Abundance Thinks: Public Drunkenness

There is a section of this blog titled, "News and Views." There you can find a list of bloggers who write about the more political and social aspects of life in Korea. Sometimes, when I follow these stories too much I find myself feeling down in the dumps about Korean life. But, in the end, I still get some perspective on the issues at hand.

Recently, there was buzz about the scandalous site BlackOutKorea being discovered by Koreans. BlackOutKorea is a site (now open only to those invited) where some folks posted pictures of drunken passed-out Koreans. I recall seeing this site last year and at first was amused, but quickly found myself disgusted. Not at the site of drunken Koreans but seeing foreigners posing with them and at times even touching the innocent people.

Roboseyo wrote a great evaluation of what went wrong with the site and the troubles of what happens when Korean folks discovered it. You can read it over at his site and specifically at this post. There were a few other sites that picked up on this story and gave their thoughts. Here they are:

• My Kafkaesque Life: Truly a really in depth look at all sides on this issue.
• Scribblings of the Metropolitician: Whenever you read his blog you can be for sure that you will leave with a sense of rage and urgency to take action. Here he certainly doesn't hold back his thoughts on such matters.
• JakeinKorea: Although I have never read this blog before, it seems in this post he is willing to make a book out of the subject matter from BlackOutKorea. As this would be entertaining I think it is particularly insensitive to the major issues here. However, I think it was just for laughs. Check the post out for yourself. 

As you can see some folks take the social aspects and talk about it seriously while others use it as a way to reinforce their personal opinions of the country.


In the end, it is up to readers to interpret this material in their own way. However, I definitely feel that it all depends on what side of the Kblogoshphere you are reading mostly. With an issue like this one and many others, I suggest getting the full spectrum.