What about the Muslims?
In many of the subway stations around Seoul there are large projection screens placed on the median in between the two sides of the tracks. On the screens they show some news highlights, stocks, commercials and public service announcements. My favorite public service announcement is an anti-terrorism ad. The whole ad is Korean, so I don't fully understand it, but I think I hava a pretty clear understanding of the message they are trying to get across.
The ad begins with a typical subway station during a busy rush hour. People are going this way and that as police officers keep a watchful eye on the commuters. Then, the camera zooms in on the face of a white man - the only white man in a sea of Koreans. The white man's shifty eyes and scruffly beard make it evident he is up to no good. Then, and this is the part where my heart starts to race, the white man places a backpack under a seat in the subway. What is in the backpack? I usually carry books and an umbrella in my backpack, and I am a white man, but one can only assume the shifty man in the ad has a backpack full of WMD's. Really, it's the only logical solution.
The ad now shows a young girl and her father noticing the terrorist and his actions. They rush to a phone and dial a number, presumably the number that is flashing on the screen. In an ironic plot twist, these people must have seen the very ad they are starring in.
Next, they show police officers checking the subway for any backpacks that may contain bombs. They have WMD-sniffing dogs at their side and their faces make it evident they will be all business on this search. This a stark contrast from the usual demeanor of the Seoul subway officer - they are essentially the equivalent of American shopping mall parking lot security guards, the kind that stares you down as you enter the parking garage and then goes right back to napping once you have passed. The kind of securtiy guard that has a car with yellow blinking lights on the top that are used only in emergency situations - like when he runs out of donuts or has take a leak really bad. In the station by my school I actually saw one of the subway officers wearing slip-on shoes - not the best attire for the terrorist-chasing seen in the ad.
This is where the ad gets a little confusing, but I think I've deciphered the meanings. The next image flashed on the screen is a close-up of the young girl. Her face on the screen looks one part terrified, one part worried and one part freedom-loving. Suddenly, her visage becomes engulfed with flames. The drug-sniffing dogs and their masters have failed the little girl and the terrorists have won another victory in the war on terror. Or have they? I think her face may be engulfed not with the flames of terror, but with the flames of freedom because she was wise enough to call and report the white man with a backpack on the subway. Without her courageous action, the terrorists would have won - but she has saved many a life today and we will all get to work on time and alive because she did her duty. It really makes me feel at home to see such patriotic and paranoid propoganda.
I sometimes forget that we are all soldiers in the war on terror and this ad offers a sobering reminder that at any moment, a white man could be plotting to take my freedom-loving life. I try my best to be ever-vigilant as I walk through Seoul - always keeping an eye out for white people with backpacks. In a city where there are about 10 ESL teachers for every 1 citizen (that's an exaggeration, but there are a shitload of us over here) I encounter many potential terrorists each day, but I make sure to report each and every one to the police. One can never be too careful - there is a war going on.
Kill Whitey
Love from Seoul
The ad begins with a typical subway station during a busy rush hour. People are going this way and that as police officers keep a watchful eye on the commuters. Then, the camera zooms in on the face of a white man - the only white man in a sea of Koreans. The white man's shifty eyes and scruffly beard make it evident he is up to no good. Then, and this is the part where my heart starts to race, the white man places a backpack under a seat in the subway. What is in the backpack? I usually carry books and an umbrella in my backpack, and I am a white man, but one can only assume the shifty man in the ad has a backpack full of WMD's. Really, it's the only logical solution.
The ad now shows a young girl and her father noticing the terrorist and his actions. They rush to a phone and dial a number, presumably the number that is flashing on the screen. In an ironic plot twist, these people must have seen the very ad they are starring in.
Next, they show police officers checking the subway for any backpacks that may contain bombs. They have WMD-sniffing dogs at their side and their faces make it evident they will be all business on this search. This a stark contrast from the usual demeanor of the Seoul subway officer - they are essentially the equivalent of American shopping mall parking lot security guards, the kind that stares you down as you enter the parking garage and then goes right back to napping once you have passed. The kind of securtiy guard that has a car with yellow blinking lights on the top that are used only in emergency situations - like when he runs out of donuts or has take a leak really bad. In the station by my school I actually saw one of the subway officers wearing slip-on shoes - not the best attire for the terrorist-chasing seen in the ad.
This is where the ad gets a little confusing, but I think I've deciphered the meanings. The next image flashed on the screen is a close-up of the young girl. Her face on the screen looks one part terrified, one part worried and one part freedom-loving. Suddenly, her visage becomes engulfed with flames. The drug-sniffing dogs and their masters have failed the little girl and the terrorists have won another victory in the war on terror. Or have they? I think her face may be engulfed not with the flames of terror, but with the flames of freedom because she was wise enough to call and report the white man with a backpack on the subway. Without her courageous action, the terrorists would have won - but she has saved many a life today and we will all get to work on time and alive because she did her duty. It really makes me feel at home to see such patriotic and paranoid propoganda.
I sometimes forget that we are all soldiers in the war on terror and this ad offers a sobering reminder that at any moment, a white man could be plotting to take my freedom-loving life. I try my best to be ever-vigilant as I walk through Seoul - always keeping an eye out for white people with backpacks. In a city where there are about 10 ESL teachers for every 1 citizen (that's an exaggeration, but there are a shitload of us over here) I encounter many potential terrorists each day, but I make sure to report each and every one to the police. One can never be too careful - there is a war going on.
Kill Whitey
Love from Seoul
posted by Kyle at 12:19 PM
2 Comments:
photos? VIDEOS?!
Kyle,
After reading this alarming post, I have lobbied the Apartment Complex Association of Lawrence to deploy a handful of their top Mill-Spec and Innovative Security officers to Korea to make sure you are kept out of harm's way. Good luck!
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