Protests Fire Up Once More   2008-06-22 10:02

The government announced yesterday that it had reached another agreement with the U.S. with regard to beef trade. As expected, the "solution" was to encourage the U.S. beef industry to voluntarily refrain from exporting certain kinds of beef: those produced from cattle over 30 months old, and certain Special Risk Materials (brain, spinal cord, etc). According to yesterday's agreement, a Quality System Assessment (QSA) program will be implemented, through which the U.S. government will verify for Koreans that a shipment of beef meets the standards agreed to by the beef industry. Basically, what this means is that the U.S. beef industry will set its own standards and ask their government to certify if the beef they export really meets those standards. Quarantine officers in Korea, in turn, can refuse to accept any beef that isn't accompanied by a valid certificate. According to the Korean government, this agreement effectively prevents the import of those kinds of beef which the People think carry a higher risk of BSE. (For more information about yesterday's agreement and the circumstances surrounding it, please read this New York Times article. If you're new to this debate and want to know what the heck is wrong with U.S. beef, please refer to this post.)

Many of us, however, quickly recognized problems with this agreement. First of all, what it prescribes is nothing more than a temporary measure to be implemented until "consumers' confidence improves in Korea", as the text of the agreement clearly indicates. The U.S. government also announced that what's being talked about is only a "transitional measure", as you can read in the NYT article linked above. But who decides whether the Korean consumers' confidence in U.S. beef has improved or not? Who decides when it's time to move beyond the "transitional" stage and revert to the April 18 agreement which permits all and any beef to be freely traded? The new agreement does not replace the old one. Koreans, therefore, are left with a very reasonable suspicion that once our candlelight protests die out, Lee Myung-Bak's stubborn government will take that as a sign of improved confidence and quietly revert to the old agreement. We've seen past governments doing exactly the same thing with all sorts of other issues. There's no reason for the People to trust this one any better. In addition, the agreement says nothing about what to do if violations are discovered. As it stands, anyone can disregard the industry's self-imposed restrictions and get away with it! And while the agreement allows the Korean government to inspect U.S. slaughterhouses to ensure compliance, it is questionable whether Lee Myung-Bak's government, which doesn't want to do anything that might interfere with free trade, will actually make use of the right to carry out inspections.

The government has been saying that the new agreement "effectively" prevents the import of troublesome beef, so let us parody that: the new agreement, in fact, "effectively" does nothing.

So this is what happened last night in Seoul:

Massive protests again. Candlelight vigils have been taking place every night since early May, but the number of participants had dwindled a little bit since the really, really massive demonstration on June 10 -- leading a few observers and government officials to speculate that the political fervor is now dying out. Perhaps that was what the government was hoping for as they negotiated the new agreement with America. Perhaps the government thought that "consumers' confidence" was already improving. But they were wrong. Estimates vary wildly, but somewhere between 10,000 and 100,000 citizens showed up yesterday evening in a reinvigorated demonstration. A few newspapers have come up with the number 50,000, and that's probably closer to the truth than either extreme. The People accused the government of deceit and called for a full, proper renegotiation. In short, we don't want any more of this "voluntary restraint" bullshit. We've had enough of it. We want our health and safety to be guaranteed by enforceable law, not by some obscure promise of self-regulation. Why? Because our health and safety are important!

Tens of thousands of People gathered in the early evening, with candles in their hands. You've seen this before if you've been following our blog. The last time we saw such a crowd as June 10, when one million People rallied against our undemocratic and oppressive government.

Below: A girl holds out a picket that says, "Lee Myung Bak: OUT!" Though not everyone likes this slogan, an increasing number of People are saying that the only way out of the current turmoil is to replace the President -- as Lee has shown nothing but contempt for his People, his Sovereign Masters.

And with reinvigorated protests came reinvigorated conflict with the police, which is still trying to keep demonstrators away from the Blue House. (Read this post if you want our opinion as to why the police is so obsessed with keeping the Blue House quiet enough for the President to get some sleep.) The barricade was installed across Sejong Street as usual; the People demanded that the police make way for peaceful protests; of course this request was denied; a few angry individuals resorted to violence; and the police began to spray fire extinguishers... in short, the familiar scene was replayed once more.

At one time during the early morning hours, the protesters managed to pull one of the police buses away from tha barricade and into the midst of protesters -- with a dozen policemen inside. It seems that the young policemen (most of whom were conscripts) were almost scared to death, perhaps because they thought that the protesters would beat them up or something. But as usual, our citizens behaved in a civilized manner. We made way for the men to return to their ranks, offering assurance that no violence will fall upon them as they exited the lone bus. All we wanted was to get past the barricade; we wouldn't hurt those conscripts because they're our brothers, sons, friends, and boyfriends. And yet, the policemen were being ordered to spray fire extinguishers (harmful chemicals!) at unarmed citizens. So who's the most uncivilized person on Sejong Street? The man who commands the police forces, of course.

It's Sunday morning in Seoul now, and it is raining. About one thousand protesters who stayed through the night have pulled back towards Seoul Plaza. Many of our us are actually enjoying the rain, as it washes away the stain from the fire extinguishers. Another day has begun, but we'll meet again in the evening. And the next day. And the next day. Until the government yields to its People. Let's see who lasts longer, President Lee! When the issue of beef trade gets straightened out (hopefully), we'll still have a bunch of other issues to talk about. For example, the government made an outragerous announcement yesterday, saying that it would lift every existing regulation on public education. Seriously, every single regulation that has been put in place over the last sixty years will be blown away! (Sorry, the linked page is in Korean.) The rationale is that we should go back to the drawing board, which isn't bad; but the problem is with the methodology. President Lee says that new regulations will be put in place as the need arises, but what happens to our children in the meantime? This is typical of Lee Myung-Bak. He might have decent long-term goals in mind, but he is utterly unconcerned about the fact that 49 million Koreans have to survive from now until when his goals get realized (if ever). Is the Free Trade Agreement with the U.S. so important for the long-term growth of our economy that our immediate health concerns are not even worth considering? Is educational reform so urgent that a generation of students can be sacrificed in the name of experimentation? Safety first, man, safety first! Before you try to do any good, first do no harm!

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