i love south koreans (off topic activism)

[confused]

there's a rising wave against the mubarak's oppressing regime in egypt which has lasted for 30+ years now , they try to silence our voices claiming freedom but our voices are heard and now  south korean activist protested against it in front of the egyptian embassy there




i LOVE these people

[barbie]

Well. That is because S. Koreans feel a strong sympathy, as we had endured and suffered from oppressing regimes for +30 years. We know what the freedom is, as we once did not have it. I am sometimes surprised at how much this country has progressed since 1990s, both in mental and material aspects. However, the current president of S. Korea seems to miss the old time, but reports of torture and civilian surveilance are episodic and can be controlled, and he really cares about the results of poll surveys.

Egypt is a kind of strategic area in the middle East for military security of the U.S. The U.S. has a long history of supporting oppressing regimes such as Viet nam, Saudi Arabia, Nicaragua, Iran, Iraq, Philippine, East Timore and S. Korea. I do not think this kind of policy is good for the U.S. in the long-term. Foregin policy of the U.S. is mostly near-sighted, just seeking short-term interests, as the president is elected every 4 years. They should learn from China for diplomacy and foregin policy, IMHO.

Barbie~~

[confused]

i have a strong admiration for s.koreans now not only because of that but also because they managed to grab their freedom and i hope we could someday do the same
and please tell all your friends that egyptian people love you and are grateful for that act

as for the US policy , i agree with you that it has been supporting a lot of oppressing regimes because the administration think it's safer that way
but i don't think the US policy changes from one president to the other , only the way it's applied changes .like senator ron paul says in this video


but if a true revolution happens here in egypt i don't think anyone can stop it,unfortunately people here are too scared/blinded

once more ,thank you my dear friend

[Danacee]

I'm an an east asian history buff, and as a result have always had a tremendous respect for the korean people as their history and resolve is epic. Leave it to them to see Mubarak for what he is when the rest of the world looks aside. The police brutality there has caught my eye more than a few times in the news.

[confused]

indeed it's amazing to me how they literaly grabbed their freedom and democracey , s.korean people has actually changed repressing and military regimes many times before , and they did the student revolution that a lot of people died in it but eventually they didn't die on vain , also the other revolution against military regime in the 80's iirc is a good example to repressed nations on how to change reality

i don't know if you mean police brutality in egypt or s.korea , i've seen a lot of riots police brutality in s.korea . but i'll assume your talking about egypt , and well , all types of police here are pretty brutal , human rights watch have 190 documented cases of muders by police in 2009 only (and that's what they know)
recently , an activist named "khaled saeed" was brutally beaten to death in front of 13 people ( who all personally knew him ) by two low rank officers because he got hold of a video that proved the involvement of a police officer with drugs trade
the government later claimed that the activist killed himself by swallowing a pack of marijuana (?!)  but when pictures of the dead body was out it was pretty obvious how he died which stimulated a lot of protests till this moment

[barbie]

Although technically democratized, the shadow of old repreesing regimes is still visible in S. Korea.

Nowadays, a big political news here is a case of illegal surveilance of civilians and politicians by government. It is comparable to Watergate of the U.S.:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h6NUnZAxtKe2Qv1hBuoKvB27tlXQD9GRG1DO0

And, a torture case:

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2922998

However, as 90 percent of residents in South Korea have home access to broadband internet, it is virtually impossible to censor those things that dictators want to hide. The two former presidents, who had once been progressive human-right activitists, were so much interested in information technology, and invested huge amount of money in establishing infrastructure for high-speed internet across the country. The two were indeed advocates for democracy, clearly recognizing what the internet means for democracy.

Barbie~~