Re: Koreans Revolt Against U.S. Beef

From: Jongseon SHIN <pioid_at_garbg.hanmail.net>
Date: Sun, 01 Jun 2008 15:42:27 +0900

Mark Thorson 쓴 글:

> none wrote:
>> Mark Thorson wrote:

>>> I won't eat U.S. beef because the risk is too high,
>>> and neither will the Koreans. If there were no risk,
>>> the USDA would not be preventing Creekstone Farms from
>>> testing their own beef for Mad Cow Disease. If testing
>>> were being done at the same level as in Japan, where
>>> all slaughtered cattle are tested, the true extent of
>>> Mad Cow Disease in U.S. herds would be revealed, and
>>> nobody would eat U.S. beef.
>>>
>>>
>>> Quoting from:
>>> http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/27/news/SKorea-US-Beef-Rally.php
>>>
>>> Thousands of South Koreans, mostly students and other
>>> young people, have held similar vigils and street rallies
>>> on a near daily basis against the April 18 deal to resume
>>> U.S. beef imports.
>>>
>>> The protests are one of the biggest domestic challenges
>>> faced so far by South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who
>>> took office three months ago. Lee last week sought to
>>> reassure the country over the safety of U.S. beef, but
>>> failed to ease public anger, which has been fanned by
>>> media reports questioning the safety of U.S. beef.

[...]

Let me add some details about how all these daily rally was formed and reproduced. Most conventional media is quite mute about the situation on the street. However, most young Koreans , including me, are quite well informed about the situation.

The real information is spread through the Internet.

Bloggers are writing from their notebook on the street, or from nearby PC bangs. A blogger is writing throughout the night every incident, gathered via sms and blog comments system. I could only press F5 every 30 minutes to see what happened on GwangHwaMun, where the demonstrators were rallying against the police force.

There is also already famous Ohmynews ( http://www.ohmynews.com ) equipped with live independent internet-tv. On its site, I could watch literally every moment of the demonstration. There's also another team to live-broadcast the street. A professor, named JungGwon Jin, was interviewing people there. While watching untidy interviews, I could chat with other views live. Some participants were doing propaganda for and against the rally, some were re-articulating the live broadcast, some were giving information and misinformation. It's like a real good virtual demonstration. I could feel how I should feel.

It's new kind of solidarity emerging from new technology. It's very interesting.

--
SHIN

Received on Sat May 31 2008 - 23:42:30 PDT