I guess in Brazil they haven’t gotten the memo that you are not supposed to make slit eye jokes about Asians:
Raul Gil, host of “Turma Do Vovo Raul” on SBT, makes slit eyes at the audience with K-pop band KARD and an interpreter behind him. / Screen capture from YouTube
Fans of a rookie K-pop band have criticized a Brazilian TV show host for disrespecting them on his program by making a “joke” derogatory to Asians.
Raul Gil, host of musical and variety TV show “Turma Do Vovo Raul” broadcast on SBT, angered fans after four-member band KARD were guests on the show on July 15.
The joke was sparked after Gil asked the DSP Media band that debuted this month if there was a romantic relationship among the band of two men and two women. They all said no, which drew shouts from the excited audience.
The host then jokingly asked the crowd whether they would marry the Koreans, adding, “Your eyes will become smaller if you date these Koreans,” making slit eyes with his both hands. [Korea Times]
Here is an image that has supposedly gone viral on the Internet from the Korea Queer Culture Festival:
An ironic image ended up embodying this year’s Korea Queer Culture Festival (KQCF). Standing in front of a line of Christian protesters bearing a banner reading “Homosexuality is sin! Return to Jesus!” is a bearded white male in robes, clearly dressed as “Jesus,” holding a rainbow-colored sign reading “I’m cool with it.” The image went viral, making the front page of Reddit Tuesday morning.
“It’s been a wild ride these last few days. I thoroughly enjoy reading the comments everywhere though,” said Robert Evans, 27, the American seen in the picture.
He recalls the picture was taken right before the pride parade departed Seoul Square. The festivalgoers were corralled by riot police, protecting them from Christian protesters. The protesters were gathered in front of the Hwangudan gate right next to the gate leading to the street where the parade would start.
“There were thousands and thousands of people just outside the frame of this photo but I guess nobody wanted to get too close to the protesters,” Evans said. “I took the opportunity to fill that space and present my message. I was aware of the banner behind me but I did not craft my sign with the specific intent of standing in front of that banner.” [Korea Times]
For those interested, the Boryeong Mud Festival is coming up:
An annual international mud festival will open in the South Korean city of Boryeong later this week under the slogan of “Let’s Go to Boryeong and Play with Mud!,” an official on the event’s organizing committee said Wednesday.
“The 2017 Boryeong Mud Festival will open for a 10-day run at Daecheon Beach in the namesake city, 190km south of Seoul, on Friday,” the official said.
Launched in 1998, the festival has developed into a top international summer event with its mud flats attracting many tourists from around the world. Rich in minerals, the mud is used in manufacturing cosmetics.
This year, the unique festival will present a total of 57 programs, ranging from bathing in a massive mud tub to mud massages, a mud photo contest, a marathon on the mud flats, a mud sliding competition, street parades and K-pop concerts, the official said. [Korea Times]
I guess we will see if the Moon administration will eventually change this Park Geun-hye era policy, but for now North Korea apologistChristine Ahn can no longer enter South Korea:
An American who organized a controversial march of 30 female peace activists spanning the two Koreas in 2015 has been denied entry to South Korea.
Christine Ahn, a South Korean-born American citizen, learned about being “persona non grata” after Asiana Airlines stopped her from boarding a flight at San Francisco Airport on Thursday, according to the New York Times (NYT).
She reportedly planned to transit through South Korea’s Incheon International Airport on her way to China. After being told she was not allowed to, she bought a new ticket to fly directly to Shanghai, it reported.
A justice ministry official was quoted as saying in the report that Ahn had been denied entry because there were sufficient grounds to fear she might “hurt the national interest and public safety.” [Korea Times]
As far as I know the US embassy in Seoul wasn’t conscripting people to take unpaid internship positions. If these students wanted to get paid they should have applied for another job:
A student in her 20s, who requested to be identified by the alias Kim Hye-jin, recalled the distress she felt as an intern for the U.S. Embassy in Seoul in 2015, during which she received neither a salary nor even a stipend for transportation and lunch.
“I had to take an additional part-time job after finishing work at the embassy at 5:30 p.m. I barely had any time for myself,” Kim told The Korea Times.
“Since I was working for its public affairs department, I was always required to take part in the department’s events in the evening. Whenever I returned home late at night, I felt so depressed for losing personal time in addition to not receiving money.”
Sometimes, Kim even spent her own money for transportation during business trips and for lunch with organization partners and she had to wait two to three months to be reimbursed.
As an intern, Kim assumed a variety of roles, from translator and photographer to event organizer. Sometimes, she also answered the phones and does basic office tasks. “I applied for the post, aware that it was unpaid. However, it made me think the system was unjust, since my job was more vital than I initially thought,” she said.
Another worker, who also requested to be identified as Han Cheol-soo, worked for the U.S. Embassy last year and underwent similar hardships. “Since my parents couldn’t afford to give me a stipend, I couldn’t help but quit the internship earlier than I had hoped,” he said. “I think such an unpaid internship policy is a stumbling block for students from poor families to get equal opportunity.” [Korea Times]
Test of foreigners applying to become English teachers in South Korea may have ended, but a stigma may remain according to this article:
And while organizations like the Korean Federation for AIDS Prevention provides foreigners with HIV/AIDS resources and free, anonymous testing, HIV-positive foreigners are vulnerable to deportation out of the country, as potential “persons carrying an epidemic disease, narcotic addicts or other persons deemed likely to cause danger and harm to the public health” defined in Article 11 of the Immigration Control Act.
According to Michael Solis, a visiting researcher at the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, the government had deported more than 500 foreigners who were HIV-positive as of 2007. Kwon said that in 2010, following UNAIDS criticism of South Korean travel restrictions, the government stopped banning and deporting foreign teachers with HIV. But for those who test positive, it remains difficult to afford treatment or be hired as teachers and educators, she added.
Stigma around foreigners and HIV/AIDS remains. [Korea Expose]
