November's Protests Against The Korean Government 2015

So for those of you who were reading the news, y'all may have heard about the protests that have happened here in Seoul. On November 14th, union workers, students,  parents of the Sewol Ferry victims, and any one else who has taken issue with Park GeunHee's presidency.  The protesters were marching calling for PGH to either step down or to apologize/fix her mistakes. From what I have heard, the straw that broke the camel's back was her suggestion of changing the history text books for all public schools to where they paint her father's reign as a dictator in a more favorable light. As a global studies major, very interesting  stuff to follow and to see how the response towards the protests has been.

Essentially all of Seoul police showed their force and use fire hose to spray the protesters and there was a lot of uproar from the populous after for how the protesters were being treated. For a good account, you can read the NY Times article here. But so far the reaction form my friends is that they agree with the protesters, no one really likes PGH that much any more. But the scariest thing I have heard is that when the government officials were questions about why they were so heavy handed with the protesters when most of the time they are not that violent. One of the officials made a comment about how since the US police force was being so violent in the US, that they were only following the example of a top tier developed nation. So yeah...USA needs to remember that the rest of the world watches and follows when they do, so they need to be careful about what they let their government do.

Then a few weeks later I got an email form the US State Department since I am registered in their database as living in Seoul (very good way to stay safe and get updates on news when you live abroad and go traveling--check out their site here), that it was best that I stay away from the Jongno area of the city, especially near the temple where one of the lead protesters was taking sanctuary. They (the police) were going to do a huge police raid that was going to shut down that part of the city. So the US-SD was giving people a heads up to let them know that they should plan extra routes of travel to avoid the area, especially since of there was a high change that there was going to be spectator violence.

But as of now, there has not been any major protest or anything. There have been a few people with megaphones chanting and talking about their grievances, but it is usually one or two random people and not in the city hall area (more in the residential places), but I am sure that the issues will not stay quiet for too much longer. They might come back in the spring once it is not going to be as cold as it is here.