As we pointed out here before, there seems to be a pattern of arresting South Asian men for photographing what is apparently perfectly legal for Koreans to do. This is the second summer I have heard of South Asian men being arrested for photographing women on the beach.

When the Chosun Ilbo continuously photographs white women in bikinis, it’s ok and even worth printing, which should actually make legal matters worse according to Korea legal principles, than the brown men in question, who are considered criminals for doing far less.

Utterly ridiculous.

[Source: Yahoo News]

Interesting to see these two images actually linked together as a single graphic, which does a great job of linking all foreigners’ apparent sexual desire for Korean women and debauchery to the issue of “sexual groping” that was brought up in the story. This is more than a story, or a series of stories, but are actually parts of a growing meta-narrative in which foreigners (specificially men) are an actual pathological threat to the “innocent” members of society, i.e. women and children.

There is no logical reason to link these two photographs together other than that. And since the issue of sexual groping is quite literally at hand, adding a picture in which you actually see it happening is a very powerful emotional move. Here, we have a white man (and perhaps another off-camera) with his hands all over the flesh of two Korean women, in what is a party atmosphere, in an environment that is private. But that doesn’t matter when that picture is used to depict the “sexual groping” that the article talks about. A mere picture of an adult English teacher in a shot of many students isn’t so powerful, since it simply says that “he is in charge of your children”or “watch out.” There is no sense of direct sexual threat in the left picture.

But with the magic of the mosaic, the two white men, who have nothing to do with one another, who are acting in very different private and public spheres, become conflated into a single “white male menace,” made similar by not just their proxomity to each other in their layout, but by the faceless  anonymity and notoriety assigned them by that mosaic. They are these men, and all white men. Note that the only “sexual grope” is in the picture on the right, ostensibly between consenting adults, but the psychological effect of such lurid imagery is to make the reader feel almost as if s/he had seen the white male English teachers actually groping a child in the picture on the left.

In a sense, and on an emotional level, the white man/men are guilty of lewd groping of Korean girls, regardless of context, at least in the conservative Korean mind, especially one that is full of stereotypes and negative images already. And once that emotional trigger is pulled, the psychological connection between perfectly legal, but perhaps unsavory “sexual groping” in a night club or other private space, and that of perhaps small girls in the public space of the classroom, is made. In terms of the visual and emotional connections, it’s almost as if a grope, and hence, an actual crime had been depicted in the picture on the left, rather than in the picture on the right, taken from a situation clearly that should absolutely be considered personal and private. In the end, the emotional brain won’t really make any real distinctions, because in a fundamental way, it doesn’t matter which picture sexual groping actually took place in — both pictures are, from a certain emotional standpoint, one and the same.

마약에 성추행까지…막나가는 원어민 강사 (link in Korean)
“From Drugs to Sexual Groping…Foreign Instructors on the Loose”

‘막가는 외국인 영어강사’ 환각 수업에 성추행 (link in Korean)
“Out-of-control Foreign English Instructors: Sexual Groping during Class”

‘막가는 외국인 영어강사’ 마약에 도박까지 (link in Korean)
“Out-of-control Foreign English Instructors: From Drugs to Gambling”

‘막가는 외국인 영어강사’ 마약에 도박까지 (link in Korean)
“Out-of-control Foreign English Instructors: From Drugs to Gambling”

These are variations on the same report being passed around KBS. These stories clearly feed into the single, big meta-story of “foreigners gone wild in Korea” and evolved to include the new gambling story.

Donga.com also got in on the story with:
원어민 강사들 2000여회 포커 도박

As did the Maeil Kyeongje, with their story:
도박·마약에 찌든 외국인 영어 강사 무더기 적발

More will be added to this post as the story develops.

어린 학생-동료 여성강사 가리지 않는 원어민강사들의 성범죄
English translation from Korea Beat.

“한국 유부녀들은 남편 대신에…” 일부 원어민 강사들 비하발언 파문
English translation from Korea Beat.

“한국에서 끝내주게 살게 해주지” ‘위조학위’ 장사 원어민강사 충격
English translation from Korea Beat.

부적격 외국인강사 채용 쉬쉬하는 기관들
English translation from Korea Beat.

It’s getting pretty ugly over there, and I’m personally getting pretty interested in talking to Choi Hui-seon, the “intern reporter” generating all this nasty coverage over at the Chosun Ilbo.

ORIGINAL STORY:
Expect some kind of story, with accompanying video, about a “ring” of foreigners involved in drugs and gambling, from tonight on the national news.

From a tip to Korean Media Watch, a group of Americans/Canadians were having a poker game that was raided. Apparently, someone called in a tip. There were 8 members at the raid, one of whom was female but was not asked to come down to the station to pose for the cameras today. 6 others NOT present at the poker game but had been players before were “asked to come down and make a statement” at which time they were told to take urine drug tests. The original 8 had already done so. Apparently, two of the original 8 tested positive, although no drugs were apparently found. This morning at the station, it was a press field day, with cameras called in and set up around a makeshift poker table IN the station. They were even asked by the Korean press to re-enact the game around the table for the cameras, which they refused to do. They also refused to grant any interviews.

From the station.

One reporter, who seemed a bit disappointed or confused about what was actually going down, informed a member of the group that they had been called by the police, who had claimed to have busted a “drugs and gambling ring.” This is apparently how the police want things to go appear, as this is the context under which the press was called. A few things seem obvious — that the police are primed to turn anything involving foreigners into a “big story” and are directly involved in calling the media down to the station, as well as spinning the story. No matter what particular trouble any members of the group might be in, it is certainly a stretch to call a poker game a drug and gambling “ring,” or to link this story to other “foreigners acting wild” yellow journalism already out there. Considering the pattern of media vilification of foreigners, expect lurid closeup shots of a poker table (provided by the police), exaggerated unnecessary implications about other crime “rings” being conducted by foreigners, and most importantly, linkage of this story to other bad journalism already out there.

We will do our best to get their side of the story out there, at least, and to keep things in context. However, it must be expected that the media will follow the general pattern: wildly exaggerate the facts fo the story, generalize that story to the greater population, and pose this generalized population as a “threat” to the Korean public, especially to children.

In the beginning and end, all from a poker game. No drugs on the premises or the persons in question, no reasonable evidence for a gambling “ring.” But that’s how the police are spinning it.

One suggestion from this writer and others: watch your Facebook accounts and updates. There is a lot of suspicion that certain interested parties are now watching Facebook, for various reasons related to the specifics of how this and related stories went down, and that calls are being made, tips being given, from watching Facebook, one suspects status updates and event announcements. From the appearance of this story, it seemed like an easy setup and tipoff, with the police ready and prepared to spin a finished story, poker table included.

This pattern of foriegner vilification has institutional momentum, from an over-eager police force ready to make a poker game into a criminal drug and gambling “ring,” to a media equally ready to run any lurid story involving foreigners, whether illegal acts are involved or not. With a police force working hand-in-hand with the media for “the next big scandal,” the results should not be surprising.

So, without being able to speak to whether or not these allegations are true, the problem is that the venerated Chosun Ilbo is basing a story and engaging in further English teacher character assassination based on a single and extremely biased source — the “Anti-English Spectrum Cafe,” which itself has problems with questionable sources. And the problem in the past has been that these stories are either completely untrue, or have no secondary confirmation or validation. Supposedly, by now, there are legions of foreign English teachers who have been arrested for sexual crimes against children. However, not a single one has shown up in official crime statistics. Where are the arrest reports? Why are names never named, even in the case of hagwons? Why are there no specifics other than hearsay-level evidence? And…

Why is there NEVER an interview with the alleged offender, English teachers, or foreigners at all? Ever?

If you want the REAL numbers of all foreigners in Korea, as well as the report that shows exactly how many crimes were committed by E-2 visa holders, please download from these links.

Korea Beat has graciously translated the 매일경제 (Maeil Kyeongje) article that was originally introduced by Sonagi over at The Marmot’s Hole and talked about in the post previous to this one.

Interestingly enough, the link to the site that apparently is selling materials to “seduce Korean women” doesn’t work. (http://www.DateKoreanWomen.com) And even if it did, who cares? Are such activities illegal? Is this online book with a broken site even really popular? The Korean media certainly spends a lot of time worrying about what consenting adults do legally on their own free time. If I throw a wild party in my house, or a private establishment, is it worthy of national news? Is this still the era of the “family state,” with the authoritarian president at the head, who controls all aspects of life, both military and civilian?

Honestly, national newspapers — this kind of reporting, whether of Koreans getting a little frisky in a Kangnam nightclub or foreigners having private relations with Korean women — this sort of sensationalist and racist coverage is juvenile. One doesn’t see The New York Times doing such stories, which don’t even belong in a high school newspaper.

Here’s another article written by Lee Eun-ung, founder of the “Anti-English Spectrum” web site and group. He continues to rant on about all the crimes purported to be committed by foreigners in the Kyunghyang Shinmun story “외국인 강사 약물검사는 차별?” (“Are Drug Inspections of Foreigners Discrimination?”) and once again presents a compelling story to the lazy reader, but one devoid of concrete numbers or statistics, when they are readily available.

He mentions the recent ATEK petition and human rights complaint, and from the very choice of title mischaracterizes its origins — the HIV test is the main sticking point, and many legal scholars, along with Korea’s own Ban Ki-moon, agree it is a human right violation, both according to the principles of international as well as principles of Korean law. He doesn’t mention the numbers of HIV+ English teachers allegedly identified, nor the numbers of English teachers caught for drugs. This is because the numbers are against him, and this is telling. The numbers are so low that they would not be worth mentioning to help his case.

In the case of the English teacher allegedly arrested for molesting a child in 2007, why does this not appear in official police records? And had there been such an arrest, given the state of the Korean media and its extreme bias against foreigners, would there not have been some reporting on an actual arrest of a foreign English teacher who had abused a child? Again, where are the statistics? Where are the media reports? And the “tip” being based on a single biased source — the same former girlfriend of an Australian English teacher who called newspapers and also presented a Konglish-ridden, anonymous email written from a Hotmail account allegedly from the ex-boyfriend — this is pretty specious and spotty “evidence” to say the least.

And most of the “incidents” mentioned by this man/organization — while unfortunate — have nothing to do with the law, and the tips seem to come from jilted exes wanting revenge. Such as the man who slept with a woman, who later found out he was married back home — what gives this man the right to “pursue” or “investigate” this individual, or interfere in private matters? The fact that the person in question is a foreigner? Or that he apparently gave her a venereal disease? Do such things not happen between Koreans? And even if what he had done had been illegal, what gives private citizens the right to follow, chase, or “investigate” other private citizens? Report them to the police and be happy you did your civic duty.

But this man encourages people to “take action” against foreigners. Based on what? Their personal behavior? Preferences? Because you don’t like the way one dressed? This line of thinking is extremely dangerous. If a foreigner does an immoral thing, this is a sign of what ALL foreigners do? If a Korean or Koreans do something, it can never define a pattern. Even in the crime statistics, exactly 13 of nearly 20,000 E-2 visa holders were arrested for doing drugs. This does NOT jibe with the media accounts of “foreigners gone wild”, but then again, none of these media accounts actually presents the numbers. Isn’t that interesting? Most of these yellow journalistic stories about foreigners cite apocryphal stories, from anonymous or unconfirmed sources, with no police reports or records, and they do not agree with the Korean government’s own crime statistics on foreigners, which the government DOES keep and track. (Sorry, Assemblywoman Choe Young-hui — you’re wrong on that count.)

Even the “English Spectrum” site that this Lee Eun-ung bases his entire raison d’etre upon was a single, sarcastic, and fictional piece that the vast majority of foreigners in the discussion also attacked the author for writing. It was not taken seriously by anyone. No one “used” it. It was not used as a guide to seduce Korean children, no more than most people in the foreign community have ever even heard of the “Secret Sites” apparently selling guides on how to seduce Korean women (‘한국여성 性的비하` 비밀사이트 성행). It’s the same logic as “Anti-English Spectrum” — hold the entire foreign community responsible for the acts of a few, or even a SINGLE idiot.

Such behavior is, in a word, racist.

One wonders how Korea would have reacted if, because of serial killer Cho Seung-hui, the United States started labeling all Koreans in the US as “ticking time bombs of murderous rage caused by excessive academic pressure and a distorted Korean culture based on post-colonial violence that stems from a male-bonding sub-culture of required military service and hazing in the service of what is essentially a hierarchical culture that is used to decades of brutal dictatorship and uses corporal punishment and torture in its official institutions.” Hey, it’s based in fact, within Korean society, right? And now, in America, there are cases of Korean male students murdering, abusing, or violating American kids (Cho Seung-hui and Hanse Park and Sung Soo Kim), right?

So, according to the KOREAN logic, we should hold these individuals as responsible representatives of the entire group, right? During the same time period that Lee Eun-ung is talking about (from around 2005-2009), according to RECORDED statistics and RELIABLE news reports, Korean students in America have murdered 32 people, sexually molested many others, and are suspects in the kidnapping/murder of another. Now, even according to Korean government statistics and even within an irresponsible yellow media, there have still been NO murders committed by English teachers, no injuries, and no cases of sexual molestation. NONE. Even the yellow media reports have never produced a name of a foreigner, or an actual arrest of a foreigner for committing such a crime. They talk about them, but never prevent specifics — because they can’t. So, acccording to the Korean logic, the United States and the rest of the world should hold ALL Koreans responsible for the actions of several crazy ones, and close the borders to them. Perhaps we should require all Korean nationals coming to Korea to undergo psychological testing and wear tracking devices so that we know they cannot commit these crimes? They committed them before, and that means alll Koreans are prone to commit such crimes again. That is the Korean logic in this situation, the logic employed by the “Anti-English Spectrum” man, and all the others.

Because if foreigners can earn such a reputation from zero to even a few cases and have restrictive laws made regarding them, then after dozens of murders, rapes, and molestations committed by Koreans, shouldn’t the United States call all Koreans a “danger to the American people?” If one thinks about this logically, the fact of the extreme racist bias in the Korean media and a population that accepts it without question is obvious.

Pieces such as the ones mentioned above prove this point only too well.

How did English teachers develop such a reputation in recent years? Is it deserved? Statistically sound? Of course not. But does that matter to a yellow media dedicated to distorting a non-problem into an ongoing social fear?

The rub? According to the government’s OWN statistics, there were exactly 13 drug violation arrests amongst nearly 20,000 E-2 English teaching visas in 2008. That’s less than 5 taxis full of people. Or 13/19,375 — or 0.067% of the English teachers in Korea. In other words, less than 1/10 of 1% of the English teachers in Korea were the ones showing up in the newspapers.

Does that sound like a threat to children?

Despite what the newspapers recycle as apparent fact, the number of foreigners arrested for drugs was low enough to fit into my living room.

What about the fact that there has not been a SINGLE case of child molestation perpetrated by a foreigner in the years cited? So what about all the talk about “foreigners are a sexual threat” or “they might touch our kids?” Just that — talk. Rumors and hearsay rustled up by the media, but in the end — there were no cases. None. Nada. Zip. 없어.

In fact, in the official human rights complaint filed with the Korean National Human Rights Commission, the point is brought up that many, many actual cases of KOREAN teachers abusing small children, raping students, extorting sexual favors for grades, and engaging in extreme corporal punishment appear in the newspapers each day, and there is scarcely a month that passes without a major sex ring scandal, series of rapes, or other such incidents happen involving a Korean teacher or professor.

There was even a crackdown on Korean teachers that resulted in 56 working high school teaches doing drugs — in a single bust! — or 4 times the amount in a single drug raid than the TOTAL NUMBER OF FOREIGN TEACHERS ARRESTED IN A YEAR for the same offenses.

What the hell is going on here?

If you are worried about your Korean child being beaten, molested, sexual threatened, or taught by a drug-using teacher –

YOU ARE FAR SAFER HAVING A FOREIGN TEACHER INSTRUCT YOUR CHILD.

It’s a statistical fact.

The point here is that the crime rate for foreigners in the categories of drug violations, child abuse, and sexual abuse is far, far lower than for the Korean population. It’s almost incomparable. And even in the category of foreign TEACHERS versus Korean TEACHERS, Korean teachers still win the prize for beating, sexually abusing, and otherwise fucking their students, in addition to using illegal drugs.

SO, WHY THE UNDUE AND UNDESERVED EMPHASIS on foreign teachers?

Because we are outsiders, an easy social target, and can’t speak back.

Here’s another classic one from Yonhap, entitled “자질 시비 원어민 교사 판친다” or “Unfit English Teachers Run Unchallenged.” Of course, the article is based nearly completely on hearsay and rumors. And the one actual complaint with numbers was that there was the statistical equivalent of 160 foreign teachers out of 5,417 who left their jobs early. That’s a whopping 2.9% of the population. Oooooh. It’s an epidemic, indeed. Crunch the numbers, Yonhap.

And where are the interviews with the alleged teachers who said these things? How come, in these little exposes, is there never an interview with a representative for foreign teachers, or the foreign teachers in question. This researcher went so far as to interview people with the Ministry of Education, the Korean Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation, and lots of Korean teachers who have lots of bad — but purely anecdotal — things to say about foreign teachers.

But no interview with an ATEK (Association for Teachers of English in Korea) representative, who might point out that the number of people who jump off their contract is quite low, and the reasons for doing so are often related to not being paid on time, if at all, or for the many, many times Korean schools and hagwons simply lie about the contract conditions before bringing foreign teachers over.

The major point: the “problem” of teachers not finishing their contract is surprisingly LOW, considering the abuse that many foreign teachers experience in terms of false contracts, and this is just another piece beating up on English teachers without interviewing a single one of them, or talking to a group who can represent their point-of-view.

It’s a high school-level hit piece, pure and simple. Rumors and hearsay from panicky moms and hostile Korean teachers — note that I quit a job at a prestigious foreign language high school in Seoul after a Korean teacher started spreading rumors that I was running a pornography site. Reason? I would not allow the Korean staff to change my grades so that they could accept bribes that they regularly receive for adjusting class rankings.

I wonder what they would say about me if interviewed for an article like this. And how does it look if they don’t even interview me to get a response?

Shoddy and extremely biased journalism at its best.