2248개의 게시물을 찾았습니다.
Today's (bourgeois) Korea Herald(KH) published following reader's letter (related to it's article "Seoul's redevelopment dilemma"):
I lived in Seoul from 2003 to 2007. In the beginning, the city including my residential area in Hannam-dong still had many nice corners to live. Cozy neighborhoods, small private businesses and eateries, low-rise housing districts with gardens, great views of the neighboring mountains and rivers - like cities in advanced countries.
In the case of housing projects, I would better call it reckless destruction of what the local people have developed over decades. On the Gangbuk side, one could call it the "Gangnamification" process, turning good old Seoul into a faceless concrete jungle. The result: Too-high buildings, too narrow, more steel and asphalt, more people, more traffic, and less space, less green, less sunshine, less free views. Exactly the opposite of what city planners in advanced and emerging countries are currently doing.
In advanced democracies it is almost impossible to kick residents or small businesses out of their place, simply because the city mayor and landowners like to have "redevelopment" right on their land. Before I moved to Korea, I believed this could only be practiced in places like China.
And for the low-income people in old, run-down districts: Why not give them some money as an incentive to renovate and upgrade their existing buildings? This is what we call "redevelopment" in European cities, and what Seoul did until 2005 in a few small-scale campaigns. Much less planning, bargaining, painful arguing and time would be needed, much less concrete would be wasted.
My experience: Seoul has no lack of apartments. It has too many people. Far too many. It is mercilessly overcrowded. World class cities in advanced countries have stable populations, mostly less than a million. And their population density is much less than that of Seoul and Calcutta. The capital of my home country, Berlin, is the size of Seoul, but only has 3.4 million inhabitants. And so it will remain.
Another example: The most attractive global city in the world, according to annual surveys with managers and diplomats, is Geneva, Switzerland. Under 200,000 people only. No matter if the whole world would like to live there - locals would never allow destruction of their old quarters and lush parks only to turn them into high rise development zones. They want to keep it first in world style and top in class. Whoever wants to move in, has to pay the price - that's the market principle.
There is a right to housing, as professor Kim states. But there is no fundamental right for all Koreans to live in Seoul. Korea is an empty country. Only the space of Seoul and some satellite cities is fully occupied. There should be a general ban on new apartment construction.
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/NEWKHSITE/data/html_dir/2010/01/27/201001270050.asp
Meanwhile KH published today it's last piece (by M. Lamers and H. Chang) on the "redevelopment" issue in the S.K. capital:
☞ Erasing the past to build the future
Last Wednesday (1.20) evening: a few activists marked the 1st anniversary of the Yongsan Massacre with a "Memorial Culture Festival"...
The Hankyoreh (1.21) wrote following:
Marking the first anniversary of the Yongsan Tragedy
On the first anniversary of Yongsan Tragedy, the artists who created a graphic novel entitled 'Yongsan, where I had lived' embrace bereaved family members of the Yongsan Tragedy after presenting them with the books at the site of tragedy, Jan. 20.
This marked the first anniversary ceremony and final service for the Yongsan Tragedy. At the cememony, many artists, musicians, graphic novelists and actors performed culture performances for the bereaved family members and victims.
Kim Young-duk, the 56-year-old widow of the late Yang hee-seong, one of the Yongsan Tragedy victims, said at the ceremony that she will continue to fight until she finds out the real story and truth behind the tragedy. Kim said, “Please remember Yongsan.”
With the rainfall, approximately one hundred citizens took part in the remarks and performances as a last service for the victims.
Related:
☞ [1.20] ActionRadio's audio recording
The articles of the (bourgeois) Korea Herald are usually - in the best case - complete featureless, with some very rare exceptions. And the following impressive piece, published last Tuesday(1.19), belongs to those rare exceptions:
Yongsan Evictees in the Struggle of their Lives
By Matthew Lamers and Hannah Chang
Choi Soon-kyung and Yu Young-sook aren't after revenge. And justice isn't their only priority. Their biggest concern since Choi's restaurant was forcefully closed and Yu's husband was killed during a police raid is to exercise their right to make a decent living.
On a mild Nov. 4, 2008 morning, Choi says sledgehammer-wielding "gangsters" hired by construction companies showed up at her restaurant as diners sat down to brunch and smashed to pieces everything they couldn't carry away. This occurred even though the government had said she had until Nov. 28 to close shop and relocate. Her restaurant sat on land slated for redevelopment and the men, officially referred to as movers, were carrying out an eviction order issued by Seoul City.
Critics say Choi's situation is illustrative of how the Yongsan District 4 redevelopment has been carried out. It involves hired "movers," intimidation and ultimately the killing of five protestors and one policeman.
Since its unveiling in 2007, the project has faced resistance from local communities. The tenant eviction process started in August 2008. Faced with few options, most accepted small amounts of compensation. Others fought.
Emotions reached boiling point on Jan. 20, 2009 when police raided a building that protestors had been holed up in since the previous day. Five protestors and one police officer were killed in the ensuing battle - including Yu's husband - which pitted Molotov cocktail-armed resisters against aggressive SWAT police.
At the heart of the issue for the former residents is their ability to maintain their standard of living. Most urban planners agree that a smooth redevelopment project hinges on the concept of reciprocation: The end result should not leave tenants worse off than they were before. But friction has resulted from the fact that most of Seoul's redevelopment projects over the past few decades have resulted in relatively small tenant compensation packages. After all is said and done, too many tenants say they are worse off post-redevelopment.
Also driving discontent on both sides of the debate are tactics employed by either side. Evictees say they face intense intimidation, inadequate representation and physical coercion. While those on the redevelopment side say evictees' demands are unreasonable and actions disproportionate.
The case of Choi Soon-kyung
Choi Soon-kyung lives in a tent with other evictees. In this interview, it has been just over two weeks since protestors were killed in the Yongsan raid. She speaks of justice, but she mostly wants to talk about her right as a Korean citizen to earn a living.
The interviews are conducted February 2009 to January 2010.
"If they were going to have an early eviction, they should have at least notified me at least once. Isn't this a basic right? Isn't this common sense?" she asks. "If they had evicted me on the day they had told me they would, I wouldn't have had any other choice but to follow the law and leave. But they didn't keep their end of the deal."
She takes us to the site of her once-bustling restaurant, Bokyung Shikdang. We find it enclosed behind a 3-meter-high metal fence.
The walk through the redevelopment zone is unreal. Picture Seoul, circa 1951 - indiscriminate destruction. A photo album lays open in the rubble showing once-happy times for newlyweds. Structures remain barely intact; most less so than others. "Leave your home or you will die," reads some graffiti. "Lee Myung-bak is a killer," reads its rebuttal. A homeless man sleeps in the storefront of a dilapidated building.
The limbo of the neighborhood is palpable. There's no running water or electricity. But a few hardcore resisters still live here.
Walking through the unkempt streets, Choi further explains that her first priority in her struggle is to secure a livelihood. But over the course of the interviews, the desire for a full account of the Jan. 20 incident heightens. As evictees lose hope for fair compensation, calls for accountability become louder.
"Please take the tenants into consideration. Understand our stance and give us appropriate compensation. Give us the rights and means to live in another place. Afford us the chance to move and start a business in another place. They should give us the right to live and survive. This is all we need, more than the compensation," she says.
The core of Choi's demands has been a call for the placement of a temporary building where she could live in and do business from while the redevelopment work goes forward. She is also sensitive of the negative image of her that has been propagated by some pro-development media outlets. In later interviews she voices the need for more compensation.
"I am very sorry to the citizens who are watching our miserable news. ... But we are not bad people. I want them to just understand that we are not terrorists. We are just innocent people who want to maintain our rights to live as citizens of the Republic of Korea," she pleads.
Choi was offered 2.9 million won as compensation, an amount she describes as so inadequate it wouldn't be enough to operate a "pojangmacha," or a covered street wagon, to sell simple food.
"All I have now are these clothes I was wearing then."
In the next interview, a week later, Choi tells of the months between her eviction and the time she joined the National Evictee's Alliance in January 2009. She describes this time as "the lowest of the low," because she had nowhere permanent to live. Some nights she'd stay in a small room in a closed-down billiard hall, another night she would make do in a shuttered cafe.
"I've been to many others' shops. One of them was (a friend's) cafe, since there were no fences to keep us out. The fencing started in January. Though we couldn't do business, we had been able to get inside, at least." The mammoth fences were erected to keep evictees out of their former homes and businesses.
"I kept visiting my neighbors, going around and around. I was very sorry they had to put up with me. ... But tears of blood flowed from my heart. I didn't want others to notice," Choi admits.
Since moving into the tent with the other evictees in January, she says she has been much less desperate. It's much better, she says, now that they can make meals together in this tent. Eating had been her biggest concern.
The tent is cold - it being the second week of February at the time of the interview - but it has a small fridge, heater, and kitchen supplies. It's adequate, but nothing more. She does laundry at a friend's house. But sometimes she has to clean her clothes at a "mokyoktang," or bathing house.
"I often hear many critical words from other customers when I do my laundry there because it smells when I keep them there to dry," she says. "This life as it is, is the lowest of the low. I have no money."
In the next interview in late February, Choi explains how she came to call Yongsan home.
At the time Park Chung-hee was president in the 1960s and 1970s, Choi ran a Japanese restaurant in Jeolla Province. She says she eventually closed the business because of her hard economic situation. Later, she moved back to Yongsan.
She started a shop (next to the tent she now lives in). After selling it, she founded Bokyung Shikdang in 1993 with a loan of 40 million won from the bank. The business was successful and she was able to repay her debts.
But during the IMF crisis in 1997 she was forced to borrow 30 million won from the bank to keep Bokyung Shikdang afloat.
In July 2008, Choi received notice from the district court that her area was due to be redeveloped. She was given three notices saying her eviction date would be Nov. 28. The "movers" showed up on Nov. 4.
In an interview in March, Choi talks at length about finally being granted low-income assistance from the government.
Two days after her restaurant was closed, Choi made a trip to the district office on Nov. 6, 2008 to apply for government support for basic living expenses. She did not receive anything until February. The delay, she says, was attributed to her not having a mailing address, so the district office told her to move. But she says if she followed their instructions, it would have made her ineligible for redevelopment compensation, since she would no longer have been a resident of Yongsan District 4.
Her solution was to make the tent she had been living in for two months her home address. The district office accepted the application and has been issuing low-income assistance checks worth 400,000 won.
In the next interview in August, Choi describes a less precarious position. She says she is generally happier, but justice still has not been carried out. Five evictees were sentenced to terms in prison. It is Choi's position that the public prosecutors have been concealing thousands of pages of the 10,000 page investigation into the Jan. 20 fire.
The living conditions have improved since they moved out of the tent and into an abandoned, adjoining building. It is a former bar owned by a man killed in the Jan. 20 fire.
For the first time, she speaks of forgiveness. But although Choi admits she is ready to forgive, she is still pursuing justice. "Now I feel calmer than before. I think I am ready to forgive, but I still believe the government should admit their faults and apologize to the citizens."
She also responds to criticism that the evictees are blowing the Jan. 20 deaths out of proportion. As the months have passed, some have said they should focus more on an amicable resolution.
"It's a matter of perspective. Among the people who passed away during the fire in January include two people from our district, and three from other places. Those people had come to our aid to help the evictees here - we're all in it together. And I think we are almost at the finishing line."
As it turns out, they aren't almost at the finishing line. Developments over the next five months are few and far between. Evictees waited until the second-last day of 2009 to hear that a settlement had been reached.
But the deal Seoul strikes with the Yongsan Coalition doesn't seem to sit well with all of the remaining evictees.
The evictee coalition said the settlement has three parts. 1) Prime Minister Chung Un-chan will show remorse to the families of the killed protestors. He will acknowledge the government's responsibility in the Jan. 20 incident; 2) The redevelopment association will allocate the Yongsan Coalition money to distribute among families of the deceased protestors and the remaining evictees. The cash will also be used to pay for the funeral; 3) Intermediaries from different religious groups will monitor the implementation of the settlement.
But Choi said she's still waiting for the prime minister's apology.
"We feel this is very ridiculous. The only thing revealed was the compensation for the funeral and nothing else. How could they possibly not have come up with any resolutions for the other conditions that we have been demanding?" she asks.
She says they are waiting for 1) more compensation for the eviction; 2) the right to purchase rental apartments; 3) a temporary container or a building to continue business during the construction.
"Although the funeral is over, my heart cannot be at ease. I feel I have been deceived by the city government and the related redevelopment companies. These are the feelings and thoughts that we evictees all share," she explains.
Choi said she expects the Yongsan Coalition to make an announcement on Jan. 26 regarding the distribution of the settlement.
"Everyone anticipated that everything would come to a conclusion with the funeral. However, this wasn't the case at all. None of the other demands we have been making to the city-government were addressed and are pending. ...
"We are all waiting for that day."
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/NEWKHSITE/data/html_dir/2010/01/19/201001190045.asp
Related (supplementing) article:
☞ Seoul's redevelopment dilemma (K. Herald, 1.20)
"Guitars should be a means to liberation, not exploitation. No one should have their job taken away because they stand up for their rights" Tom Morello, Rage Against the Machine.
For more than 1000 days, S. Korean guitar workers and their supporters have protested against their illegal mass firing by Cort/Cor-tek Guitars.
January 8 -17: S. Korean and U.S. labor unions, community organizations, musicians, artists, and NAMM trade show attendees joined the Cort Action campaign in LA and Anaheim. Organizations and people lent their skills, their voices, and ideas and took the stage in public spaces in LA and in front of NAMM to amplify the struggle of the Cort/Cor-tek workers for their livelihoods and for worker rights:
Related articles:
☞ Musicians to join S.Korean union's struggle with Cor-Tek (Hankyoreh, 1.06)
☞ Rage's Tom Morello leads protest at NAMM show (MusicRadar, 1.14)
☞ Morello Protests Outside NAMM Conference (Exploiting in Sound, 1.16)
☞ 미 기타 회사 휀더, 콜트 문제 자체 조사 시작 (참세상, 1.20)
For more info (incl. pics and videos) please check out:
One week ago I wrote(*) about the latest wave of racist violence in Europe (in the south Italian town Rosarno).
But oddly enough this act of racist barbarianism passed without any consequences!
While the issue dissapeared soon after it happens, the Italian (and European) left/progressive opposition lapsed into silence... Except last Thursday's Solidarity declaration (by ATIK) there has been almost no official/public statement (of protest) or solidarity rally/demo by the left, incl. the so-called "communist" parties, the left/progressive trade unions, human right organisations or the anti-fascist movement (at least there has been no report about such activities).
* "Racist Attack - Migrants' Protest - Racist Pogrom" (1.11)
Related article:
☞ Italy: a country united by racism (Guardian, 1.10)
From today's Hankyoreh:
Co-president of Justice for Yongsan Evictees says...
Fight for Yongsan was a successful struggle
Park Rae-gun says that although civic participation was weak during the struggle, enduring persistence eventually forced concessions from the Lee administration
“I came thinking it would be over in a month. It’s a bittersweet feeling...”
A few hours before turning himself in to police Monday morning, Park Rae-gun, 50, met with a Hankyoreh journalist and talked about the “great suffering” and “small joys” he has experienced as a man wanted by the police. He spent over ten months wanted by police while serving as co-president of Justice for Yongsan Evictees. Police were issued a warrant in early March 2009 to arrest him on charges of holding an illegal rally in connection with the Yongsan Tragedy.
Park was unable to attend the funeral for victims of the tragedy that was held on Saturday. He spoke of weeping as he watched a live broadcast via Internet together with two other individuals wanted by police, Justice for Yongsan Evictees co-President Lee Jong-hoe and Federation Against House Demolition head Nam Gyeong-nam. Park said, “I got through it thinking about the others who were suffering more than me, like the surviving family members and the evictees of the Yongsan 4th Zone.” He added, “Still, I should have been there with the family members as they said goodbye to their loved ones...”
What were Park’s thoughts on the agreement reached on Dec. 30 after a battle lasting close to a year? While some have expressed dissatisfaction, Park called it a successful struggle. Park said, “The Lee administration never once approached negotiations, persisting in a strategy of neglect and viewing it as a conflict between private citizens.” Park continued, “I think it was a success in that they were contending with the Lee administration, yet they managed to get the Prime Minister to say that he felt responsibility, and none of the family members or evictees gave up the fight during the course of the year.”
He also said that what kept the Yongsan struggle going was “the solidarity of poor and warm-hearted people.” Park stated, “Some of the conservative newspapers criticized us as ‘outside forces,’ but solidarity in the interest of human rights is a fundamental and a right.” Park added, “Yongsan is a beacon that has continued to give off light during this age.”
Park is not without his grievances. Discussing the fact that more people did not take part in the Yongsan struggle, Park said, “Yongsan was an ‘inconvenient truth’ for people.” He continued, “For people who hoped for a better life in a ‘New Town,’ Yongsan would have been uncomfortable because it told them, ‘Redevelopment is wrong and most people end up being driven out like this.’”
Another lament was the fact that broad-ranging civic and social groups did not take up the Yongsan struggle. “The Yongsan Tragedy, at its root, is an issue of state-sanctioned violence that took place during the push for brutal redevelopment policies, but the well-known civic and social groups ignored it, saying that that aspect ‘did not have popular appeal.’” He also pointed out, however, that there was a failure to see far enough ahead and provide a space early on where people could participate more easily.
After the interview was over, Park and the other two individuals wanted by the police left Myeong-dong Cathedral in Seoul’s Jung-gu district, where they had been granted asylum and had been staying since September 2009, and turned themselves in to the Seoul Namdaemun Police Station at around 3:40 p.m. on Monday. They were seen off by a crowd of some 100 people urging them to “stay strong,” including five family members of victims of the tragedy and evictees from the Yongsan 4th Zone.
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/398395.html
A related video (by comrade "Hong Gil-dong..." you can watch here, here you can listen to an audio recording (YongsanActionRadio) and related photos you can see here!
1. It seems that last Thursday(12.30) the Seoul Metro. Gov't and the surviving victims of the Yongsan Massacre reached an "agreement", or rather a deal...
More background information about the "agreement" you can get here:
☞ Seoul..Gov't, Yongsan tragedy family members reach a deal (Hankyoreh)
☞ Yongsan fire dispute settled in a year (JoongAng Ilbo)
But as far as it's known... not everyone is really happy with the deal! For example Mun Jeong-hyeon, a well-known (for the ruling class a 'notorious') Christian resistance activist who supported the struggle in Yongsan almost from the beginning, is discontent with the terms of the deal reached. He said, “When your body is sick you go to a hospital, but when a society is sick people do not seem to care.” Father Mun added, “If you look at this site as an example where those who died have been treated so coldly for so long, it appears the state of our society is not such a bright one.” The Catholic priest Jeon Jong-hoon, too, said with some remorse about the deal that it was more important to secure fundamental changes in the "redevelopment" policy so incidents like in Yongsan would not repeat themselves.
Related article:
☞ Yongsan settlement fails to address redevelopment policy.. (Hankyoreh)
2. Between the "Christmas" days and New Year several cultural events took place in Yongsan. Comrade Hong Gil-dong's videos (MUST SEE!!) about the "Illegal Concert"(12.27) and the New Year's Eve celebration are giving good impressions about the events (impressive photos you can see here and here).
Here you can listen to an audio recording from last Thursday's Solidarity Street Concert in Yongsan (pics you can see here)!
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