Time to Grow up and Stop Blaming the US
Editorial
By Michael Breen
Korea Times
May 18, 2000Several years ago, a joke circulated about the different ways an American, a British and a Korean man responded after walking into their bedroom and finding their wife with another man. The American immediately shoots the man. The Briton says, ``Oh, I'm terribly sorry for disturbing you,'' and shuts the door again. And the Korean goes and demonstrates in front of the American embassy.
The scenes in front of the U.S. embassy these last few days recall this all-too-human trait that the joke illustrates that is, to blame others for our own problems.
These protests, I should say, are no joke. Last week, five protestors scaled the embassy wall and climbed up the outside of the building to the second floor. Who knows what they planned to do? As it happens, they just scattered leaflets before being arrested by local police. But it could have been worse. On Wednesday, some of their mates threw Molotov cocktails over the wall of a U.S. military compound in Seoul into a housing area.
On at least one occasion this week, diplomats at the embassy have been ordered_ as part of new security measures following the bombings of embassies in Africa _ to take shelter under their desks. Many must have been thinking, ``I wonder if my next posting in Kabul will be like this?''
What really gets to me is the attitude of the Korean government. After militants crawl over the embassy of its closest ally and scare diplomats and risk killing children with firebombs, you would expect some kind of official comment deploring the activities.
But, no. Korean governments don't do that. I know I shouldn't expect more from a government that refuses a visa to the Dalai Lama because it doesn't want to annoy the Chinese dictatorship (but might reconsider it when they realize that he could put a good word in for Kim Dae-jung with the Nobel Peace Prize Committee. _ ED). But I do.
As long as other people are being criticized, the government is happy. Why is this so? I guess that governments are made up of people and that, in this one, they rise in a culture of avoidance of responsibility.
Another reason the protestors go unchallenged is that they touch a nerve with Koreans, who have a love-hate relationship with the United States. Koreans love the U.S. for having been its protector and mentor. They admire the U.S. _ so much so that I bet this week's militants will be applying for visas soon. But they hate themselves for their dependence.
Dependence is more of an attitude than a political state-of-affairs and, as such, it could be changed with a bit of intellectual rigor, but isn't because of the culture of avoidance of responsibility. There's something a bit pathetic about one of the world's most powerful industrial states still considering itself to be a victim and wanting the comfort of a major foreign military base in the middle of its capital city.
That self-dislike gets projected onto the U.S. as if it's all the Americans' fault.
To illustrate, consider the issues this time first, crimes by American soldiers and the SOFA agreement that doesn't allow Korea jurisdiction. I can't help thinking that the real sentiment is "if we get abused by police and courts in our unfair legal system, so should you."
Next is the bombing range issue. Well, it's been a range for years, so what has changed? Have people been illegally building too close to the range and are now complaining? Or does someone want the land? I've learned in my cynical old age _ from Koreans _ that money lies under a lot of the issues in Korea.
Nogun-ri is another issue. This is being investigated by the U.S. in a way that Korea's governments have been trying to avoid for years, because it is naturally going to lead to questions about the atrocities committed by South Koreans against other South Koreans during the war.
Finally, there's Kwangju.
The fact that some people still think that the U.S. should apologize for the deaths of over 200 civilians during the anti-martial law protests in Kwangju indicates that, 20 years later, there is still confusion over how to view this bloody event in Korea's post-war history.
It is true that the U.S. failed to prevent the massacre of protestors. But, for anyone who looks at the events, it is unclear what the U.S. could have done.
Of course, this is a complex issue and the United States does bear some responsibility for events from and since the division of Korea. Korea has had horrible governments that brutalized the people on one hand and lifted them out of the paddy fields and into Silicon Valley on the other. These governments could not have survived without American backing.
Whether we should love or hate the U.S. for this is moot. Now, Korea doesn't need American backing. It's time people grew up and realized this and stopped blaming America for their own problems.
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