Tuesday, May 01, 2012

Stupidity

Christians declare war on Hyundai Card over Lady Gaga

According to the Joongang Daily, Christians are still pissed off over Lady Gaga's concert:
A man in his mid 30s who would only give his surname, Jeong, did a solo demonstration outside the stadium following similar demonstrations in front of the National Assembly and at the headquarters of Hyundai Card, the concert's sponsor, on Thursday. He said he was concerned that Lady Gaga's liberal beliefs on issues like homosexuality would unduly influence Koreans.

"I believe if Korea wants to become one of the advanced countries, it should make efforts to take in healthy and good culture while blocking bad culture," he said.
Spoken like a true dictator. In fact, he's pretty much quoting Park Chung-hee who, when discussing the great marijuana crackdown/war on youth culture of 1975 and 1976, declared that "indiscriminate" acceptance of "degenerate fashions introduced from foreign countries" had to be stopped to "protect and develop our own cultural heritage." "Good influences we must retain, but bad ones we must reject — and reject at their very inception." Good times.
Last Thursday, the Christian Council of Korea issued a statement saying, "Lady Gaga openly glamorizes homosexuality and displays grotesque performances while deprecating Christianity." It threatened Hyundai Card, saying it will have to pay consequences for sponsoring the concert.

"The Christian Council of Korea, which is joined by 12 million Christians and 55,000 churches in Korea, will by all means eradicate such obscenity by holding protests against Hyundai Card as well as a boycott."
So they're going to 'eradicate' the 'obscenity' of a concert that already took place via a boycott. Makes sense.

SMOE declares The Globe and Mail to be harmful

I went to read this article about Quebec Mohawks, their history of working on NYC construction sites, and the Freedom Tower's surpassing of the Empire State Building as the tallest building in NYC. But when I clicked the link, I saw this instead:


So, SMOE has blocked access to Canadian national paper The Globe and Mail for being a 'harmful site.' Considering a) the number of Korean news sites with viruses and b) the number of news sites with pretty disgusting ads all over them (which pretty much all scream, "you are ugly, inadequate, and a disgrace to your ancestors - use our services to change this!" - the Korea Times is a good example, but there are many, many more), I find that rather amusing. If The Globe and Mail is 'harmful,' then all news sites are harmful. I'm thinking of contacting SMOE and asking them to ban all news sites, just to be consistent. If that doesn't work, it's time for protest and prayer.

Africa, that shocking country

Speaking of the KT (love the headline here), while it does eventually use the word 'Burundi,' this article doesn't make it or the featured actress look very good:
Actress says Africa was a shock

Actress Shin Eun-kyung revealed that touring Africa was no bed of roses at a press conference on Thursday for SBS's new charity-based program "Hope TV."[...]

During her three-day visit, the actress said she felt as if three years had passed and she spent most of her time crying in despair.[...]

The new SBS show, which airs for the first time on May 4, will sponsor and report on developments in Africa and other third-world nations.
Will it have time for third-world nations like Asia or South America, I wonder? Obviously, I have no choice but to link to this.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

'I believe if Korea wants to become one of the advanced countries, it should make efforts to take in healthy and good culture while blocking bad culture,' he said."

If by "advanced" he means wealthy, then he'll be sad to learn that Western Europe and the U.S. are moving towards marriage equality, as is major up-and-comer Brazil. China isn't but then again, China is a dictatorship and all.

Conservative Christians everywhere = fish in a barrel

Anonymous said...

To be fair, if you've ever worked or studied anywhere with a web filter, you'll soon find them blocking the most innocuous sites for absurd reasons. It's not a Korean thing.

Anonymous said...

It's not just Park Chung-hee who would agree that traditional culture and morals in South Korea are being undermined by degenerate foreign influences. The North Korean régime says so too, but of course they blame the "American imperialists" and their "south Korean" puppets -- including Park.

Edwin said...

"...third-world nations like Asia and South America" hmm... People from first-world nations like Europe and North America should learn more about geography or something.