zorba

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Enjoy the revolution!

                                                            Cheong-Hee/Seoulidarity

                                                                  www.seoulidarity.net

Ordinary people's protest

The Candle light demonstration has been more than 1 month in Seoul, South Korea.

Every night we have seen teenagers with school uniform, young girls who were wearing high hills, couples holding their kids and candle together.

Not only young people but old people come to the city hall square and shout

their slogans.

It started with teengers which was very surprising because the system has made them only study competing with their friends. Furthermore, the new Korean government is trying to make them focus on only studying, intensifying English education and their competition for entering the universities and even high school, too saying autonomous education system. Those teenagers couldn't endure their situation any more with not only the education system but also 'the Mad Cow Disease' because after its import, this cheap beef will probably go to schools' cafeterias first.

Humiliating negotiation

By the deal between the U.S., South Korea is supposed to import cows  over 30 months and even some organs such as spines, nerve ganglions in the brain and the eyes that are prohibited to sell even in the U.S. and internationally provided as 'specified risk materials(SRM).  Furthermore, the way Koreans cook is very different. Koreans eat boiled bone soup and boiled meat as well. For this reason, it's impossible to avoid to eat the SRM for Koreans. The government exists to protect its people, but how can Koreans trust the president and its government who said that 'I tried for you to eat cheap and good beef. If you don't want it, you don't need to buy and eat it'?

Why are Koreans angry?

It seemed only a matter of mad cow disease at first. But, people started to mention about the privatization of public sectors such as health care, water system and university students talked about their hugely increasing tuition fee. These issues are directly related to people's lives they didn't expect from the new government. People wanted to believe the president, Lee Myoung-Bak's election pledges that he would make people's economic conditions better. However, this 'business-friendly government' policies have gone completely in an opposite way. 

On May 22nd, the president released his statement to people especially on the beef import from the U.S., but he didn't say that he would change the plan even though he said sorry. On May 29th, finally the government made the declaration about the cow import form the U.S. as said before without any change regardless people's anger. It made the protest much bigger and people occupied the street not only the sidewalk for the protest. Eventually, it became an anti-government protest. The slogans were first 'Make the negotiation invalid!, Withdraw the declaration!' but it came with 'Overthrow the dictator government!', 'Go away, Lee Myoung-Bak!' 'Go away, the violent police!' and eventually criticizing the conversative, powerful newspapers which have distorted the truth and saying 'Go away, Cho.Joong.Dong!(which stands for Chosun, JoongAng, DongA) 

It was around the last week of May and the police started to arrest citizens shooting water sprinkler to them, but people never defeated and talked to the police to arrest themselves. To these citizens, the president said 'Who supported to buy the candles? Reveal who is the background!' that showed himself very low and behind the times. To him, citizens answered that '5 year old kid is the background, these teenagers are the backgrounds'.

Is it a festival? It's a revolution!

It's different from any other demonstrations. If you see the front line against the riot police, it seems violent watching people who hit the police cars and pulling the cars using the ropes(they succeeded several times), because people wanted to go to the Blue House, 'Chung Wa Dae' but it was blocked by the police.

On the other hand, you can see the street musicians, drummers just backside of them. During June 5th~8th, people had continous 72 hours protest and each night around 200, 000 people joined it. The reason this number of people could join is that they're enjoying it. NGO groups had their tents on the city hall square. Human rights film festival team showed some movies on the screen and one progressive party showed the movie, 'Sicko'. Media activists were showing laser tag on a big building on June 6th in the middle of the protest place and made people stop and join it. They made some signs or letters such as '2MB OUT'. 2MB is a short letter of Lee Myoung-Bak(2 sounds same as Lee in Korean). Some progressive internet news or progressive parties had live shows showing the spot immediately.

The difference is also shown on the serious point. If the police say something against people with a speaker to persuade to finish the protest, people say 'Sing a song!'. If the police say on top of the bus, people say 'Dance! Dance!' And people know the young riot police would also have a hard time, so they give water to them, too.

Advanced people, outdated and incompetent government

How long will it last? Nobody knows! There's no leadership. People just have discussions on the internet sites and make ideas and make decisions on the spot. Very specially, people know how to deal with the government. Even though the government seems like a deaf and never listens to its people, ordinary people who are like your sister or your friend are gathering and shouting against the government.

Recently, the president, Lee Myoung-Bak changes his cabinet which seems like useless and called Bush to ask to export the safe beef never changing its negotiation articles. He can't deceive with these little things and he just makes people more angry.

On June 10th, there will be a huge demonstration which people expect 1,000,000 people get together. On June 10 1987, there was a huge demonstration to call for the democracy. After this demonstration(it lasted almost one month), Koreans could elect the president by themselves directly. So, This Tuesday is very significant. Nobody can imagine how it will be. To this government which plugs its ears, people are saying that the first article of the Constitution, 'The Republic of Korea is a democratic republic. All of the power comes from the people.'

For more information, visit

http://english.hani.co.kr

http://english.ohmynews.com

이 글은 seoulidarity 이름으로 해외 미디어에 등록할 생각으로 내가 하루 죙일 걸려

썼는데 아마 오늘 등록은 힘들 듯하다. 내부의 사정으로.. 교정 볼 이가 튕겼음. ㅡㅡ;

10일 대규모 집회를 알리고싶었으나 뭐, 꼭 그것만 중요한 건 아니니까, 앞으로도

계속 진행해야 하니까(안하는 것이 가장 좋은 거지만 그럴것 같진 않고)..

또 10일 집회 어땠는지도 알리면 되고..

처음 외국인 친구들이 이 집회를 보고 '민족주의 집회'라고 말하고, 한국인 친구들의

설명과 상황 변화등을 보며 많이 공감해가긴 했지만 그럼에도 약간 석연찮아 하는

부분들이 좀 있었다. 사실 때론 나도 집회장에서 이글거리는 눈빛으로 누군가가 집어든

태극기를 보며 마음 불편했고, 소녀들을 지킨다며 사방 뛰어다니며 여러분은 가만 계세요 이러는 예비군들과 그들을 보며 박수 치는 시민들을 보며 이건 아닌데.. 이랬던

적이 있었지만, 민중들은 현명하게도 이 시위를 훌륭하게 이어가고 있단 생각이 든다.

누군가에 의해서가 아니라 스스로 원해서, 때론 노래 부르고 때론 춤추며, 또 때론

밧줄을 잡아당겨 경찰 버스도 끌어오는 괴력을 발휘하면서 말이다!

암튼, 서울리데리티 친구들도 이상하게 여긴 부분이 있었는데 온갖 보수 미디어를

통해서 이 소식을 전해들었을 외국인들은 어떨까? 그들에게 '(아직 혁명인지는

모르겠지만) 한국에 물결이 일렁이고 있다'고 전해주고싶다!  

참, 참세상도 영어 사이트 업데이트 좀 더 잘됐으면 좋겠다. 링크 달고싶었는데

최근 집회 기사 하나도 없어서 못함. 아쉽..;;

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Who owns history?-Rethinking the past in a changing world

by Eric Foner

독학 프로젝트 그 첫번째, 번역!

Eric Foner가 쓴 Who owns history? 번역을 시작한다.

지배세력에 의해 달리 규정되는 역사의 모습.

열심히 해보자!

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일요일 밤, 집에 돌아오는 지하철 안에서 이상한 영상을 보고

기분이 너무 나빠졌다.

지하철 전용 방송같은데 동물에게 동족을 먹이는 실험(?)을 하는 것이었다.

그러더니 닭에게 닭고기를 갖다주는 것이다!

농장에 있던 닭 몇마리가 처음엔 냄새를 맡더니 그 후엔 전혀 관심을 보이지 않았다.

이번엔 개 차례.

보신탕을 끓여와 개 앞에 두니 이 누렁이는 냄새를 맡고 멀리 떨어져앉았다.

그래서 나온 말이 '1차 실패'.

그리고는 다른 개에게 가서 재차 시도한다. 이 검둥이는 너무 열심히 먹는다. ㅜㅠ

그럼 2차는 성공? 웩

그러면서 '동족을 먹는 동물도 있다'라고 마무리한다.

아마 그 개, 그거 먹고 며칠간 시름시름 앓지않았을까 몰라.

아..... 정말 왜들 저러나모르겠다.

그런 걸 실험이라고 방송에 내보내는 인간들이라니!

왜 인간만 생각하는거지? 사람 고기를 사람한테 준다면 저들의 반응이 어떨까?

아마 인간 취급 안하겠지? 하지만 동물은 괜찮다? 인간만 아니면 된다?

동물권 같은 건 아무래도 괜찮다는말인가?

광우병이 왜 생기나? 사실, 광우병 생각하는 것보다

우리가 모르는 동물들의 언어로 그들이 어떤 말을 하고 어떤 생각을 했을지...

정말, 이러는 거 아니다.

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집안일엔 시간이 많이 든다. 정말..

그래서 직장 생활 할 땐 조금 쉬었다 하려고하면 금방 밤늦은 시간이 되어버려

집안일을 자꾸 미뤄왔는데 요즘은 즐겁게! 천천히 (특히 요리) 즐기고있다.

최근 만든 반찬..

오이부추무침

오징어볶음

가지나물

호박나물

마늘쫑멸치볶음

멸치땅콩볶음

재료는 주로 근처 시장에서 구입, 몇번 갔더니 주인총각이 아는 척까지 해댄다. ㅋ

그렇게 어렵진 않다. 기본적인 양념만 넣으면 어느정도 맛은 나니까.

내가 생각해도 오징어볶음은 꽤나 맛있었다.

어제 만든 마늘쫑멸치볶음도 맘에 들고..

담엔 김치를 담가봐야지...ㅎㅎ

나도 옥상에 텃밭을 가꿔 직접 기른 채소를 먹어보고싶다. 아~~~

친구네 보니까 상추는 그냥 물만 잘 줘도 잘 자라던데..

이 동네는 흙 퍼올 곳도 마땅히 없네..ㅡㅜ

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[Editorial] Civil rights for migrant workers

The “human hunting” of undocumented migrant workers is off and running again. Each Ministry of Justice immigration office around the country has reportedly set goals for the number of people they are going to deport. This month alone, the goal for deportations is 3,000; among these, there is a goal of 600 deportations for Seoul and 250 for Busan.

We are obviously going to see arrest teams going to unreasonable extremes to chase people down and fill their quotas, while desperate migrant workers are going to do anything they can to avoid them. Expect civil rights infringements and unfortunate accidents as this unfolds. In January an ethnic Korean from China fell to her death from eight stories high while running from an arrest team, and last month a laborer from Bangladesh was seriously injured in a similar incident after falling from a building’s third floor.

The government justifies the crackdown by saying these are illegal aliens, but the biggest reason there are undocumented migrant workers is because of the government’s discriminatory “hiring permit program.” It forces these individuals to accept pay far lower than that of Korean workers, prevents them from changing their place of employment, then forces them to leave right about the time they really get to know the work they’re doing, giving migrant workers who came here embracing the Korean Dream few options. Before it goes on its excessive and inhumane crackdown, the Justice Ministry should make changes to this “hiring permit program” that sometimes gets called a “slavery permit program,” and eliminate the basic discrimination faced by migrant workers.

A typical example of the government’s suppression of the basic rights of migrant workers was the recent deportation of Torna Limbu and Abdus Sabur, the president and vice president of the Seoul-Gyeonggi-Incheon Migrants’ Trade Union. As noted by Korean and international human rights organizations, the fact that these two men, who were elected to their respective positions just last month, were arrested on the very same day and at the very same time makes it plenty clear enough that they were targeted in an attempt to suppress the migrant workers’ union activities. The deportation of these two men has already marked the third time the union’s leadership has been arrested and deported. The Ministry of Justice also ignored the National Human Rights Commission’s formal recommendation that it not deport them until there had been resolution to a complaint filed in the case, about allegations their rights had been denied. So, in other words, the bare minimum of legal procedures were thrown to the wayside. How can Korea still call itself a country that respects civil rights?

The “three basic rights of labor” as guaranteed in the Constitution should be applied to migrant workers, too, and not just Korean nationals. We are still awaiting a final decision by the Supreme Court, but a high court has already decided that the migrant union itself is legal. The government must stop the discrimination and persecution of migrant workers immediately and make the country’s regulations and procedures meet with international standards.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]

written by internet hankyoreh, May.22,2008

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훗, 얼마 안남았군..

아무래도 내가 번역한 영화에 관심이 더 간다. 히힛.

심의 문제도 있고 이래저래 힘든 상황이지만 꿋꿋하게 이겨냈으면 좋겠다.

상영일정표

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얼마전, 이주노조 지도부 두 사람 면회하러 청주보호소에 가려고 했는데

취소되었었지..

그런데 그날이 이렇게 빨리 올 줄은 몰랐다.

어제 인터넷 속보를 보고 출입국 사무소로 달려갔더니 그리 많지않은 사람들이

집회를 하고있었고 전경들이 사무소 앞을 꽉 막고있었다.

우리가 외치는 소리는 그저 허무하게도

토르너, 소부르 두사람은 이미 공항으로 잡혀갔다는 얘길 들었다.

그리고 7시가 넘어서자 8시쯤 비행기로 본국으로 돌아간다는 얘기를

전해들었다.

눈물이 핑 돌더라.

지난번과 똑같이 또 붙잡혀갔다.

어떻게 해야 더이상 당하지 않고 이 땅에서 당당히 설 수 있는걸까?

MTU 홈페이지에 올라왔던 토르너씨의 편지가 오늘 한겨레신문에 실렸더라.

그동안 힘들었던 얘기, 그래도 힘내자는 그의 얘기와 함께

맨 아랫줄에는 '필자는 5월 15일 강제출국되었다'는 한겨레의 주가

추가되었더라.

일해서 돈 벌러 온 사람이 일터에서 쫓겨나고 돈도 못모으고 사기당하고...

아무 문제없이 이 땅에 멀쩡히 살고있는 내 자신이 부끄러워 미칠 지경이다.

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회사에서의 마지막 날이다.

후~ 3년 2개월. 짧다면 짧고 길다면 긴 세월이군.

정말 운좋게 좋은 사람들 만나 일했다. 이 회사 다니면서 일이 좋고 나쁨을

떠나 동료들 하나만큼은 자신있게 말할 수 있다.

누구를 업신여기거나 이간질 시키거나, 남의 공로를 자신 것으로 만들거나

하는 익히 들어온 이상한 동료나 상사가 전혀 없었음을 감사히 여긴다.

사실, 싸이코 사장과 매번 부딪치는 건 아니니 지낼만 했다.

그간 밤이면 밤마다 한땀 한땀 정성들여 만들어온 대안생리대를 여자 동료들에게

선물했다. 한달에 한번씩 나를 생각하라며..^^

다들 좋아한다. 아까워서 어떻게 쓰냐며..ㅎㅎ 나도 기쁘다. 후후

결혼하신 남자 동료 몇분에게도 부인에게 선물하라며 드렸는데

쑥스러우신지 사용법 설명하려 하니까 갖다주면 알거라며 자꾸 회피하신다. ㅋㅋ

다행히! 실업급여도 받을 수 있게되었다.

차장님한테 얘길 했는데 오늘 사장님한테도 얘기가 된 모양이다.

아~ 이제 걱정 없이 백수생활 누릴 수 있게됐다. 몇달간은. ㅎ

아... 손꼽아 기다리던 자전거여행 떠날 일만 남았다. 유후~~

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이번주 토요일이다.

잘생긴 로버트가 간절한 눈빛으로 사달라 하는데 어찌 거절할 수 있으랴!

많이들 갑시다~~~

요즘 재정 문제가 좀 안좋다는데 많이 많이 후원받길...