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About 10,000 protesters occupied the main thoroughfare in Gwanghwamun in central Seoul on Thursday night after taking part in a memorial ceremony at Seoul Square to mark the anniversary of the Sewol ferry sinking. [NEWSIS] |
At the entrance, surrounded by a crowd of riot police officers in their trademark green fluorescent uniforms, members of local civic groups and a few dozen relatives of the victims of last year’s Sewol ferry sinking were chanting phrases in protest of the government.
The accident on April 16, 2014, the nation’s worst maritime disaster, left more than 304 passengers dead or missing - most of them 11th-grade high school students on a class trip.
But while many nationwide quietly marked this one-year milestone, others used it as an opportunity to voice their grief and frustration over what they feel has been a lack of action on the government’s part to rectify a devastating tragedy.
On Friday, mere hours after the anniversary of the sinking, the sidewalks and crosswalks around the palace were restricted, while dozens more police officers patrolled the area.
“Last night, the police blocked all the sidewalks in the Gwanghwamun area and treated the relatives of the victims - who deserve freedom of speech - like public enemies,” one of the victims’ family members said in a press conference held at the gate that day.
“Citizens and family members of the deceased who tried to get to the memorial altar at Gwanghwamun Square were blocked by the atrocious and illegal obstacles set up by the police.”
The scene followed a fierce protest from the evening before that continued overnight. According to police, about 10,000 people took part in a memorial ceremony held at Seoul Square in the city’s central district to mark the anniversary of the sinking.
From there, the crowd marched unannounced toward Gwanghwamun Square to pay tribute to the victims at a memorial altar, though when officers set up walls with police vehicles to block them in an attempt to maintain order, it led to sporadic and intense struggles between the two sides.
But the relatives of the victims, who were mostly students from Danwon High School in Ansan, Gyeonggi, eventually managed to get through the police barricades and gathered with civic groups on Thursday at the Gwanghwamun Gate, where they staged an overnight rally.
“After countless attempts and struggles until the break of dawn, we are here at the Gwanghwamun Gate with a blanket,” Kim Young-oh, who lost his daughter Yu-min in the accident, said on a social networking service on Friday. “In the meantime, the mother of one of the victims broke four of her ribs and 10 others were taken by the police.”
The families of the victims and civic groups have so far demanded the government salvage the sunken Sewol from the sea to finally put the remains of the nine still missing to rest and hopefully shed light on the truth behind the accident. They have also called for the retraction of the ordinance proposed by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries for the special investigation committee, a nongovernmental investigative body that was launched according to a special Sewol law legislated in November.
The ordinance states that the ministry will put some high-level public officials in some key posts on the committee, which some committee members and relatives of the victims say is almost guaranteed to undermine the independence of the body, which was designed to investigate the accident as well as the government.
The government so far has not clearly announced a schedule or details for the organization.
On Friday, demonstrators criticized President Park’s address delivered the previous day at Paengmok Harbor, where victims’ families boycotted her appearance and reportedly refused to meet with her.
“The statement delivered at the harbor [on Thursday] is of no use because she did not answer the demands of the people,” said Park Jin, a representative of a joint coalition of civic groups. “It also sounded like she wanted the relatives of the victims to stay calm and do nothing.
“The families will wait here for the next memorial ceremony at 3 p.m. on Saturday, and we ask for the public’s participation as well.”
The relatives plan to continue their activities in commemoration of the tragedy, despite the hard-line stance of the police.
A large-scale candlelit vigil was held Friday at Seoul Square, while another large-scale gathering to demand the salvage of the ship is scheduled for 3 p.m. on Saturday at the same venue, where the families are considering another march toward the Blue House.
A concern among government officials, however, is whether those events could lead to another nationwide antigovernment movement, similar to the candlelit movement in 2008 under the previous Lee Myung-bak administration over the import of U.S. beef included in the free trade agreement with the United States after a mad cow disease scare.
After the Lee government moved in April 2008 to import beef from the United States regardless of the age of the cattle, an antigovernment rally that began with a candlelit vigil in May 2008 near Cheonggye Square eventually morphed into a nationwide movement that lasted several months.
According to a JoongAng Ilbo survey in June 2008, Lee’s approval rating stood at just 19.7 percent. Before the movement, he typically maintained support above 40 percent.
Coupled with graft scandals involving Park’s key aides, including Prime Minister Lee Wan-koo, the administration’s passive attitude toward the management of the Sewol ferry accident has brought down the president’s approval rating this week to 34 percent, according to Gallup Korea, down from 39 percent last week.
On Thursday, President Park Geun-hye flew to Colombia for a 12-day trip to Latin America. She returns to Seoul on April 27.
BY KIM BONG-MOON [kim.bongmoon@joongang.co.kr]
Topic : Eating dog meat
Throughout the world, one of the most familiar animals to humans is dogs. In Never mind that some Frenchmen eat horse meat or snails or that, according to a American restaurants didn't stop serving bull testicles during the 1996 But what is that reason? Since dogs aren't smarter or more gentle than pigs, for example, anti-dog-meat activists argue that dogs are special because they're 'pets' and 'companion' animals. Bardot told a Korean radio interviewer. 'Cows are grown to be eaten, dogs are not. I accept that many people eat beef, but a cultured country does not allow its people to eat dogs.' This relativism is more dangerous than the absolutism of vegetarians or even of thoughtful carnivores. You can abstain from meat because you believe that the mental capacity of animals is too close to that of humans. You can eat meat because you believe that it isn't. Either way, you're using a fixed standard. But if you refuse to eat only the meat of 'companion' animals? chewing bacon, for example, while telling Koreans that they can't stew Dalmatians? you're saying that the morality of killing depends on habit or even whim. until recently, dogs haven't been pets. You're just born in the wrong place. Then you're slaughtered and fed to a man who thinks he's humane because he pampers a Golden Retriever that has half your brains. And Bardot, who says that cows can be butchered because they're 'grown to be eaten,' can't fault this arrangement.
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Number | Question |
1 | Have you ever raised a dog? Please tell me about your experiences.
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2 | Have you ever eaten a dog meat? How did you feel it?
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3 | When people ask to you "can you eat a dog?" Your answer is honest or not?
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4 | Men ate dog to fill up protein in the past. but these days, we can take in nutrition from other foods. What do you think of eating dog up to now?
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첫댓글 참석합니다.
전 2주간 서울 출장 ㅠㅠ
댁에 가시고 좋으시겠어요 ㅋ
2. 레니참석!
이번주는 스터디합시다!
머...합시다 까잇거. 스터디
진(올드진) 참석요
올드...ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
@kable 올드는 좀. 그런가...그럼 원조 진
@kable 올드는 좀. 그런가...그럼 원조 진
저도 스터디 하고싶은뎅ㅠㅠ 왜관에 출장왔어요 ㅎ 담주는 대전출장이니 꼭 참석할게요 ㅎㅎ
왜관이 모야 ㅋㅋㅋ담주에 봐요~~~
@kable 왜관ㅋㅋ 대구경북영어마을 ㅋㅋㅋ 담주에 꼭 봐요~~^^
참석합니다~
=====현재까지 5명
금일 스터디 진행합니다. 추가 참석여부 변동사항은 연락부탁드립니다!