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| Korea |
| Teaching anti-Americanism in South Korean Schools |
| 2003-05-05 |
| Blogger Marmot's Hole, discusses the anti-Americanism being tought in South Korean Schools. But just to be fair, I took the time to download some of their anti-war teaching materials from the KTU homepage. What I saw shocked me; it took me a full half an hour just to calm down. In a booklet intended for middle school students in Kyonggi Province, readers are treated to graphic displays of dead and injured Iraqi civilians (particularly children), accompanied by extremely anti-American text. Objectivity was completely dispensed with; who needs balance in a brainwashing. In one quiz, found in the Kyonggi Province middle school materials booklet mentioned above, the students are treated to the following three questions: 1) What are the official justifications given by the Bush Administration for their invasion of Iraq? (5 choices)Nice, eh? In another section, students are shown a list of American interventions abroad since 1801. There are no explanations or histories accompanying each entry, and many of the examples given are either wrongly attributed (the US is given credit for the British interventions in 19th century Argentina), highly controversial (the fall of the Whitlam government in Australia is attributed to the CIA), rather bizarre ("interventions in the internal affairs of Poland, 1980-1983"), or just plain lies (an assasination attempt on Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda in 1980?). Strangely missing was WW II (one of the byproducts of which was the liberation of Korea from Japanese colonial rule), although the 1941 "occupations" of Greenland and Iceland are included. Anyway, at the bottom of the list is sarcastically written. "America is a great country, isn't it?" (see link for full story) |
| Posted by:Anonymous |
| #10 SL I really appreciate it when we get info from people on the ground (or at least have been) Personal info may be narrow, but it's got to be AT LEAST as valid as info filtered thru some left winger's kidneys. Even with Bush in office, just how much can we trust State Dept. info? Or even DD? Everybody seems to have a different game running. Blogs like these might be the only unadulterated sources around. |
| Posted by: Scott 2003-05-05 17:25:00 |
| #9 I don't know why anyone's upset about this. Much of the same is taught in the Middle East, not only about Israel but about the United States as well. A lot of people hate us because they were TAUGHT to hate us. There are many, many places in the United States where our history is equally as distorted. I've read some of my daughter's high school textbooks, and they're appalling. What is it Lenin said? "Give me a child for ten years, and I'll have him for life." In the meantime, fewer and fewer children around the entire world are learning the truth. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2003-05-05 14:55:54 |
| #8 Sarge: The liberals have been running that country for the last six years. This new guy is Kim Dae-jung on steroids. It doesn't bode well when the younger and largely uninformed younger crowd keeps voting these people in over and over again. It's funny, when DJ came into power, he wouldnât tolerate any criticism of his northern neighbor, but went full force when chiding the US. This guy Roh is much, much worse. He even instructs his UN envoys to block any attempt at rebuke to âDear Leaderâ and his cronies. |
| Posted by: SL 2003-05-05 14:45:41 |
| #7 Just like the U.S. SK has liberals and conservatives. The liberals run the show right now but I suspect they will go down in flames the next election. They signed off on this nuclear free Korea (worthless) treaty. If they lied about the nuclear program, what else are they they hiding? |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge 2003-05-05 14:36:52 |
| #6 I'm having a hard time not thinking about SK the same way I think about France Former Liberal, I agree. I've felt that way for a few months now. If it were up to me we'd have removed our troops from SK all together and let the "wealthy, thankless teenagers of South Korea take their rightful place on the front line" as VDH says. I also read an editorial in the Korean Herald this weekend about anti-Americanism in Korea. The moral of the editorial was not to be strictly anti-American because not everyone in America agrees with Bush. I guess that's somewhat helpful. lol. |
| Posted by: g wiz 2003-05-05 13:06:40 |
| #5 I spent a great deal of time in South Korea last summer and for the most part enjoyed myself, but I did feel a bit uneasy due to some of the prejudices of the younger generation. No problems with those 30+. Also, I wouldn't say that this sentiment is anti-American, but more anti-foreign. I tried passing as an American, a Canadian and a European and got the exact same reaction from the people there. Koreans are known throughout Asia as being xenophobic towards others, including the Chinese and especially the Japanese, which is somewhat understandable given their history with them. Nonetheless, South Korea is a phenomenal country with great culture and food. Itâs sort of a mix of Chinaâs history and Japanâs technology. It has enormous potential, but it will go unused if they continue with their racial superiority complex. |
| Posted by: SL 2003-05-05 12:58:40 |
| #4 Here's how we deal with the whole Korea problem; in exchange for their immediate dismantling of their nuclear program, we let North Korea have South Korea, thus making official a de facto relationship. Fact is, I'm having a hard time not thinking about SK the same way I think about France. |
| Posted by: FormerLiberal 2003-05-05 12:55:21 |
| #3 I'm convinced, and what about Attica. They've never fixed that. |
| Posted by: Lucky 2003-05-05 11:49:10 |
| #2 It almost seems like the North Koreans have infiltrated the South Korean school system. Unreal. |
| Posted by: 11A5S 2003-05-05 11:03:46 |
| #1 I feel ill My disgust is beyond words. |
| Posted by: raptor 2003-05-05 09:29:41 |