If The Fans Don't Get You, Mad Cow Probably Will

I thought I’d continue with the topic from the previous post – Koreans believing things completely lacking in any scientific basis – in the context of the US beef protests that have been going on in Seoul for the past couple weeks. Quick background on the issue: Korea was the 3rd largest import-market for US beef until 2003, when a case of mad cow disease was recorded in the States, causing Koreans to freak out and immediately ban all beef imports from the US. The new Korean President, Lee Myung-bak, has been trying to get the US-Korea FTA signed, and has therefore recently agreed to reopen the Korean market to US beef imports. And man, are the Koreans pissed.

A couple weeks ago people began holding candlelight vigils in protest, and I’ve read that more than 1.2 million Koreans have now signed a petition to impeach the president over his lack of concern for the well-being of the country. I mean, I was sympathetic when Koreans reacted to the accidental deaths of two Korean schoolgirls hit by a US tank in 2002 by holding candlelight vigils, but really - candlelight vigils over a trade dispute? I thought it seemed a little excessive until I heard what all the fuss was about. A Korean “documentary” that aired a couple weeks ago, had claimed that Koreans “carry a special gene that makes them more susceptible to mad cow disease”, sparking the belief that anyone who consumed US beef must have some sort of death wish. The internet has been all abuzz with people here lamenting their inevitable early deaths, like one young Korean woman who cried, “Are we fated to die so young?”, or another who wrote “I just want to live and fulfill my career dreams, not die mad like an American cow!”.

Truly, this is more of an issue of fear mongering within a culture that still struggles with significant levels of anti-Americanism and victimization following centuries of occupation and colonization. But I won’t get into that now. Whatever the influence behind it, I think the main concern here is the fact that such a ridiculous claim could garner such widespread attention and support throughout the country.

The Korean Federation of Medical Groups for Health Rights had slightly less absurd reasoning behind their anti-FTA stance, but no less unsubstantiated. One of their 2006 reports states, “We're so well aware of the fact that there has been no country that improved their people's health, economy, or the quality of the lives of their nation among the ones that agreed to sign FTA with the US. Instead for those countries that signed FTA with the US experienced the downfall of economy, forced to lean on the US, the right for people to their health was demolished and poverty was increased. We know that this is what the US wants. Therefore, we oppose Korea-US FTA agreement.”

Maybe, however, Koreans can rest well knowing that at least they aren’t the only people in the world willing to believe things that make the majority of the rest of us snicker. The Japanese Agricultural Minister, Tsutomu Hata, tried in 1987 to deter Japanese from eating US beef by stating that Japanese intestines were longer than those of Westerners and therefore unsuited to digesting American beef. No, seriously. When I was in Japan nearly 15 years after that statement, I still met Japanese who would tell me, with a straight face, that their intestines were longer than mine.