South Korea is an amazing place: it seems as if nothing bad ever originates there; the source all problems facing Korea is other countries.True to form, absolutely massive protests swept the South Korean capital Tuesday evening. The protests concerned the government's plan to allow the import of US beef. The demonstrations are so big that they actually threaten to topple the government.
Judging by some Korea based blogs (here, here), the protest movement seems to have been encouraged by teenage netizens. Freaked about the prospect of catching mad cow disease, the kids circulated rumors on the Internet suggesting Koreans are genetically susceptible to mad cow. Of course, there is also a local business angle to this story.
Imagine if young South Koreans put this much energy into protesting against something that is actually likely to hurt them -- like cigarettes?
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Photo: Shows North Korean anti-smoking campaign poster (BBC).
That might be part of it, but what I've heard is teachers in schools have actively spread propaganda to their students too. I don't know to what extent because I avoid Korean middle and high school students, but someone I know who teaches on that level says he's had to deal with riled up students who've heard this stuff from their Korean teachers.
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