Gwangju Uprising Thwarted by 'Invisible Hand': Minister
Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said Tuesday the Gwangju Democratic Uprising of 1980 was thwarted by an "invisible hand." The minister was telling an Uri Party policy committee how the destiny of the Korean Peninsula has been controlled by outside forces for the last 100 years.
"A hundred years ago, the Philippines became a U.S. colony and the
Korean Peninsula a Japanese one owing to the Taft-Katsura Agreement” of 1905,
Chung said. “The division of the nation and Korean War were not our will
either," nor was the failure of the Gwangju Uprising. A century later,
Chung promised “a hot summer in which our fate will be decided not by North
Korea, China, the United States, Japan or Russia, but by our own pride and
self-determination." Chung recently told a weekly magazine the division and
war happened without regard to the will of the Korean people, as did the
suppression of the Gwangju Uprising.
The remarks “mean we must actively decide our own fate,” the minister
explained. “As for the invisible hand, take my literal meaning." Chung also
asked the Uri Party to double inter-Korean cooperation funds, which currently
stand at W500 billion (US$487 million) a year.
While I agree with his thoughts of the people (note: NOT HIM) taking a more active role in their destiny, his blaming others for the fate of the peninsula is just a play for the masses. No one wants to be told it is their fault (or their fathers), it is much better to hear that it isforeignersegners fault. Or in this case the fault of some unseen magic hand.
I have said it before and I'll say it again, the day he becomes president is the day I leave this country. trulytruely an idiot.
2 comments:
I figured you'd be onto this bit of Chung pretty quickly. No surprise from him, though. Humans aren't too good at taking blame upon themselves and the local peninsula seems especially averse to such assumptions of responsibility.
While I agree that the Korean peninsula HAs been largely controlled by outside forces for the past 100 years it still begs to be asked; how did it happen, and why is it still so?
Did the Korean army fight off japanese aggression in 1905? The the king/emperor rally the people to defent the gimchi land?
-Nope, for the most part the korean people have routinely been aboandoned by their own.
So, why do they still feel that the peninsula is not ruled by them but rather some "unseen hand"?
-Like oyu said man, it is a far easier thing to blame others for something than to hold yourself accountable. That, played upon/ preyed upon by the local politics has really curtailed advancement on the peninsual IMO.
Instead of blaming figures (imagined or not) from the past, the Korean people should set their sights surely on the future (didn't Park Chung hee say that?)
;)
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