Tens of thousands of young internet-obsessed South Koreans, whipped into a frenzy by alarmist television programmes, a complex scientific paper on genetics and a hyperactive online rumour-mill, have held candlelit vigils protesting against imports of American beef.
Believing that the meat carries a high risk of BSE and that Koreans are genetically predisposed to contracting the linked Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the online masses have taken to the streets, cursing America and demanding that their Government should act to avert catastrophe.
Two features of the protests have caught the authorities, the Government and teachers offguard.
The first is that, unlike the mobs that have contributed to South Korea's long history of street rallies, more than half of the demonstrators are below university age.
Some teachers approve of the rallies, others condemn them, but all agree that their students are spending too much time in cyberspace.
The second is the virulence of the xenophobia on and offline: despite sweeping to power on a more foreigner-friendly ticket, Lee Myung Bak, South Korea's new President, leads a country with substantial anti-American feeling.
Emphasis added by me.
Given their ages, this could be called The MySpace Revolution.
I didn't know anti-American feeling was still so strong over there.
But I'm not surprised. If I was outside America, I'd resent the way we do business too (I already resent it while being an American). We act as if our playbook was The Ferengi Rules of Acquisition.
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