A couple of weeks ago (I know--I’m totally on the ball with this whole blogging thing), Christie and I went to check out the Rodin Gallery in Seoul.  They have a couple of pieces there by Rodin along with changing exhibits... it’s a nice little gallery to check out, although it is NOT fronted by two glass pyramids like the Lonely Planet guide book promised.

We wandered around after visiting the gallery and stumbled across this scene:

Curious as to what they were chanting about, we went closer to check it out.  They were obviously protesting something but our Korean was good enough to determine what other than catching the occasional “out” and “stop.”  Finally, a Korean man came over and asked us where we were from.  “Canada.  What’s this all about?” 

The protest was about mad cow disease and specifically the resumption of beef imports from the U.S.  All cows in the United States are, of course, known to be covered in mad cow disease.

We watched the protests on TV for the next couple of weeks.  These are serious protests--on Saturday, May 31, tens of thousands of Koreans filled the streets of Seoul protesting the resumption of American beef imports (as part of the Korean-US free trade agreement).  The most common complaint seems to be that President Lee Myung-Bak is putting political concerns (relations with the US) ahead of consumer safety.  That someone in power in Korea would be willing to throw his wards under the train hardly surprises me but it still seems like a huge overreaction by the public--BSE is probably just a catalyst for all of the concerns that the Korean public have with their newly-elected president.

Photo by Gwang-ho/Reuters.  Stolen from the New York Times website.

Now, the entire Korean cabinet has offered to resign in the wake of the public controversy.  It’s odd being caught in the middle of all of this--as white people, we are assumed to be American by a majority of Koreans (ah, stereotypes are a bitch).  To borrow a line from Korean political blog, Gusts of Popular Feeling, it feels like Koreans are branding mad cow.  I’ve been approached on the street by school girls who will ask me if I know about “crazy cows.”  I just nod and murmur agreement and think that karma’s a bitch.  I figure it’s payback for the big Alberta beef ban the Us had going for a little while a couple years back (which turned out to be an American overreaction to a Canadian cow that managed to pick up BSE in the US--not Canada--on its way to slaughter in Florida).

If you are interested in seeing more about the crazy-ass protests, Gusts of Popular Feeling is the place to be.