Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Internet real name system debated

The 2005 English Spectrum Incident

Part 1: English Spectrum and 'Ask The Playboy'
Part 2: The Kimchiland where it’s easy to sleep with women and make money
Part 3: English Spectrum shuts down as Anti-English Spectrum is created
Part 4: How to hunt foreign women

Part 5: Did the foreigners who denigrated Korean women throw a secret party?
Part 6: The 'Ask The Playboy' sexy costume party
Part 7: Stir over ‘lewd party’ involving foreigners and Korean women
Part 8: The 2003 post that tarred foreign English teachers as child molesters
Part 9: Netizens shocked by foreign instructor site introducing how to harass Korean children
Part 10: Movement to expel foreign teachers who denigrated Korean women
Part 11: "Middle school girls will do anything"
Part 12: Netizens propose 'Yankee counter strike force'
Part 13: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 1

Part 14: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 2
Part 15: Web messages draw Koreans’ wrath
Part 16: Thai female laborers and white English instructors
Part 17: 'Regret' over t
he scandal caused by confessions of foreign instructors
Part 18: "Korean men have no excuse"
Part 19: "Unfit foreign instructo
rs should be a 'social issue'"
Part 20: 'Clamor' at foreigner English education site
Part 21: Foreign instructor: "I want to apologize"
Part 22: No putting brakes on 'Internet human rights violations'
Part 23: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 1
Part 24: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 2
Part 25: Don't Imagine
Part 26: 'Foreign instructor' takes third place
Part 27: Art From Outsider's Point of View
Part 28: U.S. Embassy warns Americans of threats near colleges
Part 29: Internet real name system debated

On January 24, My Daily (who else?) reported on the evolving debate over a real name system for netizens, a topic which continues from the discussion in this article published five days earlier. It begins:
Netizens in heated debate over real name system controversy

As the mass distribution of such things as the Celebrity X-File is being seen as an opportunity to introduce a netizen real name system, debate for or against it among netizens is heating up.

As negative opinion has been formed due to things like the spread of the Celebrity X-File, the battle over writing at the foreign instructor denigration site, and some netizens' personal terror, in regard to those who have brought up the netizen real name system, controversy is growing, as those opposing it are saying, "This is just trying to reduce freedom of expression," while those who favor the adoption of the real name system say "You should be responsible for what you write."
It goes on to note that this was not just an internet discussion, with CBS radio "develop[ing] a platform to discuss the netizen real name system" earlier that day by interviewing a lawyer who said that "Because the internet is after all based on anonymity, a possible consequence is that faceless terror is possible and incorrect information can be blindly accepted." It goes on note pro and con opinions summarized above and then ends with quotes from experts saying "In truth, there are many difficulties in introducing a netizen real name system" and "More desirable than laws and systems would be for education regarding netizen etiquette when using the internet to be systematically carried out at school and at home."

As it turns out, there weren't as many problems as one might have thought in implementing this system, though it was done slowly. Here is a summary of the way in which the system was first suggested and implemented, written as Google was about to adopt the system for Youtube in 2009. After the dog poop girl incident in June of 2005, the debate was brought back to life, as noted in these posts from the time:

Internet Witchhunts and Conflict Resolution
Riding the wave of 'cyber terror' articles
'Real Names' in Korean Cyberspace
Portals and the Cyber Terror blame game

Google would later decide not to implement the system, apparently enraging a certain future Seoul mayoral candidate. At the end of last year, it was suggested that the real name system may be scrapped, but as far as I know little has been done in that regard.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

U.S. Embassy warns Americans of threats near colleges

The 2005 English Spectrum Incident

Part 1: English Spectrum and 'Ask The Playboy'
Part 2: The Kimchiland where it’s easy to sleep with women and make money
Part 3: English Spectrum shuts down as Anti-English Spectrum is created
Part 4: How to hunt foreign women

Part 5: Did the foreigners who denigrated Korean women throw a secret party?
Part 6: The 'Ask The Playboy' sexy costume party
Part 7: Stir over ‘lewd party’ involving foreigners and Korean women
Part 8: The 2003 post that tarred foreign English teachers as child molesters
Part 9: Netizens shocked by foreign instructor site introducing how to harass Korean children
Part 10: Movement to expel foreign teachers who denigrated Korean women
Part 11: "Middle school girls will do anything"
Part 12: Netizens propose 'Yankee counter strike force'
Part 13: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 1

Part 14: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 2
Part 15: Web messages draw Koreans’ wrath
Part 16: Thai female laborers and white English instructors
Part 17: 'Regret' over t
he scandal caused by confessions of foreign instructors
Part 18: "Korean men have no excuse"
Part 19: "Unfit foreign instructo
rs should be a 'social issue'"
Part 20: 'Clamor' at foreigner English education site
Part 21: Foreign instructor: "I want to apologize"
Part 22: No putting brakes on 'Internet human rights violations'
Part 23: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 1
Part 24: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 2
Part 25: Don't Imagine
Part 26: 'Foreign instructor' takes third place
Part 27: Art From Outsider's Point of View
Part 28: U.S. Embassy warns Americans of threats near colleges

On January 24, 2005, the Korea Herald published the following article:
U.S. Embassy warns Americans of threats near colleges

The U.S. Embassy has warned of "potential threats" against Americans in the vicinity of a college area in western Seoul, advising them not to behave inappropriately there.

The warning was issued amid growing resentment from Koreans regarding demeaning comments made by foreigners about Korean women on an English-language Web site "English Spectrum." The site was designed to provide information for foreigners living in Korea.

"We have noted recently a strong reaction in the form of web postings threatening attacks in the vicinity of Hongik University and the Sinchon area against Americans and other foreigners who speak English," said an embassy internal message.

The embassy advised U.S. citizens to be aware that their public behavior might be interpreted as provocative by Koreans.

"All Americans and their families (especially young adults) are encouraged to exercise prudence and caution when visiting these neighborhoods," the message read.

United States Forces Korea soldiers are already not permitted to visit these areas, which were placed "off-limits" last year.

The warning came days after Koreans became aware of the "Ask the Playboy" forum which had comments referring to Korea's "easy women." The site also included topics like "how to sleep with Korean women." A group of Koreans were so angered that they formed groups such as "Anti-English Spectrum Cafe" on a portal site.

The Korean portal site Daum also started a petition-signing campaign to expel "low-quality foreign teachers," as part of recruiting a "(Counter) Yankee Strike Force." The English Web site responded by blocking the content of the site and posting a disclaimer on the main page, "As a result of negative newspaper reports depicting but a small percentage of user opinions, we at English Spectrum have decided to pull the offensive forum and are taking steps to reorganize how these forums are operated and monitored."

By Joo Sang-min
If we remember the way in which English teachers were equated with U.S. soldiers (as related in this post), and the way in which the women seen with foreign teachers were equated with yanggongju, or the prostitutes who served U.S. soldiers (as related in this post), this warning by the embassy - of the sort given when anti-American street protests are taking place - helps make the similarities between foreign teachers and U.S. soldiers in the eyes of the netizens (and media) staging or encouraging online protests that much clearer.

Friday, May 25, 2012

Video of the day

As noted at the Marmot's Hole earlier this week, Yang Rui, a well-known Chinese TV host on state-sponsored CCTV posted a scathing attack on foreigners on his blog which mentioned Japan, Korea and the West, though ChinaSMACK notes that it wasn't so popular. This seems to be a part of a xenophobic 'gust' which was influenced in part by the video described here. At any rate, here's the (probably NSFW) Taiwanese take on Yang Rui's rant:



There was a case in China six years ago which might sound rather similar to the English Spectrum incident in Korea, and drew similar responses:
Chinabounder, an anonymous British expat and self-confessed wastrel in his early 30s, likes to boast on his weblog of his sexual conquests of Chinese women, including some of his students. This has so outraged Shanghai's web citizens that they have resolved to track him down and "kick the foreign trash out of China".

In racy language suggesting a Terry-Thomas-like rogue cutting a dash in the seedy bars of Shanghai, Chinabounder describes seducing a different girl every night of the week.

The postings are also critical of Chinese male sexual prowess and contain occasional snipes at Chairman Mao Tse-tung's womanising and the frustrations of Chinese housewives.

The collection of juvenile if provocative musings on sexual mores in contemporary China may even be a hoax cooked up by artists to gauge the reaction in China to such unsavoury comments from a foreigner.

Access to his "Sex and Shanghai" blog - which attracted millions of readers - is currently denied as the author hides from a wave of contempt. Cyber-vigilantes, furious at his claimed seductions of married women and teenagers, have threatened him with a beating if they track him down and some comments are couched in dangerously xenophobic language.

[...]Zhang Jiehai, a professor of psychology at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, describes the blogger as a "piece of garbage" and "an immoral foreigner". "Netizens and compatriots, if you are a Chinese man with guts and if you respect Chinese women, please join this 'internet hunt for the immoral foreigner'," he wrote. Other postings have called for Chinabounder's head and described his girlfriends as "national scum".

Jeremy Goldkorn, the publisher of the influential Danwei website, believes that most people have been measured in their response.

"A lot of the comments about Chinabounder have been fairly moderate - people saying how Chinese men are far worse than Chinabounder, for example, or pointing out that there was no question of rape or anything like that," he said. And there have even been imitators. An overseas-born ethnic Chinese woman has set up a site, ABC Chick in Shanghai, describes herself as Chinabounderess and defends Chinabounder. She then goes on to describe her own flirtations in Shanghai.

Some more descriptions are here, and in 2008 the writer outed himself in order to promote a book he wrote describing why China would never be great, which I'm sure helped make him even more popular in China. The number of visitors to the online campaign against him - 17,000 - is the same number AES would eventually draw, but goes to show that, comparatively, not that many people were interested, considering the number of internet users in China.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Art From Outsider's Point of View

The 2005 English Spectrum Incident

Part 1: English Spectrum and 'Ask The Playboy'
Part 2: The Kimchiland where it’s easy to sleep with women and make money
Part 3: English Spectrum shuts down as Anti-English Spectrum is created
Part 4: How to hunt foreign women

Part 5: Did the foreigners who denigrated Korean women throw a secret party?
Part 6: The 'Ask The Playboy' sexy costume party
Part 7: Stir over ‘lewd party’ involving foreigners and Korean women
Part 8: The 2003 post that tarred foreign English teachers as child molesters
Part 9: Netizens shocked by foreign instructor site introducing how to harass Korean children
Part 10: Movement to expel foreign teachers who denigrated Korean women
Part 11: "Middle school girls will do anything"
Part 12: Netizens propose 'Yankee counter strike force'
Part 13: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 1

Part 14: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 2
Part 15: Web messages draw Koreans’ wrath
Part 16: Thai female laborers and white English instructors
Part 17: 'Regret' over t
he scandal caused by confessions of foreign instructors
Part 18: "Korean men have no excuse"
Part 19: "Unfit foreign instructo
rs should be a 'social issue'"
Part 20: 'Clamor' at foreigner English education site
Part 21: Foreign instructor: "I want to apologize"
Part 22: No putting brakes on 'Internet human rights violations'
Part 23: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 1
Part 24: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 2
Part 25: Don't Imagine
Part 26: 'Foreign instructor' takes third place
Part 27: Art From Outsider's Point of View


I just discovered the following Korea Times article from January 21, 2005 about a Korean artist's reaction to English Spectrum (prior to the incident), which can be found in this blog post:
Art From Outsider's Point of View

By Park Chung-a
Staff Reporter

It is the era of globalization. Cultural exchanges are growing in popularity and the number of foreigners coming into the country and Koreans going abroad is on the rise, making the words "hybrid'' and "multi-cultural'' very familiar to Korean society.

Lee Joo-young, known as Jooyoung Lee abroad, is a young artist who seeks to shed light on this hybrid, multi-ethnic and multi-lingual community that is becoming an important part of Korea through the visualization of snippets of text extracted from Internet blogs in the form of stencil artwork.

"I became interested in hybrid culture as I studied visual arts in the United Kingdom for five years,'' Lee said. "I came back to Korea after having lived as foreigner in another nation and I began to wonder how foreigners here thought and felt about living in Korean society. I wanted to project myself through the thoughts and words of 'outsiders.'''

According to Lee, "outsiders'' are not only foreigners but also include Koreans or Korean-Americans who feel alienated from Korean society when their individual hopes or viewpoints are criticized or frustrated because of prejudices and narrow-minded norms dictating Korean society.

English Spectrum, an Internet message board for English teachers in Korea, which has been shut down temporarily because of sexist comments against Korean women, triggered Lee's enthusiasm for exploring the thoughts and feelings of these outsiders.

"I discovered the Web site in April through a foreigner. Everything I wanted was in the site,'' she said. "Because it was designed for the active exchange of opinions and information, I could see how foreigners in Korea felt while living here.''

"Although the comments were sometimes very superficial, many of them just venting their anger toward Koreans, I thought they were deserving of attention.''

Since then, she has been collecting snippets of text and words that represented universal thoughts and feelings of outsiders from personal Internet blogs run by foreigners living in Korea or Korean-Americans. She wanted to reveal what was happening in the domestic multi-cultural community through her work.

One of her works says, "You are always hurry hurry hurry. Where are you hurrying to?'' which she believes shows the hand-to-mouth aspect of Korean society. Added to the text is "They are hurrying to love'', which she made up by herself. In addition to using the texts in their original form, she also adds some words that express her reaction or perspective.

Other texts include "Anything for the right price,'' "We should send all foreign guys away'' and "I rove you'', which is phonetically written based on many Koreans' pronunciation of "I love you'', who often confuse "l'' with "r'' when pronouncing them. Through phonetics, she wanted to focus on the trial and error that we face in the process of learning foreign language and accepting foreign culture.

"Being spread all over the Internet, those raw words could mean nothing and be considered as trash. However, by representing them through stencil work, I wanted to make viewers reconsider the feelings of outsiders and understand people of different cultures and nationalities,'' Lee said.

The stencil work is done on paper as well as on walls and T-shirts. By overlapping sentences and blurring the spray paint, Lee pursues a reverberation effect, symbolizing the cyberspace in which clusters of words, voices and opinions abound. She uses the term "anarchi-stencil'' for describing her work as it is based on free expression without any restriction.

In March, Her stencil art will be demonstrated in a group exhibition with foreign artists in Buia Gallery in New York. Lee plans to hold an exhibition in Seoul in September. She also plans to open a stencil shop later this year or next year in order to give the general public a chance to express their opinions and feelings on T-shirts through stencils.

"Instead of just holding exhibitions as an artist, I would like to contribute to increasing people's interest in art, making people get used to freely expressing their feelings and thoughts through their own works. I am currently thinking about teaching a stencil work to a group of youth,'' she said.

In addition, she has been working on quasi-documentary project based on a collection of interviews with foreigners in Korea. So far, she has interviewed ten foreigners.

"I would like to make those interviews into one complete video work and show them in the Hongdae area, Itaewon or Yongsan, where multicultural communities abound. When I am done with the project, one socialist is to make a book from it. However, the project has been stalled at the moment due to a lack of funds.'' But she is determined to continue it despite difficulties.

"While I was studying in England, one of my English friends asked another English friend who was living with students of various nationalities what it was like to live with foreigners. The response was `What could be so different? They are people just like us!''' she said. "That answer made me think about how many people were prejudiced against people of different nationalities without trying to realize that they are just humans. I hope people will realize this through my work. Seeing my work, I I hope people will become more open to others and learn to respect the co-existence of diverse opinions and thoughts.''

Lee is a prominent artist who currently lives in Chang-dong art studio, run by government-funded National Museum of Contemporary Art, which is only granted to artists with brisk activities and high-quality performances. Since starting her career as a professional artist in 2001, she has held numerous exhibitions both in Korea and abroad, including Tokyo and London. In April, she developed a project under the title Radio Hue, a radio style sound work that made a multifaceted portrayal of the Seoul art environment of 2004 through interviews and reports with the people working within it, such as artists, gallerists, museum workers and writers.
So there you go. It's certainly a more productive and thoughtful reaction to some of the nonsense produced at English Spectrum than has been generally reported.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

'Foreign instructor' takes third place

The 2005 English Spectrum Incident

Part 1: English Spectrum and 'Ask The Playboy'
Part 2: The Kimchiland where it’s easy to sleep with women and make money
Part 3: English Spectrum shuts down as Anti-English Spectrum is created
Part 4: How to hunt foreign women
 
Part 5: Did the foreigners who denigrated Korean women throw a secret party?
Part 6: The 'Ask The Playboy' sexy costume party
Part 7: Stir over ‘lewd party’ involving foreigners and Korean women
Part 8: The 2003 post that tarred foreign English teachers as child molesters
Part 9: Netizens shocked by foreign instructor site introducing how to harass Korean children
Part 10: Movement to expel foreign teachers who denigrated Korean women
Part 11: "Middle school girls will do anything"
Part 12: Netizens propose 'Yankee counter strike force'
Part 13: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 1

Part 14: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 2
Part 15: Web messages draw Koreans’ wrath
Part 16: Thai female laborers and white English instructors
Part 17: 'Regret' over t
he scandal caused by confessions of foreign instructors
Part 18: "Korean men have no excuse"
Part 19: "Unfit foreign instructo
rs should be a 'social issue'"
Part 20: 'Clamor' at foreigner English education site
Part 21: Foreign instructor: "I want to apologize"
Part 22: No putting brakes on 'Internet human rights violations'
Part 23: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 1
Part 24: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 2
Part 25: Don't Imagine
Part 26: 'Foreign instructor' takes third place


On January 24, 2005, Media Today reported on the top 5 search terms at Daum for the week of January 11 to 17. Titled '"It looks just like a person..." Human Fish in first place,' it presents this list and the following description of the background behind the third most popular search term:

3rd place: Foreign instructor.
Third place is occupied by 'foreign instructor.'

Reports about foreign instructors living in Korea who posted writing which denigrated Korean women and held a secret party drew attention.

Along with this, a recently spread 'how to sexually harass students' [post] also caused outrage.

In the process, an internet media site with claims to 'healthy conservatism' exhibited reporting behavior which included publishing, like a 'pictorial project,' photos of American men and Korean women which hinted at or seemed like sex acts and a picture of a woman with her underwear exposed, while under the pretext of 'criticism' and 'accusation' sensationally kept reporting on the netizens who hurled colorful insults and criticism at the Korean women, and included even the element of human rights violations.
Needless to say, that 'foreign instructor' was in third place that week at Daum would suggest that the debacle had caught the attention of a lot of people. As for the summary, on the one hand, it's hard not to think "so much for the headlines saying 'It wasn't a secret party'" (and it certainly wasn't English teachers who spread that post), but on the other hand, that summary really does criticize the internet media who were involved, and while I'm not sure which one had "claims to 'healthy conservatism,'" I can only imagine it's Dalian (or perhaps My Daily) which is being criticized.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Don't Imagine

The 2005 English Spectrum Incident

Part 1: English Spectrum and 'Ask The Playboy'
Part 2: The Kimchiland where it’s easy to sleep with women and make money
Part 3: English Spectrum shuts down as Anti-English Spectrum is created
Part 4: How to hunt foreign women
Part 5: Did the foreigners who denigrated Korean women throw a secret party?
Part 6: The 'Ask The Playboy' sexy costume party
Part 7: Stir over ‘lewd party’ involving foreigners and Korean women
Part 8: The 2003 post that tarred foreign English teachers as child molesters
Part 9: Netizens shocked by foreign instructor site introducing how to harass Korean children
Part 10: Movement to expel foreign teachers who denigrated Korean women
Part 11: "Middle school girls will do anything"
Part 12: Netizens propose 'Yankee counter strike force'
Part 13: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 1

Part 14: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 2
Part 15: Web messages draw Koreans’ wrath
Part 16: Thai female laborers and white English instructors
Part 17: 'Regret' over t
he scandal caused by confessions of foreign instructors
Part 18: "Korean men have no excuse"
Part 19: "Unfit foreign instructo
rs should be a 'social issue'"
Part 20: 'Clamor' at foreigner English education site
Part 21: Foreign instructor: "I want to apologize"
Part 22: No putting brakes on 'Internet human rights violations'
Part 23: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 1
Part 24: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 2
Part 25: Don't Imagine


On January 20, 2005, the Seoul Sinmun published the following column:
[Lee Jin's Sex & City] Don't imagine

Not long ago, while cleaning up computer files, Minsu found a photo of his girlfriend kissing another man. Surprised, he immediately wanted to hear the entire story from his girlfriend of how the photo was taken, but he resolved to quietly bring up the subject when the opportunity arose. So a few days ago, when his girlfriend returned from language training, he recalled that he had used her computer to organize photos taken on a digital camera.

Eventually, he called his girlfriend and asked about the picture. She had an embarrassed look on her face as she was sorry, and she admitted that, while carried away by the atmosphere, she had kissed another man at a new years party in the U.S. She explained that it was nothing more than a spontaneous, one-second kiss. It was a meaningless photo, but she added that she tried to delete if first as he might misunderstand her if he saw it.

When he first saw the photo, he imagined all kinds of things about his girlfriend when she did language training in the U.S., wondering "Did she cheat on me with another guy?" "If they kissed, couldn't they also have had sex?" His heart hurt by this, he shook with a sense of betrayal. However Minsu, with his cautious character, decided to first trust her. He knew he couldn't conclude from only a photo of a simple kiss that she had cheated on him. As well, he certainly wasn't at the scene and so could not accurately judge the situation. So he reserved judgement and believed her words.

A misunderstanding over a photo took place recently on the Internet, much like Minsu's photo. With a number of party photos being spread on the internet, the subjects of the photos are receiving a great mental shock. The photos are of some women and foreign men hanging out together, and were taken at a party hosted by a foreign English instructor job site which had received attacks because it had denigrated Korean women. At this level there was no problem, but photos of a woman wearing a wet t-shirt and dancing were problematic and coverage expanded saying "Korean women and foreign men had a group orgy party."

At first, some foreign instructors were condemned and criticized, but after the party photos were spread the Korean women were being attacked instead. With their photos floating around the internet, the women in the photos are not able to hold back their frustration. Even worse, their personal details have become known even to outsiders.

Because they were seen dancing with foreigners, they are suffering personal attacks and being treated like sinners by thousands of netizens. It was nothing more than a normal party. The photo of the women wearing a wet t-shirt through which her breasts could be seen of course came out because it was provocative and sensational, but there will certainly be different interpretations depending on the angle it's taken from or the mind of the person looking at it. Looking at this incident, the phrase "I only see what I know" keeps coming to mind.
While the women in the photos were condemned (especially in the internet media), there were a number of articles like this one which showed sympathy for them or criticized Korean men. In fact, the next day the Donga Ilbo would publish an article titled "Ugly Korean men... embarrassed to death"... stir over 'In-depth 60 Minutes'" in which it looked at the embarrassed reaction to an episode of ‘In-depth 60 Minutes’ which looked at the behavior overseas of Korean men. Not all of the reaction was embarrassed, of course; one netizen, who I think we can assume is male, said that Korean men were behaving just like men around the world, that the way it was reported was unacceptable, and that "The program should be deleted for its injury to citizens' pride." To shore up their position, netizens like this said that not too long ago, foreign instructors had written on a site... Clearly, for such people, when it comes to Koreans and foreigners, the victimization can only go one way.

Thursday, May 17, 2012

"They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 2

The 2005 English Spectrum Incident

Part 1: English Spectrum and 'Ask The Playboy'
Part 2: The Kimchiland where it’s easy to sleep with women and make money
Part 3: English Spectrum shuts down as Anti-English Spectrum is created
Part 4: How to hunt foreign women
Part 5: Did the foreigners who denigrated Korean women throw a secret party?
Part 6: The 'Ask The Playboy' sexy costume party
Part 7: Stir over ‘lewd party’ involving foreigners and Korean women
Part 8: The 2003 post that tarred foreign English teachers as child molesters
Part 9: Netizens shocked by foreign instructor site introducing how to harass Korean children
Part 10: Movement to expel foreign teachers who denigrated Korean women
Part 11: "Middle school girls will do anything"
Part 12: Netizens propose 'Yankee counter strike force'
Part 13: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 1

Part 14: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 2
Part 15: Web messages draw Koreans’ wrath
Part 16: Thai female laborers and white English instructors
Part 17: 'Regret' over t
he scandal caused by confessions of foreign instructors
Part 18: "Korean men have no excuse"
Part 19: "Unfit foreign instructors should be a 'social issue'"
Part 20: 'Clamor' at foreigner English education site
Part 21: Foreign instructor: "I want to apologize"
Part 22: No putting brakes on 'Internet human rights violations'
Part 23: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 1
Part 24: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 2


Yesterday I posted the first part of a January 20, 2005 article by Ohmynews. Here is the second part, which consists of interviews with the parties involved in the English Spectrum incident:
"They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps"

[...]
Interviews with the parties involved follow. The interviews were conducted via personal visits or over the phone.

▲ During the interview on the 17th, one of the victimized women explained that her
psychological distress began with this controversy and [displayed] her suffering.

Women: "We were harassed with threatening emails and are receiving psychiatric treatment"

Woman A: "There was a so-called party and by 1 or 2am there was a quiet atmosphere. For a minute or two it was directed that the mood liven up for a minute or two and at that time foreigners took my photo. However the calm atmosphere quickly returned. From the very start it wasn't something like a secret lewd party. It's because the situation was strangely changed by some internet media's sensationalized reports. When the remarks denigrating Korean women were first reported it centered around the problem of some low level foreigners.

However, the photos were circulated at the Anti English Spectrum cafe, and when they were spread to portal sites via articles written without confirming the facts by Dalian and My Daily, it degenerated into a problem with the women [in the photos] and M Bar. My Daily didn't confirm the facts and we complained and the reporter answered, "Telling the truth now won't make it true." I wanted an article explaining things put out and said, "The photos do not show the entire party," and even more sensational articles were put out. Dalian even said to us who complained, 'What good will such a thing do now?'" "They are people without even basic common sense for running media.

In short, since this incident, it's impossible to live a normal life. I am even misunderstood by my family, relatives, and friends. I am harassed by threatening emails and am also a person receiving psychiatric treatment. I just wish the truth of the matter would be properly revealed. My heart/mind wounded by this incident will not be easily healed, but I hope people will recognize the entire truth now.

Woman B: "I also have suffered due to the spread of photos taken of me and my friends. At the time there was no particular expectation in regard to the party. That day was just like an ordinary day and I just met/found my friends. If it had been the kind of atmosphere where foreigners could hit on me I would of course have left, but the atmosphere there was nothing of the sort. The problem photos were just shot casually by the foreigners as keepsakes.

Woman C: "The netizens made me shut down my cyworld homepage. Profanity and comments maligning me as a "problematic person connected with M Bar and English Spectrum" were left on my cyworld homepage, and in the end I had no choice but to close it down. Even more, it was not just the people involved, it was also the homepages linked to theirs which had similar comments left and those homepages were forced to close as well."

"There was never any such atmosphere"

▲The interior of M Bar, where the controversial party was held.

M Bar owner: "English Spectrum only carried a banner ad [for the bar]. I don't know the people running [that site]. There were ads for other businesses besides ours at the site. Two parties were held (at the end of November and in mid-December [2004]). Just like on normal days, on the days of the parties as well there were lots of Korean men there. If you think it was a secret lewd party, why was it openly announced a few days prior to it being held?

The Anti English Spectrum Cafe originated with anger towards some thoughtless foreigners, and I sympathize with that purpose. However, they wrongly shifted to attacking women who had nothing to do with it. This is not to protect foreigners who write disparaging words. Who those foreigners are, I don't know. The netizens disclosed our personal information. It's defamation, a violation of the right to our own images, and a violation of our human rights.

With no connection to their original purpose of criticizing low quality foreigners whatsoever, they branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps. The netizens committed cyber terror cloaked in collective madness. However, they don't seem to realize how serious a crime their own behavior was. My Daily and Dalian's sensationalized articles amplified the impact [of the incident]. They released the name of the bar and a rough map to it uncensored.

Initially, the photos were also released without a mosaic. They reported without confirming the facts and included netizens' negative comments and sensationalized photos. When these articles were posted on portal sites, the impact [of the incident] grew significantly.

We've finished reviewing the laws. We don't want to respond immediately. The reason for reviewing a legal response is to elicit self reflection from the Anti English Spectrum cafe operator and resolve the incident as soon as possible. How the situation is in the future will determine whether we take a legal response.

Experiencing this has suddenly caused many feelings. While I think that some thoughtless foreigners should absolutely be punished, not all foreigners should be rejected. As well, some internet media which publish articles which do not confirm facts should have their responsibility made clear. Finally, if we do not guard against the netizen's reckless collective madness, more victims may continue to appear in the future.

[The position of My Daily and Dailian]

The women who claim that they suffered due to this incident have pointed to some internet media and an internet cafe as being the epicenter of the spread of the photos, and these people have shown an attitude of partially admitting their fault. However, they claimed they were not responsible. Their arguments follow.

[I'm skipping the three paragraphs about My daily and Dalian, as they're summarized in part 1.]

The Anti English Spectrum Cafe manager said, "The purpose of our group is not to be 'anti M Bar' but 'anti-English Spectrum.' That they became victims through the photos being leaked was contrary to our intentions. Other sites also published many of the related photos, but only our bulletin board did not find it appropriate to make this [the women] into an issue. I did not make a connection with M Bar on the bulletin board first, and it would hard to [find] a connection with M Bar.

I sent an email to them but I never received a reply and there's no reason to meet them. If they are suffering from mental anguish, they can distinguish right from wrong in the future. As well, I resolved the misunderstanding over the two photos I personally uploaded in an email sent to the involved parties. When I moved the the photos from the English Spectrum site, over 2000 people had already seen them. Netizens have commented on our cafe's legal liabilty and found various ways ways to deal with it.

In conclusion, our cafe is perfectly legal. Even if there is a problem with pictures or writing that other netizens post at our cafe, it's not my responsibility. At 8pm on January 18, we will have an offline meeting in Hongdae, and management has already been decided. We plan to discuss concrete plans for the future.
They weren't the only ones who thought their cafe was perfectly legal. One wonders if the women involved ever thought to go after AES through Naver. While the alleged responses of the media outlets ("Telling the truth now won't make it true," and "What good will such a thing do now?") are mind boggling (if, well, not surprising), the response of the AES founder makes it difficult to see him as anything but an asshole: "If they are suffering from mental anguish, they can distinguish right from wrong in the future." That fits in nicely alongside "If she was raped, well, in the future she should dress more modestly." Still, the message is clear enough: Korean women are to have nothing to do with foreign men. Or as that pamphleteer put it in the late 1940s, "beware that you will be insulted right in front of [the] public." It wouldn't be long, however, before AES would start backing away from such statements and moving towards the 'let's improve English education for the sake of the children' line.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

"They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 1

The 2005 English Spectrum Incident

Part 1: English Spectrum and 'Ask The Playboy'
Part 2: The Kimchiland where it’s easy to sleep with women and make money
Part 3: English Spectrum shuts down as Anti-English Spectrum is created
Part 4: How to hunt foreign women
Part 5: Did the foreigners who denigrated Korean women throw a secret party?
Part 6: The 'Ask The Playboy' sexy costume party
Part 7: Stir over ‘lewd party’ involving foreigners and Korean women
Part 8: The 2003 post that tarred foreign English teachers as child molesters
Part 9: Netizens shocked by foreign instructor site introducing how to harass Korean children
Part 10: Movement to expel foreign teachers who denigrated Korean women
Part 11: "Middle school girls will do anything"
Part 12: Netizens propose 'Yankee counter strike force'
Part 13: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 1

Part 14: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 2
Part 15: Web messages draw Koreans’ wrath
Part 16: Thai female laborers and white English instructors
Part 17: 'Regret' over t
he scandal caused by confessions of foreign instructors
Part 18: "Korean men have no excuse"
Part 19: "Unfit foreign instructors should be a 'social issue'"
Part 20: 'Clamor' at foreigner English education site
Part 21: Foreign instructor: "I want to apologize"
Part 22: No putting brakes on 'Internet human rights violations'
Part 23: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 1


On January 17, Ohmynews interviewed many of the parties involved in the English Spectrum incident and published an initial, short article. On January 20, they published a much lengthier article, along with more of the original interviews. Here is the first part:
"They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps"

▲On the afternoon of the 17th Ohmynews interviewed the victimized women and M Bar's owner

Last week's hot topic online, the so called "Foreign men and Korean women lewd party" controversy, has calmed down, but the women exposed in the problematic photos who suffered tremendous psychological damage due to the reckless reports which did not even confirm the facts about them are strongly fighting back. They are currently considering a lawsuit against some internet media outlets which spread the provocative photos.

Was is just the collective madness of netizens and sensationalized reports?

To determine the substance of the incident, Ohmynews on the 17th and 18th listened to the voices of the women and M Bar owner who claim to have been harmed by the exposure of the photos, as well as internet media like My Daily and Dalian and the Anti English Spectrum cafe manager, who the women have pointed to as having a large role in amplifying the controversy.

The women involved and the manager of M Bar protested, saying "There was no secret lewd party," and "Some online articles and the Anti-English Spectrum cafe branded us as whores, yanggongju, and pimps."

The women said, "Because of the media's sensationalized reporting and the netizen's collective madness we are suffering incredible mental anguish and there is also a person receiving psychiatric treatment." "The photos were spread indiscriminately without mosaics and our personal information was made public - we shouldn't have to suffer any more violation of our human rights."

In particular, they pour blame on the irresponsible reports by some internet media outlets. They said "We complained to My Daily and Dalian asking why they reported without confirming the truth and they came back with 'Telling the truth now won't make it true,' and 'What good will such a thing do now?'" "They didn't comply with the basics as media in the least," they criticized.

Anti Cafe: "Unintended consequence"

However, My Daily, Dalian, and the manager of the Anti English Spectrum cafe took a different position.

The reporter responsible from My Daily rebutted by saying , "The complaint telephone call was not about the content of my article." "My saying 'Well, if we tell the truth now, it won't make it true' was in regard to other media." A person from the editorial department of Dalian also said, "We blacked out the eyes of the people concerned in the pictures to protect them." "We didn't think we had to go so far as to use a mosaic."

The Anti English Spectrum cafe manager rebutted by saying, "That they became victims through the photos being leaked was contrary to our intentions." "Our purpose is not to be 'anti M Bar' but 'anti-English Spectrum.'" "Other sites also posted many of the related photos, but only our bulletin board did not find it appropriate to make this into an issue, and even if pictures or writing that netizens post is a problem, it's not my responsibility."

Interviews with the parties involved follow. The interviews were conducted via personal visits or over the phone.
These interviews will follow in part 2. It's interesting to see Anti-English Spectrum so clearly linked to the insults directed at the women ("Some online articles and the Anti-English Spectrum cafe branded us as whores, yanggongju, and pimps"). To recap, yanggongju means 'western princess,' a derogatory term for prostitutes who served US soldiers or women who married them. Here is Katherine Moon's description of attitudes towards them, from page three of Sex among Allies:
The vast majority of these women have experienced in common the pain of contempt and stigma from mainstream Korean society. These women have been and are treated as trash, “the lowest of the low,” in a Korean society characterized as by classist (family/educational status-oriented) distinctions and discrimination. The fact that they have mingled flesh and blood with foreigners (yangnom) in a society that has been racially and culturally homogenous for thousands of years makes them pariahs and a disgrace to themselves and their people, Korean by birth but no longer in body and spirit. Neo-Confucian moralism regarding women’s chastity and strong racialist conscience among Koreans have branded these women as doubly "impure."
As I've already noted, the netizens who formed Anti English Spectrum and who wanted to set up a 'Yankee counter strike force' in some cases clearly equated the foreign teachers with U.S. soldiers; the description of the women seen with the foreign teachers as Yanggongju makes this equation that much clearer. Also worth noting is that, in the following months, some articles (such as this one and this one) would paint Hongdae as being akin to a USFK camptown, much as this article did for Itaewon 20 years earlier.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

No putting brakes on 'Internet human rights violations'

The 2005 English Spectrum Incident

Part 1: English Spectrum and 'Ask The Playboy'
Part 2: The Kimchiland where it’s easy to sleep with women and make money
Part 3: English Spectrum shuts down as Anti-English Spectrum is created
Part 4: How to hunt foreign women
Part 5: Did the foreigners who denigrated Korean women throw a secret party?
Part 6: The 'Ask The Playboy' sexy costume party
Part 7: Stir over ‘lewd party’ involving foreigners and Korean women
Part 8: The 2003 post that tarred foreign English teachers as child molesters
Part 9: Netizens shocked by foreign instructor site introducing how to harass Korean children
Part 10: Movement to expel foreign teachers who denigrated Korean women
Part 11: "Middle school girls will do anything"
Part 12: Netizens propose 'Yankee counter strike force'
Part 13: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 1

Part 14: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 2
Part 15: Web messages draw Koreans’ wrath
Part 16: Thai female laborers and white English instructors
Part 17: 'Regret' over t
he scandal caused by confessions of foreign instructors
Part 18: "Korean men have no excuse"
Part 19: "Unfit foreign instructors should be a 'social issue'"
Part 20: 'Clamor' at foreigner English education site
Part 21: Foreign instructor: "I want to apologize"
Part 22: No putting brakes on 'Internet human rights violations'


On January 19, 2005, as noted in this article, the 'celebrity x-file' story broke. As the New York Times described it,
A leaked dossier on celebrities' private lives commissioned by the top South Korean advertising agency has revealed a gulf of distrust between stars and those who hire them for lucrative advertising contracts.

The 113-page confidential report commissioned by Cheil Communications, a Samsung Group affiliate and the country's leading agency in terms of revenue, was posted online anonymously last week. Dubbed the "X-File," it was drawn up by a research firm, which outsourced much of the work to tabloid journalists.

The confidential report was designed to warn clients about the risks of hiring certain celebrities and to assess their career potential. In South Korea, stars are critical components of marketing. [...]
The report covered 99 entertainers, and as this post noted,
The report first scores "present position", describing how entertainers became known and what they do as well as their "prospects". Other categories, "Attractions/talents", "self-management" and "rumors" are scored in a separate table.
As the NYT continued, the rumor section
included items that ranged from the innocuous - like who is dating whom and who has had plastic surgery - to the lurid, like accusations of illegitimate births, homosexuality, drug abuse, violence and group sex.
The next day, January 20, the Munhwa Ilbo published an article titled "No putting brakes on 'Internet human rights violations'", which has the subtitle "('Entertainer X File' blows up...)."

The article begins by stating "Without the internet, the 'Entertainer X File' scandal would never have blown up as much as it has," and notes that one advertising agency's material gathering rumors in one place had turned the entire country upside down. It asserts that the fundamental problem was that ethics had not caught up with P2P methods and changing technology. As well, it blames 'yellow journalism' in part for the spread of the private information, saying that the media bore responsibility. This was because it served as the 'second epicenter,' beyond the netizens and the person who initially spread the file, with the news reports stimulating the curiosity of netizens and so promoting the spread of the information. It also notes that not just celebrities, but also recently regular people were being targeted as well. It then has two paragraphs on the English Spectrum incident:
On the 14th, an internet newspaper, without confirming the facts with the concerned parties, carried a report with a crude title and photos describing the scene of a party between foreign instructors and Korean women as a 'lewd party.'

This article was listed at various internet portal sites as 'today's most viewed news,' leading to thousands of comments. Most of the comments criticized the women who appeared in the photos, and the women suffered psychological damage they won't be able to forget for the rest of their lives.
The article goes on to say that one internet reporter said that, seeing as the netizens' preference is for gossipy news, as time goes by internet media is competing to put out sensational reports, and that things had gone past the point of being able to have control over themselves. The article also says that some internet media stimulate curiosity and contribute to the spread of unfounded rumors which leads to comments which irresponsibly slander people.

The second-last sentence reads "In celebrity-related incidents such as the stir over the 'Ms. O video' or 'Ms B clip' and other scandals, a culture of irresponsible comments protected by anonymity plays a large role." It then declares that sensationalist news coverage, reporting behavior which goes beyond a dangerous level, and "witch hunt comment culture" are links in chain which had been reproduced again with the x-file scandal.

The reference above to the women in the party photos suffering from "psychological damage they won't be able to forget for the rest of their lives" likely comes from the lengthy Segye Ilbo interview:
Owner A: I've discovered that cyber terror is a deadly poison. When our society wants to erupt over something, it still looks for weak people to criticize. The sparks from [the furor over] foreigners burned women just the same. I hope it ends soon. Those involved will suffer from nightmares for the rest of their lives.
The term 'cyber terror' would be used to describe this social problem when it reached a tipping point four months later, after a young woman who refused to clean up her dog's shit on subway, swore at those who rebuked her for this, and got off, leaving elderly passengers to clean it up proved to be more sympathetic than the women seen in the photos with foreign men.

The Ms. O and Ms B. incidents mentioned in he Munhwa Ilbo article's last paragraph are described in this December 2000 Time article, and there are certainly similarities with the English Spectrum incident:
With a successful debut album, her own radio show and an advertising contract with a Korean shoe company, Baek [Ji Young] was on the fast track to stardom. But her personal star (lite) express may have been derailed after a raunchy videotape of Baek in a bedroom romp with her former manager turned up on an Internet pay-per-view porn site on Nov. 19. Radio stations scrambled to pull her songs off the air and television stations canceled appearances. The shoe company put its Baek ads on hold. If the singer follows Korea's unspoken rule for disgraced celebrities, especially women, she will quietly walk off stage with her head bowed.

But guess what: Baek isn't following the script. Instead of slinking away, she has hired a lawyer and defiantly vows to continue singing "if a single fan wants me to." At a press conference held Nov. 29, she cried uncontrollably and apologized for arousing public criticism. Then she got feisty, denouncing her former manager and denying she knew he had the camera rolling. Instead of playing the role of the fallen woman, the singer made it clear she sees herself as the victim in this drama. Said Baek: "I decided to come forward to tell the truth to prevent other women from becoming victims like me."

That spunky attitude has turned the young entertainer into an unlikely cause célèbre for South Korea's growing women's rights movement. Korea Women's Associations United calls the scandal a "clear case of invasion of privacy and a violation of human rights," including Baek's right to earn a living. The group has filed a lawsuit against a producer at SBS, the television station that helped publicize the existence of the video. [...]

A typical Net posting reads: "Is Baek Ji Young a prostitute who gave up being a decent human being?" [...] Media watchdog groups have condemned the sensationalistic coverage and sounded somber warnings about a slide in journalist ethics. [...]

Baek has certainly fared better than popular actress Oh Hyun Kyung. After a video of Oh having sex with her boyfriend started circulating in April 1999, the media denounced the starlet and women's groups left her twisting in the wind. At a press conference, she apologized for her "crime" and then fled to Los Angeles.
As the Korea Times described Oh's ordeal,
Although it turned out that the sex was filmed without her consent and the boyfriend released it with malicious intent, the media poured harsh criticism on her. The clip and related news stories are freely available on file-sharing websites and major portals.

“It was a nightmare that is still alive,” Oh said in her tearful comeback press conference in 2007, referring to her 10-year self-imposed exile from the pubic limelight. “I have a daughter who began to learn how to read. She loves to search for my photos on websites and used to kiss the screen. But I still find my heart beating out of control when I imagine the moment when she discovers an online article revealing my past.” She implored the media not to comment about the affair in articles on her comeback.
Baek Ji-young, according to the above KT article, made a comeback in 2003, but has been haunted by the incident and stuck with a promiscuous image, which may be the reason why, as noted at the Grand Narrative, she was made to pose in a soju ad three years ago braless and with her zipper open.

In getting a lawyer, proclaiming herself the victim, and denouncing those responsible for spreading the video, her actions were similar to those of the women who were harassed by Anti English Spectrum (and to be sure, what was written by AES members and other netizens were similar to comments like "Is Baek Ji Young a prostitute who gave up being a decent human being?"). Note also the description of the spread of the video of Baek as being a "clear case of invasion of privacy and a violation of human rights," and the lawsuit filed "against a producer at SBS, the television station that helped publicize the existence of the video."

And from 2000, to 2005, we can move to the present, what with all of the 'something something girl' subway videos that have been appearing lately, which in are linked in some ways to what is described above (as well as more recent incidents). Perhaps also worth mentioning is this posting (via the Grand Narrative) about a Korean TV show which
covered how the demand as well as learned expectations of the netizens feed to and flourish from the “incendiary” entertainment news articles that coerce the entertainers to meet the (impossible) demands for physical “perfection”. they also commented on how tasteless and crude things have gotten[.]
Add "moral perfection" to the things being demanded, and we're in the same territory, with the same complaints. As for the poster's hope that this might be the start of something, I rather doubt it. Other aspects of the English Spectrum incident (beyond the internet/cyber terror/spread of personal information issues involved in this installment) go back to the 1940s (see here and here), with the latter post describing a warning to women seen with American soldiers which states that "From now on any one of you who shows [...] scandalous actions beware that you will be insulted right in front of public." 65 years later, it seems the internet has made it that much easier for such sentiments to flourish, not that Korea is alone in this regard.

Tuesday, May 08, 2012

Foreign instructor: "I want to apologize"

The 2005 English Spectrum Incident

Part 1: English Spectrum and 'Ask The Playboy'
Part 2: The Kimchiland where it’s easy to sleep with women and make money
Part 3: English Spectrum shuts down as Anti-English Spectrum is created
Part 4: How to hunt foreign women
Part 5: Did the foreigners who denigrated Korean women throw a secret party?
Part 6: The 'Ask The Playboy' sexy costume party
Part 7: Stir over ‘lewd party’ involving foreigners and Korean women
Part 8: The 2003 post that tarred foreign English teachers as child molesters
Part 9: Netizens shocked by foreign instructor site introducing how to harass Korean children
Part 10: Movement to expel foreign teachers who denigrated Korean women
Part 11: "Middle school girls will do anything"
Part 12: Netizens propose 'Yankee counter strike force'
Part 13: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 1

Part 14: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 2
Part 15: Web messages draw Koreans’ wrath
Part 16: Thai female laborers and white English instructors
Part 17: 'Regret' over the scandal caused by confessions of foreign instructors

Part 18: "Korean men have no excuse"
Part 19: "Unfit foreign instructors should be a 'social issue'"
Part 20: 'Clamor' at foreigner English education site
Part 21: Foreign instructor: "I want to apologize"


On January 19, 2005, My Daily published the following article:
Foreign instructor: "The posts denigrating Korean women are terrible, I want to apologize."

"I also think the offensive posts were too harsh. I don't want Koreans to have a bad impression of me, and those posts made me embarrassed to be working in Korea."

In an email sent to My Daily by Brendan, an American working at an elementary school in Seoul, he was regretful of the fact that after the stir over the denigration of Korean women, there was a distorted view of foreigners. He introduced himself saying he'd been in Korea for 2 years, and had worked in a hagwon last year.

Referring to the posts (denigrating Korean women) as "cruel and racist", he explained the present state of the employment of foreign language instructors in Korea.

"To teach a foreign language in Korea requires a certain level of qualification, but in fact only a few foreigners here have these qualifications, so many hagwons in Korea illegally employ foreigners with no qualifications." "If foreigners with no qualifications are illegally employed, Koreans won't know if the person teaching their children is an ex-con or a pervert."

"Even tonight, a Korean man offered to sell me an illegal teacher visa. If I were a criminal from the United States, I could have bought an illegal teacher visa," pointing out the need for the government to take more care in the hiring of foreign instructors.

He criticized the irresponsible operation of the problematic site, saying, "Many foreigners in Korea exchange information at that site such as professional or legal advice, but on the site's bulletin boards, anyone can write anything, and bad posts are not erased,"

"Please tell them how sorry I am," he said, hoping that not all foreigners would be viewed in a bad light because of the behavior of some who wrote the demeaning posts.
If such an email was sent, it would seem that 'Brendan,' hoping that "not all foreigners would be viewed in a bad light," was most likely referring to himself, what with the helpful reference to illegally employed teachers as possible "ex-con[s] or [] pervert[s]" and the posts as "cruel and racist". "Idiotic and demeaning" perhaps, and, with no criminal record checks in place (then or for the next two and a half years, making it pretty clear just how much the 'safety of children' would feature in all of this) even legally employed foreign instructors were not above suspicion. To be sure, the writer of the email wasn't one of those kinds of foreign instructors, and just wanted to let everyone know that and be seen as being on the 'right side.'