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Acts of Cowardice: Mine and Others 13th December 2008 I am very annoyed at my own act of cowardice. As you can see in this YouTube video, things got a little messy at the Japanese Embassy. The local Chief of Police seemed happy for us to stay, so it must have been a worker at the Japanese Embassy who insisted that the Korean police strong arm us. As the baby-faced riot police stomped towardsus, we had to vote as a group about whether to stay or not. If we stayed, we faced the real threat of being arrested and then perhaps deported. Not everyone voted, but it seemed about 50/50 for staying or going. I voted to stay. I was more than happy to be arrested. I think that the chances of me actually being charged were almost zero, and the chances of me deported very slim. If nothing else, imagine the headline it would of generated: New Zealander arrested by Korean Police for protesting Human Rights Violations done to Koreans on Human Rights Day in Korea You can't buy headlines like that*. The amount of publicity that it would have generated for the victims of Japanese Military Sexual Slavery here in Korea would have been great. But I didn't stay. I retreated. I am ashamed. I let a bunch of bullies - who refuse to acknowledge the suffering inflicted on the Korean grandmothers - push me away. If we are to get serious about Human Rights then we can't let fucktards like this tell us that - no - you can't be here and exercise you right of Free Speech and you must go away. Pffff. I wish I had stayed. Even if it meant being deported. I only have seven more weeks (!) in Korea. Being deported would of meant a little less start-up money for Meaningful Volunteer, but I am sure I could of managed. The only real concern I had was that if I was arrested, and charged then I would have had a criminal record. That doesn't concern me as such, but it might have caused problems later on when applying for visas as I bounced around the world setting up Meaningful Volunteer. My act of cowardice is trivial compared to those cowardly twats in the Japanese Government who steadfastly refuse to apologise to the halmoni (grandmothers) who were systematically raped at the hands of the Japanese Military during WWII. * We did get this headline on an international news site. Check it out. The photos are great.
(c)
2005, 2006 and 2007 Malcolm Trevena. |
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