Anti-Americanism Goes Freudian

This post by the Marmot is a must-read.

As represented by USFK’s illegal release of formaldehyde into the Han River, the tragedy on the Korean Peninsula began with the unclean sperm of the United States fertilizing the egg of the Han River. The monster’s outrages and its eating of people shows the similar tyranny displayed by the United States toward the Korean Peninsula.

Let me see if I can find just the right words for my reaction to this:

ick.

I honestly have no idea why or how anyone can sustain an alliance with people who think like this. This is no ordinary schmoe in a pojang-macha, mind you, but an elected lawmaker of South Korea’s ruling Uri party. Like his hate-spewing colleagues Kim Won-Ung and Chang Young-Dal, his government will assuredly not ask him to withdraw or apologize for his remarks, which will speak volumes about Uri’s cynical calculation of how its voters really feel about them.

Views like these are not confined to the margins. They could be Korea’s demographic future. If Koreans honestly can’t make relative value judgments between democracy and juche, if they can’t distinguish between us protecting them at their request and to their immeasurable benefit, and polluting them with our unclean seed, it might be time to carry this disturbed analogy to its logical conclusion and pull out. And wash.

Incidentally, if you are wondering how all this fuss started to begin with, read this.

Now to the mortician: In February of 2000, civilian mortician Albert McFarland, employed by the US Forces in Korea (USFK), ordered his staff to dispose of about 120 liters of embalming fluid down a drain in the mortuary at the US Army base at Yongsan in the center of Seoul.

The fluid had been treated at two waste-treatment plants before reaching the Han River, where this capital city gets its drinking water, and later simulation tests indicated the fluid was not toxic when it reached the water. Still, it created a furor.

For those who have never lived near or smelled the Han River for themselves, it’s not exactly virgin spring water, and I suppose what’s missing from this discussion is some context, which we get, thanks to usinkorea:

It is shocking news that 29 timber companies were found to have released 271 tons of formalin over the past three years into streams feeding the Han River, the main source of drinking water for Seoul and Kyonggi Province.

[….]

There is further speculation that the relevant authorities may have turned a blind eye to the timber companies’ illegal practices despite knowing full well that they were dumping the toxic chemicals.

Environmental experts believe that millions of people in Seoul and Kyonggi Province may have been subjected to a water supply containing the poisonous chemical for much longer than three years.

Some of these folks were arrested, although nothing suggested that anyone was jailed or convicted, as opposed to being let off with a fine. But the discussion is about the rational basis for the public outrage here, and I suppose we can conclude that the cleanliness of the Han River, or lack thereof, was not it.
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