From ATEK today:
Part 1:
Information for English Speakers about the H1N1 (Swine Flu) Virus
ATEK is closely monitoring the way the Korean government is treating foreigners in regards to the H1N1 (swine flu virus). We will update our site with useful information frequently to better serve our members and the English speaking community in South Korea.
We believe that the Korean government should act to prevent any further spread of the virus and to protect those who have a high risk of infection. However, we strongly assert that discrimination based on nationality will not be tolerated. Koreans and foreigners should receive equal treatment and should be granted the same human rights.
It is extremely important to us that foreigners are treated fairly and in accordance with WHO guidelines. The WHO publishes a checklist for national authorities on how to contain the virus and offers two pages of information on handling quarantines.
We are in the process of contacting government agencies, the embassies of the seven countries that send teachers to Korea, and following up on all news of the teachers who have been quarantined. We are also investigating the legal rights of foreigners to refuse to be tested or quarantined if they show no symptoms and have not traveled recently.
If you have additional information (personal anecdotes, school closings, testing of teachers who were not at risk, etc) please contact us.
For more information about ATEK, including links on who is following the outbreak, visit their website.
Part 2:
What Can I Do to Help?
• Stay informed and go to multiple sources for information.
• Rate My Hagwon is organizing a donation center to help those quarantined. Thanks to them for sharing this information with us.
WHERE: (In Seoul) Nambu Terminal
WHEN: 730pm everyday this week
We recommend that people who are interested in helping out follow these tips:
1. Don’t send cigarettes (tobacco) or alcohol, as this is against the quarantine’s rules
2. Do send paperbacks, reading materials such as magazines and newspapers
3. Food items are generally not required, as “they are well fed” but comfort foods like pastries, cup ramen, chips, chocolates, canned coffee are appreciated [think: Kraft Service table on a film shoot]
4. We suggest pooling items together to send one or two times a day instead of individual drop offs all day. This way we don’t wear out our welcome from the gatekeepers who can just as easily shut us out
5. We are not to be held responsible if lend items become irretriveable, lost, or damaged
6. Toiletries and/or personal hygiene items for women are also appreciated
28/05/2009 at 10:31 am Permalink
While it is nice to see ATEK finally saying something about it, 5 days into the Quarantine, I can’t say I am impressed. In fact I am disappointed.
Part one really doesn’t contain any information. It does contain a statement on ATEK’s view, which isn’t really information about what is going on with Swine Flu and how it affects English teachers in Korea. It contains a veiled threat to the Korean government about not tolerating discrimination. There is a request for information, and any tales of discrimination, from English teachers in Korea. They do inform us that, 5 days into this, they are in the process of contacting people to gather information. But there isn’t really any information.
Part 2 is where the big disappointment sets in. This is what ATEK SHOULD have been doing from the get go. Organizing something to help the people it claims to either represent or want to represent. Instead it looks like they are just jumping on the bandwagon on the THIRD day care packages are being put together. Others have been much more proactive about helping those quarantined. Something you would expect an organization that claims it is here to help English teachers would be doing instead of just monitoring the situation..
When I first heard that Rate My Hagwon was organizing the care packages I thought what a great idea. (Hats off to Rate My Hagwon too. FANTASTIC idea…great effort. Wish I could be there to help but work and distance precludes that. Kudos to those who helped spread the word from the start too, like Roboseyo. Great initiative!) Then I started to wonder why an organization like ATEK wasn’t involved. Isn’t this what ATEK is supposed to be about?
So, my thoughts about ATEK and the great swine Flu Invasion are that, once again, ATEK dropped the ball. It seems to me that they are more interested in saying SOMETHING and having their name out there than saying something INFORMATIVE. We now know how ATEK feels about this, what they demand, what is important to them, and what they are looking into, but that is it. While it is admirable that they are now promoting the care packages it is disappointing that they weren’t involved from the start. I am someone who has been on the fence about them. This definitely doesn’t make me want to jump down onto their side.
28/05/2009 at 10:55 am Permalink
Oh, get off your high horse.
Basically, because another party had a good idea before ATEK, you’re on them for apparently “failing” the English teaching community.
Because they didn’t send care packages. OOOk.
I see ATEK being involved in something like the Human Rights Commission Report or other efforts to end CATEGORICAL mistreatment or discrimination, efforts that are the results of lawyers giving pro bono time, researchers donating their time out of work, efforts that took blood, sweat, and tears — and you’re complaining that they didn’t participate in sending some Orville Redenbacher and Tom Clancy novels?
You’re basically penalizing them for NOT doing everything for all English teacher everywhere, even when they have been, consistently, and getting crapped on for it.
They’re trying to represent a lot of people’s interests, but they’re not trying to be everyone’s mother. And I don’t want them to be.
You want care packages, ask your friends or your momma. And I think it’s great that someone thought to put together a care package effort.
But lay off, man — first people crap on ATEK for ALLEGEDLY trying to be everything for everybody, and now people are crying that they’re not.
Major WHATEVS.
ATEK’s not anybody’s momma, and if I had been in quarantine with them teachers, I wouldn’t be EXPECTING anything from them unless their RIGHTS started to be violated, which is where ATEK was probably watching the situation, gathering information, separating fact from hearsay, and then choosing to make a statement or take an action in a MEASURED way. Especially since they’re so new and apparently controversial. That’s expected, that’s PROFESSIONAL.
I wouldn’t be crying over my Cheerios, expecting ATEK to refill my bowl.
Jeezus.
28/05/2009 at 11:06 am Permalink
Hell, for all you know, they were so busy on the phone with ambassadors and embassies and lawyers that they were too busy to write a press release.
You think regional chapters organize themselves?
What have you done for all/500/any of the English teachers in South Korea this week, Flint?
28/05/2009 at 11:11 am Permalink
So, I am wrong and on a high horse for having expected better of ATEK? For having expected them to do something and not just say something apparently just for the sake of getting their name out. Consider all future expectations of ATEK to be lowered considerably. Thanks for enlightening me Metropolitician.
28/05/2009 at 11:33 am Permalink
ATEK needs to focus on having their elections and actually becoming a representative body, not just a press-release factory.
28/05/2009 at 11:39 am Permalink
Hmmmmm, I’ve said and I will say it again here.
While I generally agree with ATEK trying to get information out there and in no way beseech them pooling together care packages, I am again struck by the tone that comes from the post:
The Korean health authorities are treating those individuals quarantined like they would any other person who came into the country who is a possible vector for infection.
My favourite part though is this:
Under the regulations governing the prevention of a communicable disease I put it to you that individuals who are symptomatic or who have possibly come into contact with carriers have NO rights. The liberties denied here are trumped by the necessity of preventing spread of the communicable disease.
Thus our friends in Seocho-gu were quarantined, lawfully and with their good health in mind. Reports of Korean teachers being sent home to be quarantined, if true, are justified by the fact that all of them will have relatives etc. to keep an eye on them. At the beginning of the month when cases were found in New Zealand, New Zealand citizens were quarantined in their homes, symptomatic individuals were hospitalised and foreign nationals were quarantined for the same reasons. The same has happened here.
In neither case has anyone called “discrimination”, nor would they be justified in doing so.
If anything, Korean officials seem to be over zealous (as is their wont) and in this case who would blame them, and isn’t that a good thing anyway?
Interestingly from reports by those actually in quarantine no one seems to feel discriminated against. A little put out maybe, but on the whole understanding of the situation.
In this case I think it’s a little rich for ATEK to be pulling out the discrimination card, one that has rallied it’s detractors previously.
28/05/2009 at 11:57 am Permalink
So basically, between TJ and Flint, nothing ATEK does can ever be right. Damned for their silence, and damned for speaking.
http://www.koreasparkle.com/2009/05/help-the-colleagues-in-quarantine/#comment-4654
We’ll see how this shakes out. Hopefully the quarantine will end without any incidents, but if ATEK is getting in touch with some of the people under quarantine, and communicating with health officials, that’s better than nobody doing those things.
28/05/2009 at 12:50 pm Permalink
Stafford, I think the discrimination that ATEK is talking about are the reports of healthy NETs being asked by their bosses to wear masks, not associate with other NETs, stay in their apartments when they aren’t at work, or do other things that Koreans aren’t being asked to do. This is speculation on my part; I don’t have any first hand information on what ATEK is doing with this issue.
28/05/2009 at 1:52 pm Permalink
Yeah but Tony, I don’t think those sorts of actions are totally going off the deep end especially given that
1) Schools are a massive vector for infection because of the close proximity of students and teachers alike, irrespective of who the teachers are or where they’re from.
2) People entering the country may well have been exposed to the flu even in transit (as is the case with some of the quarantined teachers) and should be prevented from entering a classroom.
and
3) Foreigners congregate with other foreigners here in Korea. So even though someone hasn’t left the country in a year there is a reasonable likelihood that they, or foreigners like them, might have come into contact with a new arrival who has the flu. Anecdotally speaking there is a higher chance of intra-foreigner infection than intra-Korea. And what do the majority of foreigners do in Korea?
That’s right, make LCD TVs in Chonan,TEACH! (cf. point 1)
As a teacher in a public school where kids get sent to class in the snottiest of states I am all for checking up on anyone who might be at risk. Especially those that might (even anecdotally) be more at risk than the general population.
It might seem extreme, but in matters of public health I’m all for Martial Law if it’s what’s required to prevent spread of a disease.
28/05/2009 at 3:17 pm Permalink
I think the idea that foreigners are more likely than Koreans to know and interact with people who have been exposed is a real reach. I know more Koreans who’ve been abroad lately than foreigners, so the chances of my being exposed through vectors other than other foreigners is much higher. And while quarantine for people who’ve definitely been exposed is reasonable, telling people to avoid foreigners (including their friends who haven’t even left the country recently) is paranoid to the point of foolishness, especially considering the number of Koreans also running around who’ve been outside the country recently.
28/05/2009 at 5:48 pm Permalink
I happily concede that telling people to avoid foreigners (including their friends who haven’t even left the country recently) is paranoid to the point of foolishness. Without a doubt.
28/05/2009 at 5:58 pm Permalink
But I won’t concede the following from and by Benjamin Wagner, the same dude who recently authored the extensive and well foundeed NHRC report on E2 visas / Health checks:
Good old Korean Negligence, like a warm blanket, so familiar, but hardly discrimination.
28/05/2009 at 6:12 pm Permalink
First of all, there’s kind of the assumption that all foreigners know each other, and are likely to have interacted with the infected. Why not call in all the Koreans from Mapo-gu for blood tests, then, because they’re more likely to have met these guys than a teacher down in Mokpo (who was asked about her plans and whereabouts, as if she could have left the country in the past few months without nobody knowing).
But, yeah, at a time like this it doesn’t play well for ATEK to come across so accusatory in the first paragraph. Especially when there’s really nothing ATEK can do. I mean, all due respect, what are you going to do to the authorities? And who is anyone other than healthcare professionals to lecture about the quality or consistency of care? The most important tool here is information. Do what Professor Wagner did and go up there and talk to people, find out what’s happening, find out if there’s any funny business. While I’ve said many times that I think it’s ridiculous to think that foreign teachers in general are a threat, it’s not irrational to worry about these teachers because, after all, they have swine flu. It’s not a made up worry. But I don’t think we need to start off saying Koreans are discriminating against foreigners. Not yet anyway, and not, it appears, inside the quarantine.
28/05/2009 at 8:48 pm Permalink
If you are my boss and you tell me not to leave my apartment except to teach, THAT’S discrimination. And that’s the kind of discrimination I’m talking about. Foreigners are NOT more likely to pass the virus than Koreans, and I can demonstrate it right here:
Infected foreigner lands a job. Gets on an airplane bound for Incheon. How many Koreans on that flight? More than half? That’s right. Anyway, moving on. He lands. Talks with a Korean immigration official. Maybe a Korean customs official. Gets met by his Korean handler. Gets in a vehicle of some sort, and is taken to his new apartment. In Seoul or other big cities, he rides the subway with between 5 and 50 Koreans in the car. Anyway, he gets there. Teaches the next day. Goes to his place of employment. meets the 80% to 95% Korean staff. Then meets his Korean students.
How many Koreans and how many foreigners can he have infected by the time he starts his job? I think it would be more advisable to tell foreigners not to congregate with KOREANS to avoid catching it.*
* I don’t actually think that would be advisable.
28/05/2009 at 9:13 pm Permalink
My boss told me that Koreans are less likely to catch the virus due to their high intake of Kimchi. Thus, I would have to say foreigners are more likey to catch the virus than Koreans.
Kimchi also prevented the SARS virus from spreading in Korea. And, Kimchi is one of the top ten most nutitional foods in the World.
But Chinese Kimchi is dirty. It has many small bugs and they use paint to give it the red colour.
Korean Kimchi #1.
Chinese Kimchi #678
29/05/2009 at 12:17 am Permalink
No it’s not. It’s idiotic.
And its an idiocy based on ignorance of viral epidemiology and disease prevention. Not on race.
In addition it’s based on what I have also said is anecdotally plausible. (albeit a bit panic-ridden). I cannot cite any studies (and I would say they don’t exist) but this week I have spent more time in close contact with other Foreign teachers than I have on the Subway. If one of those teachers had the flu wouldn’t the exposure to them vis-a-vis time spent in the subway put more more at risk of catching something?
Either way this is not really the point I was originally trying to make, I ain’t a doctor and your point makes just as much sense.
Rather my gripe is with the type of language ATEK is using in addressing the issue, which at best seems unnecessarily heavy handed and at worst, is little more than alarmist media whoring.
Might I suggest ATEK’s time might be better spent, it’s membership better served, and it’s detractors silenced, if it were to concentrate on matters related to Employment and Immigration, rather than matters of Public Health.
For me personally, that would be something to do with Visa Portability which is discriminatory and in its present state constitutes little more than indentured servitude.
29/05/2009 at 2:06 am Permalink
Stafford, ATEK are an organisation formed by human rights activists, who launched a human rights campaign off the back of a report to the National Human Rights Commission of Korea that was submitted by a human rights lawyer. What are these pesky teachers you speak of?
ATEK are monitoring the government? Laughable!
29/05/2009 at 8:25 am Permalink
>>If you are my boss and you tell me not to leave my apartment except to teach, THAT’S discrimination.
>No it’s not. It’s idiotic.
Yes, it is. You say that as if the two things are mutually exclusive!
>And its an idiocy based on ignorance of viral epidemiology and disease prevention.
I completely agree! And that ignorance of viral epidemiology and disease prevention (prophylaxis) has a disparate impact on people from seven countries. That’s discrimination.
>Not on race.
Disparate impact on a particular group of people is de facto discrimination against that group regardless of intent.
29/05/2009 at 12:29 pm Permalink
I would definitely want an English teacher who may have swine flu to be quarantined. Children are especially susceptible to swine flu. It’s worth the risk of inconveniencing an English teacher if a child’s life is at stake.
29/05/2009 at 6:13 pm Permalink
Why focus on the English teachers? KOREANS have been quarantined, too, you know.
29/05/2009 at 8:39 pm Permalink
The quarantine is for Koreans and Foreigners alike. It is a Public Health issue, not a labor issue.
30/05/2009 at 12:10 am Permalink
I’d kind of like to be quarantined. Back home, June means the beginning of summer break. Here, June means hot weather and hot tempers, kids falling asleep in class, and Korean teachers beating the shit out of them with a bamboo pole. If I wasn’t trying to loose some weight I’d consider a one night bender on 3gyupsal and soju in order to fake some symptoms of swine flu, just to get the seven day quarantine vacation.
Btw, I’m just kidding, I don’t want to be quarantined in Seoul while crazy midget with girl glasses is playing the nuclear “Notice me, notice me,” game.