I don't have much time these days.

I also haven't done much with my Anti-US/USFK Website in a long time, because, as I explain on the main index page, since 2002, I have extensively covered the key issues/themes that are used recurrently in Korea to create the "necessary evil" view the majority of Koreans have on the overall US-SK relationship - especially the military alliance.

(One issue I have neglected that should be covered is "bastard neo-colonial trade pressure" but I can't find the energy - even when I have time - to dig into that, because I don't believe the majority of outsiders who don't know about Korea can seperate out Korea's use of the issue from generic anti-globalization thought around the world).

Rencetly - however - somethings have come up that prompt me to try again with a project I gave a slight attempt at months and months ago:

You can read about it in full here at my blog.

Basically, I'm saying that anyone with the desire and a video camera who wants to take some film of entertainment areas in Korea - those frequented by GIs (the ville), expats (Itaewon and others in Pusan and what not), and Koreans-only, or the fewer places where Koreans and expats mix, or the famous redlight areas, and so on....

to give a visual representation of your opinion on the "barbarian bastards" vs "party-hardy Koreans" ------

I am willing to provide storage space and bandwidth on my site.

Basically, I'm looking to get moving images to give some depth to the first and secondhand accounts that the long (and short) term expats in Korea write about in the K-blogsphere when this issue comes up ----- which it does 3 or 4 or 5 times a year.

Seeing the hum-drum, standard, and/or abhorrent behavior that can or does go on in different entertainment areas in Korea would give some depth of understanding to the discussion - especially for those who've never been to Korea.

I have some hope this actually might get started over time - the building of a small collection of videos on this topic ---- when it failed utterly last time ---

now that U-Tube and other video sites have caught on ----- and cellphones with video cameras have become common place....

i think it's odd that you would "stoke the fires" of such a debate right now. seeing as how the US has occupied ROK for many years and just now we are starting to hand over power to ROK troops and slowly withdrawing our own troops. granted, i am pretty ashamed at the way most US troops act when they go outside of the base gates, but encouraging others to cultivate some sort of "hatred" for them is certainly not going to make the power transfer to be any easier. it's pretty easy to go downtown, see a GI stumbling along the sidewalk and make harsh judgements of him and then post pictures or videos on a website.. but it's not so easy to understand what most of those GI's have had to endure.. most of these guys have spent at least one tour in iraq or afghanistan and are just getting the chance to relax.. i'm not defending the way many of them act but one thing you have to remember.. people are a product of their environment.. we didn't bring the bars, clubs, and prostitution with us... someone else made those (and they weren't americans)

I've been here, (This time) for two years, going on four, and I agree with lostntainted. My old friend USinKorea has a unique insight to Korea, better than most, I'd say. But as he knows all too well, things change over time.
The old days, which he and I knew some time back, are gone. The few headlines we see are no longer very anti US. There are some incidents where the Military, the Army in particular, made errors in judgement in lowering their enlistment standards, allowing troops with less than desirable behavior records, and lower test scores, to join the Army. Of the percentage of those who made it past basic training, a significant number somehow arrived in Korea. This is the shame the Army now has to live with. There is no way short of "Profiling" to keep these little (expletive deleted) girls and boys off the streets. The army, in my opinion, deserves every black mark they get from that stupid move. I'll not go into the article that told of the lower scores in accuracy on the rifle range, and in technical schools that has been noted from these "Competently Challenged" folks. It was a deadly mistake. Back to the subject. All in all, the climate in Seoul, has changed. I won't attempt to speak for Area I or III. If I took a video camera into the bars of Itaewon on a weekend, I might not be very welcome. And I could edit that footage later to show whatever I wanted. If a person would take an undercover video trip around town, and not edit it, I think there would be little chance of anything newsworthy until after midnight, and then I don't see any "Redeeming social value" in it. Other Areas please respond with your opinions, as I am only one guy. I suspect if one would take the risk of filming late in certain GI bars in other places, exciting things may occur. But would publishing these events serve any purpose, other than stir up a subject best left alone?

Lostntainted misses the point of the project - which sadly seems to occur too often with my site as a whole. I had to put up a message at the start of the index page to tell Americans to quit emailing me demanding to know why I am so anti-American. --- I wish people would take the time to read on the internet..

What I have in mind is similar to what I did with the GI Crimes page.

The point isn't to help the Korean media and anti-US groups promote the image of the average GI as a wanton criminal.

The point is exactly opposite.

I show the crimes that have been committed and put it together with stats on crimes by various groups in Korea to argue ------- it is anti-US/USFK bigotry that is promoted by the Korean press, educational system, and items of pop culture when they blow individual GI crimes out of propotion to the reality.

I believe a small, good collection of videos of what goes on with GIs out on the town ----- compared with videos of what goes on with Koreans out on the town ---- should - if people weren't so damn lazy ---- attack the "ugly GIs" stereotype.

And I don't believe in abandonning such projects just because some viewers won't take the time to understand the point, because they won't read but just look at the images...

And another key reason I wouldn't stop such a project is ----
Korean don't need me to put that distorted message out.

They don't need me to portray GIs as criminal types. They do that routinely year to year ---- as shown by this latest Yonhap news agency video.

What I try to do is show Americans how the anti-US process works. I want the videos of both GIs out on the town and Koreans out on the town to show that Koreans are using a double-standard that is one of the fundamental keys to the anti-US/USFK culture in Korea.

I believe that is what such a video selection would prove, and even if I turned out to be wrong, that the videos people get actually do show GIs behaving highly abnormally as a routine in Korea, then it is something that should be taken care of with speed, but I've been around in Korea enough and have caught enough of the Korean message that tries to blow things up to give a strong educated guess that a real video selection isn't going to prove me wrong.

If GIs were raping and pillaging like Koreans like to believe, www.voiceofpeople.org would have tons of footage of it by now....

"The old days, which he and I knew some time back, are gone. The few headlines we see are no longer very anti US. "

This is true, and time will tell us what to make of these changes.

My belief is that once fear of losing USFK subsides, it will be exactly right back where we were pre-2002.

There are very brief hints here and there that several things (like the Roh administration's incompetency) (and this prolonged fear of losing USFK) has had some deeper impact on Korean society for the better of the US position in Korea, but I see no reason to believe this trend is strong enough to last beyond USFK's leaving or staying. ---- the building of the anti-US foundation was too long in the making and has been enjoyed too long to wipe significantly away in a couple of years.

Again, I believe once the current uncertainity about USFK's future is cleared up, Koreans will go back to the way they were ---- which I've always said was a spike in anti-US activity about every 8 to 16 months and the continual prepping for such a spike by doing things like blowing up GI crimes.

"If I took a video camera into the bars of Itaewon on a weekend, I might not be very welcome. And I could edit that footage later to show whatever I wanted."

This is a concern I would keep and guard against.

"I suspect if one would take the risk of filming late in certain GI bars in other places, exciting things may occur. But would publishing these events serve any purpose, other than stir up a subject best left alone?"

It would depend on the events and what else is shown.

Again, what I am looking for is a comparison of what goes on typically in the different entertainment areas ---- those for GIs - those for Koreans - those where Koreans and foriegners mix...

I believe such a comparison would strike blows against the stereotype Korean society has.

And that is the point I think you guys are missing.

Koreans are already peppered with messages about bad GIs and the "common culture" or mentality of USFK. They don't need any video stored on my website to promote their views more fully than what they have already long accomplished.

It is the non-Korean who hasn't had a chance to spend much time in Korean society who don't have a clue.

For example, ust on the prostitution issue alone. If they run across pieces of information here and there on the internet about prostitution and the US military, they will tend to agree the Koreans have a point ---

---because there aren't many places out there on the internet like mine that will point out just how freaking HUGE the sex industry is in Korea and what Korean society generally thinks about it when it comes to Korean men.

Some video of Korean redlight districts would at least be an attempt to combat this problem.

We need to take a sledgehammer to this mind-block phenomenon that Koreans manage with such utter ease.

If you bring up the nature of prostitution where it concerns Korean men - after a Korean has brought up GIs going to prostitutes as a justification for anti-GI attitudes -- you will get a blank stare ----- because they (many of them) simply can't bridge that gap.

I don't have any hope anything I do on my site will change Korean society's view for the better (or worse) on these issues.

I just want Americans in particular to have a chance to see the gap in perception and reality that is one of the fundamental elements of anti-US/USFK culture in Korea.

Let me give a for example to show what I believe a collection of videos would show:

Anybody who has lived in Korea for a year or more, and caught even short glimpses of Korean TV, would have seen some security camera footage from police station videos showing ----very drunk Korean men (alone but more often in groups) pushing and pulling and screaming at the police ---- and the police basically "enduring it."

Now, if I took some of that video, and I linked it in short posts that display some of the tone and rhetoric put in Korean newspapers, and especially the anti-US websites, when they talk about a GI getting into a physical confrontation in the street with a Korean(s)....

....it would give people who have never been to Korea a chance to understand what Korean society is more than willing to excuse from their own, and what they want to jump up and down about when it comes to GIs.

And even with the fear of losing USFK going on for 4 years now, the common perception in Korean society is still very much (as far as I can tell) the same old negative GI stereotype.

I think this statement is far from the truth. I would say most GIs act responsibly outside the gates. It is the small minority of individuals that cause a problem. There is roughly 130 Article 15s given out each years with 25,000+ GIs in South Korea, not bad considering the numbers. There are a few major criminals each year, but those are a few.

I will agree at night in Itaewon around 2200-2400 I am not proud to be a service member with all the drunks screaming and making a fool of themselves, but again most of the GIs are on base and not downtown.

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usinkorea i see your point and i apologize, apparently i did miss your project focus ... but that is good the way you are doing that.. just a few nights ago as i was walking downtown i saw there was a big fight going on.. my first thought was that it was some drunk army guys causing some problems.. but as i got closer i saw that it was a drunk korean local trying to fight a female.. (yeah it was pretty bad) luckily the girl was protected by her friends, but the american town patrol could only keep spectators away and not intervene with the locals.. anyways, yeah i do see some of the locals acting just as bad, if not worse, than some of the military.. and mike, it's not the people that wind up with article 15's that i'm ashamed of.. it's the ones down in Itaewon hitting taxi windows as they drive by, walking down the street yelling at one another.. the ones that don't bother to even try to learn some of the local language.. i know not a lot of them get into real trouble.. but almost all of them fail to show proper respect to the korean culture.. that's what i am ashamed of

I think we are on the same level with this. I just disagreed with your use of "most GIs."

We have had many discussion about this on these forums. I have been more disgusted with the way Americans treat the workers in the Food Courts and BX areas. There are some Americans that talk down to Korean in their own country. I agree with your point, especially on Friday and Saturday nights in Itaewon. I have feared for my safety many time waiting for a empty beer bottle to hit me in the head while walking past some rude, drunk Americans.

Mike

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The image of the Ugly American has been around for Decades. Yes there are many young GI's who lack self control and common courtesy. Yet there are many who are just the opposite. There is a problem with young soldiers getting away from home on their own and getting out of control. It is not just a military problem as it happens when they go off to college too. Mr Joe had a great thread on this a while back. The point is that there are always a few that create a bad image for the many. That is how prejudices get created. What USinkorea is doing is good it is trying to point out that it is not correct to paint with the broad brush.

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