Don't eat the beef!

Recently, the new president of South Korea opened up imports of U.S. beef. This is after imports of beef was blocked in 2003 due to fears of BSE, or Mad Cow Disease (MCD), when a cow in Washington state was found to have the disease. I figured that lifting the ban would be a good thing, since South Korea was originally the third largest importer of American beef, and beef right now in Korea is so expensive, but many people here feel differently.

The other day one of our teachers from school invited us to her house for the night. She told us she was going to take us to T.G.I. Fridays for a little American cuisine, until she heard that they just received a shipment of US beef and there was no way that she would eat that meat.

The very next day, I found an edition of the Wall Street Journal (in English) and started to read it. On page number 2 was a very big article with the headline "U.S. Beef Deal Spurs Rumors, flak in Seoul," with a by-headline of "Mad-cow sparks first crisis for new president." I learned that Koreans believe that they are more susceptible to MCD than other people (for unknown reasons). Koreans also believe that Americans don't eat their own beef, when in fact Americans eat 96% of the beef made in America (it's a wonder we're not all dead). The best part of this article is a quote by a prominent Korean actress (I love half-informed people with the ear of the media):

"Our country is importing meat that even America's citizens are avoiding. I can't believe we are importing cow meat and bones that are covered in mad-cow disease. It would be better to put potassium cyanide in our mouths"

There have been protests throughout South Korea demanding the new president to stop the imports of US beef. Koreans also believe that products such as lotions and sanitary products are tainted due to contamination from equipment that processes U.S. beef. I'm not sure where they are getting this information, but it is quite humorous. And just yesterday, our co-teacher was reading the paper and showed us an article talking once again about how scared the Koreans are of American beef. So if the Korean race is wiped of the earth any time soon...we are gonna come a lookin' for you America and your diseased cattle!

P.S. Japan is also terrified of American beef. Check out this poster we found in the Tokyo airport!

Watch out world! Here comes American Beef!