Looks like a fun protest.

hey java, do you know anything more regarding the protest? what are they exactly protesting about? ALL u.s beef imports? or some u.s beef policy? and btw, that baby w/ the flag is sooooooooooooooooo adorable!!!

^ yea, what is the fuss all about?

Oh good... more hamburgers for me... excuse me while I jump in the car to get my Whopper with cheese.... ;-)

Athough I don't know what is this all about I can see united nation what is very impressive scene. And yes, that baby is so sweet !

They're mostly protesting because of FUD (fear uncertainty and doubt). Basically, in 2003 there was a single cow in the United States that was diagnosed with mad cow, which btw was a cow that came to the US from Canada. That year South Korea banned import of beef from the US. The ban was eased in 2006 as long as each cow was inspected and under either 20 or 24 months of age; I can't remember the exact number. The thinking is, that cows under that age can't possibly have mad cow/bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Facts are that any test prior to full blown symptoms, except a full post mortem autopsy are unreliable at best and that cows under that age may be able to contract the disease.
A big part of the Free Trade Agreement that benefits the US has to do with agriculture. As such, the United States wants the age limit relaxed to 30 months of age which Lee Myung Bak has agreed to after consulting world agriculture groups that essentially say that american beef is safe for import. This is what Koreans are protesting.
A lot of what you'll see on the internet about this issue is complete garbage propogated not only by netizens but by notoriously lax reporting in Korea. They plaster pictures and videos of diseased and dying cows all over. Some of the rumors are rediculous. Koreans are genetically more susceptible to Mad Cow. Mad Cow can be spread through the air. People in the US dine on cows from Australia and New Zealand while importing their inferior beef to Korea.
Myself, frankly, hope the FTA between Korea and the US falls through. I don't see it as being all that beneficial for Korea in the long run although it may be great in the short term. Frankly I have no problem with people protesting as long as they're honest about what they're protesting about. The way I see it is that there's many underlying issues that people have a problem with. They don't like president Lee Myung Bak. They haven't liked the United States influence in South Korea for a long time. They believe the FTA has too many concessions to the US. (copyright laws, increased quotas of american movies in movie theatres etc) The Korean agriculture business feels threatened by increased volume of imports from the US that the FTA would bring.
If you want to protest, fine, feel free. But rumors, and pretty crappy ones at that, undermine the things that have substance. FUD really doesn't help anything.

Thanks Jeon for the info!

In the future all protests should feature adorable babies.

perspective from a fob i asked- she was angry that the new president was "accepting all the crappy foods from the U.S." that had not been accepted before him, causing people in korea to "die". apparently no one has actually died because of mad cow in korea though?

why are people protesting? okay, Lee Myung Bak picked up the restrictions for importing beef right? but did something happen to koreans from teh actual disease? theres no epidemic as of now right?

i think the metropolitician wrote extensively about this in his blog. i don't get it. but i don't want to get it.

this is very not relevent, but i love the first picture you chose of the protest. it's kinda beautiful. (and lol they seem to be having a good time...)

well.. we don't hear of ppl dropping like flies from mad cow in the U.S. do we? sometimes koreans can be just too.. over-reactive.. i still love me my in'n'out #2 animal style..

it's not just about mad cow beef, but more about the policies and feeling like their president is bending over for the US to take advantage of them. yeah they're overreacting but it's not ONLY about people dying from mad cow disease.

i still eat beef, and i'm fine.. I don't know how this whole thing came about, but it really seems like propaganda for another issue. I mean I don't remember the US ever calling them "Commies"... That term is used for noth koreans, because THEY ARE communists.. I don't understand how this just surged out of nowhere...
Have they heard of anybody in the US dying of a disease related to mad cow??? I just don't get where this anger is coming from... Its only normal for people to be cautious, but this is too much...

i hope the fta between the us and korea will come through, as it has a lot of potential for korea, even if korea gains relatively less than the us right now. if the fta really does come through it will mark the start of FTAs between chinna, japan and southeast asia with s-korea, as these regions will start a trading competition over korea.

i'm not worried about the mad cow disease but i am concerned for the Korean farmers who will be pushed out of the domestic market by cheap US beef.
a FTA will be devastating to the Korean economy, which should really focus more on developing secure food supply domestically instead of importing crap.
the UN has already declared global food crisis. Is the president doing anything about the rural exodus?? (also, he is a money-grabbing, opportunistic, American-puppet and i don't think he has the nation's best interest's in mind.)

I agree with Jeon that FUD has blown this protest to such proportions. I believe the images and video that the Korean media is showing (over and over again, I've heard) is from the undercover investigation of the Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Company plant in California towards the end of last year, beginning of this year.. In a nutshell, the investigation found that this plant had questionable slaughtering processes and was in violation of slaughtering cows for distribution that are supposedly not meant for consumption. Although no BSE or mad cows disease was found in any of their beef, the plant has since been shut down and all the meat was recalled. This recall is the biggest one to date...resulting in thousands of pounds of beef and millions of dollars lost. However, the US caught it and has since put even stricter guidelines on inspection of both beef and beef plants to ensure that Hallmark/Westland doesn't happen again. It's unfortunate that the Korean media took this story and just ran with it...adding more hysteria and paranoia to an already paranoid society. I don't believe that the US is exporting "crap" to Korea. I'm hearing that Koreans feel the US is keeping the "good" beef for domestic consumption while exporting the "bad" beef to Korea and/or the US doesn't consume our own beef but rather beef imported from Canada/Australia...which is absurd. Unless I see real numbers and evidence, I also don't buy that the FTA would devastate Korea's domestic economy.

...the fear that cheap American beef will threaten Korean farmers is understandable. However, Korea is pitched over the top about the 'dangers' of American beef. But unfortunately, in some sense, the way the Korean media as been reporting things, the general societal paranoia is kind of understandable. I personally feel like this mad cow ruckus is simply 80% propaganda.

ugh....and the reputation the new Korean president is cultivating is hardly helping things either. There is no better way to polarize citizens into a mob than making the citizens that feel like their very own president is spineless and ignoring the country's best interest. What Korea needs right now is a strong leader who knows how to consistently put forth Korea's best interests while solidifying her reputation on the global field without ruffling "too many" international feathers.

That baby with the flag is ridiculously cute.

There has also been talk of stopping all beef imports, which is ridiculous, and likely an exaggeration from a couple renegade reporters. Korea does not have the ability to sustain itself through it's own agriculture, unless a couple million Koreans plan move out of Seoul and start farming and raising livestock. I don't think US beef imports will push Koreans out of their own market. They would still be able to choose which beef they buy.

what´s the big point in protesting against this?! Just don´t buy nor eat meat from the US if you dun like it. gosh.. so childish I think and especially when celebs like se7en are also participating in this, after all they´re models of S korea and idols, so everything they do does have an influence on the younger generation in korea and Asia...

Wow the protest looks like so much fun in itself, wish I was there!^_^

"People in the US dine on cows from Australia and New Zealand while importing their inferior beef to Korea." --from Jeon's post.

That sums up what I feel is one of the major problems about this thing. It's not that U.S. cows are just naturally bad or disease-carrying. The fact is that they keep the edible ones in the U.S. and sell off the ones with inferior quality that they wouldn't sell to Americans. Ha, I wouldn't want to eat those cows. I'm not surprised that you can find 'mad' ones there.

(Disclaimer: I do realize this issue is a whole lot more complicated than just this facet, but I just wanted to talk about this one particular problem.)

p.s. To a lot of people saying this protest looks fun...Actually, not really. I understand getting together for an important cause can be fun in its own, but these things are quite a tragedy...thousands of people should not have to gather and protest for something like this.

So idiotic....if they're going to get so fired up they should at least get the facts straight and not buy every little detail the media feeds to them (media which is horrible btw. It seems like S. Korean reporters can say almost anything without having to back it up with facts).