The Metropolitician, and kimchi-icecream.

It remains to been what implications this will have for teachers, or for those on E-2 visas, especially since we've been subject to these measures since December, 2007. After all English teachers comprise a small percentage of foreigners in Korea, and in spite of the ugly rhetoric thrown our way, we're not the first demographic to come to mind when talking about AIDS and drugs. Likewise, it is the right of a country to screen its visitors however it sees fit, and trying to curtail drugs and crime isn't a bad aim. Drugs and crime are, after all, a threat to public order and health, and if some foreigners are engaging in these and other harmful activities, they must of course be stopped.

That said, there has been a long history of hate-mongering against and scapegoating of foreign English teachers here, and it has been pretty well demonstrated that foreigner drug- and crime-rates are greatly sensationalized. And you'll remember the moral panic of late-2007 was directed exclusively at teachers on E-2 visas, for no reason in particular. The man who triggered the scare was on an E-7 visa, after all, and you'd think that in spite of such vigilant citizens' groups and columnists that there'd be reports of E-2 teachers actually, like, doing the harmful things they're always accussed of. We read a lot about running drugs, committing sex crimes, falsifying academic records, and harming students, but those areas have heretofore been the specialty of Korean or ethnic Korean teachers.

The language above is similar to that in of 2007 when the latest moral panic started after the arrest of Christopher Paul Neil. Immigration said in December of that year:

The Korean Government will prevent illegal activities by verifying requirements of native English teacher and tighten their non-immigrant status [...] [and will] eradicate illegal activities of native English teachers who are causing social problems such as ineligible lectures, taking drugs and sex crimes. English teachers, who disturb social order during their staying in Korea such as illegal teaching, taking drugs and sex crimes, will be banned from entering South Korea.[...] [They will] prevent illegal English teaching activities and the taking of drugs and sexual harassment of English teachers, [...] teachers who disrupt the social order by taking drugs, committing sexual harassment and alcohol intoxication.

In response to this latest activity, ATEK has said in the above-mentioned release:

The Association for Teachers of English in Korea (ATEK) calls on the author(s) of this bill to provide their evidence that "a good many" (상당수) foreigners working in Korea have previous convictions for drug and sexual crimes or carry infectious diseases. Obviously, with the stringent checks being done on E-2 visa holders, they are not part of the "good many" foreigners mentioned. How many E-1, E-6, E-7, and/or C-4 visa holders have been discovered to have criminal convictions or infectious diseases? This evidence cannot be produced because it does not exist.

While ATEK has been getting some exposure, let's be honest and say they don't have the teeth to really do anything. Nor do they have the popularity, the trust, or the confidence to get anything from the foreign teaching community. Hence the need to post something here, and to direct you to other commentary from other teachers, because the most effective things we can do now is just raise awareness about things like this and the ridiculously insulting comments by the education Ministry official in charge of native teachers, for example, and negatively influencing not only the way we do our jobs, but they way we're perceived in society. Not as if those two things are unrelated, either.

Perhaps there's nothing bloggers or readers themselves can do, either, except inform themselves and their handlers about the facts, and refuse to submit to repeated, redundant checks. I would love for the men upstairs to produce evidence of this "good many" foreigners who are damaging Korea, just like I want to find a solid definition of "unqualified" as it's used to slam teachers, or an honest appraisal of Korean English teachers, but I know none of those things are coming. But repeated accusations---that we're unqualified, or criminals, or drug smugglers, or sexual predators---does nothing but reveal a xenophobia that apparently needs little to bring it to the fore. It also speaks volumes about the faith in "the system": after all we've been vetted by our embassies and by their immigration---all numerous times---yet we still have to counter these charges every few months.

For those keeping score at home, immigration has changed its policies repeatedly since implementing them in late-2007, in spite of the dangers posed by foreign teachers and interracial daters. The story has been how the Korean government has been imposing things willy-nilly without checking on the practicality of these moves. In December, 2007, Korea wanted the embassies in Seoul to provide criminal background checks for its citizens, even though the embassies neither performed those functions nor agreed to do so before the requirement was announced. In response to being told to fuck off, one Ministry of Justice spokesperson said of the embassies

I just don’t understand why they cannot make some exceptions to accommodate the needs of their own nationals. In Korea, criminal records can be easily obtained online. But they don’t have a centralized system.

The US Embassy even sent out an email to those on its mailing list in response to these unmeetable demands. An excerpt:

The U.S. Embassy website will also continue to be the best source of information about the services that we are able to provide under U.S. law and regulation.

You'll remember this summer I made a three-hour visit to Seoul to get an apostile for my criminal background check at the US Embassy, only to be told by Yeosu Immigration---in contradiction of what I'd been hearing from my supervisor for months---that I didn't need it. The costly and time-consuming in-person Embassy interview has been the target of much criticism and many jokes. In October we saw reported what we already could guess: immigration regulations were favoring ethnic Koreans, an article in which an immigration official said

We know there might be unqualified ethnic Koreans teaching English here, but you also need to understand there is no 100 percent perfect system.

Most recently it announced it required Vulnerable Sector Screenings of Canadians, although it made this decision without alerting the Canadian Embassy, thus resulting in chaos for its applicants and in a lot of misinformation. Turns out some of the services the Korean government was requiring of the embassy were not in fact available, and that according to an embassy email the VSS was not even approved for overseas use anyway. As I said in a Korea Times column on the topic, the constant changes reveal not only gross disorganization but a lack of focus which in turn tells us that the goals are far less important than the process.

Without even taking into account the poor exchange rate, all of this of course makes you wonder how Korea will attract foreign teachers to meet its demand. It's amusing that while you're reading about unqualified-this, unqualified-that, you also read about how districts plan to bring in loads more foreign teachers, apparently oblivious to what's going on elsewhere. But I'm not so sure the demand will be there for much longer. They're already going to import teachers from India and other countries that have English as a nominal official language. More telling is their planned introduction of a domestic-made English test to supplant the TOEFL and SAT, two tests they generally suck at. I wonder how much longer until the jig is up, until they realize that this just isn't working. I don't think they will ever come to that conclusion, though, and contradictory to the aims of foreign-language study, they'll look inward and come to blame foreign teachers for all the failures of English-language education, rather than looking at the issues with implementation. That's a pessimistic outlook anyway. Perhaps this is just one more step toward an idea I've been playing with the last month or two: just give up, make Japanese the required second language, and keep English as an elective for the students who want it.

Taking you back like a rocking chair.

For the next week I'll be sequestered at Suncheon's English Town for my winter camp. Following that I'll be out of the country for most of January and a big part of February, so I'll likely have no new entries for a while. However, I know that going two months without posting is blogger suicide, so I've got some posts in the can, scheduled to come out later this month and next.

To hold you over for a while I've compiled a list of some posts I like but that either came out when nobody read my blog or were buried behind bigger stories or behind the wall-to-wall Mad Bull Shit coverage. Give them a read-through, and hell, since I won't have anything new for about a week, why not just start with September, 2007, and read through every entry? *cough*

* "이번역은 율촌, 율촌역 입니다 ~ Yulchon Station." - A small write-up on an old train station in Yeosu, a post that contains the best one-liner in Brian in Jeollanam-do history.

* "GEPIK offers culture tips." You know this isn't going to turn out well.

* "Nazi mural in Gyeongju." – A not-so-subtle display in downtown Gyeongju.

* "You look nervous." - Perhaps the most awesomely bad 71 seconds of consecutive English in a Korean drama.

* "Korea Times: Tips are no longer strange here." - The one where we debate the merits of tipping. It was a short discussion because there are no merits of tipping.

* "Okay, I know I really shouldn't be laughing at this." - A taste of home.

* "A Reaction to Kang Eun-hee's 'Korean English Teachers.'" - The first of what would be many rants on the topic of English education.

* "Cheonghak-dong and Samseong-gung: Excellent with a capital E through T." - One of the most beautiful areas of Korea I've ever seen.

*“’Sexy Mong’ battles drunk foreigners, interracial relationships.” It’s bad enough that a softcore porn episode was dealing with the “social issue” of sexual predator English teachers. What’s worse is that they actually recruited some piece of shit white people to play these date rapists. Way to go, you got to rub a Korean woman’s groin on television. Now eat shit and die.

*“No hummingbirds in Jeollanam-do :(“ – No hummingbirds in Korea for that matter, but we do have some beautiful moths.

*“Remembering.” – A visit to Gwangju on May 18th, and a look at how anti-American, anti-beef displays were the theme of the anniversary of the Gwangju Massacre.

*“Cultural Guidebook for Foreigners warns of killer fans.” – Actually, LMFAO, so does the Korean Consumer Agency.

*“Foreigners Expose Abusive Daycare.” – Some English teachers helped bring to justice a preschool that was punishing its children by leaving them outside naked in the middle of winter.

*“Korea Times: What do English Teachers Think?” – Another rant brought upon by a column in the Korea Times.

*“pyew pyew pyew, the sound of bad taste.” – A distasteful Hummer commercial from a few years ago.

* "Forbes ranks South Korea as hardest-working country." - What does that mean?

* “You’re not their friend, you’re their teacher.” – Sometimes it’s difficult to leave the house, knowing how ridiculous you’re made to look as a foreigner. If you haven’t figured it out yet, when they scream “HEllo, hellloooo, HELLOOOO” they’re not being friendly, or curious, or eager to speak to foreigners.

* "Some stuff about Korean love motels, so pay attention." - I'm a big fan of love motels. Less so when people commit suicide in them, but still. They're much better than ordinary tourist hotels in every conceivable---PUN!---way. That one room has a telescope.

Artificial ice climbing in Yeongdong.

The Korea Times has a picture of an artificial ice cliff in Yeongdong county, Chungcheongbuk-do---and lets readers know of course that county officials hope it will become a tourist attraction. Here are a few more from around the internet:







And here's a gallery from the Chosun Ilbo.

Michael White's mother sues.

An update to one of the most outrageous news items of 2008.

An American mother sued the Korean government Friday for 450 million won in compensation over her son's alleged drowning in a sauna in a southern city. The bereaved mother claimed that Korean paramedic management was poor and the legal system prevents people from helping others in emergency situations.

According to the Daegu District Court, Stephannie White, 41, has filed a compensation suit against the central government and local South Gyeongsang Provincial government for having ``let her son die due to poor emergency measures.''

The accident took place on May 10 last year, when White and her 14-year-old son Michael visited the Royal Hawaii Sauna in Gyeongsang, near Daegu. He was found unconscious in a pool soon after arriving. Emergency staff rushed him to a nearby hospital and tried to resuscitate him via cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), but the boy was declared dead a few minutes later.

Best of luck to Ms. White, who deserves credit for continuing to pursue the matter. However, I would be very surprised if anything came of this.

You can read more about Michael and this story on the website his mother created, Mightie Mike. Give a listen to the two podcasts done with Seoul Podcast, too, here and here, or give the transcripts a read (a few choice excerpts here). They'll leave you speechless. And really really mad.

A few earlier posts on the topic:
** "Michael White's autopsy report released to press before family."

** "Vigils for Michael White hitting snares."

** "But at this point, the difference in law and culture at bathing places is what is likely to be at fault."

** "The suspicious death of 14-year-old Michael White."

Winter wonderland in Daejeon.

I'm not really sure the story behind these ice formations in Daejeon.