Watch Out ... Apparently Foreigners in Korea Are HIV Positive

[asth77.livejournal.com]

A wild party goes on in a club in Seoul's Hongdae area, where foreigners hang out looking for Korean girls.

The hot topic of the week here in South Korea is without question the recent controversial news report issued by MBC and its scathing unprovoked attack on the foreign community here.

It has caused outrage amongst us Waeguks all across the country, depicting us as a group of diseased riddled criminals suffering from hypersexuality. The Social Network Sites such as Facebook have gone beserk over this story. One Facebook group in particular which was set up to take action against MBC less than a week ago, already has close to 7,000 members.



The debatable report, which was titled, The Shocking Reality About Relationships With Foreigners not only makes a mockery out of MBC, but Korea as a whole. It is fair to say that Korea is a very conservative country, but this is an inaccurate reflection on both the local and foreign community.

It is 2012 not 1912. People are a lot more open about every part of their lives nowadays, including Koreans, who continue to become more expressive and outgoing and it has to be said a lot more hospitable towards foreigners than before. This surely makes you wonder why MBC would create such controversy? Maybe they are just looking to increase their TV ratings, even though it is all negative attention that they are receiving from this.

Korea is not only thriving economically but also socially nowadays. Koreans love to enjoy themselves, just as much as us foreigners. Places such as Booking Clubs and Business Clubs; why have they not been investigated by MBC to expose the true meaning of their existence? Why focus solely on foreigners? Another example of Koreas step away from being conservative is K-Pop, the most popular genre of music here among the younger generation. How would you describe it? Well, the highly rated K-Pop groups are the ones in which the members wear the least amount of clothes in their videos, and the majority of their songs relate to sex or relationships.

MBC has a lot to answer for, but basing it on this recent report, it would come as no surprise if this never materializes. They seem too uneducated to be able to deal with the backlash from this masterpiece. Unfortunately, the reality is that we are a minority group here, we are not in our home countries, we will be ignored and this issue will pass in time. There are thousands of mixed race families living here that I am sure are outraged by this but such is life.

The world has much bigger problems to deal with at the moment and this is just a very minor issue in comparison to them; however, its an issue that still needs to be addressed and apologies need to be made. Whether this happens or not remains to be seen, but chances are this will be yesterdays news very soon and life will go on.




By Kenneth Quillinan on The Seoul Times
Kyungbook Nat'l Univ. Professor
Source : Hancinema

Comments

[lazmy.livejournal.com]

wait what

[lobotronic.livejournal.com]

there was a "news report" about how foreigner men are scandalizing and brainwashing korean women to have sex parties, and how foreign men come to korea to seduce all the korean women who apparently have zero control over their own lives. It was complete bullshit and EXTREMELY offensive. The worst part is MBC released a statement saying that they don't think they did anything wrong, and that they stand by the piece. Check out Roboseyo and the Marmot's Hole blogs to read a good response (from actual foreign people married to Koreans--nice, normal dudes, not the lecherous creeps MBC seems to think they all are.)

[laeryn.livejournal.com]

...that photo wtf O_O

[xkat-attackx.livejournal.com]

So ridiculous...I just can't. I totally agree with this guy, there are so many other issues concerning the country that are actually important and they are being ignored for this shit.

But omg, that pic made me lol so hard for some reason.

[modernabsurdity.livejournal.com]

The woman's body language says it all. Can't see her face but I'm guessing she's dying from second hand embarrassment. :p

[deerlike.livejournal.com]

That pic is like a trainwreck... you want to look away, but you can't.

[kaminari17.livejournal.com]

"Well, the highly rated K-Pop groups are the ones in which the members wear the least amount of clothes in their videos, and the majority of their songs relate to sex or relationships"

...what?

[asth77.livejournal.com]

girllll kpop songs are so dirty (no srsly, girl groups' cute concepts are so CREEPY)

And also, many boy groups have sexy concepts and end up half naked. Dalmatian is a good example.

[hisjulliet.livejournal.com]

"The world has much bigger problems to deal with at the moment and this is just a very minor issue in comparison to them"

EXACTLY

[jeugd1.livejournal.com]

That picture tho?

[xalexandriam.livejournal.com]

omg your icon :O

queen madonna tbh

[k0dama.livejournal.com]

How is TV pop idols wearing skimpy clothes an allegory to modern Korean culture? I'm not seeing the connection there.

This article sounds like more "omg how can I be white yet a minority (MBC doesn't think like me! oh no!!!)?? This isn't supposed to happen!"

[asth77.livejournal.com]

lol what are you saying

[lovelysasusaku.livejournal.com]

that picture freaked me out and brought me here.. and WTF is with this article? >_<

off topic: omg beautiful stranger by f(x) is really good and I only discovered Ailee today. she is sooooooo amazing!

[tiggie0307.livejournal.com]

MBC is just screwing themselves over in so many ways.

[modernabsurdity.livejournal.com]

"Whether this happens or not remains to be seen, but chances are this will be yesterdays news very soon and life will go on."

This struck me as sad and accurate. :(

[shintotchi.livejournal.com]

I find it scary that I was about to write this exact comment word for word. ._. A+?

[thebluemonk.livejournal.com]

dammit Hyuna

why did your bubble have to pop

[lysblack.livejournal.com]

lol omg i can't

[lysblack.livejournal.com]

[lovemail321.livejournal.com]

There are some days when I really want to tell Korea to fuck off.

Today is one of those days.

[rennehollic.livejournal.com]

mte

[muzegrey.livejournal.com]

What about addressing the issue of Korean men never wearing condoms?

[kellygreen.livejournal.com]

Right, we're all HIV positive. Except that all foreign English teachers are forced to take an HIV test as part of our visa requirements once we arrive in Korea and if we test positive then our visas are revoked.

[modernabsurdity.livejournal.com]

That sounds so draconian.

[hell0kittyangel.livejournal.com]

lol somewhat similar, but not really HIV.

I watched MBC's Dr. Jin today, and for the 6th episode preview there's this girl who got all these red blotches over her (apparently syphilis) and the guy was like "you slept with a foreigner?"

and lol yeah. this kinda reminded me of that. really sad how mbc is pretty much being racist though :/

[very-pinku.livejournal.com]

....what. It makes me sad cause I loved the original Japanese version of Jin.
They never mentioned anything in that context. How is the drama so far though?
Debating on it but don't want it ruined due to the strength of the Japanese version.

[cherrypop.livejournal.com]

That wasn't a very effective way to address MBC's one-sided approach to foreigners. Although sadly I would not say that the last documentary was in any way untruthful, just very one sided.

[falling-empress.livejournal.com]

diseased riddled criminals suffering from hypersexuality

LOOOOOOOOOOOOL

yes, yes i am.

[goshipgurl.livejournal.com]

well there are plenty of delusional kpop fans who want to live in korea later because they only know korea from the k-dramas and think everything is awesome there

[embroideredkiss.livejournal.com]

oh jesus, I don't even know whether to add to this wankery or not....

obviously the news piece was utterly biased and had very little basis in fact, but....a lot of the response I've seen online - largely in the facebook group mentioned above - has also been very immature, self-righteous and at times, just plain racist.

I'd also agree with the commenter somewhere above, this is pretty much a lot of middle class white guys getting butt hurt cos this is the first time in their lives they've ever suffered discrimination.

[asth77.livejournal.com]

"I'd also agree with the commenter somewhere above, this is pretty much a lot of middle class white guys getting butt hurt cos this is the first time in their lives they've ever suffered discrimination."

and so what does it change?
Who cares if they're white. Xenophobia is still xenophobia.

I don't get why is there suddenly a white ppl vs black ppl debate here when it's not revelant at all, and it is not the problematic Korea has right now.

inb4 "are you white? jfc".

[noneko.livejournal.com]

Lol the foreigners in Korea probably have the lowest rate of HIV/STDS, since they're tested before and during the Visa process. I know people who had to lie about the meds they were taking, because the government would reject their visa application otherwise.

[asnindie.livejournal.com]

The insinuation that alot of foreigners carry around STD's or HIV is just I can't.

[martha-sal.livejournal.com]

Sure, the foreigners are terrible and disgusting and apparently HIV positive but aren't the Korean girls the ones who are sleeping with them? It's not only their fault.

tsk tsk tsk