Two consistent annoyances for foreign residents in Korea have been addressed by the government this weekend. Pressure will be put on the Banking sector to end their unfair discriminatory practices (Part 2 here), and Internet services will also be opened to foreign residents. Unfortunately, the Korea Herald website is garbage, and doesn’t allow me to link directly, but I have prepared a package for you.
These 2 issues have caused untold headaches for foreigners in the country. The banking practices have long been a nuisance imposed by the banks, not the government. It has become common practice for banks to refuse credit cards, and more importantly, international ATM cards to foreigners. Those foreigners that had international cards have found them to be canceled without anybody taking the time to inform them.
It is an undeniable fact that foreigners are more likely to want to access funds overseas. We travel more than the average Korean, and when we do so we deserve to have access to our money unless there is a very good reason to deny that to us. Koreans can have them, so there is no problem with the banking infrastructure. The people who need them have income, and funds in the bank. Most foreigners here have no need for a credit card, but we do require access to our salary when we are overseas.
The banks hide behind a government policy to only allow us to transfer out of the country the funds that we legally earn – a poor excuse when you consider that it is possible to impose limits on international ATM card usage.
Hopefully the next step will be to stop banks from marking our passports whenever we wish to make a transfer or exchange foreign funds. Thus far I have not had to make any transfers during my time here, but I will take great offence at them defacing the property of Her Majesty in a vain attempt to exercise some control over my finances. Perhaps I could calm myself by pasting photo’s of Yasuo Fukuda onto 1,000won notes whilst they go about their business.
Access to internet sites may be a small issue in comparison to that of access to our finances, but for me it is actually a bigger issue – my wife has an international card.
Internet access in South Korea, whilst unrestricted, is heavily monitored. Koreans love to shout their mouths of when they feel safe. A culture of fear persists, and they like to avoid confrontation at all costs – unless they feel safe. They will bad-mouth foreigners in Korean, yet will instantly apologise as soon as you call them on it. They will shout insults from afar (in English), yet will run as soon as you approach them. The anonymity of the internet allowed Koreans to bypass the ridiculous libel laws (covered briefly here) in South Korea.
In order to combat the problem of Korean being able to speak freely, they now require registration on all Korean website’s. The registration is done with your national ID number, to ensure that you can not do so anonymously. Of course, the system was set up to exclude foreigners by default (and most companies simply do not bother to upgrade to allow foreigners), and so we are unable to use Korean on-line services. This makes simple tasks such as shopping difficult and booking a rail ticket is impossible. It also allows for discriminatory pricing – when I went on vacation last year, the price on the English (no ID number needed) website was 5% more expensive than the price my wife got from the same company on their Korean site with her Korean ID number.
On a more sinister note – some racist organisations are able to operate freely and without criticism, and this is largely down to the fact that they do not think foreigners can see what they say.
A Korean website recently got some free publicity in one of the local papers. The article dresses up this site as some kind of “neighbourhood watch” for the concerned Korean, but the site is much more sinister than that. They are a hate site, plain and simple.
This past week, they have “outed” an English teacher by posting pictures of him working at school, alongside pictures of him having fun at a club with Korean women. Unfortunately, I can no longer find any public link, but the teacher in question teaches Elementary School kids. He was enjoying himself in a club. As it is unlikely that his students would have seen him there, he was doing nothing wrong, but the Koreans who subscribe to this site were trying to equate fun in a nightclub with unsuitability to teach! Whilst most rational people will see through this bullshit, it was probably enough to get the poor guy fired! Work in a private school and all it will take is a few complaints from the parents and you will be jobless.
This site have been the brains behind a number of anti-foreigner activities in the past. They have beaten English teachers for speaking with Korean women, and have even persuaded one TV network to show that foreigners do indeed like to drink and speak with women. Shocking!
Hopefully, once they realise that we devil-spawn will be able to access their site, and can freely post responses, the website will be shamed into closure.
All in all, a good week for ex-pats in Korea. The new president is certainly delivering on his promise to make life in Korea easier for foreigners. I just hope his approval rating goes up so that he can implement more of his changes.
